Marina Nicodelli

Marina Nicodelli is an agent in the Department of Mary Sues. He is written by Hardric

Appearance
Marina is an olive-skinned woman, five feet and four inches tall with a rather slender build, shoulder-length straight black hair, which she usually keeps untied, and green eyes. She has three claw marks on her left forearm, but no other scars or any other particular marks on her skin. Her only piece of jewellery is a necklace with a silver cross, a familial heirloom and one the only things left from her life before the PPC.

Her usual set of clothing consists of a brown shirt with a black tank top underneath, black trousers, and combat boots; however, her most notable article is her black coat, which reaches down to her knees. The coat is adorned not only with geometric patterns, but also traces of bullets and claws, although it’s still in a relatively good shape.

Personality
Marina isn’t exactly the friendliest person at first glance. She’s usually blunt, with a rather cynical view on life that leads to an initial defensiveness towards new people, compelling her to keep personal information to herself. She will at least attempt to mitigate the impact of her words if she really upsets someone, if only to avoid nastier complications, although she won’t make any apologies for her way of thinking. However, if one can bear this dry façade, they will find that Marina is also a loyal comrade who will never let anyone really close to her down. Another characteristic of her is a bone-headed obstinacy that will prevent her from dropping the path she chooses, no matter how tough the opposition might be.

Her previous experiences with life gave her other personality quirks. First and foremost is a relentless curiosity when faced with new situations, leading her to collect as much information as possible before taking any step in a mission. Secondly, she has a habit of second-guessing any sentences she could find dubious, courtesy of a world where the letter supersedes the spirit. Finally, she doesn’t offer her assistance outside of missions for free, although her price can be something symbolic for peoples she respects, like a glass at Rudi’s or fandom and goodfic recommendations.

Thanks to a lack of affinity for fanfiction, even before computers became a no-no for her, she never really knew much about it before joining the PPC. When it comes to missions, bad SpaG and OOC-ness are the worst offences by her book, seeing the former as an invitation to disaster and the latter as far too close to psychomancy in her mind. She will also tend to cut the mission short whenever possible, and doesn’t mind missing charges if it enables a smooth elimination. On the other hand, she’s also willing to let the badfic go on, and the canons suffer a bit more, if it’s necessary in order to get the best opportunity for killing Sues. Badfics apparently leave her unfazed, but that’s only a façade; she’s actually using the anger to fuel her spells.

History
Marina was born in Philadelphia, the older of two sisters. Her father was a lieutenant in Philadelphia Police Department, which led to her developing a rather jaded view on life due to the effect his job had on him. Apart from that, her life was still relatively normal - up to the moment where she saw a seemingly rabid man attack someone on her way back from high school at the age of sixteen. When he saw her watching him, this man was close to attacking her when he was almost literally crushed to the ground by an invisible force. Even that, however, did not completely stop him, and he was still trying to reach her as she fled the grisly scene.

Though she tried to forget this sad event, the consequences caught up to her a few weeks later, when the Nicodellis received a visit from a man who worked for the police as consultant, and turned out to be a White Council wizard. Marina learned the truth about the event, namely the manifestation of her powers, and how close she had come to being beheaded for violating the First Law of Magic: “Never Take a Life”. Fortunately for her, the aggressor had been a Renfield, a man whose mind had been destroyed by a Black Court Vampire to create a mindless killer, too far broken to be considered a human being. Left with no choice but to learn about this new power, Marina was to be taught magic by her new master. She was privately thrilled by this glimpse of a new world, and eager to learn anything about it. That said, this first brush with the grey areas of magic left her wary of the Laws, rules that could never be broken without consequences.

Apprenticeship was hard, but Marina proved to be an apt pupil. Once she had sufficiently advanced in her training, she continued working with her master on some minor cases as an assistant. Luckily for her, she discovered magic after the White Council and the Red Court brokered a truce, avoiding the War. However, she did have her share of problems, once coming quite close to being gutted by a ghoul while her master faced a Black Court vampire. Finally, with Philadelphia being close to the ocean, she was at the ‘best’ place when the Fomors moved in after the destruction of the Red Court to bring their own breed of havoc.

Once she knew enough to not be constantly under watch from her master, she took a more active role in his ‘consultant’ business. However, after handling a couple of little cases, she was targeted by hitmen sent by Fomor proxies, who sought to eliminate any practitioners or talent that could be a threat to them. After fleeing her domicile and being cornered, she took the risk of opening a Way and escaping through the Nevernever. However, her hasty and desperate spell opened a plothole instead, and she fell into the Marquis’ office. After a few tense moments where she tried to get an explanation about her situation and accidentally hexed the Marquis’ computer, she was sent without any real explanation to RC # 2882437, where she was to meet with a “more experienced agent”, who would provide her answers and be her partner.

After an... unexpected visit to the DoSAT, she's also forbidden to go to this Department again, unless there is an emergency.

Abilities and powers
Marina is a freshly graduated apprentice from the White Council, the main body of mortal practitioners in the Dresdenverse. Being in her mid-twenties means that she’s a relative beginner when it comes to magic, given the fact that it usually manifests during adolescence, and even basic control takes months of training.

As of now, Marina is able to using this power for earth, air and spirit evocations, which are mainly combat magic focused on basic offense, defence and effects, though earth is her forte. Given the fact she was dropped in HQ without any enchanted objects or a focus, she cannot efficiently use other aspects of magic, such as thaumaturgy. Her proficiency for crafting and alchemy could be a useful asset as well, once she find the means of setting up a new lab in her RC. Her coat is already an example of this possibility, given the fact that she enchanted it for providing her with armour when needed.

However, Marina has limited herself to the study of magic, so she is a relatively athletic person who trains regularly and a decent shot with handguns. She also keeps a knife for desperate situations, but… they’re not called desperate situations for nothing.

January 2016

 * Fall into HQ and get get recruited and sent on her first mission in one go. Not the best day ever.

Partnered with Richard Legard

 * "Wrong Start" (The Dresden Files) (Soon.)