Liz Areo

Liz Areo, also known as Lizard, Lisp, Liz, and once upon a time baptized Elizabeth Areo. A less-than-normal lady from the modern-era Crüxworld. There isn't much material on her yet, so I'll settle on quoting an introductory paragraph.

"Come on. We're going to get the woman who is best available for the job."

"Is that her?" Mons asked in disbelief, staring at the woman leaning on the lamppost. "That's the 'best woman for the job'?"

$ lifted an eyebrow. "Definitely. What's wrong with her?"

Mons stared openly as the woman straightened up and turned to regard the pair. She was short and wiry, but inspired a feeling of 'nothing special.' She was wearing a long coat over a dark blouse and a knee-length black skirt. Instead of boots, she seemingly had rags and bandages wrapped around her feet and legs. Her brown hair was tied at the back of her neck and her eyes were hidden by mirrored sunglasses.

"Hi, love. You had a job?"

She turned to look at him with a wicked grin, picking her grit teeth with one long, gleaming fingernail. "I suppose I look... normal. And you haven't yet learned that looks can be deceiving?" She chuckled, with a quiet hiss accompanying the sound. "Admitted, I do my best not to attract attention. But look closer... look closer."

The streetlamp was like a private spotlight for her and everyone around stared in silence, leaving the stage for her. One by one, she removed that which hid her oddities. The mirrored sunglasses came off and disappeared to her breast pocket, revealing lidless eyes with slit pupils. She took off the long coat and tossed it to $. Turning sideways she revealed the strong tail that stuck out from under her skirt - tapering, covered with greenish-gray scales, like a lizard's. She then proceeded to roll up her sleeves from over the arms partially covered with similar scales.

"See now?" she hissed with a smile. "Not normal." She stuck out her tongue for a moment - long, split, snakelike. "Not normal at all."

Mons stared long and hard, trying his best to ignore the swishing tail and the yellowish eyes that stared back. He continued staring as she put on the coat and the glasses again, turning back to an ordinary-looking citizen.

"You're..." he started.

"Not normal?" she interrupted. "Told ya that already. Doesn't make me any worse that I look different... I dare say, I might be better than ya", she added after checking Mons from head to toe.

Mons shook off the confusion. "May... be. How did you...?"

"My daddy wasn't a snake, if that's what ya mean", she said nonchalantly. "Oh, I grew up a normal kid. Just started growing some extra parts at some point. Prob'ly has something to do with all that outta-control magic running about me home parts." She shrugged. "Nothing to it." She stretched out a hand to Mons, who wouldn't take it. "Call me Liz."

Mons chuckled nervously, hiding his hand behind his back. "Is that short for 'Lizard'?"

She drew back her hand and turned around, hollering over her shoulder as she walked away. "No. For Lisssssp."

Mons twitched. $ patted him on the shoulder. "Elizabeth, actually. She just loves shocking new people."

"She... certainly... does", Mons muttered.

$ paused. "You're scared of her, aren't you."

"She's a... frigging serpent! She's not normal."

"Hey, if you were in LA, you'd be working with a gal with three arms and eyes. Both still the best for the job. Just don't... piss her off, okay."

"Why, would she bite me?"

"No. She's more into choking and crushing."

I don't have a lot of concrete material on Liz. She is actually a Gangrel idea turned into a Crüxworld "mutation" of some sort. (Yes - the original Liz was an independent Gangrel who had frenzied a few times too many and had a ghoul rottweiler named Crush.)

---

Most people notice first that Liz is, above all, shady. She takes great pains in covering large parts of her body and comes off as something of a gothy trenchcoat gangsta as a result. Should she not take steps to hide her appearance, people would notice first the mutations that have taken place in her body.

(This would be much easier if I could draw, you know.)

Liz was born a human, no doubt. She's not a monster, she only looks like one. First of all, she has a tail. A hide- and scale-covered, strong tail that reaches well to the floor. About half of her skin is scaled, as well - back, back of the neck, right arm, left shoulder, sides, most of her left leg and patches on her right leg. The scaliness can mostly be covered with clothing.

With mirrored sunglasses, Liz covers her eyes - yellow, with slit pupils, like a lizard's. Her eyebrows have recently started shedding and are becoming hard and ridgy. (Liz is still mutating, to some extent.) Her fingernails - and toenails, for that matter - are much harder material than human nails and usually filed sharp. The occasional lisp comes from the fact that she, indeed, has a slit tongue.

The feet are a whole another story. Liz currently simply wraps her legs from knee down in rags. She could still fit some boots in them, but it's painful and probably bad for their... growth. Her feet only distantly resemble human feet these days. They are mutating more paw-like - not like a dog's, but like a lizard's, as everything else about her. She walks on the balls of her feet that now have hardened pads. The feet are lengthening, starting to resemble an animal's hind legs - with hocks, seeming like they "bend the wrong way." (I'm not terribly good at explaining this in English, I'd appreciate feedback on whether it's understandable or not.)

(Yes, I know that the excerpt above doesn't exactly fit this description in regards of Liz's ability to hide her features - the tail, especially. I had something a little different in mind at first, I think.)

In the future, it is to be expected that if Liz's mutations continue, she will eventually have scales all over, have an animal's hind legs and overall resemble complete a cross between a lizard and a woman.