Arani Desai

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

## Celsius

### Background

Dr. Ashok Desai during his work with Kalki Labs fell in love with the daughter of his program's sponsor, Cressida Kipling. The two had a long affair but never chose to marry, fearing that her old money family would not approve of their union. Even when Cressida became pregnant, she remained reluctant to accept Ashok's proposal. Though the two had planned to give birth in secret and give the child up for adoption, Ashok overestimated his knowledge of obstetrics and Cressida paid the price.

### Arani Desai: 1970 - 1982

Though her mother died, a girl was born and Ashok named her Arani. After losing the love of his life, Ashok could not bring himself to give up the daughter that was all he had left of Cressida but he also did not retain the mental state needed for caring for a child — and the Kipling family withdrawing their funding of Ashok's program hardly boosted his sanity.

As the girl got older, Ashok struggled. Arani felt the effects of her's father's mood swings as she was cherished but also neglected, and other times she was beaten and blamed for her mother's death.

### Arani Desai: 1982 - 1987

During a tense legal battle between Ashok and the Kiplings, Arani became afraid. While she did not enjoy life with her father, she also had no desire to leave her home. She believed all the awful things her father had told her about her mother's family and thought she would be treated poorly in England.

Possessing an excellent intellect and athleticism, Arani ran away from home after her father beat her after having suffered a bad day at court. Life on the streets of India for five years gave Arani a lot of close calls, but none as close as October 12th, 1987 in Delhi.

### Arani Desai: 1987 - 1989

Arani had a good day. She had a good encounter with a woman who had offered to give her room and a job. For the first time in a long-time Arani had a future in grasp. As she was reflecting on that very thing, Arani saw downtown Delhi consumed by a flash of bright blue light. The concussive force of the event threw Arani into a wall and she lost consciousness.

When Arani woke up, she was in a heavily drugged state. She heard doctors mentioning that a nurse had burned their hand taking her pulse and one morning during rounds, her room was coated in ice. In this fugue of medication, Arani first met Niles Caulder. He was an expert in strange events and had been all over the world studying phenomena.

Niles helped get Arani released from the hospital and let her stay with him while he ran his tests. Arani had began to fall in love with him until she learned he had learned about her after receiving a call from the Kiplings. The two got into an argument, and Arani ran away again.

Except Arani did not get far. The strange rumors from the hospital had caught others' attention. Without any actual understanding of how to tap into her potential, Arani was captured by a band of cultists who had sprung up in the chaos of the disaster that plagued the city.

A year passed before Arani was rescued by Niles and her uncle Will.

### Supplemental Reports

* (*Submitted by Herald*) The Kipling family does not actually descend from the acclaimed author Rudyard Kipling. Arani's grandfather, who was something of a con artist, appears to have changed his name after returning from World War II to escape something... Family? Creditors? Both? Either way, it served as an interesting conversation to break the ice between Mowgli and Arani.
* (*Submitted by Vibe*) So I found a photo album from Dr. Wells' college days. There's a lot of pictures of Wells hanging out with a young Luthor and a pre-scarred Sivana. There was also this Indian hottie with them. These guys all seemed into this babe. I got curious and did a facial recognition scan. I feel so stupid. I didn't realize it was Mrs. Caulder. She hasn't aged a day!

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* Psionic Metahuman
	+ *Thermokinesis*
		- *Body Temperature Manipulation*
		- *Cold Immunity*
		- *Cold Projection*
		- *Heat Immunity*
		- *Heat Projection*
		- *Thermal Vision*
* Mysticism
	+ *Master of Occult Lore*
	+ *Expert Ritualist*
	+ *Possible Immortality*
* Accredited Doctor of Genetics & Physics
* Expert of Various Scientific Disciplines
* Accomplished Martial Artist

### Weaknesses

* Phobia: Demons
* Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

### Analytics

* **Physicality:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
* **Occult:** 5 — Master / Remarkable
* **Weaponry:** 5 — Master / Remarkable
* **Expertise:** 5 — Master / Remarkable
* **Range:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
* **Strategy:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
	+ **TOTAL:** 75
	+ **RANKING:** Moderate Threat

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Ashok Desai was originally married to Daribha Gupta and had three children. Daribha and Ashok both came from families with ancestors that claimed mystical ability. It was thought that the match of Daribha and Ashok would lead to a reawakening of the magical properties in their blood, which had long since gone dormant. However, after the birth of their children Priya, Rani, and Rasi with no apparent magical abilities to show amongst them, Ashok abandoned his family to pursue a relationship with Cressida Kipling from a more established magical family.
* She used to use special gloves when training. After Shyleen Lao's metagene was activated she gave them to her.

### Notes

* In the comics, Ashok became the supervillain Kalki.

## Links and References

* Appearances of Arani Desai

1. ↑ Network Files: Arani Desai 1
2. ↑ Network Files: Chandi Gupta 1
3. ↑ Network Files: Shyleen Lao