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 Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:33 pm
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:36 pm
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As she stood in front of the panel of judges, she reviewed the plan in her head. It was risky. If things didn’t go exactly right, she would end up leaving them thoroughly unimpressed at best, suing her for damages at worst. She was planning on their appreciating her creativity and had played things close to the chest so far to avoid spoiling her surprise. With a fairly underwhelming ability, she couldn’t wow them with a show of strength or speed, and while she had no shortage of facts at her disposal, she couldn’t do quantum math in her head, or translate dead languages. Creativity was the only way she would make it past this, and if that didn’t work? She had done her best. If her best wasn’t good enough for these oversized paperweights, then it was their loss, not hers.
But she hoped it didn’t come to that. Even she didn’t want to work with bores who couldn’t understand her potential, that didn’t mean that she didn’t want to win, to impress them, to show them what she was really capable of. Far better to visualize herself dazzling them with her brilliance. She closed her eyes and pictured the mask-like faces of the judges morphing into matching expressions of awe. Her mouth twitched slightly into something that wasn’t quite a grin. Visualization always made her feel better, like her confidence wasn’t just for show.
One of the judges coughed, bringing her out of her imagination. “Phoebe Moon?”
“That’s me!” Phoebe replied cheerfully, her eyes still closed. It was easier to deal with the judges’ imagined faces than their real ones. “It’s a real pleasure to be here today, if I may say.”
They waited for a couple of moments to see if she would continue, but she seemed quite content to stand there with her eyes closed. One judge sighed, tired of applicants who apparently didn’t care. Another judge consulted the papers in front of him. “It says here that you are skilled in data absorption, is that correct?”
It was difficult to put a label on what Phoebe could do, and she disliked it when people tried. Why did they have to fit her into a neat and tidy box? She was so much more than a single phrase. But the point of this exercise was to impress, and she doubted that they’d be impressed by her poking holes in their logic, so she nodded. It wasn’t worth arguing about. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the essence of it, sure.” Which was as close as Phoebe Moon ever got to letting someone else win, when she had her way.
Again, they waited to see if more information was forthcoming. Again, Phoebe remained silent, closed off from the judges. She could hear them murmuring to each other, and the scratching of pencils on paper, and she smiled. She had wondered if any of them would be taking notes. That would make the next step of her presentation so much easier.
“How long have you been able to do this?” a judge asked, stifling a yawn. “And how did you gain this ability?”
They skipped the obvious “how do you do what you do” questions, which Phoebe was quite pleased about. It would make her demonstration that much more effective. “Since I was twelve, so for the past three years or so. My mother is a librarian, and I would often read in the library after school. Sometimes I would act out the scenes in the books I read. One of them depicted a sort of ritual. I tried it, and...” She shrugged and folded her arms. “Since the book was destroyed, there really isn’t a way for me to prove this, but that’s the way these things go sometimes.”
Other than some mild irritation at her fairly boring, hard to confirm origin story, Phoebe seemed nonplussed. One of the judges checked her watch. “Your time is just about up, Miss Moon. Is there anything else that you think we should know, or see, before you are dismissed?”
That was her cue. Tingling with excitement, Phoebe took a slow count of five before opening her eyes and looking at the judges for real. “Are you sure?”
Another judge nearly groaned, but turned it into a cough. “As I’m sure you were informed, all applicants get three minutes. If that is all, you may let the next-”
“It’s not, actually.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to interrupt the guy, but now that her plan was in motion, time was of the essence. The judges were all staring at her, with looks of confusion verging on anger, but she ignored them and approached the table. “Sorry, but there is just one more thing.”
The first judge who had spoken shook his head. “I’m sorry, Miss Moon, but your time is up. Maybe next time you will be more conscious of the time limit. Now then-”
Quickly, Phoebe pulled off her right glove and pressed her ungloved hand to the judge’s head, placing her palm right between his eyes. The other judges stood and made to pull her away, but Phoebe gave them a warning glance and shook her head. For something this easy, all she needed was a moment, anyway. Then she was done, shoving her hands in her pockets and stepping back to her initial position.
The man blinked a couple of times, then checked the papers in front of him. “Phoebe Moon?”
“That’s me!” Phoebe replied chipperly, as the other judges, still standing, tried to figure out what had happened.
The man looked at Phoebe, then at his fellow judges. “Well, are we going to begin?”
“Begin?” A couple of the judges were putting the pieces together, but the woman with the watch was clueless. “But this candidate just assaulted you! And in any event, her time is up.”
“Assaulted? Nonsense.” The other judges turned to convince him that it wasn’t nonsense, which was all the opening Phoebe needed. She approached the table again, more slowly this time, and gently touched her hand to all of the papers that had her name on them. By the time the panel noticed her in front of them, she had put her hands back into her pockets and was looking at them with an innocent expression.
“What are you doing?” the woman with the watch asked suspiciously, drawing away from Phoebe. That was bad. She hadn’t meant to scare them, but then, her act had probably looked hostile to the outside. Which meant her battle was a bit more uphill than she had planned for. A shame, but nothing she couldn’t overcome.
The other judges were all staring at her, similarly fearful, so Phoebe closed her eyes again. There, that was much better. “If you please, I’m waiting for my audition, Miss Lister.”
“You have already auditioned,” Miss Lister. “You may leave.”
“Are you sure?” Phoebe asked again. Miss Lister tensed- the last time the girl said that, it hadn’t ended well. And wait, how had the candidate known her name? “I mean, you don’t have any notes on me or anything,” she continued. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell that they were looking at the papers on the table, and surprised to find nothing but blank pages where she was concerned. This was where she really had to shine, or she’d be out on her ear before she knew what hit her.
“I could save you the trouble, though. One of you thinks I’m a fluke who must have gotten through the multiple choice test by sheer luck, endquote. That wasn’t very nice, mister. I do have an advantage, but it’s not luck. And someone else thinks that I ‘should have known better than to come to a prestigious audition unprepared.’” Phoebe made airquotes as she sorted through the mess of notes in her head. “What do you consider prepared, then? If I’d come in with a nice little speech memorized you would have nodded politely and never remembered me again, I bet. Now that’s not possible. Except, I guess, for Mister Goodman, but that’s okay, ‘cause he thought I was an unintelligent, smarmy brat and couldn’t wait for me to be finished. Yikes, I can see why you wouldn’t write that in your assessment, sir.”
Mister Goodman and the others she quoted gaped. Miss Lister appeared furious. It was the fifth judge who spoke at last. “I see, Miss Moon. Your talents lie not only in absorbing data in digital form, but also from print and personal memory.”
Phoebe could only nod. She didn’t think anyone would pin her down that well, and that quickly. It was a little unsettling, but she supposed it was also a good sign. Now they were ready to take her seriously.
“The data that you absorb disappears, but you maintain it in your memory and are able to recall it?” Another nod. “And physical contact seems to be required in order to effect the transference, is that right?” Nod. “Is the initial data lost permanently?”
This time, Phoebe started to nod, but stopped abruptly. “For print or computer data, yes. Memories can come back, especially if they’re strong or if there’s a trigger. So for all I know, Mister Goodman could wake up tomorrow and remember those three minutes. The original data disappearing isn’t the goal of what I do. It’s just a side-effect.”
“Yet you chose to utilize it as the key point of your presentation, when doing so nearly got you thrown out, if not sued?” It was difficult to tell if the fifth judge was enraged or amused. Phoebe suspected that he was a little of each.
“What I do... it’s not flashy. I can’t shoot lightning bolts or lift cars or invent super-cybernetic robots.” She sounded almost disappointed at that, but perked up again quickly. “In order to make an impression, I had to get creative. I knew it was risky, but I figured if it wasn’t, then it wouldn’t be flashy enough. If there isn’t some risk involved, it’s not worth doing, you know?” Phoebe winked. “And I did make an impression, didn’t I?”
There were murmurs at the table, and from their tone, they were not entirely positive. “Unless you want to try pulling that stunt again- something I would not recommend, Miss Moon- you’ll just have to wait and find out. You may go now.”
Even though Phoebe was willing to try some pretty crazy stunts, she knew when to call it a day. “Thank you for your time, sirs, ma’ams.” She offered a curtsy, which was a bit difficult without a skirt, and swept out of the room, which was even more difficult without a skirt. Once she was safely outside, she put her glove back on and punched the air. Even though she had no guarantee that she’d made it past the stuffy panel, she had every confidence that they would remember her. Even if nothing else went right, she still has to call that a job well done.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:37 pm
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Hero alias: Undecided. Possible names include Bookworm, Lore, Illumina (from illumination/knowledge), Oblivion (referencing the memory loss aspect)... these names make no sense. Halp plz?
Real name: Phoebe Moon
Powers/abilities: Data Absorption (or Data Drain if we want to be silly and/or brief)
Phoebe is able to absorb information from any outside source. This includes inanimate sources like books and computers, and animate sources like people. The data is taken, not replicated, meaning that once Phoebe has absorbed it, it no longer exists in its prior form. Pages in books are erased or otherwise made unreadable, hard drives are wiped, and memories are forgotten. She must be touching the object she wishes to drain with at least one of her palms; for this reason she always wears gloves so as to avoid draining things accidentally. The rate of absorption decreases exponentially depending on the amount of information she's absorbing, so while draining a sheet of paper could be nearly instantaneous, it might be faster to read a large book than to try to drain it. Digitally stored data is somewhat easier to absorb than written words, while memories are harder. She is able to recall the information that she absorbs at any time, but as her personal data banks get stuffed with more information, it takes more time for her to search them. She can only absorb so much information at once without overloading her brain and mentally shutting down.
In the case of memories, Phoebe still must have contact with her subject in order to drain them. Palm-to-forehead contact is most effective, but touching any part of the subject's body will suffice. If she has information about the memory she is looking for (date, type of information, important people, etc.) then she is able to search for it, skimming over other memories and only taking what she needs. Otherwise, she will have to search for it the long way, by absorbing all other memories that she comes into contact with. She does not have any sort of understanding of the way that memories are stored in the brain, and so avoids absorbing them without knowing what she's looking for. It is much easier for her to absorb recent memories than it is to absorb old memories. Unlike data drained from inanimate objects, memories will regenerate, depending on the age and strength of the memory in question. An old memory with importance to the subject would return fairly quickly, while a new one that didn't have much impact would take much longer, or might never return at all. Because she is only able to drain long-term memory, she is not able to use her ability to determine what someone is thinking or feeling at a given moment. Phoebe's ability to seek out specific memories is not very developed as a sidekick- the best she can do is to purposely absorb the most recent memories, and going further back than a few minutes would be a struggle.
(I know I probably didn't explain things well so please ask questions so I can rephrase! I do actually have concrete ideas for what Phoebe can and can't do, but it's hard to explain.)
Which area is the character based/from: Upper Sewit
Age upon entering academy: 14
How did your character get their powers: Ritual/Magical; Phoebe attempted to perform a ceremony detailed in a library book, and this was the result.
Motivation for entering academy: To help other people and to do something cool. Probably a 60/40 split.
Strengths:
Memory: Phoebe has perfect recall for data that she absorbs. It may take her a while to find what she's looking for in her memory, but once she takes it, it's stuck there, even when she'd rather forget it.
Eraser: Got sensitive information that you want deleted? Use Phoebe and it's gone for good- the catch being that she'll remember it.
Stealth Mode: Phoebe's ability is perfectly suited for espionage, since she can not only steal secrets without leaving any trace of her methods, but can walk out with what she wants without anyone being the wiser. If she wants a physical copy of something, she's out of luck, but if the information's what's important, she can be indispensable.
Weaknesses:
Gone for Good: Memories aside, once Phoebe absorbs something, it's never coming back. So don't hand her the only copy of your theis unless she's got her gloves on. While she has decent control over her ability, she can get excited and drain things by accident, and no amount of apologizing can bring your journal back. Unless you want her to dictate it to you, which might be kind of awkward.
Buffering: Using this ability takes time. While she'll get faster at stuff as she becomes more experienced, she'll never be able to absorb an encyclopedia instantaneously, or blank out an entire person's life. Unless she has a while to do whatever she needs to do, or it's a quick task like absorbing a single diagram, she probably won't be very effective.
Comprehension Not Included: When Phoebe drains information, it's just raw data. Just because she drains a complicated math formula doesn't mean that she has any idea how to use it. Even if a guide was included, it might be completely beyond her. Phoebe's a smart girl and can make sense of some things that other kids her age wouldn't be able to, but she's still just fourteen and is not a genius. In cases where she doesn't understand, Phoebe needs to take her data to someone else and reproduce it for them to have any chance of ever getting what's going on in her head.
Personality: Curious, confident, intelligent, know-it-all, brash, independent, steamroller. She's a bookworm who thinks that books prepare her for life and is willing to put it all on the line, even when that means that she ends up totally out of her league. Proper description forthcoming I SWEAR I AM WORKING ON THIS.
[please list at least 5 traits, one of which must be a flaw.
The key is to keep things realistic, no one is a perfect angel (not in SA anyway). The more detailed, the better
Also other random things like hobbies, favourite food, birthday, zodiac, etc can go here! Spices up their life hm?]
General backstory: blah blah history here. No, really, I do have ideas for this, just ironing them out and making sure they fit the setting!
[this includes things like your character's history, childhood, current relationships (family, friends, etc), and recent past. IF applicable, you can maybe add something about your character's day job, eg. when Superman is not Superman, he is reporter Clark Kent]
Looks department: Premade!
Phoebe is of average height for her age, and a bit on the skinny side from lack of consistent exercise and nutrition. Her hair is red and comes to mid-back; she usually wears it loose but keeps it in braids for when she's being active, and sometimes gets playful and does crazy styles that aren't usually successful. She is seldom seen without her Tam o' Shanter, which she wears at an angle so it doesn't interfere with her vision. Her favorite color is green and she wears it a lot, since her mother says it brings out the color of her eyes. Phoebe is a bit of a tomboy and prefers pants to skirts, but does like making sure that she's properly attired whenever possible. Ever since "the incident," she always wears gloves to avoid accidental use of her powers.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:39 pm
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