I remember once I was doing dishes late at night, I was visiting my parents while uni was off. I was focused on my task. Unfortunately, I had failed to notice a figure creeping up to the window. My eyes were locked down to the dishes going through each cup. For whatever reason I looked up.. there was a grin with eyes, teeth illuminated by the light coming through the window and nothing more. My legs buckled slightly and I lost grip of the cup I had been holding. My breath stilled, I didn't know what to do. In that moment I was so sure some horror monster had come to life.
It was my dad. I was so scared and it was my dad. I didnt ask why he did that but I couldnt tell if he was trying to give me a nice surprise - 'hello, i'm back home' - or to be a cruel prank. Regardless when I visit my parents home and walk past that window at night I shiver for a second. I can't bring myself to ask him 'why?!' he did that, I feel like if I talk about it it'll be made real.
I don't have any specific questions/prompts, but I'd like to know more about Muse if you wouldn't mind just rambling or something? I'm especially interested in her powers since I have a character with kind of a similar deal.
Under a cut because this got long. ;;;
I doodled the babe post-mission anyway, ‘cause I felt like it.
If I had to classify Muse as anything, it would probably be as the group’s “glass canon.” She wields a lot of power, but she’s also incredibly vulnerable. She tends to support rather than charge right in. (Sheath and Duel are the group’s real tanks.)
Physically, she has a lot of combat training and is very talented at executing technique perfectly- but she’s also fifteen years old, thin, and kinda fragile. Her telekinesis makes up for a lot of that by allowing her to fly, lift/throw objects, unlock things from the inside, and adds a lot of power to physical hits. Those little gem things in her costume are actually weapons in and of themselves- she can gather them together into a club or staff or just shoot them off like bullets.
Her telepathy also allows her to act as the group’s radar in addition to Terabyte’s systems, and she’s able to do low-level memory alternation at a distance (i.e. pushing onlooker’s memories of an event to the back of their minds). Her real strength is hinted at with her name- Muse’s presence helps unlock her allies’ abilities just by being nearby and can, if she concentrates hard enough, dampen her enemies’ powers.
Of course, all of this comes with a heavy price. Muse literally can’t turn off her powers and was homeschooled for a good portion of her life as her father, a telepath himself, attempted to help her with that. Out in public, she wears dampener bracelets when she can, but it’s still there- it’s like having a radio on at all times that you can’t turn off. There are medications she can take to sleep that dampens it again to a low static, but yeah.
She’s had to build a very strong sense of self along with mental barriers over the years to keep from losing herself, and bear in mind that she’s only fifteen. That’s not mentioning all the awful information she’s privy to on a daily basis, both about day to day junk and the underlying government issues/suffering of Powereds that are stuck in the Program or otherwise being exploited. That’s a lot of really shitty stuff to have in your brain at any age.
And with the huge drain on her powers from fighting comes crippling migraines that can lay her up for days a time. She’s incredibly useful to the group as support and as a trainer, since she’s very aware of everyone’s limits and strengths and often helps Fusion with plans and strategies, but she also often wears herself out to the point of being useless.
Soo … TL;DR Muse is a powerful ally but her abilities come with a lot of weaknesses, and she’s still young enough to make a lot of mistakes.
What he doesn't tell them is how much it hurts, a muscle-deep stabbing when they reform and skid across and away from soft skin into something more useful, the high, stinging strain when they have to spiral together under clothes during classes, the ache like bruised bone when they come against something they can't cut and rebound, useless and shredded for an endless moment before he can focus them back.
He doesn't tell them that some nights before he joins them on patrol, after he's put the kids down and left food on a plate for his aunt to grab after the graveyard shift, the tug-of-war in his head hurts more. Pain and duty, wanting to hand over responsibility and the fact that (there's blood on the street and the sirens never came and he gags on the tastesmell of gasoline) there is no one but them, between fear like ink and (they never came) anger like blood-
-and he lets the anger fill his skin and drive the ink out sharp and hard, so his enemies feel it too.
He never does tell the others.
But then, they probably know anyway.
(Introspective piece for Scott, aka Duel, of my original superheroes. Felt like trying to get the rust out of my hands and my head a little, as it's his and the other kids' story I'll be doing for my thesis.)
