OOC: Bandwagon? What Bandwagon?

Apr 30, 2009 14:03

My other info dumps will go up later, but the new girl gets her own introductory post because of some particular quirks and OCD which other blonde telepaths might be familiar with...

Emma Frost. She's better than you. No. Really.

What is this 'Marvel' of which you speak?

Emma comes from the 'Marvel' canon of OMGWTF. Land of the retcon, home of the mutants, and a general migraine for anyone who believes in pesky things like 'continuity' and 'in character'. There are at least three million books and five million characters, so I'm going to narrow it down to the worldbuilding that directly impacts Emma.

Emma Frost comes from the same branch of the Marvel family as the X-Men/Generation X, which falls under the mutant umbrella. The important thing to know about this universe is that it is like ours in every way, except for one tiny little thing: there are people known as 'mutants', who are considered by some to be the next evolution of mankind.

A mutant is an individual who possesses a genetic twist called the X-gene that gives superhuman abilities. Mutants are members of the subspecies Homo sapiens superior, an evolutionary offshoot of homo sapiens. Powers cover a wide range of abilities: telepathy, telekinesis, flight, energy projection, healing (of self or others), super strength, enhanced senses, and enhanced agility are just a few of the various mutations we see in the Marvel Universe. Mutations can also sometimes entail a minor to major change in physical appearance from the human norm - wings, gills, a tail, fur, altered skin color, etc.

Mutants began to increase in population post-WWII, although they aren't quite in the public awareness yet. Unfortunately, this 'outing' usually brings with it the usual bigotry and xenophobia that minority groups tend to face, and there is a great deal of anti-mutant sentiments in the Marvel Universe. "Mutie" and "gene joke", are common insults used against mutants, and as a consequence, many mutants use the terms "baseline" and "flatscan" to refer to non-mutant humans. Both terms can be either neutral or highly insulting depending on context.

This is the world Emma Frost faces. Abandoned, hated, and feared for talents she doesn't understand and has yet to master, Emma has come to view money and power as her best means of survival, and the shadowy organization known as the Hellfire Club is a tempting option on her path to complete self-reliance.

For those of you familiar with the canon, you can ignore anything written since, oh, 1997. I'm taking Emma directly from Generation X -1, where she just had her first brush with the Dark Beast, the Hellfire Club and Leland. Oh, and that Emma Frost series? NEVER HAPPENED.

So Who Is Emma Frost?

Sweet sixteen, pretty, blonde, and never been kissed, Emma Grace Frost is the definition of beauty. A willowy girl at 5'6" and 120 lbs, she often comes across as spoiled, cold, cruel, and self-absorbed.

Emma's father disinherited her almost two years ago, once the voices in her head started up. She's been living on the streets ever since, using her fledgling telepathy to get by. A few weeks ago, she crashed a party to use her powers to steal company secrets and play the stock market with her ill-gotten gains, and things spiraled from there.

Now her new friend 'Hank' has suggested a school, a place he's heard whispers about. Somewhere that she can go to learn about her powers, and come back armed and ready to deal with the Hellfire Club. She's determined to regain what she sees as her rightful place among the privileged elite, and she's not about to let little things like telepathic ethics or being disinherited stop her. Emma's all about Keeping Up Appearances, and if you somehow find out about how she's spent the last year and half? She'll make you wish you were dead.

Telepath, huh? So, how powerful is she?

Emma is a burgeoning telepath of high ability, but her control is hit-and-miss, hence her enrollment at Fandom. Emma can read and project thoughts, change memories, plant illusions in the minds of others, and will eventually be able to release her astral form.

Emma's very good at projecting her thoughts to other people, and she's getting better at reading others deliberately, but she can't always shield herself from those with 'loud' minds or filter the input. Attempts to read an entire room or plant mass illusions will give her a massive migraine, and over-straining her powers leaves her with headaches, nosebleeds, and vertigo. Right now, the only astral-walking she's going to be doing is accidental. If anyone needs it for a plotty-reason, let me know, and I will be happy to oblige.

Now, Emma isn't actively trying to read people all the time. If she gets bored, she might scan for thoughts floating out in the psionic ether, or see if she can't pick up any juicy gossip, but for the most part she really isn't interested in the seething mass of hormonal daydreams common to the teenage demographic. She can block out most people unless she's under a lot of stress or extremely emotional, and then her control gets shot to hell. Sometimes she's just too distracted to bother with making the effort to screen you out, and then it's Your Fault if you're loud and she picks up your internal monologue.

Really. You people need to learn some basic restraint.

Who can/can't she read?

As far as FH goes, I'm going to say that it's a case-by-case basis. I'm going to venture a guess that she can't read the Jedi, although she'll give herself a migraine and/or nosebleed trying, and they'd probably be able to tell that she was trying to dig around, and the same goes for other advanced telepaths. Subtlety is not her strong suit. Yet. She can tell if another person is psychic, mostly because of the way their mind is set up, and the fact they'd probably have shields up. Which she'll poke. Repeatedly.

EMMA LACKS TELEPATHIC ETHICS. I really can't stress this enough. She's got no qualms about taking what she finds and using it to her advantage. She's not actively cruel, she's just very bitter over the fact that people often say one thing and think another, and she loves hanging such hypocrites out to dry. (I am not Emma, I swear. I = Mostly Harmless).

That said, once you're a friend, you're a friend for life, and you've got a damn scary little blonde that will do anything for you.

So, what I need from ya'll is for you to comment below and give me an idea of whether Emma would be able to read you. This doesn't mean she will, this is just giving me a good idea of what she'd pick up if she walked into a class or common room without her shields up.

[Wait for the OCD. Yes, I have OCD on an OOC post. Mock me at your peril]

ooc, emma's powers and you, ocd, infodump

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