Heartscry
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Heartscry | |
| Player: @Canvas | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 9 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Undisclosed |
| Known Aliases: | ' |
| Species: | Homo Sapiens Superior |
| Age: | 22 |
| Height: | 5'9" |
| Weight: | 106 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Black, but usually closed |
| Hair Color: | Grey |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | ' |
| Occupation: | ' |
| Place of Birth: | ' |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | ' |
| Known Relatives: | ' |
| Known Powers | |
| Astral sight, and the accompanying ability to pull the astral into the 'real' world. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| ' | |
| ' | |
Powers
Heartscry travels the world with her eyes closed, seeing through the perceptions of others. When she opens her eyes, she sees not the real world that lies at her fingertips, but the astral plane, with little to no awareness of the physical realm except in the ways it shapes and informs the astral. With her eyes closed, she is aware of the physical world, but she still sees it like a dreamscape, filled with symbols and imagery that are confusing and difficult to understand - and the accompanying problems of not always knowing what is real and what is not.
She's not psychic, in the usual sense of the world, unable to project thoughts or images into anyone's mind. What she can do is draw their hopes and fears (or 'dreams and bones', as she would say) into their conscious mind. The effects are not real, but they feel real - as real as dreams can, almost indistinguishable from reality itself until something gives it away. Enemies find that their fervent desire for their opponent not to exist renders them temporarily blind: they do not wish to see, and thus they do not. Their fear of injury is pulled forward until they believe themselves to be wounded. In some extreme instances, she can even convince people that their body has taken too much injury to sustain them, at which point the person so afflicted voluntarily severs contact with their own body. In the most technical sense, Heartscry doesn't kill, but she does convince people to commit what is tantamount to astral suicide.
As with all dreams, if her opponents become aware that what is happening to them is not real, their conscious mind can override their subconscious, shaking off her effects.
The same techniques are used on those she wishes to help. Allies desire to be healthy is pulled forward, allowing them to brush aside or ignore the effects of their injuries. As traditions such as reiki and pranic healing have proved, the health of the astral body has great influence over the physical body: by asserting her will to restore the astral body to full health, Heartscry can sometimes ensure that the healing she offers is more than just a trick of the mind.
Is childwatch sleepydream
Heartscry doesn't sleep. Her constant connection to the astral plane gives her body the release of seratonin that is usually achieved in the sleeping state, her body constantly making the updates and repairs that most bodies do while in the downtime of slumber.
Her nights are spent in what she calls 'childwatch sleepydream': watching over children while they sleep, and protecting their dreams.
Babies, when they are born, lack the protection of a closed mind. Still in that liminal state, they lack the solid connection to a single reality, and their physical body. Science has been baffled by why some babies just die in their sleep (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, known as SIDS or cotdeath). If Heartscry's unusual mode of speech could be readily understood, however, the mystery would soon be solved.
Babies who die in their dreams, die.
The astral plane lies over the physical plane, in constant dialogue with it, the one affecting and informing the other. For people of any maturity, this connection is muted, but all people venture into the astral when they dream. That's what dreams 'are'. Years of inhabiting a physical body means that adults, and even older children, simply snap back to their body if they die in their dreams, frightened and disturbed, but not physically damaged. It is not so for babies, who have not yet fully explored and understood their bodies, who do not define it as an intrinsic and integral part of them. The monsters that roam the astral plane - and there are monsters, as anyone who has ever had a nightmare knows - are not just frightening to these babes, but deadly.
Thus, Heartscry devotes much of her time to 'patrolling' the astral, protecting sleeping babies, and making sure that they wake again. A good portion of the rest of her time is spent fighting those whose actions weaken the boundary between realities, most notably the Circle of Thorns and the Tsoo. The weaker the boundary is, the weaker Heartscry's abilities will be - but the safer the world will be.
== Much more to come - work in progress ==
