Cousin Psyche
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Cousin... and half-sister! | |
| Cousin Psyche | |
| Player: Player2 | |
| Origin: | mutant |
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| Archetype: | dominator |
| Security Level: | 37 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Heidi Tilman |
| Known Aliases: | Queen Pneuma |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | unknown |
| Height: | 5' 9" |
| Weight: | 128 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | pale green |
| Hair Color: | red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Citizenship: | Confidential |
| Occupation: | mercenary, anti-hero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City, RI |
| Current Residence: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | Shalice (half-sister, aka Sister Psyche) |
| Known Powers | |
| mind control, psychic assault, flight, mindriding | |
| Known Abilities | |
| melee combat training | |
| Equipment | |
| none | |
| Footnotes | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
- Supergroup: Free Agents
Personality
Heidi Tilman suffers an unfortunate mental disorder which makes her behavior hard to predict. At times, she can be as heroic as her half-sister, Sister Psyche of the Freedom Phalanx. In the past, she has gone by the hero identity of Queen Pneuma and sometimes reverts to her old personality and even wears her old costume. However, at her worst, Heidi can be a cruel, manipulative witch of a woman. She'll wear one of her sister's old costumes and adopt the Cousin Psyche pseudonym to wreak havoc in the Rogue Isles. Despite being certifiably insane, she knows her powers are currently diminished and won't openly confront the Freedom Phalanx, but speaks of facing Statesman himself so she "can turn his brain to pudding." Additionally, Heidi also goes through phases where she cannot tolerate the sight of Shalice, as well as times when she seems to forget completely that she even exists. However, the worst of her behavior comes in the form of an unwholesome affection for Sister Psyche. In fact, when Sister Psyche and Manticore got married, Heidi took advantage of the fact that a significant part of Paragon City's heroic population were in attendance for the ceremony held at Ouroboros and went on several rampages, robbing banks and causing all manner of mayhem out of sheer jealousy. Currently, her twisted desire to be with Sister Psyche is fueled by each woman's inability to see into the other's mind... and Cousin Psyche longs to have that which she cannot.
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| Psyche |
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Description
Heidi Tilman looks much like her half-sister, Shalice Tilman with the exception of their eyes. She wears one of Sister Psyche's older costumes when in her dark, villainous personality. She also has her old Queen Pneuma costume from the 1950s, though even when her mind seems more balanced and she's in her heroic state of mind, she prefers to wear a much more modernized costume which shows off a lot more skin. Its a clear sign that she's on the verge of slipping between personalities when she wears it in a flaunting manner, usually making quite the spectacle of herself.
Powers
Heidi Tilman is a powerful psychic like her half-sister, Shalice. However, whereas the famous Sister Psyche can also create psychically-powered force fields and energy blasts, Cousin Psyche's powers are less focused on defensive use. She may possibly be the stronger telepath and certainly knows how to use her mind more offensively as a weapon. She does, however, possesses the talent of mindriding just like Sister Psyche.
Mind Control
Cousin Psyche's ability to dominate the wills of others is undeniably potent. She can immobilize almost any foe, scramble their thoughts, and even shut down their mind and take direct control of a person's actions. In addition, she is an accomplished telekinetic, able to lift heavy objects and push away even the strongest of foes when she puts her mind to it.
Psionic Assault
In addition to controlling people's thoughts, Cousin Psyche has learned how to focus her thoughts like a weapon and project them painfully into the minds of others. Few secrets can be kept from her, for if she wants to know something, she's quite capable of tearing the thoughts from an unshielded mind as if pulling tissues from a box... but, when her villainous persona is in control, delights in mentally rending such information from those trained to resist such probes.
Flight
Cousin Psyche can fly.
Fighting
In addition to being one of the most powerful psychics in the world, she is also durable and adept at melee combat. Unlike Sister Psyche's defensive nature, Cousin Psyche will uses her mental powers to merely enhance her martial prowess and simply slug it out with all but the biggest of foes.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Heidi's main weakness is her fragmented personality and an irrational hatred of Statesman. Even when in her heroic state of mind, she expresses a great deal of disdain for the man and can be provoked to rash actions or complete distraction which can cause a loss of control over her own powers.
Character History
Heidi Tilman is the half-sister of Shalice Tilman, though she is officially recognized as her cousin. Shalice's father had a brief affair with his brother's wife and soon after, she was with child. Her husband became aware of the indiscretion but tactfully refused to acknowledge it, raising Heidi as his own daughter so long as his wife and brother did not betray him again. Growing up, the two girls were usually inseparable and often remarked upon as being like sisters. However, it wasn't until their psychic powers manifested that they learned that they truly were half-sisters. The realization made Heidi feel like their special bond was even more special, but Shalice felt betrayed by her father and saw her sister as a constant reminder of her father's infidelity. Shalice withdrew and Heidi tried to cling to her all the more, sparking even further hard feelings. Eventually, Shalice donned her costume and fought crime as Sister Psyche. Meanwhile, Heidi felt rejected and gave her sister the space she needed. It wasn't until years later that Sister Psyche finally came to terms with their relationship and tried to re-establish the bonds of friendship they had once shared. Shalice, a true hero, wondered why Heidi hadn't followed her example and put her own powers to good use in the fight against crime. In fact, neither is able to read the thoughts or sense the emotions of the other, perhaps as a result of their closeness and a subconscious need to put up barriers or maybe because their powers are somehow linked, coming from the same genetic traits.
To Be A Hero...
Thrilled that Shalice was talking to her again, Heidi eagerly agreed to join the cape and mask set and created her own heroic persona as Queen Pneuma. Certainly a pretentious name, Shalice thought, but she was happy enough that Heidi was doing her part. The Freedom Phalanx already had its psychic, though, so Queen Pneuma --or Q.P. as some of her friends came to call her-- floated from team to team and often fought crime on her own. This suited Sister Psyche just fine, though occasionally the two would cross paths and even join forces. Q.P. even filled in for Psyche with the Freedom Phalanx when circumstances demanded Shalice's presence elsewhere. During one fateful battle with the 5th Column, Statesman failed to notice a Wolfpack robot which was deactivated during the course of the battle but powered up afterwards. The mechanized threat pummeled Heidi with its heavy weapon arm, then blasted her before Statesman could react. She sustained multiple broken bones and severe head trauma which put her into a coma for decades.
The Rikti Attack
Heidi Tilman was hospitalized during a battle with the 5th Column and remained in a coma long after her body healed from the physical wounds she had recieved. Sister Psyche had tried to reach into her mind and wake her several times, but it was feared that Queen Pneuma would never recover. During this time, her mindriding power enabled her consciousness to drift from mind to mind. Its likely that years of experiencing countless other people's thoughts fractured her own personality. When the first rikti attack descended on Paragon City, something triggered a reaction in Heidi's brain that recalled her consciousness back to her body. She awoke and knew immediately what was going on around her even though her psychic powers seemed to have attrophied during the years spent unconscious. Her first focused thought was of Marcus Cole, Statesman, and how he let the Nazi robot nearly kill her with his stunned inaction. In a rage, she attacked hospital staff and security as she left. Despite being weakened, she could still fly. Unable to find her own costume, she stole one of Sister Psyche's and went to join the invasion battle... not to repel the aliens, but to lash out at Statesman. In her weakened state, she was hardly a match for him and quickly subdued by other heroes. Because of her powers and sudden irrational behavior, she was sent to the Zig until she could recieve proper medical treatment. However, before she could even be diagnosed, an Arachnos attack took place to break out several prisoners for their "Destined One" scheme. Heidi mind-controlled one of the guards to bring her stolen Sister Psyche costume, then psychically manipulated her way onto the Arachnos transport and ended up in the Rogue Isles where Kalinda was --for once-- rather surprised. Although she did not for an instant believe this former hero could be the Destined One, helping sway her to the side of evil was too good an opportunity to let pass... so she lied and allowed her to serve Arachnos in other ways. Far better to keep an eye on her and allow her to drift away from her former allies... possibly turn her against them at some time in the future.
Rogues Gallery
Statesman
- Leader of the Freedom Phalanx, the premier super hero of Paragon City.
Manticore
- Member of the Freedom Phalanx and husband of Sister Psyche.
Random Trivia and OOC stuff
- This character had been genericized by the NCSoft staff because it infringes so closely on NCSoft's own trademarked character, Sister Psyche. However, the ruling was overturned and Cousin Psyche was given back to me in both name and appearance. The unofficial explanation I got from one of the official forum moderators in a PM was that certain characters are off limits because they are associated with developers and someone could use that as an attempt to impersonate such an official... but because Sister Psyche is not used as an identifying name/personality by any developer or other NCSoft staff, it shouldn't be an issue. So its okay to be similar to game NPCs as long they aren't someone like Positron, Back Alley Brawler, Castle, and so on. And between exchanges of private messages, my petition in the game escalated to someone higher on the chain who recognized the same thing and fixed the whole situation.
To contact this character's creator
- In-game: @Player2
