Easel
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Easel in flight. | |
| Easel | |
| Player: @discontented | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Threat Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Suzanne Quinton |
| Known Aliases: | Suzy, Suzy Q |
| Species: | Mutant |
| Age: | 16 |
| Height: | 5'6" |
| Weight: | 230 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Grey |
| Hair Color: | Platinum Blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Vigilante |
| Place of Birth: | Saratoga Springs, New York |
| Base of Operations: | Rogue Isles |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Mother, Father, Older Brother |
| Known Powers | |
| Reality Distortion (See "Powers" below for full description) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Sketching, painting, sculpting, poetry, drums | |
| Equipment | |
| Washable markers | |
| Also has a hero license in Paragon City, under the name Kanvas. | |
Contents |
History
Suzanne Quinton was born to Harold Myers and Abigail Myers-Quinton in an upstate New York town called Saratoga Springs. For most of the year it's a quiet town of little consequence, but every spring the horse tracks open and the town comes to life with the races.
Around the time when Suzy was turning one, her parents filed a divorce and went their separate ways. Harold took custody of his son and left his daughter with her mother. Even though he was granted visiting privileges he chose not to take advantage of them. As a result Suzy has no memories of her father or of her older brother. Following the divorce, Abigail changed her name from Myers-Quinton back to just Quinton and raised Suzy on her own.
As a very successful commercial and studio artist, practicing traditional techniques such as drawing and painting as well as more modern digital skills, Abigail had no trouble bringing home enough money for she and her daughter to live comfortably. Her success also provided her with a work at home lifestyle and plenty of time to devote to Suzy, who she also encouraged to pursue creative tendencies throughout her childhood.
Home life was very pleasant for Suzy as she grew up and she remains quite close with her mother, but her school life was not so sunny. Ever since she was born, Suzy struggled with a serious weight problem, and was even put on a strict, regimented diet and exercise schedule at age ten which she follows today. Despite these efforts, her weight never decreased to national standards. Because of her size, she became a target for the kids at school and found it very difficult to make friends. In an effort to protect her daughter, who came home in tears as often as not, Abigail removed her from school at age 12 and began home schooling her, until her powers manifested years later.
Origin
For her sixteenth birthday Suzy was excited to be given, among other things, the opportunity to become a part of her mother's latest art collection. She sat still for hours as her mother painstakingly painted a full fantasy landscape on her naked body, full of meticulously detailed fairies, satyrs, and other creatures of legend, all done in the style of the old realists. Rather than include the usual nudes in the painting, however, her mother left woman-shaped patches of bare skin.
During the opening show of the exhibit Suzy sat with two other nude models who were also covered in Abigail's painting. When the curtain rose to reveal them Suzy was exhilarated, and it felt to her as if the magical creatures adorning her body had taken on a life and beauty all their own, turning the body she had despised so much for so long into something wondrous. Before the eyes of dozens of art enthusiasts, the paintings responded to Suzy's wishes and stepped off of her flesh, taking life there in the gallery.
A great deal of chaos ensued at first, but the creatures were harmless enough and no one was injured in the incident. A team of investigators looked into the cause of the matter and after a few weeks they traced it back to Suzy, who tested positive for a mutant gene. A bit of testing at a lab, under her mother's supervision, revealed that Suzy was capable of making real objects and creatures out of drawings on her skin. Furthermore, the doctors discovered that using Suzy as a canvas for creative expression caused a heightened feeling of catharsis. The full nature of this effect is still unknown, and it's connection to her other power, with the exception of the obvious, is also a mystery.
This discovery lead to a major change in Suzy's attitude. The overweight figure that she had loathed was the same body that held such a magnificent and beautiful power, and even if that was a trade she didn't have a choice to make or not, it still made her feel much better about herself. So much so that she decided it was her destiny to use her power to help others. With her mother's love and blessing, she set out to Paragon City and became a licensed hero under the name Kanvas.
For her very first action as a hero, Kanvas went to stop a bank robbery by a notorious criminal called Face Breaker Faye. To Faye's surprise, and to Suzy's, Suzy came out victorious and convinced Faye to return the money in exchange for allowing her to go back to the isles. Some may consider that Suzy was too lenient, but that incident taught her an important lesson, that just because a person is on the wrong side of the law doesn't mean they're a bad person themselves.
Inspired, Suzy snuck over to the isles and started working as a hero there as well, under the name Easel. She got two new tattoos, one of a graffiti style gang tag surrounded by cartoon-ish thugs and another of a pair of pistols, which she uses when in the isles. Additionally, she uses her tattoo of the staff of hermes differently, healing others instead of herself.
Family
Abigail Quinton
Suzanne's mother and the source of her emotional foundation and support. Abigail is a wonderful mother, loving, caring and supportive in all the right ways without spoiling or coddling her daughter. Additionally, she is a highly successful artist practicing in a variety of mediums, bringing in pay checks from galleries, advertising companies, publishing companies, and a slew of other sources all while working at home.
Abigail is a lithe woman, standing 5'8" tall and weighing only 110 lbs. She is a vegetarian for concerns of health more than compassion, though she does enjoy a hearty steak about once a month. Her passion for her art is rivaled only by her love for her daughter, and since Suzy has grown Abigail's work has turned more and more towards beautifying the arch-typical image of her daughter. Teaching the world to love her child as much as she does has become her greatest driving goal.
Harold Myers
Although he is Suzanne's biological father, he has never shown any great interest in her. Harold, like Abigail, is very passionate about his work, but he is a man of science. His pursuit is perfecting the ultimate artificial intelligence, which not only emulates but fully surpasses the capabilities of every intelligence currently known to man.
Harold has raised Suzanne's brother, Junior, in his own image, giving little thought to the unique concerns of qualities of his progeny. His offspring, as he sees it, is little more than a method by which to continue his work beyond his mortality.
Harold Myers Jr.
The older brother of Suzanne, born from the same mother, is the spitting image of his father. This is due in no small part to his father's efforts, which have crafted him into the perfect engine to continue the pursuit of Harold Sr.'s dreams.
Given the upbringing his father has given him, it's no surprise that Junior has very little interest in his little sister, if he even knows of her at all.
Personality
Description
Suzy had a lot of trouble making friends in school, because big girls are never popular, and that had a big impact on the way she acts. Even though she believes in herself much more than she used to, thanks to her belief in her powers, she remains a very timid girl. The most important things to her are the values her mother has taught her, that creativity is what make humans different from animals, expression of that creativity is the greatest height humanity can reach too, and that keeping others from expressing themselves is the most horrible crime a person can commit. In addition to that, she really believes in helping others, supporting others, and providing the kind of emotional anchor that her mother provided for her.
No one in her life has had such an impact on Suzy as Abigail has, and one of the very few ways to get a rise out of the docile girl is to speak ill of her mother or her mother's beliefs. She is very defensive of her mother's teachings, and it's only her mother's teaching to not give in to anger that can suppress her wrath when that button is pressed.
All in all, Suzy is a very shy girl who is quick to admiration, and quick to forgive. She doesn't bear grudges, but she also can recognize when people are trying to manipulate her and won't respond kindly to that. A simple "I'm sorry, I won't do that again." goes further with her than most gestures, but she also is very susceptible to gives, and will quickly fall for people who compliment her, speak well of her when she's around, or otherwise make her feel good about herself.
Likes
Drums
Painting
Drawing
Writing
Tattoos
Root Beer
Root Beer Floats
Helping Others
Feeling Wanted
Dislikes
Badmouthing her Mother
People Being "Mean" to One Another
Hurting People Who Don't Really Deserve It
Broccoli
Tofu
Jazz (Too Chaotic for Her)
Powers
The mutant gene in Suzanne's DNA affords her a very, very interesting ability. In its most literal and obvious manifestation, she can take a drawing, painting, or other representation that has been done on her skin and turn it into a real thing. The more realistic the object, in relation to the drawing, the more effort it requires on her part. For example, to turn a perfectly realistic representation of a rose into a real rose is very easy, but to turn a stick figure into a real person is much harder. However, turning a stick figure into a stick-man that talks and walks around the room isn't much more difficult than making the rose. The difficulty lies more in the addition of detail than the addition of life or three-dimensionality.
To use a drawing in this way doesn't require anything more than a thought on Suzy's part, but if she touches the artwork with her fingers it does become easier for her to make the manifestation happen. Additionally, a temporary installment, such as a drawing on the surface of her skin with washable marker, will be removed from her body when made real. Permanent markings, such as tattoos, are not removed and can be used multiple times, but the more tattoos she activates the greater the strain. Effectively, she is limited to only using three or possibly four tattoos at a time, depending on their nature.
This power also lets her manifest some symbolic meanings. The best example of this is the tattoo of a staff of hermes on her left ankle (a staff with two snakes coiling up it, and facing each other at the top). This drawing has been a symbol for good health, medicine, and the trade of physicians for ages, and this tattoo gives Suzy the ability to not only heal herself, but to heal others as well. However, using these symbolic or iconic representations is much more taxing than more literal interpretations would be.
