Econaut
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Econaut | |
| Player: @Dr. Reverend | |
| Origin: |
Mutant |
| Archetype: |
Controller |
| Threat Level: |
50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: |
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Leahy |
| Known Aliases: |
Eco |
| Species: |
Human Mutant (presumed) |
| Date of Birth: |
1993 (age 31) |
| Height: |
5'1" |
| Weight: |
103 lbs |
| Eye Color: |
Green (no pupils) |
| Hair Color: |
Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: |
American |
| Occupation: |
High School Student |
| Place of Birth: |
Paragon City, RI |
| Base of Operations: |
Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: |
Single |
| Known Relatives: |
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| Additional Data | |
| Known Powers: |
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| Known Abilities: |
|
| Known Equipment: |
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| [ Source ] | |
Econaut is a young heroine and member of the All Star Teen Sentinels in Paragon City. Known for her powerful control over the natural environment, blue skin and pointed ears, and bubbly personality, she seeks to protect the innocent from evil.
Contents |
Biography
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Leahy (she finds the name "Gwendolyn" embarassing) was born normal enough. The beautiful golden haired child of Daniel and Maeve, she was raised with her three older brothers on the family farm near Croatoa. Shortly after her birth, her mother died, leaving Daniel to care for the family. The baby of the family, she was raised often under the protection of her father and brothers. More than a few bullies discovered the danger of picking on the small blond girl, lest they face the wrath of the doting (and large) Leahy brothers. Gwen herself displayed an amazing aptitude for farming, horticulture, and animal husbandry, and the farm itself had bumper crops even during drought years. The little girl with the sunny disposition became known as the family's good luck charm.
That luck ran out in the summer of 2008. A towering Devouring Earth monster broke through the fences and attacked the farm. As the farmhands ran for cover, Gwen was overcome by a vast and indescribable rage. Feeling the world's very revulsion and hatred of the Devouring Earth, her blood burning in her veins, she grabbed a pitchfork and blindly charged the beast. A normal person would have died then. Instead, with each step the fields themselves animated and turned upon the monster. Roots, vines, and the crops themselves tore from the ground, flailing and tearing at the abhomination; the sky split and turned into a maelstrom and lightning fell blindly. The fight was not long. Though injured and rended by the assault, the monster's caught Gwen with a backhand that sent her flying through the family home. Before she lost conciousness, she heard a shotgun blast and the monster's roar silenced.
The Gwen Leahy who awoke in the hospital was not the same as before. The doctors were uncertain if it was because of the exposure to the Devouring Earth or her drawing so deeply, but her previously latent and hidden mutation had triggered and resulted in a drastic transformation. Her skin had turned blue, her ears elongated and pointed, her eyes nearly luminous green, and hair a peculiar shade of red. She'd always had a natural empathy for the natural world, but her ability to control it and accelerate the growth of plants had become obvious. During her sleep, the hospital courtyard had grown nearly out of control, with the gardens held back only by the application of chainsaws.
Gwen's father said little. Always man of few words, he sat and looked at his darling daughter silently, struggling with what to say. Finally, he stood and handed her an old shoebox. "These are your mother's. She wants you to have them now." was all he said before leaving. Inside were a pair of goggles.
Though she briefly moved back in with her family after her recovery, she soon began wearing the goggles and took on the identity of Econaut. Her experiences had taught her of the dangers in the world, and that sometimes, the world can help protect people. That she can. She shortly thereafter joined the ASTS.
Affiliations
Econaut is a member of the All Star Teen Sentinels and has friends throughout the city. She has been affiliated with Vanguard as part of the effort against the Rikti.
Personality
Econaut is typically a happy-go-lucky, spunky, and bubbly young heroine. Prone to whimsical mischief, she is not above silliness such as swapping uniforms with a friend, harmless pranks, or declaring herself a "ninja pirate" and swinging around a wooden sword. Her idealism, sunny outlook, and kind demeanor helps her make friends easily. When not at school, saving the world, or hanging out with friends, she volunteers at the hospital in Steel Canyon. She hopes one day to become a nurse.
She is, despite or because of her optimism, extremely strong willed. Eco is a small, cutsie blue girl with a heart stronger than stone. Having endured tragedy, hardship, and torment and come out the other side, she is able to call on a mountain of inner strength. She will courageously stand her ground, refusing to give in to despair. Though kind and usually easy-going, she can be angered and unleash the full wrath of nature.
That said, she is a rather quirky girl. She refuses to wear shoes, going barefoot nearly everywhere. She enjoys surfing, using her powers to give her the best waves. She is rarely without her signature goggles, even when swimming or in her civilian identity. She is pathologically terrified by fire. She tends to violently destroy Devouring Earth when encountered, usually tearing the monsters to shreds. She is a vegetarian who sometimes snacks on flowers and leaves. She keeps a giant carnivorous plant as a pet she has dubbed Seymour and thinks he's the cutest thing ever.
Seymour
Seymour is a special case. To Eco, he's a big cuddly cutest thing ever who is always thinking about dinner. To everyone else, Seymour is a walking nightmare with an unsettling penchant for sneaking up behind them.
Seymour is a giant carnivorous plant resembling an alarmingly mobile Venus Flytrap. Six feet tall with really big teeth and an appetite to match, he has the personality of a large dog with a sense of humor. He has a collar and eats mostly rotten fish. While Seymour's thought process consists primarily of eating, thinking about eating, trying to get more to eat, chasing pigeons and squirrels (so he can eat them), and finding new and creative ways to torment American Sun (like appearing six inches behind him), he is highly devoted to Eco. When Gwen is threatened, Seymour will fight with all the ferocity of an enraged guard dog to defend his master.
Gwen and Seymour seem to be connected. He responds instantly to her moods and always seems to know where she is, coming to her aid the moment she's threatened by burrowing threw the earth. In turn, she is able to at times take direct control of Seymour, talking through him and accomplishing tasks he is too stupid to perform (like opening doors instead of breaking through them). However, this is exhausting for Seymour and Econaut is unable to move while performing it.
Powers
Econaut's powers are defined as ecokinesis, the mental control over the natural environment. It is believed she does this through an unusual form of psychic manipulation and connection to the world. She refers to it as nudging or tugging on strings.
While she is, as she puts it, "tougher than she looks," Econaut is as strong and tough as a normal small teenage girl who engages in regular intense physical activity.
Plant Control
Econaut's trademark powers revolve around plants. She can exponentially accelerate their growth, move them where she wills, and even animate the previously inanimate shrubbery to extremely rapid movement. Floors, concrete, even steel plating do little to deter her. The vast network of roots, plants, and earth beneath the facility provide her more than enough raw material to create strangling vines that punch through solid stone. For those occasions that she cannot reach the world beneath her (such as when in a space station), she brings along and releases handfuls of rapidly growing seeds that she releases upon arrival. These plants, based on a kind of modified kudzu, follow her beneath the floors and spring to her aid. Understandably, her powers tend to be somewhat destructive to the surrounding building and foundations.
She refers to her summoning vines and other plants in battle as "quick and dirty." The attacks are reflexive, lacking in preparation or proper control and thus have a limited radius. Outside of the turmoil of combat, she is capable of much wider effects or more precise control. This can range from healing a valley scorched by Rikti bombing to forming simple objects, such as swords or flower pots, out of wood. She also uses it to make fruit throw itself at people that annoy her.
Her mastery of botany also manifests more subtly. Gwen is a master gardener and farmer, even when not consciously using her powers. Plant life seems to grow stronger, more vibrant in her presence. She is also capable of modifying plants to her needs, and tends a small garden of special strains she has created. Among these include an assortment of powerful healing herbs, mind-clouding spores that she uses to confuse and muddle her enemies, and an astonishingly aggressive variant of kudzu.
Weather Control
Equally dramatic as her command of the plants beneath her feet is that of the skies above. Econaut can summon tornadoes to scatter her enemies like crows, freezing winds to chill them to the bone, or thunderstorms to blast them with lightning. She intentionally limits her storms to avoid the risk of losing control in battle. She explains it as weather systems being frighteningly complex, and even she cannot predict all the variables or the consequences.
Outside of battle, with proper time and concentration, she can act on a wider and more precise scale. For example, she has used her weather control powers to summon the rains to put out a forest fire after a battle with the Rikti. Alternatively, she can scale it down, forming a tiny black raincloud over the head of an unhappy person.
Earth Manipulation
While she primarily manipulates the trees and the rains, Econaut has some limited command over earth and stone. Able to act on a tactile level, she can mold and shape stone with her bare hands. Among other things, she uses it to make big stone fists to punch jerks in the face. Not her most powerful ability, but sometimes intensely satisfying.
Flight
Econaut is capable of independent, self-powered flight at will. Her top speed seems to be around 320 miles an hour (equivalent to an F5 tornado on the Fujita-Pearson scale) over open ground, and may even be capable of bursts of speed up to 740 miles an hour (Mach 1, or F12 on the Fujita-Pearson scale) over the ocean. However, within Paragon City and other urban environments she rarely exceeds speeds of 100 miles an hour due to the increased risk of hitting buildings or shattering windows with the hurricane force winds.
That, and hitting a bug at Mach 1 really really stinks.
An important note is that while capable of high speeds, Econaut is not an especially strong flier. Though easily defeating gravity herself, she lacks both the physical strength to lift another human being or propulsive force to carry both herself and another. A common trick by her friends is to grab Eco's ankles or feet when she tries to fly away, trapping her. Given her flighty personality, she is often seen floating about instead of simply walking. While airborne she seems unconcerned by things like gravity and is prone to rotating until she is hovering upside down.
Psychic Sensitivity and Natural Empathy
Econaut has demonstrated some sensitivity for psychic phenomena and seems to have a kind of inherent empathy with living things. While she is neither telepathic nor capable of even sensing human emotions or thoughts, she is capable of generalized sensing of nearby psionic activity. For example, proximity to Rikti tends to give her a headache due to the telepathic noise of the hive mind.
She is also capable of sensing, at least on some level, the natural world around her. Severe pollution tends to upset her.
She seems to be capable of sensing the patterns of weather and presence of plant and animal life, even that out of sight. Where ever there are plants, even far beneath the ground, she can find them.
Abilities
Gwen has an innate knack for herbology and botany, often using the products of her garden in tending to the wounds of her teammates. Her volunteer experience at the local hospitals has given her some skill at emergency medicine, and she often functions as a nurse in a pinch. She is also a fairly competent surfer and remains a surfing fan.
Gwen is also a Ninja Pirate. Exactly what that means is unclear, but it apparently involves sneaking about in her ninja pirate outfit with a wooden sword and her First Plant, Seymour the Shinobi Shrub.
Equipment
Econaut's suit provides her some degree of protection from abrasion, impact, and other such wounds, and is highly durable and waterproof. She usually carries a number of seeds and spores from her garden to use in special situations.
The Goggles
The purpose of The Goggles is unknown. The Goggles are mysterious and powerful. All hail.
They originally belonged to Gwen's mother. She only seems to take them off when she sleeps. Attempting to steal the Goggles results in a mauling by Seymour.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Econaut's psychic sensitivity makes her vulnerable to psychic and telepathic attack. The simple proximity of large concentrations of Rikti give her a headache. While magical wards and fields against supernatural entities do not prevent her from entering an area (such as St. Martial), they are highly uncomfortable and she will quickly abandon such an area when given the opportunity.
Gwen has an intense, almost pathological, fear of fire that manifests differently depending on the situation. Sometimes it's crippling, cringing terror, sometimes it's violently extinguishing of the fire, and sometimes (as in the case of American Sun) a protracted pranking campaign.
Neither she nor her powers posses any special physical vulnerability to fire. The plants she summons are plants, as flammable as any normal piece of healthy green wood (to wit: throw a chunk of green oak and a bloody raw steak in the oven and see which one turns to ash first). More importantly, her plants have no pain receptors and are incapable of feeling pain or fear. Setting Econaut's vines on fire may well result in being strangled by large, spiked, flaming vines and an angry Econaut.
