Haley Somerset
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Haley Somerset | |
| Player: @Twoflower | |
| Origin: | Mutation |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 41 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Haley Danvers |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 16 |
| Height: | 5'0" |
| Weight: | 110lb |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Place of Birth: | Astoria Park |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Adoptive Mother (Kusanagi) |
| Known Powers | |
| Psychic power, force fields, teleportation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Google-fu, speed cellphone typing | |
| Equipment | |
| Multi-Supergroup communicator, various costumes | |
| No additional information available. | |
Note: When character renaming is implemented, this character (and likely page name) will change to Haley Danvers.
Haley is a young orphaned girl who went through some of the worst of Paragon's foster families, all while her powerful but highly untrained psionic abilities were starting to surface. After being taken in by Kusanagi (Mercedes Danvers), she's found friends who care for her, a family that loves her, and has grown in confidence in her abilities.
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Affiliations
Her early work was with D.F.B., street-level heroes who took in the semi-runaway girl who was avoiding her unpleasant home situations by putting her powers to good use protecting others. After D.F.B. largely retired, she moved to working with the Do-Gooders, and lately has been tutoring under the wings of Sister Psyche and the Vanguard.
Personality
Haley has really had two phases in her life, and thus, two personalities.
Early on, when she was still in abusive foster families and still unsure of her abilities, she was very withdrawn and timid. Fear ruled many aspects of her life, and it showed in her powers; to activate them she had to have those "Get away from me!" sort of mental impulses, to push back at her enemies, or to shield herself, or to escape them.
After getting out of her life situation and into a more nurturing one, she's blossomed, opening up more to her friends. Although still a bit timid and unsure of herself, she's more willing to tackle problems head on, and has more faith that the days ahead will be better than days long past.
She does have one fear remaining -- for a time before Sister Psyche started training her, she didn't have fine control and her powers had grown to the point where she'd pick up surface thoughts unbidden. She still has episodes where she does this, and knows it violates privacy, and is hoping nothing bad comes of it.
Also, while she's largely decided that the physical and emotional abuse she suffered in the past is "behind her," there are days when things are going very poorly and it threatens to resurface. She hasn't blocked out the memories, but her natural psionic talents are helping her keep them at bay... for as long as she maintains self-confidence.
Powers
A strong psion, not at the same level as Penelope Yin but still quite notable, Haley is believed to share some of the soul energy that empowers Sister Psyche and thus has very similar abilities. The exact nature of this link is vague -- all anyone knows is that there is a lot in common between them, and there may even be a time-shifted reincarnation involved.
Her powers fall into two sides, active and passive. Passively, her empathy for her friends and desire not to see them hurt manifests in an aura of protection around her, bubble-shaped mental constructs that deflect attacks. Actively, she projects that same empathy forward, to halt the progress of her enemies and keep them from hurting anyone. She's incapable of killing anyone with her psi-blasts... simply neutralizing them. (In the past, she had to tap darker, more frightened impulses to project attacks outward, but her training has led her down another path.)
Abilities
Aside from her superpowers... Haley doesn't have many skills, many talents. No strong creative ability to speak of, no real job skills. As a teenager mostly she's focused on trying to pass her classes while continuing to be a heroine, but she's proving completely average and forgettable at anything other than psionics... a fact that does, on some level, worry her.
She's hoping she'll find something she's good at so she can eventually get into college, and get a job. Haley has no plans to give up being a heroine, but is searching for something to herself beyond that, as well.
Character History
Foster Families
Born in Astoria General Hospital shortly before the fall of Astoria Park, Haley enjoyed about a year of comfort with her birth parents before they were claimed in the disaster that caused Dark Astoria. (Oddly, her parents had some connection to the Sky Raiders, but not much came of that, except that one of her abusive foster fathers turned out to be an overprotective distant relative who in the end didn't hang onto his ward.)
After that, she was moved from foster family to foster family. At best, they were indifferent; at worst, they were abusive. Paragon's welfare system was in shambles after the Rikti War and the young girl simply fell through the cracks, with civil servants just dropping her into some random family each time evidence turned up that the last one wasn't working. Haley did not have a particularly pleasant childhood, as a result.
Young Heroine in Training
She became aware of her psionic powers gradually, over a few years. Haley wasn't too shocked... plenty of heroes were emerging after the Rikti War, and this was a city of wonders. Wonders that a young, troubled girl wanted to join very badly, to show that there could be something good in her life. Her first costume was largely made of aerobics gear and poorly done makeup, but it was enough to get her registered and out there fighting crime. She couldn't think of a code name she liked, so she used her then-current name of Haley Somerset, and it's stuck ever since.
D.F.B. Crew found her and took her in, showing her care and warmth for the first time -- and plenty of chances to practice her powers. She became fast friends with Cold Sore, a fellow classmate, and despite their status as semi-outcasts in high school living, life started to look up.
There were some run-ins with Crey and the Carnival of Shadows, both of which would've loved to get their hands on a young psion they could manipulate and remake in their image, but these efforts were staved off by the help of her friends. She emerged from such conflicts relatively unscathed, although she has a reasonable fear of the Carnies as a result.
Adoptive Family, and Advanced Training
The real turning point was when Mercedes Danvers, aka Kusanagi, adopted Haley and provided a stable family environment... complete with a mother who would literally cleave the world in twain sooner than see her daughter come to harm. Her confidence grew, as did her powers...
...although CONTROL of her powers, well, that wasn't coming along well at all. She started accidentally reading surface thoughts, having trouble discerning what was spoken and what was merely pondered. This, combined with her mother leaving Paragon City for a VERY extended undercover mission from Crimson and Indigo, led to a depression in Haley. Fortunately through her mother's connections, she was able to get lessons with Sister Psyche, to bring her control up to speed.
Nowadays, she has good days and bad days, but more good than bad. Her mother has returned to help with the Vanguard efforts, and the Dark Watcher recommended Haley for an advanced Vanguard training program to better develop her force fields.
(to be continued!)
Trivia
The raw, simple concept for this character came from doing the sit emote while in a dumpster, pretending to be hiding from the skulls in Kings Row. I thought a character who is young and a bit traumatized would work for a psychic. Her past abuse has not played much of a role, however, so in canon it's her vastly improved life and mental control that's keeping the more realistic consequences of child abuse at bay.
Speaking of canon, a few elements such as her Sky Raiders connections and a soul connection to Sister Psyche are now officially downplayed; they overcomplicated the character, and were hard to fit in with the game's reality. She's still no worse than, say, Supergirl's canon.
