Hypatia Reed
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Hypatia Reed is a plant/sonic Controller hero on the Virtue server of City of Heroes. A half-satyr, half-nymph from the illustrious Mount Olympus, Reed is a slow-to-trust, vulgar individual thanks to a primarily dark and violent upbringing. ICly both Splinter Reed (broadsword/regen Stalker) and Thistle Reed (martial arts/energy aura Scrapper) as well as Hypatia Reed are all the same character with the same background and powers.
Despite her attitude and tendency for bluntness and off-standishness, the satyph is a highly complicated and private individual with several very deep and insurmountable mental scars to explain her anti-social demeanor. Nonetheless, Reed is presently an active officer of the Legionnaires. ...and her player is both an actual woman (like Reed) and very nice (unlike Reed)! :O
Last updated 10 January 2012.
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| Reed, in her normal colors | |
| Hypatia Reed | |
| Player: @Brimstone | |
| Origin: | Mutation |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Hypatia Reed |
| Known Aliases: | Reed |
| Species: | Satyr/forest nymph hybrid |
| Age: | ~240 years (young immortal) |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 125 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Light green |
| Hair Color: | Green |
| Biographical Data | |
| Citizenship: | Confidential |
| Occupation: | None |
| Place of Birth: | Mt. Olympus, Greece |
| Current Residence: | Within the Legionnaires' group base |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | -- |
| Known Powers | |
| Plantlife and earth control, broadsword mastery, martial arts mastery | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Minor healing abilities, heightened senses, minor natural regeneration, sustained barrier due to incessant bitchiness | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| Footnotes | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Character History
In-depth Biography
The Seed & Athanasius
A girl of a rather tragic past, it's no surprise Reed acts as she does. Though born amongst the Greek pantheon on Mount Olympus, Reed never saw any of the gods with her own eyes despite centuries upon centuries atop the mountain; her father, Athanasius, was a pureblooded satyr born and raised on Olympus' mountainside. Vaguely related to Pan, fellow satyr and god of flocks and rustic music, Athanasius used his connections early in his life to establish himself as a honorable and charismatic individual among the Greek pantheon, in hopes of one day being "promoted" of sorts into their favor as a fellow god. His motives and intentions questionable, Athanasius proved to be extremely two-sided: To the gods he presented himself as worthy of their powers, but to underlings and those unrecognized by the pantheon, he behaved cruelly and arrogantly, practicing a long tendency for sexism and -- whether ironically or not -- satyriasis (hypersexuality).
Unfortunately, it was due to this hypersexuality that Reed came about. On the mountainside, satyrs' obsessions with and adulation for nymphs and dryads is and was both well-known and extremely common; however, on one occasion, Athanasius' desire for one particular forest nymph resulted in sexual assault. The dryad, named Rhitelle Reed, found her life threatened by the satyr not to reveal the attack, though she later realized she was consequently pregnant. By the time of the child's birth, Athanasius elevated his status further with the Greek pantheon, enabling him to live in their midst on the mountain top; he found the infant Hypatia, named by her mother, abandoned on his doorstep shortly after her birth. Having possessed no knowledge of the child's conception, the satyr also harbored no compassion for her, much as Rhitelle had done the same. Knowing giving the child away or forcing it back on her mothers' hands would risk the secret of the rape getting out and ruining his reputation, Athanasius took Hypatia in, debating killing her for some time, but instead creating plans for using the child once she had grown instead.
Rage of the "God"
Hypatia was raised within Athanasius' household, born an immortal like her parents and thus with very slow age progression; in total, she spent around 200 years within the household, kept secret from the gods and any that might report the child's existence. She was allowed outside on very rare occasions, though left to fend for herself for hours to days at a time; early on, Athanasius had trusted "goons" care for her to ensure she remained alive. His underlings -- fellow satyrs that believed him to be a prophet -- were informed only that she would be necessary for him to become a god later on, and thus followed his orders without question. Idolizing Athanasius, the satyrs were no risk to revealing the secret of Hypatia's conception, though her father was never entirely clear to them exactly what happened.
The nature of Athanasius' parenting, like his goons', was never loving in the least; Hypatia was brutally abused by all those that entered the home for the entire span of her 200-year stay. The first time she attempted to escape, she was discovered by her father almost immediately; though at the equivalent of a mortal eight-year-old, Athanasius attacked her brandishing a small blade, resulting in a long, permanent scar extending from beneath her left eye to over her nose. The force of the blow threw the child against a wall, where her shirt became caught and was ripped off when hit next. The event began a long, 100+-year streak of vicious sexual abuse, both by her father and his underlings. The heavy abuse, all in all, "tamed" her; she was numbed to a point that she could no longer resist or consider alternatives like escape.
Spyridon and The Chalice
During the 200 years hidden away in the underground beneath Athanasius' residence, Athanasius' longtime friend and confidante, Spyridon, formed an organization known as The Chalice; the organization, led by the gods' scribe, intended to bring about faith in the Greek pantheon back on primal earth after the gods went out of worship in ancient history. Unlike Athanasius, Spyridon was a good-hearted and intelligent immortal with pure intentions as the gods' scribe and archivist. Spyridon had been companions with Athanasius much before the satyr turned incredibly wicked and hundreds of years before Hypatia's birth; in fact, he was not informed of the child's existence until the girl was around 150 because her father was not sure Spyridon could be trusted, being that he was so close to the gods constantly. Spyridon, the child of Poseidon and a water nymph, naturally felt a compassion previously completely unknown for Hypatia; seeing and hearing about the child in so much tragedy worried him terribly, and for 50 years the man tried to talk Athanasius into letting her go. When the satyr father began lashing back at him, Spyridon realized he could not simply "tell the gods" of the occurances, as it would threaten his own life as well as the child's, and thus took matters into his own hands. While plotting on how to safely free her, his attention towards The Chalice increasingly lacked; Athanasius soon took charge of it, warping it to fit his own needs: The Chalice soon dropped all intents on spreading the good of the Greek gods, instead focusing on spreading Athanasius as a prophet. The satyr, planning on using The Chalice to finally elevate himself to the status and power of a god, also began paying less attention to Hypatia, and it was at this opportunity Spyridon chose to strike.
Flee from the Mountain
When Hypatia hit 205 (equivalent to around 20 years of age), Spyridon broke her out of the household when she was alone. Knowing she would be caught by Athanasius or one of his slowly growing cult of followers one way or another, Spyridon rushed her from the top of Mount Olympus down to primal earth; the renowned Paragon City across the planet attracted his attention quickly as a safer place than most considering the bulk of superpowered people in the area, and within a few years managed to get there with Hypatia in tow. The two remained in hiding in and around 'Eden', Atlas City and other thickly forested areas; it was there he began teaching her actual social skills and how to live in the "real world," as well as how to use the plant-controlling powers inherited by her forest nymph mother who had remained absent her entire childhood. Spyridon disappeared suddenly when she was around 230, leaving the girl entirely on her own to monitor certain Olympus activities and the like while still in hiding in earth, but found it safer to keep Hypatia separate from his work. Left alone in Paragon City, Hypatia -- or as she was soon nicknamed, Reed, by the Legion she unwittingly joined -- she attempted to hone her skills and strengthen herself, remembering the warning Spyridon had left her: that her father would inevitably hunt her down.
It was at this time her "story" as a hero of Paragon City found its official start.
The Legionnaires
After hearing of the team multiple times during her wanderings around Paragon City, Reed eventually came to align herself alongside the Legionnaires, and was thus first exposed to the ways of primal earthlings. The Legion and its members were kind and understanding with her despite her fiery and bitter personality. Though she remained private, Reed managed to forge a number of small and private friendships, and eventually was thrown into the world of romance, of which she is still very awkward with and against.
Not long after her initial joining of the Legion, Reed began to show signs of external stress and trauma that she refused to share with much of the Legionnaires. When pressured, she revealed that her father's eyes and ears within the city had locked onto her position and were attacking nearly every time she left the group's base and sanctuary. After several weeks of pressure, close-calls and bruises thanks to Athanasius's goons and followers tracking her every move, she vanished -- and the Legionnaires, knowing she had likely left on her own to face her problems without burdening them, dreaded the worst.
Reed: The Chalice
In a series of complicated events, Reed was captured before the Legionnaires' eyes after they found her fighting off satyrs in 'Eden'; they were forced to align themselves with Spyridon, who had mysteriously (and suspiciously) reappeared. The war came to an abrupt halt when the group managed to take Athanasius down, though hardly for good -- he alerted them to a stronger power in Reed, and disappeared to regroup and sort out his plans. The Legionnaires found that Athanasius had stolen some of the Greek pantheon's power and fed it into his daughter -- his plan since adopting her and allowing her to live, 200 years before. However, he had been caught off-guard by the result, and allowed the Legion to "reclaim" her in exchange for his own freedom.
The Chalice -- named aptly after the organization that had built up Athanasius's power to become a god -- was the entity forced into Reed, essentially fitting two souls within one body. Chalice held the combined stolen power of several Greek gods, and the entity believed itself to be no more than a weapon whose sole purpose was to serve Athanasius. Though Chalice has since been suppressed, it still sometimes breaks through, in times of extreme rage or even fear.
tl;dr Biography
Born on Mt. Olympus. Was a rapebaby. Her dad decided not to kill her so he could use her for his plans to become a god. He brutally abused her for 200 years, physically and sexually, and nobody outside his little cult knew she existed. Eventually a good guy found out she did, and he busted her out and took her to Paragon. Her life seriously sucks but at least you can't complain she's irrationally a bitch. XD
Personality
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Reed is an extremely closed-off individual. Slow to trust anyone, she does not go out of her way to make friends or be especially social; however, those she does closely befriend she trusts with her life and holds very dear, even though she doesn't always show it. Quick-witted, Reed is especially snide and sarcastic with strangers, always on guard and defensive with an overlying belief that while there is good in everyone, there is also bad in everyone as well, without exception. The satyph does not particularly care for people who can't take a joke -- though she mocks and insults others often, it is not commonly meant seriously -- nor does she care for impulsiveness, general idiocy, arrogance or promiscuity. Typically, the girl maintains a very harsh demeanor: untrusting, unfriendly, bitter and private.
However, some of her outward behavior is a forced facade, maintained as a sort of defense mechanism. Though her bitterness is legitimate, Reed is a tragically lonely soul; thinking herself both dangerous and unworthy to know, she pushes people away to keep her own independence and freedom, and has a paralyzing phobia of letting people get too close to her both emotionally and physically, as well as a phobia of being left behind or of abandonment. She tells very few people her past, and even fewer the harsher details of it. Despite finding a great peace amongst nature and the raw earth, the girl does not understand love or similar sentimentality in the least, and is especially bitter on subjects of sex and the like due to her past; she is extremely touchy when it comes to people helping her, and prefers to do everything herself so as not to burden or otherwise endanger those around her or those she loves. Though rough around the edges, she has a good sense of justice, and is for the most part out for the good of people, even if her motives are sometimes questionable. Reed has little to no self-esteem and sees herself as exceptionally unattractive; her self-confidence, however, seems to spring from an unknown source as it is somewhat abundant. Rare to cry yet quick to temper, Reed is an absolute roller coaster of emotions, constantly masked by her masquerade of social indifference and altogether dislike for everything surrounding her.
Appearance
Thanks to her dryad (forest nymph) blood, Reed maintains control over most plant and earth life -- yet she finds herself completely unable to permanently dispel the leafy vines that crawl up her arms and sprout straight from her skin. She is, however, able to grow and retract these vines at will, and commonly extends them enough to encase her hands and grow long, thick "whips" to be used in combat. Her nymph blood also lends Reed a somewhat otherworldly gaze; her eyes are a phenomenally light green, their color nearly glowing from the magic within her blood even despite her typical scowl.
As her nymph genetics center on trees and other plant, it should come as no surprise that Reed is both fairly tall and sports a rather extravagant shade of green for her natural hair color. Cut with straight bangs and drifting no longer than her shoulders, her hair matches the leaves on her arms at all times -- and depending on the time of year, both change hue completely thanks to her nymph blood's correlation with trees. From mid-August through November, her colors shift to a medium orange, while December through late February bleach orange to a bright white. Reed remains green for the spring through summer.
As far as clothing goes, it appears Reed has a relatively small wardrobe. She is most commonly seen sporting some sort of black tank and a maroon, sleeveless coat over it, as well as a pair of black, leather pants. Her decision to dress very "rogue-ish" is unclear, as she does not care for the earth monetary system nor does she dress to impress. For obvious reasons, Reed cannot wear shoes, hats nor gloves, and never wears "feminine" fashion or accessories such as jewelry, make-up or fancy haircuts and the like.
Fly Trap: Vesalius ("Bill")
However, over time the fly trap and satyph have joined forces and forged an actual friendship, though Bill acts less as a pet and more as a comrade or partner. The fly trap tends to snap at strangers or any that touch it, while becoming incredibly affectionate with the specific few close to Reed herself. Bill never seems to satiate his hunger, and often lunges after small prey at random, including and ranging anywhere from small animals even to fairly short people. He does not seem to be the most intelligent of creatures, though it's fairly obvious he does understand English, and can tell when he is being insulted.
