Opal Mind
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
"Opal Mind" is a nod to the world of heroines with mental powers: Saturn Girl, Marvel Girl/Phoenix, James Schmitt's Telzey, etc..
Empathy
Flight & Teleportation
Contents |
Character History
A descendant of Elizabeth I’s astrologer John Dee, Marian Seabrook was born Dec. 25, 1984, into Coven Manesse, one of the witch-associations of Croatoa, the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter. Unfortunately, despite such portents, all tests ruled out any vestige of magical ability in Marian. Nonetheless, she was attracted to the study of magic and learned all she could about its theory, even though she could not practice magic with her classmates.
When she was 11, however, her parents were killed in yet another attempt to prevent Croatoa from being pulled into the Red Cap’s dimension. Needing to place the orphaned girl with an appropriate guardian, the coven and Marian’s sisters agreed to have her fostered to Amy Douglas, sister-in-law of Marian’s eldest sister Aether. So the girl moved away to Natick, Mass., where, it was assumed, she would easily adapt to “normal life” and forget about being a witch's child. This she seemingly did, winning a scholarship to Princeton, majoring there in Art and Library Sciences. She did research for her masters in Istanbul (Constantinople) and Dublin. (She was, however, a gawky, too-tall wall flower at the Debutante Ball in Natick, when her age group was “presented to Society.”)
In 2007, Marian moved back to Paragon City and found employment with the chain of magic-item stores, Pandora’s Box, once again taking up studies on the theories of magic. However, a violent encounter between the CoT and the dark mercenary Obsidian Hand rolled through the Pandora’s Box in Steel Canyon where Marian was working. The girl, trapped under a toppled bookcase-specimen case, saw her boss blown apart by a CoT mage, his blood and the shards of magical gems and crystals on which he had been working showered upon her. Her shout alerted the vigilante before a heavy crystal ball fell towards him. Smashing on the ground, those shards too cut into the prone librarian.
Having defeated the Circle magi, Obsidian Hand turned his blood lust towards the remaining living person in the room. Somehow Marian found that all the conjoined ruined magics had endowed her with the magical alignment that birth had not. This new-found magical empathy calmed the anti-hero who freed her before he ran from the advancing police sirens.
Obsidian Hand has not been reported since in Paragon City.
Contacts
During her employment with Pandora's Box, Marian was a neighbor of Elizabeth Ross and learned she was the heroine Liberty Rose during the former's unfortunate contretemps with the deluded hero Gods Speed now known as Gods- Speed. Thus she came to be an indirect consultant for The Justiciars for a short while.
In January 2009, Opal Mind became a member of the Hyperion Force. However, as the Red Cap assault on Croatoa intensified, the magical heroine found herself called back more and more often to aid in the protection of her birthplace. Gradually she became convinced that this made her less than useful as a regular member of the HF and retired from their ranks to become a reservist, in order to make room for more regularly available heroes. Her contact number is still on tap with the HF if ever they need her specialized skills.
In September 2009, Opal Mind was contacted by Dr. Sebastian King to conduct an unofficial magical investigation into the continuing memory losses of Global Defender Medikka. With the help of Ruby Raptor, Opal infiltrated the Global Defenders in order to make her access to the amnesiac heroine seem circumstantial rather than planned. Her membership there, however, was deliberately only temporary.
In her civilian ID, Marian Seabrook works as a research librarian at the University at Salamanca, where she sometimes assists Prof. Greg Holmes of the Thessaly Coven, father to the youthful heroine Wychery of The Adventurists.
Currently, Opal Mind uses the Tavern on the Edge as her base of operations, making herself available to any super hero group requiring an expert on Mind Magic.
Known superhuman powers
Marian Seabrook is a novice mage, specializing in “mind magic” spells, currently being able to convince enemies that they see one of their comrades as her, or that they are blind, or that they do not see her at all. She can also convince an ally’s mind to accept magical spells of consanguinity, allowing her to heal him. She is working on other spells, including flight, but has not mastered such yet. She has been surprised and interested to learn that her Mind Magics seem to affect things that are only marginally considered “minds”, such as computer A.I.s.
Limitations
- Uses gestures to activate her mental powers.
- Her magic operates under the Law of Conservation of Energy. All magical energy is converted from mass or other energy; in the absence of other sources, Opal Mind must draw on her own body's energies.
Other skills
Ms Seabrook has a Masters in Library Science and is an experienced researcher into magic in its many forms and origins, with a solid understanding of magic theory. She has worked with M.A.G.I. and various other professors at the University at Salamanca as a consultant in magic theory.
In addition, Marian has a degree in Art History and is a non-professional sketch artist and gouache painter.
Costumes
- Opal Mind wears an opalescent cat suit, with fanciful mother-of-pearl pauldrons and a belt featuring a larger-than-life mystic opal given to her by the coven and by which means she can communicate with coven members when in a state of meditation.
Misc.
Obsidian Hand is a character run by Major Victorious' player. Unknown to anyone save himself, Obsidian Hand believes that, while his first encounter with Ms Seabrook looked like a CoT attack on him, it was entirely possible that it was a CoT attempt to kidnap a 7th daughter of a 7th daughter – which he thwarted. He himself had been sent by a not-yet-revealed source to collect a sample of Marian’s blood by any means available. He had had every intention of killing her if necessary.
| Liberty Rose's Characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Primals | Heroes
| Afire • Bee Muse • Bright Lady • Ceiba • Coronal Light • Dee Nova • Detective Sanders • Dora Daring • Flitterby • Ghost Wife • Gravity Anomaly • Lady Aid • Lady in Green • Liberty Rose • Medikka • Oceanid • Opal Mind • Psilencer 7 • Sandcast • Sea Maiden • Stellar Beacon • Tesla Teen • Timelass • Web Woman |
 Villains
| Accountant • Mind's Psi • Weyrling | |
 Rogues
| Radiation Rose | |
 Vigilantes
| Korythalia • Mind Dance • Nocturne Falcon | |
| Praetorians |  Loyalist
| Bleeding Lily • Wychery |
 Resistance
| Snik | |
