Registry of the Evolved Database
File #14 Jan 2009 17:35
|
 Tracy Chapman |
Anne was born and raised in a suburb to Denver, together with her two older brothers. She was the youngest, and as such a little bit spoiled, perhaps. But growing up with two older brother has downsides, too, and she learned quickly that if she wanted to win an argument, tears wouldn't do her any good. Wrestling was the way to go! Even if you didn't win, then, at least you'd shown Mike or Joseph that you meant buissness about the whole thing.
Mike, or Michael as his proper name is, showed a good deal of interest in sports, much to their father's joy. Joseph on the other hand saw his strengths bloom out in mathmatics and the sciences, while Anne wasn't perticularly interested in either of these things. In fact, she didn't have much by way of hobbies or interests at all until she was introduced to the joys of playing music through a project in school. She got to play the piano together with an old retired teacher, and he told her parents that their little girl had real talent. She should be encouraged. Buying a piano, however, was more of an expense than they could afford.
The compromise, in the end, was that Anne could start taking flute lessons at the age of ten.
First she did so once a week, practising diligently, but as she grew older and more and more skilled music took up more and more of her time. She played under a teacher, she played in orchestras, she took as many music lessons as she could in school, and when it became time for her to choose her college education, she took a risk and studied music there as well. It wouldn't lead to as safe a life as another education might have, but she had long since decided that this was what she wanted to work with. And that was that.
At the university she continued with her flute studies, of course, but what might have been more important were the studies in music theory and secondary instruments. Everyone was required to play basic piano, and she took up basic guitar as well to complement the skills she already had. Her thought here was that if all else failed, these skills would be very helpful if she picked up teaching music.
However, the first year Anne studied at the university, things happened that she hadn't quite expected. At all. In fact, it was more like something out of one of her brothers' comic books. It was an accident, the first time. She was running late home from work and was a little worried about the neighbourhood she was walking through, wishing she was home already, when a cat tipped over the lid on a garbage can. There was no danger in reality, but she jumped with fright and landed in her own apartment. In her own bed, in fact.
Clearly, something there wasn't right.
At first she thought she'd just imagined the whole thing, and when similar accidents had happened a few more times she started to wonder if she might've gone insane. It seemed a viable alternative as people couldn't just.. disappear from one place and reappear someplace else. This wasn't, after all, an episode of star trek. She focused on her music and tried to ignore it, but finally the accidents became too much for her to sweep under a rug, and she had to accept a truth she immediately decided not to tell anyone. She could teleport. But then, who'd believe her anyway?
For the longest time Anne only broke this rule of not telling anyone once. She told her fiance, when they were nine months away from getting married. He thought she was joking, first. Stared when she proved it, and then stared some more. But once the shock died down, he thought it was pretty cool, though he agreed it should be a secret. They lived their life in peace, she became semi famous for her work, and they moved to New York as she joined a well respected orchestra there. They had two healthy children.
Then came the bomb, and with it Anne got a name for what she was. 'Evolved'.
Living in New York got tough, to say the least, and the skills she had no longer really helped too much with getting food on the table. Thankfully, they didn't live in any of the worst affected neighbourhoods, but things were pretty bad for a long while, none the less. Anne cheated a bit, using her ability to get them food from other parts of the country, but it was a nervous time none the less. Instead of getting better, however, it got worse.
One day, the family was assaulted by a gang of people who thought Jeremy, Anne's husband, was Evolved. It was a violent assault, brutal, and their oldest son William was killed by accident. Jeremy almost died as well, and wouldn't have made it if Anne hadn't managed to get ahold of both him and their daugther, and teleported them all out of there. The group thought they'd found their man, but that he'd gotten away. The grief of a child lost went beyond words, and on top of that Anne found herself faced with a husband who didn't want to stay with her any longer. In fact, he wished to take their daughter and leave. It wasn't safe for either of them to stay, anymore. Anne agreed on one point, it would be safer for their daughter to be with him, if he left town.
The Ferrymen found Anne and her family, and with their aid Jeremy and the little baby girl were transported out of the city, and perhaps more importantly, given new identities. The first Anne could have done on her own, but the second was the more critical thing, in her opinion. And with that, she'd lost all she loved most in the world, both her children and her husband, because people hated what they did not understand.
A few months have passed, and while Anne hasn't quite figured out how she's going to go about doing it, she has her new goals clear. There have been many different struggles for equal rights over the years. Between the sexes, between colors of skin, and between countries. Now, there needs to be an equality between the evolved and the rest of the world, otherwise it might be her little girl they come after next.
The core of Anne's personality and behaviour can be found where her family lives, and then especially her children. The death of her son has left a big hole in her heart, and while it has been some time since he died now, she still thinks about him every day. Her daughter is out there somewhere in the world, and might possibly carry the Evolved gene. For her, Anne wants to be the best mother she can, even if she wont be seeing her child for a long time. If ever. She's caring, but can be manipulative if she thinks she has to, and once her long fuse has finally burned to the end her temper flares bright and hot. If she holds a grudge or not depends entirely on the nature of the offense and how the other reacted to her anger.
Teleportation
The basis of Anne's Evolved power is the ability to move from one place to another without actually crossing the intervening space. The actual physics of how she does this is beyond her, but she knows it works. It's something she's been able to do for close to ten years, now, and she's quite accustomed to its quirks. Distance wise, Anne could jump about 50 kilometers in one jump in the extreme. This is if she's alone, isn't carrying too much heavy stuff, and isn't too tired. She'd be able to keep it up longer, though, if she made some stops in the middle, making smaller jumps instead of just one large one. When Anne jumps there's a slight flickering in the air followed by a pop as the air rushes in to fill the empty spot.
Flickering
Anne isn't much of a fighter, but if she's in trouble but feels that she needs to stay around for some reason she can kind of flicker in and out, and about, in her current location. What she's doing then is very rapidly moving from one spot to the other in and around the given area, which means that the moment someone's trying to punch her face she might just not be there. Of course, if she /is/ there it's going to hurt like a bitch.
Passengers
Anne can take passangers with her when she teleports, though it reduces the distance she can travel. Perhaps more surprisingly it also increases the time it takes for her and her passangers to dematerialize. This means that while she can get herself out in a blink, it'll take two or three seconds to get a passanger out (depending on their weight). For three people, she needs a good ten seconds, and if she's trying to joink four along that number goes up to thirty. At this level, though, things start to get more complicated in other matters as well. Her aim gets worse, and she basically strains her teleporting muscle. It hurts, bad. She has never attempted to bring more than four people with her.
Moreover, if Anne is seriously injured while attempting to teleport passangers, and this happens at the wrong moment, she runs the risk of 'losing' them before the teleport is complete. This means they'll have some bits of them in the starting spot, and some in the end location. Need I say more?
Problems
Even if Anne has been doing this for a long time now, she's never quite gotten past the random activation of her ability when she's too surprised. If she knows a scary thing is coming, she can stay put, but sudden surprises can have her flickering out of view. Needless to say, this can cause problems in a city where Evolved people get beaten with sticks sometimes.
Appendices
Skills
Education
Anne has gone through both regular high school, with decent to good grades in most things (excellent grades in music), as well as a five year long musical education at the university level. The latter education included instrumental lessons, music theory, singing, leading a choir and other such things. She excels at what she does, and in other matters she's about as good as your average music nerd.
Music
Anne is /very/ good at this. She's been playing the flute since she was ten, nursing a serious talent. Before the bomb she played in one of New York's best orchestras, and she's done a bit of solo work as well. She can play the guitar and the piano enough to handle say, accompanying someone singing. On the piano she can play pieces that aren't too difficult, as well. She knows how to lead a choir, music theory, the works.
Cooking
Anne is no chef, but she used to cook for her family. She knows what goes where well enough to make good food.
Body and Mind
Anne is in decent shape, and is healthy to body and mind. She's no athlete, though, but she takes her daily jogs. Mindwise, she's pretty much in the standard range of things, with the exception of her spatial awareness. Due to her frequent practise with her teleporting skills, she's got this one down pat.
First Aid
Anne knows basic first aid, as well as CPR. She and her husband took the classes when they were going to have their first child, and she's kept up with the know-how.
&SKILLS6 me=Languages - Anne has English as her native language, and speaks conversational french, as she took it in school. Don't ask her to start spelling the latter, though. Disaster!
Geography
While your basic education involves a little bit of geography, Anne has had good reasons to study these things a little bit extra. It doesn't matter how good you are at teleporting if you don't know where you're going. She's pretty good at it when it comes to American geography, but where she really rocks out is New York. You want to know where anything is, and about how far away? Ask Anne.
Relationships
Timeline
| January | Title | Summary |
| 11th | Your Mission | …if you choose to accept it, could be impossible. |
| December | Title | Summary |
| 18th | To Make an Omelette | An impromptu gathering takes four people from two degrees of separation to none all around, courtesy of a market, a quest for eggs, and a uniform. |
| 19th | Free Information | Grace and Anne talk about the latter joining the Ferrymen. |
| 21st | Volunteering | Anne and Ben show up to volunteer at the soup kitchen. Grace helps with the conversation. |
| 27th | Welcome Help | Phoenix is popular. |
| 28th | Hatching Dawn | In the smaller hours of morning, one baby Phoenix emerges into the clumsy care of one co-leader, and finds a familiar face in the ranks. They discuss a former Evolved high school student who landed himself in jail, The Ferry, super powers, Registration, Teo's lack of boobies, and related topics like that. |
Trivia and Notes
- Former member of Manhattan's philharmonic orchestra. If your character is of a reasonably privileged or artistically-inclined demographic, they may have heard of her or come to see her play.