Laina Corners - String Theory: Aftermath

Name	Laina Corners	Aliases
Status	Registered Evolved (Tier 0)	Ability	Color Manipulation

Gender	Female	Race/Eth.	Caucasian
Birthdate	April 12, 1981	Age	29

Height	5'8"	Build	Medium build
Eyes	Violet (naturally blue)	Hair	Naturally blonde (changes regularly)

Residence	Siann Hall, Magnes' roommate
Employment	Waitress at Oh So Sweet

Parents

MaryAnne and Walter Corners

Siblings

Brother (unmanifested)

Marital Status

Single (was engaged, but the engagement was broken in 2007)

Children

None

First Seen

Comedy (Stage) Gold

Last Seen

Profile

Laina is a cheerful and outgoing girl. She loves her ability to change the colors of objects, and she has a generally pro-Evolved view of the world. She has no compunctions about using her powers to help herself, and she can be a bit of a practical joker, but she wouldn't knowingly hurt anyone. She has violet eyes and usually dresses in bright colors.

portrayed by

Yvonne Strahovski

Laina Corners, daughter of MaryAnne and Walter Corners, grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. She had a happy childhood, and was a happy child. People on the street would compliment her parents on her enthusiasm and lust for life. She did well in school, routinely finding herself on the honor roll, and she graduated high school near the top of her class. She loved getting involved in all of the after school clubs and committees.

Laina attended the nearby state school for her undergraduate education. She lived on campus, but visited her parents and younger brother on most weekends. Once again, she was involved in numerous clubs and organizations, including a sorority. She graduated in four years with a degree in Art History.

After graduation, Laina lived at home, and got a job at the paint your own pottery store in the local mall. She loved helping bring out the children's creativity, as well as playing with the paints after hours. And everyone loved her. After six months, she was promoted to assistant manager. She made store manager after a year.

It was a little over a year after her promotion when she met Charles. They got set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, and hit it off right away. In August 2006, on the one year anniversary of their first date, Charles proposed. There was a romantic picnic in the sunshine with all of Laina's favorite foods, and the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She said yes. It was the happiest day of her life.

They moved in together soon after and things were great for a few months. Then Laina started noticing strange things. Strange colored blotches, spots, and even handprints on her clothing, their bedsheets, even the walls of their apartment. Red, blue, purple, yellow. At first she thought it was just paint that she'd failed to wash off her hands at work. But, when she looked closer, she realized it wasn't paint at all. The objects had simply changed color. No amount of laundering would fix it. She soon discovered that she was the cause. And once she'd made this discovery, she couldn't help but play with it. She learned some control over her ability through trial and error (a lot of very colorful errors). During this time, her eyes subtly changed from light blue to a very distinct shade of lilac. No amount of concentration could change them back. Laina didn't mind, she thought it looked cool.

And, seeing how she loved him and wanted to share her life with him, she showed Charles what she could do. He was … less enthusiastic than she was about her new gifts. He urged caution. If people found out about her abilities, they'd lock her up and experiment on her. She insisted on telling her parents, but agreed not to tell anyone else, for the time being. Her parents were concerned about what was happening to their daughter, but knew they had to let her make her own decisions.

Laina didn't know anyone killed in the bomb, but she mourned with the rest of the country for those lost. It was a tragic day for everyone. The violence after Nathan Petrelli's announcement in February 2007, however, reached even those in Utah. Charles used the mayhem of those months as an example to show what could happen if Laina didn't stay quiet about what she could do. Laina didn't realize it, but her resentment was growing.

When the Linderman Act was passed, Laina was one of the first to step up and Register. The day she came home with her Registration Card was the biggest fight she and Charles ever had. And the last. He said things about how Laina wasn't considering the family they hoped to build together. How her actions were rash and selfish and thoughtless. She said things about how Charles could never understand her. How this was who she was and she wasn't going to hide it any longer. She felt stifled in their relationship, and maybe he did too. Why else had it been nearly a year since he proposed and they still hadn't set a date for the wedding? She told him it wasn't working and threw her engagement ring onto the bed.

Laina spent the next few weeks at her parents house, trying to gain some comfort from her old surroundings, and doing a lot of crying. She refused to take Charles' calls. She also did a lot of thinking. She didn't want to hide who she was, how she could express herself. One day, she came home from work with a bus ticket, one way, to Los Angeles. She told her parents she wanted to show the world what she could do. She left the very next day, carrying nothing but a duffel.

Her parents told themselves it was just a phase, a reaction to what had happened with Charles, and that she'd be home soon. But the years passed. They got postcards and phonecalls from LA, Chicago, Boston, Houston, and more cities from all across the US. But they didn't see their daughter.

As for Laina, she went from city to city, finding work where she could, mostly waitressing. At first, she showcased her powers for all to see. Her hair would be purple one day, fuscia the next, and black the day after that. Her clothes would change color, sometimes by the hour. But, eventually, she got bored with the overly flamboyant behavior and calmed down a bit with the changes. In early February 2011, Laina decided it was time to move on, once more. This time, she was heading to New York City. She was tired of the quiet life. New York seemed like a place where things happened. And, while she had managed to make a decent life for herself, despite, or perhaps because of being openly Evolved, she wanted to help others who weren't so confident, or so lucky. She'd heard rumors that there were groups based in New York City that helped those Evolved who were less fortunate, and she wanted to do her part. She was willing to face the warzone to do what she believed was right.

Laina has the ability to change the color of objects. She can affect solids, liquids, foams, and gasses. The effect of her power does not change the molecular makeup or structure of an object, is not toxic, and it does not add additional texture, weight, or mass. The change is permanent. She can only create one color at a time, though she can switch between colors quickly. This ability works in one of two ways: "fingerpainting" or "whitewashing". The color can extrude from any area of Laina's skin, but for the sake of simplicity in this description, I'm going to say "hands".

Solids: When "fingerpainting", Laina can use her hands to draw pictures, make handprints, make designs, write words, anything she can think of, on any solid surface. When "whitewashing", Laina can touch a surface and cause color to spread from the point of contact outward, at the rate of 1 square foot per second. If you assume she's covering all four walls, floor, and ceiling, she would be able to "paint" a 10'x10'x10' room in approximately 10 minutes. The pool of color is bordered by either color or material, depending on Laina's focus. If she were "painting" a brick wall, for instance, she could either color one brick at a time, or all of the morter with a single touch (the color would spread along the lines between the bricks). If she were "painting" a dress of pink pokadots on a purple background, she could either color the whole dress to a single color (all cloth) or change the entire purple background to green (all one color). She could not, however, change all of the pokadots with one touch, as they're not connected to each other; she would have to touch each one separately. When Laina "paints" a solid object, only the surface layer changes color. If she colors a red brick purple, a person who chipped away past the first layer with a chisel would again see red brick. If this brick were on a building, eventually the elements would weather away the outer, colored layer. If she colors human skin (her own or someone else's), the color would last until the top layer of skin cells fell off naturally (about a week), or until someone scrubbed at the area hard enough to remove the top layer of skin cells (but that would hurt and the skin would be raw and tender). Note, she is not actually painting objects; the actual material of the object itself changes color rather than there being a coating over it. So, skin, brick, cloth … they would still feel and react as normal, as though they had always naturally been that color. The change does not harm the surface in any way. Someone could, however, hide the new color with a coat of paint (for brick), or bleach (for cloth), or makeup (for skin).

Liquids and Foams: It is not possible for Laina to "fingerpaint" in liquid or foam. If Laina attempts to "whitewash" liquid, it appears as though she were squirting food coloring from her hand, and the liquid will take on the new color at a rate of 1 cup per second. Laina can also "whitewash" foam by sticking her finger into the foam, again at 1 cup per second.

In both solids and liquids, it is more difficult for Laina to obtain a deep color on a translucent surface. The more opaque a surface is, the easier a time Laina has "painting" it. For instance, she could stick her finger into a cup of milk and almost instantly turn it bright green. If she stuck her finger into that same amount of water, it would take a lot longer to become the same shade (like with food coloring). She could "paint" a square foot of stone wall very quickly, but to get a square foot of glass that same shade would take a lot longer. It's easy, however, for her to simply tint water or glass, rather than attempt a bright, color. Laina can not actually turn a translucent object opaque, however if she spends a lot of time getting a very bright color, it will end up being harder to see through than it was at the start.

Gasses: It is not possible for Laina to "fingerpaint" in a gas. Attempting to "whitewash" diffuse gasses, such as the air, would have little effect. The viewer would simply see a small puff of color around Laina's hand that quickly diffused and faded away. If Laina attempted to "whitewash" a thicker gas, such as smoke from a fire, or heavy fog, she could do at a rate of 1 cubic foot per second. Laina could also hold her hands above a fire (say, a campfire) and "paint" the smoke at it's source, allowing all the smoke that passes through her hands to obtain the desired tint.

Power interactions: If Laina attempts to "paint" a purple handprint onto someone who is invisible (say, she grabbed their arm as they were running away), it would appear at first that there was no effect. However, when the invisibility faded, the person would notice the purple handprint on their arm. Laina's power would work as normal, but it wouldn't counter the invisibility (she couldn't "paint" someone visible, as it's not like she's actually throwing paint on them). If she tried to "paint" that same purple handprint on a person who was under an illusion, it would work the same as with invisibility. It would appear that nothing had happened, and then the handprint would show up when the illusion was dropped. If she tried the same trick on someone with chameleon powers, it would depend on how their power worked. If they had it always on, it would almost instantly compensate for the new color and blend it back in with the background, only showing the handprint for a second before it disappeared. And, if part of their power was to permanently, or at least for as long as they wanted, change the color of their skin/hair/clothes, then the handprint would never surface again. If the chameleon power had to be activated to adjust or change, the handprint would stay until the chameleon focused to change it. If the chameleon had a base state that he always returned to, the handprint would be on his arm when he returned to that base state.

Artist

Laina is good with shapes and colors, but she's terrible at representational art. Despite her ability, and being an Art History major in college, she can barely manage more than stick figures. Be warned if you ever get on her team for Pictionary.

Laina met Magnes as a direct result of her using her abilities to turn the Gotham Comedy Club stage to gold. She is now renting a room in his house, and he is offering very helpful advice in her job search. She knows that he has the power to control gravity, and he was the first person to ever take her flying.

Date	Time	Event	People	Summary

	Laina met Samara while helping drag the drunk and mostly useless Brian out from the Gotham Comedy Club.
	Laina met Brian when he was very, very drunk.
	Laina met Harmony at Oh So Sweet dessert shop. She knows about Harmony's pregnancy, but not about her telepathy … or her name, for that matter.
	Brenda is Laina's boss at her job as a waitress at Oh So Sweet.
	Laina first met Elaine at Magnes' birthday party, but soon after they were shot at together outside a cafe across from the Columbia University campus.
	Laina first met Quinn at Magnes' birthday party, but soon after they were shot at together outside a cafe across from the Columbia University campus.
	Laina met Evan as they were being shot at together outside a cafe across from the Columbia University campus.
	Laina met Graeme as they were being shot at together outside a cafe across from the Columbia University campus.
	Laina met Sable at Magnes' birthday party.
	Laina met Delilah at Magnes' birthday party.
	Laina met Kendall briefly at Magnes' birthday party, but ran into him again at Raquelle's hair salon.
	Laina met Raquelle when she went into his hair salon for a haircut.
	Laina never really got to talk to Cardinal, but she liked what he had to say at the sheep demonstration in Battery Park.
	Laina met Remi at Magnes' birthday party, and ran into her again at Oh So Sweet.
	Laina's first encounter with Tahir was at Oh So Sweet, when he gave her a hundred dollar bill with his phone number on it as a tip. After offering her a sob story of how he'd just gotten dumped by his girlfriend.

Date	Time	Event	People	Summary
2/26	Evening	Comedy (Stage) Gold	Laina, Brian, Samara, Magnes, Yana, Ygraine, Quinn	A charity comedy set is not the most routine and borders on irreverent, and there's a bit of unexpected indoor redesign for the comedy club hosting the event.
2/26	Evening	Sam, where's my car?	Laina, Brian, Samara	Laina helps Samara get a very drunk Brian out of the Gotham Comedy Club and to their car.
2/27	Mid Morning	Eeek! A girl!	Laina, Magnes	Magnes and Laina meet, and Magnes invites her to room with him.
2/27	Early Afternoon	Roomies!	Laina, Magnes	Laina gets her first look at her new place.
2/27	Evening	Dinner for two, followed by dessert	Laina, Magnes	Magnes and Laina share a home cooked meal on Laina's first night in Magnes' apartment. And after that the fun begins.
2/28	Early Afternoon	Careers, Cravings, and Creme Brulee	Laina, Brenda, Harmony, Warren	Laina applies for a job at Oh So Sweet, and meets the pregnant Harmony.
2/28	Evening	Enter Barovia	Laina, Magnes, Elaine, Delilah, Remi, Kendall, Quinn Sable	Laina stumbles into the midst of Magnes' D&D birthday party, and meets some of his friends.

Date	Time	Event	People	Summary
3/1	Early Afternoon	Blood and Glass	Laina, Elaine, Evan, Graeme, Ingrid, Nicole, Quinn	Gunshots ring out, interrupting a quiet afternoon.
3/3	Afternoon	Hair Dos and Don'ts	Laina, Kendall, Raquelle	Laina goes to get a haircut and is met with a surprise.
3/7	Afternoon	That's What I'll Take From This	Laina, Cardinal, Raquelle	The purpose behind the sheep in Battery Park is explained.
3/8	Night	I'm Tense and Miserable, what's your name?	Laina, Magnes	Laina and Magnes have a roommate chat, but it ends with Magnes retreating to his room, feeling miserable and tense.
3/9	Evening	Helluva First Day	Laina, Hortense, Jaiden, Remi, Tahir	Laina's first day as the newest waitress at Oh So Sweet.
3/10	Early Afternoon	It's a plan, not a date	Laina, Tahir	Laina and Tahir make a plan to meet up Friday night.

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