Amy Embers
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Contents
History
Amy was born in 1983. Six months later, her father heard a knock at the door and opened it to find her abandoned on his doorstep with a note reading “She’s yours, you asshole.” As an unmarried soldier whose one-night stand had gone horribly wrong, he decided the best thing to do would be to ask his mother, Agatha, to care for her. Since she had always wanted a daughter, she readily agreed. Agatha was once a powerful sorceress and master of storm magic, and she began teaching Amy at a very early age, though Amy quickly showed more of an affinity for fire rather than wind and rain.
In December of 1990, her father, hardly a presence to begin with, was killed in the Gulf War. This affected Amy’s life only insofar as it affected her grandmother’s. Lost in grieving, Agatha began to neglect Amy’s magical studies and, to a lesser extent, Amy herself. Her home-schooled education came to a screeching halt. Since the only time she saw other people was when her grandmother took her grocery shopping, she became extremely introverted. And because Agatha no longer cared for much besides watching TV, Amy went on a diet of candy and junk food.
Agatha might have snapped out of it given time (she reacted poorly when her husband died, as well), but in 1991, she suffered a stroke. Amy was placed in foster care, the first time in her life that her glowing eyes were an issue. She lived in the home with three boys, one of whom bullied her relentlessly. The house parents could never have been called abusive, but it was a small town and they had their own prejudices. Amy was a mutant for all intents and purposes, and was outcast accordingly. Her physical needs were met, her nutrition corrected, but she was frowned on if she took her sunglasses off in public.
In 1993, she was moved to a more friendly atmosphere, where she finally found out that her grandmother had been dead for almost a year. Her previous house parents had been told, but had never cared enough to break the news. In 1994, her new caretakers had their own baby, and she was moved a third and final time, this time into Kansas City. Once again, her house parents were distant and cold, and she took to wearing her sunglasses (a habit she had been discouraged from in the last home) once again. The children of her hometown had been cruel, but the preteens in her new school were practically abusive. She learned little more than that she was a useless freak, and responded by keeping her head down and running at the first sign of trouble, even if she was in the middle of a class. High school was little better.
Cast out of the foster system at 18, she took what little money she had and hitchhiked to the east coast, where she moved into a cheap motel until she could scrape up enough money for an apartment. For seven years, she worked at Wal-Mart and occasionally used her mystic skills to read fortunes at a little occult shop. She spent her free time watching TV and reading checkout stand romance novels.
There was no big event that inspired her, no news broadcast that made her think, no masked man who saved her from a mugger. There were superheroes in the city, but they never really affected her. She was just watching the Hallmark Channel late one night and, in between sniffles into a Kleenex, realized that she was 25 years old and had nothing to show for it. She wanted to do something worthwhile, something to help people. Her hero "uniform" turned out to be whatever she found in the closet and a handkerchief around her face; she eventually left out the handkerchief when she realized it wasn't fooling anyone. She learned that she wasn't really a mutant, that her glowing eyes were the result of the magic power inside her.
In time, more heroes moved into her city, and it grew too crowded for her. She wanted to go somewhere where she would be helpful. She went to Millennium City.
Personality
Amy is cowardly, but willful. Though she’s terrified of being hurt or killed by the thugs she fights, years of being told she was useless have given her a need to prove them all wrong, even if she’s the only one who knows it.
On the other hand, those same years have also made her a socially maladjusted introvert who spends most her time daydreaming or reading trashy romance novels. She smiles and laughs quite a lot because that’s her response to nervousness. “Look happy,” she thinks, “look normal, and they won’t know there’s anything wrong.” She blushes and stammers whenever her customers try to talk to her. She ignores her coworkers whenever possible and hurries to get away from them whenever it’s not.
Anonymity doesn’t change her much, though she does loosen up a bit in less dangerous situations. However, she still has to be prompted to speak and only does so in short sentences.
Abilities
- - Magical fire and flight
- - Can give a pretty accurate fortune
- - Can remain fairly upbeat around the worst customers, and even resist the urge to light their hair on fire
- - Can raise her body temperature, making her immune to most cold weather conditions
- - Can raise the temperature of the air around her
Weaknesses
- - Is easily overwhelmed when working alone
