Fuchsia the Blind
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(( OOC notice: To the public at large, Felicia Barnsworth and Fuchsia the Blind are two entirely different people. While some observant folks may notice a connection between the blind brunette attending Millennium City University and the blind superhero, Fuchsia's secret identity is just that: a secret. Please do not use the information on this page in character unless you have an in-character reason for knowing it. ))
Fuchsia the Blind, born Felicia Barnsworth, is a relatively new face to the hero scene and Millennium City. Though she was born completely blind, she has the ability to sense and manipulate energy, allowing her to blast her foes or heal her allies. On the surface, she is a focused and reserved individual, but what lurks beneath...?
Contents
Physiology
Felicia stands about 5'6" and possesses light skin, brown hair, and light blue eyes. There is nothing particularly unique or noteworthy about her physique, and there is nothing to indicate that she is anything more than a regular human. She never seems to look directly at anybody or anything, and she will often reach out to feel her surroundings.
Her Fuchsia the Blind costume is a pink and white full-body suit with the emblem of an eye printed on the chest. She also wears a pink mask, a belt with several pouches, and a pink cape with a white "starburst" emblem printed on the back. Her civilian outfits are usually very simple; her most common one is a simple T-shirt, blue jeans, and lace-less sneakers. When in her civilian clothes, she can sometimes be seen with a white cane.
Personality
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To most people, Fuchsia seems to be a straightforward, no-nonsense superhero with her mind on the task at hand. She tends to speak in a formal tone, especially to her superiors, and rarely displays any extremities in emotion. Her mind is a very logical one, and she carefully examines every facet of a situation before going into action. Beneath this aloof and almost cold personality is an energetic, somewhat emotional girl who actually thinks that being a superhero is the best thing ever. She chose to suppress this part of her personality when she merged with Shia, for both she and the alien believe that a good hero is one that doesn't let her emotions get in the way of what's important. There are times when Fuchsia's true colors will show for a few moments, but she usually tries to keep her energetic side under wraps.
Fuchsia's biggest pet peeve is being treated differently because of her blindness. She does not want people to change their speech on her account and is actually offended when people say "No offense" after comments such as "I see"—she will even use those kinds of phrases from time to time. She actually finds it flattering when people forget or don't realize that she is blind and will sometimes neglect to mention her handicap to test how long it takes people to notice. Outright discrimination is the best way to invoke her wrath.
Fuchsia is fascinated by anything or anyone that gives off a large amount of energy. She is particularly fond of plasma sculptures and dreams of being able to fly among the stars to feel their radiant energy.
History
Felicia Barnsworth was born somewhere in Rhode Island in 1993. Early in her infancy, her parents noticed that she never seemed to follow anything with her eyes and took her in for testing. The doctors confirmed that Felicia was entirely blind. Despite that, the first eighteen years of her life were typical of a non-powered young woman: she went to school, made friends, and even played a form of baseball for the visually impaired called beep baseball. It wasn't until after she graduated high school that she was visited by an extraterrestrial energy being who called "herself" (technically, the being was genderless, but it referred to itself as female) Shia. Shia desired to assist what she called "the troubled planet" but was limited in her ability to interact with the physical world. She offered to fuse with Felicia, granting the human woman the ability to sense and manipulate energy so that she could fight crime as a superhero.
Felicia was eager to accept this alien's offer and became the fledgling hero Fuchsia the Blind. She spent several months learning to use her new powers and heightening her remaining four senses. In the summer of 2012, she moved to Millennium City to continue her training. Eventually, she saw the need to join an organized group and went to UNTIL for recommendations. They directed her to the emerging Epsilon Squad, stating that a new face like her would do well on an up-and-coming super group.
When she's not out fighting crime, Felicia is attending classes at Millennium City University. She has not yet declared a major.
Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses
Fuchsia's primary powers are sensing and manipulating energy. She can detect a person's energy signature from anywhere around her and is able to tell if something is abnormal about that person that might change the "feel" of that energy; she can also use the ambient energy in the air to sense her surroundings. She is able to control how sensitive her energy sense is and is even able to shut it off completely, though this is mostly used when she is disguising her superhero identity. Even without this ability, her heightened senses caused by a lifetime of blindness allow her to interact with the world around her. Her energy manipulation allows her to fly, create balls of raw energy that she can hurl at her opponents, create energy shields to protect herself, transfer some of her own energy to her allies to heal them, collect energy from the area around her, and disturb the energy equilibrium of her opponents to daze or stun them.
Fuchsia makes up for her inability to read maps, compasses, etc. by having an excellent sense of direction. As long as she is oriented, she can tell which cardinal direction she is facing, and as long as she has been to a location at least once, she can easily find it again.
Due to her inexperience with her new powers and the fact that she and Shia are not fully merged, Fuchsia is unable to use her abilities to their fullest extent. Her energy senses are hindered by being unable to see through solid objects, including glass. Though she has built up some speed and endurance from playing beep baseball, she cannot take many physical hits or lift heavy objects without assistance from her powers. As her name indicates, Fuchsia is completely blind, and though she is able to use her energy and mundane senses to navigate, there are situations where her lack of sight serves as a severe disadvantage.
Concept and Creation
Fuchsia is the fourth incarnation of my blind characters who do awesome things in spite of their handicap. The first of these was Eisya Marsanya, an elf from the world of Mabinogi who was blessed with the ability to sense Mana. The second was Sahya Violetstorm, a night elf who was struck with blindness during the Third War. Unlike the other incarnations of this character, she had no special abilities to compensate for her lack of sight and relied on her heightened senses in her animal forms to navigate. The third was an alternate version of Fuchsia created in City of Heroes. All of these characters were heavily inspired by Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Fuchsia's design was heavily influence by "classic" superheroes: the tights, the cape, and the mask hiding her identity should be indicative of that. Her archetype was chosen because it was the closest I could get to her old powers as a 100% free player and may change in the future.
Trivia
- Fuchsia's birthday is April 6th, 1993
