[s]Oh boy I'm the only Aberration so far. I can feel special :P[/s] I wanted to do something a little different for History since I usually like to write a ton for bios. Since we're going for a smaller one I mixed it up a little, I hope it's fine that I'm not just going for a straight paragraph. [hider=Emma] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FaCtAeD.png[/img] [i][color=8A3DFF]"Just 'Em' is fine."[/color][/i] [img]https://i.imgur.com/tITs4iN.jpg[/img][/center] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝔸 π•˜ 𝕖 : [/h3][/color] [indent]17[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] ℍ 𝕖 π•š π•˜ 𝕙 π•₯ : [/h3][/color] [indent]5'4"[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] π•Ž 𝕖 π•š π•˜ 𝕙 π•₯ : [/h3][/color] [indent]140[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝔸 𝕑 𝕑 𝕖 𝕒 𝕣 𝕒 π•Ÿ 𝕔 𝕖 : [/h3][/color] [indent]Emma has the nigh constant image of a prim and proper young lady. Her look is well composed, she is typically smartly dressed, putting great care into her appearance, and it shows. On the surface she holds an air of jovial composure, a small smile can be found on her face in most situations, and it's quick to grow into a larger one. Those who are around her often will notice her occasionally nervous disposition. She has a tendency to fidget, often finding her leg bumping up and down of its own volition or playing with her hair absentmindedly. Despite how she may feel she is good at faking happiness. At worst she has been unable to speak for fear of no longer being able to hold in her emotions, but more often she can maintain her smile even when under the duress that she often is. Not even her closest friends see through this guise. Sure, she's had some weird moments, but how could the possibly assume there's anything more to them than a brief discomfort? It's not hard for others to assume it's merely her stigma acting up, and she would never confide the truth of herself to anyone else, or so she thinks. When in her lonesome the smile that can often be found on her face melts away into overwhelming apathy. Her stigma sets in without distraction and she often lets it get to her. When she thinks no one else is looking her mouth draws into a drooping line and sadness can be seen within her eyes.[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] β„™ 𝕖 𝕣 𝕀 𝕠 π•Ÿ 𝕒 𝕝 π•š π•₯ π•ͺ : [/h3][/color] [indent]A girl sits in the front of the class. A smile graces her face- it is a shy smile, seeming as if it wants to hide itself, and yet it is a beautiful smile all the same. She is surrounded by what can only be described as an entourage: A gaggle of friends, girls gossiping among themselves, joking, laughing, centered around the girl's desk- she is Emma Halwell. Beyond her friends she can feel the gaze of her male classmates- some stare at her, enthralled, and some secretly treasure her as nervous boys that can't talk to girls tend to do. She makes eye contact with one of them for but the briefest moment, but quickly looks away- a blush appears on her face as she nervously stokes her hair. Her friends look at the place where she had looked and turn back, giggling, whispering, insisting. She tells them to stop, but they do not and she does not protest further. She is not angry even though she thinks she should be. They're trying to push her onto the boy- she would mad but has long since stopped caring enough to argue. The bell rings and they all go quiet for a moment, and just then the thoughts that plague her return. Emma, to the outside worlds, appears the very image of a popular high school girl- she is personable, well liked, and positively cheery. Her peers would say she has a knack for making others feel comfortable in situations they are otherwise uncomfortable in. She's bubbly and sweet, quick to joke and even quicker to laugh. She has a strong moral compass and a good head, staying well clear of trouble but always willing to help her friends out of their own. She can appear shy, and at some times is, but has learned how to overcome it- even though her tendencies may betray her she has learned at the very least how to talk like she is comfortable. Despite many stereotyping her as a bit of an airhead, as people do when it comes to the popular girl, she is surprisingly intelligent, well able to handle and even excel with USARILN's advanced curriculum. This is all to say that you'd be hard pressed to find someone with something bad to say about Emma. All of this makes the fact that she is an Aberration all the more strange. Some have asked her why, as she appears to be the very image of an Arbiter. [i][color=8A3DFF]"Of course I would have liked to be an Arbiter, but I guess that just wasn't the way things shook out. I can't really claim to know Dreamcather's will, eh?"[/color][/i] She'll say with a shrug and a mournful smile. But that isn't really much of an answer, is it? Everyone knows that it's a Mage's own doing if they become Aberration. But people are usually polite enough to take that answer, either that or they simply do not want to pry further, or perhaps are just too beguiled by Emma's charms to challenge her. After all, it's rude to assume, is it not? No one can truly claim to know her dream, right? Maybe she was meant to become an Arbiter but merely took a wrong step on the road of life- we've all made bad decisions, haven't we? Perhaps it was just an unfortunate accident. They'd be wrong if they thought that. The truth, the real truth that Emma would rather people didn't know, is that she is a [i]bad[/i] person. She's gotten good at hiding how she feels about herself- in fact, she always has been, but there are thoughts that always flit around in the back of her mind that since become a mage have been amplified further by her stigma. She knows who she really is. she doesn't want to, but she does and her Stigma makes it all the worse. She knows that no matter how many friends she has, no matter how many people accept her, she'll never be able to accept herself. She has always felt worthless and lonely in spite of everything in her life telling her otherwise. [i][color=8A3DFF]"How pathetic is that? I can be surrounded by all these people that like me and still feel this way. Isn't that just sad? I'm so useless- I can have everything and still be so unbearably melodramatic. Why can't I just be happy?[/color][/i] She hates herself most of all because she hates herself. The mere act of self hatred is the ultimate sin in her eyes, because she knows that she should be happy. She should be normal, she has every right to be, but she is not. And that is what makes Emma so different from most Aberrations; she did not follow her path out of greed for riches or lust for power. She merely wished for happiness.[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] ℍ π•š 𝕀 π•₯ 𝕠 𝕣 π•ͺ : [/h3][/color] [indent]ℂ𝕒𝕀𝕖 π”½π•šπ•π•–: π”Όπ•žπ•žπ•’ ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕨𝕖𝕝𝕝 [i]I'd like to keep everyone posted on our new USARILN students. I've gone ahead and sent staff the relevant files, at least what I could, but I wanted to flag this one for you guys. Emma Halwell. Information is scarce to be frank (She's a new student after all, so we don't have much besides what was relevant to the capture mission) but from what I'm seeing we should keep on eye on her. She's a possible psych risk, so let's keep on top of this one- if there is a problem we need to take care of it.[/i] [hider=Message Log Collected from Subject's Computer] [i]Note: 'Mantam' has been identified as Emma. 'rabadash06' is one Vesper Halwell, Emma's sister. She moved out of town a while ago, so we don't have a lot on her.[/i] [5:15 PM] Mantam: Hey [5:17 PM] rabadash06: whaddup sista [5:17 PM] Mantam: About that thing I talked to you about on the phone... y'know how I told you I've been feeling weird? [5:17 PM] rabadash06: ofc [5:18 PM] Mantam: I think there's something going on. You remember all those news stories we always saw about subnaturals? [5:18 PM] rabadash06: ... where are you going with this? [5:18 PM] Mantam: I think it's really happening to me. [5:18 PM] rabadash06: dont kid around about something like that [5:18 PM] rabadash06: seriously [5:20 PM] Mantam: I'm not, I really mean it. I've been able to do this... thing... where I make these things... listen, I don't really know how to describe it but it's really happening. And there are these thoughts and I can't get them out of my head and they won't go away... and also that mark they have. You know how they say they have that streak or the X on them? I've got it. The X. I've been trying to hide it but someone will notice eventually... but it's really doing soemthing to my head... I think I'm going to do something bad if it keeps happening... I keep having these impulses that tell me i need to hurt myself, and i can't make them stop. [5:20 PM] rabadash06: okay just chill out i know this has gotta be scary. don't do anything drastic, please. can you just... call me? as soon as you can. we'll figure something out. [5:21 PM] Mantam: Okay I'm going to wait until mom and dad leave so they don't hear. Hey... do you think they'd send me away? To one of those research camps? [5:21 PM] rabadash06: no way, don't even think about that. just hold one until we're on the phone, okay? [5:24 PM] Mantam: Yeah, okay. [/hider] [hider=Call from Emma Halwell to Vesper Halwell] [i]Chronologically this phone call takes place about a week after the previous file, meaning this IS NOT the phone call referred to at the end of the message log. We've been unable to pull that one, I'll work on it, but we did manage to get the vocal log for this call from phone records- I went ahead and transcribed it to make it a little more readable for you guys. 'E' is Emma and 'V' is Vesper, if that wasn't obvious.[/i] V: Hello? [Several seconds pause. We can hear the Subject crying.] V: Em? You there? Hello? E: Ves? Ves? [Unintelligible] V: Em, slow down, okay? What's going on? I just got a call from mom and she was hysterical. E: I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't listen to you... [Subject is clearly distressed- her words are coming out as sobs.] V: What happened...? listen it isn't your fault, okay? Are you okay? Are you hurt? E: No, no, no, mom and dad... they stopped me but... I tried to do it... I did what they told me, the thoughts in my head, I thought maybe they would go away... but... but... V: It's okay, it's okay... just... don't do anything else, okay? I don't want you to get hurt... I know it's hard, I know, but you've gotta keep going, okay? E: Ves, I just want it to stop... no matter what... I really can't take it anymore. V: No, no, Em, you can't, okay? There are so many people that care about you. I love you so much, please, don't do anything crazy. Listen, I'm going to take the first flight back east that I can, okay? E: Okay, okay... V: And you're going to wait for me to get there, right? E: I... V: You have to, okay? E: Ves, there's something else... mom and dad know, they know about my powers and about everything. V: It's not important. You know they'll still love you no matter what, right? We're going to get through this, okay? There's no way that we're going to send you away. We'll keep this secret okay? It'll be hard, but we can figure it out. [i]I'm going to go ahead and cut this off here. You can listen to the unabridged version for yourself if you want, but this is what's really relevant. Subject is a potential suicide risk, to put it bluntly. Keep a close eye on her. Oh, and for those that read about the retrieval mission... well, you know that it was her parents that reported her to us. Emma doesn't know this and [u]must[/u] continue not to know. I'm sure you're all aware that it could send her over the edge- she could be a powerful weapon, but we must manage her carefully.[/i] [/hider] [/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝕄 𝕒 π•˜ π•š 𝕔 : [/h3][/color] [center]𝕋 𝕦 𝕝 𝕑 𝕒 π•ž 𝕒 π•Ÿ 𝕔 π•ͺ[/center] Emma channels her emotions to create creatures formed by pure thought. She can only rely upon her positive emotions to create Tulpas, but through the lens of her mind they become twisted and bastardized. These creatures appears to be made of darkness manifest, beings of solid shadow that look to be constantly churning and swirling upon themselves. Love: Pulls people and objects towards itself by sheer force of mind. Love's ability only works in a limited radius of 10m. Happiness: Self-destructs itself, creating a small explosion; it takes time to reform itself following self-destruction and will be out of combat for five minutes. Devotion: Turns the ground into a thick and sticky sludge, greatly impairing movement. Like Love, Devotion has a 10m range. Determination: Determination is much stronger than its peers- it can hit very hard, but is slow to follow commands and has low mobility. Charity: Can siphon energy from one target. Charity's effects are almost unnoticeable before it's too late- the effect is too weak to be perceptible, but in a fight it well definitely tire out an opponent faster that they would normally. Emma must command her Tulpas verbally, and is unable to when they are out of earshot. Bereft of command they'll continue with the last order given to the best of their ability, but they are not very intelligent. At the moment she can only summon two Tulpas at any given time. [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝔻 𝕣 𝕖 𝕒 π•ž : [/h3][/color] [indent][color=8A3DFF]"I can feel... sunlight... it's so warm... it's so pleasant, like it's washing over me, making me clean, burning away my pain... but..."[/color] She looked around. She was alone. She knew now: All of her friends had left, had fled her. Had they discovered what a terrible person she was, and decided to leave? Had the finally wised up? She was truly alone. But not alone, in fact, she thought she was but now she could feel a presence. She could feel a gaze upon her where there was none. But it was not a friend. She knew now that it was what drove her friends away. It had hurt them, killed them, butchered them, and left her alone. There was an emptiness inside her, but at the same time a sense of higher purpose. She felt power swelling inside her, a power so great and vast that it destroyed the presence and herself. The dream ended.[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] β„• π•š π•˜ 𝕙 π•₯ π•ž 𝕒 𝕣 𝕖 : [/h3][/color] [indent]She looked to her left, then her right. She was surrounded by friends. She felt fulfilled. She felt... happy? She wasn't really sure. It had been a long time since she really felt happy. She paused, contemplating. She was sure now, this must be what true happiness is. A man approached her... so handsome, so strong, he gave her the most reassuring smile. He sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. He smelt good. He leaned close and whispered in her ear, [i][color=f7976a]"Tell me, was it worth it?"[/color][/i] She glanced back. [color=8A3DFF][i]"I... don't know..."[/i][/color] He shook his head. Hatred filled his eyes. [i][color=f7976a]"After everything you [b]don't know?[/b] You disgust me."[/color][/i] He was gone. But she was still happy, at least. She was still alive. She felt like the emptiness inside her was full, finally, after all this time.[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝔸 𝕨 𝕒 π•œ 𝕖 π•Ÿ π•š π•Ÿ π•˜ : [/h3][/color] [indent]Aberration[/indent] [indent][color=8A3DFF] π•Š π•₯ π•š π•˜ π•ž 𝕒 : [/color][/indent] [indent][indent]Voices dance in Emma's head. At first it was voices, but now it is her own voice, wicked and twisted. [i][color=8A3DFF]You're worthless. What's the point of living? You're not happy. You make everyone around you less happy. You're a burden. You're pathetic. Your friends hate you. You hate you. Why do you keep going?[/color][/i] It plays in repeat. All day. Every self deprecating thought, every jab at herself, and it never ends.[/indent][/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝔸 𝕣 π•ž 𝕒 π•ž 𝕖 π•Ÿ π•₯ 𝕀 : [/h3][/color] [indent]N/A[/indent] [color=8A3DFF][h3] 𝕋 𝕙 𝕖 π•ž 𝕖 π•Š 𝕠 π•Ÿ π•˜ 𝕀 : [/h3][/color] [indent][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK--TysFA34]Will I ever be happy again?[/url] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl-TW2FfKI0]There are times, when I'm surrounded by people, I can almost feel it... but I know it's a mere mockery of the real thing, twisted through my minds eye.[/url] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7taNjPaZIg]I'm going to have to fight if I want to live... but am I strong enough? Is it even worth it?[/url] [/indent] [/hider]