[hider=Technically speaking, everyone is just Stardust...][center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/5a/af/ef5aaf5bd6e053a798071b5c2c03772e.jpg[/img] [sub][i]The subtle difference between a hero and a superhero is that one runs around dressed like an asshole and the other doesn't exist. [/i][/sub][/center] [b]Name:[/b] Maysah Marseille (Legal Name) // Maria Martinez (Assumed Identity) [b]Alias:[/b] Stardust [b]Age:[/b] 52 [b]Powers:[/b] Plasma Absorption & Manipulation. Stardust can actively harvest plasma from her surrounding environment, be it from the Earth’s atmosphere or the neon sign of a seedy bar, and store it within her body. She can unleash her charge in a number of ways. Most notably, Stardust can fire off twisting beams of purple plasma from her palms. These blasts extend out to five-yards, have a diameter of a coin, and cut through metal with ease. She can also use her plasma to give her the properties of a solar wind and move at inhuman speeds—say, about five times faster than an Olympic gold medalist, or around 50 meters a second. The added speed gives her physical blows a bit more heft than normal, allowing for her to knockout most unpowered people with a single hit. Finally, she can spend her plasma to generate a hard, electromagnetic shield around her body to protect herself from bullets, some energy weapons, and nasty collisions when moving at breakneck speeds. [b]Weaknesses:[/b] Speedsters are a major headache for Stardust. While she can move at fast speeds, she’s not even in the running when compared to superhuman speeds. Speedsters can easily move in and out of the range of her plasma blasts, leave Stardust in their dust, or strike at her before she is capable of projecting a shield. Furthermore, in some crowded environments they can cause an absolute nightmare for Stardust due to her weariness to cause wanton destruction. As well, her plasma blasts can be subverted by supers who are able to control fire or electricity. For example, a pyromancer could sap the heat out of a blast of plasma or manipulate any fire it creates to Maysah’s determent, whereas an aeromancer could completely strip the electrical charge from her blasts to nullify them mid-attack. As well, Stardust’s powers have some caveats. They have absolutely no subtlety. A sound like cackling electricity emits from her when she is charged with plasma, and when she is out of costume her hair lifts through static electricity and she glows a faint neon purple. Another problem with holding a charge is that her stored plasma generates a slight magnetic field. This field tends to interfere with, if not completely fry, electronics when she touches them. Finally, her powers drain her energy quickly. A handful of blasts or several seconds of speed or shields will completely drain her battery. This is not a problem when she is outdoors due to her being able to draw upon an almost limitless supply of natural plasma from the Earth’s atmosphere or space, but her ability to recharge is greatly limited indoors—almost wholly dependent on praying for an open window or a bunch of fluorescent lights. Finally, Stardust has the physique of a physically fit woman in her fifties. She can’t see or hear any better than the average human, and when she gets hurt the recovery time is the same as anyone else. Likewise, she pretty much always has to shield herself when she uses her speed boost, or she risks breaking her bones. [b]Appearance:[/b] Maysah is a woman of Algerian descent with a clean complexion and dark features. Her black, wavy hair is streaked with the occasional gray and kept in a low, loose bun. Her eyes are a bright hazel and shine with a curious attentiveness. Some light makeup is used to disguise the wrinkles around her eyes, while creams fight a losing war against the stress lines on her forehead. Her face is symmetrical and heart-shaped. Her eyebrows are immaculate. Her lips are full but are prone to slide into a thin smirk. Her smile is white and straight, although it's a rare sight to see these days. Maysah is tall, a hair shy of six foot, and has an athletic build. Her voice is a dry rasp, and she talks just loud enough for someone to catch that the thing she muttered might've been a jab at them. Her fashion style mostly consists of a defeated uttering of "Maybe if I throw on a cardigan?” combined with some sort of blouse, dark jeans, and flats. Her [b][url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/11/3c/e3113c6e98163f53893c763899ca2650.jpg]Stardust costume[/url][/b] is almost as flamboyant as its namesake. Maysah wears a skintight, black bodysuit that is printed with the design of a nebula all over it. The bodysuit was specifically made to create an optical illusion effect when stared at that makes it appear as if the stars and space debris are moving. The bodysuit completely covers her face, although she can easily pull down the mask. She wears a long pair of silver, reflective gloves and thigh-high boots with no heels so she can actually run with some ease. Over the suit she wears a brown, short-sleeved, long-tail coat that has no special properties other than the fact that it keeps her from being completely frozen all of the time and hides the seem of her suit. Plus, she believes that it looks cool. [b]Equipment:[/b][i] The Stardust Signal[/i] — Or what we like to call a smartphone. While it may look like Maysah just enjoys a bulky, latched phone case slung inside of a black bag, the case and bag are actually composed of the same materials used in Faraday cages to block electromagnetic fields so Maysah doesn’t have to worry about destroying her phone whenever she charges up her plasma. [i]Magical Medication[/i] — A gift from Hex, Maysah carries a small medicine bottle. Each pill is actually a high-powered glamour spell that, once consumed, alters Maysah’s appearance—her hair is gray and a different texture, her skin is lighter, her eyes are brown, and even the bone structure on her face is different. Hex would send her a bottle every month. She only has two pills left now. Each one lasts eight hours. [b]Origin[/b][hider] [center][b]I. [i]Nebula[/i][/b][/center] Maysah was born in Vancouver, Canada, and for as long as she can remember she had an interest in space. What started as a mild fascination born from stargazing on family camping trips morphed into a full on obsession that involved subscription to science magazines, deep dives into internet forums, and admirable attempts at reading astrophysics books way beyond her comprehension. She was one of those kids who figured out what they wanted to be at a young age—an astronaut, in this case—and set out to be it. Maysah studied hard in school and received additional coaching from her junior high science teacher mom. Her dedication paid off and she attended a good university, where she met an engineering student from Quebec named Henri Marseille. It wasn’t really love at first sight. More of a mutual hatred and a queasiness that shifted into a playfully annoyed sort of attraction after they were forced to become lab partners. His accent helped win him points, too. They married after graduation and moved to Longueuil, Quebec for Henri’s job, while Maysah found some lab work she wasn’t passionate about. After living there for a year, Maysah received a phone call from a woman named Victoria Manford, who had heard about her from an old physics professor Maysah had once assisted. The woman was the CEO of a private spaceflight company called Expanding Horizons, and they were projecting to achieve flight tests within the year—faster, she said, if Maysah signed aboard to help perfect the design of the shuttle. It was a childhood dream come true. Plus, the pay was, forgive the pun, out of this world. The only catch was that the job was in Cedar Fort. Henri encouraged Maysah to take the position, and if her career at Expanding Horizons panned out he’d find a job in Cedar Fort. Working for a space company was everything she had hoped it to be, and she found herself becoming close friends with Victoria. Maysah truly helped kick up the productivity in the lab. One day Victoria pulled her into her office and offered Maysah the opportunity to take part in the first human test flight. She absolutely could not refuse. However, before the actual test flight, she had to be run through some basic astronaut training to make sure that she was hardy enough for space travel. They'd be fun, swore Victoria. After passing the physical and only getting a little sick on the centrifuge, Maysah was ready for the final test: a run inside of an experimental zero gravity chamber. Something went wrong. As Maysah was having the time of her life floating in air she detected the faint stench of rotten eggs, an odor added to natural gas that served as a safety measure. Joy shifted to panic, and she called for the test to be cancelled. However, when the technician pressed the emergency stop button it instead created a high-energy electrical spark that began to violently conduct through the metal shell of the chamber. It ionized the gas in the chamber and turned it into plasma. The lab was forced to listen to Maysah’s screams as the chamber was superheated before it exploded into a massive fireball, destroying half of the lab and injuring several technicians. The people of Cedar Fort might’ve noticed just the slightest of rumbles. Inside the lab, people were scrambling to put out fires and aid the injured, and then someone shouted in surprise—Maysah was standing where the test chamber had been, alive and uninjured. However, she looked different. Very different. Her body was glowing a slight purple, her hair was floating, and a low hum of energy was coming from her. After Maysah unintentionally fired off a plasma blast the lab was evacuated and Victoria was called in. It took some time, but she was able to calm Maysah down. Victoria was about to get Maysah to agree to let them run tests on the woman to understand how she survived, what exactly happened to her, and if she could be helped. Maysah wanted nothing more than to be cured as quickly as possible. Everyone in the lab was reminded of their NDA, and the test began promptly. [center][b]II. [i]Star[/i][/b][/center] A cure wasn't possible. However, thanks to Victoria and Expanding Horizons, Maysah was able to gain control over her powers. She wanted nothing more than to pretend like things were normal and return to their work. However, Victoria had other ideas. If they could recreate the experiment it would be the scientific breakthrough of the decade, if not the century. Maysah expressed her dismay at the idea, so Victoria made her an offer—a five-year advance on her salary and two months of vacation starting today. She could go see Henri. Their communication had been limited while she was being tested. Every moral bone in her body was telling her to refuse the offer and put her foot down, but she cracked. The money was too good, the job was too good, and Victoria was a friend. She wouldn’t do something if she didn’t think it was safe or smart. Henri was happy to see Maysah, but he could tell that something was wrong. Later that week news broke about a massive explosion in Cedar Fort that originated from the Expanding Horizons lab. It was being reported as a freak accident, but Maysah knew that it had to have been Victoria's experiment. Dozens of people were killed; it was likely the reason the first explosion wasn’t so bad because Maysah had absorbed most of the energy. Maysah watched through tears as Victoria Manford appeared on television and lied about how a test with rocket fuel had gone wrong. Frustrated, Maysah revealed everything to Henri about her powers and the experiment—she knew if she had taken a stand she could’ve stopped Victoria. He was angry at first, partly because she’d kept it hidden from him, but mostly because she had gone against her principles. The rage didn’t last long. Instead, they stayed up all night talking, drinking, and scheming. In the morning, they headed for Cedar Fort. The two decided to confront Victoria and coerce her into telling the truth. They waited until nightfall and then broke into her house. Having overheard a noise, Victoria came out of her room and cracked a bat against Henri, but when she saw Maysah buzzing with energy she quickly gave up. Their talk was short. Victoria would liquidate Expanding Horizons, use whatever money she had plus the sum she had promised Maysah to pay off the families of the deceased, and publicly admit that she knew that the experiment had a high risk of danger. Otherwise, Maysah would liquidate her. Simple choice, really. Victoria didn’t call her bluff, and within a month she was awaiting trial for malfeasance and mulitple charges of criminally negligent homicide. Stardust was born that night. Maysah felt a warmth for what she had done like none she had ever experienced, but was still ashamed that she had not acted any sooner. She wanted to make up for her failure to do the right thing at the right time. With the support of her husband, she decided to use the powers she had gained to do some serious good. Not only would she stop crime and battle supervillains, but she would also police corporate executives and politicians like Victoria that looked to exploit and harm innocents for their own personal gain. Henri assisted her in multiple ways: he helped design her costume, researched people of interest that had been accused of corruption, and held down a steady job so she could focus solely on her charitable work as a vigilante and corporate watchdog. Stardust remained in the spotlight for over a decade. She was always a divisive superhero among the public. She was revered by some for her gentle touch when apprehending criminals and her integrity when it came to pursuing crimes outside of the ones generally handled by supes. Others derided her, calling her out as a super on a soapbox and suspicious of her intentions. Some claimed that she was committing corporate sabotage for a various number of companies, while others labeled her as an enemy of capitalism. Regardless of how someone viewed her, it couldn’t be argued that she was damn good at her job. Stardust largely operated inside of Quebec, but occasionally would appear in the United States in short-lived teams up to take down dangerous foes. However, she was ultimately a solo hero, partially due to preference, partially due to the negative attention corporations aimed at her, and partially because she was difficult to work with. [center][b]III. [i]Supernova[/i][/b][/center] Hex was the last superhero to ever work with Stardust. They had teamed up to hunt down a blood mage slash serial killer named Soothslayer and things were not going well for the duo, both in terms of how the hunt was going and for how they were getting along. After a week of dead ends and cold trails, Hex had picked a rumor on a man who supplied Soothslayer with blood packs. The two were about to head out when Stardust saw something disturbing pop up on Hex's news feed. It was her face, as in her [i]actual[/i] face. She made him open the vid. The talking head was arguing that new evidence linked Stardust to the deaths of about fifty people. Footage was playing of the day she got her powers. It was spliced with footage of the explosion that had wiped out most of Expanding Horizons workforce. Stardust explained to Hex that she was being set up, and to her surprise he actually believed her. Worried about the immediate repercussions that occurred when an identity was leaked, she called Henri and got no answer. Through Hex's magic, the two teleported to Stardust’s house in Quebec to find a gruesome scene. On the same couch that Henri had convinced her to take a stand she found his body, mangled and shredded into a complete mess. Time seemed to completely freeze itself. She had been doing the right thing, and because of it her privacy was shattered, she was framed for a crime she had not committed, and the love of her life was killed. It felt like her chest was going to explode. There was only one other person alive that knew how Maysah got her powers, and they were supposed to be in prison. Stardust growled. Wherever they were tonight, they'd be in hell tomorrow. However, before Stardust could begin her death march to Victoria’s cell, she was stopped by Hex. Literally, he put her in stasis with a spell and demanded to know where she was going. To get vengeance, she said, and then broke free of his charm. A fight broke out between the two, and Hex was eventually able to force Stardust into a room where she couldn’t charge her powers. She broke down into tears and yelled at Hex that she was done. Her life was ruined. Why would she bother trying to save others? Hex gave her time to rave, and the spoke up. She was many things he did not like, but she wasn’t a killer. Even if she somehow managed to go through with it, she wouldn't be able to live with herself—assuming nobody else got to her first. Her life was ruined, true, but it wasn't over. There were still options. He told her to bury her husband and he’d take care of everything else. After she had her time with Henri, Hex came and found her. He gave her keys to a friend’s safe house in Toronto. He gave her new documents that identified her as Maria Martinez. Finally, he gave her a bottle of medicine. It was filled with pills that were enchanted to cast a glamour spell upon consumption that would make her appear to be someone else. None of this would help with the loss she felt, only time could do that, but this gave her time. It wasn’t an opportunity that many heroes who had their identities revealed were given. Maysah thanked Hex, and they parted ways. At first it was difficult living another life. She didn’t like the new woman in the mirror. She didn’t like the idea of leaving Henri’s death unavenged. Yet, eventually, she grew used to her misery until it became her new normal. She never put on her suit again. Stardust had died with Henri. [center][b]IV. [i]Black Hole[/i][/b][/center] Maysah lived as Maria for the last twelve years. She worked a part-time job in a small, used bookstore where she spent most of her time working on, destroying, and restarting a tell-all memoir. She moved out of the safe house and got her own small, quaint apartment outside of the city. On her days off she would go on camping trips like the ones she had a child to stargaze. Her life was a quiet, solitary one, and she was mostly at peace, or at least some kind of sad acceptance. Some days were harder than others, and it’s difficult to make it through the week without having something triggers a memory of her past life that fills her with rage and regret. The only connection she maintained from her former life was Hex, who regularly sent her a shipment of glamour pills on a monthly basis. This last month the pills did not come. After waiting a few days, Maysah pulled out her old communication device from a box of junk she kept pushed back in a closet to check in on Hex. She found Special Agent Reynolds’s message waiting for her. She watched it with a furrowed brow, uncertain if they had even intended to send the message to someone like her. Part of her felt like it was a hoax, perhaps even a trap to draw her out of hiding. She certainly didn’t buy it at all that Hex would overdose on Nirvana. Maysah tried calling him only to get no response. She should’ve just ignored the damn thing, but it ate at her. Reynolds was right about one thing: Hex had been the best of them. He had helped her out of nothing but the kindness of his heart. Maysah owed it to him to at least look into the circumstances surrounding his death. Maybe she could work out a deal with Reynolds to get her name cleared. If they said no then fuck them, she'd happily standby and watch as Hex's proclaimed apocalypse ended them all. [/hider] [b]Personality:[/b] Maysah was an idealist who dropped her arms just long enough for life to beat her down into a cynical pulp. She believed in doing the right thing for most of her life, and feels like she was betrayed by her own optimism. The only justice the world ever sees is a constructed one—an artificial silver lining to keep people docile. She tried playing outside of the societal rules that keep the rich on top and the poor distracted, and for her troubles she was rewarded with a heaping dose of reality that hit her with the force of a Mack Truck. It broke her. She was drained of her motivation and considered her compassion a hindrance instead of a boon. Apathy became the mainstay, because anything else was too painful. As Stardust she was one of the most respected superheroes that nobody liked to work with. She truly seemed to be in the game for the right reasons, and it was clear that she always considered her actions before she made a move. She was also the most goddamn stubborn person to work with, with a know-it-all attitude and self-described “playful assholery” that heavily favored the latter part. Despite seeming to have completely given up, her stubbornness is still alive today. She takes a sort of grim pride in knowing that the fact of her very own existence is probably making somebody stress right now. These days, Maysah is fairly quiet and reserved, especially when she is around strangers or trying to pass as Maria. She’s polite, but keeps everyone at an arm’s distance and slips by the judgmental smirk every now and then. However, this isn’t the case when she is with her peers. She views other superheroes with a bit of disdain. For all of their put ons, they never really accomplished anything. Maysah doesn’t hide her disappointment in them. It comes through in her barbed, snide remarks and is telegraphed through her body language. She seems to enjoy a good argument, and the best way to earn her respect is by dishing a good verbal beatdown right back at her. Although she has never brought it up to anyone but close peers, Maysah is absolutely terrified of her powers. She knows just one errant beam could end the life of an innocent, and so she has always taken caution when using them. However, what is more terrifying to her than accidentally murdering someone is intentionally doing it. When she was younger the thoughts never even entered her mind, but now those violent urges against the people that wronged her seep into her brain when she is at her most vulnerable. She's afraid she might act on them. Worse still, she's afraid she'd like it. [b]Misc Facts:[/b] Stardust mostly operated inside of Quebec and had a stellar record over her decade long career. She apprehended hundreds of non-powered criminals, beat a few dozen “supervillains”, and exposed 7 US statesmen, 4 corporations, and 3 Canadian senators. Despite what the media might report, Stardust has never actually been responsible for any fatalities—although there has been the occasional maiming. Maysah Marseille is currently wanted in the United States and Canada. While vigilantism is a gray area, she is liable for destruction of property, slander (of the multiple politicians and corps she has accused of participating in illegal activity), a failure to appear for multiple trials, and the mass manslaughter of about fifty coworkers. Only the last one doesn’t have any merit. Victoria Manford, aka the woman most likely responsible for the reveal of Stardust's identity, is still alive, although in her seventies. As far as Maysah knows, she still lives in Cedar Fort and may or may not still be in prison. Likewise, the murderer of Maysah's husband has never been caught, and as of right now it is considered a cold case. Maysah never looked into either of them. She’s afraid of finding them because she has a pretty clear image in her mind of what she would do. [b]Relationship with Hex:[/b] Stardust is indebted to him. Stardust and Hex never got along on personal levels, and they clashed in their methodology on professional levels. However, they respected one another for their righteousness, and Stardust has Hex to blame for keeping her from swan diving off of her downward spiral. If it wasn’t for him she’d likely be dead by now, or at the very least in a super max security prison surrounded by criminals she had sent there. His death also directly affects her currently pathetic existence: she is a wanted woman, and without his glamour pills to keep her incognito the future is looking tumultuous. [/hider]