Name: Sheila Hopkins
Alias: Will-o’-Wisp. Or, just Wisp. She calls herself Wisp.
Age: 16
Alignment: While a good person at heart, she's currently a serial thief. Is that enough to qualify her for Villain? Otherwise, Neutral.
Loyalty: Independent. Her derangement is of note here.
Appearance: Sheila has an extremely plain face, but her skin is also very pale and her hair which was bright blonde has become white. This is partly because she almost never allows light to touch her anymore. Her hair is long, and she typically ties it into a ponytail, because she likes how it looks. Her eyes are blue, her body thin but somewhat tall, her chest average.
Her “suit” consists of red laser-goggles over her eyes, just in case she accidentally directs a laser at herself, stolen along with the laser-pointers. She wears a tight, white jumper with pockets for her items on her body, with hood to cover her hair. She wears tight, white body-pants that goes down to thick socks, she does not wear shoes as they make too much noise. Given her white skin, she’s essentially all-white with red goggles. Her mouth and nose is uncovered, needed to breathe easily and silently.
However, while she’s wearing that suit just in case, Wisp never allows herself to be seen in public. When she wishes to show her location, she displays simply a little flickering white flame a little aside to her (so that if someone attacks it they’ll miss her) while she herself is invisible, making her only known as Wisp. Or Will-o’-Wisp, for the one who wants to use the full thing. They shouldn’t even know she’s female.
History: Sheila and her one year younger sister, Viola, were born to a wealthy doctor and his trophy-wife, Sean and Maureen Hopkins in Denver. Their parents were Irish in birth, but moved to Denver before Sheila’s birth after a job-opportunity turned too good to pass up on, and then decided to raise their children there.
Sheila when young was introverted, but regardless gained numerous friends. She hung out with them as young girls do. She even got herself a boyfriend for a short time, a guy who worked up the courage to ask her out, but he didn’t appeal to her in the long run. She was aware of the cape-scene, but not overwhelmingly interested in it.
But at 16, she accidently became very aware her father was dealing with villains. She’d never considered perhaps they were a little too wealthy, but she and Viola had been seeking their father at the hospital and overheard a conversation at the worst time. Their father accepted money for patching up injured villains and turned out tight-lipped enough to make it a regular thing, rewarded handsomely for it.
Unfortunately, being the young idiot she was, she swung the door open and yelled at her father not to take their deals and report them at once, right in front of the unmasked villains. Sean panicked, and Viola quivered in fear behind her. As could be reasoned, the villains quickly determined that Sheila and Viola were an unacceptable breach in confidentiality.
Sheila and Viola were locked inside a room, and Sheila forced herself to look strong for her terrified little sister. She tried to encourage the idea that heroes would save them, that their father would call the Protectorate and it all would be solved. They were forced to wait there for three days, when then the villains came in. They were told their father had sold them for his and his wife’s lives.
This came across as an unforgivable betrayal to Sheila. As the villains approached, Viola shrieked and Sheila was overcome with how impossible it was for her to protect her sister. She triggered then and there, and after a moment of vision she soon forgot she lifted her hand and blasted the incoming villains with bright light. Villains and little girls both knew exactly what had happened.
Finding the villains dazed but not out, Sheila quickly gripped Viola’s hand and ran, successfully avoiding capture by blasting light at pursuers. It did no damage, but it blinded them, allowing the girls to escape. When they had finally escaped, Viola started happily talking about how Sheila was now an awesome cape, and she should go become a Ward.
NO.She crushed Viola’s hopes with a single word. After all, nobody could be trusted. Their own parents had outed them. They were better off on their own. Searching the city, Sheila found an abandoned apartment where she could hide Viola in a villain-run section of the city. She hid Viola from the world, knowing the villains would come for them. Locked her inside. Stay well.
Sheila practiced her powers, learned its applications. By being invisible when she left the building, she could prevent being tracked back to Viola. However, she had no sources of income, she could not feed Viola by herself. But… she absolutely REFUSED to trust anyone else with her sister. So, Wisp took to thievery, using her power to steal food and means of entertainment for her sister. Items seemed to just vanish from their shelves as she blocked anyone from seeing them.
As she searched the city while hiding, she eventually tracked down the villains who’d wronged them. Presenting herself only as the speck of light she’d later become known as, Sheila approached the Protectorate. She drew arrows of light and displayed the names of the villains, and as such she led the Protectorate to where they’d capture the villains. When they turned to talk to her, Sheila had vanished. It was after that she became known among the Protectorate by Will-o’-Wisp for her appearance, or just Wisp.
However, as Sheila kept Viola locked away from the world, Viola eventually triggered as well from her desire to have freedom. Being locked away by her sister in absolute solitude became too much for her. She gained the power to speed up time for living beings in her immediate vicinity, and used this power to flee Sheila at multiple times a normal human’s natural speed.
The limitation of this power included that any individual within a meter would also speed up, allowing them to keep up with her, but she just had to ensure Sheila never was within her range. In addition, anyone affected has to deal with their bodily inevitabilities, including aging, at a sped-up pace as well.
On the terms that Sheila would not lock her away, Viola agreed to return and let Sheila care for her. Sheila was forced to accept, but as she continues to steal things she’s also watching Viola abusing her power to read novels fast and beat games, vanishing out the door when she got bored and used her power to get things faster. It seemed like Viola started considering her sped-up state the “normal” her, and Sheila had to stop her so many times, telling her to stop using it.
Over the four months they’ve been active, Viola has aged considerably while Sheila remains the same. Viola’s mind became a lot more hedonistic after her trigger event, and even though she had been the one who had suggested Sheila become a Ward, when she herself became a cape she thought “Eh, too much trouble”. Sheila breathed a sigh of relief at that. Viola spent her time reading books and speed-running games because her sped-up time let her hit key-frames easily.
Viola named herself Speedrunner, because she thought it hilarious. She always complained she couldn’t speed up the internet or consoles to match her, or she could play games so much faster than she already could with her increased reaction-time. She got a purple suit for when she wants to move out into the open. She managed to teach herself how to program at record speed, and started taking missions for money on the internet as she could develop programs exceedingly fast, but Speedrunner also ran around on the outside. Sheila still has no idea what Viola’s doing on these trips…
Wisp and Speedrunner have lived without particular problems so far, Wisp stealing food and entertainment for her sister while Speedrunner entertains herself, plays games, reading books, programming. So far, it has worked. They’re registered as Rogues, and there are bigger fish to fry in Denver.
Sheila does, sometimes, point the way for heroes. If villains close by are causing too much trouble, Sheila points the way. The only time she actually uses her blasting capabilities is if she ends up in trouble. It has happened twice, maybe. Also, if she sees someone innocent on the streets assaulted, she might help, if only by blasting a light straight into the sky to alert heroes if she wagers it too dangerous. So she has lived, and so it remains until now.
But… it’s only a matter of time before Wisp or Speedrunner attracts the attention of someone. Someone might deploy the means to counter Wisp’s power or follow Speedrunner home somehow, or similar. The Protectorate does not actually know if Wisp is the cause of the seemingly invisible thief, but suspicion would be understandable. It would take that she was just caught a single time and she’ll be registered as an official criminal. What Wisp will do then, that’s a question she has yet to find the answer to.
Motivations: Her sister, Viola Hopkins, or Speedrunner. She’ll sacrifice the world to keep her fed and happy, including her own morality against stealing. To keep them both alive in this world, that is her goal.
Sexuality: Bisexual
Likes: - Viola
- Solitude
- Comfort and safety
- Calming music
Dislikes: - EVERYONE (except Viola)
- Crowds
- Losing control
- Absolute silence (she becomes too aware of her own sounds)
Derangement: Absolute distrust in everyone. Sheila might not realize it, but her trigger has severely damaged her ability to ever trust anyone, to form any such a trusting relationship. Because, if she doesn’t trust anyone, she uses her power to keep herself hidden more. The only person she’d ever trust her back to is Viola, but even that has been shaken with seeing Viola constantly head out, not knowing what she’s doing. Besides that… her absolute obsession with keeping Viola safe can be counted as a derangement. If someone’s threatening her current life, even by talking reasonably, she might freak out and blast them or attempt running without properly thinking things through.
Skills: Due to her power, Sheila has taught herself how to move and breathe silently. She's skilled at dodging people while invisible, making it seem like nothings there, a skill she's picked up over four months of activity and might be supported by her minor Thinker power.
However, beyond that, her skills are… extremely limited. Completely average high-school girl.
Classification: Blaster/Stranger, with a minor Thinker power to assist with her main power.
Details: Sheila can control all visible light within one meter of her.
Blaster - Applications include blasting all available light in one direction. It results in a powerful flash in the direction she does it, and it renders her orb of effect absolutely black while she does it. The flash causes no damage beyond temporary blindness, but it can be very useful. She can also direct sustained light in an opponent's direction, which might be more annoying than actually blinding, but could disable an opponent relying on sight.
She cannot create laser on her own. … But she can redirect an existing laser. Hence why she has stolen a couple of laser-pointers. Typically to aim at the eyes of an offender. In addition, if she’s not wary of being detected she can gather more and more light around her, letting it spin around her as she absorbs more and more light before eventually releasing an extra-powerful blast. … Though it will still just be light.
Stranger - Her most used power, Sheila can subconsciously curve light around her, due to how used she is with her power. This effectively removes her from the visible light-spectrum, making her invisible, even to cameras. In addition, she can draw images inside her range as she wants others to see them, creating illusions or words for others to see. Though, if they figure out it is an illusion and knows Sheila’s short range, this effectively gives away her location. This is, though, how she creates her “Wisp”.
The range of one meter from any point of her is enough to hide someone inside, assuming they aren’t too large and doesn’t mind closeness. In addition, she can completely influence the sight of someone within one meter, but that’s typically not used as an enemy within one meter can very easily hurt her, and Sheila is not durable. Although she can see through her own illusions, she cannot provide the same comfort to allies, resulting in a very strange vision to anyone in her range she isn’t focusing on as light dances into their eyes from unnatural angles if she’s using her power.
Thinker - Her ability to process information is somewhat increased, if only to be able to control the vast amount of photons entering her range. In addition, since she can redirect photons from all around her to her eyes, she has 360 degree vision, effectively seeing all around her, and her low-level Thinker power allows her to process this without being confused.
Limitations: She doesn’t actually create light, so if lost on her own in darkness, she can’t make use of her Blaster-skillset. She can still hide, curving any existing light, but that’s also all she controls. Her powers do not remove her sounds, smells or body-heat. Neutralizing her is as easy as equipping goggles with heat-vision that prevent being blinded by lasers. Do that, and she’s effectively stranded.
A limitation is also that she has an upper limit on amount of light she can control. She hasn’t found it yet, because she can control a LOT of light at the same time, multiple lasers if she wants to, but… There is an upper limit. If she reaches it, Sheila’s mind will break. She’ll feel headaches as she approaches it, which could probably warn her to not take in more light, but it won’t actually stop her from taking in more. Only time she will reasonably approach this limit is if she charges her “swirl light around her” for too long, or if someone unloads way too much light at her.
Equipment: A knife, for precautions. A mobile phone to talk to her sister with, under a fake contact name. Two laser-pointers she stole. A red one and a green one. The green one can do permanent damage, and is more powerful, while the red one might be used in a regular encounter. Also a strong flashlight, if she’s caught in the dark.
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