Appearance: The most noticeable feature about Avery would have to be her height, as she only stands at 3’4 and a half due to being afflicted with proportionate dwarfism. Her weight is similarly small at 36 lbs. Apart from this, her appearance is mostly normal, with straight, bright red hair, a button nose, and sky blue eyes, though some might consider that combination a little strange. As one might expect from someone of her size, her features are soft, with very few angles or muscle tone.
Name: Avery Jacqueline Thompson
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Power(s):
Tactile TelekinesisLimits/Weaknesses: As of right now, Avery's Tactile Telekinesis is limited to picking things up and moving her body faster or stronger. With training, she could lift herself up to fly, but that's pretty far down the road. As it is, holding something heavy for too long exhausts her physically and mentally. The field around her body also protects her from heat and energy as well as matter, though concentrated hits, like from a laser, can still affect her. It can also still be broken by repeated impacts that don't give it time to recover.
Equipment: A bag that holds some of the supplies she needs to deal with her incontinence, her cell phone/mp3 player, and pieces of chocolate, like Hershey’s Kisses.
Personality: Due to her size, Avery is often mistaken for a child, which is something that she absolutely detests, though even her friends seem to treat her differently, like a kid sister or something. Despite the fact that she hates this treatment, she rarely speaks up about it, usually only showing some kind of identification, like a student card, to the offender. Part of this is because she’s gotten used to the mistake occurring, though another part is because of her more reclusive nature, which came about because of her fears that she had caused her parents’ divorce in some way. Of course, it doesn’t help that she’s afraid of what would happen if someone found out about her powers, and so tries not to get too close to people in order to help keep it a secret. Despite what her exterior may convey, she’s actually really sweet, something that she prefers not to flaunt, and enjoys the company of others.
History: Avery’s life was more or less normal, apart from suffering from proportionate dwarfism and eventually developing superpowers. She was an only child to two upper middle class parents with good jobs, and everything was just fine. At least until her mother up and left them when Avery was eleven for some reason that she never really understood. Her father was rather mute on the issue, probably because he didn’t want Avery to worry, but that just reinforced the notion that it was her conditions that caused her mother to leave.
Already pretty isolated due to the size difference between her and her classmates, this period of her life resulted in further isolation and apparent depression, at least until her father managed to convince her to try some new hobbies and make some friends. Figuring that she should go with something that was less dependent on size, she opted for gymnastics, where it became apparent that she had a knack for it. That’s not to say that her practice was perfect every time, but her falls were a little odd in that they never really resulted in any lasting injury. Sure, she may have twisted an ankle or overextended a muscle, but they weren’t serious and didn’t last very long.
The event that really made her realize that something was different about her actually occurred outside of gymnastics. She and one of her friends were walking to the convenience store to grab something cool and sweet to eat when an air conditioning unit fell out of a window above them. Though she didn’t see it at first, she looked up when someone shouted “Look out!” and, rather than move, she caught it with little more effort than catching a baseball. Her friend, who had sped up to escape the impact zone, turned back to see her friend standing next to a damaged air conditioning unit, visibly shaken up but otherwise fine. And, though Avery’s friend had missed the spectacle, several of the bystanders hadn’t and were crowding around to ask her what she had done. Avery merely offered that it was pretty light and hadn’t fallen that far before she and her friend managed to escape and get back to the former’s apartment.
All of the attention she got over that incident in the media added to the fear that someone would find out that she was different, as she now knew that she most certainly was, which contributed to the fear that she had been the reason for her mother’s departure. Overall, it wasn’t a good combination, and she found herself resorting back to her old behavior. Figuring that a change of setting would reverse the trend, her father requested a transfer to a branch of the company in a smaller town where the story wouldn’t be as much of a big deal. It did help a little bit, as she continued going to school regularly and made loose friendships, but she never did get back to where she had been before the event. Eventually, she graduated and got into Stalwart University, this upcoming year being her first.
Degree: Bachelor's of Art
Clubs: Art, Outdoors, and Sports (Gymnastics)
Other: In addition to proportionate dwarfism, Avery also suffers from dyscalculia, urinary incontinence, caused by nerve damage resulting from an infection when she was really little, and chronic nightmares. Her dyscalculia manifests in an inability to read analog clocks, over-sensitivity to noise and light, and difficulty understanding mathematical rules or formulas, simple operations, finances, time, estimates of space or time, recognition of names and faces, navigating maps, and even stating which of two numbers is larger, among other things. In short, it’s similar to dyslexia, but with numbers instead of letters. However, her dyscalculia means that she has a good imagination, as seen from her work in art class.
Some of Avery’s favorite animals are unicorns, narwhals, and deer. Her favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs with Swiss cheese, though her favorite flavor is chocolate of any kind, which is funny enough considering her birthday is February fourteenth. Her favorite drink is, not surprisingly, hot chocolate, though she does love root beer made with vanilla or cream soda as well.
