Oɴᴄᴇ Uᴘᴏɴ A Tɪᴍᴇ: • Abigale had literally lived a normal life up until her mutation. There were no traumatic incidents, barring the divorce of her parents, but she'd seen it coming for a while. While her mother Audrey was somewhat religious, her father William was almost fanatical in his beliefs, and after much stress and many arguments, Abby’s parents finally agreed that separation was best. Abby got over that pretty quickly. What she couldn’t get over was the fact that when her parents split, they also split custody of their children. Abby and her younger brother Jeremy were very close, but neither parent could agree to let the other take both children.
Abigale went to school, made a few close friends, and thoroughly enjoyed her art classes. She and her younger brother remained close in spirit after the divorce separated them physically. It was difficult at first, and the months following the divorce were marked by extreme anxiety for lack of brother. Actually, that would mark the start of a permanent anxiety condition, because it didn’t get better from there.
After her mutation made itself known, her life became a living nightmare. At the end of a particularly bad week, Abby had an unfortunate run-in with an on-and-off tormentor. He called attention to the changing color of her hair – it was turning from strawberry blonde to raven black of its own accord and was a phenomenon that her just as perplexed as everyone else. After calling her a freak, the boy knocked her supplies from her hands when she tried to move around him. He stepped on the new set of paintbrushes she’d gotten as a birthday gift from her brother, snapping a few of them. The next thing she knew, the boy had been knocked backwards by a fist made of shadow, a fist that seemed to have reacted according to her thoughts and which disturbingly sank back to the floor to become her shadow a moment later.
This was only the beginning of her troubles. Besides the terrifying nightmares that plagued her almost every night after that, her father, believing she'd been cursed or possessed by the devil, tried to have her exorcised. Several times. When that failed, her parents unanimously decided to send her to various hospitals and labs to have tests done, hoping to find a “cure” for her “disease." Because of this, Abby has come to fear and hate hospitals with a passion, and if anyone approaches her with a needle, medical or not, she is likely to have a panic attack. Her brother was the only one who was on her side through all of that.
Abby’s parents, her father particularly, barely treated her like a human being anymore, let alone their daughter, and this complete rejection of her based on something she couldn’t control did was rather detrimental to her sanity. Just as her parents rejected her, she rejected her powers and equated them with everything that had gone wrong in her life. She hated them, but she knew that they were a part of her, and so she hated herself too. She developed an extreme case of body dysmorphia, hating her body and her powers to such a degree that sometimes looking in the mirror is enough to make her nauseous. The almost-constant anxiety caused her to lose her appetite, and she often chose to skip meals; her spare frame reflected this.
After spending what seemed like most of her senior year of high school in the hospital, Abigale couldn’t take it anymore. She ran away from home with a bag she’d packed months beforehand. With no clear notion of where to go or whom to turn to, Abby hopped on the first bus leaving Boston, where she and her father had been living at the time, and never looked back. She had some vague notion of heading to where her mother and brother were living, but she wasn’t sure if her mother would send her back home to her father. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, she never got the chance to find out. Because she never learned to control her powers, the OCM picked up on her erratic behavior and power-related outbursts and picked her up.
Uɴᴅᴇʀ Tʜɪs Mᴀsᴋ: •
• Often tired, Abby can often appear lazy and reluctant when it comes to doing anything. The more tired she is, the grumpier she gets and the less emotionally stable she becomes.
• Her body dysmorphia means she has very low self-confidence and little-to-no self-esteem, thanks to how her parents treated her once her mutation manifested. She doesn’t see herself as evil, as her father does, but she thinks that there is definitely something wrong with herself. She can’t stand to see her reflection in the mirror.
• She’s actually a very compassionate person. This comes out more when she’s well rested. Art, specifically painting, is soothing her. She might even find the creativity her powers allow her to be fun, if she could get past her current hatred for them. She’s dead loyal to her brother and those few friends she makes.
• When particularly anxious, she’s prone to blushing and stammering.
• She prefers loose clothing, both for the comfort they provide and because they help hide how thin she has become from not eating regularly.
• She knows all humans aren’t like her parents, so she doesn’t hate humans in general. She thinks her brother is human, and he’s a perfect example of a helpful and supportive soul. She just wants the world to be more welcoming to everyone.
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Wʜᴀᴛ Mᴀᴋᴇs Mᴇ Sᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ: • Although black hair isn’t anything out of the ordinary, the fact that it turned from strawberry-blonde to black of its own accord was plenty noticeable at the time.
• Her blue-gray eyes glow faintly silver when she uses her powers
• She has really dark bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, which will only get darker.
• As time goes on, she’ll get more black markings on her skin.
Wʜᴀᴛ Mᴀᴋᴇs Mᴇ Dɪғғᴇʀᴇɴᴛ: • Shadow manipulation (umbrakinesis)
**The better rested and the calmer she is, the better control she has. The more tired and stressed she is, the less control she has over any aspect of her powers, and they’re likely to lash out at random.**
Shadow Manipulation – Specifically, she can raise temporary shields or ten tentacle-like arms that are corporeal, or on a less confrontational scale, she can control the appearance of her shadow. Theoretically, the stronger she gets, the more diverse forms her shadows could take, but her extreme lack of practice presently means that she is limited to relatively simple shapes and uses.
Shadow Siphon – Her power is limited to whatever shadow she is touching, so sometimes she has to extend her shadow into another shadow and borrow material from that. Her power is also limited to the relative light level around her: bright days or dark knights where there are a lot of strong, dark shadows to work with are better times. Overcast days or similar lighting don’t throw as many deep or definitive shadows, so she’d have to really search for a useable source.
Shadow Wings – She does not know how to make these yet, but once she has more control over her powers, she will definitely try.
Tʜᴏsᴇ Wʜᴏ Lᴏᴠᴇ Mᴇ: • William Burtan (father); Audrey Burtan (mother); Jeremy Burtan (brother)
