Glitter
| Strength 11d |
Agility 4d |
Intellect 3c |
Willpower 5x |
| Hand Size: Edge: |
4 (25) 2 |
Origin:
Before the White Event, Stephanie Ann Harrington was an ordinary housewife from Wisconsin. After that mutagenic astronomical phenomenon encountered the earth however, she developed a strange, energetic power that she cannot completely deactivate, which causes her to constantly sparkle. This strange energy she gives off acts to heal and enhance the physical abilities of both herself and others she comes in contact with!
Powers:
Amplification (i): in addition to allowing others to rapidly heal from their injuries, Glitter can infuse others with her inherent, enhanced physical prowess. This translates into a +1 to one's Strength score when Glitter spends an exchange imbuing them with her energy. Such a boost will last for an aura duration, often enough time for them to get a whole lot done while under her power's influence.
Light Generation (i): when her powers are active (which is almost any time she's not critically injured), Glitter is generating bioluminescent sparkles - light which gives off no heat. These sparkles last a second or so before fading, and are normally of only intensity 1 brightness. However, when her powers flare up, Glitter often casts much more light, generating up to intensity 10 brightness.
Power Amplification (i): Glitter's power can have a beneficial effect on the super-human abilities of others, whether paranormal in nature or of some other origin. By laying hands on another (or even by incidental, extended contact), Glitter will cause a +1 in the operation of another's super-human capabilities, an enhancement that will last for an aura duration (as is the case with her regular amplification).
Regeneration (s): Glitter is the primary recipient of the powerful energy her body constantly generates. She is known to heal from injuries at a rate that is at least ten times that of a normal human. This translates into intensity 6 regeneration, allowing her to heal one card of lost Health on a non-negative narrator aura draw of five or less.
Regeneration / Others (s): while Glitter is constantly healing at a heightened rate, she can apply this power to others on physical contact - whether she wishes to or not. She can multiply the healing rate of others as she can her own, simply by laying her hands on them, allowing her to rapidly repair damage suffered by others (without the usual penalties caused by ordinary healing powers).
Resistance to Disease, Poison and Vampirism (s): Glitter has demonstrated a marked resistance to these three forms of metabolic assault. Her immune system aggressively attacks anything foreign that enters her system, and her recuperative abilities immediately counter any vampiric assault (such as that of her friend Lenore). She can combat all of these forms of assault with intensity 20 (+5) ability.
Super Speed (a): Glitter has a reaction time that is twice that of an ordinary human being, giving her this power at intensity 2. This allows her to perform actions at about twice the rate of normal people. Furthermore, this also allows her to perform two additional attacks each exchange (or burst attacks for +2 damage), and doubles her walking speed (or increases her running speed to sixty miles per hour!)
Hindrances / Augmentations:
(none)
Equipment:
Staff (s): though she didn't originally rely upon weapons of any variety, Glitter has been educated in the use of this device by the CIA during her martial arts training. She can use this weapon to inflict her Strength +3 in bashing damage in melee. This staff is made from m.s. 14 materials, allowing Glitter to use it (for the most part) without fear of breaking it at all.
Skills:
Detective / Espionage (i): all of Glitter's marketable talents spring from her CIA training. Chief amongst them is her ability to dig up information on a person, place or thing - generally doing so no matter how well such information is hidden. She's also quite well-versed in surveillance techniques, acting in an inconspicuous manner, and other common intelligence-gathering methods.
First Aid (i): though she's no doctor, Glitter has received first aid training from her friend, Randy O'Brien. This allows her to more effectively use her healing abilities, so that she can avoid things like setting bones incorrectly and so forth. Furthermore, Glitter can immediately restore a card of Health to characters who have fallen unconscious in the previous exchange.
Martial Arts (a): the CIA has trained Glitter well in the use of her augmented physical abilities. Thanks to their extensive work with her, Glitter can reduce the difficulty on actions intended to dodge attacks, lower falling damage or catch weapons or other objects thrown at her, or even to strike in unarmed melee, by one difficulty level.
Skill / Staves (s): while she can fight unarmed, and is in fact quite good at it, Glitter has been trained in the use of a staff as a personal weapon. This allows her to inflict even more damage than her already impressive Strength allows, and she can even use it to maneuver herself in battle when necessary. She can make melee attacks with this weapon at a reduced difficulty.
Contacts:
Glitter can readily rely upon her fellow paranormals from therapy group C in the Clinic for Paranormal Research - even Scuzz, who originally left them on hostile terms. Over time others have joined their little band, including Chrome, Mutator and Sponge. Glitter has a few additional contacts from the Clinic, as well as some of her 'handlers' in the Central Intelligence Agency - though definitely not Miss Dobish.
Calling:
Protector: just about everything that Glitter does is to protect and care for her loved ones. This can mean either her friends from the Clinic or her children - who she'd do just about anything for. Nothing gets a rise out of Glitter like a threat to her friends or family - this is when she'll most often push her powers to their absolute limits!
Costume:
Originally, Glitter wore no costume, simply wishing to remain an ordinary house wife. Upon joining the CIA however, she was given a variety of patriotic costumes. Her first included a sleeveless, skin-tight stretch fabric body suit that was primarily red in hue, but had blue racing stripes down the sides (with white stars in the middle). She complemented this with white sneakers and white and blue wrist bands.
Glitter's subsequent costumes have usually been a variation on this theme, including similar colors. Sometimes she'll wear a leather jacket over her outfit, sometimes jeans over the lower half of her leotard - and sometimes both. This mostly just depends on her mood at the time.
Personality:
Stephanie was originally unsure of herself and her place in the world after developing strange new powers, but quickly grew into her own after her months-long coma. While at first timid and shrinking before the threats of the world, Stephanie quickly grew to enjoy the use of her powers - as well as her ability to impose her will on the world at large - to protect those she cares for.
Real Name: Stephanie 'Stephie' Ann Harrington (nee Lindquist)
Occupation: homemaker, adventurer, former secret agent
Legal Status: citizen of the United States with no known criminal record
Marital Status: presumably divorced (or at least separated)
Alias(es), if any: Viva
Group Affiliation: DP 7 (therapy group C), former member of the CIA Femme Force
Height: 5' 7"
Hair: blonde
Eyes: blue
Weight: 135 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: due to the nature of her powers, Stephanie is constantly giving off a sort of bioluminescence. This manifests in the form of 'sparkles' that continuously erupt around her body. Each of these lasts for a few seconds, but are not too bright unless Stephanie is actively using her powers. In this event, they grow brighter until she literally glows with energy.
Story:
Stephanie Harrington was originally content to remain a mother and a house wife - at least, until the White Event occurred. This bizarre astronomical phenomenon forever changed Stephanie - though she didn't know it at first. The changes wrought in her body were not immediately apparent, only manifesting one day in the form of a sudden onset migraine... and the bizarre behavior of one of her daughters.
Suddenly 'supercharged', the child managed to leap from the ground onto a bookshelf, at which point she required a 'rescue' from mom. Though she initially wrote this strange day off, things like this kept happening around Stephanie. And then, to top it all off, Stephanie began to sparkle! While her children's strange energy 'boost' could be chalked up to too much sugar, the twinkling lights weren't quite so readily explained.
And Stephanie's husband, Chuck, was freaked out by his newly 'glitter' generating wife. So much so, in fact, that when he caught wind of a special facility for people with problems no one else could solve, he shipped Stephanie off to it as soon as possible. Upon her arrival at the Clinic for Paranormal Research, Stephanie immediately began to miss her children - though not Chuck, since he'd sent her there.
Nonetheless, Stephanie tried to soldier on, going through the Clinic's motions to 'cure' herself of her problem, so she could get back with her family. As it turned out, her 'sparkles' were a manifestation of her paranormal powers, a variety of means by which she could enhance both the healing and energy levels of herself and anyone she came into contact with - and couldn't be deactivated.
So Stephanie remained in the Clinic, at least until the point at which her therapy group caught wind of the Clinic's shady behavior, and - after a fight with Harlan Hackbarth, the Clinic's head of security - made their escape. For quite a while, Stephanie and her therapy group, group c, went on the run from the Clinic and its many goons, doing their best to stick together until they could do something about the foul facility.
During this time, most of the group grew much closer to one another, though Scuzz - the 'rebellious youth' of the group - quickly grew estranged from the others. He eventually left their company after a brawl he'd started with them, only to be quickly recaptured by the Clinic. This was the beginning of the end for Stephanie and her friends' escape, as the Clinic began to pick them off one by one.
Stephanie herself was captured after an attempt to collect her children from her dirtbag husband's mother went awry, when Chuck tried to kill David Landers - a fellow paranormal who was smitten with Stephanie - and David retaliated in self-defense. Visiting him in the hospital shortly after, Stephanie was quickly cornered in an elevator and dosed with enough tranquilizer to defeat even her amazing metabolism!
She was then transported back to the Clinic, where another of its paranormal staff, Dexter Charne, attempted to brainwash her into forgetting why she and her friends had left the Clinic in the first place, and to reinforce her desire to stay. This didn't go so well in Stephanie's case, however, as her body kept overcoming the heroic amounts of drugs that were intended to keep her under during this process.
Thinking her a security risk, Hackbarth decided to end her life, though Charne thought he had a 'better way' of ending her threat. The two tried to use their powers at the same time, and this caused both Stephanie and Hackbarth to fall into a deep coma, their minds severely damaged in the process of Charne's 'solution'. While Hackbarth would seemingly never recover, Stephanie's powers would eventually fix her up.
With a bit of moral support from David and her other friends.
Once she recovered from her coma, Stephanie found she and her 'weird' nature had suddenly been embraced by her husband, who 'missed her desperately'. So, feeling no need to stay, Stephanie returned home. It would be many months before she would discover the roots of Chuck's sudden change: he'd contracted HIV from some woman he had an affair with due to being lonely - after sending his wife away.
While she'd left the Clinic behind, Stephanie found its paranormals would follow her home as well. You see, shortly after her departure, the place was closed down in the wake of a massive battle between its patients and local law enforcement. Some of the minors that were staying there, led by Scuzz (of course), came to Stephanie's home looking for help. And, caring for them all, Stephanie took them in for a time.
Despite his projected good nature, Chuck chafed under the 'nuisance' these immature paranormals brought to his house, and this caused more friction between him and the wife he now needed to survive. This didn't last long however, for Stephanie was eventually recruited into the CIA by her good friend from the Clinic, Lenore Fenzl, and the family quickly moved to Maryland for Stephanie to begin her government training.
Shortly after Lenore's death in South America, where she, Stephanie and several other female paranormals also almost died fighting the so-called Famileech, Stephanie learned of Chuck's infidelity and 'health problems', and 'roughed him up' as a result. This prompted him to flee with the children; he didn't really want them any longer, thinking himself doomed, but took them solely to spite his supposedly uppity wife.
Naturally, since his wife worked for the CIA, Chuck didn't escape for long, and Stephanie quickly recovered her children. Leaving Chuck for good, Stephanie went on with her job working for the government, until she was assigned to spy on Presidential candidate Philip Nolan Voigt - who was formerly the Clinic's leader! With his vast paranormal powers, Voigt quickly ended this surveillance, seizing control of Stephanie's mind!
Voigt then turned Stephanie and her fellow paranormal CIA operatives against their old friends David Landers and Randy O'Brien - at least, until she'd soundly thrashed 'em. After this, Voigt left Stephanie and company to their own devices, at which point they were discharged from the CIA shortly thereafter; this was because the government realized that the so-called Femme Force had been co-opted by Voigt.
Stephanie then attempted to make a new life for herself in Wisconsin - though this failed miserably. The local 'yokels' made life for her and her children utterly miserable due to her super-powered status, you see. When things in Wisconsin went south, Stephanie returned to New York City, where she'd been living with her friends after their bad encounters with Voigt, to be with her fellow 'freaks'.
In time, Stephanie grew to like living in the 'Rotten Apple', as the town has come to be known after Mount Pittsburgh's ash began to pollute the place. And she even managed to find love again, in the form of David - who'd been pining for her since the day the two had met. He never put the 'moves' on her since she was married, but now that she'd ditched that lousy husband of hers, David had a 'clear shot', as it were.
And Stephanie, having always liked David, readily reciprocated. The two then made a proper life for each other, and Stephanie's children, in the City. There they lived happily ever after, after a fashion, for the rest of their days. Even with a few hiccups along the way, including the arrival (and subsequent departure) of Quasar to their neck of the woods, and that whole deal with the Starblasters...
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