Application: Diana Vertue (aka Jenny Psycho), Simon R. Green's Deathstalker Saga

[psycho_vertue]

((With permission from Valentine-mun, seeing as we are the exact same person. Diana is in her canon one of the most powerful espers to ever have lived, though her powers will be Hogwarts-dampened. Telepathy, telekinetic manipulation and suchlike will be only by mun approval. She's usually described as putting off a very tangible aura of presence

Comments

[shifter_mordi]

"I'm sure the feather had it coming," Mordi said. He held up his hand, and tiny flames started to dance on his fingertips. It was meant as a friendly gesture, maybe some sort of solidarity in pyrokinesis.

"Anyway, people are going to pester you endlessly. The feather was really just a warm up."

[psycho_vertue]

Another esper, maybe. Nice.

Diana gave a one-shouldered shrug and rolled her eyes in good humor. "What can I say, I bite back. So, the fire. Esp or magic?"

[shifter_mordi]

His fire went out. "I'm not sure what an esp is, but it's certainly not magic. That's what they proclaim to teach you here. Anyway, my powers are congenital. Is that what you meant?"

[psycho_vertue]

"Esp, at least where I come from, is any psionic ability beyond what a baseline human can do. Pretty much anything that starts with 'tele-' and/or ends with '-kinesis.' Telepathy seems to be the most common. So under that definition, congratulations, you're an esper." She chuckled, though the damage to her throat made it sound more horrific than intended. "So, are you new here, too?"

[shifter_mordi]

"We call people like that Protectors." Telekinesis was a standard power for all Protectors. Telepathy was a rare skill, but by no means unheard of. "I missed out on the mental powers, but I don't especially envy anyone who has them." Like Izzy, who could pick up the emotions of anyone around her, and the thoughts of anyone she touched. Crowded subways and sidewalks made her life hell.

"If I'm an esper, then congratulations on being a Protector." Or an Outcast, depending on how she fell on the hero/villain line. "And yeah, I'm still waiting for the word of Zeus or whatever it is that's going to let me out of here."

[psycho_vertue]

She gave a rough snort of laughter. "Sounds like you get better publicity where you come from. Protectors. I like that." She shrugged. "We get trained to control any manifestation at a young age, so the spillover isn't as bad as it could be. Mostly. I used to just be a telepath, but then things got weird."

Diana looked up at the ceiling and blew out a noisy breath. "I heard it's some sort of hat. Maybe an animatronic or a hat-shaped alien."

[shifter_mordi]

"Power manifestations," he said faux wistfully. "I'm so glad those days are over." Mordi's powers had manifested normally, first showing up when he was eight. His mother had promptly abandoned him on his father's doorstep. The last time he'd seen her he was twelve, and she'd called him a freak.

"And yes, we do have fantastic publicity. The Mortal-Protector Liaison Office makes sure that everything we do is either hidden from the public eye, or given some amazing spin. I'm not sure how your weird compares to my weird, but they're there to clean up the mess afterwards."

He shrugged his shoulders. "My guess is that it's a hat designed to make the new people feel exceptionally stupid."

[psycho_vertue]

"You and me both." She had only just begun manifesting her telepathy as a child when her parents had allowed her to be taken by the esper academy. Goddamned esper academy. Her forehead itched, and she slammed down on the memory.

"See, we could have used good publicity. We were tools, untouchables, and terrorists if we decided to free ourselves. Now I think we just creep people out." She wrinkled her nose, remembering that worm Gutman from Parliament.

"Hm." She thought about it, cocking her head, and nodded slowly. "I could see that. Make a big spectacle and make everyone feel like an idiot. Like hazing, but hopefully with less duct tape and paddling involved."

Even thousands of years in the future, some things never changed.

[shifter_mordi]

Mordi rubbed the bridge of his nose. "There are a lot of people who want have Protectors seen that way, or lead Protectors to use their powers to take over the Mortals." Hi, Dad. "But I'm sure that you don't need to here about the politics between the powered and the non-powered."

"Do they have snipe hunts where you come from?" he asked, hoping to move to the slightly safer topic of hazing.

[psycho_vertue]

"They do," she said with a wry twist of her mouth. "The good thing about the whole telepathy thing is that I never fell for it the one time someone on the Dauntless tried it." Of course, the crewmember had been reprimanded for breaking regulations and attempting to fraternize with the ship's esper. Join the military, get treated like part of the ship's hardware. Sigh.

"I'm Diana. Like you could probably tell if you heard me earlier. And you are...?"

[shifter_mordi]

He held out his hand, not sure if handshaking was an acceptable action, but willing to try anyway. "Mordichai Black. Please call me Mordi."

[psycho_vertue]

"Mordi. Hi." She reached out and shook his hand, her grip firm but not hinting at any particular physical strength. All her strength resided in her brain. There really was no use to try and compensate for a slight frame and lack of height when you were capable of all the nasty mental tricks she had learned since Silo Nine.

[shifter_mordi]

Some Protectors had super strength, but even without it superheros had greater strength than Mortals. Not that Diana would notice, since Mordi didn't make it a habit to go around crushing hands.

"I'm guessing you weren't saving school buses of young children with your powers," he said. "What do you do?" A loaded question, yes, but if she was still doing things that would get her called "Jenny Psycho" it would be in his best interests to know about it. If not, maybe they could talk about being reformed.

[psycho_vertue]

Diana chuckled. "No, I never did anything directly involving kids. I used to be a terrorist, actually. And then a politician, which is kind of like being a terrorist except you don't have to follow through on your threats as often. And then there was that thing with the Mater Mundi, and the other thing with the AIs of Shub... it's been kind of a full few years for me."

[shifter_mordi]

"Yeah. I helped my father with a few of his plots to enslave all Mortals, then turned mole against him. It's made family reunions awkward." Especially since his cousins and brother had all become involved at one point or another.

"Of course, my father believed it was for the greater good. Funny how much damage that does."

[psycho_vertue]

"That sounds like the kind of thing that makes living on the same planet awkward. At least my dad and I only disagreed on political stuff."

Being on different sides of a rebellion against a corrupt system--her for the espers' sake, him for loyalty's--totally counted as a political disagreement.

"I think the people who thought up the phrase 'the greater good' should have been shot, preferably in several painful and non-fatal places first," she said agreeably. "It's nothing but a catch-all excuse for all manner of sins."