| Stella Thatcher | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
No Title |
No information |
History[]
Stella was born in Darien, Connecticut to Philip and Jillian Thatcher. The date was May 3rd of 1991. The weather was sunny. They were a quiet family living prosperously in a quiet town. Stella being born to this family should have meant a good life for her. The best schools and everything life had to offer. Instead, this was taken from her at an early age. It began when she was six. Strange things began to happen. Newspapers, paper plates, other paper related garbage seemed to follow her. If it she touched it, it stuck to her. Stella tried to ignore this strange occurrence, but it wasn't limited to garbage. In school paper would move around her, pulling to her. Of course it would get noticed. An obnoxious boy named Weston Trachtenberg noticed the paper moving toward her and pointed it out.
Attention being put on her now, Stella began getting scared. She didn't want people to know about this weird thing that was happening to her. However, getting scared only made things worse. The paper began literally flying and circling around her. She got screamed and tried to back away but it just followed her, still circling. Her teacher tried to reach for her, but the paper lashed out at his arm, preventing this. The paper was only circling her, but was lashing out at anyone going near her. It was defending her. She was scared and making the paper act as a defense mechanism. And that was when Weston started the witch chant. Witch, freak, monster. The teacher did nothing to stop it, for her too now saw it was Stella causing it and he simply stared at her.
Which caused things to get worse. Seeing no one on her side as they called her a witch. The kids threw things at her, though the paper knocked it away. And as the tension rose, the paper got yet worse. Pages from textbooks tore out of their bindings, pictures tack to the walls were torn down. Every piece of paper in the room was now flying around. And then they bombarded the other students. The children were caught in the paper storm, the edges cutting into their flesh. Blood started dripping, soaking into clothes. They fled. The cops were called and Stella was found cowering in the classroom still, to afraid to move. The paper storm had stopped though. She thought she would be arrested or something, but instead two men who wore suits took her away from the school.
It was actually amazing to her how little trouble she seemed to be getting for this. A bunch of kids had been hurt but the cops left like it was nothing and everyone ignored her as she was walked out. The two men took her home first, but her parents had been called prior to their arrival at the school and they knew everything. Her own parents told the men they didn't want "the devil child", that she should be burned for being the abomination she was. Stella didn't understand. The two men decided to take her with them and she fought and struggled, calling for her parents to stop them. They ignored her. Crying, Stella was put in the car and had to wait there while one of the men went back into the house. After a couple of minutes he came back out and the they left. Stella never saw that home or her parents again.
She was taken out of state to Texas and brought to a place called Primatech Paper. She was uncomfortable from the moment she set foot in the building. It was like she could feel all the paper in the place pulling toward her. The two men brought her past the factory though and into some hidden lower levels. She was told she would be staying here from now on and was given a room. Eventually her things from her old room were brought to her, though she didn't know how they got them there.
It turned out that this place was somewhere where adults studied other people with "superpowers". Stella was one of these people. They would sit her in a room and ask her to try to move sheets of paper and she would try. Sometimes it moved, other times it didn't. After awhile it always moved. Stella asked why she had to stay there and why she couldn't go back to her parents. They told her it was because she was safe here. As she saw in her classroom, "normal" people were not ready to share the world with people like her. Staying here was for her own protection. Stella never got out much. They would give her things to play with and paper to practice with. They told her if she learned to control her power she could get out when she was older, so Stella practiced.
Beyond learning her powers, she was also "home" schooled, as this was now her home. Once she got a better grip on her powers, she discovered she was actually able to refuse torn paper and make it as good as new. And the two halves didn't even have to have been the original together, she could fuse scraps into a new sheet. The Company saw profit in this and gave Stella a job in the plant. She was basically a cost effective recycling machine able to turn scraps and faulty cuts back into viable sheets of paper in an instant. Effectively they lost no product and that cut their costs significantly. And this was Stella's life for over fifteen years. Despite being told they needed to achieve peace before she'd be safe out there, Stella saw no signs of this happening. How long was she suppose to wait? And despite her age and her now masterful control on her abilities, they still wouldn't let her leave.
And then the Company was brought down. Stella managed to escape the battle but was surprised to learn it was people like her who were attacking it. Wasn't that an organization trying to protect her kind? Stella found some documents that said otherwise. Profiles of people they'd abducted and experimented on. She even found one talking about her and how they had decided to keep her around instead of doing a 'tag and release' because she was useful and profitable. They weren't protecting her, they were using her. It had all been a lie.
Stella was free now though, but what good it did her was minimal in the long run. She had no idea how to live on the outside after being a captive for most of her life. But she was determined and set off trying to figure things out. She figured she might even be able to pull it off, go into hiding and just live a normal life for a change. With her control over her powers she didn't have to worry about problems there and no one needed to bother her. What could she even do? Well, no matter what her intentions were they came for her. This one called itself "Building 26". They had gotten her file from the other Company and tracked her down. She told them she just wanted to be left alone. They tried to take her anyway. They failed.
It had been over fifteen years since Stella had used her power violently. These people hadn't accounted for just how much paper was actually around them. They tried a taser shot, the paper wall that suddenly appeared was so think the needles couldn't even get through. Stella knew how to defend herself, and this time the paper storm was intentional. And this time the victims didn't just get a bit scratched up. Not one of the soldiers walked away from that. Necks, wrists, anything vital was sliced and stabbed by the enraged woman.
That Company had told her she had to wait for people to agree to peace. After all these years, if anything things were worse. Nothing had been accomplished. People were bigots and their children were bigots, who grew up to keep being bigots. There was no peace here. These people she was waiting for to accept peace clearly didn't want peace. They wanted control. They locked you up for years and used you, then when that fails, they just locked you up forever. It was then Stella realized she would never have a normal life. The people without powers were the normal. They got the normal lives and they unfairly got to decide the fate of everyone around them. Or so they believed. But what gave them that right? What allowed them to come to her when she just wanted to live a normal life and try to capture her? What gave them the right to lock a 6 year old up and then put her to work like a machine. That had been why people like her had destroyed the place - because it wasn't right.
In that moment Stella completely changed. Her viewpoint on the world altered forever. She saw these... people who would capture and kill them for being different and if that was how the game was played, then she could play it too. For weeks they hunted her. They found her often too, but didn't live to tell the tale. Then someone else found her. Her name was Maria Coffos. She was part of a group called Nemesis - the group that took down the Company and freed her! They were a group of people with powers who were ready to do anything it took to put them on top of the food chain. Once they were in charge, they would be the "normal" ones. They would decide how things worked. And all the pathetic, powerless... freaks would burn for their crimes.
Stella went with Maria and introduced to the group, including Yomin Breise, the head man who had the world trembling. He was a visionary of a utopia, a paradise they would win so the next generation and on would not have to suffer as they have. They would have peace. Stella participated in the attacks of Nemesis, though they were ultimately defeated. Stella had been ultimately unprepared for such high level warfare and was rendered unconscious during the battle. This also left her with no paper reserves as she was locked up in a new prison, the "Citadel Penitentiary". Thanks to Maria's skills however, Stella and eleven others didn't have a long stay and were freed. Now under Maria's leadership, the war continues and this time Stella resolves that things will be different.
Personality[]
Stella is an idealist. She believes in the Nemesis doctrine that war will lead to their utopia and freedom. She's spent most of her life imprisoned "for her safety". She thought if she played nice that eventually people would accept her "kind". But then project Building 26 happened. Instead of trying to be nice, they tried to dominate and control. Any means necessary, killing allowed. Stella saw this and turned it against them. If that's how they wanted to play, two could play at that game. From that point on, Stella decided to fight for her freedom. And not just an "allowed" freedom with restrictions that the powerless would grant them. True freedom. Did they think they had any kind of right to dictate how they lived? Stella intends to show them otherwise. She knows they will try to fight back too, but no longer cares. They'd have killed her in an instant given the chance and she would do the same.
Stella has developed a sadistic attitude toward her enemy. To her, their lack of value for the lives of her people forfeit the value of their own. They surrendered their right to live among them. She considers the opinion of Nemesis being "terrorists" and "Monsters" to be propaganda promoted to villainize a group of people forced into a corner and fighting for their very survival. If they didn't fight, they would be wiped out or locked away, buried forever by those who think they have the right to tell them how dangerous they are.
Beyond the idealist driving force of her life, Stella is more then just a fighter of Alpha freedom. She's an artist who loves drawing. She draws pictures of varying styles, from realistic to cartoon. She likes comics and manga. She is often seen idly doodling. She also loves origami, for obvious reasons, enjoying how her power grants her an advantage in creating them. Poetry is another interest of hers, she likes to cite poetic quotes and tries to invent her own as well. She also likes writing random stories of varying subject matter. She's used these things as an outlet for her emotions, expressing herself through word and image. She also like singing, though wouldn't call it a "professional interest". She's not afraid to sing in front of people, but mostly does it for herself. She would love to have a "normal" future, with a husband and kids. Be a professional artist and author. But she'll never be allowed a normal life if she's trying to hide who she is from the world. Her people need to be the norm for her to have a normal life.
Powers[]
Papyrokinesis: Stella possess the ability to mentally control paper. She is able to control all forms of paper and can mentally move and manipulate it. She is capable of folding it hundreds of times upon itself, far beyond normal, making it incredibly dense. She can use this to fashion armor. She can rearrange paper to be in any shape and form she wants. She can separate it with precision using only her mind and is able to perfectly fuse cuts together, allowing her to turn scraps into full sheets again. She's also able to perfectly smooth out all wrinkles making it completely like new again. She's also able to sense any paper within twenty feet of herself.
What she can create with paper is limited only by her imagination. She can not generate paper herself and has to use existing sources, but she is able to absorb any paper she makes skin contact with into her body, carrying up to around one hundred pounds. Using this, she can permanently absorb paper for sustenance too. She can also cover her body (or others) in paper and use that to lift or move herself around faster then she could normally, but this is strenuous and can really only be done in bursts.
Limits: Fire is the biggest weakness to her ability as paper catches fire easy and dissolves it, removing material she can use. She has no way of stopping burning paper beyond the methods used by anyone. Water is also detrimental, though to a lesser extent. Wet paper is weaker and tears easy, but she doesn't lose material. Stella can actually focus to dry paper out, but this takes a few seconds of focus and won't be happening if there's a distraction. Armor she can create can become very durable, enough to even stop bullets. However, it's defenses work off of layers of paper and taking a hit causes damage to the surface scraps. Continual damage will cause the armor to deteriorate, forcing Stella to reconstruct it, which takes time.
Absorbing paper requires skin contact with every piece she wants to absorb, and the time to do it. Attempting to ingest it requires that the paper have nothing printed on it or she'll be ingesting ink or whatever is on the paper. Stored paper with printed material is fine, however. If Stella's body receives a sudden damaging shock (ie. getting punched) some stored paper will be knocked out of her. If she's knocked completely unconscious she'll lose all of what she's holding within her. Stella cannot affect anything written on a paper, say to rearrange words and letters, although she can manipulate the paper itself to cause the writing to basically wear out and disappear.
Lifting herself with paper, while allowing her to simulate flight of a sort, is no true flying ability. She is literally using the paper of an extension of herself and lifting herself or others and holding them up. Much like when holding onto something heavy in your arms, it's the same for Stella and the longer she tries to hold something the heavier it feels and the weaker she gets. Too long can be exhausting. To do this she needs to have enough paper to properly support herself too. The less she uses, the harder it is. Stella mostly uses this in quick bursts. Her ability to sense paper only extends twenty feet. Within that range, Stella is able to manipulate any paper she can sense. Beyond that range she has to have eye contact to move it around. Her range is as far as she can see as long as she has eye contact with it, but the further away it is the more strenuous it is to move.