Character Study

[Persephone]

"Honestly, we never think about the consequences of our actions until we're met with the consequences. It's an effect of being young and stupid, it's a result of thinking 'Yes We Can' in a world where you hear the word 'No' being said more and more. I honestly didn't think much of moving down here. I wanted to get away from home and do something good, and I knew that wasn't going to happen in Saskatchewan." she sighs, running a hand over the light stubble on her head.


"It's not like we have a choice in the end of it, do you feel? Like we're given these gives of immense power and not told what to do with them. Do you blame some of us for going bad?" she turns her head to the interviewer, crossing one ankle with the other.


"You really must know that this is unprecedented. The phenomenon is still new, and you cannot blame people for being a little cautious." the reporter says, holding the paper with the set of questions on it tightly.


"Then, you really don't know any of your history, do you then? Like I understand that it's a part of human nature to fear the unknown or to be hostile to people who aren't one of you. Being a little cautious would be avoiding eye contact, not sending armored gunsmen to collect kids that you supposedly say are part of the 'phenomenon'." she scowls, taking a deep breath before continuing.


"You can't blame us gifted, for being the way we are. We're the next step in the evolutionary process. Can't you see that? We're the best of humanity, even though some of us look barely human anymore."


She looks at the reporter, before folding her hands in her lap. "In a million years, what's human won't be considered what we consider is human. That's honestly just evolution. And I'm here today, to insist that America look at this a different way."


"I might not be from here, heck I'm a Canadian citizen. And you can call me a filthy whatever if it helps you realize it. But, we're not your enemies. Hatred and fear are your enemies." she says.


The reporter looks stunned for what feels like forever. It is only less than a minute. But it feels so much longer to the reporter.


"You 'Gifted' are responsible for millions of property damage each year. Your 'supposed' battles with one another have also been factored into this cost. What do you have to say for it?"


"If property damage is the biggest concern where my people are concerned; then we would all be able to miraculously control our powers. It'd honestly be easier if there wasn't the stigma, because at least the kid would be slightly calmer at finding out they were a mutant."


"I'm not suggesting that we keep them in camps or schools. Or figure out how to ID them. I'm suggesting that we realize that kids as young as 6 are manifesting powers in weeks. I personally manifested over the span of years. And I would have probably manifested at around age 9 if my brother hadn't died." she says.

 

[Persephone]

It had all started in some small town in a province better left forgotten. She was the youngest of six children, and the first girl to be born to that family in years. To say that her birth had been some kind of event that had left the world trembling at the pure potential that she harnessed, would be to lie. At first, it had been the inability to keep her and her brother separate. Then, it had been much the inexplicable bond between her and her brother. Twinspeak was normal, but this was something incredibly complex. They were never really their own persons, with their shared mind, the only thing they did not share was a body.


Her twin, however was born with a weak heart, and in a province where a weak heart was a death sentence, his time was all too limited. There had been other options, other ways of getting a new heart. But it was too little and it was too late. And by the time that they should have been celebrating their ninth birthday, she was left staring at a grave marker on a day too warm to have been proper for a funeral. But it was what he would have wanted. She could almost feel it. Feel him. She was kidding herself, she was. He was dead and gone in the ground. And she would have to pick up what was left of her soul and piece it into something coherent. Everything was so quiet without him.


Even his absence, was something she had never had to deal with before.


The migraines came a few years later during a class on long division. It had felt like something was trying to crawl out of her skull, and it had taken all that she could muster just to hobble to the trash can and vomit violently. They continued for the next three years, totally incapacitating her each time.


She was introduced to her powers when she was driving into Regina on a blustery January morning. Somehow, she had lost control and was heading straight towards the ditch. And that's when she had just stopped. Everything had just stopped and she was left teetering on the edge of the road, half in the ditch. She had saved herself, first of all.


That was always her answer when they interviewed her. The first person she had saved was herself, then it was an elderly lady who had almost been hit with a truck. Then, a young man who thought there was nothing that life could offer him. She felt that one most of all, since she herself had to deal with losing half of what made her who she was. His pain resonated with her deeply, and she had almost let him fall to his own death.


At least he would have gone out how he had wanted to.


And now she was some kind of international peacekeeper. With the band around her arm, and her recently shaved head.


How time flies.

 

[Persephone]

The end didn't exactly come like she had thought it would. She had thought it would have come when she was surrounded by family. Not trapped under rubble. Not with a stop sign lodged in her gut. Not, with all of her power over the very matter that controlled the universe, would anyone had ever thought she would die like this. She didn't, at least. But, it was fitting. Just like she had entered the world with barely a whisper, she would exit a similar way. Maybe she still had the strength to lift the rubble. Perhaps she could heal herself. She probably could.


But, she didn't want to. By all means she was done with everything that her path had given her. There was no use in saving humanity. In the end she had only been a weapon used by political leaders as a means to an end. She drew the line at being a corporate hound. In the end, she had done nothing substantial.


She had more or less patched a couple holes in a crumbling foundation that was doomed.


More or less, she realized it too late. She learned that her own eggs had been extracted and frozen for further testing. She knew the truth, they wanted more like her. Ones who would bend to their will blindly as that would be all they would know. Daughters, maybe even sons. Children who she would never have the pleasure of knowing. Mere children. Perhaps they would be granted some kind of childhood before the burden of responsibility. Maybe some newspaper clippings or the old photos in her apartment to answer the question of who they were.


It wouldn't be all too bad. She might not even be able to pass on her gift. It might be a matter of the environment, and she had developed beside a telepath for most of her childhood. Of course she would have developed complimentary powers.


She could hear him. Faintly. Telling her that she could still go on. She could even see him if she closed her eyes. The curls framing a long, narrow face. His pale eyes, begging. He thinks she has more time.


She has a metal rod stuck in her gut. Her legs had been crushed by the back half of a taxi. She was going nowhere. For all she knew she could already be dead and just waiting for whatever came next. But, she felt close to it. It was getting harder to breathe now. Her eyelids heavier than ever before.


Another explosion, and she dimly hears another building fall.


No worry. It will soon be over, she says to herself.


His voice is getting louder now, she can see him more clearly.


She sighs. He looks distraught.


She slips one last time. He sighs.


Finally.

 

[Persephone]

((Well, look at that. So I'm planning on treating this like a place where I can just write random crap about my characters. If you want to see something in particular, just PM me. I usually respond pretty quickly.))