Swan

Appearance
Swan is tall, with wavy golden-blond hair that falls to the middle of her back, and golden eyes. She is slightly remarkable for the distinct similarity between eye and hair colors; more remarkable are the lighter-colored feathers in her hair, which appear to grow from the back and bottom of her scalp.

Psychological Evaluation
"Subject 12 has consistently displayed disinterest in speaking with Facility staff in a therapy environment. Prior to the current round of therapy, Subject has entered prolonged periods of elective mutism, which were in most cases proven not to be related to mind wipes or serum treatment. She continues to have a consistently low affect in non-combat situations. Her affect and behavior seem most comparable with strong focus, or calmness, which she asserts is necessary for using her gift. Even having built rapport with Subject, she has a low incidence of clear and substantial responses in psychoanalysis.

''In combat and training situations, Subject displays model soldier behavior, compliance and obedience. However, Subject is observed to take substantial risks in the name of "testing" her gift's resistances. Subject 12 also claims to operate on "hunches" in regards to combat situations. She is most frequently motivated by performance assessments in training and missions, and by competition. She is observed to spend a great deal of time improving upon weak areas, leading staff to conclude that she is self-monitoring her performance at a higher level and with more interest than she reports in therapy.''

Subject sings or hums frequently, and reports a fondness for music that has led to support staff providing her with a variety of musical instruments, which seem to be her primary fixation outside of physical activity."



(excerpted from a recent Facility Psychological Evaluation)

History
While Swan has performed with enthusiasm and dedication on many evaluations, she continues to be taciturn to the point of obstruction in therapy settings.

Gifts: Kinetic Energy Manipulation

 * Kinetic Absorption: Subject 12 exhibits the capacity to absorb and redirect kinetic energy . Punches, falls, and other blunt impacts have no effect on her. Instead, she innately converts these impacts into kinetic energy, which she can then internalize and store. Other impacts (cutting force, piercing forces, bullets, shrapnel, etc.) may yield some kinetic energy but are less efficient, and have been shown to be harmful to the subject. Neither extremes of temperature nor magical energy appear to trigger her absorption abilities.
 * Energy Storage: Once the subject has absorbed energy, she can retain it for approximately twenty-four hours, although the energy appears to deteriorate at a stable rate over this period of time. The subject appears to possess an intuitive, but imprecise, knowledge of what her so-called 'energy stores' are at any given time; this understanding is perhaps slightly stronger than, but very much analogous to normal understanding of satiation and hunger, or (normal) energy and exhaustion.
 * Physical Augmentation: The subject can apply this stored energy to physical actions: strengthening punches or strikes exponentially, increasing running speed or stamina, application to her flying maneuvers, and other physical performances.
 * Energy Transition: When she has sufficient stores of energy, Swan can transfer her energy into other forms--and into other containers. Subject can recharge batteries or start pinwheels spinning without wind; she may be able to extend transfers further, but this proves a greater drain on her energy stores with more complex transitions, and further testing should be performed.

Anomaly: Flight
As a side effect of treatment, the Subject has developed a capacity for short-range levitation and self-propelled flight. The more kinetic energy she has stored up, the faster and further she can fly. Subject has developed some avian secondary physical features; research has yet to conclusively correlate this with her anomaly. As these features neither serve a discernible purpose nor negatively impact Subject 12, their origin is no longer under active study.

Weakness
Depletion: Without energy reserves to draw on, Swan loses access to many of her powers - and further, becomes sluggish and even more withdrawn and taciturn. Side effects progressively worsen the longer she is in energy-withdrawal.

Expressive Difficulty: Swan has trouble with articulation, which might be natural, if the common language spoke in the Empire is not in fact her native tongue. It's compounded by her desire to do things well - not being able to say what she means or is thinking means she sometimes will prefer to say nothing at all.

Risk Taker: Swan doesn't believe she's invincible, but she certainly does think she's a little bit less vincible than everyone else, and as such is likely to take chances that can be risky, or downright idiotic at times. Sometimes they pan out becasuse of the resistances unique to her gift; sometimes, not so much.

Abilities

 * Expert Martial Artist: Like all the other experiments, Swan has been rigorously trained in hand-to-hand combat, with a focus on exploiting her considerable size and unique capacity to take a punch (and then give it right back with superpower-strengthened gusto.) Naturally, she favors styles based on strength and blocking, rather than any sort of speedy movement or dodging.
 * Pole Arm Combatant: Although she's been trained in many melee weapons, her preference for the long reach of pole arms has seen her eventually settling for the war scythe she carries now.
 * Aeronautic: After her recent anomaly developed, Swan began receiving intensive training in the best ways to put her flying ability to use, in and out of combat.
 * Archer: Since guns don't allow her to put her Gift to use, Swan has always concentrated on ranged weapons reliant on physical strength; her aim and speed with a bow are exceptional.
 * Song Bird: Well, nobody at the facility taught her this, but Swan is an excellent musician, with a finely tuned ear--and she seems to have perfect or near-perfect pitch.
 * Bodyguard: Swan has received special instruction in protecting and guarding important (and civilian or less powerful) allies.

Tactics
Swan is primarily a frontline fighter, trained to hit the opposition fast and hard;

Paraphernalia
placeholder

Trivia

 * Plays piano beautifully; she may play other instruments, but she hasn't been given any other instruments in the facility and so nobody has found out, yet. She definitely does sing, though.
 * Has a mild accent. From where? Great question. But she doesn't even know.
 * Practices almost obsessively for any kind of test or trial at the Facility.