Phantom
Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
You stuck in your cage sent to be now feel with me struggles, send me on my way I drift in out of here in to outer space. I found a place out there find me on the moon you'll never be alone, here among the stars is home away from home. There's a moment of surrender there's a moment to make it better, find the old now and remember there's no longer only forever. There's a moment of surrender there's a chance to make it better, find the old now and remember that's forever. I paint the picture of the ocean I'll never see, I hold a candle through the darkness so I believe.
The Basics
General Information
Real Name Melanie Benoit
Current Alias Phantom
Marital Status Single
Classification Super
Characteristics
Gender Female
Age 24 (08/08)
Height 5'06"
Eyes Grey/Green
Hair Brown
Discovery Jan '05
Abilities Animation
Object Possession
Paralysis Inducement
Extended Information
Nickname Mel
Melly

Relatives Delilah Benoit
Blake Benoit
Phoebe Benoit

Sexuality Bisexual Demiromantic
Handler Here
Occupations B&B Assistant
Reg Recruitment May '13
Appearance
Melanie adopted something of a boyish appearance during high school, she'd always been fairly slim and not terribly well endowed, cropping her hair short and going for a tomboy look wasn't too outlandish for her -most people expected it. With striking green/grey eyes, the cropped brown hair just made her features stand out. Melanie's eyes have always been drawing, something that she only accenuates now.

Typically, she wears baggy clothes, loose and comfortable, but she's got a style all her own even with that. She favours darker colours, even in make up, which she wears fleetingly. Melanie is rather angled in her appearance, she's all elbows and thumbs, but she's very much comfortable with herself, which comes across in how she just doesn't care for other people's comments on her appearance at all.
Personality
MIND
65% EXTROVERTED
35% INTROVERTED
ENERGY
43% INTUITIVE
57% OBSERVANT
NATURE
28% THINKING
72% FEELING
TACTICS
62% JUDGING
38% PROSPECTING
IDENTITY
22% ASSERTIVE
78% TURBULENT
Mel is a talker. A talker and a rambler and a bit of a bullshitter. Take everything she says with a grain of salt; her sarcastic streak and morbidly dry humour usually endear her wonderfully to her team mates, friends and anyone else she happens to see. She doesn't make a point in being brash or abrasive, but it happens. Her fuse isn't that long and she is easy set off. Additionally, her moods swing worse than a trapeze artist, something that she grew to normalise as her mother was similar. Her happy moods are at one extreme but her depressive, self-loathing and pitying moods are just as extreme. She can fake things well at most times, although she's quick to anger at certain topics; she doesn't like isolation, nor does she like being crowded however. She'd prefer a much more laid back but constant surrounding without the hassle of assholes.

The problem is, she can be that asshole. She doesn't like rules or very much authority, which was an issue with school, for the most part only her Grandma ever really got Mel to do anything in any kind of timely manner, purely because Grandma was the one who took no shit. It does make her somewhat stubborn, prone to making things a little awkward where she probably should just get on with things. Usually, an explanation goes a long way with Mel, but not always, especially if she thinks the reason is stupid. She doesn't play with other peoples lives though, during mission or training, while she might not follow orders to the letter, she never does so to the extent of risking other people. Her tendency to freestyle sometimes doesn't mesh with handlers, but she gets the job done.

Melanie isn't the romance type. She doesn't like candy and flowers or being treated like a 'lady', she prefers a more masculine approach, is there for fun and doesn't like attachments. She isn't keen on forming anything beyond a mutually beneficial arrangement, when it comes to talking or anything that involves anything remotely like getting to know each other, she bails. She doesn't and won't do commitment of any kind and is more than happy if there's more than one person on the go. She doesn't bother with gender because sex is sex and she's not interested in anything else. Connections scare her and although she'll never admit it, she knows she'll probably wind up with nothing and no one and right now, that's fine. Her mother and her aunt both demonstrated that romantic connections aren't something to be relied on, although Phoebe's dad wasn't a total waste of space like hers and Blake's, she's exceptionally gunshy about relationships.

While she can be brash, Mel's not exactly a life of the party type of girl, but she is social. She enjoys being places, with people and is a chatterbox at the right place with the right people. For the most part, Mel's best friends are her cousin and sister, they do just about everything together, even during those times were the siblings fight or fall out. While she makes friends easily enough, she doesn't let them get too close. It takes a while for Mel to open up the prospect of other people, her close knit family tends to mean that while she is fine with friends, they don't see a lot of the real Mel. For those who do get in, who form those connections to Melanie past just surface level friendship, she's a loyal and true friend and will, happily, destroy anyone who hurts those she cares for.

Given how her family function, traditional views and values don't mesh well with Melanie. She enjoys haunting people, likes coming up with things to scare and terrify, most of the time it's fed into by her sister, who tends to try and one up Melanie a lot, but Mel is a very creative girl and she enjoys the more macabre of media to help her build on. She can come off as a little morbid because of this, but ultimately, she's rarely cruel or violent in her creations.
Abilities & Skills
Melanie is fitted with a standard subcutaneous implant with a nerve agent which causes numbness in her limbs, this renders her unable to sculpt or drawn and leaves her mind fuzzy enough to hinder her powers being used.

Animation
Melanie has the power to create objects, beings and power by using art; through her animations, Melanie can create beings, objects and power depicted on paper and give them temporary life. Primarily used for beings and objects, Melanie is able to draw them on any surface with any drawing tool and bring the art into life -beings come alive from the art and objects become 3D items in the real world. Melanie's art exists in form until the artwork itself is destroyed, either the paper ripped, the digital art erased or the drawing somehow destroyed.

The main factor of Melanie's power is artistic creation, typically by drawing, but also able to give life to creations of other material, such as clay, rock or potentially to a literary manifestation, to give life to words. Melanie's power allows her a degree of imagination manifestation, allowing her to bring into reality anything she can imagine up herself, even if it's not something that typically exists, for instance, if Melanie can draw a creature with three heads, the body of a horse and a scorpion tail, it can exist for as long as her drawing exists. Melanie's imagination is the only limitation to what she can give life to.

Melanie can also create objects around her with art work, like locks on doors, keys to locks, doors where there wasn't a door or holes/tunnels to escape through. Provided Melanie has the means to draw the object on the fly, she can make it work.

LIMITATIONS: Melanie has to be able to draw the art she wants to bring to life, it doesn't need to be on paper, but it needs to physically be drawn; either with chalks, charcoal or even etched into something with an intent. So long as the art is seen, it can be brought to life/existence. But the creation is not invulnerable, not only can destroying the original artwork destroy the form, but extreme damage to the construct will destroy it too.

Items like doors, weapons or otherwise can be destroyed just by breaking them -if Melanie drew a door on a wall, once it was slipped through and closed, destroying the door would remove the ability for anyone else to follow through Melanie's creation.

The longer one of Melanie's animations exists, the less control over it she has. Typically, Melanie destroys her own work after it's been used for the task it was created for. Not destroying the animation can lead to it growing its own consciousness and Melanie having no control over it's actions, leaving it free to do what it pleases, which may in fact be a deterrant to it's creator.
Object Possession
Melanie also has the ability of object possession, where she can possess objects to control their movement and actions. Typically, Melanie uses this on humanoid or animal objects such as dolls, teddies or toys, using them to emulate life. She can use these objects as an extention of herself and while possessing them she sees, hears and feels anything they do.

Objects with a good range in motion are the best for Melanie to use, although she can possess items which don't move, such as television screens, staplers, pens and so forth. She can still use these objects to get a sense of the room they are in, and in the manner of writing utensils, use them to write what she wants instead of anyone else, but she isn't able to see or hear with these objects as they have no sense of sight or hearing like a humanoid doll or animal teddy would.

LIMITATIONS: Melanie's possession is limited to what she knows -if she knows the object is in the room, she can possess it. She cannot randomly possess an item by guessing what might be in the room, she must be able to tell where it would be, what it looks like and what she is possessing. Additionally, she is limited by what those items can do. She can't make a pen suddenly talk or walk, but she can make it write. Similarly, she can't make a clock do anything by tell the time, she can make it tell a time it isn't, or spin the hands insanely.

Destroying the object Melanie possesses will break her connection to the item. It does cause a backlash in her, regularly like snapping a band that's pulled tight, it shakes her control in the moment and takes a little while to brush off. Melanie can only possess one item at a time unless there are many of the same item in the room, and then she can only make them all do the same thing. For instance, a toy store, she could make all the Malibu Barbie's bust out of their boxes and march through the store. But only the Malibu Barbies, and she would not be able to make some march and some not.
Paralysis Inducement
Most used is Melanie's ability to induce paralysis in people, she can do it with a touch or look, provided eyecontact is made. Most recently, she's been able to make her touch a slow acting paralysis, gradually inducing a full body paralysis. Melanie is able to induce paralysis for up to two hours, leaving the person alert and conscious but unable to move any part of their body, feeling returns gradually to all extremities unless Melanie ups the dose to last longer.

LIMITATIONS: To induce paraylsis, Melanie must touch or look into the eyes of the person she is paralysising. Paralysis always wears off, those will healing factors, reactive adaptation or enhanced metabolisms usually process things quicker. Some are immune to the effects entirely. Typically, Melanie uses it on one person at a time, but she could potentially affect more people. Melanie is immune to her own paralysis inducement, but not to someone else's.
History
Delilah Benoit already had a daughter, Blake, when she met Trent Wood. It wasn't a whirlwind romance in the least, Delilah was cagey about getting involved and Trent was a little hesitant given Delilah's young daughter in the picture -and her steely mother with an ever watchful presence. But the tug of attraction and affection proved too much to ignore and the pair spent a summer dating, trying to include Blake in the budding relationship. Things went well for almost a year, the pair talking about getting a place together, them and little Blake forming a family unit, until Delilah had to drop the news that she was pregnant again.

Delilah's mother didn't take it well at all, telling Delilah that she was repeating her mistakes, but Delilah was sure Trent was different. During an argument with her mother, Delilah took Blake and moved into Trent's small apartment, convinced that they would make things work. They lasted another five months, before Delilah came sobbing home with Blake in tow, realising that her mother really did know better. Delilah didn't explain what had happened and Blake wasn't old enough to understand things at that stage. The stress of things meant, five weeks early, Delilah gave birth to her second daughter just a few weeks after splitting from the father.

Early Life
Delilah tried to be an engaged and active mother, but being that she was still young, still wild and had two daughters by different fathers, she wasn't exactly equipped for it. Thankfully, Grandma was forgiving, and loved her granddaughters with all she had. For the most part, Grandma raised both Blake and Melanie, while Delilah was more like the fun aunt to flitted in rather than a nurturing mother. It wasn't terrible, the girls likely had more stability thanks to their grandmother.

Over time, Delilah started to settle into motherhood, trying to help her own mother more and more, being there for the girls when they needed their real mother instead of their responsible grandmother. Having that growing bond with their mother really helped matters when their aunt fell pregnant, although neither Delilah or Grandma were too thrilled at young Marie being pregnant, they supported her through things and grudgingly accepted Jack's presence after Phoebe was born.

Melanie adored the baby, she was small and smelled nice, and Melanie could sit in the room with her and read without being bothered by Blake. As Phoebe grew, Melanie still didn't mind spending time with her, although she could do without the drama of her Aunt Marie all the time. Eventually, Melanie grew to feel guilty about feeling such a way, when Marie's depressive episodes extended to the point where she took her own life.

It was the first real interaction with death for Melanie, and while not entirely traumatic, it aided in convincing her that caring for too many people would only hurt her in the long run. Melanie hadn't bothered too much about making friends outside of her family, her Aunt's passing only making her more determined to keep her loved ones low in number, even as she made numerous friends that passed through her life, she tended not to get too attached.
Power Development
It was Blake who first showed signs of powers, and while it was a somewhat worrying development at first, Melanie soon found herself following in her sisters footsteps, developing the power to bring her animations to life. It started with doodles, hopping about her book in front of her. Gradually, Melanie learned how to make those doodles come off the paper, and then how to make them more lifelike and animated. Controlling the sketches came naturally to her, like she were joined to them, and it was Blake who discovered how to get rid of the ones she brought off the paper.

For a while, Delilah had been drumming up guests by spreading tales of hauntings, ghost stories about the Bed and Breakfast with grisly details to get some tourists through Fairfax and staying with them. Blake had often assisted in selling the stories with her telekinetic abilities, moving objects in front of startled guests. As Melanie grew more confident with her abilities, she began to partake, upping the ante to the point of being able to possess objects in the room with guests, making them move during the night and creeping out the guests.

Finally, when she was twelve, Phoebe was able to join in, with her shadow manipulation abilities. The trio were able to back up any story that Delilah opted to spin, sometimes at dinner for the guests, sometimes by spreading rumours through the town. Being associated with a haunted house, and having the aesthetic to go with it, Melanie's friends started to fall away, further reinforcing her understanding of how fickle life was.

But she had her family, and their little game.
Found Out
Playing tricks on people can sometimes be too much, and one such person noticed that something wasn't quite right. Unknown to the girls, he was with a program called the Wraiths, able to spot the use of powers since the girls were amateur at best. A week later, the Government came for the girls, just as Jack was there to pick up Phoebe, still trying to convince her to apply to college or university.

Jack doing what he could to help the girls only resulted in his capture with them, Phoebe going to a youth facility while Jack, Blake and Melanie were processed into prison. Blake and Melanie were separated, much to their anger, and Melanie spent several months in prison before the same man from the Bed and Breakfast arrived with an offer. He couldn't promise that she'd see her sister again, but the odds of that happening went up if she accepted a position with his organisation. Given that she might see her sister again, and be able to use her powers openly, Melanie accepted and joined the Regiment program.

She wasn't surprised that, arriving in South Dakota, wasn't an instant reunion with either Blake or Phoebe, just disappointed. She tried to keep her distance from her team mates and other supers at the facility while training, but the lack of familial connection eventually started to really weigh on Melanie. Luckily, in the last years, there was an agent who didn't take her brash attitude to heart, not letting Melanie wall her out, Jasmine Lee became a close mentor and friend for Melanie, assisting her in coping with Regiment life and training. The two have a close bond.

So close that when Jasmine was upped for another transfer, Melanie's handler also suggested that Melanie would do better with the move to Limbo too.
Trivia
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Aesthetics