Imaginary Girl

Origins
December, 2058

She was seven, the skinny girl with thick glasses that the other children picked on and made fun of. The situation hadn’t been helped any when she’d been advanced right past the second grade to the third grade, making her ‘the brain’ and younger than her classmates. As a result, the girl became a loner, playing with her toys inside after her schoolwork was done, rather than going outdoors to play with other children. This led her to have a rich imaginary life, including the dreaming up of a ‘superhero’ imaginary playmate she named Imaginary Girl, to beat up the bad guys and protect her and other children.

She imagined her new friend to be powerful, “like, super-duper strong and able to fly really fast, too!”. Stealing an action figure from her brother’s superhero collection, she borrowed clothing from her Barbie dolls and even used her mother’s sewing needles to modify them, making a “really cool superhero costume” for Imaginary Girl. Her imaginary heroine’s powers included the ability to “see and hear really, really good, so she can tell when someone’s in trouble and go help”, as well as change her clothes and her hairstyle to whatever she wanted them to be. The imaginary super-heroine became the girl’s best friend and constant companion.

What the little girl didn’t know was that she had super-powers of her own, as yet latent, but there. Her powers would, someday, allow her to psionically alter reality, including the memories and thoughts of other people, once she learned how to use them. However, circumstances beyond her control would see to it that she’d never get the chance to develop her powers.

She was almost nine years old and now in the fourth grade, riding the bus home from school in a torrential downpour. The girl sat, alone, in the back of the school bus and stared out the window and up into the sky, day-dreaming of clear, blue skies and Imaginary Girl carrying her up into the air for a fun flight over the city – when the bus blew a tire and the driver lost control! The bus careened sideways, side-swiping another vehicle off of the road... then started to tumble. Her mind already on Imaginary Girl, the girl wished with all her heart that her friend was real, so that she could save her and all the other children on the school bus from the crash that was already happening.

The girl’s fear, from the beginning of the driver’s loss of control, awakened her latent powers. Up in the sky, far out of view, Imaginary Girl faded into existence, the girl’s powers making her a real, living being. At the same time, however, the girl’s powers flooded out over the world, affecting the psychic reality of the entire planet. The fame the girl had dreamt for Imaginary Girl, that she was a famous superhero, known by everyone, became a reality – people suddenly knew about the heroine, although no one had an inkling of any superheroic acts on her part, with a few exceptions. These exceptions were the villains of the group known as Next Generation, who kidnapped supers so as to have subjects upon whom to conduct their experiments. In the girl’s playful imaginings, Imaginary Girl had defeated a group of villains who’d kidnapped a group of superpowered persons, rescuing the victims and soundly defeating the villains. Next Generation was the closest group to that which had been daydreamed by the girl, and this knowledge was imprinted upon them – but, worst of all (especially to them) was that no knowledge of when or how they’d been defeated was placed in their minds, nor was any knowledge of what powered persons Imaginary Girl had freed from their clutches. Somehow, they were certain, the heroine had taken their memories from them, as well! They vowed to hunt her down and bring her in, not just for their experiments, but also to learn of the memories she’d stolen from them.

The bus continued to tumble... then stopped. As it turned out, another superhero, Parham, had been in the area, and managed to not only catch and right the school bus, but also prevent the car that’d been forced off the road from smashing into a tree. No one was killed, and only a few bruises were suffered as injury – except in the case of the little girl whose imaginary friend had just opened her eyes, alive and conscious for the very first time, up in the sky, miles overhead. The girl had, with the sudden and tremendous use of her powers, completely burned herself out – her powers would never again manifest. She also suffered from a migraine for the next couple of weeks, but after that went on to have a completely normal life and childhood – without Imaginary Girl – in the process of imprinting knowledge of Imaginary Girl upon everyone in the world, she’d also overwritten her own memories about her imaginary friend. The doll she’d once used to represent her imaginary friend would become just another forgotten toy among her collection of toys.

Up in the sky, Imaginary Girl floated amidst the rain, conscious of herself, conscious that she had great power, aware of what she was able to do and how to do it, but without any memory of before that very moment or any knowledge other than who she was and what she was – a superhero. She looked around, about, and down, and saw the school bus just being set to rights... but with no one apparently doing it, as Parham was using his telekinetic abilities. Swooping down, she made sure the children on the bus were okay. She ended up taking credit for the save, although she tried to make it clear, at first, that she hadn’t been the one who’d save the bus and its passengers.

Psionic Event
The day Imaginary Girl came into being, everyone immediately was able to recognize her and seemed to know about her as a famous superheroine. A global-scale psionic reality alteration implanted this knowledge in everyone's heads - the same effect that created Imaginary Girl in the first place. It's your choice, as a player, whether or not this mental tampering affected you - those with mental defenses would be the most likely to be unaffected, of course. Those with abilities to detect psionic activity would likely have noticed that something happened, that it affected pretty well all the 'normal' folks out there, and that it was global in scale. (To anyone else, the psionic event would probably go by unnoticed.) For more information, please see my BG1 and BG2 information on the MUSH, and/or contact me via page or @mail.

Contacts
Team - New Blood: Early on in her heroic career, before the Imaginary Friends saga (read about it in Logs of Imaginary Girl's Favorite RP Scenes), Imaginary Girl was given a communicator by Jennifer(aka: Amber and Azure), allowing her to be called by the New Blood team, in case they ever have need of her. She knows nothing, really, of New Blood, only that they're "good guys" and that they sometimes used the little ear-bud communicator given to her to call on her for help. She traded this communicator in for the Safeguard communicator (see below), because all New Blood team members are also Safeguard team members and they can reach her using that communicator, just as easily.

Organization - Safeguard: Just before a hostage situation in London, her help with which Jennifer(aka: Amber and Azure) called for via her New Blood communicator, Imaginary Girl was given a Safeguard communicator by Rebound. Yet another "team" of heroes who call on her for help when they need it, and about whom she really knows nothing.

Powers
Imaginary Girl was dreamt, even before she was willed into actual existence, to be super-humanly strong, invulnerable, possessed of superhuman senses of sight and hearing, able to rapidly heal from injury and change her clothing at will, and also able to fly - at extreme speeds if she so desired. All of these abilities carried over when she was willed into being. Her body, while as human as can be, is actually a construct of psychic energy - which also makes her ageless and eliminates any need for food, drink, or sleep. She's also, as a result, immune to the effects of toxins and poisons. Of late, she's also discovered the ability to touch, grab, punch, or otherwise affect (with her body) incorporeal people and objects, even though she herself is solid.

Personality
Imaginary Girl is an outgoing and cheerful person who has, really, just one goal in life: to be as good a superhero as she can possibly be - it's what she was made to be, and she has an ingrained and powerful sense of responsibility to use her powers for good. Still, she has no real life experience other than what was imagined into her by a nine year old child. This makes her excitable and somewhat rash, often resorting to action before taking the time to think things through. Even with this immaturity and recklessness, though, she has the willpower to 'pull it together' when it comes to it, especially if there's a strong leader taking charge of things. She makes friends easily and quickly - sometimes too quickly, not taking the time to get to know someone well before trusting them. If you want a secret kept, she's probably not the best person with whom to share it. Being as she doesn't have any secrets of her own to keep, she's no good at keeping the secrets of others. She tends to see the world through rose-colored lenses, assuming the best of anyone and everyone until they prove otherwise, and tends to see 'good and evil' in black and white, with very few shades of gray between them. When she gets sad or depressed, she acts the way a child does - she'll tend to overact it and try to get attention so that someone will console her. When she's angered, she again acts a bit childish, perhaps throwing a tantrum or not controlling her strength - either of which can cause additional problems.

History
Prior to her awakening late in 2058, Imaginary Girl is completely lacking in a history of her own. She doesn't even have any memories of before the moment she opened her eyes while floating in the sky over the city in the rain on the day she was willed into being. Even all the people in the world who'll recognize her as a superhero, thanks to that knowledge being planted in their heads by her creator's power, won't be able to call to mind any heroic act on her part - and anyone who pays attention to such things will be able to easily see that there's nothing recorded about her in the past, not in the newspapers or reported via television. A few people, namely the villains of Next Generation, have had some specific knowledge of her imprinted into their minds.

There are, however, records about Imaginary Girl's Continuing Story - those things she's done and experienced after her awakening late in 2058.

RP Logs
There's a list of Logs of Imaginary Girl's Favorite RP Scenes, if you want some more detailed reading on the roleplay that Imaginary Girl's player has really, truly enjoyed. This also gives a more detailed look at these particular parts of Imaginary Girl's life and history.

Theme Music
Click on a link to listen to the song! LISTEN - "Imaginary Girl", The Silver Seas LISTEN - "Imaginary Girl", Colony 5 LISTEN - "Imaginary Girl", Hunters and Collectors LISTEN - "Imaginary Girl", A.D. Police soundtrack LISTEN - "Imaginary Girl", Tabloid