Archive for November 1st, 2013

#1 Blue Sound

It was around age of 3 that Vika Daly’s Synaesthesia started to become prevalent. At first, her bemused parents welcomed & encouraged the cognitive patterns started to display. While other kids her age were still trying to get a handle on their colors, letters, numbers, & shapes, Vika was creating her own connections through her own unique neural pathways between each. But as time went on, things started getting a little out of hand. By the time she was ready to start school, she was prone to bouts of sensory overload. Unable to cope, the team of experts she was brought to prescribed an intensive regime of drugs, some still in trial phases. While they worked to dull her senses & keep her condition in check, the cocktail also rendered her nearly catatonic. Vika remembers going through life in slow motion. Seeing everything happen quicker than she could register. While she wasn’t on the medication long, it seemed to have a strange effect.

One day after stopping the treatment, just as it seemed Vika was regaining her sense of normalcy, she was doing her geometry homework when suddenly, she got enthralled by the cover of her textbook. It was blue. A deep blue. Vika felt herself getting lost in it, almost feeling weightless. To her surprise, the reason she was experiencing that sensation was because she was floating about four feet off the ground. It seemed as though her treatment had only acted to intensify her condition. Over time, she found that other sensations had other effects on her too. Thinking of the number 9 kept her from getting hurt. Focusing on the sound of plucking strings made her move with super speed. Squeezing squishy plastic, like a stress doll, gives her a burst of strength. Having long since associated the number 4 with her childhood home, focusing on that number will instantly put her there, as if she teleported there. She began explored more & more of her new strange abilities until she came to the attention of some of the top minds in the country. They seemed to want Vika to be some kind of superhero. While she initially had no real aspirations, she had no real objections either.

After years of training, she’s finally been given the greenlight to serve & protect. To facilitate the sensations she needs when she needs them, she was given a special collar, able to project certain sounds through the directional speakers, & spritz special aromas right underneath her nose. She also keeps certain snacks, knick-knacks, & paint swatches in her utility belt that illicit certain beneficial responses. Her big puffy gloves are specially designed with haptic feedback capable of simulating 42 separate tactile sensations through use of a magnetorheological gel. With these, she’s pretty much able to call on any sensations she should need.

At the same time, some sensations can be liabilities. For instance, the smell of mint renders her powerless for up to a half hour. The number 15, she claims “puts her in a bad place,” making her very angry. As a result, she’s flown into a berserk rage after focusing on it for too long. There’s also a very specific blue pantone that will cause Vika to lose control of her flight powers & drift ever upwards. And she’s still not immune to occasional bouts of sensory overload. Another issue due to the nature of her condition, there’s always the possibility of something she hasn’t experienced yet effecting her in some other new, strange way. It makes her a bit of a wildcard at times & to her peers in the superhero world, it seems to make her come off as a little flaky at times.

Still, Vika sees her unique condition as an opportunity. While her powers might not always make her the most reliable superhuman out there, she’s still convinced that she could still possibly make a difference.

—

I started off with another character but it was a little too ambitious & I wanted to keep things on track as possible. Happy with how the color on this one turned out. I don’t know if I explained the powers well enough but I wanted to go for something that wasn’t a traditional superpower. There probably is someone with this kind of ability out there, but I couldn’t think of them. So yeah. I’m not even that big on superheroes anymore. Anyway, just trying to get the ball rolling here. 30 Characters: 1 of 30, Character a Week: 14 of 52.

Day 1: November Reign