Serendipity Lewis-Williams
Name: Serendipity Lewis-Williams.Age: 24.
Gender: Female.
Sexuality: Lesbian.
Profession: Security guard, with HAZMAT and first aid training (works at a pharmacological plant with training on the various mishaps that can occur there).
Personality: Strange and often contradictory, though some is due to childhood trauma and long-term injuries. She can be unmotivated or single-minded, obtuse to social cues yet hypervigilant, and is usually modest and unassuming but always wears sweaters or shirts with her own cartoonish likeness on it (yes, really). She'd had an unlucky and sometimes frightening life, and much of her behavior stems from overcaution. Any kind of overly strong display of emotion, or especially seeming mental instability, makes her so stressed that she tries to remove herself from the situation immediately. At the same time, she seems to derive a strange enjoyment from being the one to scare people she doesn't like, perhaps viewing it as long-term karmic justice.
While this might make her seem like a total head case, it's more like she's unpredictable and has a lot of quirks, especially in things she tries to avoid. She has a big heart even if she guards it cautiously, and generally tries to help people, especially children. She often tries to think of what her parents would do in a situation before taking drastic action... or if she has time just calls them for advice, as they're both very much alive. In fact they own the plant where she works, which explains her level of job security in spite of her quirks.
History: Serendipity's bad luck in life started by nearly not having one in the first place. Her parents, Kay Lewis and Samuel Williams, were brilliant in child-related fields - Kay a pharmacologist specializing in juvenile psychiatric disorders, Samuel a pioneering child psychiatrist. They met through a shared frustration with existing medical supplies, and started a pharmacy that eventually took off. However, they couldn't conceive a child themselves, and were resigned to helping others until they were approached about an experimental fertility treatment that could assist with their unusual combination of issues. They eagerly accepted.
Serendipity was born a little over nine months later, at which point Kay, experiencing severe postpartum psychosis, thought her newborn was a monster and tried to attack her. Baby Serendipity was quickly rescued by her father and the attending doctors, and Kay could never account later for what she must have been thinking. Fortunately she avoided any serious consequences through her husband's intervention, who also convinced her to let go of any guilt for a mental event out of her control. After that one serious hiccup, both of them were model parents.
Unfortunately no parent is perfect, and one day when she was six, a disturbed but previously peaceful teenage patient of Samuel's attacked her in his waiting room when they were accidentally, briefly left alone together. Several blows to the face damaged her teeth in particular, and Serendipity found the resulting dentist visit so traumatic that even at such a young age, she adamantly refused to see one ever again. Thankfully it wasn't too much of an issue since her adult teeth weren't harmed, but she's still self-conscious about her mouth and sometimes wears a cloth medical mask in day-to-day life.
The previously fearless Serendipity grew increasingly agitated after the twin blows of the physical assault and starting school, and her parents put her into childrens' martial arts classes to build her self-confidence, where she excelled. However, she always refused to compete at tournaments due to violence with any real stakes causing her too much anxiety. Being theoretically good at fighting was good for her nerves, though, and she went through school and then college intending to follow in her parents' footsteps in some fashion or another. Hopefully in a role that didn't require any face-to-face interaction. She was undone by a lack of academic acuity despite her genuine efforts, and dropped out as a sophomore. Now she's not really going anywhere, but she's content where she is, out of the way yet doing something reasonably important and supporting her family.
Strengths: Very fit and good in a fight. Surprisingly aware of her own strengths and weaknesses for someone that often seems so neurotic. Blends in easily as long as people don't interact with her in detail. Not easily surprised or panicked. Alert and good at noticing details.
Weaknesses: So many tics that she can make people nervous, despite the challenge of pinning down any one that offends the sensibilities. Noticeably weird fashion sense; nobody else at the plant wears a sweater with their own cartoon on it like they're a children's entertainer or a fat-camp operator. Kind of a slow learner, especially where book-learning is concerned. Surprisingly prejudiced against the mentally ill considering her family and workplace, though that can be attributed to childhood trauma - she never willingly spends time around them. One of those people disliked by technology, to the point that she's inevitably a blur in pictures, leading to yet another thing she avoids: cameras.
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Additional Strength: Some of her weaknesses are in fact rational adaptations to her circumstances.
Additional Weakness: It's immediately obvious that she's a Variant - if you have the means to see her for what she is.
Appearance: Her hair is long, colorful, and vibrant and clashing to the point of potentially being slightly maddening. Too many strange, seemingly painted-on eyes adorn her hair and skin, their count changing as they open and close themselves in and out of existence, and her two main ones are orange and seemingly lit with an inner fire despite casting no light. Teeth like a shark. Her physique is feminine but short and skinny, which some take as small and weak and others as sleek and nimble, depending on the perceptiveness of the viewer. However, people tend to assume that she's a pretty but unremarkable blue-eyed blonde, for reasons soon explained.
Type of Variation/Abilities: The Other
Confabulation: Serendipity causes subject-specific visual confabulation in anyone that looks at her, blocking out her inhuman details. Confabulation refers to a mental disorder of a sense or memory, here in which a sense is nonfunctional, but the sufferers is absolutely convinced that it's working fine and will try to fill in details or fabricate them from whole cloth to satisfy themselves. Sometimes this can result in a consensus (like her parents reaching an agreement about her looks) but other times it can result in disagreement and even violence. So, won't people that don't yet know her disagree on even her basic physical details like her hair and eye color? Not if she has a picture of a blonde, blue-eyed, normal-teethed girl with her name on it on her shirt!
Generally speaking, the only people naturally immune to the effect are those that have an existing, overriding mental issue, including temporary conditions caused by extreme physical and/or emotional stress. Childbirth is a dramatic example, but another one would be, say, the toll of fighting one's way through a karate tournament. That kind of immunity is usually temporary, later leaving the person wondering (but not too hard) what got into them for a little while there.
Senses and Metasenses: Serendipity has more and sharper eyes than she should, in places where she shouldn't, and she's no slouch where hearing and scent are concerned either. Furthermore, her extra eyes have an additional psychic sense: they know when someone is looking in their direction, and whether they're seen. It's thus very hard to get the drop on her, and even harder for people that recognize her freakish nature at a distance to chase her down and confirm it.
Unnature, Red in Tooth and Claw: Serendipity is a terror in close combat, figuratively and literally. She's faster, stronger, tougher, and sharper than any human should be. Besides that, if she's fighting someone - or better yet, pursuing them - there usually comes a mental snapping point in which her prey suddenly sees her for what it is, a shock that's difficult to recover from in the fraction of a second it takes her to deliver a knockout blow. While she's not a mindless berserker, her ferocity when she gets going can be intimidating in itself, and her alien mindset makes her difficult to deter or even read via the mentalist talents of other Variants.
Additional Personality Note: So, why does this natural-born dealer in fear and death lead a pretty humdrum, trouble-avoiding life? Partly it's because she learned empathy unwillingly, by being on the receiving end of serious frights early in life, but mostly it's simply because she loves her parents and wants to make them proud. For their part, they've put together that something is seriously "off" with their daughter, but no longer try to get to the bottom of it and just accept and care for her in return.
