Are you still accepting? (also, sorry for the monstrosity that is her bio section… i didn't realize it'd gotten so long)
Name: Aya Lynn Germain, a.k.a. Cosmos
Appearance:
Small and lithe, Aya's 5' build betrays none of her strength – she has years' worth of lean muscle hidden under her clothes, built up from doing judo. Her long hair falls down her back, straight and dark brown. She's never been one for doing much with it. Aside from the occasional ponytail or braid, she's content to just let it rest where it falls. Her eyes are a deep brown color, and fairly weak. She's supposed to wear glasses, but she often finds them too much of a hassle to put on, and dislikes the idea of contacts. Her clothing style is simple, but not without its edgy touches; she enjoys the occasional dress and biker jacket, or heavy boots, and has multiple piercings on her ears. She leans more towards earthy colors, like greens, blues, browns, and blacks.
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Power: Astral Projection
Aya is capable of extending her consciousness outside of her body. Invisible to others, her spirit form is capable of passing through solid objects or going into dangerous situations or environments she otherwise would avoid. She can also create projections of other people if she's touching them. She runs the risk of stranding them in the astral plane however, if she's not touching them when she snaps back to her body. Aya can keep up her projection indefinitely, and can hear and see everything around her. So long as she keeps up her concentration, she can also sustain the projection up to a mile from her physical location. When maintaining her projection, her physical body is more or less helpless. She's still conscious, and can talk to others, but it's difficult for her to move, and she is more or less oblivious to her surroundings. Due to her projection's intangible nature, she's also unable to influence her spiritual environment or talk to anyone through it.
Bio: Aya grew up as an only child on the island of Oahu, and was raised by a single mother. Though she was at her heart a kind woman, Ms. Germain had a strong, domineering personality. This, combined with Aya's submissive nature, meant that Aya often had very little control over her life, as her mother simply "always knew what was best" and Aya was too timid to say otherwise.
Aya discovered her powers at an early age. When she was seven years-old, a sleepover prank left her locked in a closet. She listened to her friends giggling in the other room as she clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs. All she could think of was how dumb she'd been for falling for it, how afraid of the dark she was, and how badly she wanted out of that closet. The next thing she knew, her wish came true. She was standing in her friend's brightly-lit bedroom, watching her friends whisper and giggle to each other. But… they didn't even notice her. To Aya's horror, when she tried to tap one of their shoulders, her hand slipped right through. After that night, Aya became a more withdrawn, quiet person. She'd seen the news reports. People with powers – people like her – were often met with fear and hatred. Whenever there was a special article on some freak or other in the papers, her mother always had some choice words to share. They were never good ones, either.
Life was fairly uneventful for Aya after that. She didn't have many friends, but she was always a bright girl and her grades were excellent. She spent most of her time trying to not give into her curiosity and test out her abilities. After she graduated though, everything changed. Her mother had convinced (forced) her to apply for a university close to home. Aya, having lived under her mother's stifling thumb for eighteen years finally decided that she wanted to make decisions for herself and live in the college dorms. The resulting fight was spectacular. Because Aya didn't yet have proper control over her powers, when her mother grabbed her shoulder (Aya had been attempting to walk away from the argument, and Ms. Germain simply wasn't having it) Aya accidentally pulled her mother into the astral plane with her. She was horrified. Her mother was outraged because not only was her daughter a freak, but Aya had kept it from her all these years. Whatever hope of calming down was lost after that. The fight only became more visceral, and it ended with Aya packing her bags that night and booking a flight to the mainland, running away from the only home she’d ever had. She hasn’t heard from her mother since that night.
Aya wanted to get as far away as possible, and didn’t stop running until she arrived in New York. She had enough saved for a questionable apartment in a sketchy part of town, but not much past that. A string of bad luck (struggling to find work, multiple break-ins that shattered her confidence and bank account, and the growing paranoia that she would be persecuted should her abilities ever be revealed) left her desperate.
Finally one day she gave into the temptation that niggled at her: she used her powers to steal. Picking out a pharmacy that required a passcode to unlock instead of a key, she spent a day using her powers to map out the building and shadow workers, memorizing the combinations to both the front door and the safe in the back room. That night she put on her most shapeless sweater and wore her hood low over her face as she punched the code into the door with shaking fingers. Aya shoveled as much money and – on an impulse – pharmaceutical drugs into her bag as she could and ran from the store. It would've been the perfect getaway… if she hadn't bumped into a passing bystander and activated her powers on accident. Dragging the middle-aged man into the astral plane with her, Aya almost had a breakdown then and there. This was it. Her secret was out.
Frazzled and not sure what to do, Aya snapped herself back into her body – only to find she'd left the man on the other side. Hearing police sirens in the distance (reporting to the scene of some unrelated crime) she panicked and ran, leaving the man's empty body in the streets. The money was enough to pay her rent for the next few months, and she worked out a deal with her neighbor who… wasn’t the most upstanding of citizens. Apparently there was quite the midnight-market for the sorts of drugs she’d acquired.
Meanwhile, the man she’d… run into that night had been taken in by the local hospital and pronounced brain-dead. The next day she slipped back into the astral plane. And then she promptly slipped back when she found herself face-to-face with the same man. Unable to face what she’d done, she didn’t use her abilities again until half a year later when her money ran out and she saw no other choice but to reenact that night.
With a shaking breath she slipped back to the other side… only to find it empty. The man had died, and with it his projection fell away.
Since then, Aya has (thankfully) found a steady job working as a barista at a local coffee shop, and hasn't used her powers out of fear of being discovered. She still has nightmares about the man she killed (because that's what she did, in the end, isn't it?) and her neighbor gives her a hard time about getting back in the market, but nowadays Aya's as upstanding a citizen as you'll find. She's currently saving up her money so she can move to a better part of town.
Personality: Aya is a quiet and timid girl, with a struggling self-esteem. Though very clever and sweet, she's not the best at making friends or opening up to people. Years of hiding her powers from those around her have made her slow to trust and constantly afraid of rejection. Because of this, she's always eager to please, even if it means compromising who she is and how she presents herself. Once you actually get her to open up though, you'll find a playful and genuine girl, with a penchant for mischief and a low tolerance level for narrow-mindedness.
Other: Afraid of thunder, the dark, loud noises, rejection… let's just say she scares easily.
