Name: Felicia Vespa
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Occupation: Landlady
Plant Essence: Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust

Rose's Thorns: It's said that every rose has its thorns, and Felicia's thorns mean business. They can grow from shoots that extend out from inside her sleeves or up from the ground to create a hedge around her, then quickly retreat. They vary in size, from that of small daggers to a size small enough to pick locks.
Current Mastery: Can make a set of "grass knuckles," or snag an ankle with an underground shoot.

Toxic Love: Everything Felicia produces is toxic. Shoots, wood, bark, thorns, leaves, flowers, fruit and all. Even her bodily fluids are poisonous. The range of symptoms include anorexia, depression, incontinence, abdominal pain, weakness, paralysis, and cardiac arrhythmia. They are debilitating, but very rarely lethal.
Current Mastery: Can't control which symptoms manifest. Doesn't actually know this power exists, as its effects are still too weak. Exposure might give you butterflies, but won't send you to the hospital. Yet.

Mother's Resentment: Felicia is tough—unnaturally so. Certainly, her own poisonous fluids do not harm her, but her body will also toughen up in response to trauma. Punching her is as effective as punching a tree. Literally, her skin takes on the texture of bark and the hardness of wood. She punches above her weight as well. Her strength increases while in direct sunlight, but rapidly depreciates in the shade.
Current Mastery: The effects of her decade-old smoking habit have begun to reverse themselves. A natural night owl, Felicia hasn't yet made the connection between this and occasional exposure to sun.

Personality— You know her type. An ill-tempered woman who communicates primarily in short phrases of three-to-four letter words, the most polite of which sounds an awful lot like "your rent is due." But in the Smoky Mountains area of eastern Tennessee, Felicia is known as "that quiet biker girl who drives the old ladies to the grocery store." It's true—behind a layer of toxic levels of sass and "intolerance of other people's B.S." hides a dependable soul who only shows her soft side to those she deigns to be too pure, vulnerable, or naive to take advantage of her kindness. If she sees trouble, she'll put on her best Karen act and become an even bigger source of trouble, hiding her intentions behind a veil of narcissism. She puts her entrepreneurial skills to good use, capitalizing on opportunities only someone like her could.

History— Felicia comes from a rich family, which with the benefit of hindsight, she would describe as "a family of well-adjusted psychopaths, with a worthless Wall Street Baby at its head." The family matriarch, Felicia's mother Rosa, was particularly vicious towards her for not fitting in with the rest of the lawyers, doctors, and politicians—all of which were, at least at home, devoutly Catholic. As for Felicia, it's as the song on the radio goes: she'd lost faith in science, the holy Trinity, and the people on TV, including those aforementioned politicians. Over time, she developed a hair-trigger sensor for all manner of abuser language, gaslighting, and mind games, and is deeply skeptical of everyone and everything that evokes it.

So, when one day Felicia just up and vanished with the money she was supposedly going to use for college tuition, no one batted an eye, except perhaps to gather in some half-baked prayer that she wouldn't do anything to embarrass the family. Rather than going to a university, she packed her bags and just told her driver to take her as far away as possible, as fast as possible, avoiding any major cities along the way. After an entire day spent in a car, she woke up from her nap and asked where she was, which was Knoxville, TN. She decided that was good enough, and started looking for opportunities to grow some new roots in the area. After a few months, she found a mark: a gated community of retirees who were unwilling to leave, even though the place was floundering under incompetent management.

She bought it, hired new staff, and improved the living conditions of her new clientele, earning her a lot of respect in the small community in Sevierville, which she then moved to. It seemed her new life would run smoothly, until one day she suddenly started having horrible nightmares, wherein she'd find herself being buried alive in a pit of snakes, which would bite at her hands and not let go. When she woke up, she'd find unexplainable puncture wounds on her hands, with no sign of snakes anywhere. Not on or near her, her bed, bedroom, house, or even, as her gardener assured her, her property. Dare she resort to calling a priest? Hardly. She simply dealt with the disturbingly mysterious malady, until one day, it happened while she was awake. While reaching for her coffee, she felt a sharp pain, which at first she thought was simply due to her missing the handle on her mug and bumping it with her thumb, but after looking, she saw that her hand was nowhere near her mug. Instead, grasping the mug was a ring of vines covered in thorns, one of which was puncturing her thumb. After reeling her hand back, spilling coffee on it and burning it, the thorns retreated into her arm, like some kind of Spider-Man special effect. What.

But, Spider-Man... maybe she was on to something. Animal-based superpowers were a thing, apparently. Nobody else in her family had them, but she could simply be the first. Nothing strange about that, but as for what kind of animal it could be... unless it was snakes? Ugh. Why'd it have to be snakes? Regardless, she'd have to master this new power at least a little before she'd feel comfortable leaving the house again, so she did just that for as long as she could get away with lying to her employees and clients about her newly found passion for quilting—and she was going to be self-taught, mind you.

Finally, the day of the Miami researcher's fateful discovery came. Felicia missed the broadcast on American Morning—being a night owl—but she caught the articles and memes afterward, and she knew she'd have to go to the summit. Even if all she got was a bunch of lies from talking heads in suits, knowing what lies they'd cooked up this time would itself be useful, or so she'd convinced herself. It's not as though she had many opportunities to gather information about this. Still, there was no way she would be so forthcoming as to show off her powers for a mere Benny. She certainly wasn't in the market for an Avengers-style cast of characters to add to her contacts. This was strictly... reconnaissance. Right.

Miscellaneous— Bisexual. Her name means "Successful Wasp."

Plant Facts:

• The "Rose's Thorns" picture is actually the Honey Locust tree. The Black Locust's thorns come in much smaller pairs, at the base of the leaves.
• It's speculated that the Honey Locust's massive thorns evolved to deter prehistoric mammals. They aren't very useful as a defense against small animals. Thus, Felicia shows her soft side to small animals, and people who remind her of small animals.
• The Black Locust is actually toxic, with the exact effects described in Felicia's "Toxic Love" ability. In reality, horses are most vulnerable to its poison, as they tend to eat the shoots and chew its bark. Human cases of Black Locust poisoning are rare and unremarkable.
• The Black Locust can tolerate poor quality or disrupted soil, and even the pollution of big cities—but not the shade. Its wood is also among the most durable in the US. This was used as the inspiration for her "Mother's Resentment" ability, which increases her tolerance of poisons and general hardiness, while in direct sunlight.
• The Black Locust succeeds by colonizing poor soil early, growing with weed-like speed to shade out its competition. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots then allow other species that it gets along with to move in. This inspired her entrepreneurial sense, occupation as a landlord, and design as a front-line fighter.
• Pseudoacacia means "false acacia," so Felicia's personality is a little two-faced.
• The Black Locust is both native and very desirable in some areas of the US, but is considered invasive in others. Make of that what you will.