"I know you were just joking, but I'll will wring your fuckin' neck if you call me a spider again. "F I N G E R T R A P
| N A M E: |Carrie Mullen aka Fingertrap
â– 2002-10 | Quiet Beginnings
Carrie was born in South Dakota to John and Sidney Mullen. They owned a ranch on the western side of the Missouri River, where Carrie helped as much as she could between school days. At first, they thought Carrie had some kind of birth defect, because she had a pair of oddly stiff protrusions on the back ends of her shoulders. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with the newborn, so they chalked it up to a deformity and told her parents to simply watch her health closely. Her father wished that they would have a son who could work on the ranch, since they weren’t successful enough that they could pay for workers, and the only other person living with them was Sidney’s brother, but it didn’t matter when they had to raise their daughter. The oddities surrounding her birth didn’t prove to affect her health, but within the first few weeks that Carrie was at home, those fleshy nubs near her shoulder blades began to grow at an alarming rate, and within a week, their baby had an extra pair of arms. It was at that point that they realized their daughter was a mutant. Naturally, their first thought was to call the doctors, because they knew very little about mutants other than the fact that they existed.
The doctors were more knowledgeable on the subject, and told John and Sidney that children typically developed mutant abilities around adolescence, but there were times when physical changes occurred instead of supernatural one, such was the case with their infant Carrie. She was unique in her own way, and all they could do was support her. The doctors did a check up on her skin, and assumed it would simply grow and develop differently like the extra arms. As the years went by, her mother researched as much about mutants as she could with her brother Rick. It was hard to believe that something some far off and baffling as superpowers could be present in their daughter, but no one said being a parent would be easy. Rick and Sidney did the best they could with Carrie, but John Mullen was a hard man. The only reason he tried to have a child in the first place was to have a son that could help on the ranch. He took care of her like a father should have, but he was just that; A father, not a dad. John Mullen put the ranch before anything else, and so he didn't expect a deformed little girl to do any of the hard work outside the house. From the moment she could tie her shoes however, Carrie proved she could pull her own weight. By the time she was ten years old, Carrie was able to pull a defiant horse into a stable by the reigns with the strength in her arms, and slowly drag a steel plow across the ground if she needed. While these things dissuaded her father's assumptions that a little girl couldn't handle heavy lifting, it didn't put a smile on his face, he simply told Carrie, "Fine. You can work, just don't get yourself hurt."
Carrie grew up dedicating as much time as she could get away with to the ranch despite her father's cold idea of affection. John handled the horses and the cows, while Rick and Sidney mostly handled the crops. Carrie simply helped everyone with everyone, being an energetic child who wanted to just be active. It was hard to connect with her father, since he was the type of man who refused to accept help from people that he didn't need it from. From an early edge, John Mullen put too much time into the "tough" part of tough love.
â– 2010-16 | Alone in the Crowd
As Carrie progressed through school, she was the perpetual odd one out. People didn't like mutants as much her parents when they didn't have to raise one, so she was bullied for having four arms by everyone. She struggled to make friends because people were creeped out by her. In her classes, she did the best she could to learn, but when Carrie tried to ask a teacher for help, she was ignored. No one stepped in to stop the bullying that sometimes got physical unless she punched someone in the face for it, earning her a stay in detention. By the time she reached high school, Carrie wasn't around the usual faces as much, but all the strangers in her class couldn't help but stare at her. She had to wear tank tops because nothing else fit her unusually broad shoulders, and dress codes meant she wore jackets every day. It was a weird sight to many people when an extra pair of hands poked out under her sleeves. When she tried to make friends, the first questions she got asked were usually, "Are you one of those mutants?" or "Are you some kind of monster?"
Carrie didn't stop trying, and every now and then someone was nice enough that she could call them a friend, but they didn't stay long when they were able to replace the "freaky farm girl" with a two-armed person that did more than talk to cows and drive a tractor. Carrie was effectively a social outcast, and her usual outbursts against bullies only made her less likeable. Her grades were fine on days when she understood subjects taught, and they tanked when teachers tried to avoid talking to her. Carrie started spiraling downwards halfway through high school, when her grades rarely went above a C average despite her constant attempts to get help. Eventually she was told she had to attend afterschool programs to bring her grade up, but when she said she had to help her parents at home, the principal had a meeting with her father. Her father was disappointed that a girl who was anything but lazy was doing so bad in school. During the meeting they had, the principal said that Carrie never tried to do better, and that she was smart enough to do good in school if she simply tried. Carrie instantly exploded on the man, releasing roughly two to three years of frustration in front of them both. Carrie's father had to drag her out of the office to make sure she didn't swing on him.
The drive home after that incident was silent. Rick offered to help her with schoolwork when she was home, but Carrie's mother decided she needed to change schools after the summer. That was exactly what they did. Over the summer, Carrie went all in when it came to working at home. Eventually she completely forgot about all the negativity of life outside the ranch, but Carrie never got closer to her father. Overtime, it got more and more frustrating trying to be close to the man who never so much as smiled in her general direction, so she stopped trying. She loved Rick and Sidney, but her father was just someone she did work alongside and got pissed off by over things. Unfortunately, things only got worse from there. Between bad weather and a farm that got up and running not far from theirs, things got stressful for her parents. To make matters worse, Carrie transferred to another high school at 16, which was an hour away. Things were easier on her mentally and socially, but only because she resorted to covering up to hide her mutation. She did this for the rest of high school, and still had challenges with classwork that were fixed by her uncle Rick back home. The added time spent with his help at home and her being away longer put a strain on things that her parents had to bend or break for.
The worst would come when John died in a car accident during the winter after Carrie changed schools. The roads were frozen over, and he drove off into a ditch, he was crushed, and didn't make it to the hospital.
â– 2016-Present | Distant Green Summers
The next three years were nothing but sad for Carrie. Months after John's funeral, her uncle was planning to leave for greener pastures, and Sidney turned more inward with each passing day. There was still some love in the woman's heart, but between the heartache everyone felt and the work to keep their ranch running, being emotionally available wasn't very high on anyone's list. Most of the work fell onto Carrie's shoulders. Carrie always thought that she could've handled everything with two hands tied behind her back, but this wasn't how she imagined that would be the case. It was stressful for her, but having four arms and a lot of mutant muscle helped greatly when two or three people were needed for something. Her time was now split between finishing the last year of high school, looking after her still-grieving mother, and the business side of things that Sidney typically managed. Carrie finished the school year, but she didn't attend graduation.
After her mother turned out like John emotionally, there wasn't much left in Carrie's life that she could look forward to. She kept to her routine over the summer after high school because it was normalcy. It was all she had left. Carrie didn't have school anymore, so she could at least take solace in knowing she didn't have any outside distractions. At least, she could have if the ranch was still standing. One day, Carrie was walking back to the house late after tending to the crops and saw smoke in the air. She ran as fast as she could and saw that the house was on fire. Carrie called out for Sidney, but couldn't find her. It took another five minutes before she found Sidney unconscious and non-responsive. Carrie picked her up with all four arms and tried to haul her out of the burning house, but a piece of the roof caved in on top of them both, and everything went black.
Carrie woke up in a hospital far from home, in a room with people like her. She was informed of what happened. The kitchen caught on fire when Sidney forgot to turn the stove off, and she didn't make it. Rick was informed as well, but she hadn't heard from him since John died. At this point, Carrie had nothing left, so after two days of recovery in the hospital from a concussion, she took up the offer to leave the ashes of her home and move across the world to Insituto Nova. She saw the video confirming her agreement just for peace of mind, but Carrie needed the change. Her life up until that point had gone to a sad place, without closeness and full of defense mechanisms she used to hide herself from people she didn't trust with her secret as a mutant. There was just one problem, though.
She doesn't speak Italian.
| S U P E R P O W E R S: |â– Power 1: Polymelia
When Carrie was born, she grew an extra set of arms. These arms protrude from a split in her skeletal system at the shoulders, and she has enough articulation to use each one independently. She can use these extra arms to navigate awkward environments better than most people and carry extra things. Each hand has enough grip strength that Carrie can support her entire body with just four fingers. Carrie can use both sets of arms like extra legs to "run" faster than most people in the way a horse or a dog runs on all fours.
Having four arms means that Carrie is very top-heavy. She often bends her knees slightly and keeps her arms away from her body to keep her balance. It also makes wearing certain types of clothing considerably awkward because of how wide her shoulders are.
â– Power 2: Enhanced Strength
While not quite comparable to super strength, Carrie's body has a lot more muscle than most people can maintain. With all four arms, Carrie could slowly push a tractor across a road or carry a fully-grown adult person with minimal effort. The most weight she's ever lifted was around 230lb.
| H A B I L I T I E S: |â– Driving in Bad Weather
â– Animals
â– Cooking
â– Math
â– Hiding Mutations| M I S C. N O T E S: |
