#impractical au

The Basics

Catherine: Umbrakinetic Creature Creation, Fear Inducement

Age: 27

Hero name: Knightmare

Fact 1: Asexual/Questioning

Fact 2: Has a hood on her cape that has a habit of falling down

Fact 3: The cat’s name is Shadow

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Personality

Catherine is the older sister type figure. She’s a team mom, often putting herself in the middle of disputes and hearing everyone out. She cares for as many people as she is able, big or small, and gets a personal high from doing good for others and expecting nothing in return.

Catherine is highly private and does not like to share her personal life often. Since she was teased for being childish when she was younger, she protects things that are important to her and doesn’t like letting others see her passions. She’s very brittle when it comes to criticizing things she is interested in. 

While not exactly the highest on the IQ board, Catherine has a quick wit and enjoys wordplay. She has a special appreciation for puns and will go out of her way to tell as many to her punphobic sister as she can, just to watch her face turn colors. 

They also don’t call her the turtle at work for nothing. Catherine takes things at a slow and steady pace. What takes you a minute might take her five, but it will be close to perfect when she’s completed. She’s in no hurry to get anywhere really, allowing fate to choose her path for her, and whatever will be, will be. She is also very indecisive and has had opportunities pass her by because she couldn’t make up her mind on whether she wanted to take a risk or not.

Catherine is loyal and forgiving to a fault. She treats everyone as if they are wronging her for the first time and gives multiple chances for people to redeem themselves. This is because she believes everyone at their core is a good person, and it works either in her favor or against it. However, if she’s exhausted all her will to see you as a good person, you have reached an unredeemable level, and she will likely never trust you again.

However, don’t get between her and those she cares about. While normally a pacifist, Catherine has a strong momma bear instinct and will cut through you without batting an eyelash. Usually, it comes along with a life lesson.

Power Backstory: Umbrakinetic Creature Creation

When Catherine was little, she had an intense fear of the dark. She lived in a home out in the woods with little light around her. While she did have a nightlight, it only created shadows that played with her imagination. She spent more time worrying than sleeping. Her parents talked to people who tried to help get over her fear, littering her bed with stuffed animals, sleeping with her to help her get to sleep, and even monitoring her television time to make sure she wasn’t seeing anything harmful, but the fear still remained.

All she wanted was something to make her feel safe in the dark.

One night, when Catherine went to bed, the shadows moved from the nightlights and created a feline-like creature with glowing purple eyes at the foot of her bed. Catherine hid under the blankets and screamed. When her parents came to see what was wrong, the creature had vanished. When they left, the creature once again returned onto her bed. Catherine spent the whole night underneath her bed covers.

When she awoke, the creature had disappeared again. Catherine didn’t get much sleep and went to school tired. She started to wonder if her lack of sleep was messing with her mind.

That night, the creature came back. Again, Catherine hid, but she noticed the creature didn’t move from its spot at the foot of her bed. The next night, when it reformed, Catherine watched it. The cat creature watched her for a few minutes, then it would lay down on the bed and stare at nothing. 

This happened every night.

One night, Catherine gathered the courage to try and touch the creature. She held out her hand. The creature turned to her, frightening her at first, but made no move to harm her. She inched forward and pet its head. It felt surprisingly soft, like kinetic sand, and cool to the touch. To her surprise, the creature started to purr. A comforting warmth settled in her heart.

That night, she snuck out of bed, and the creature followed her. She found out that the cat creature could grab things from shelves that she couldn’t reach, float in the air, and even reshape itself to get bigger or smaller. 

She affectionately named it “Shadow” because she was 7 and not good at naming things.

As she grew older, she found out that she could give Shadow commands, and the shadow creature would listen. She discovered when she was controlling the shadow creature, her eyes would also glow purple, much like the cat. She also found herself more sensitive to bright lights and didn’t like to be in the sun for too long. It took a lot of energy, but she eventually could summon it in the daytime. However, its real power always came out better at night.

Strengths:

The stronger Catherine’s will to protect something, the stronger the shadow gets

Can move solid objects with the shadow

Shadow has a will of its own

Weaknesses:

Shadow will dissolve if hit with a blast of bright light

If the shadow takes damage, Catherine takes damage as well

Shadow has a will of its own

Power Backstory: Fear Inducement

At the age of 16, Cat was pretty confident in her abilities. She didn’t need many friends to feel important and would rather be off doing her own thing. However, she did gather a few.

One of her friends, Bethany, who she affectionately named Bethy, was two years younger than her and often teased for her stutter. Needless to say, she gravitated toward Catherine’s compassionate nature and followed her around like a chick following its mother.

While sleeping over at Bethany’s house, Catherine accidentally revealed that she had Shadow, and Bethany absolutely loved it. Shadow was cautious at first, but eventually, it warmed up to Bethy and allowed her to touch it.

While out together at the mall one night, a girl who constantly teased Bethy approached them and started to taunt them. Bethany urged Catherine to ignore her, but the longer she went on, the angrier Catherine grew. She could feel Shadow’s sand-like texture underneath her fingertips. Bethy saw this and tried to keep Catherine calm so her secret would not be revealed.

The last straw was when the girl brought up Bethy’s recently deceased dog, saying “I bet it’s glad to be dead because then it doesn’t have to hear your ugly voice calling it.”

Catherine’s anger engulfed her. She wanted the bully to suffer for what she said. How dare she say something so mean and hurtful?

Catherine turned around, eyes glowing purple, but Shadow never came. Instead, a dark mist surrounded the bully. It seeped into her eyes, ears, and nose, eventually turning her whole eye dark. She fell to her knees screaming about the whole room being swallowed in spiders.

Bethy and Catherine ran off before anyone came to see what happened. They found out later on the news that the bully was being admitted to a hospital to try and figure out what was going on.

Catherine felt horrible. She wanted the bully to stop, not mentally scar her. She grew to fear her own power, wondering if she wasn’t a good person after all. She promised herself she’d never use it again unless she absolutely had to.

Strengths:

Can sense what people are afraid of without making them afraid

Can completely paralyze a person with their own fear

Able to multiply someone’s fear into a phobia

Weaknesses:

Those with psychic abilities may be able to block this ability

Cannot control how long it lasts

Catherine is very hesitant to use it because she fears she’ll lose herself to a dark path

Becoming Knightmare

The First Time

As Catherine grew older, she started using her powers less and less. Shadow was more of a companion than a guardian now since she no longer feared the dark. She went to college to become an elementary school teacher. She moved out into a house of her own. She lives in an apartment by herself, enjoying her writing and art as a hobby.

One night while she was out grocery shopping, a gun sounded inside. About three people were trapped inside along with her and a robber demanding cash from the store owner. One of the people she recognized as a student from her previous classes and his father.

The situation refused to defuse. The cashier bravely or stupidly refused to give the robber any money, instead of trying to reason with them and make them rethink their actions. The robber wasn’t having it. They instead threatened to start killing off their hostages one by one.

Catherine hid behind one of the grocery shelves and summoned Shadow for the first time in public. Shadow was rather confused at first until Catherine pointed out what was going on. The cat turned into a sand-like material and slithered over the shelves, surrounding the floor in misty darkness.

The robber promptly started to freak out. They tried shooting at the dark mist, but it still continued to engulf his feet. Shadow began to squeeze the robber and turned into a solid cat in front of him, flashing sharp teeth and letting out a loud roar.

When police finally arrived, the robber was sobbing on the floor and begging for the police to get them out of here.

While the police were interrogating his father, the little boy found Catherine petting Shadow in one of the isles. She made him promise not to tell anyone about her abilities, and he agreed. Since the security cameras blacked out from the black mist, no one knew where the mist came from or who made it.

Catherine didn’t decide to become a superhero then, but it definitely woke something inside of her. She could use her powers to help people, and she was going to do it.

The Second Time

Of course, being a teacher, Catherine ran into some less than good parents. Some put rather high expectations on their children, some refused to admit they needed help due to disabilities, and some were dismissive of their student’s achievements, calling their work garbage.

If there was one thing she hated more, it was finding out one of her parents were abusing one of her students. One student, in particular, she remembered screaming after he had an accident saying “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me!” Catherine went to her superior to try and get something done, but nothing was found on their parents, and the troubling behavior from her student continued.

Eventually, Catherine had enough. She found out where the student lived, and she used Shadow to warn the parents if their actions didn’t change, they’d have their worst nightmares become reality. Needless to say, they called the bluff and tried to move away, but Catherine followed them. She found her way into their house and used her fear magic to put them into a state of intense fear, making them see what would happen if they were caught for child abuse and how they would lose their only child.

Eventually, the abuse came to a halt through force.

They weren’t the last parents to get this treatment either.

Eventually, papers started to speak of a nightmare wreaking havoc on the town, usually targeting parents with less than clean records. Fear began to sweep through the town. No one could seem to catch what was going on, and people started to stay out less and less at night.

Catherine started to wonder if she was doing the right thing. She said she’d never use her powers to terrorize others again, but her students were being hurt, and she didn’t know what else to do. The law was failing them. She had to do something, or nothing would get done.

Eventually, she was approached by the first student who made her use her powers on others, not because he knew what happened, but because he wanted to thank her. He told her he remembered her generosity, and she gave him the courage to continue when life was a living hell. She was the first adult he trusted.

That solidified Catherine’s choice. She was going to fight for those who couldn’t speak up for themselves. She coined up the name “Knightmare” and commissioned someone to create a uniform out of a design she drew herself.