#knowledge absorption

Name: Emmeline “Lina” Stratford

Age: 25

Ability: Knowledge Absorption

The ability to grant the user the ability to gain knowledge and/or data from an object or person.

Limits: Physical contact is required in order to receive the information. Constant or Over-usage can have damaging physical effects such as migraines, fainting, nosebleeds, or damage to the mind. The ability only applies to information or data, no physical abilities are transferred in the process. Obtained information will naturally fade with time, the duration depends on the complexity and the medium in which it was derived from. (e.g; a book on physics lasts longer than a physics lesson taken from the mind of a professor)

Neutral

Honest

Calm

Witty

Egotistical

Hard-Working

”It’s better to be burdened with knowing than blindsided by ignorance.”

Background: 

Unlike most posthumans in society, Emmeline does not have a rough background or tragic incident that occured in her life to drive her to want to fight society. In fact, she was born into a very wealthy and privileged lifestyle. But, no person can live a completely easy life. The cost of the high-class lifestyle she inherited was her parents. Lina’s mother was a Dean at a nearby College and her father was an ambitious lawyer. As a young girl, she was mostly taken care of by her nanny, Sue, and whenever her parents got some free time they’d spoil her with things and small talk her at dinner or take her to the opera before vanishing again. Although they were distant, the girl saw her father as her hero. That was until she grew older and realized just how much of a cruel man he was. After Lina got to high school, she was put into law courses and pre-recs for becoming a lawyer with no choice. Her father had already switched her school multiple times to ensure “he was paying for pure high-standard education.” Slowly, Lina’s hero began to become her nemesis. She objected to his set course for her to be a lawyer many times only for his pride as one of New York’s best to kick in and respond that  his money was not being spent on her educaton so she could hope for a job doing something easy or fun, living a good life  took hard work and sacrifice. Then as if things couldn’t get worse between them, the man bought out the law firm he worked for and became the new boss, which only lead to more distance and scrutiny about Lina’s effect on his reputation and hard work.  It was senior year when Emmeline discovered that she wasn’t like the rest of her classmates. Graduation was quickly approaching and she was forced to study for individual classes, the SAT, and a practice examination for the bar. The girl had been up all night stressing over all the assessments and exams and studying so hard that she found herself speed reading and knowing things that she hadn’t even remembered reading. Her eyes were rapidly scanning each book, equations, symbols, and words just flew by her eyes and she felt as if she couldn’t stop. After two textbooks and a huge migraine, the girl fainted. She dismissed it as exhaustion and figured she was going to fail the bar any way to get back at her dad for forcing her. Except it didn’t happen that way. When the results came back, Emmeline had been the top scorer in her school for multiple assessments. She did so well, in fact, that she was granted a scholarship to Harvard and offered immediate summer courses to begin her studies. Of course her father paid the right people and flashed his reputation and she was forced to go. After practicing her gift, Emmeline quickly did her four years and became a lawyer. Now she is back in New York, and after only a few years is working with a reputation that surpasses even her father’s. She takes pride in accepting and winning cases for humans and posthumans alike. Significant Event in Life: 

After Claire’s public scene, the psthuman pandemic struck her preppy rich community pretty hard. Still in high school, Emmeline watched as paranoia and fear swept the halls with teachers, parents, and students alike. At the time nobody even she herself had no clue of her own talents, so she was safe but that didn’t mean she was unaffected. Lifetime friendships she had were torn apart as she refused to trash talk and hate those with abilities. But what affected her most was the loss of her favorite english teacher. Once the woman was exposed, the entire school turned against her. The woman who had always kept a smile on people’s faces and held so many student’s hands into adulthood and success was shunned and humiliated. Emmeline fought for the woman, but to only be stabbed in the back by her father again. The man not only forbade her from any contact with her favorite teacher, but personally saw to it that the school reported her and fired her or he would sue them for endangerment of the student body. After this occured, Lina became aware of how cruel people could be and swore to herself that if she did become a lawyer she would fight back against ignorance. Little did she know that she would soon discover she herself was a posthuman.

SUMMARY: The ability to read documents of any sort within seconds while retaining all of the information contained.

SPECIFIC ASPECTS: (1) The user must read the material in order to retain it, though their reading speed is wicked fast. (2) They are usually something of a walking encyclopedia. (3) Knowledge gained is stored in most users forever. (4) Knowledge will only be stored if the user is consciously attempting to retain the information. (5) They are able to pronounce any word as long as it is in their own language though they might not always understand the exact meaning. (6) The more recent the knowledge was obtained, the easier and faster it is for them to pull from their knowledge base.

WEAKNESSES: (1) Exercising this power can result in headaches of varying degrees depending on the amount of information retained and length of use. (2) Those without control over their power may not be able to slow down their power in order to read for pleasure. (3) Users do not gain new skills with this power, simply information about skills (i.e. they may know all the history and theories behind math, but not how to do it exactly. Or they know the recipe to make a cake but not the skills to make it). (4) Users, usually less experienced ones, sometimes experience an overload of information and cannot retain anything new for a day or so. (5) It is very difficult, nearly impossible to forget or purge information once retained.

MASTERY DIFFICULTY: Low

CHARACTERS: James Hargrove, Vera Rosier 

OTHER DETAILS: Users are gifted with incredible analytical skills and are some of the best strategists and code breakers in the world