#stormie.

stormie had no inkling that she was a demigod, even when her powers showed themselves in tiny ways growing up. despite pretending not to care about wanting a relationship with her parents, stormie always craved affection and attention from them. so in the rare moments her mother would allow stormie close to her, usually on her bad days with her depression and anxiety, she would find herself willing her mother’s stress away, and it seemed to work. stormie thought this to be luck/coincidence.

however, she would then notice that she would feel inexplicably anxious, or be so depressed one day she couldn’t get out of bed, or would stay in bed all day crying or sleeping. she chalked this up to hormones, as this showed itself in her late childhood/preteen years.

when stormie was kicked out of her home, she was taken in by marshal and his family, and because they knew about demigods and nemean lion, they recognized stormie’s power for what it was.

it seemed to be very weak at first, just because stormie never really actually put effort into it. she put it to the test for the first time when a friend of hers with bpd was experiencing a depressive episode. stormie willed it away, and found that it worked.

however, the next day, she found herself overwhelmed with the exact same depressive episode. it was exhausting, and as someone who is neurotypical, stormie gained a new appreciation for people who were neurodivergent and experiencing mental health issues. this was how she learned the limitation to her power, which is to absorb someone’s “madness” is to experience it herself.

she can not magically cure someone of a mental illness, but she can greatly lessen their symptoms. it’s hard for her to say no because she feels obligated to help her friends, and never really shares with anyone that she takes on the symptoms instead.

in addition to this, stormie can also induce madness. the madness she induces comes in two forms.

one: her ability to push off the madness she absorbed onto someone else. she does not use this, feeling obligated to take the burden onto herself if she’s going to help someone.

two: inducing a madness that is not permanent. for example, she can induce hallucinations, usually very horrifying and visceral and visual ones. she feels like this is a very villainous power, and would only use it to incapacitate an enemy to protect those she loves. this takes a great deal of effort, and she has to focus to maintain the hallucinations.

the hallucinations can also be auditory. she can do something like cause a constant and increasing ringing in someone’s ear, things like that.

stormie’s ability to absorb madness usually spares someone for a week or so. or in the case of someone with bpd for example, she can just end a manic or depressive episode early.

she didn’t start fine tuning her powers until she came to nemean lion and even then she cares more about being an ambassador than being a fighter, so she doesn’t put much thought into how actually powerful she is, how she could stop someone in their tracks in battle with hallucinations of armies and monsters.

she’s still learning her own limitations as well.