Editing Erin Watson, the Soul of Science

'''Background''': The daughter of a journalist and a housewife, Erin started out as a mostly ordinary, if brilliant girl. As soon as she learned how to read, books became a central part of her life; when her family moved to a new city, the then eight-years old girl was rather slow to make friends – in no small part because she was less concerned with human interactions than with her reading.

About a year later, she read her first science book. It was a rather simple book, designed to make the concepts within possible for children to grasp, but it sparked a new passion within her – the desire to understand how the universe truly worked. Soon, her taste in reading veered from fiction to scientific popularization. Her interest in "how do things work?" was soon joined by "how TO make things work", as she began to tinker with basic technology and computers. Nothing worth reporting to the newspapers, but she did do rather well at the science fair.

As a side effect of it all, Erin turned into a bit of a loner. It wasn't that she disliked people; it was that she had little common ground with them, and little time to give them between her intellectual pursuits. It didn't really bothered her...Though at times, the fact that it didn't bother her DID bother her, leading her to wonder if there was something wrong with her asocial nature.

Then, less than a year ago, something abnormal happened.

It was after sundown; Erin was making a quick dash between her home and the library (it was closed at night, of course, but there was a spot to slide returning documents through, and she had forgotten to bring back a book...) when she came across something that stopped her dead in her tracks: A being of pure inky blackness, fighting what looked like a magical girl of some sort. She never quite discovered who the magical girl was, but the first being, as she learned later, was a servant of the Nihls, cosmic entities devoted to the corruption and destruction of all.

The battle ended when the magical girl called forth a blast of holy light, which struck the dark entity and seemingly destroyed it. Intrigued, Erin examined the battleground; she found there a remain of the being that the magical girl had missed: A vibrating dark crystal. As she touched it, she could FEEL that it was thinking, and that it contained power.

That she took it home and began to study it in secret was nothing more but the result of her curiosity. She had stumbled upon something extraordinary, and, by golly, she was going to figure it out!

Months of studies of the crystal led her to many interesting discoveries. Slowly but surely, she even learned to communicate with the crystal – in fact, it seemed rather eager to teach her magic. With great effort (and surprising talent for a beginner; that IQ did come in handy, after all), she was able to manipulate small amounts of energy; her main talent, to the crystal's seeming surprise, lied in the manipulation of the spatial continuum (she has theorized that, as she had prior knowledge of general relativity and how space-time can be twisted, it was easier for her to master this kind of magic than it would have been for most people).

However, for all her hard work, her abilities remained frustratingly limited. While she wasn't lusting after power, the wonders of magic (and the curiosity to study it) left her wanting to see more. The crystal reminded her that before the battle it had lost, it had been a powerful magical entity; it offered to create a direct link between her mind and its own, giving her access to true magical power.

She accepted, but it turned out to be a trap. Once their minds were linked, she learned of the crystal's role as an agent of the Nihls, as well as its intentions toward her: The crystal had been planning all along to make her a vessel for itself. It was now bombarding her mind with the Nihls' worldview, and their desire to corrupt Creation and destroy existence.

Surprised, betrayed, completely out of her element, Erin held onto the one major stabilizing force in her life: Her belief in Reason. At the crystal's nihilistic message, she countered her belief in logic, and counter-attacked with rational arguments against its insane evil. She thought of the value of trust and its necessity for society to work. She thought of the worth of human life, the worth of happiness, and of how nonsensical it was to throw them away. She thought of the great achievements of scientists, inventors and thinkers; she thought of the beauty of mathematics, the complexity of how all aspects of the physical world interacted. She thought of how the evil of the crystal, ultimately, was illogical, irrational, and self-contradictory in how it sought purpose in the destruction of all purpose.

The internal fight felt like it lasted for eternity (checking the clock, she would later conclude it had been between an hour and two)...But the nihilistic crystal could not counter Erin's logic, nor overrule her belief in reason. Finally, it shattered and disintegrated, its influence on her mind gone. To her delight, however, she had kept the magical abilities obtained from being linked to it – she could now take a form capable of channeling magic, where her powers were far more than the little tricks she had so far experimented with.

During the three months that followed, Erin cut loose with her magic. Opening portals through space, she would visit the four corners of the globe, and eventually even create a small pocket dimension of her own. Designing a technomagical pen with which to create matter ex nihilo, she proceeded to build her own manor/laboratory within the pocket dimension, dubbing it Castle Nexus (though this required studying some architecture on the way).
However, the threat of the Nihls kept worrying her. Despite her brief connection to the crystal, her information about the Nihls was sorely lacking – she knew they existed, had access to magic, and were out to destroy the universe, but that was it. Feeling that she might need to take on them eventually (and wondering if she should alert the authorities and reveal the existence of magic to the public), she began to develop some more practical forms of magic: A modification to her alternate form made it actually LOOK different from her real appearance, a mental shield was to protect her thoughts (the memory of the crystal was still fresh in her mind), and techno-magical glasses gave her "automated magical senses"; the latter would not only help her detect magic and see through any illusion, but also help her aim any attack she chose to launch and avoid any attack aimed at her. She also tried to develop ways to use her space-bending powers in combat, such as deviating attacks, or teleporting heavy objects right above a target (in fact, there's a room in Castle Nexus filled with heavy objects she created for just that purpose...)

While she hasn't met any other servant of the Nihls since, her powers nevertheless came into play a few days ago, when a fire erupted in a building only a few blocks away. Going into her alternate identity, she created tons of water, warped space to open a path between the flames, and rushed through the building to get the remaining people out. When someone asked her who she was, she panicked at the realization she hadn't thought up a name, and replied "The Soul of Reason". She isn't too happy with this improvisation, but doesn't really care enough to try to change it if it ends up sticking...



'''Personality''': Erin, in case that wasn't painfully obvious, is a total left-brainer, and a proud science geek (magic science. Whatever). The magic she's dealing with has struck the right cordes of her sense of wonder, but she has never, at any point, considered it un-scientific – to her, Science, by definition, is the logical way the universe works. If magic exists, that automatically makes it a part of Science, as far as she's concerned. She's heard people claim that science ruins the sense of wonder of the world; she can't, for the life of her, understand how anyone can feel like that.
To Erin, Science and Reason are very optimistic things: Everything works according to logic, to cause-and-effect; therefore, everything can be understood, and every problem can be solved. Knowing that always gives her hope.

Socially, Erin is...unskilled. While she isn't unpleasant, she isn't very experienced in human interaction. She tends to be a loner, simply because most of the things that interest her are solo activities. That said, she is a generally nice, helpful person, and believes that for the world to get better, people themselves need to "nicen up".

While Erin is very secure in her belief in Science and Reason, she is less so about herself. She knows she's smart, but she wonders at times if her loner nature means that something is wrong with her personality...In other words, she's a teenager trying to figure herself out.


'''Appearance''': In her natural form, Erin is a short girl with shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes – no beauty queen, but not unattractive either. As "Soul", she gains seven inches, her eyes turn green, and her hair turns hip-length and black; her facial features are completely unrecognizable. Her uniform as "Soul" is a white costume she thought up; it is designed primarily for ease of movements, but, in case PR might be important, she tried to make it look nice (not fanservicey, though. She HAS dignity).

If the Omni-Visor was on her person at the time without being actually worn, it shows up on her face when she has completed her transformation sequence. Its appearance is modified, making it look much flashier and practically unrecognizable (its abilities remain the same, though).


'''Transformation Sequence''': Erin can turn into the Soul of Reason just by standing still and thinking really hard about it...but, that's impractical, and can take an entire minute, if not more.

Some experimentation (and an odd intuition) has led her to discover that if she proclaims loudly "To make sense of it all: The Scion of Science!" (preferably with her right hand placed over her heart, though that only makes a small difference), the full spectrum of visible light (i.e., rainbow light) surrounds her, swirling for a second as she takes her Soul form. She's not quite sure why that is, but her main theory is that the "Scion of Science" is some kind of role defined by the cosmic forces of magic/the universe, and that declaring her intent as Scion of Science lets her access magical powers more easily. That's mostly speculation, though.



Body: 3 (Erin's a teenager, and not an atheltic one in the least.)
Mind: 11 (Her intelligence, though, is top-notch.)
Soul: 8 (She may be quiet, and seem demure at times, but her willpower is quite high, as long as she believes that what she's doing makes sense.)


Alternate Form +12 (108 points) (A transformation sequence lets her go into her "Soul of Reason" identity, allowing her to use her Dynamic Power over space. She can use her magical items outside this form, however.)
Dynamic Power (Space) +3 (Under Alternate Form) (Her main power, really. She gets creative with it – creating a pocket dimension, teleporting across vast distances, deflecting attacks, attacking in a multitude of ways...Some of these are ideas she's come up with but hasn't had a chance to use yet.)

Feature (Eidetic Memory) +1 (1 point) (Natural ability.)

Mind Shield +3 (6 points) (Some protection she created, remembering the crystal's attempt to take her over. Is always on.)

Pocket Dimension +4 (16 points) (Where Castle Nexus is located. Uses her Dynamic Control over space to get there.)

Item: The Genesis Pen (6 points) (An electronic pen she built and programmed to work together with her magic: When she holds it and wants to create something, the pen recognizes the type of matter she's thinking of, and channels her magic into the appropriate type of molecules.)
Power Flux – Minor Creation (inanimate objects) +2 (Durable; Used with the Genesis Pen) (She can't create highly complex objects...But she can create the bricks with which to build them. Simple mechanisms are doable.)

Item: The Omni-Visor (32 points) (Some techy-looking glasses/visor she made. It improves her perception, including her perception of combat. She wears it whenever she feels she can get away with it – it can't really pass for regular glasses, but it's not weird enough that it's a stigma to wear in public.)
Sixth Sense (Illusions, Magic) +2 (Function of the Omni-Visor) (The visor lets her perceive more than her eyes alone can see.)
Attack Combat Mastery +3 (Function of the Omni-Visor) (The visor is programmed to predict trajectories and guide her attacks toward her foes' predicted location.)
Defense Combat Mastery +3 (Function of the Omni-Visor) (The visor is programmed to detect incoming attacks and transmit the warning directly to her mind, improving her ability to avoid them.)


Skills:
Architecture +1 (1 point) (A recent development – she read up on it while building Castle Nexus.)
Computers +2 (4 points) (She may not be the next Linus Torvalds, but she can use a computer, and has a basic grasp of programming.)
Electronics +2 (2 points) (She's dabbled a bit in her parents' basement.)
Mechanics +1 (2 points) (See above, though to a lesser degree.)
Occult +3 (9 points; general knowledge gained from experimentation)
Physical Sciences +2 (2 point) (Her understanding of science is far from professional, but it's pretty good for a teenager.)

-4 Less Capable (Charisma) (4 points) (Despite her strong will, she's not particularly good in society. She's not unpleasant, but she's never had many friends, either.)
-4 Less Capable (Luck) (4 points) (Her luck is generally neither patricularly good or bad.)
Skeleton in the Closet (Magical Girl; 1 points) (Given that there are apparently some genuine Evil Forces out there, she figures it's best if her true identity remains a secret.)

Attack Combat Value: +10
Defense Combat Value: +10
Health Points: 55
Energy Points: 95 




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