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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8140428" data-attributes="member: 30538">Penny Lane<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-4xRcSNN/0/5fc27939/S/23539088-0-image-a-10_1579296233027-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />In 1829, a young poet and soldier named Edgar Allan Poe, discharged from the army, moved to Baltimore to live with his widowed aunt and her children for a time before entering West Point. During this time, he decided to visit with some childhood friends of his, named Usher, and was startled to learn that one of them had recently died and the other was very ill. Some rather horrific events then transpired, which he would, a decade later, describe in print as "The Fall of the House of Usher", presenting them as fiction and notably censoring the way that Madeline Usher ended the life of her brother Roderick before dying herself. Perhaps he had forced himself to forget that horror.There was much that Poe did not know about the Ushers. They were a very old family, and had begun, generations before, a course of inbreeding to regain certain advantages which they were slowly losing. And while Roderick Usher believed himself and his sister to be the last of their family, he was mistaken. There had been another pair of twins born to their parents, a decade before their own birth. When the sister of the pair had died in childhood, they had sent the brother to be raised by some friends of theirs while they tried again. In his thirties when the House of Usher fell, Timothy Usher took the opportunity to reinvent himself as Timothy Ashe, founder of a new house ...... and the ancestor, in several lines, of one Penelope Ashe, who ran away from home in her early teens when she realized the intentions of most of her male relatives towards her. Being able to read minds can really suck at times. Like her ancestor before her, she took a new name as Penny Lane, and has tried to live a normal, unremarkable life since then. Such plans have been somewhat disrupted by her growing friendship with the android hero Machinanima, and his ongoing feud with her fa-- the people to whom she's related.Initially, Penny was drawn towards Machinanima because his mind was unlike any consciousness she'd ever encountered, coolly precise rather than a jumble of impulses and memories. Later, she hoped that he might become a powerful protector if her family ever tried to come after her. Most recently, though, she's been startled to realize that she really does care about him, worrying about the violence of his lifestyle and even trying to help him out discreetly. This has also made her feel increasingly guilty about the fact that he doesn't know anything about who she is or where she came from, but she does know that he's never expressed any curiosity about the subject, either. It's just not how he's wired, she guesses.In addition to the abilities to speak mind to mind and probe the thoughts and memories of others, while shielding her own mind from such intrusions, Penny's telepathy allows her to retain quite a bit of what she gleans from these minds. That's how she's been able to do all the many jobs that she's been doing since Machinanima has met her, and how she's managed to create a variety of false IDs in case she ever has to make a quick getaway. She has never been known to use any sort of telepathic 'power stunts', but nothing is stopping her from developing them other than a lack of opportunity.Penny Lane -- PL 6Abilities:STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 1 | DEX 0 | FGT 2 | INT 1 | AWE 4 | PRE 1Powers:Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 6, Limited to mental effects - 3 pointsStolen Skills & Memories: Enhanced Advantage 1 (Eidetic Memory); Variable 1 (skills & languages), Free Action - 9 pointsTelepathy: Mental Communication 2; Cumulative Mind Reading 6 - 26 pointsTypical Variable Sets:I Know Kung Fu: Enhanced Defense 3 (Parry 3); Enhanced Skill 2 (Close Combat: Unarmed 4) - 5 pointsOf Course I Speak Sumerian. Doesn't Everyone?: Enhanced Advantage 1 (Language [any]) - 1 pointWhy Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Enhanced Skill (Expertise: [any] 10) - 5 pointsAdvantages:Attractive, Defensive Roll, Eidetic Memory, Fascinate (Persuasion)Skills:Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+4), Deception 4 (+5), Insight 2 (+6), Persuasion 4 (+5)Offense:Initiative +1Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 0)Defense:Dodge 4, Parry 4, Fortitude 3, Toughness 3/1, Will 9Totals:Abilities 20 + Powers 38 + Advantages 3 + Skills 6 + Defenses 12 = 79 pointsComplications:Freedom--Motivation. Enemy/Family (House of Ashe.) Friend (Machinanima.) Secrets (oh so many.) Uncontrolled Power (Mind-Reading, activates randomly.)</blockquote>

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