Psyche

Psyche
Alexandra Albright

Character Playlist
Evanescence: Bring Me To Life
Taylor Swift: Shake It Off
Taylor Swift: Mean
Anna Kendrick: When I'm Gone (Cups)
Taylor Swift: 22
Walk the Moon: Shut Up and Dance

Archetype and Design
Psyche's inspiration was almost entirely early Jean Grey in power set and set as a T-baby since that was the closest that Freedom City's setting has to the 1980s Marvel mutants. The rest of Psyche's development comes from the fact that her powers expressed from birth. With her schooling from 5-15 in government funded testing, her on screen antics started at 16 in Claremont where she was part of the founding of Young Freedom. Her costumes usually are drawn from 80s and 90s X-men in style while her personal style is always a clashing mix of colors that are eye-jarring but make Alex happy. 

Current Role and Hooks
Hooks for threads to meet or know Alex are pretty easy. She is a registered T-baby and is out as a public, famous face trying to prove that their kind are not to be feared. She's the CEO of AEON, a corporation she founded with the goal of studying and helping metahumans of all origins. She's an alumni of Claremont and FCU. Her parents live in the Hanover suburb and she's been a native of Freedom City her entire life. 

It's easy to meet Alex in her role as CEO of AEON, whether that's in an official capacity of one sort or another or when she's required to attend events for the cities movers and shakers. 

History
Alex's mother and father, Rebecca and Victor Albright, were relatively normal citizens of Freedom City. It's true that Rebecca once moonlighted as a bow-toting side-kick to a D-list hero, but those days were long behind her as she and Victor tried to start a family. As Rebecca had served during the grim 80's, her turning away from super her antics left a longstanding rift between Rebecca and her father that was only mended shortly before his death. After struggling to conceive, they were overjoyed when Alex was finally on the way.

Unfortunately, the terminus invasion occurred while Rebecca was at the hospital's class on childbirth. The entire class was bathed in the energies of one of the portals but Rebecca and another pregnant mother escaped the escalating battle, thanks to Rebecca's former skills. It was little surprise that the two mothers-to-be became fast friends or that Alex and the other woman's son, Michael, were thrown together often. They were neighbors, it turned out, and the children grew up just across the street from one another.

What was surprising was that when Alex, who had always been precocious, started to talk, she talked about everything. Including the thoughts other people had and things she couldn't possibly manage to see. Rebecca, a stay-at-home mother, spent her young daughter's early years trying to teach the clever child to keep her powers under wraps and, also, how impolite it was to go reading other people's thoughts which was a difficult lesson for an inquisitive young mind. Fortunately, she had a ready companion in Mike and her constant mental prattle at him formed a deep and lasting psychic bond that neither one remembers life without. 

Reluctantly, but confident that she had impressed the importance of secrecy on her offspring, Alex was enrolled in school with her friend Michael. When Michael hit another boy and knocked him across the room and near through a wall, everyone was shocked and frightened at his strength. Despite the reassurances to the children that 'everyone was going to be fine', Alex couldn't help but volunteer - loudly and firmly - that they were all lying, the boy was badly hurt. She knew because she read their thoughts. She even went so far to prove it. Not because she hadn't listened to her mother but felt that if Michael was going to be in trouble, she ought to be in the same trouble as the fight was at least partially her fault. Both children were outed as 'supers', and Alex spent the next decade or so busing into a government contracted facility instead of a normal school environment and then home. They were 'taught' alongside other children that were in utero during the Terminus. 

Rebecca grew more and more concerned as Alex grew older. Her experience with government oversight and super heroes was only negative. When Alex was around ten, her mother began trying to get her out of the program and into Claremont instead. Rebecca, rightly or wrongly, was convinced that eventually the government would seek to turn her baby into a soldier. It took every contact Rebecca had from her long forgotten super-days but getting put into Claremont was the best thing that could have happened to Alex.

Graduating with honors, after her school and life in the teenage super-hero group, Alex’s life was forever altered by her interactions with her time-displaced offspring. Rather than college, Alex founded the AEON foundation, a group focusing on ethical metahuman studies - coming out as a Terminus-child and former super-hero, the young billionaire has hung up her spandex and turned to a life of philanthropy and research. Of course, nothing lasts forever. At twenty-two, she misses making a difference in a more concrete way. She also misses her friends. Who says a young psychic can't have it all?

Costume and Appearance
Out of her costume, Alex is a slender, self-possessed young woman. With large eyes and a heart-shaped face, Alex's gaze is too intent to hide well and its really the warmth in her smile that gives her any claim to beauty. Her hair is red and prone to curling if she doesn't take the effort to straighten it in the mornings. If she's been caught in a casual moment, she's probably in multiple layers of conflicting colors and without question, something has sparkles. She tones it down for more official meetings as these days Alex employees a very put upon fashion consultant. It is never, however, monochromatic. 

When Alex was a student hero, she wore her mother's old costume which was all red and white and a rather short skirt. These days, she's in the same blue and gold that Phalanx wears and the body suit is not all that much more complicated than her old student uniform but she keeps the archer-style tip-less gloves in homage to the costume she wore for years. Psyche also no longer bothers with a mask. There's no point these days, after all. She's done hiding her identity. 

Powers
Alex's power stem from the terminus energy she was exposed to in utero. As the entropic energies of the Terminus contain aspects of all sorts of energy, it's hard to say what specifically mutated Alex's physiology. Both psychic and super genius, it was the telepathic nature of her gifts that first manifested. Alex has been telepathic sense birth and its natural to her. It's far harder to turn out other people than to listen in to them which has been a struggle with her strong ethics. Honing her brain to telekinetically interact with the world took much more concerted effort on Alex's part. It has never been as natural as her telepathy but she has both fine control and raw strength. The more control she gains, the less visible any ripples of her powers are on the world although when the terminus imbued energy does manifest, it does show in glowing sparkling light.

Personal Life
Both of Alex's parents still live in the house she grew up in - which is entirely paid off these days. They go on more vacations as well thanks to their offspring's tendency for trips-as-presents. It's Alex's way of trying to make up for all the years where the government asked them very nicely not to leave the city. Alex lives alone in the AEON tower but those who knew her at Claremont are aware that she and Mike have been engaged since before graduation. They've had a rather long engagement, as such things go, but now that Mike's no longer making every effort for 'normal', things will likely progress on that front. 

It's less well known outside of Claremont classmates that for a while, Alex and Mike's time lost daughter was a student alongside them. Thankfully, for the moment at least, Zoe is returned to her own timeline.

AEON
AEON's origins was as a company trading stocks and bonds. When Alex realized that Zoe might be here long enough to need to go to college, she put her prodigious brain to making a lot of money, very quickly. Being a super genius comes in very handy when trying to guess the trends. Alex coaxed her roommate into helping with her scheme and Mike offered some of the savings bonds he had for college to help with backing. Both Mike and Erin have seen significant returns on their efforts, many times over, although both have often been reluctant to touch their portions of the proceeds. Eventually the idea grew into being more of a business. Alex wanted to understand more, especially about the odd nature of Zoe's powers, so she turned the growing AEON in that direction.

That was five years ago. These days, AEON is a multibillion dollar company that specializes in metahuman research and biogenetic work, with other smaller technological divisions that work on developing everything from containment to enhancement. When research turns up something that is not necessarily useful to the main goals, it becomes patented and licensed to be profited on and further the corporation's aims of providing aid to emerging metahumans. The advertise that they'll aid metahumans in crisis with their powers to the best of their abilities and thus far, they seem to be doing exactly that. 

Allies, Associates and Enemies

• Allies
  • Phalanx: Alex's other half. She honestly doesn't know if her mind even could survive his death. Fortunately, he's nigh-invulnerable so hopefully, she'll never have to. 
  • Wander: Alex's roommate from Claremont and the sister that she never had. There is no doubt or question that Alex would do just about anything for Erin if she asked. After all, just look at Jessie. 
  • Edge: Mark was the first boy to ask Alex out so many years ago. Alex has looked into many minds over the years and feels comfortable saying that if there's a purer heart out there than Mark's, she's never seen it. 
  • Midnight: Trevor and Alex may not always see eye to eye but the fact that Erin loves him would be plenty reason for Alex to have his back. Beyond that, he's a good person and a better hero. 
• Associates
  • Young Freedom 1.0: Hellion, Geckoman, and Breakdown were the other students that formed the initial Young Freedom. Alex has already gone to hell's door to help get James back and while she's not always in touch these days, she'd still help if the chips were down.
  • Terminus Children: Good or bad, Alex is one of the most public faces of the T-babies these days and she feels some sort of inherent responsibility to try and help others that were caught in the same set of circumstances beyond their control. 
• Enemies
  • The Terminus: Its the boogeyman of the universe and the last big invasion is what gave Alex and so many others their odd powers. She tries every day to use them in ways that Omega would not approve of - for good. 
  • Pathos: There's not much, at this point, that can make Alex shudder and turn away. The efforts of her alternate-self, however, chill Alex to the core. No one has to remind Alex what's waiting if she goes down a dark path. She's already seen it.