Pixie

Character History
Megan Gwynn grew up in the small coal mining town (*cough*village*cough*) of 'Abergylid' in Wales, where rarely anything exciting happened. The most exhilarating local newspaper headlines to date, included the strange theft/disappearance of a lawnmower, the death of a ninety three year old villager who 'probably met the Queen once but couldn't remember', being once nominated for the 'perfect welsh village' award, and the random arrival of a semi-famous, Z-List celebrity to cut the red ribbon at the annual summer fayre or 'Eisteddfod'. It is thought by Megan that her father was killed in a coal mining accident when she was very young, while her mother more or less abandoned her for the allure of city life. That left Megan to be raised predominantly by her eccentric grandparents, who enjoyed gardening and were avid members of the 'neighbourhood watch' aka 'the busy-bodies club'. Such traits rubbed off on their grand-daughter, who expressed an exuberance for life and adventure from an early age. The majority of her childhood was spent climbing trees, going on 'creature' hunts – mostly bugs - dressed like a princess, reading fairy stories wishing she was in them, and occasionally trying to grow vegetables in her granny's patch. Little does she know that her true father is Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind. Her mother meanwhile, always referred to as 'Mrs Gwynn,' kept in contact mostly via the odd phone call, creating a strained and very aloof relationship between mother and daughter. Also unknown to her, is that fact that her mother hails from Avalon, otherwise known as Otherworld.

One rather windy and typically rainy day, Megan was cycling home after school, just like she normally did. Both her rucksack and her bike basket were weighed down with more books than usual though, as she had a school geography and a history project to complete still. With the wind working against her, the climb up the hill to her house was steeper than usual, while the haze of constant rain marred her view. The sudden flash of a red car speeding around the corner wasn't exactly hard to miss though. Nor was the last minute signal of the car horn, as the driver slammed his foot down on the brake. Megan's bike swerved, and she narrowly escaped the direct hit. While avoiding a car accident, she didn't however, avoid stumbling down the muddy embankment and hurtling head first off her bike as the front wheel struck a protruding stone. The overall fear of crashing caused her mutation to manifest for the first time, with a tingling sensation underneath the skin of her shoulder-blades. The rainbow coloured wings instantly tore though her clothing mid-air, and with a meagre flutter, managed to stunt her tumble in a cloud of sparkling pink dust. When the momentum of her rolling ceased, Megan sat up in a state of confusion, having hit her head hard enough to scold her for not wearing her safety helmet. Meanwhile, the unharmed but worried driver had rushed to check on the girl, only to find in her place what could only be described as a fairy. Wondering why the tourist man was gawping, she merely got back on her bike, and said that she was fine. He in turn scrambled back into his car, much to her annoyance. Mistaking the tingling in her back for an injury, she simply climbed back on her bike, and wobbled home with her rucksack piled on the bike basket.

When she got home half an hour later, Megan finally realised why the man had been so spooked. It was quite the shock when she ran up to the bathroom and found pink hair, pointed ears, and pure black eyes staring back at her in the mirror. Not to mention wings! Her both shocked and excited scream combined shook the household enough to wake her napping grandfather, who wasn't quite so spooked as her or the tourist. In fact, he calmly explained that Megan was a mutant, just like her mother. That she had been born with the pink hair, black eyes and pointed ears, but to save her from the judgemental villager's discrimination and allow her to fit in with humanity, her mother had placed an illusion over her. The manifestation of her wings however, had broken that spell completely. The fact that her mother kept all this a secret from her, only widened the rift between them. Wanting to prove the assumptions wrong, Megan ignored her grandparent's requests to stay home from school the next day. Before she even got there though, she was already rapidly becoming the talk of the town as various people spotted her on route through the main village town area. The physically altering factors of her obvious mutation soon were sure to make Megan the 'most exciting thing in the village,' but small-town-folk can be cruel, especially to those deemed 'outsiders'. It didn't matter that Megan had been born and raised in the village, because she was a mutant now, and a strange one at that. While the majority of her friends thought it was all very cool, other students and teachers alike were weary. At lunch time, she eagerly tried to fly off the playground's climbing frame, but ended up both falling and sprinkling pink dust on her friends. Although they each experienced strangely pleasant hallucinations, everyone else looked at the young and innocent girl with fear in their eyes. The result was a rather embarrassed Megan being swiftly sent home before she 'injured' anyone else.

In the meantime, her grandparents had already contacted her mother, who had briskly made arrangements for Megan to attend a special school in America. The prospects of moving didn't sit too well with her at first, but she was reassured that she'd be able to learn with other kids who like herself, were gifted. So, packing her bags, Megan said her goodbye to Wales, and set off for her new life at Xavier's School where a scholarship awaited her.

Board History
First arriving at Xavier's mansion and greeted with an automated message to wait in the Waiting Room, Pixie stumbled upon Wing and Blink. As she was about to introduce herself, she nearly used her real name until she remembered her grandmother stating codenames were essential to cover the identity of mutants. She replied her name was Pixie. Excited to get to know the others, Pixie didn't realize she unleashed a portion of her pixie dust on her fellow mutants as Armor appeared. Making sure everyone stayed calm as the effects wore off, Pixie meandered off with her own destination in mind.

Abilities
Wings: Thanks to her sparkly-rainbow-fairy-wings of insectoid awesomeness, Megan has the ability to fly with great maneuverability skills. So she can fly forwards, backwards, diagonally, and do flips and spins with ease. The four, iridescent wings mostly resemble a dragonfly. The two largest wings measure at 30inches each from base to tip, while the lower, smaller wings are 22inches each. Whilst flying, her maximum speed is 700mph.

Although her wings are stronger than they look, they are still designed to support solely her own weight, so carrying another person whilst flying would be impossible. If damaged, the wings are able to gradually repair themselves over time; minor injuries taking up to a day to heal, while more severe injuries could generally take up to a month. She is still able to fly with wing injuries though, but with reduced speed and stability.

Hallucinogenic Dust: From spores in her wings, Pixie can produce glittery pink dust that causes both visual and audio (and sparkly) hallucinations. Of course, she is completely immune to her own dust, but it can effect others either by being inhaled, or through skin-contact. Although she currently has no control over what her victims see, the cute effects are usually very calming and pleasant, featuring unicorns, fairies, fluffy animals, bubbles, rainbows, glitter... yeah, you get the gist. The dust can affect any number of people at any given time, so in theory she could put a whole room under the effects of her hallucinations. The radius of her dust is generally 6-10feet, unless carried further by any immediate air currents. It disappears within a minute time span though, so wouldn't be carried far or for long.

The dust effects are instant, and only Pixie herself has proved to be immune to them. Mutants with enhanced healing factors or strong, mental barriers may be able to resist certain aspects of the hallucination, but would still be effected to some degree, especially from the intitial contact. They don't really last long enough for a mutant to develop an immunity.

On average dust exposure, the main effects of Pixie's hallucinations only last for up to three minutes, so the general mid-way point would be one and a half minutes. A state of heightened euphoria, dizzyness, or simply seeing things with more vivid colours can continue for an additional 2-10mins afterwards. It probably always feels like a lot longer for the victim than it actually is. Extended exposure would indeed increase both the length and intensity of the hallucination, but she would literally have to stand around sprinkling a constant flow of dust over the victim/s.

A sudden shock to the system, such as an electric shock or very cold water, won't completely remedy the hallucination, but it will dampen and shorten it. So the victim would be caught in a half-way limbo point between normality and psychedia. Since Pixie has no control over what the hallucinations contain, most people are probably taken into a very potent dream-like world that eliminates what was previously real around them. Limbo would be a place where other people are present, in addition to the unicorns and teddy bears, etc.

Links
NeXus: Pixie Thread Tracker