Fathom

Aspen (Scenesys ID: 1199)
Quote
Think 'water elemental', not 'fish lady'.
Profile
Full Name:	Aspen Matthews
Gender:	Female
Species:	Black/Blue Hybrid (Aquatic Humanoid)
Theme:	Other (FC)
Occupation:	Marine Biologist
Citizenship:	American
Residence:	Always near water (Mobile)
Education:	Marine Biology Ph.D
Status:	Dropped
Groups:	{{{Groups}}}
Other Information
Apparent Age:	26	Actual Age:	26
Date of Birth	4 August 1998	Actor:	Svetlana Bilyalova
Height:	170 cm	Weight:	55 kg
Hair Color:	Black	Eye Color:	Blue
Theme Song:	Last of Us theme

Profile

Aspen Matthews has loved water. She had to live near it, so she could easily sate her urge to swim and dive from a very young age. Her fascination with it led to school for many years of advanced schooling to become a marine biologist. She became such an expert on various aspects of deep water life that the government invited her to be a part of a program to study some very strange discoveries they'd made, deep under the ocean. One torpedo later, her entire life changed forever.

Sheet

Description

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Aspen Matthews seems like an All-American girl. Tanned and modest in height, she has rich, dark brunette hair that she tends to keep tied back, a few rogue tresses spilling down enough to lay across a high cheekbone. Her cool blue eyes are large and expressive, complimenting her pert nose and full, rosy lips. Her natural beauty shining through, she doesn't tend to wear much make-up and radiates a natural effervescence and vitality.

She tends to dress in casual and comfortable clothing, often with a light-weight cotton button-down shirt tied a bit around the middle to show her midriff in the hot summer. She's got significant muscle tone, her stomach, arms, and legs all attractively firm. She's often got a swimsuit on under her clothes, jeans shucked up over it, and she's barefoot as often as she can get away with it.

History

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Aspen doesn't have any memories of her life before the return of the ship Paradise. A cruise ship that mysteriously disappeared, and then ten years later sailed into port, those aboard not aware any time had transpired. The government investigation missed the fact that the parentless 11-year old girl had not been one of the original passengers. She ended up officially as Orphan 421-6, and was adopted by Captain Matthews, a ship's captain who was amongst the other passengers.

The reality is that Aspen is the daughter of the leaders of two aquatic humanoid races, the Blue and the Black. She and her brother were fleeing dissidents who killed their parents, when their ship was hit by fire as it passed near the Paradise. Aspen's latent powers manifested and the ship disappeared along with both siblings. Her brother remained missing, but Aspen was on board the ship when it returned to port a decade after it left, losing all memory of the events.

Unaware of this past, Aspen grew up believing herself a human. She seemed always drawn to water, whether it was swimming, surfing or SCUBA. She became an Olympic swimmer, winning gold medals in Tokyo in 2020, but then had them stripped after her drug tests showed positive results. Aspen's blood has twice the red blood cell count of humans, which was seen as blood doping.

Given a lifetime ban from the sport, Aspen turned her focus to college, receiving a Ph.D in Marine Biology from UC San Diego. Aspen soon became a leading expert on the subject of propulsion among aquatic life forms. She worked on a number of different research projects including one or two for the government. (Note: Aspen the PC begins play before canon events at the DMD research facility, which may not happen, or in the same fashion, in this timeline.)

She begins play, working on a research boat she's running on the West Coast. Her former roommate, Tyler Kincaid, is now a reporter in New York City. Aspen visits her there on occasion. Aspen has a bulldog named Matilda as her only roommate right now.

Personality

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Aspen's a fairly pleasant and open-minded person, friendly and mingling both athletic and intellectual backgrounds. As a scientist, she's thoughtful and engaged, capable of discussing the latest discoveries and keeping up an intelligent conversation. But she's also a swimmer and something of an athlete and is equally comfortable in that world. She's never been a wallflower and tends to get along easily with people. That said, she's also comfortable alone, often spending time in the depths of the ocean with nothing but the sea life to keep her company and doing just fine for it. She bears scars from her past experiences, but she tries not to show it and does her best to be strong - maybe sometimes she tries too hard.

Abilities

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ENERGY BLASTS
Aspen can manifest a form of biomystic energy as a result of her Black genetics. She can shoot energy blasts from her hands equivalent to howitzers, blasting through steel plate and capable of punching a hole in the hull of a ship or carving into solid stone. Their maximum concussive equivalent is around ten tons.

ENERGY FORM
Due to her Black heritage, Aspen can also take the form of living energy. Like her water form, Aspen's energy form is intangible, allowing physical attacks to pass harmlessly through her. She can pass fully through objects as well and, in this shape, can fly through the air and hover weightlessly.

FLUID CONTROL
Aspen has the ability to utterly command water, even if it's mingled with other fluids or interwoven within solid objects. It will behave and flow to her command, alter its density, and take whatever shape she desires. She can make it lash like a whip or make it solid enough to walk on. She can make the ocean build into massive, destructive waves or tsunamis, capable of wiping out a beach, or she can settle it to be still as glass despite the pull of the tides. Her water control even lets her influence the water flowing in a living body, plant or animal, such as through their blood or tissues, letting her 'tug' on that water in such a way as to cause physical pain or damage, or go so far as to entirely drain it from them, causing the victim to wither to a dried-out husk.

HEALING
By channeling biomystic energy through her body, Aspen can repair physical damage in other living creatures, sealing up even fatal wounds and bringing someone back to full health. She need only maintain touch during the healing process. While she may use this ability to heal herself, it takes her twice as long to meet her own needs, and she may even be required to sleep to recharge enough to continue healing herself, if the damage is extensive enough.

LIMITED TELEPATHY
Aspen possesses the ability to communicate telepathically, but only with those who share her genetic connection to the aquatic species known as the Black, or with aquatic lifeforms, including corals. She could potentially communicate with other sentient aquatic species such as the several breeds of Atlanteans, but it would be on a case-to-case basis.

PHYSIOLOGY
Aspen's base physiology stems from her hybrid heritage and is superior to that of a human in several ways. She has ten times the stamina, reflexes, and strength of an ordinary human. Her lung capacity is more than five times that of an Olympic swimmer (although she has no need to worry about breathing underwater, due to her numerous other abilities). Her bone structure is more flexible than a human's, allowing her to take blunt force impacts of several tons without suffering more than basic tissue damage like bruising.

WATER FORM

Aspen can convert her entire body into pure water, controlling every molecule of her being and retaining her full consciousness. In this form, she is impervious to physical damage from blows or blades, although she could be potentially evaporated or frozen (she'd still be conscious and be able to undo those states, but it would take time). In this form, she often merges to become full bodies of water, taking possession of lakes or portions of the ocean and essentially treating them as extensions of herself, with her senses distributed through them. By liquefying, she can also slip through impossible gaps, escape bonds, and even dive into the lungs of an enemy to incapacitate them.

Skills

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COMBAT
Aspen has some experience in martial combat since discovering her heritage and has taken a few self-defense classes. While no warrior yet, she's not a pushover, by any means.

MARINE BIOLOGY
Aspen is a highly trained marine biologist, with multiple degrees in various fields, and an oceanographer. She has a wide understanding of the sea, aquatic life, propulsion in water, and the geography of the world's oceans.

SEAMANSHIP
Aspen is a capable boat pilot and sailor. She can operate both mechanical and sail-driven vessels and can do most of your basic, non-military naval jobs.

SWIMMING & DIVING

Aspen is an experienced deep-sea diver, with scuba and aquatic capabilities. While her powers now make scuba gear unnecessary, she nonetheless has an expertise with them and with the various techniques used to navigate and swim underwater.

Resources

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HERITAGE
Later in her story, Aspen may be able to draw from both the Blue and the Black, a pair of strange aquatic tribes of undersea humanoids. These beings could provide her support, shelter and knowledge in times of trouble. Although they can be hard to find, both count her as an ally and a member in good standing. Aspen must first make contact with them in her story, however.

RESEARCH

Aspen currently owns a boat that is fitted for marine research, though keeping it operational for long stretches can require additional funding. She currently is working via a research grant from The Tallow Fellowship, investigating whales including propulsion, tracking numbers, and investigating their social behaviors. The grant could run out or be retracted at a convenient-for-story moment. The insurance on the boat tends to vary based on her current financial situation (i.e. left open for story purposes).

Weaknesses

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AQUATIC
While capable of living outside of water, Aspen will be uncomfortable if kept away from it for too long. In addition, her powers require ambient water and do not produce it from nothing - while she can draw water vapor from the air, the amount can be quite limited if humidity is low. In much the same vein, she can draw water from any source around her, but it could damage the balance of things, so she tends not to do that unless it's truly an emergency. She's extremely subject to dehydration and suffers pangs of such much worse than a human would.

CONFLICT
Her dual heritage puts her constantly at war with one another. The Blue and the Black are historical enemies and that instinct bears out in her, giving her a great deal of trouble with instincts and urges she doesn't fully understand. In addition, she can't please both tribes and, though she is generally on good terms with both tribes, it is ever possible to earn the enmity of one if she helps the other.

SOLID FORM
Aspen needs to consciously choose to become her water or energy forms. While tougher than a human in the flesh, she can still take damage and wounds if she's caught off-guard and doesn't have a chance to change. Such injuries will go into stasis if she's in water or energy form, but such a transformation would do no more than stabilize the damage.

TRAUMA

Aspen lost both of her parents. Like most orphans, she bears a certain amount of trauma and psychological damage from the loss and it weighs heavily on her in many ways.

Logs

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To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.

Title	Date	Scene Summary
Stranger Tides: Unidentified Sunken Object	March 7th, 2019	In the plot finale, Bruce Banner and Aspen enter the underwater alien ship. Trusting one of the dying aliens to close the interdimensional rift, Aspen unknowingly triggers the self-destruct.
the morning after the night before...	February 22nd, 2019	Summary needed
Stranger Tides: The Disturbance	February 22nd, 2019	Summary needed
On A Boat Going To Southern Islands	February 15th, 2019	Aspen meets Aquaman while gathering marine research data
A Night In New York	February 11th, 2019	Summary needed
Stranger Tides: Shore Patrol	February 1st, 2019	A bon voyage party turns into a fight as intruders try to ransack the research ship
The nosey reporter...	January 26th, 2019	Summary needed
Stranger Tides: The Gathering Pt2	January 26th, 2019	Katherine signs on to Aspen's research team to investigate the odd ocean currents
Burger and Soda date	January 24th, 2019	Summary needed
Stranger Tides - A Day With June	January 23rd, 2019	Aspen and June chat while working on marine research
Stranger Tides: The Gathering Pt1	January 21st, 2019	Staff are hired for a marine research project
Rescue from the Icy Fathoms	January 19th, 2019	Fathom and Iceman come to the rescue of a floundering fishing boat.
Surf 'n Turf	January 19th, 2019	Summary needed
Stranger Tides: Getting the ball rolling	January 19th, 2019	Natasha hires herself an oceanologist to investigate the changing currents.
Fish People! Some time ago!	January 18th, 2019	Aspen and Thor save some beached whales.
The Demands of the Oceans	July 20th, 2017	Aspen Matthews meets Kaldur'Ahm of Atlantis; they agree to represent the nations of the Sea to the surface, as partners.

Cutscenes

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
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Gallery

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