Night

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Night</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Dorothy Schmidt,<ref name="Cast2" /> known publicaly as Night, was a member of Empire Eighty-Eight and the wife of Fog.

Personality

While charming and helpful to colleagues when in her civilian disguise these traits are considered a facade for her utter ruthlessness and killing intent.<ref name="18.y" /> Dorothy does have a liking for high heels, a parallel to the insectile limbs she walks on in her other form.<ref name="Cast2">Night, Dorothy Schmidt – Can transform into an inhuman creature with enhanced speed and strength and a nigh-invincible exterior, but only when unobserved by conventional sight. Heals entirely on transformation. Fog’s wife and Purity’s staunch follower. Night wears a black costume with a hood and an array of tools that allow her to blind an enemy, from a cloak embedded with hooks to snare to flashbangs and smoke grenades. Has a liking for high heels, a parallel to the insectile limbs she walks on in her other form. - Cast (in depth)</ref> She has an unerring morning routine with planned dialogue, that she and her husband go through without fail.<ref name="18.y" />

Relationships

Geoff Schmidt

It is unknown what feelings if any Dorothy has with her husband. As functional sociopaths<ref name="15.4">Colony 15.4</ref> their lives are best described as ritually pantomiming the mannerisms of a happily married couple, bereft of "affection or fondness". Cooking set meals at set amounts and in a set weekly rotation. To outside observers their civilian disguises are boring in the extreme, the most interesting thing about them being that they owned a cat.<ref name="7.10" /> Their background makes it hard to parse their actual feelings for each other vs. the "shaping" that occurred under Gesellschaft.

Kayden Russel

Similar to her relationship to her husband it is unknown whether she follows Kayden out of trust and respect, and how much the Gesellschaft conditioning that ordered Dorothy to the United States in the first place. Nevertheless, she and her husband chose to follow Purity when E88 split, and only returned to the group in the first place because Purity had.

Appearance

Out of costume, Dorothy dresses a little too well for the situation, wearing a dress, lots of makeup, and jewelry.<ref name="18.y" /> Dorothy has pale blue eyes.<ref name="7.10" />

As a cape she dresses entirely in black complete with a with a cowl, mask, hood, high-heeled boots, and a heavy cloak.<ref name="Cast1"/> Her costume had no symbols or identifying marks, and resembled her husband's. Her mask leaves her eyes exposed.<ref name="7.9">Buzz 7.9</ref>

Equipment

As her transformation only occurs when she is unseen, Dorothy uses an assortment of tools to blind her foes, including flash-bangs, smoke canisters, and a large black removable cloak, embedded with mini-hooks on the outside, designed to cover and catch on her enemies, essentially a net.<ref name="15.2">Colony 15.2</ref><ref name="7.9" />

Abilities and Powers

Dorothy can transform into a horrifying monster when unseen. This is summed up by Tattletale as an inversion of the Manton Effect, a psychological block to prevent others from seeing her true form, though she admits that this explanation was incorrect.<ref name="7.9e1">“What the fuck is this woman?” I asked, “Tattletale?”

“You know how the Manton effect could maybe be a psychological block that comes parceled with our powers?”

I nodded, once.

“Okay, well, imagine that this woman got powers that let her turn into something so wrong that she’s got some sort of mental block that keeps her from transforming if anyone can see. Maybe because she’s so ashamed of being seen like that. When nobody’s looking, though, she’s a monster. Lightning fast and all sharp.”

“That’s…”

“Not even remotely close to the truth,” Tattletale confessed. “But it’s the best I can offer you. Don’t take your eyes off her.” - Excerpt from Buzz 7.9</ref> Whenever Night reverts back to her human form she is instantly healed, effectively 'resetting' any damage she takes and restoring her to a "pristine" state.<ref name="Cast1">Night – Wife to Fog, dresses herself in a black cloak and heeled boots. Serves under Purity. When not directly observed, heals herself to pristine condition and becomes a durable monster with enhanced speed and strength. - Cast (spoiler free)</ref>

Breaker State

Dorothy's monster form has inhuman speed, strength, and durability from the nigh-invincible exterior<ref name="Cast2" /> of an amorphous "ink blot" body<ref name="7.10">Buzz 7.10</ref> that is paradoxically composed of sharp edges and has many long, insect-like<ref name="Cast2" /> legs that end in claws. Taylor described her as a "multi-legged, hyper-agile, lightning quick death blender of blades and claws".<ref name="15.2" />

These angular legs do not have proper joints, but can bend and stretch and turn inside out as it moves around. This allows Night to avoid being tripped.<ref name="15.2" /> Her body was seemingly covered in some sort of oily lubricant.<ref name="7.10" />

Based on the admittedly inexpert opinion of Taylor, this form does not have any identifiable sensory organs analogous to sight or hearing. This does not seem to impede her, however.<ref name="15.2" /> A lack of oxygen and high pressure does not seem to impede Night's Breaker state, as she stayed completely underwater, out of sight, guarding the meeting place where the Brockton Bay parahumans gathered to discuss the arrival of a new S-Class threat to Brockton Bay.<ref name="12.2">Night stepped out of the lake, between our parked boats and onto the roof, water streaming from her cloak. Had she been the just-in-case measure if an incoming boat hadn’t known the signal? She would be invisible in the pitch black gloom beneath the water’s surface, which would mean she wasn’t in her human form. - Excerpt form Plague 12.2</ref>. This raises questions concerning the amount of time Night can stay in her alternate state.

Dorothy's monstrous form has horrendous strength and speed, with more than enough to incapacitate any of Bitch's dogs, shattering their protective bone plating. Although her blades left cuts wider than Taylor's handspan,<ref name="7.9" /> she is still unable to cut through Skitter's spider silk costume.<ref name="7.10" /> Night is able to achieve high speeds in this form, but is able to make sharp turns unhindered by momentum and navigate obstructing obstacles easily.<ref name="15.2" /> It was so fast that Taylor briefly thought she had teleported.<ref name="7.9" />

It is unclear if her transformation is psychological or physical; Skitter's swarm-sense does not trigger the effect, only conventional sight.<ref name="Cast2" />

Power Classifications

Night and Fog's PRT classifications are given in Sentinel 9.1 as "a Breaker 9" and "a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3", but it is unclear in the chapter which rating refers to which character.<ref name="9.1 e1">“And this second group, The Pure, is the second offshoot of that Aryan group, I take it?”

“Small but powerful. Their leader, Purity, is a Blaster 8 and Mover 4.”

“Yeah, there’s a Breaker 9, a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3 and a Master 6 in that group? I buy that they’re powerful.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1</ref> Later comments by the author have indicated that Fog was the Breaker,<ref name="Fog1">Fog is (like many breakers) a sub-class shaker, in that his breaker power has a shaker (and stranger) side effect (the broad cloud of semisolid fog he generates). Much like Shadow Stalker. You can see 9.1 for brief mention of these breaker sub-classes, I think. - comment by Wildbow, on Queen 18.5.</ref> and that he has since changed his mind and would now consider Night the Breaker and Fog either a Breaker or Changer.<ref name="R1">I have a slightly different take on Breakers than I did as I wrote that part & the comment. The story itself is unchanged because you can effectively flip the two characters around, but I'd call Night a breaker and Fog a Changer (or call them both breakers, depending). I've also left it as is with the idea that the PRT are always going to be a bit wobbly with classifications (and especially numbers) given the lack of complete information they have. - Excerpt from a comment on Reddit by Wildbow.</ref>

History

Background

Night was trained, or more specifically, "made" by Gesellschaft as a "weapon"<ref name="18.y">Interlude 18.y</ref>. Dorothy first appeared as Nacht in Hesse, Germany, she was sent to Brockton Bay by Gesellschaft where she and her husband joined Empire Eighty-Eight.<ref name="7.10" /> They left for Boston shortly after Purity split from the group, two years prior to the start of Worm, but Kaiser thought she would gladly rejoin the Empire if Purity did.<ref name="5.1" /><ref name="3.5B">Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref>

Story Start

She and her husband were seen later among the newly reassembled Empire Eighty Eight at Somer's Rock.<ref name="5.1">Hive 5.1</ref>

When the E88's were revealed they took part in a rampage through the city following Child Protective Services removing Purity's Daughter from her mothers care. They humbled The Undersiders when they fought, only letting them go when Tattletale offered to take their leader to her daughter.<ref name="7.10" />

Fought against the Endbringer that came to Brockton Bay, but was taken out of the fight early.<ref name="8.3">Extermination 8.3</ref>

Post-Leviathan

After Kaiser's death during the battle against Leviathan, Night and her husband followed their former leader Kayden into forming the Empire splinter group named the Pure.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Night was eventually forced to leave Brockton Bay, with the rest of the Pure, due to pressure from outside Villain groups.<ref name="16.5">Monarch 16.5</ref>

Post-Timeskip

Dorothy was trapped by Gray Boy, though she is kept company by her husband.<ref>Sting 26.6</ref><ref>Secondary focuses.  Not the kind of targets that Dragon checked on with any regularity. [...] A temporary measure had been taken with Purity and her three year old daughter, with observation being provided for her by the PRT, and the feed showed her sitting on the couch in an apartment or hotel room, two very normal, plain looking people standing in the corner of the room with some PRT officers keeping their distance.
[...]
The three year old that Purity held was crying, throwing a tantrum, and the woman looked concerned.  Insignificant.  The officers had their guns drawn, but that could easily be because the two plain-looking members of Purity's circle had crossed the room to her side, to help handle the shrieking child. - Interlude 26.x</ref>

Early-Ward

The Protectorate successor organization, The Wardens, have been committing resources to freeing people like her from imprisonment.<ref>“The Wardens didn’t ask us before they signed off on this, yet they have people devoted to idiotic things like rescuing people from time bubbles and loops. - Excerpt from Interlude 5x II</ref>

Trivia

• Her and her husbands name comes the Nazi program Nacht und Nebel, Night and Fog.<ref name="7.10c1">Night and Fog, for example. I was searching for terms and symbols related to white supremacists, nazi Germany, the KKK and so on, when I came across the term ‘Nacht und Nebel’, German for ‘Night and Fog’. That was my starting point. The idea behind the term was that Hitler issued a directive to suppress dissent by having enemies in occupied territories disappear, spirited away in the night with no records or messages passed on to the family about their fate. The fear and concern over what happened to these individuals served to cow the local population into submission. - Comment by Wildbow, click to see their mental process on Buzz 7.10</ref>
• It is possible the Night's breaker state represents something that was recorded during one of the previous cycles that the Shards have access to.<ref>As one, they traveled. The distance was immeasurable, the passage of time impossible to convey. There was no standard, for there were realms they had traveled where time and space operated on different levels. - Excerpt from Interlude 18</ref> Given that Dorothy was originally meant to be a Changer,<ref name="R1"/> this interpretation seems likely.<ref>For the entities, who travel from world to world, changers are their means of exploring the lifeforms themselves, both in the sense of what the life on this particular world is like, and also taking data from other forms of life from prior cycles and exploring them. While it might sound curious, the entities are just as likely to get a sense of the way a given world’s inhabitants operate and think from the changers they seed into that reality as they are from thinkers or tinkers. The changers simply offer a ground level perception of instinct and action. - CHANGER, document by Wildbow</ref>

References

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The Pure
Leader	Purity
Members	Theo Anders {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Crusader • Fog • Night
Associates	Aster Anders {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Krieg