Damsel of Distress

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<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Damsel of Distress</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>

Ashley Stillions, known to the public as Damsel of Distress, was a former independent villain and later member of the Slaughterhouse Nine first seen operating in Stafford, New Hampshire.

Appearance

Years of living on the streets with inconsistent nutrition<ref name="Spacebattles1" /> left Ashley painfully thin to the point of looking emaciated.<ref name="DoD CS" /> This, combined with being taller than average, led to some people thinking she looks boyish.<ref name="I19.x" /> She had long, usually unkempt platinum blonde hair and pale blue eyes.<ref name="I25" /> By throwing on some civilian clothes and a hat and keeping her head down, she could almost pass as a boy.

As Damsel of Distress, Ashley usually wore black gowns of varying quality with different combinations of masks and black lipstick.<ref name="DoD CS" /> This, combined with her pallor and gaunt appearance, made her both appealing and intimidating.

Following Bonesaw's modifications to her forearms and hands, her arms are twice as long as before, with long drawn out fingers that had mechanisms crammed inside of them, allowing Damsel to better control her power.<ref name="I19.x" />

Personality

Ashley is considered mentally unbalanced,<ref name="Reddit2" /> driven to establish her superiority by her passenger. She is fond of delivering dramatic monologues for the euphoric effect of becoming less pressured by her passenger.<ref name="Spacebattles1" />

Through a combination of childhood trauma and the early activation of her passenger, she became excessively ambitious, narcissistic, megalomaniac, and paranoid. Her passenger punished her when she didn't succeed, perpetuating long strings of near-misses. The reality of a 'camp' villain willing to murder hostages or blame others for her problems, combined with her drawbacks, made her both scary and pitiable.<ref name="Reddit1" />

Her power was somewhat uncontrolled, spiking or going on the fritz when she got stressed or anxious. Coupled with her obsessive personality, this meant that she would get caught in vicious cycles where she became frustrated and anxious at eating or similar activities after destroying one meal, losing sleep or shelter, embarrassing herself in front of others, or similar situations.<ref name="Spacebattles1" /> In stubbornness and pride, she would consequently go long stretches of time without really eating or sleeping.<ref name="Reddit1" />

She was fond of situations where she could use hostages or stalk a target through a cluttered area, where she could blast through cover and potentially her victim.<ref name="Reddit1" />

Bonesaw's surgical alterations simultaneously broke her pride and gave her control. This was a cold, ruthless, detached source of obliteration, "deserving and giving no pity".<ref name="Reddit1">Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref><ref name="Spacebattles1" />

Abilities & Powers

Ashley's power functions similarly to Scrub's. She creates maelstroms of inconsistent gravity and spacetime warping<ref>16.y (Donation Interlude 2; Defiant)</ref>, chaotically twisting reality<ref name="Spacebattles1" /> and producing uncontrolled cone-shaped blasts<ref name="Spacebattles1" /><ref name="list" /> of gravity, space and matter alteration.<ref name="Reddit1" /> The "blasts" can rip, tear, twist, melt, disintegrate, and cause numerous other effects to matter within their variable range of six to fifteen feet.<ref name="Reddit1" /> This power is capable of destroying virtually any matter or construction<ref name="Cast2" />, including the likes of Alexandria, as Ashley's 'shotgun' bursts ignore most forms of durability<ref name="Reddit1" />.

Ashley's power also has a forceful kickback that flings her backwards, as the combination of warped space, disintegration and gravity shearing makes for a massive amount of recoil whenever she activates her power.<ref name="list">Wildbow's Parahuman List</ref><ref name="Reddit1" /><ref name="Spacebattles1" /> Ashley learned to use this effect to move at high speeds in 10- to 15-foot bursts, allowing her to avoid attacks<ref name="DoD CS" /> and giving her a Mover rating.<ref name="list" />

While obviously powerful, Ashley never had full control of her power<ref name="Spacebattles1" />, being unable to prevent herself from producing minor flare-ups whenever she became stressed or anxious<ref name="Reddit1" />. Bonesaw's alterations gave Ashley the ability to control her power, at the cost of her becoming even more of a monster.<ref name="Reddit1" /><ref name="Spacebattles1">Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref>

History

Background

Ashley triggered when she tried to save her mother from being beaten to death by her enraged father and was backed into a corner, surrounded by chaos. With her new uncontrolled power, she killed her father and, accidentally while checking on her, her mother. Her trigger event affected her emotionally on a fundamental level, and she fled her former home with whatever she could carry and not accidentally obliterate.

Ashley spent years of her life on the streets trying to make it into the cape scene in a large city like Boston, but she lacked the ability to see those dreams through and failed to do so multiple times.<ref name="DoD CS">Damsel of Distress Character Sheet</ref>

Story Start

Damsel of Distress was one of the three parahumans operating in the small town of Stafford, New Hampshire.<ref name="Reddit2">Another comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Damsel of Distress has tried to become a notable villain in a big city such as Boston a few times, but she was never quite able to cut it and always had to come back<ref name="Reddit1" />. She had an ongoing feud with Licit and Edict, which was part of a long-term effort by the PRT to recruit a powerful Blaster.<ref name="Reddit2" />

Post-Echidna

When they left Brockton Bay, the remaining members of the Slaughterhouse Nine went to recruit her. It is unknown if she joined willingly or was coerced.<ref name="Cast2">Cast (in depth)</ref>

Bonesaw made one of her "toys" for Damsel by augmenting her arms to give her more control over her powers. With these newly upgraded powers, she was able to easily cut her way through several powerful Ambassadors.<ref name="I19.x">Interlude 19.x</ref>

In her confrontation with Blasto, Defiant killed his fellow cyborg using nano-thorns he installed in his own artificial limbs.<ref name="I19.x" /><ref name="Cast2"/>

Post-Timeskip

During the several months that Bonesaw spent trying to clone members of the Slaughterhouse Nine, she made several attempts with Damsel, including a version of her that had triggered far too young to be of much use.<ref name="I25"/>

Several clones of Damsel were successfully made for the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand, with some tweaking to ensure loyalty.<ref name="I25">Interlude 25</ref>

Golden Morning

Two surviving instances of Damsel were located when Khepri took control of the remaining parahumans in an attempt to defeat Scion.<ref>Speck 30.4</ref>

References

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