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>
<label>Status</label><format><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.
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" />
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"/>
Powers & Abilities
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 keep her power from producing minor flare-ups as she got 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 tried to intervene when her enraged father was beating her mother, very nearly to death. She fought him with everything she had and could get on hand to try to save her mother despite being a little girl. But she could still do nothing finally backed into a corner surrounded by chaos she triggered. She killed her father with her new uncontrolled power, and while trying to check to see if she was okay, her mother as well.
She sat sessile with silent anguish and sorrow for an indeterminate amount of time as she processed the enormity of what had occurred affecting on a fundamental level. She fled her former home with whatever she could carry and not accidentally obliterate.
Sending years of her life on the streets trying to make it into the cape scene, but failed multiple times. Ashley has big dreams of running a city and ascending to greatness, but not currently have the ability to see those dreams through.<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 far to 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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