Gertrude
Gertrude "Quelixina" Scheinfeld
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Portrayed By Gabrielle Anwar
Gender Female
Date of Birth April 28, 1984
Age 23
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Aliases Quelixina, Quellie, Quel, Xina, Q, Gertie (only to her parents)
Place of Birth Buffalo, NY, USA
Current Location New York City, NY, USA
Occupation None
Known Relatives Molly Scheinfeld (mother), Henry Scheinfeld (father)
Significant Other None
Pets Seeing-Eye Dog "Soup", Parrot "Hannibal"
Known Abilities Parasitic Vision
First Appearance TBA

Quelixina is a bit of a social recluse. She enjoys wandering around outdoors, but isn't all that crazy about people in general. Blind since birth, Quelixina moves around via white-capped walking stick and seeing eye dog named 'Soup.' She graduated majoring in English Literature with a minor in Art, and did nothing with either degree. She lives on disability checks, and after a two-week trial of living in the countryside that didn't go over too well, she moved to the Big Apple to enjoy life in the busy city. She also has a mean parrot named Hannibal. He bites. No exceptions.

Relations

  • Jaden - He likes her dog, and Soup likes him. Usually that's enough to at least earn a nod of approval in her book. Quelixina was impressed by his honesty and his reaction to her being blind…which is to say, he didn't react at all, and treated her just like anyone else. Jaden likes to talk, and she likes to listen. He may turn out to be a good friend.

History

Gertrude Scheinfeld claims that she always hated her name. In truth, she only started hating it when other kids started making fun of it. She was named after her mother's grandmother, whom her mother adored. But Gertrude had never met her and couldn't see why she had to carry around this lifetime blight. She hated 'Gertie' too, which her parents called her affectionately. But because she loved her parents, she kept her sulking to herself (after the first offense earned a stern, loud lecture about disrespect to the family and didn't she know how important Great-Grammy Gertie was during the turn of the century blah blah blah).

She was also born blind. Her mother had slipped and fallen in the kitchen while mopping the floor, but didn't think it had caused any real, lasting damage to the unborn baby. But when Gertrude came out of the womb, her pupils were misshapen and blotchy, unable to focus, constrict, or dilate. She couldn't see anything, they learned later. So when Gertrude turned four, they got her a seeing eye dog named 'Duke' as a birthday present. "Duke will help you to see," they told her.

They were more right than they knew.

Gertrude didn't think it was particularly unusual when she began seeing things through Duke's colorblind eyes. This was what a seeing eye dog did, she thought, and the two were virtually inseparable. Then, three years later, Duke ran into the road and was hit by a car. Gertrude was sent reeling, seeing through his eyes the moment he was killed, and she was out cold for a good ten minutes before she came to, and began to sob hysterically.

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Everything was dark and frightening. Desperately she groped around, trying to see through her dog's eyes, but was surprised to find that she was seeing through a squirrel's instead. She began to experiment, very carefully, and found that she could switch points of view to anyone who could see her. The birds in the trees, the bees in the flowers (though she jumped out of THAT point of view quickly, on account of the extreme disorientation she felt), even her next-door neighbor. When she saw her dog in the road again, her tears were refreshed, and her parents took her inside to console her, promising to find another dog soon enough, hopefully one a little less car-loving.

Elementary school was very difficult for a little blind girl. When the teachers weren't looking, she was picked on. She had a difficult time of it at first, but she wasn't exactly a shrinking violet either. When she walked through the hallways, a boy in her class stuck out his foot, hoping to trip her. Able to see him perfectly well through the eyes of another student, she kicked his leg as hard as she could, and marched onward with her head held high. Her retorts were sharp, and she gave as good as she got. And those who tried to hurt her got a punch in the face. Gertrude was sent to the principal's office many, many times, and was once suspended for a whole week in the second grade after making a sixth grader cry. Her parents weren't sure if they should be angry or proud, so they just told her 'don't do it again' and settled down for dinner.

It was when Gertrude was nine years old that she took on the name 'Quelixina.' Sick of all the name jokes and scoffing remarks of her classmates, she told them that from now on she would be addressed by her middle name. Which was Quelixina. In truth she HAD no middle name, but that just gave her more liberty to choose something she liked, and at the time, Quelixina sounded freaking AWESOME. It was also next-to-impossible to sing-song rhyming insults with, and a few expressed jealousy that they wished they had a name like that. And she was darn proud of it.

It seems like a good idea when you're a kid, or even a teenager. 'Quelixina' sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, and of all the brail books she possessed, those were her favorite kind. Once she was in college, though, she began to regret picking up such a stupid name, but it was what everyone called her now, or Quellie, or Q, and she was stuck with it. In her opinion, it was still better than Gertrude, and always would be.

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She got a four-year degree in English literature with a minor in Art…as worthless a combination as that combination might provide. However, she was getting by just fine on her disability income, enough to provide her a comfortable little one-bedroom house for herself, her dog Soup, and her incredibly mean blue parrot which she named 'Hannibal' since he enjoyed biting people's fingers so much.

New York City wasn't her first choice of residence, to be honest. She wanted to live in the countryside where all of the wild animals lived. Quelixina longed to see what a fish saw, plunging through the icy river. Instead, she saw herself get eaten by a much bigger fish, and collapsed cold on the river bank for half an hour while Soup sat there wagging his tail stupidly. She wanted to see what it was like to soar with the eagle. Instead, she saw a darting beak ripping apart a screaming rabbit with blood and guts everywhere. Not pleasant. Then it was the deer, fleet of foot, fleet right into a pack of wolves… Yeah, she ditched that idea too, and decided after numerous sight trips of being eaten, shredding prey, wild frenzied mating, and frantic butt-licking, that she'd had enough animal sight and would fare far better in a place full of people.

Quelixina kept quiet about her powers. She didn't even know it was unusual until her dog died, and even then, she was smart enough to keep it to herself. She knew the story of E.T. very well, thankyouverymuch, and was aware that people who weren't normal…like, even MORE abnormal than just being blind…lived generally unhappy lives with lots of scientists and lab tests and blah blah blah. And when she was older still, smarter and wiser, knew that being able to see through the eyes of someone else could lead to a heap of trouble if the wrong person found out and began thinking of grabbing PIN numbers, security codes, passwords, and bank vault combinations. She's experimented a great deal to see what her limits are, and even now, she's not sure she's unlocked all of her potential. But for her own safety, she's decided not to pursue it much further.

Timeline

Coming Soon!

Personality

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It's not that Quelixina doesn't get out much. She does. She likes heading out during daylight hours with her dog Soup, wandering the park and visiting the zoo and browsing through the market. It's just that she doesn't like going out with other /people/. This is because people have a tendency to act oddly around those with disabilities. Some are overly considerate and clear a wide berth. Others are dicks and try to mess with her. In general, there are a lot of things people will do if they don't think you can see them, and she hates that. She's not afraid to say so, either. However, she's been making an effort to at least /associate/ with others more often, so she's enrolled in a beginner's aikido class to learn self-defense and better coordination, as she knows she relies a little too heavily on the sight of others to get around, and doesn't want to neglect her sense of hearing and smell as well, both crucial for a blind woman.

Quelixina isn't…fond…of politics. In fact, it would be safe to say that she hates the topic with a passion, and avoids voting day and street corner petitions whenever possible. There are too many varying issues that she feels strongly about, none of which can be grouped into one particular party. She's all for saving the rain forests and the animals. She's a BIG FAN of animals. But she's also an avid supporter of life in general and frowns heavily at abortion clinics. Rather than argue her beliefs with someone who's never going to change their mind or even listen, Quelixina just doesn't bother. If someone tries to start up a conversation that even remotely involves politics, she'll warn them that she doesn't want to talk about it. And if they persist, she'll walk away without another word. She prefers to keep the peace.

She has a sharp and inquisitive mind, and learned a great deal from reading as much as she has. Her realm of knowledge isn't all that expansive, as she preferred reading fiction to non, but she's a big-time nature nut, and she found zoology, geology, and botany to be her favorite science courses. But not biology. That involved dissection, and she hates that too. Her wit is sharp, whetted from all those school days of fighting back against unkind classmates with words when fists weren't an option (i.e. when a teacher was looking). Quelixina can be a little sassy and a lot snarky when she needs to be, and is seldom at a loss for words.

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For some reason, she sort of thinks it's funny to play up the blind hand. For instance, she's actually very skilled at art. Considering all the unusual point-of-views she's witnessed, she has a wide variety of perspectives to rely on for her paintings and sculptures. But she keeps the good stuff hidden, or signs it with a false name ('Laura Smith' after learning the error of really weird names). Then she creates really /hideous/ lumps of pottery or lopsided grinning faces, proudly proclaiming her art as being 'not too bad for a blind lady!' She knows it's horrible. And she thinks it's hilarious watching other people praise something they also know to be horrible. She knows she shouldn't have so much fun screwing with people like that, but meh. Who's going to really call her on it?

Willful and weird, Quelixina lives her odd little life and enjoys every moment of it. She forms her own opinions and makes her own decisions. She'll hear other people out if they really feel like they absolutely MUST dispense advice, but chances are, she's still going to do what she originally planned. She has a quirky sense of humor, evidenced by her choice of pet names. Her parrot Hannibal, in particular, amuses her to no end despite how mean he is. He only vaguely tolerates Quelixina and still goes for her fingers if she gets careless, but everyone else gets the full-wrath of one big blue bastard bird. Even the poor dog isn't safe; Hannibal has been known to settle on Soup's back and dig in with his talons, clamping his beak onto the dog's ear to make it yelp and run. Quelixina discourages this whenever she notices it, which is why Hannibal tends to do it whenever she's at the other end of the house.

She hates to cook and finds it virtually impossible without anyone to oversee her doing it. Hannibal won't pay attention, and Soup is more likely to eat the ingredients mid-process. She orders pizza and Chinese an awful lot, and has quite a collection of paper menus if the restaurant in question delivers. For the same reasons, Quelixina doesn't wear make-up. She can't see what she's doing unless she uses poor Soup as a 'mirror', and being that he's color-blind, it doesn't really help much. Chapstick is her only friend.

There are a number of hobbies that she DOES enjoy. She likes cross-stitch, reading, and listening to music most of all. Her time is usually spent either outdoors if the weather is nice, or inside just enjoying the company of her pets, the works of Ray Bradbury, and Ben & Jerry. She doesn't like television since her dog won't watch the screen for her, nor does she like going to the theater since she's had a few bad experiences with selected movie-goers watching 'other things' than the screen.

Powers

Parasitic Vision involves an unusual link that is neither telepathic nor empathic (though those skilled in either powerset might be aware of what she's doing, and with whom). Quelixina isn't actually sure HOW it works, but she knows quite a bit about who or what she can link with in order to see through the eyes of another person or creature. These are the things she knows:

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1. Her choice of POV must come from a living being. You can't see through a dead person's eyes, because they can't see a freaking thing EVER AGAIN.
2. So far, animal species and human type of 'vessel' prove unlimited. She's tried mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, even insects (but she hates using insects, their vision is completely screwy and she lacks the telepathy needed to decipher what they pick up), and they all work just fine.
3. The person or creature she seeks must be able to see her. They don't have to be looking directly at her, but she needs to be within that range of vision to at least initiate a link.
4. The distance limit between her and said link is as of yet unknown. She's never felt any sense of degradation no matter how far her vessel goes, but when she or her vessel go to sleep, the link is lost.
5. The link is also lost if her vessel dies. The experience is so traumatic that it knocks Quelixina out cold on the spot from anywhere between ten minutes and an hour.
6. All she can experience is sight. She can't detect sound, smell, touch, or thoughts. She also cannot control the vessel in any way.

Stunts

Normal View

With normal people and animals Quelixina can 'link' with a host in order to see through their eyes. They have to be able to see her in order to initiate this link but after that it remains as long as A Either Quelixina or her vessel are conscious and B The vessel hasn't perished. The effect is pretty much instantaneous and shouldn't require a roll unless the target possesses some sort of extraordinary mental power or capability in which case see 'Brainpower'. Difficulty: Horrible

Brainpower

Those with any kind of extrasensory abilities are far more likely to not only be aware of Quelixina's attempt to link her parasitic vision but deny it as well if they feel so inclined. Quelixina is NOT aware of the powers of others and her vision /can/ be fooled by one with enough skill in mental manipulation. Difficulty: Mediocre. Countered by Willpower. If the roll fails then Quelixina links and the other person is unaware. If the roll is matched they're aware but the link remains until severed.

Quadruple Screen

Quelixina is not limited to seeing through the eyes of just one person. She can make up to four successful links though any link she forges beyond the first require a great deal of concentration. Her movements are sluggish and distracted while maintaining two Difficulty: Poor she can't move at all while maintaining three Difficulty: Good and four necessitates that she not speak or respond verbally to others Difficulty: Superb most likely she won't even be able to hear them unless they're extremely loud. If something causes her to lose her concentration then she'll need to roll to determine whether or not she can still maintain her connections if any at all. A roll of 'Suckage' means she loses all of her connections at once and will need several minutes of rest before she tries again.

Quotes

  • "Why's he named Soup? Got me, just seemed like the thing to do. …Where did I get /my/ name? You do stupid things when you're a kid. It's a long story, and oh gosh, it's getting late, welp, catch you later!"

Trivia

Coming soon!

Soundtrack

  • Heroes - Masterplan
  • I Can't Break Away - Big Pig
  • When You Were Young - The Killers
  • The Look - Roxette
  • December - Collective Soul
  • I Think I'm Paranoid - Garbage
  • For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic - Paramore
  • Bent - Matchbox Twenty
  • I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man) - Kenny Loggins
  • Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • Looking Through Your Eyes - LeAnn Rimes
  • You May Be Right - Billy Joel
  • I'm With Stupid - Pet Shop Boys
  • Make A Move - Lost Prophets
  • Running - No Doubt
  • Let It Out - Hoobastank
  • All the Small Things - Blink 182
  • Born for This - Paramore
  • Crash and Burn - Savage Garden
  • Invincible - Pat Benatar

The Pets

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Soup - The seeing-eye dog. She's a mutt, with strong mixes of chesapeake bay and golden retriever. She's about seven years old.

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Hannibal - The mean parrot who bites people's fingers at every available opportunity. Particularly mean to Soup. Mildly tolerates Quelixina (still bites), hates the world in general. Quelixina inherited this bird from a neighbor who didn't want to keep it for obvious reasons. It used to be named Sapphire.

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