[Kenny Marshall]

McKenna Elise Marshall
FACE CLAIM: Hailee Steinfeld

♦ THE BASICS ♦

AGE: 21
GENDER: Female
ORIENTATION: Heterosexual
POSITION: College Student at BA

♦ THE ABILITY ♦

POWER: Musical Psychometry/Emotional Manipulation
Psychometry is a thin strand off of empathy that deals with the understanding and comprehension of emotion that is being portrayed through a musical piece. With the right amount of training she may even go as far as getting glimpses of the writer composing the music.

The emotional manipulation portion of her ability stems from the ability to make people feel what she wants them to when she plays her music or sings. Sort of like a siren song, except she doesn't hypnotize anyone, she just can evoke the emotion she herself is feeling when she's singing and/or playing an instrument.

LIMITATIONS:
-While she has the ability to feel what another person has felt, she can't just recreate that feeling for others. The most she can do is express it and add her own spin on it to make others feel what she wants them to feel.
         -She can't make people feel things that aren't already there in some way. She's no            cupid; she can't just create love from a song and the same goes for hate and an            other complex emotion.
-The older the music the harder it is to distinguish what the artist was feeling and vice versa, the newer, the easier.
-In a group of musicians that co-wrote the piece, the feeling that outweighs the others is the one she feels.
-Too many songs playing at once can create a mental breakdown if she's not careful. -At her current level of training, she can emotionally manipulate those who are in the closest earshot of her singing/playing.
Closest meaning: if she was in an auditorium, the people in the first three rows would feel what she was the strongest and it would lessen the further away people were sitting.
-Her range of emotions through song are very simplistic - Calm, excitement, sadness and maybe a bit of angst. Deeper and more challenging emotions are where she struggles to convey them. Things like love and hate for instance. She hopes to expand with further training.
-She's come across several mental blocks that her ability hasn't worked on. Either very stubborn people who have a high will power and the obvious power suppressors/mimics and mental shields. Even with extensive training, these types she will not be able to get through to.
-Her most effective form of manipulation comes from when she sings, but even then if she can't project loudly enough, she won't reach as many people.

SIDE-EFFECTS:
-Migraine
-Strong mood swings
-Overpowering emotions - to the point that she could cry for hours just from one devastating song or be a raging lunatic for longer than she intends to be
-Exhaustion
-There's potential for her to go as far as being depressed for an extended period of time if she's been exposed to a certain playlist which is why she'd need to mix it up.
-Vocal strain
-Short periods of time where she becomes nearly emotionless from overexerting her ability

♦ THE FREEFORM ♦

Every song you hear, every melody that plays, every beat that makes you dance. It's just some silly tune, something everyone knows, and yet we still live it everyday.

Do you ever sit and think that maybe when we speak, we're just relaying the words of every song that we've ever heard?

Has there ever been a time that you just sit and think in rhymes?

Every song, every poem, it's all been said before. People twist their words, or put their thoughts more eloquently to change it up, but the fact of the matter is...nothing seems to be unique in lyrics anymore. The uniqueness of something comes from the melody, from the music itself because while all of the same instruments are being played or all of the notes may be the same, it's so easy to manipulate a tune to fit a feeling in a way that someone else hasn't.

Everyone thinks the same words when they've been through heartbreak, but they all feel it differently. The lyrics are those thoughts, the music is that feeling. Perhaps that's where we get the connection from. It's the reason that all people find some kind of music that they love, that they listen to over and over with the same sound because it's how they feel. For those who can't play an instrument or hold a tune vocally, listening to music and the way it is formed helps them to connect. The words are just there for emphasis.

Someone who feels what everyone else feels, well, it would only make sense for them to be a musician if they hold the ability to put notes together on a computer, on a soundboard, through their voice. I happen to do all three. Producing music is one of my dream jobs, starring on Broadway is the more extravagant and least likely dream job. What I wouldn't give to be famous though.

I was born into show biz, but not enough to be considered the daughter of some big star. My mother is a choreographer in LA and my dad is a piano player at a jazz club in New Orleans. Before I got recruited, I stayed with my father in Louisiana which is likely where I got my adoration for music. Before you ask, no, my parents aren't separated, and no they aren't even married. They've been together for eons, or rather, a couple decades, but neither of them believes in the ideals of marriage. I couldn't tell you why, we're not religious. My parents are atheists and I'm agnostic. They just have this strong belief in each other and their connection that they don't figure they need a marriage license to tell them what they already know. As for my mother living in LA, they also don't feel the need to smother each other or to remove one from their dream and uproot their life just for the sake of the other's.

I was raised to follow my own path, never to be swayed by anyone else's. My parents told me that their relationship was unique, different from so many others and that most people wouldn't understand the connection they shared. My mother moved to LA when I was twelve, it wasn't as though I didn't know her. I did, and I loved her just as much as I loved my father. But I loved Louisiana more than I loved the idea of California. 

Off topic. The manifestation is the important part. At twelve years old, I wasn't necessarily supposed to be hanging around in clubs, and I didn't really, just the one. I was my father's stage assistant, cared for his equipment, sorted his music. It was a small club, family owned, Baz and Ace (the owners, those are their nicknames) loved me and treated me like family. They'd known my father for years before I was born. At this club, I came across musicians of all kinds. Swing bands, blues bands, solo artists, each of them with their own style.

There was one day that I was waiting for my father's act to start and this really kickin' swing band was playing. I could feel the vibrations from the back room where my dad was running through the music with his fingers tapping on his legs. He was sad, I could see it written all over his face. He was missing something, someone? It's like I could feel the ache in his chest reflected in my own. On the other hand, I could feel elation, excitement and hope, but it wasn't from the same place. I could tell it wasn't from him.

About a week later there were two people sitting in our living room telling me that I was being taken to Montana because I was a mutant with musical psychometry. You could say I wasn't thrilled to be taken to a dull state that didn't hold any musical inspiration.

But my brother was there for the same reason, so I couldn't be too bummed. I was just glad to know someone already.

Montana was home for seven years. I made friends, got along well with my teachers, but my musical stylings were stifled. I could have left once I finished the high school portion of my schooling, but my ability isn't quite under control still. I figured it was probably best to continue training in college. When the school moved to Oregon, I guess I was a little bit more excited.

I miss the streets of New Orleans where music could always be heard. I even miss Los Angeles on the weekends where dancers surrounded me. But Oregon is on the West Coast. It's closer to California and it's closer to Washington so my travels may take me there eventually. Who knows, maybe Oregon is where I'll get discovered?

♦ THE PLAYER ♦

USERNAME: Trix
AGE GROUP: 22
EXPERIENCE: Hella long
WHERE DID YOU FIND US? Role-players Anonymous

[★ MEL]

ACCEPTED! ►
► Another great addition to the family! Go forth and do your claims!
BY EDWARD OF GS