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[Sandy McTaggart]

Real Name: Alexandra Daphne "Sandy" McTaggart

Codename: Insight

Affiliation: Hero

Species: Powered Human

Origin: Sandy was born on February 17, 1995 in Metro City, to Liam and Maggie McTaggart; her older brother Finley moved out shortly after her birth, and afterward went overseas, so she never really got to know him. Nor did she spend much time in Metro City, as her parents decided to move to Alabama where the weather was more agreeable.

When she was still young she manifested odd powers, a limited sort of telepathy and psychic radar; rather than abuse it she was terribly frightened by all the new things she was perceiving, though her parents did what they could to support her, among other things hiring a private tutor and pulling her out of public school. Liam, being a retired superhero himself, knew something of what she was going through, and more importantly knew people who could help her out.

She grew up shy and introverted, the sort of person a Temin of any stripe would understand without a word ever being said. When she was sixteen Finley sent word that he was rich and they could come back to Metro City if they wanted; Liam got a crazy glint and pulled out a lot of swords and pranced around in an ugly old kilt and almost before she could stop blushing they were up and back in Florida, a city she barely remembered and people she hardly knew and oh god her family was so embarrassing.

At least they took her to the Artificer to get fitted for a diadem to suppress her mind-reading.

Skills and training: Sandy is a high school student who prefers to just be left alone so she can get through life without dying of embarrassment. She's a good student, if a bit fashion-challenged, and has recently started taking kung fu and karate. She is a much better driver than most, not to her brother's level of course, and reluctantly drives a black and red, heavily modded '75 Mustang convertible (she'd never admit it, but she thinks the car is the sexiest thing about her. Sexy carrrr!).

She is also bilingual in English and Scots Gaelic, and is trying for Spanish as well.

Superhuman abilities: Sandy can read minds! And push things around! And make people ignore her!

Advancement levels:

- Level 1: .)
- - - Abilities: Sandy has a small variety of mentalist powers at her limited command. She can pick up on the surface thoughts and emotions of everyone within a twenty foot radius of herself, and with concentration can read a little deeper into one person within that same radius; this is involuntary, and some of what she hears is shocking and she tries to ignore or shut it out as much as possible. She can use her mind to shift up to fifty pounds of stuff (a large bag of dog food, for instance), for up to twenty feet in any direction from her. Finally, with intense concentration, she can make herself dull and uninteresting on a cursory level, although it won't work if she's already been noticed.
- - - Skills: She can work a computer and a cell phone, knows how to responsibly use the internet, and has recently begun taking kung fu and karate classes after school.
- - - Equipment: A cell phone! A selection of hoodies! A purse full of mysterious girl!stuff! A driver's license! A fancy silver diadem for drowning out the voices in her head! Sexy car!
- - - Other: Her older brother is a former SEAL and a well-known hero, and her father used to be a major celebrity in England; people who follow superheroes are unlikely to harass her, in other words.
- - - Weaknesses: She cannot use her active powers for more than twenty minutes at a time without risking splitting migraines, the sort that necessitate going to the nurse and skipping most of your classes for the day. She must rest and recharge for an hour before using them again, although the headaches may linger longer.

- Level 2:
- - - Abilities: Sandy can pick up on everyone within fifty feet, gathering surface thoughts and emotions, and can get a deeper glance on one person, instantly gleaning up to a month of their past mental activity; this can be resisted, of course. She can shift up to a hundred pounds of stuff for fifty feet, and has learned to generate short bursts of more intense force capable of pushing people out of her face or some such, and with focus can even dent steel sheets or shatter glass. She can transmit thoughts to other people, which is honestly preferable to speaking out loud, though anyone so addressed will always know who is invading their heads.
- - - Skills: She is a skilled martial artist, and with this increase in skill comes a greater awareness of her own body and its limits. While no gymnast or acrobat she has a fighter's grace to her, and can at least hold her own in a fight long enough to run away.
- - - Equipment: The diadem is more effective at protecting her from people, and people from her, to account for her increased power.
- - - Weaknesses: Forty minutes is pushing it for active power use; the migraines aren't an debilitating anymore, though she still must rest and recharge for an hour after intense bouts of mentalism.

- Level 3:
- - - Abilities: At this point Sandy can wall herself off, from other telepaths as well as the thoughts of others. Her radius is now eighty feet, and she can concentrate on one person for an in-depth and frankly terrifying scan of their lives for the past year or so; they must be within ten feet, however, and as above it can be resisted. She can shift up to two hundred pounds of stuff for almost the length of a football field, and the intense bursts can knock down brick walls; she can modulate their power for dealing with people without undue harm, of course. She can make herself so bland and unworthy of attention that it borders on invisibility, and she can foil magical or supernatural detection methods.
- - - Skills: Sandy is now a black belt in karate and kung fu, and her brother has started teaching her wrestling and Krav Maga. Her control over his psychokinesis is such that she can integrate the bursts of power into physical combat, making for a quite unexpected level of martial proficiency. She can use her mind-reading to predict others' moves, allowing for better defense at close ranges.
- - - Equipment: Even though she has mental blocks of her own she still keeps the protective diadem, in case she runs out of defensive juice.
- - - Weaknesses: Her limit on focused mentalism is now an hour, and she no longer suffers from migraines after protracted use. After an hour her abilities revert to level 1 with no limits on use, and she must rest for another hour to regain level 3 capability.

- Level 4:
- - - Abilities: At this point she can wall herself off so effectively that hostile telepathy or mental domination efforts are largely futile, and she can even turn the tables and reflect back any attempts on whoever tried it on her in the first place. She can read any number of people with a hundred yards, and she has the mental capacity to deal with all this telepathic noise without going crazy. She can focus on one individual within ten feet and gain a complete and in-depth picture of their entire lives; a strong-willed person can resist this, but she likes to ask permission before being so invasive, and cannot retain large amounts of data. She can retain individual nuggets if she was looking for them, however. She can shift up to half a ton for over a thousand yards, and her burst abilities can shatter reinforced concrete and hardened steel walls. Her attention deflection is now perfected to the point that people don't notice even notice her on live electronic surveillance. Alarms she trips are rarely investigated; even without looking, people just assume it was a false alarm and nothing to worry about; she still has to evade cameras, though, as she'll appear on recordings after the fact.
- - - Skills: She can kick serious ass now, and can deal with pratfalls like a champ. Her psychokinesis is such that she can shift herself as fast and as far as she can move other stuff; farther even, as the center of her radius shifts with her, and she can effectively use this while in physical altercations. Long experience reading people allows her to read body language just as easily as thoughts and emotions, and she can react to anyone with hostile intent as long as they're within clear sight.
- - - Equipment: She still has the diadem, and it's actually somewhat fashionable now. Still useful for when she can't concentrate on her inherent mental defenses!
- - - Weaknesses: After up to six hours of awe-inspiring mentalism she is forced back to level 2 abilities, although she need only recharge for half an hour to be back at top form. She is still a human girl, with all the myriad weaknesses and pratfalls that entails.


Base of Operations: She lives with her parents!

Description: Face claim is Alice Burdeu.

http://static02.medi...u_x200_x290.jpg

Vivid red hair, intense green eyes and an elegant, aristocratic face. Gawky teenage body, not as awkward as usual thanks to martial arts. A habit of hiding her face behind long locks of hair; prefers dark clothes for anonymity, sunburns very easily, is vaguely ashamed of her height (5'11") and thinks her boobs are WAY too big (32D). Hence why she dresses to blend in, or tries to.

Miscellaneous: Sandy is an introverted and easily embarrassed girl, and likes to go as long as possible without saying a word out loud. She is always mortified to be around her far more outgoing brother or father, and likes to imagine painful ways they can suffer and die for her discomfort. She is a good student, gifted in academics and athletics, although gym class is a horror every time.

Don't think you can push her around, though. She's a McTaggart, and McTaggarts are fighters; push her too far and she will push back, likely in some awe-inspiring and unexpected manner Finley and Liam would be ever so proud of. Secretly she thinks she might be a lesbian, or at least bisexual, but would never in a million years admit this to anyone of her own volition.

As of September 2011, she is 16 years old.

Introduce Yourself: Karl here. I play Finley!

[Sandy McTaggart]

27 August 2011: I'm So Misunderstood! Sandy is tasked with checking up on her brother's house, to ensure a new friend of his hasn't burnt it down or something. Her name is Linnet and she's... a bit odd. But Sandy manages to make friends and they have a couple adventures together.

28 August 2011: Life is Pain No one knows how special Sandy is and that, among other things, is starting to piss her off. And the high-and-mighty Crimson Defender is not helping. Not even a little. Deborah Temin comes along to be the adult and crush poor Sandy's spirit, and her bad day is complete.

1 September 2011: The Daze of School PUBLIC SCHOOL OMG. Well, homeroom at least. People stare and the teacher is boring and Sandy makes a new friend. Who promptly mistakes her for a princess.

4 September 2011: Sunday, Bloody Sunday Sandy needs to do some shopping, and runs into a creepy old guy who claims to be a family friend. Lina the Vampire steps in and has to play adult while the cops get off their asses to haul the violent creeper away; Sandy hides and drinks lots of soda. Awkward teen shopping ensues!

 

8 September 2011: Money for Nothing Sandy's teacher makes her mad so she ditched class and went to bother Finley for the afternoon; in retaliation he fobs Lin off on her for a trip to the bank, and in this city nothing is ever as simple as that. Especially not road trips!

10 September 2011: House Sitting Finley had to leave town and he asked Sandy to look after his house for the weekend, and is paying her a hundred bucks! Unfortunately she has to get up early if she wants to take care of shit without burning like a tomato or sweating out all her body weight, and didn't he say something about a dryad...?