Abigail Stewart
OOC
| Game | Journal | Portrayed By |
|---|---|---|
| Invol | sugar_crystals | Ashley Greene |
Basic Stats
Full Name: Abigail Chloe Stewart
Nickname(s): Abby
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Date of Birth: March 3, 1992
Zodiac: Pisces
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Hometown: Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Room: 7A (roommate: Miyu Ogawa)
Power: Crystallization
Abilities: Abby can turn matter into crystal by touching it. Touch is absolutely a necessity: she can't turn something into crystal just by looking at it or being in the same room as it, she has to be in physical skin-to-object contact with it (and about 99% of the time, it has to be her hands or fingers touching the object). The more complex the object is, the more difficult it is to transmute. At this point, she cannot turn any living being or object into crystal, intentionally or not (other people, animals, plants, etc; she can turn cut plants into crystal, though that wears her out completely, leaving her feeling as if she just got done running a marathon). Since the manifestation of her powers, she has gotten better at controlling them, so she's unlikely to turn something into crystal on accident (unless she is particularly emotional or surprised). If she's intentionally turning something into crystal, the larger or more complex it is, the more it wears her out. Small, un-complex objects are a breeze for her, she only wears out if she does a whole bunch of them all at once.
Properties of the crystals: the crystal that Abby creates seems to most resemble quartz, though the durability of her crystal isn't quite as high as natural quartz (though that may improve with practice; most of her work with her power thus far have been to control when it happens, not to make her crystals more durable). Her crystal is smooth and cool to the touch, and it retains whatever color the original object had, just gaining a translucence. Regardless of how many separate pieces may have composed the original object, the crystal feels smooth, with no seams or anything (a regular wooden pencil, for example: you could clearly see the stick of lead running through the center, the yellow of the wood, the silver of the metal, the pink of the eraser, but it would feel like one piece).
Family
Father: David Stewart (baker & co-owner: The Sweet Treat; b. September 2, 1963)
Mother: Erin Stewart (née Watson; baker & co-owner: The Sweet Treat; b. December 24, 1965)
Brother: Anthony Stewart (normal; works for General Motors; b. October 4, 1990)
Grandfather: John Stewart (works for General Motors; b. November 21, 1935)
Grandmother: Abigail Stewart (née Bennett; homemaker; b. February 14, 1938)
Uncle: Duncan Stewart (works for General Motors; b. January 1, 1960)
Aunt: Gertrude Stewart (née Price; daycare worker; b. May 30, 1962)
Cousin: Lauren Stewart (normal; pre-med student; b. June 16, 1991)
History
Abigail Stewart, or Abby to everyone who knows her, was the second child of David and Erin Stewart, a pair of bakers who own and run their own small bakery (The Sweet Treat) in the heart of Oshawa, Ontario. Most of the rest of David's family worked for General Motors, so he was frequently looked down upon by his family (particularly his parents, Abby's grandparents, who lived next door; and his older brother, who lived across the street) for putting his family's well-being in the tenuous grasp of small business ownership. But baking was a passion for both David and Erin, something they passed along to Abby (older brother Anthony, however, never got into baking and ended up following the rest of the family to GM once he was old enough).
Two things shaped Abby's life: growing up in and around the family's bakery (The Sweet Treat), and growing up with her cousin Lauren. Being very close in age (only a year and a few months apart) bonded them together, and they were closer than sisters, the very best of friends. If Abby wasn't in the bakery, learning at her parents' feet, she was out with Lauren. As she grew up and went to school, both she and Lauren made other friends on their own, but they still were as close as can be, despite their dads not necessarily getting along with each other.
But everything changed when Abby was fourteen. It was a normal Saturday in November, and she was helping out in the bakery. Her parents were out in the front, and Abby was in the back, transferring cookies from a baking sheet to a cooling rack. Deciding to "taste test" one, she picked it up from the rack, and it suddenly turned into crystal in her hand. Shocked, she dropped the cookie and it shattered on the floor. Calling out excuses to her parents, she quickly swept up the shards and dumped them in the trash can, then made more excuses to her parents: she had a project to work on for school, had to go home and work on it. Once she got home, she locked herself in her bedroom, understandably freaked out. She'd heard about weird things happening in the news, but nothing like this. But at the same time, she was curious if she could repeat what had happened at the bakery. After experimenting on several things in her room, she managed to turn a pencil into crystal. She was still freaked out, but she had a crystal pencil as proof that she wasn't losing her mind, at least.
Abby kept this strange new discovery to herself, not wanting to tell her parents, her brother, or even Lauren about it, afraid they'd think she was crazy, or something. It was the hardest thing ever, keeping such a thing a secret, especially from her best friend, and especially since it kept happening on accident. Fortunately, she was always able to cover up her accidents, since it was only ever little things that she changed. Over the next year, she worked on trying to reduce her accidents, and controlling whatever this was. She also continued keeping it a secret from everyone, which strained her relationship with Lauren.
It was just over a year after she first discovered this strange new power of hers that The Seattle Incident occurred. Evolved Humans, that could certainly cover her and what was going on. Abby followed the news on Evolved Humans closely, and also more carefully protected her secret. With everything happening because of them, she didn't want to become associated with it all, didn't want to be viewed as different or be persecuted for something she couldn't help. And more than that, she wanted to go to a good culinary school, and she couldn't help but think that being a registered "Vol" would stand in the way. Controlling her powers became the most important thing to her, she couldn't afford any more accidents.
It was just a couple months before her seventeenth birthday (mid January, 2009) when her attempts to keep her secret just completely shattered, much like her crystal itself. It was a complete accident, something Abby had been successfully avoiding for almost a year. It was in the bakery again, only this time her parents were there to see it. She was carrying a tray of brownies from the kitchen out into the storefront of the bakery. Luckily, there weren't any customers in the bakery at the time, because she caught her heel on a tile and tripped. Tightening her grip on the tray to avoid dropping it and the brownies, she accidentally turned the tray to crystal, right in front of her parents. David and Erin were rightfully shocked at the discovery that their daughter was a Vol, and that she'd been keeping it a secret from them. For a week, they avoided their daughter, and Abby kept to herself (and out of the bakery), letting them come to grips with the news that she'd been hiding this from them for just over two years.
Finally, in late January, David and Erin sat down with their daughter and laid it out for her: they could accept this, though they were angry at her for keeping it a secret. But she had to register, they would not cover for her with the government. If she refused to register herself as a Vol, she would no longer be welcome in their family, home, or bakery, and they would consider it their duty to inform the government of the presence of an unregistered Vol. Abby agreed to register herself, not wanting to lose her family, but before she "came out of the closet," so to speak, she wanted to tell her cousin herself, first. She shared her secret with Lauren, her closest friend in the world, and was disheartened by her initial negative reaction, but she still followed through with her agreement with her parents and registered as a Vol the very next day. She chose not to attend the Canadian Vol schools, instead wanting to finish her education at her own school.
Life since registering has been more difficult. While she didn't come out and announce herself as a Vol, rumors began to spread like wildfire. A few regular customers at the bakery stopped coming, and Abby could only assume that it was because they had heard about her. She applied to several culinary schools (all outside of Canada: she'd drafted a very specific list of culinary schools she wished to attend, from Le Cordon Bleu and Lenôtre University in France, to the Culinary Institute of America and the French Culinary Institute in the States, to the Toscana Saporita Culinary School in Italy, to the Hattori Nutrition College in Japan, and the Tante Marie Cooking School in England; she would not consider anywhere else) when she graduated in 2010, but was rejected from all of them. Given her experience in the kitchen, she couldn't help but blame her rejections on her status as a Vol. Eventually, Lauren came around and they tentatively resumed their close friendship, but it never felt the same again. Her grandparents and uncle flat-out avoided her, and her aunt was only passably friendly.
Even without getting into culinary school, Abby still steadfastly approached her desired future as a baker like her parents. Although things were occasionally tense with her parents, she continued to work in the family bakery, continuing to learn the trade straight from them, and learning how to do more complex decorations, and she was even trusted to make more difficult baked goods, and to try out her own recipies. She still applied the following year to all the same culinary schools again, hoping that they had changed their minds, but received rejections across the board again. It was around this time that the IVF announced the Boston Accord, and the IVI. Abby loathed the idea of being sent halfway around the world to a freak school, which would certainly put a halt to her desire for a career in the culinary world, especially since there was nothing said about an upper age limit for the school, just that it was mandatory starting at the age of 17.
When her summons to the school arrived in May of 2012, Abby (now 20 years old) was still unhappy with the idea of going to Australia to attend this school. She had taught herself how to control her powers, she was just fine in Canada. But it was required, so she very grudgingly packed her things as July 13th drew nearer.
Personality
Abby is very stubborn and driven. She doesn't let anything get her down. She's quite like a dog with a bone when she gets something in her head, she just will not give up. Despite across-the-board rejections from culinary schools (which she blames on her Vol status), she continues toward her dream of working in the culinary world, and continues to reapply again and again (or did, until she was forced to come to Nowhere, Australia). When she discovered her powers, she was determined to control them, so that they couldn't control her and ruin her life. It's mostly through sheer force of will that she developed the level of control that she has with her power. But, on the flip side, she also does not like admitting when she's wrong. She'll stubbornly cling to her opinions, even when given proof against them.
She thoroughly believes in chasing your dreams. Whatever you want to do, you should be able to do it. She's morally opposed to the mandatory attendance at IVI for this reason: everyone should be allowed to chase their own dreams, not forced to drop everything to go to this school. She's only attending grudgingly, and has made it no secret that if she had to leave home to go to a school, she would far prefer a culinary school to a freak school. She's really hoping to get the opportunity to bake while at the school, or she might actually go crazy: baking is pretty much her life, and she can't imagine spending any kind of extended period of time not doing it. Baking is her passion and the one thing that, she says, keeps her fully sane.