Name: Cecilia “Ceci” Morris
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Power (If any): Audio Editor--that is, she is capable of tapping into the hearing of a single individual within normal human earshot at a time, and “adjusting” the volume at which they perceive sound. This can go either way, allowing Ceci to bring people's hearing to her level (deaf), or make the world around them so loud it is painful, and any increment of change in between. That being said, Ceci rarely uses her ability to tune into others hearing unless she needs it, as her own mind is sensitive to sound at this point, and prolonged use of the ability gives her nasty headaches.
Appearance: In spite of her status as a legal adult, many often mistake Cecilia for a child. Her 5’4” height often leaves people guessing she is far younger than she actually is, and it’s not much helped by her delicate build, and wide, impossibly blue eyes. Her long, wavy hair ranges from a dark brown to a honeyed gold, and tends towards messy by default, though she makes a better effort to clean up before going out. Though she can’t hear, her closet is filled with long-sleeved graphic tees bearing the names and logos of various rock and heavy metal bands, which she will wear around her workplace, alongside tattered jeans, though she opts to go barefoot when she can. When heading out elsewhere, though, she tends to dress up a little, nice dresses with long sleeves, or ones she can comfortably wear a cardigan over, in warm neutral tones--mostly beiges, mochas, and chocolates--paired with matching flats or kitten heels.
History:

Trigger warning - The following character history contains mentions of domestic violence.

Spoiler:
Born the daughter of a very wealthy and influential businessman, Cecilia’s life was...less difficult than most. Or, well, it might be better to say that it would have been, considering that shortly after being given the vaccine at the age of two, she became profoundly deaf. While doctors tried to convince her parents that it was unlikely the vaccine had anything to do with the girl’s complete loss of hearing, they were having none of it, and quickly became public opponents of the vaccine. Though the loss of hearing slowed her learning progress, Ceci picked up on American sign language quickly...but her parents did not, especially her father. Her mother often became her translator at home, but her inability to communicate well with her father made relationships in their home strained.
The first time her father lashed out physically, it was towards her mother. Ceci was seven, and couldn’t believe her own eyes at first. And then he lashed out at her in the same way a few days later. “Daddy’s just stressed, sweetheart,” her mom told her later. “Daddy’s stressed, and he doesn’t know how to handle it. The best we can do is make things less stressful for him.” And while Ceci and her mother did their best to become the model wife and daughter, it wasn’t always enough. He continued to lash out over the years that followed, and he quickly took to apologizing for his “loss of temper” by showering Ceci and her mother with gifts. It wasn’t until she hit the age of eleven that she discovered that she had the power to ease her dad’s stress by opening new means of communication...through computers. Her mother had done something to mess theirs up, and she was terrified of telling Ceci’s father, afraid of the inevitable fallout. Determined to help her mother avoid her father’s wrath, she figured out how to fix the computer problem herself...and fell in love with playing with computers in general. She quickly discovered she could give herself a voice through emails and forums, as well as rough text to speech programs, when ASL failed her in daily life, which was often, even with a translator to help at school and home.

It wasn't until a year later that she discovered she had real powers, though, and only on accident. The personal aid she was assigned that year for school didn't seem to know a thing about what they were doing, and often translated things in ways that made little to no sense. That year, she began to feel isolated from her fellow students, more so than she had before, and she often found herself looking at the students around her and wishing that she too could participate in their conversations, could hear what they were saying...and sometimes, she thought she imagined it so well that she could. Except, imagination didn't hurt like this did--was it possible she was regaining her hearing after all these years? Initially, she almost prayed that she wasn’t, as the sudden influxes of sound only seemed to scatter her thoughts and hurt her ears...at least, until she finally buckled down and really began trying to understand what was going on, and the conclusion she eventually reached horrified her at first.

The vaccine that children were required to take when they were two, the one that was supposed to prevent children from developing abnormalities and powers, and that her parents blamed for her loss of hearing--it hadn't worked on her. Initially, the discovery made her feel shameful of her powers, even though they could only serve to help her as a normally nonhearing individual navigate through a world designed mostly for hearing individuals. She tried to convince herself that using them was bad, but couldn't help touching on them to help diffuse situations with her father...and it mostly worked. With his daughter’s newfound ability to understand him, despite his inability to properly use sign language, Ceci found her father less likely to lash out at both she and her mother, something she viewed as inherently good. Eventually, she convinced herself that she was doing better having had the powers than living without them, even though the rest of society seemed only to see them as bad.

By the age of thirteen, her ability to handle her powers had improved drastically...but she hardly needed them anywhere other than at home. She joined the ASL club at her new middle school in hopes of possibly finding others she could communicate directly with, rather than using her personal aid as a third party, and that was where she first met Rob Barrett. Rob, who had joined the club to find kids who wouldn't make fun of his tendency to talk and sign at the same time after growing up alongside a deaf cousin, was delighted to find another student who already understood sign language well there, and he and Ceci became fast friends. He too loved computers, though he was more interested in pulling them apart and putting them back together than he was playing with software, but together it turned out that he and Ceci were a great pair, using both their expertise to convince Ceci’s parents to buy her the parts to build her own desktop for her next birthday--a project they spent hours researching and building together. Rob also introduced her to the idea of enjoying music through feeling, rather than hearing, and Ceci returned the favor by introducing him to the the local ASL poetry slam her mother took her to frequently. The two became inseparable after that, much to the displeasure of Ceci’s father. While Rob wasn’t exactly lower class, his family wasn’t exceedingly wealthy, either, and he blamed the boy for trying to turn his daughter into a “rebel” by getting her interested in awful music she couldn’t hear, and computers, which she fell further in love with after building her own. Suddenly, the perfect daughter he had been planning to groom into the perfect public “spokeswoman,” for lack of a better term, became independent, and began getting wild ideas about her future.

It wasn’t until she was fifteen that things exploded, though. Her father had continued issuing his own brand of tyranny at home, and Ceci and her mother continued to put up with it, though Rob told her that they had every right to call the police, or to force her father to seek help for his poor anger management. She doesn’t remember what exactly the fight was about, and her unwillingness to borrow his ears until about halfway through his rant didn’t help matters, but she does remember being tuned into his hearing when he raised his hand to strike her. In the moment, she panicked--She was tired of being hit, she was tired of walking on eggshells, and it wasn’t until later that she remembered twisting her fingers in a motion similar to twisting the volume dial on a radio, or a set of speakers, and screaming. Her father crumpled to the floor in a heap, having passed out, and when he woke up, he claimed to be unable to remember what had happened. Ceci was thankful for the intervention but...what had caused it? In the years that followed, she continued to play with her ability, and discovered that she could seemingly alter the hearing of those a certain distance away from her if she wished, though that distance was short. Her abilities at working with software grew, as well, and so did her friendship with Rob. In fact, the day she turned eighteen, she packed her things and moved out of her parent’s house, and into her best friend’s. She finished high school with fantastic grades and honors, but she decided against college, instead choosing to work for the small computer repair and build store Rob had started in the building space below the two bedroom apart he had been saving for since he was a kid. With the two of them working together, the store quickly grew a reputation for being the go-to place for repairs and build advice in spite of its hole in the wall appearance.
There, life was perfect, and Ceci picked up a new skillset, teaching herself how to hack--mostly into nearby security cameras, and edit the footage. At first, she did it for fun, but as the vigilante movement grew in increasing popularity, she began using her skills for a new purpose--tracking down Foram activity, and hiding it, or bringing into the limelight. She finally got the chance to grow into the person she wanted to be, instead of the the person that would cause the least amount of stress for her dad, and eventually decided to come clean to Rob about her abilities...except Rob had already figured it out himself, and didn’t have any problem with it. After all--it’s only helped her where society society tends to fail her.

Personality: For those familiar with her upbringing, it can be difficult to imagine the once quiet, demure girl becoming what she has since moving out of her parent’s household. She’s since grown lively, quick to smile, maybe even laugh, if she’s able to catch a joke, or the odd funny action. While she enjoys spending her days working in the computer shop her roommate and best friend owns, as well as hacking her way into various local security feeds to keep tabs on the local vigilantes and villains in order to keep tabs on them, then cover or expose their actions as she sees fit, she also has fun getting out and about. In spite of her deafness, she enjoys “listening” to music, the more bass, the better, and can often be found hidden away in a mostly soundproofed room in the shop below their apartment, where she blasts music loud enough to deafen hearing individuals so that she can feel the vibrations caused by the music, though she also occasionally drags Rob out to concerts as well. When not dragging him out to concerts that leave him half-deaf, they both enjoy attending nearby ASL poetry slams, both to experience the art form, as well as to make new friends.
Alignment (If any): Vigilante
Other: Where her handiwork appears in the limelight, it’s often associated with with the username “1984” or “Orwell,” though good luck actually tracking her down, or getting her to admit it. Rob has consented to allow her use of his hearing at pretty much any time, though she knows phone calls are off-limits, as they should be. When faced with situations in which she is surrounded by people who aren't familiar with ASL, she tends to use a text to speech program on her phone to communicate that uses a custom voice Rob helped her set up.

Name: Robert “Rob” Barrett
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Power (If any): Simply put, Rob is minor abilities as a sort of Foram detector. In the presence of other Foram, he has a tendency to feel...a sort of...well, he jokingly calls it a disturbance in the force. Most times it simply manifests as a sudden, unexplained popping of his ears, or twist of his stomach, but it will rarely manifest as a distinct feeling that feels more like being tugged along by an internal compass, or occasionally react to the presence of a Foram so strongly that it may make him physically ill. The more often he spends time around a given Foram, the less likely his power is to react to them, often allowing him to find new potential Foram in the world around him. He has theories regarding how his ability works, but has refrained from trying to test its limits.
Appearance: Tall and wiry, it’s not too hard to imagine that Rob runs a local computer shop, given his endless stock of self-promotional t-shirts and game and band-related graphic tees, usually partly hidden under a simple, black zip-up hoodie. Most of his pairs of jeans are dark wash, some are starting to wear around the knees, and while his sneakers are well-worn, there’s nothing about him that suggests that it’s for any reason other than that he enjoys wearing comfortable clothing. His curly, dark brown hair often looks like it’s torn between being a mess and being styled, and his brown eyes, hidden behind a pair of wire-frame glasses, and lopsided smile exude an odd sort of friendliness. His pale skin suggests he doesn’t get out all that much, but his perpetual five o’clock shadow at least suggests that he does his best to keep himself looking semi-presentable.
History: Rob thus far has lived a pretty normal life--grew up with both his loving parents in a tightly-knit family, and learned ASL very early in his life, as he had a cousin born with moderately severe deafness. Only a year younger than his cousin, Taylor, the two were pretty close throughout elementary and middle school, which was how Rob picked up the habit of signing almost all of his spoken words. Outside of Taylor’s presence, he was picked on for it, though, and spent many a recess in those years hiding out in his school’s computer lab, which only fueled the interest he had in computers--an interest that had initially been sparked by his dad’s position as an IT guy for a nearby college.
When he was ten, Rob’s father rewarded his interest in computers with a project--He was going to teach Rob how to build his own computer. Little did the man know the monster he was going to create, and when the project had been finished, young Rob had decided he was going to teach himself everything he could about computers, and save up to open his own store one day...and he held to this decision. His self teaching became the only thing that kept him sane when his aunt and uncle got divorced, and his aunt packed up and moved away, taking Taylor with her right before Rob started middle school. Thankfully, the school had an ASL club, which he joined in hopes of finding friends who didn’t pick on him for his knack of signing everything he spoke aloud, which was where he met Cecilia Morris. The two became fast friends, given that Cecilia had trouble communicating with most of the other kids without a translator, and she also had an interest in computers. It wasn’t long before Rob was talking her into letting him help her build her own, and not much longer after that, she became part of his dream to own a store. When she finally showed him her skills with software, he was pretty impressed, and offered a job to her on the spot...for a business he didn't even own yet. She thought it was funny at the time, but he quickly showed her how serious he was about the dream, given he had enough saved up for it to look like a sizeable college fund.

In fact, that was what his parents thought it was, and they were livid when the money went to Rob starting his own business almost straight out of high school. They were certain it would be a waste of money, as he couldn't possibly know enough to run a business well...but somehow, his shop stayed afloat. It even grew a small sort of community, or cultlike following, and things only improved when he hired on Ceci to help him out. While he didn’t know much about the girl’s life at home, he did know she didn't get along well with her father, and offered her the extra room in the apartment he rented out above his storefront when she graduated high school. Admittedly, he was surprised she accepted, but was pleased to see her grow more cheerful and outgoing. Of course, that wasn't the only thing he began to notice. Not too long after he hit the age of thirteen, Rob had noticed that his body had odd reactions to being in the presence of certain people. It was easy to shrug off in his school years, as the reactions faded in time, but after starting up his business, he began to notice the reactions again, take real notice of the people who came in...and oddly enough, he noticed several later being taken in under the suspicion of being Foram, but it wasn’t until Ceci suggested that maybe the vaccine meant to combat the development of abilities and bodily abnormalities hadn’t worked on him, just as it hadn’t worked on her, that he considered he might be capable of detecting other Foram. As it was, he found himself oddly unsurprised when his best friend finally admitted to him that she was capable of borrowing the hearing of others and possibly altering it. Of course, once he began to consider the possibility, that was when he knew he was truly in danger--if anyone ever figured it out, well, it would be a useful ability to...pretty much anyone who wanted to find other Foram, for any reason, and did his best to help Ceci try to find and cover up or expose Foram activity based on whether the individuals were using their powers for good or bad. While he doesn't regret the decision, he does worry that it may someday bring them too much attention, even though they haven't interacted with any vigilantes or Demon’s Run members as fellow Foram.
Personality: Friendly and open, it’s hard to imagine Rob being picked on when he was younger, in spite of his love for computers. He’s just...one of those people that tends to make you feel bad for being rude to him because he’s so darned nice, especially around his roommate and best friend, Ceci Morris. He’s quick to offer help to those in need, even if it may get him in over his head, and determined to make sure he does everything he can for someone before telling them there’s nothing he can do. Though he does spend most of his days pulling computers apart and then putting them back together, he does allow Ceci to drag him out to concerts and ASL poetry slams, and has a particular fondness for rock and metal music.
Alignment (If any): Vigilantes
Other: Still has a tendency to sign everything he speaks, and does keep in touch with Taylor. Tends to serve as Ceci's translator.