Padparadscha the Tortoise

Padparadscha the Tortoise is a 14-year-old with the power of displacing minds. She largely uses it at her job in a Westopolis hospital. Padparadscha is good friend and a good doctor. Where her goals are concerned, Padparascha is a firm believer that "slow and steady wins the race".
==Appearance==
Padparadscha is an anthropomorphic tortoise. Like her namesake, the Indian sapphire, Padparadscha's shell glimmers between orange and pink depending on the light. Her belly is orange, and her limbs, tail, and head are pink. She typically wears red-and-white sneakers, a red belt (held up with matching suspenders) on which she hangs her blue pager, and a straw hat with a red ribbon.
==Personality==
Padparadscha may at first seem reserved and quiet, but she's not afraid to offer her perspective, and you may be sure she'll speak up if something seems absurd to her. She is a strong advocate of common sense, which serves her well in her everyday life, but can lead to clashes with epic-minded heroes. She is easily distracted, often becoming lost in thought, but she can focus on the situation at hand when it's really important. Padparadscha gives her loyalty quickly to those who are kind to her, and won't hesitate to defend them, even though she's pretty sure she'll never be capable of actual violence. She hates to see people suffering, and is highly frustrated by the fact that she cannot help everyone in the world.
==History==
=== Early childhood ===
Padparadscha was born in a small suburb of Westopolis, and grew up in an average, loving family. Her parents ran a successful bakery, and were both sensible and civic-minded, traits they instilled in their daughter from the time she hatched. When she discovered her Mentikinesis at the age of five, her parents urged her to consider a career in medicine. Instead of enrolling in public school, she began to volunteer at a hospital in Westopolis. During the day, she temporarily moved patients' minds out of their bodies while the bodies were undergoing painful operations; in the evenings, she got her basic education from her family's neighbor, Adelaide.
When she was eight, Padparadscha was cautiously pleased to recieve a little brother, Sarsaparilla. Although it took a couple of years for him to become someone she could really interact with, and he still hasn't mastered the art of staying still, she loves him very much, and would do absolutely anything for him -- even give him her portion of gingerbread.
=== The search for the Sol Emeralds ===
One day, the summer before she turned fifteen, Padparadscha was on her way to the hospital when a fox hybrid jumped out of one of the fourth-story windows and landed on the ground in front of her. As soon as she got over her shock, she took him into the hospital and used her Mentikenisis to help him heal. Thus began her friendship with Lee Prower, which had a chance to grow when the next day they were both summoned to meet a mysterious reporter, Taru-Na. She sent them, along with Alexia, Skylor, and Kennedy McLeod, on a mission to seek out the Sol Emeralds before a megalomaniac could collect them and use their power to take over the world.
Before she left on her quest, Padparadscha returned home to get some of her important belongings, and her parents gave her a Lightning δ smartphone. At the train station, while the tortoise was waiting for the rest of the group to show up, Padparadscha's early birthday gift was noticed by Sho, CFOO of Landstorm Electronics, who happened to also be waiting for a train. They talked, and before Sho left, she suggested that Padparadscha come to LE the next year to see about making a reality of her lifelong dream: offering all Mobians customizable robotic bodies to put their minds into.
The overnight train from Westopolis arrived in Starlight City the next day, and as soon as the party got off, Kennedy led them through the city to where the cyan Sol Emerald was: a subway station. After a brief tussle with a robot and coming dangerously close to lying to the G.U.N. officer on duty, Kashon, Padparadscha managed to pocket the first Emerald. Just as she was calling Taru-Na to report their success, Mackenzie Hartley, Vereco, and Taglumo dropped out of the sky with the purple Sol Emerald. An altercation later -- one in which Lee tried to protect Padparadscha, who in turn defied her moral code in a failed attempt to use her Mentikinesis on Mac after he knocked out Alexia -- Padparadscha snatched the second Emerald (utilizing her Emerald power of spindashing) and scooted off on her kickbike. She hid in a locked restroom in a Starlight Fries until Taru-Na's G.U.N. contacts sent more officers to arrest Mac.
Once the excitement was over, the party (now including Vereco and Taglumo) made their way to Lena's, the upscale restaurant where Taru-Na had booked them breakfast reservations. After some admiration of the décor and some arguments amongst her companions, Padparadscha elucidated that the megalomaniac who was trying to find and misuse the Sol Emeralds was none other than Vereco and Taglumo's uncle, who lived in Westopolis. More to come...
==Powers==
Padparadscha has one main power, which she refers to as Mentikinesis. She is able to move the mind of any living being into a different object, whether the destination is already being inhabited by a mind or not. A side effect of her Mentikinesis is that she can sense minds around her; to her, they "appear" as blurry marks or patches of television snow and static.
==Abilities==
Being a tortoise, Padparadscha can pull her limbs and head into her shell, becoming nigh invulnerable. However, she cannot move or observe the outside world in this state.
When in the presence of the Emeralds, Padparadscha gains the ability to spindash.
==Skills==
Padparadscha has two main skills. One is triage, quickly assessing patients who come into the hospital's emergency room to determine who is in the greatest need of her attention. The other is millinery. In her spare time, Padparadscha makes hats out of whatever material is at hand for anyone who will take them, and is an avid student of hat fashion.
==Weaknesses==
A couple of Padparadscha's weaknesses come from being a tortoise. Being cold-blooded, she becomes somnolent to the point of immobility when exposed to temperatures below 40ºF. Also, she normally cannot walk very fast, or run at all.
There are also a couple of caveats to Padparascha's Mentikinesis. The first is that she cannot move her own mind out of her body. The second is that a mind with sufficient strength of will can sense her Mentikinesis and thwart her attempts to remove it from its body.
In addition, Padparadscha is afraid of water, because she cannot swim.
== Fun Facts ==
Padparadscha can sometimes be heard exclaiming something about "the Bottom Tortoise". (For example, "Thank the Bottom Tortoise!") This stems from the anecdote which states that the world is carried by an infinite column of turtles, each of which is supported by another turtle -- "turtles all the way down". Padparadscha and her family believe this, only substituting "tortoise" for "turtle". "The Bottom Tortoise" is, therefore, the mythological originator of the race of tortoises, almost a deity.
Although Padparadscha respects and admires the public benefactor Kable the Fox, she is of the opinion that Landstorm Electronics's Lightning smartphones are better than Kabletech's Kablephones, and owns a Lightning δ.
Category:Females
Category:Tortoises
Category:Heroes
Category:Kinetics
Category:Lawful Good