Candy

Allison Harvard as Candy

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## ​Overview

Candy is a little fireball. She comes from Garison's brothel as one of his favourite employees, but ran away after realising she was suffering at his hand. Until then, she had led an isolated life, influenced by drugs,and fights to live a normal life whilst battling mental health issues and learning of her true capabilities.

## ​Physical Appearance

**Faceclaim:** ​Allison Harvard

**Age:** ​Mid to late 20's

**Build:** ​4'11 -  she has wide hips and a small waist from years of corset use. Leaving Garison, she is bony and underweight, but soon gains a more healthy body from a happy lifestyle.

**Hair:** ​Bright orange with a white streak in the front due to chromosonal mutation. It is long and falls past her waist, but there is a patch of shorter and thinner hair around her right ear.

**​Tattoos:**

* Crudely written numbers '60285' on the right side of her head above her right ear.
* A single white dove on the inside of her right wrist.

**​Notable scars:**

* A small circular scar in her left palm.
* A circular scar on the front and back of her left calf.
* General abuse.

**Fashion:**​ **​**​A lot of skin on show, but she is more interested in feeling cute than sexy. Her wardrobe is filled with short dresses in pastel pinks and blues, and oversized sweaters and cardigans. Sherarely wears shoes as she enjoys the different ground textures beneath her feet.

## ​Personality

​Candy is a feisty woman with an enthusiasm for life that is rarely found. She is curious in nature and gets distracted by anything that interests her, no matter how small it is. Anyone she meets, she wants to be their friend and asks a lot of questions to decide whether she really likes them or not - though it's hard for her to dislike a person. If she likes a person, she's tactile, enjoying the innocent and platonic physical contact, but it can be taken as annoying as she tends to invade their personal space and try to distract the from whatever they're doing.

Usually she's bubbly and excitable, but her attitude can change quickly. If she feels as though she has done something wrong or made a mistake, she becomes withdrawn and can become bothered by her own thoughts.

#### **​Mental Health**

* ​**Schizophrenia:** ​Schizophrenia is described as 'a type of psychosis. This means the person may not always be able to distinguish between their own thoughts and ideas from reality.' Candy has seemingly harmless hallucinations for the most part, following butterflies and birds, but they can turn sour and leave her battling with an infestation of bugs and insects. Any strong negative situation triggers an onslaught of voices in her mind, and the walls will close in on her, leaving her needing to 'hold up the walls'.
* **Histrionic behaviour disorder:** ​Candy is unable to stay away from being the focus of attention, using selfish, manipulative and inappropriate ways to make sure she isn't forgotten. She is lively, dramatic, vivacious, enthusiastic and flirtatious, and exaggerates any behaviour or emotion without conscious intention. Meeting a new person, she decides quickly whether she likes them or not, and if she likes them - more often than not - she is easily influenced by their words and actions.
* **Development problems:**​ Whilst she has a strong textbook knowledge, she has no real understanding of the real world. Itcomes from a lack of teaching and experience. She struggles to understand social cues, appropriate behaviours, modesty and common sense. Domestic skills - such as cooking, homemaking, etc. - are a struggle for her.
* **Agoraphobia:** ​Because of her lack of real world experience, Candy struggles to find her place in the outside world. It leads her to feelings of uncertainty and being unsafe, that means she feels a lot more comfortable in a place she makes her 'home' and prefers to stay inside.

## ​History

**​​**​There is no record of ever existing, but from memory she knows that she was born into a nuclear family setting in the North of England.

#### **​Dr Blythes Academy for the Gifted & Talented**

**​**When Candy was 5, she was sold for experimentation. Her parents sold her under the illusion that she would be better off and trained to be a genius and become 'superhuman' at Dr Blythe's Academy for the Gifted & Talented. The reality was that instead she was subjected to the pain of repeated unsuccessful tests based on the same research as Extremis, but using Captain America's serum as influence. She was sedated regularly but over time built a strong tolerance to the painkillers.

Many of the other subjects were killed by the experiments, but Candy's ability to withstand the intensity meant that she was kept for an entire decade as their research progressed. During this time, she was known as '60285' and taught that her memories were nothing more than a creative dream. She became obsessed with learning self-defence, and their library collection; the books were carefully chosen, encouraging learning into the sciences and literature. In learning, she became more and more curious of the 'supposed' science of a world that 'didn't exist', and when she was around 16 years old, she eventually realised the truth and escaped using the drugs and a burst of superhuman strength from the testing.

She remembers little about the escape as she was so shocked by the world that she was unable to comprehend little else. The superhuman strength wore off quickly. Struggling to make sense of anything, she hid herself in a stack of pallets behind a supermarket, suffering through withdrawals alone and surviving by taking from the skip beside her den.

#### **​Garison's Brothel**

​She was found by a man she never knew the name of, and he took advantage of her confusion and offered her 'safety'. He moved her into a brothel, giving her food and shelter, and even small designer gifts.

After being introduced to Garison, her lack of knowledge became leverage for manipulation and she was taught that selling her body and constant drug use was acceptable. Taboo situations - rape, certain sexual acts, abuse a constant high, etc. - were taught to her as nothing more than a way of life, and she believed that she lived a happy lifestyle.

He verbally and physically abused her, offsetting the hurt with expensive jewellery and designer clothes and telling her that she was only punished because she was bad. His teachings became instilled in her, leaving her with problems in later life. The punishments she hated the most weren't the painful ones, instead being locked in cold rooms and isolated, or being given a muscle relaxant that left her at the mercy of the staff.

Throughout her time there, she was never encouraged to face her fear of the outside, instead being kept inside where it was 'safe'. However, when she realised how unhappy her life really was, she faced her fears - with the help of drugs - and ran away to begin a new life.

#### **​A New Beginning**

​Having no real world experience left her in a situation where she had no idea how to survive. She was an easy target for crime and was often left lost and alone, and with her belongings missing.

After some time on the streets, a regular customer took pity on her and tried to help. Valentin Avana kept her safe in his own home as often as he could, until one day she turned up beaten and drugged, and he sought proper help for her. It gave her the opportunity to move on.

## ​Skills

* **​Computer hacking:**​ Although lacking in experience, Candy has proven herself capable of hacking into less complex systems due to a textbook knowledge. Her intelligence means that she is likely to learn more quickly if needed.
* **​Extremely high IQ:** ​Having spent the most of her life surrounded by books (and little else until she was 16), Candy soon became a child prodigy. She continued her interest in the sciences after gaining freedom, and loves to read prominent research papers, often going off on a tangent in her thoughts if she finds something she is unsure of, leaving her to read and learn more.
* **​Hand-to-hand combat:**​ Growing up, she willingly learned self defence, something that was encouraged as it helped study the effect of the experiments. There were no lasting effects of the serum, but she progressed quickly and became an extremely formidable opponent.
* **​Immunity to most drugs & poisons:** ​Due to a lifetime of forced abuse, and punishments involving mild poisons and sedatives, Candy has developed a tolerance - and in some cases, immunity - to many drugs and poisons.
* **​Multilingual:** ​The full extent of her lingual capability is unknown. The books that she grew up with were in various languages, meaning she learnt them at a similar rate to her first language - English. She finds herself able to understand most languages, even if she isn't fluent.
* **​Undecover/infiltration:** ​Although she has experience in some of the skills needed to go undercover, most of her ability comes from natural talent.

## ​Extra Notes

#### **Likes**

**​**Candy is a typical girly-girl, enjoying all things pink, glittery and cute. She surrounds herself with pastel colours and fluffy materials that help her find comfort when she feels low. Ideally, her bedroom would be decorated with light colours with a 'princess' theme - decadent furnishings and pinks accents - and mirrors to make the space larger.

She also loves the thought of travel - though she's never been able to explore in the way she likes, thanks to both her imprisonment and her fear of the outside.

Food is another of her great loves, wanting to try anything and everything. She loves anything bursting with flavour, and has no qualms about trying things that are 'different'.

#### **​Dislikes**

Loud noises tend to cause her upset, and crowded areas leave her feeling uncomfortable, as do small spaces and the feeling of being trapped. Aside from a few mental health issues, she doesn't dislike much.

#### **​​Variations**

* During a moment of panic, she ran away from the life that she had built, instead buying a cheap and dilapidated farmhouse that she spent time building up. The only contact she had was from neighbours who would ​help with heavy lifting. Eventually her friends tracked her down, but she kept the farmhouse as an escape for when things got too rough.
* She once became trapped in another realm. The difference in time meant that while she was only away from Midgard for a few hours, she spent years on her own where she learnt to survive and came back a lot more grounded and believing in her own abilities.
* The professional help that Valentin Avana sought was the advice - and further help - from Clint Barton, who realised the extent of abuse in her past and found her a safe house. It started with him funding her out of his own pocket, but soon discovered her abilities and S.H.I.E.L.D became involved.