Melody

# Melody Sineko

## Abilities and Headgear

### Pre-Diagnosis History

Since birth, Melody's parents had noticed Melody what they thought was a mental disability. As a young child, this manifested as a lack focus, uncoordinated movement and reactions, and dissociative behavior. Coming from an esteemed family in the Core worlds, Melody's parents had her tested and examined by some of the best doctors, psychiatrists, and physicians in the galaxy, but many simply diagnosed her as autistic or mentally challenged.

Even as Melody reached her pre-teen years, she seemed mostly mute to those around her. She developed a curiosity for different objects, sometimes even startled or scared by devices turning on or off. These difficulties led to Melody being schooled at home for most of her early life, even in the limited capacity that she was able to understand.

### Diagnosis of Abilities

[either emergency ship shut down or some travel to remote planet]

Most planets' atmospheres successfully block the majority of electromagnetic activity coming from outside the planet, however, Microwave, radio wave, and some XRAYs can still be picked up when strong enough, or while on certain less shielded planets. When not shielded by an atmosphere, a ship or station is generally electromagnetically active enough to overpower anything else.

With her disability linked to a sensitivity to electric and electromagnetic fields, Melody's parents sent her away to a developing, remote rim world outside of the range of major sources of interference. Here, under the supervision of an adopted guardian, Melody was able to continue normal schooling and live a mostly normalized life. However, as the planet's civilization developed more, she would need to be replanted into a new budding society with new caregivers, leading to a general mistrust of her peers and a lack of any long term allies.

She has trouble describing the feeling of her ability, saying its like a sixth sense, or describing a color that other people can't perceive.

### Mitigation and Treatment

Due to the deep tie that Melody's ability has with her brain functions, there is little that she can do to completely mitigate the effects of the ability. However, there has been success in blocking or modifying signals that she receives. The ultimate solution to this ended up being the headgear unit she wears today, however, magnets, faraday cages, resistant coatings, and special wave guides have all been tried as well. These worked to a marginal extent, but produced other undesirable effects as well.

### Headgear

[who and how she got v1]

At its core, Melody's headgear serves as a way to sync and translate her native thoughts and the background electrical fields. With the headgear disabled or turned off in the vicinity of intense electromagnetic activity, she reverts back to her "disabled" state.

#### Alteration of Mental State

The headgear units do not remove the interference between Melody's brain and the surrounding devices. Instead, they attempt to sync the two sources together. This has a direct impact on Melody's ability to think and process information. This effect means that certain devices, frequencies, and EM activities can significantly increase, decrease, or alter her mental flow or state.

This "feature" has been used by Melody in the past, and is one of the core reasons she maintains and resides at the Borderline Club. Smooth, consistent rhythmic patterns are calming to Melody and steady her headspace, while something quicker and more intense might increase focus. However, randomized or excessive signals may impede her consciousness, even to the point of physical and mental paralysis. Refined versions attempt to filter this more, but due to the nature of the device's function, they cannot be completely negated.

#### Version 1

* Syncs thoughts and EM signals together
	+ Translates signals into beats, emotions, and a general overall cognitive state
	+ Higher fields and frequencies can lead to quicker thoughts, though it is very tiring
* Able to receive radio signals
	+ Constant contact with Borderline
	+ Reading radio communications

#### Version 2

* Visual HUD added for checking status and linking to something more visible for Melody to parse
* Transmitter added, allowing control of non-secure systems, basic radio waves, etc
	+ Used to control a mini fleet of drones
		- Yo you can make this really cool Think about how she carries these around. How it changes her ability to move and understand/gather information. How it changes Borderline