30 Days of Characters - 2021
A webcomicComic 504 - 30 - Preston
Author Notes:
I made it!
I only missed one day this month, which is WAY better than I did last year!
Cheers to all the participants! You guys are awesome!
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So...
Eunice Adelaide Preston was born with a very unfortunate mutation. Four eyes, No ears and practically featureless.
While other kids from her area were mysteriously born with, or later developed superpowers and are able to do special things, she seems to just be funny-looking.
Her parents, at first, were horrified but resolved themselves to love and care for her as best they could.
For the first half of her life, she was home-schooled and private tutored to keep her safe from those who would not understand and/or would do her harm for being different.
There was a general malaise over the Preston household for quite a few years, with her parents going broke to pay for her special education, and replacing the clothing that got destroyed, when the sharp horns and spikes began growing from her head and joints.
Her father, Marvin, would file her pointy edges to a blunt end, and her mother, Sara, resolved to help her look as feminine and normal as possible, by tying silk bandanas around her daughter's upper set of eyes, putting bonnets on over the horn, and buying her frilly dresses with long sleeves to try and cover the joint-spikes.
When Eunice turned, 12, her family moved to Seaport City, Washington. Within the city was Wendigo High School. The school was one of two within the borders of the Lower 48 that catered to the needs of the many metahuman teens that had popped up over the last twenty years or so. Eunice's parents interviewed with the principal, Diana Carter, and were pleased and excited that their child might get a professional and free education without being seen as the 'school freak'. 2 years later, Eunice was enrolled.
She was happier than she had been to see that there were others like her, however, the vast majority of them still looked human. Looked NORMAL. Worse yet, as Wendigo was a Board of Education sanctioned high school that was ZONED for that area, there was still a high contingent of completely human, normal kids attending, which still made her feel like a monster. Even amongst the somewhat inhuman looking students, she was an outcast. Multiple eyed, hairless and horned students were still extremely rare. Even then, most every other child in school had some sort of neat ability that DID something. She did not.
Having been home schooled, Eunice was lacking in social graces that came from a lifetime of dealing with other kids.
The first time she tried to socialize and make friends, some snobby norm kid made fun of her kinda old-timey first name. Since that day, when she DID talk to anyone, she introduced herself by her last name, Preston. Over time, she got used to the weirdness of Wendigo high, and loosened up, somewhat, knowing that, at least, as "Monster" kids go, she was not the only one, or even technically the weirdest looking, but, she is still prone to feelings of loneliness and depression.
Preston is an A student with a proficiency in English and Social Studies. This generally brings her into proximity of Eddie Essex, a relatively popular kid at Wendigo High who is very nice to her, as well as "Bigfoot Billy" Sanders and his circle of friends. Still, for the most part, Preston tends to prefer spending her time alone. She still dresses femininely, almost to a comical, stereotypical degree, just to avoid the extra effort of explaining to new people that she is, indeed, a female.
Unbeknownst to even Preston herself, she does have a superpower. Her body is immune to extreme temperature, and medium level physical damage. Her skin is rather thick, but not so thick as to be noticeably 'different'. She is completely impervious to smaller things like bruises , burns and papercuts. She does not know any of this because she has never been seriously hurt.
She's never been sunburnt, and the Pacific Northwestern 'cold & wet' has never bothered her one way or another. Were she to move to a different climate, she'd be able to walk through a blizzard without even feeling a chill, or live in the desert without burns or dehydration. No one, including she herself has noticed but she doesn't even sweat. She is immune to all known diseases, and, were she to break a bone, or be poisoned, her body would not only heal, but whatever bit of her was in distress, like, say, her gastrointestinal tract, would just grow back STRONGER.
But, as Eunice Preston has led a very sheltered life, all this has simply never really come up.
Reminds me a bit of the movie Unbreakable, in which the protagonist never really thought about the fact that e.g. he never in his life got sick. (Like, not even a light cold or something.)