Anna

Backstory

Anna was born in a small family, in a big busy city, with Light as her guardian angel. First few years of her life went fine, but by the time she turned 2, she started getting breathing problems sometimes. She would exhale smoke and it would make it hard for her to breath. Her parents brought her to a doctor to find out what’s wrong. Turned out that Anna was born with fire abilities, but something was wrong with the channeling process, and it caused an unpleasant side effect – her lungs would secrete smoke at random. It doesn’t really harm her in a way smoke usually does, but it still makes it hard for her to breath.

No one really had that case like hers before, so there was no known cure. The doctors offered Anna’s parents to let her get special training, because learning to control her powers might help with channeling it properly. But her parents decided against it – family history told them that fire powers were very dangerous and it would be better if their daughter repressed them instead.

In the end, Anna was given some pills to keep her powers in check, but they only helped to lessen the symptom a little bit for a short amount of time. The family was promised that they’d eventually get a custom medicine, but it would take quite some time to make. Until then, Anna’s parents decided to keep her at home and if the med rakes too long to create, give her homeschooling.

Until Anna turned 12, she spent most of her time home. That didn’t give her any opportunity to communicate with kids her age. The only window to the outside world was TV. She ended up getting the wrong ideas from watching shows and movies about school and teenage life. At 12, she finally received an inhaler with a custom-made liquid that would dissolve the smoke and cleanse her lungs. Still not a permanent solution, but it was way better than the pills.

Since now Anna had an effective way of keeping her condition in check, her parents decided it’s time to let her go to school. Anna wasn’t too stoked about it though – all the school dramas tought her that middle school and high school are dangerous places, full of vicious teenagers and unfair teachers. Because of the fear, Anna was very closed off at school, not talking to anyone and being cold to anyone who tried to communicate with her. After some time, she became a little snappy too, so by the end of her first year, Anna became known as the weird kid that wants to be left alone.

Anna’s school years were lonely – the more she pushed people away, the more miserable and lonely she felt, which made her push people away even more. There was even more internal conflict when Anna developed a strong crush on a popular girl, Amura, who she thought would be the “queen b” the media warned her about.

At this point, Light decided to step in and do something. Shenanigans ensue, and due to completely accidental turn of events, Anna was forced to actually talk to some people. In some time, Anna looked back at her behavior and realized – she’s the only one who acts aggressive here. She’s the only one to really blame for her reputation.

The realization hit pretty hard, it took Anna some time to accept everything, but soon she worked up the courage to open up and even apologized to Amura for acting stupid. She made progress with baby steps, and soon she acquired a few good friends and even got together with her crush.

When Anna was around 16, she opened up to her girlfriend about her condition, and Amura offered to introduce to her friend who could help her train her powers, since it could possibly help her with channeling magic. At first, Anna was hesitant – she knew her parents would be against that. But after some convincing, she agreed to try it out. She ended up really liking it and continuing the sessions, without telling her family. After two months, the effect was noticeable already – Anna’s “smoking fits” began to happen less and were now only half as strong. Unfortunately, they won’t ever be gone completely – the training began too late into her life and the damage was already done. There still was incredible progress, plus Anna ended up getting really motivated to learn more about fire abilities.

However, that got Anna curious – what exactly happened in her family that her parents are so against her learning to control her powers. She didn’t want to tell her parents about her training sessions just yet, but she still asked them about the reason they refused to acknowledge her potential. Turned out, Anna’s great-great-grandfather was a fire-user too, and he became obsessed with the idea of his powers for, what he thought, was good – executing people he thought deserved it, without leaving a trace. He got deep into political stuff, often assassinated civilians and was among the people who started a civil war. He eventually was found out, but before he got caught, he hid in his old family house and burned it down, with himself in it, leaving his wife and daughter alone, without a home and with a terrible reputation.

After hearing this story, Anna decided not to tell her parents anything for now, but she continued mastering her abilities, although this story made her worried that, some day, she might become crazed with power too. She also began to read a lot of material about special powers in general, and got really interested in the history aspect and theory in general. Now Anna plans to continue learning about special powers more thoroughly when she’s done with school.

Personality

Even after she came out of her shell, Anna stayed quiet and antisocial, though now she can at least communicate with people alright. She very rarely comes out of her comfort zone, unless she’s driven by something strong, like her passion for learning more about special abilities. Would rather spend her free time at home, bundled up in a blanket, watching something on her laptop, or reading something interesting. Doesn’t show her emotions a lot, even around people she’s close with. Seems apathetic most of the time. Cautious around all people, except her parents and Amura. Doesn’t react much to bad news – it’s like she’s always prepared for the worst. Doesn’t initiate conversations with strangers, unless they’re related to her studies. Pretty cocky about her knowledge of different powers and her own abilities. Despite all her teenage angst being mostly a thing from the past, she’s still pretty rebellious, though now she prefers to show it through her actions, not words.

Abilities

Besides the fire powers, Anna has an incredible learning ability. She can learn and/or remember anything on the fly, although she only has enough motivation to do that only for things she’s genuinely interested in. Her condition made it hard for Anna to be good in any kind of active sport. She can also draw pretty well.