Parian, real name Sabah,[3] was a Rogue operating in Brockton Bay.
Personality
She was not naturally violent but finds herself and her family drawn into the conflicts of Worm. She also feels a great amount of responsibility to those who come to her for help.[3]
She is very socially conscious. She was also planning to keep her true ethnicity concealed to promote dialogue regarding assumptions about capes.[4]
Appearance
She was short, the same height as Accord.[5] Parian wears a costume reminiscent of a Victorian-style porcelain doll, with golden curls. After joining the Undersiders, she changes her dress and hair to black in order to appear more intimidating.
Underneath the costume, she stands just over five feet tall and is of obvious Middle-Eastern descent, with dark skin, full lips, and large, dark eyes.
Abilities and Powers
Parian's power gives her a fine control over lightweight materials. If she attempts to control anything heavier than a half-pound, her telekinesis falls apart. It becomes more unstable when she attempts to move large objects until it expands and dissipates over an area in an attempt to extend control to a number of tiny, lightweight objects.
Parian discovered that she could contain her power and keep it from dissipating. Porous materials worked best for this method as her power soaks into them and allows her to move the fabric rather than just the material. The gaps within the material also allow her to feed power into the 'shell' without it building to critical mass and collapsing.[5]
Wildbow has mentioned that Parian has a "true use" of her power, which is effective against Behemoth, although it was not revealed in Worm.[6]
History
Background
Sabah immigrated to the United States of America from Basra with her family before they moved to Brockton Bay. There she had been forced to learn English alongside other subject matter by herself as her parents were too busy. After graduating high school, she attended university where she studied the 'grittier' courses such as math and engineering.
Sabah drew attention from a boy in her class that became interested in her. She tried telling him 'no' multiple times, but wound up being labelled as a 'bitch'. The other students wound up hearing and turned on her which lead to her schoolwork starting to suffer as no one wanted to work or study with her. She caved six weeks afterwards and apologized to the boy, telling him that she had had a bad day. She began dreading going back to class and dealing with him.
Eventually Sabah's father suffered a terminal heart attack. She triggered on what was only one in a long string of nights spent alone, stewing in frustration. It was the push she needed to get away from the boy as it gave her a new goal; success in fashion design.[5][7]
After triggering, she was described by Taylor as only using her powers for "business or entertainment". She sometimes partnered with stores in downtown Brockton Bay, animating mascots or other large characters for promotional purposes.[8]
Post-Leviathan
Parian took up defending a territory, Dolltown, after Leviathan attacked the city.
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine
After the people she was offering protection to were surgically altered by Bonesaw to look like the members of the Slaughterhouse Nine, she took up Skitter's offer to join the Undersiders in order to afford good doctors to reverse the plastic surgery.
She was later joined by Flechette, who changed her name to Foil and became Parian's lieutenant and lover.
Fanart Gallery
Trivia
- Parian's costume hid her ethnicity because when she still had intentions of unmasking, she wanted to provoke a debate about assumptions made about capes when you couldn't tell their skin tone.
- Parian appeared in earlier drafts of Worm under the name 'Doll'.
- In early drafts Parian would have been the one who was interested in Foil, rather then the reverse. And would have had a decisive role in defeating Behemoth.[6]
Quotes
- “I’m just… I know what it’s like, to be on a single track, to feel compelled to keep going forward. It isn’t easy, to disappoint the people you care about, but sometimes it comes down to doing that… or doing what they want and being unhappy.” When asked what she knows about Skitter's motivations.
References
- ↑ Parian is ~21 or so. Oldest member of the Undersiders. Not sure on this one, really don't feel like searching for it. Midway through a fashion degree when she makes her first appearance (this is after several years of an engineering degree IIRC) - see her interlude for details. - Post by Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
- ↑ “Parian,” Kid Win replied. “A parian doll was a kind of doll about a hundred and fifty years ago. Though Parian’s costume is actually closer to a more classical Victorian style porcelain doll, from the same era.”
“Oh.” That was random. What kind of guy knew that much about dolls?
He went on, “She’s a rogue. Fashion student with the costume and stuffed animals as a gimmick to help her build for a professional reputation and stand out. Tentative rating of Master-6, but we haven’t really seen her fight, outside of the Leviathan encounter.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.2 - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Parian, Sabah – Controls the northern end of the city. Not an official member of the group, but tied to their alliance. Once a ‘rogue’, Parian saw many of her friends, family and classmates die when the Slaughterhouse Nine attacked the territory she was protecting. In the hopes of protecting and supporting others, and perhaps giving the Undersiders a more moral voice, she has joined their alliance and taken control of a territory of her own. Parian’s powers allow her fine manipulation of smaller and lighter objects, and can ‘fill’ larger vessels to render them effectively heavy, dense and heavy-hitting. She has used this to fashion cloth dolls she animates. Wears a frock as a costume, with a porcelain doll’s face for a mask, and a wig of golden curls. - Cast (in depth)
- ↑ Primarily to make her disguise more effective, also to make a statement.
She was working on the assumption that she’d reveal her identity at some point. It was common knowledge that she was a fashion student doing Rogue work and getting exposure as Parian to gain some prominence. Hiding her identity in that way was a way of doing such (because of her distinct appearance). Allowing some connection between her real race and her appearance would only make it blatantly obvious, with the clues that were already out there.
Eventually revealing herself to be middle eastern, down the road, would give her room to open a dialogue on the subject and add some drama to what otherwiise(sic) be a ‘meh’ moment. - Comment by Wildbow on Sentinel 9.2 - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Imago 21.y (Interlude, Parian)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 In her earlier incarnations, when I wrote her as a protagonist during some snippets, it was (most often) during a Behemoth attack. Flechette was present, as a rule, and the attraction was sort of reversed, with a bit of hero worship on Parian's part, that ran a bit deeper.
Parian against Behemoth sounds like a joke, but you see, there's a true use of Parian's power that doesn't show up in Worm. - Post by Wildbow on Spacebattles - ↑ Parian – A rogue, or a parahuman who focuses more on civilian life than on heroics/villainy, an aspiring fashion designer, she uses her telekinesis to maintain animated cloth puppets. - Cast (spoiler free)
- ↑ A scattered few independent heroes and villains were around as well. Few I could name. I saw a girl dressed up like an old fashioned doll. Parian. She was local, and she wasn’t hero or villain. A rogue, who only used her powers for business or entertainment. She could sometimes be seen doing some promotion for a store downtown, giving life to some massive stuffed animal or a store mascot. She’d done an interview in a magazine I’d read back before I had powers, and I knew she was a fashion student, though she wasn’t revealing just who she was until after she was more established. She looked as though she were trapped in a conversation with a curly haired, dimple-cheeked villainess that looked no older than eight, who wore a frock that was maybe from the same period as Parian’s. The pseudo-child was Bambina, if I was remembering right. - Extermination 8.1
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