[KittsMitts] Andi Benton {Champions}

General Information

Full Name:
Andrea “Andi” Benton
Codename or Alias:
Mania
Anonymity
As Secret as someone like her can be - No one would look twice in the streets, but symbiotes always leave a trail.
Gender:
Fem, She/They/We
Race:
Human
Age:
18
Place Of Birth:
West Philadelphia, but grew up in Brockton Bay
Occupation/Status:
Part-time gas station attendant. I don't work much. Owner doesn’t give enough of a shit to kick me to the curb, pays for the hours I show, that kind of thing. Recently, though… I don’t know if I’m gonna make it to my next shift.
Alignment:
Hero, though often in a roguish sense of the word
Factions:
TBD, The Champions
Canon Or Original?:
Canon

Powers/Abilities:
Mania Symbiote Host
Superhuman Physicality in Mania Form, including: Strength, Stamina, Durability, Speed, Agility, and Reflexes
Accelerated Healing Factor & Regeneration
Wall-Crawling
ESP (Spider-Sense), & Immunity to Spider-People’s Spider-Sense
Camouflage Capabilities
Constituent-Matter Generation & Manipulation
Organic Webbing and Web-Slinging

Hell-Mark


Weapons/Items:
Don’t need much besides the standard when your weapon lives with you. But other than whatever happens to be lying around that looks about right for skull-bashing…

Hell-Mark


Appearance

Image:



Physical Appearance:
Andi’s taller than average, standing at 5’7”. She’s a touch scrawny in proportion - like she never got the chance to fill out all the way. She keeps a more alternative general aesthetic, leaning gothic. Her hair is kept at a short cropped bob with bangs - she cuts her hair herself, so it ranges from clean and blunt to choppy depending on when she last did it and how good the mirror, light, or scissors were at the time. She’s gone alternative styles and for side-shaves and undercuts, but the maintenance is just too much for a transient.

Clothing:


Andi’s often in boots and clothing that make her look bigger, taller, and stronger than she is. She takes the ‘scary dog’ approach to keep from being approached. As well as it being a style she prefers, it’s a tactic she picked up from long before her life attached to super-bullshit. Spikes, Chains, rings that could hurt and clothes that are light enough to run with but can take a beating and keep out the cold at night. She sticks out like a sore thumb in a small town, but in the city? She’s just another person.

Armor:

SPOILER: Click to show

 

Her armor lives with her. Symbiote or no. Always.
Andi’s symbiote mimics parts of its parent sample - but adjusts to suit her. Boots, spikes, bracelets, bracers, belts, kneepads, armguards, and a tactical edge to the “normal” look that coordinates down to the Agent Venom reminiscent White Spider on her Torso. Her hair appears to spike back, and her large white eyes have no trouble expressing emotion as well as her unmasked face.
When she is particularly emotional or under duress, she transforms into something more akin to a Stranger Things monster. She grows alien and animalistic, spikes and teeth and claws.



Hell-Mark


Personality

Sexual Orientation:
Pansexual
General Personality:
Andi hasn’t had it easy and, due to the circumstances surrounding her trauma and powers, she hasn’t had the time to process that even a normal 18 year old would have had by now. She is jaded, volatile, and on edge often. This wariness goes back to growing up in Brockton Bay – she had to get streetwise fast. Andi’s got a sharp mind and determined demeanor, which made her feel like she was leaving many of her peers behind while she grew up too fast. As such, she developed the subtle art of scraping by on the bare minimum. She knew exactly what to do to keep people away, be it by appearance, attitude, or force - the only person she wanted around for most of her life was her Dad anyways. He was the only person she could let go and just be a kid in front of. She was comfortable being a burnout – she had all she needed until she got old enough to start making some money to get them out of the forsaken city.

She was an easy target when she was younger with other kids finding out her Mom had abandoned them, and whenever she became a target of ridicule for it she wouldn’t lie down and take it. She has a strong sense of Justice, and knows there are shades of grey to be found. She doesn’t care about petty crimes as long as no one’s getting hurt, but she doesn’t give much grace to people. They’ll show her who they are from the start.

Now her most important person is Flash Thompson, and though she wouldn’t admit to most just how much she looks up to him, it’s obvious how he’s led her in every move she makes to live up to his example. She wants to be a Hero the way he taught her. But trouble will always follow Symbiotes. She hasn’t had any other real friends in over a decade. How can she, when the people around her are bound to get hurt sooner or later? There’s no point in letting someone in if all they’re going to do is leave.

So if she needs to mouth off to stick to her guts and her morals? She’s going to do what keeps her self strong. If she loses friends in the process, if they can’t handle who she is, they were never gonna stick around anyways.

Face/Voice: Alice Pagani

Anything Else





Character's History

Siblings:
Nope.
Mother:
Left.
Father:
Dead.
Other Family:
An Aunt here, an Uncle there, some cousins somewhere. None left that’d come looking.
Left them all behind.
I do have a Coach though.

History:




Growing up a poor kid with a single father in Brockton Bay wasn’t a new story, but it was hers. Andi and her father moved from Philadelphia after her mother took off, and it didn’t take long for the kids at school to figure that out. She was from Brockton Bay, and... he was always waiting around for her. Never saw her again. He got a job that could afford an apartment for the both of them, something they got priced out of in Philly, and they started a life of making it through. Sometimes things were smooth, sometimes it was a day-to-day question. He was good about making sure her needs were always met, even if it meant he wasn’t always home to see to them. Their relationship was never that rocky, though - they always had each other, and they knew that to their core.

Besides her Dad, Andi felt alone a lot growing up. She barely remembered Philly, and definitely didn’t remember her mom. People in Brockton did, though. Rumors spread, and Andi was ostracized and otherized at school. She knew better than to start fights - at first. But she wasn’t afraid to finish them.

The majority of her life was spent this way. She would cut class when possible, smoking under the bleachers with people who meant as little to her as she did to them. Her city was not a kind one - known as one of the most crime-filled cities in America. From petty thieves to organized crimes to supervillains, and a much smaller but just as rotating array of heroes, the city existed in a state of chaos. Normal people didn’t come to Brockton Bay. You either got out or you got stuck here.



So when the new gym teacher moved into the vacant apartment downstairs her Junior Year, she had plenty of cause for the natural suspicion she carried. He looked like something had chewed him up and spit him out here - finding out he was a veteran explained some of that. But there was something not normal about Coach Thompson.

Maybe that’s why he kept giving her a shot. For the first time in years, someone other than her Dad was looking past the outside. Even when she told him point-blank she’d already done the math to figure out exactly how many classes she actually had to attend to pass, he kept trying to encourage her. He didn’t push too far when she said no, either, like some of the other teachers. But he made it clear the offer was always open - if she wanted to step up, she could count on his support. For the first time, she found herself starting to trust an adult who wasn’t her father. They’d had a rapport from the beginning, a similar sense of humor and sense of respect for each other when they realized they had the same stubborn streak. For both their parts, they also recognized in each other… decent people doing their best to get by in a shitty place.

However, her suspicions were all but confirmed when her legless gym teacher somehow ended up laying in his own blood on the rooftop on a stormy 3 AM night. He didn’t even scold her for being out there - maybe he would have if she hadn’t flicked the half-spent joint into a puddle before immediately jumping to help him. Doomscrolling was way more acceptable - but he wasn’t in the state to give any kind of lecture. She helped him down the stairs, and he was evasive at best. His apartment had looked more like some kind of detective spy op base than a bachelor pad, in spite of the shitty couch she helped him to. She moved carefully around syringes, guns, and papers she didn’t understand, trying to disturb as little as possible in the search for a first aid kit. Her hands stuck with the blood from his injuries and left impressions on drawers and in her soaked hair before she finally found it. But when she came to tend his wounds… there was nothing left to fix. Feeling confused and betrayed by how much he was hiding, she shoved the box into his miraculously healed stomach, and stormed out when it was clear he wasn’t going to tell her anything. She was just some shit kid to him after all.

Andi was aware of Venom being in Brockton Bay. By that time, it was hard not to be. He was rocking the otherwise barely floating boat, and she’d caught glimpses of Coach Thompson doing things that he shouldn’t have been able to do, even swearing once she say the black substance poking out of his sleeve. She told no one - not even her Dad. But she knew Flash’s secret, and she couldn’t avoid it anymore. She asked her father what she should do when she knew someone’s secret, and he told her if she valued that person she should talk to them and not let it fester or cause a misunderstanding.

With that encouragement, she excused herself from their nightly dinner and Wheel of Fortune / Jeopardy tradition. She probably wouldn’t be long, and her dad was into the show. He would be okay if she missed Final Jeopardy tonight. Nervous but resolved, Andi walked down the flight to Flash’s apartment and knocked. Not getting an answer, she called out, announcing herself and saying they needed to talk. She knew he’d come home and she hadn’t heard him leave, so she was confused when there was still no response. She reached for the knob only to find it radiating heat... and suddenly turning from the other side. Startled, she leapt back just in time for the door to swing past her and to be met with blast of fiery heatwaves and something out of a Sleepy Hollow nightmare.

Jack’O’Lantern had set a trap for Venom, and Andi had just walked straight into it.



She wished the next pieces were a blur, but she remembers every moment in director’s cut stark clarity. The raw fear as she scrambled away, going back up the stairs her only option. The tear at her throat when she begs her Dad to not open the door. The horror on his face when he does and drags her inside to run from the smaller demons chasing her while Jack crept gleefully slow up the stairs. The slammed door did nothing to stop him. But Agent Venom almost did. If only he’d been there a little sooner.

Andi and her Father cowered behind their kitchen counter, unable to get away long enough to catch their breath. Jack brought the fire with him, their living room going up in flames as they were chased around. Agent Venom tried to hold him back. But he wasn’t strong enough, and Andi remembers every sense taking in the sickle blade sinking into her Dad’s chest. The sight of glinting metal, the sound of the flesh giving way and the way her Dad’s pained scream choked on the blood, the smell of burning and iron, the feeling of his body guarding hers slumping as she tried to hold him up. Agent Venom pulled Jack back, but it was too late. Her Dad bled out quickly, still desperately trying and unable to shield her. She held him in her lap for only a moment before she had to run for her life again.

Just when she was finally completely cornered, Jack tossing Agent Venom across the room and poison gas bombs to her, a streak of black came towards her faster than the poison could snuff the air from her lungs. Jack’s scythe cut the stream, attempting to keep it from shielding her. Instead, the new piece of symbiote continued to her and latched on. It only took a second to rewrite her physiology. Andi was now a symbiote host.





The emotions of a symbiote host are erratic in the best of times. The swiftly compiling trauma found an outlet in the attempt to kill Jack-O-Lantern for the murder of her father. Agent Venom - No, Coach Thompson, stopped her. Jack, now outnumbered by this unexpected development, threw a smoke bomb and escaped. With him gone the fire was put out swiftly - the one in Flash’s apartment hadn’t been nearly as bad, most of the heat belonging to Jack himself. While Flash felt they needed to recover and assess, Andi was hellbent on not standing still. Not while her father’s killer was getting away. Feeling he’d failed her, Flash tried his best to keep her from acting rashly, but ultimately let her go without him. He knew she wasn’t going to stop, and for his part… he couldn’t blame her. He ran away from this responsibility he never wanted.

But a kid running around unattended with symbiote powers never went well. So the least he could do was show her the ropes.

He found her stirring up trouble in a hive of goons, letting the symbiote instincts take over. She dubbed herself Mania, and showed it. A gaping maw revealed three sets of teeth that aided her in taking down her enemies. Flash, once again, was about to pull her out before she went further. People had died, and it was not a pretty sight. But he promised her he’d take responsibility and show her how to do things.





She was a natural. It was like she was made for the symbiote - maybe it being an entirely new birth had something to do with it, or maybe she just had a pre-disposed temperament for it. Maybe it was fueled by a drive she’d never felt before - catching your father’s murderer could light a fire under any underachiever’s ass. Her relationship with Flash strengthened to an unbreakable bond – though nothing could ever replace her Dad, there was a familiar comfort in how deeply they cared about each other. Through fire and pain, they’d forged something far stronger than the two of them apart could hope to be. Not merely mentor and mentee, but true Partnership. He didn’t put up with her bullshit, but he was never cruel with her. He treated her like an equal and guided her in the same breath.

During Andi’s thrown into the deep end training, it became evident she was having more trouble controlling her emotions in and out of Symbiote form. Mania was an apt name - and something was wrong. Flash started to see her symbol shift from a Spider to a Pentagram in moments of heightened anger or when she treated her enemies with cruelty. He was able to track down the source - Andi had contracted something called the Hell-Mark, which had been imprinted on his symbiote. With her powers she had inherited from him a curse disguised as a boon. Venom was one of Mephisto’s chosen on Earth, and it was slowly poisoning her mind.



Together, Andi and Flash were able to track down Mephisto – she’d definitely need to figure out how to explain to school how long she’d been gone… They found him in Vegas, and asked him how to remove the Mark. He informed them there was not a way - and that people would be after her because of the power and protection it provided. He told her how to wield it, and granted her the ability to keep it from taking over her soul. He wanted his chosen as they were, and the Hell-Mark wasn’t just on Venom anymore - over the course of their journey it had chosen Andi.

Another mission only partially succeeded, they’d at least gotten a lead on Jack-O-Lantern’s latest spree. With newfound determination, the two returned to Brockton Bay.



At the end of the road, while they didn't find Jack, they did manage to corner his boss, Black Mask. It was a hollow victory for Andi – she knew it should have meant more, but while he'd been responsible, he wasn't the one who'd decided to kill her Dad. That was all Jack. And the real Jack was nowhere to be found – Black Mask implied the man who'd ruined her life was a puppet of a puppet. There was nothing else she could do - "Jack" was supposedly already in prison, and this was the closest it looked like she'd ever get to justice.

The only thing that could help Andi from feeling lost upon their disappointing return home was diving into solving more than just her own problems. She’d tried the symbiote life, and she wasn’t going to be rid of it anytime soon. If she had a pentagram-shaped target on her back, she might as well do things the Venom way. She moved in with her estranged Aunt. Took extra courses at school to make up for lost time. And Mania became a symbiote superhero of Brockton Bay.

The scene was brutal, but she was hardened. More brutal than any bad guy or scrap was her Coach leaving. He didn’t have a choice - he’d been missing without leave for some time. He got an opportunity, and he didn’t have the choice not to take it.

Didn’t make him leaving her behind sting any less.

Sure, they texted. She kept him up to date with her exploits, FaceTimed him while out on patrol or mid fight or about how to stop a washing machine from overflowing. Andi, for her part, stuck it out. She stuck it out until she turned 18. And then, she left.



Following her Mentor’s footsteps in a way he never wanted her to, she left a note and left her home behind. She knew Flash was in New York. She used what little money she had saved for bus fare and left everything behind. Her life in Brockton Bay didn’t have any meaningful connections, and there was only so much she could do against the slew of villains and those who took advantage of their presence.

Where we pick up our story, Andi has landed in New York City. She has no place to live - she looks for under the table work and squats, stealing whatever food she can hide under oversized clothes from convenience stores or chains when she doesn’t have the funds. Soup Kitchens and Shelters like FEAST work for a time, but a Host can’t stay in one place too long without starting to attract unwanted attention.


Role Play Sample:
(This takes place when Andi and Flash first meet, and is canon to the roleplay)



Well, that’d been rough.

Hell of a first day for the new coach - she’d had to help him in the door, and with the kids in his first period… Well, he was lucky it wasn’t more of a bloodbath. It was Brockton Bay, though. Even at a normal high school, a paraplegic gym teacher was going to have some punches to roll with. Here? Coach Thompson was lucky to survive. He’d rolled with them better than she’d expected, though. She hadn’t dressed out - she never did, but she spent most of the class doomscrolling on her phone in the bleachers trying to not make it obvious she was watching the new meat in action. Even Biff stopped giving him as much shit by the end, more interested in impressing ‘Coach’ with athletic prowess.

The bell rang, and she was a little slow to gather herself up, dropping her phone in her bag before slinging it over her shoulders. Her hood had fallen back, and she regretted not putting it back up when, on her way down the stairs, the only other person left in the gym called up to her.

"So... Andrea, huh?" He looked up at her and she felt thrown by how earnest he seemed. "Not one for gym?"

"Andi," she answered first, fighting off the visible discomfort at being called Andrea quickly (though not quickly enough to cover). "I go by Andi. And uh, no. Getting sweaty and gross first thing in the morning and risking whatever infectious disease lives in the showers? Not really my thing." Andi took another couple steps, hovering on the bottom two with a cautious, quizzical look.

"It's not so bad once you get used to it." Flash rested his clipboard on his lap. He rolled his wheelchair over by the part of the bleachers that Andi was trying to get out by. "You know, Andi, if it's the others you're worried about, I could schedule makeups for you. It's just a grade, but it is a grade. Is passing your thing?"

Ahh, so it was this kind of talk. She smirks a bit at the unexpected sass, lip quirking up without her permission (she left it there like she'd meant to). Why was he sticking up for some random girl who’d all but spat in his face just now? Did he think she just needed someone to show her the ropes or something dumb like that? With two large, assured steps down the stairs, she looks him dead in the eye on level ground before she answered:

"Nah. Coasting is."

She turned a bit, keeping him at her diagonal (damn, her shoulders barely cleared him and he was sitting down) as she made ready to walk towards the door. ”Thanks for the offer, but D's get degrees in Brockton Bay. As long as I participate for ten miserable mornings, I'm good. And I've already got six under my belt." She pulled her hood back up and walked to the big doors they'd entered through, but paused once she was gripping the handle. She turned sideways one last time, talking to him from her profile, the smirk replaced by apparent apathy once more.

"The others suck, but you did have the biggest asshole in school for your first rodeo. Biff Tanner.” Mild disgust. “Claaassic high school jock, pretty sure he stole his name and personality from just about every campy 80s movie bully. At least that extends to how ~creative~ his insults are." Insert eyeroll. "Compared to him, the rest of your day should be... well, smoother sailing."

She glances over her shoulder, and for a moment there's an unreadable expression as she tries to gauge him again. Then she gives a closed smile that seems more amused than anything. "Good luck, Coach." And she pushes through the door. Was that... an attempt at reassurance? A warning, mocking jab, just a chance to complain?

"Coach? What, am I gonna see you at practice, too?"

But Andi was already gone. She keeps her head down in the halls, hiding that smile. She wonders to herself how long it'll take him to figure out he'd tried to greet her going past him and up the stairs to her place just the day before.

––– ––– –––
Later That Day

By the time Flash rolls back to his apartment he looks every bit as exhausted as a first-day teacher should be - and then some. It takes him pausing and looking up the stairs with a confused squint to finally notice and say,

"Andi? You live here?"

There's a girl leaning on her elbows and watching over the railing on the landing above. Hood back. Earbuds in. Apparently paused or not that loud, because she blankly takes one out at his words, flipping it around in her fingers. It's a wonder it doesn't fall to the story below.

"Yeahhhhh. Clocked you while you were moving in yesterday - not hard, it was a lot of boxes.

“Surprised you didn't recognize me this morning, but hey. Made today a little more interesting." A little quirk up, one side of her lip, smooths out into a subtle smirk. Which is really only noticeable because her expression is otherwise neutral.

He rubs his neck warily, and she wonders (not for the first time today) what he's hiding. Not that she could tell why he cared if she suspected. She was just a moody teenager who happened to live upstairs.

Flash gave Andi a smirk right back. "You can say that again. Tell your folks I said hi." Not wanting a repeat of their awkward first meeting, he started to turn his wheelchair around to face his door.

"Folk." It's simple. It's a mistake she doesn't want him to make again.

"I don't know anyone else who moves to Brockton Bay," she says, still taking him in with that apathetic drawl. "Most people just leave. Or get stuck here." She doesn't expect him to turn around, just keeps talking to his back. But she has one last thing to say before pulling her disappearing act again:

"If this is where you're coming to, this supposed to be better... Makes me wonder just where the hell you came from, Coach."