Hedonism (AKA Figment) and Rebecca

Click here to see an image of Figment (lower figure)

Unfortunately, Hedonism / Figment and Rebecca have some fairly complicated powers. Either read the stuff below to find out what they are, or just assume they can do anything :) .

Rebecca is a normal human who works as a librarian. As a child she was visited by a 'bogeyman' that took the form of a not particularly threatening, little lizard woman thing. As it turned out, the thing became her 'imaginary friend' instead. She named the person, Figment. Figment preferred the name Hedonism.

But when Rebecca grew older, and gained friends of the 'real' sort, she never really got around to forgetting the one she had 'made up'. Sure in the knowledge that Figment was just a creation of her childhood she could ditch at any time, she got on with life.

Until the imaginary friend turned out to be quite real, and transformed the human into a much larger and powerful version of her reptilian form in order to defeat two dangerous gangs who attacked her.

Hedonism was a professional bogeyman, a creature that fed off the fears of children to keep herself alive and powerful. It's as yet unclear if she was ever successful in the past but she never frightened young Rebecca, so decided to switch jobs and become an imaginary friend instead, feeding off friendship. And never went away. Given that neither bogeymen nor imaginary friends have her sort of powers, there must be more to her than what she has shown so far.

Rebecca has no extraordinary powers or skills outside having a pretty good intellect.

Hedonism gains all her power from emotional energy, which means that unless there is someone around capable of emotions, she is also powerless, and indeed could perish from lack of 'food'. Therefore, she dwells physically inside Rebecca. She is an absolute master of transformation and biology by pure instinct.

When needs must, Hedonism can transform her host. Normally she picks the form of an attractive, but certainly reptilian, seven foot tall lizard woman, with incredible speed and ten times the strength of a human. Hedonism's skills at biology allow her to use her host's body to it's fullest potential, and she can execute amazingly athletic, lightning fast martial art-style attacks, and hit exactly the right point of an enemy to affect it the most. (She can knock any animal or human unconscious with a hundred percent reliability). She can heal practically any damage to Rebecca's body almost instantly with her powers of transformation, or modify it to be better in different situations.

If Rebecca or Hedonism is particularly emotional, or if something else (like an angry enemy or terrified bystander) is around which has plenty of emotion, Hedonism can utilize this energy to increase her powers further still, depending on the strength of this emotion. She can also transform objects and other things if they are the source of this emotion (eg. She can transform a book which people think is very boring, or cool to read).

Being two separate minds, Hedonism can concentrate on one task while Rebecca carries out another. Also, Hedonism's serpents, which also exist in Rebecca's enhanced body, are themselves intelligent and capable of acting as an organised group. They are all poisonous, their venom varying in effect as they can transform their poison sacs along with their bodies.

Hedonism and Rebecca's combined form is only as powerful as the emotions powering it. The thrill or terror of a fight felt by the human is usually enough to sustain their communal body as long as it isn't damaged too much. But if Rebecca is feeling less emotions than normal, such as getting stunned, their body can weaken down to human levels.

As well as craving emotion, Hedonism needs to stock up on extra chemicals to replace those lost in fighting, getting injured or doing superhuman feats. This includes increased amounts of the body's normal proteins and trace elements, as well as unnecessary or poisonous chemicals such as arsenic, gold, asbestos and food additives. Hedonism can syphon a lot of this stuff out of pollution and other organisms in the air, but it's quicker to get it by eating trashy, additive-saturated junk food or normally inedible objects.

Rebecca is likeable and principled. Having a powerful, versatile body means that in battle she can opt to knock someone out rather than kill them, which is good as she can't stand the idea of resorting to murder.

Up until now she has also been unambitious, which is why she's still a librarian. Very new at this hero business, she doesn't like the idea of being called a super hero, which she considers is a tacky, stereotyping and oversimplifying term.

She loves Hedonism, both as a friend and a crucial part of herself.

Hedonism is supportive and chatty, and tries to ensure that her host gets to enjoy herself (pretty much like her name's meaning). She has no interest in having a separate life, and is very much a part of Rebecca.

Email Hedonism at hedonism@transfur.com

Page last updated: April 16^th 2000