Microstory 184: Ossia Mulloy

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

When Ossia Mulloy was fairly young, she decided to reveal her ability to her best friend. The two of them were skipping rocks on a pond one evening when Ossia asked if she wanted to see something cool. Henrietta shrugged indifferently but then watched, stunned as Ossia haphazardly tossed a rock into the water, and kept it skipping indefinitely. She made it curve, bounce backwards, and even stop in place, as if the lake were frozen. Henrietta was speechless as Ossia’s feats became more and more impressive. She swung the pond in its entirety back and forth, as if it were nothing more than a small bowl of water. She lifted it in the air and let it fall back down like rain. She smiled to her friend, expecting her to be excited and interested, but instead, Henrietta ran from her and called her a witch. Henrietta ended up trying to tell their parents about what happened, but of course, her accusations were ridiculous, and there was no way for her to prove it. Needless to say, they were no longer friends. When Ossia was 21 years old, she made the natural choice of enlisting in the Diving Section of the Irish Naval Service as an underwater engineer. One night while on leave, Ossia caught a man sexually assaulting Henrietta. More as a reflex, and because he was too physically strong for her, Ossia began to manipulate the water in the man’s body, and pulled him apart with it. He exploded in front of them, covering them with bits and pieces. It was the most horrifying experience for either of them. Despite the violence, the two of them grew closer after that, having bonded over the ordeal. They would never have categorized their new relationship as friendship, but Henrietta was from then on slightly more grateful for Ossia’s ability than she was fearful. Years later, rumors of Ossia’s ability spread beyond the Navy, and Ossia was captured by an associate of Basil Ploutos. He kept her in an abandoned factory in Kansas until she was freed by Bellevue, along with several other anomalies. Ossia never really felt all that interested in the organization, or its goals. She developed a romantic relationship with Gus, but even that was short-lived. She ultimately decided to remain in Usonia, and worked construction a little with Quang and Hugh, but contributed relatively little to anomaly history.