Vega

"Magic runs in my family - so does heroism.

And art.

And performance.

And being at least a little bit of a cat-person.

...listen, we like our traditions."

Summary
A beautiful, friendly face in Starlight City's heroic scene, Vega may seem like a classic psychic with telekinesis and telepathy, but is actually a mage who can use her magic to act in other ways, through Power Stunts, Ritualist, and Artificer. Her most iconic powers are her Telepathy and Telekinesis - her most iconic traits, her kindness and humor.

A Privileged Youth
Abigail Cohen Levi Asch was born to Ariel Asch, her husband Elijah Asch, and their wife Delilah Asch. Elijah and Delilah were a rich and famous musician and actress respectively - Ariel, meanwhile, was an astronomer. Abigail was raised mostly by Ariel, and lived a privileged life, bouncing between Starlight City, New York City, and Los Angeles.

From a young age, Gail had a talent for a wide variety of arts - both performing and producing it - and her talents were nurtured by all three of her parents. Despite her skills, however, she was kept relatively sheltered, not exposed to anything that would be too much publicity. She was raised mostly by her mother, and kept out of the public eye even while taking part in the occasional modeling job, local theater production, gallery showcase, or similar event.

When she was eight, her parents had another daughter, Susan, borne to Delilah. She was not quite as prodigious as Gail - or hasn't shown herself to be so yet, but was still clever and beautiful.

Becoming Vega
Her mother, Ariel, was more than just an astronomer - she was a superheroine, the mage Starshine. This resulted in her having a friendship with the Dark family, a fashion house that produces superhero costumes, and Gail growing up with their daughter, Kimmy, viewing her as an older sister.

When she turned 16, Ariel began training Gail in magic as was the tradition of her family, stretching back generations. Gail took to it like a duck to water, particularly psychomancy. It wasn't until she was 18, however, that Ariel allowed Gail to become a heroine and join her as her sidekick and protege, Vega.

The End of an Era
At the beginning of May 2021, however, Starshine - as well as the rest of her team, the Starlight Champions - were killed, losing their lives in battle against a telekinetic called Tyrant.

After the loss of her mother, Gail took time off from being a heroine, grieving and trying to come to terms with her loss. Now, however, she's ready to get back in the saddle...

Present
Gail attends college at Vanderburg University, where she is in her third year of a five-year plan in which she will attain three degrees: one in Psychology, for her intended career as a therapist; the other two out of more personal enjoyment, in English and Theater. Outside of her schoolwork, she takes part in a handful of clubs, most notable Theater Underground, which she is the current president of.

Vega is a founding member of the New Champions, and is known to be close friends with Phoenix.

She currently has friends-with-benefits relationships with Luca and River, and is dating Vex.

Heroic Legacy
When Gail was six, she was kidnapped by Starshine's nemesis, the Dawnbringer. Starshine rescued her and captured the Dawnbringer, who was imprisoned in Iron Depths for more than a decade - however, shortly after Vega's career as a hero began, he escaped and struck at the family again. During that second attempt, he learned Vega's identity, as well as pushing his abilities too far and burning out his powers - he burned to death in a fire he himself had started.

The ring that allows Vega to easily use telekinesis was a gift from her mother when she began learning magic, and was originally created by Counterforce. When first made it was a simple protective enchantment, but she's tinkered with it to allow her to reshape its kinetic power to give her telekinesis and flight.

Family
Delilah's family has hereditary cat traits as the result of eldonium exposure several generations ago. Abigail's manifestation is light, granting her only the ability to purr.

The Asch family used to own a fluffy orange cat named Penzance - usually called Penny - who died of old age in 2020.

They still own a white cat named Casablanca - Casey for short - who lives with Delilah.

Trans Rights
As Vega, she's open about the fact that she's a transgender woman, and participates in activism to raise awareness of trans rights. As Abigail, however, she sees no reason to alert anyone she's not dating of this fact, preferring to keep her privates private.

Past Relationships
She dated Bianca, aka Blank, in both their civilian and heroic identities both for two months, until Bianca left on an exchange trip to London.

Herobook
She manages her Herobook account as Vega carefully, as she was taught to do by Starshine and Violet Striker. She takes landscape pictures of Starlight City, selfies with fans, and shares fanart people draw of her, as well as posting inspirational messages and jokes.

Description
"A cozy - although surprisingly large - home in Hampton Park, with a private section of the beach direction. The house was lofted a floor up to protect from flooding, and had a sizeable back porch."

Nuclear Winter Wonderland
Vega's history in this alternate universe is much the same, but her power source is different. Rather than being a mage trained in the tradition of her mother Ariel, she's a naturally-born psionic. Additionally, she has a years-long history with Luca Oldquid who, in this universe, was an occasional boyfriend when his caravan passed through Starfall City. About a year ago, Luca came to Starfall to stay, and has been living with - and dating - Vega ever since.

In Fiction: Night Sky Comics
In the context of Night Sky Comics, Vega was first introduced as the child of Starshine, in the early 2000s and was originally intended to be a son. As she was introduced while the company still used a sliding timescale, she remained a baby for several years before being aged up, and - due to a miscommunication - was written and drawn as a young girl in an error that made it through to production. Although a mistake, the company decided to stick to it after excellent reception from the LGBTQ community, which already heavily supported Starshine for its depiction of queer women and a healthy polyamorous relationship.

Vega was aged up a handful of times, her apparent age jumping between 8 and 13, until the sliding timescale was dropped in 2010 and her age was firmly set. She remained a part of Starshine's supporting cast - although with very little focus - until 2016, when Starshine's established family tradition of teaching their children magic required additional focus on her.

A new series was introduced to provide a small degree of focus on this - released as brief bonus issues attached to Starshine in 2016, and given its own monthly full-length releases in 2017 after it was positively received - in which she was trained by Starshine, with occasional cameo issues in which Nimbus assisted.

Beginning in 2018, Vega began appearing as Starshine's sidekick in Starshine and occasionally in the Starlight Champions, and in 2020 she was upgraded to a series of her own, Vega (while still acting as Starshine's protege and appearing in her book).

In 2021, after the Starlight Champions were killed by Tyrant, Vega's book temporarily refocused on her grief, returning to normal after the New Champions began running.