31/31 - DAY 4 - THEODORA BRIDGES, PSYCHIC INSOMNIAC

“I stopped sleeping a long time ago, around the time I was eight years old. I never stopped dreaming, though, it happens all the time. Dreams of places other people have been - all the things they saw, and some of the things they missed.” 

Theodora Bridges is a short woman with long, brunette hair that she keeps in a loose bun. She is SARCASTIC, LETHARGIC, and IN A DAZE. She has the ability to see into other people’s past and can look through their memories from an outsider’s point of view, picking up on things that they missed or don’t remember anymore. This gift keeps her from sleeping, and somehow, she has resisted the fatal effects of sleep deprivation. Some would think that never having to sleep would be a blessing, but for Thea, it’s a curse.

She hardly has the energy to accomplish anything and relies on her two older brothers to support her. When she’s not reading other people’s memories, she has hallucinations of people from her past, like her critical and demanding mother. Thea offers her services to people in her neighborhood. They come to her for everything from finding out where they lost something valuable to solving crimes and processing past trauma. She’s seen a lot of humanity’s worst qualities indirectly, and it’s left her jaded.

In her daily life, Thea is constantly in a daze and has difficulty remembering minor events, often leading her to wash her hands several times in a row or take her medications multiple times. Her brother, William, bought her a pill organizer to address the latter issue and fills it for her once a week. The repetition only tires her out more, leaving her drained, but she is unable to sleep and fully recover. Her brothers help keep her apartment clean and organized in a way that prevents her from smoking all her weed in a single day or drinking all the beer in a single setting.

When Thea explores someone’s mind, they enter a trance and see what she sees: their own memories. In this space, both of them can see the person’s past. When you go about your day, so many minor and seemingly inconsequential things happen that it’s hard to keep track of. However, when going through memories like this, Thea helps slow things down and focus on what’s relevant.