Manon Boucher

Marianne Boucher, called Manon by almost everyone, is a professional dancer and agent for the Mirrorside Initiative. As an active and touring performer, she is often chosen to gather intelligence, as her fame gives her the ability to move in places that others might find off-limits.

Manon is remarkable among Mirrorside Initiative employees not just due to her celebrity status, but due to her apparent lack of powers or supernatural abilities. Most believe she is simply a human, albeit an extremely intelligent and athletic one. In reality, she is a bul-gae, a shapeshifter who can "eat" and manipulate light.

Pre-UA
Adopted from Korea as an infant, Manon grew up the daughter of a gay couple with avid interest in the arts. For the first part of her early life, she appeared to be human, though at the age of two, her ability to shapeshift into a dog and control light manifested. Though her human fathers were surprised, they were accepting of their daughter's powers, though quickly taught her to hide them and keep them under wraps.

Manon's family immigrated to Harrisburg from France when she was three years old due to one of her fathers' business needs. She was enrolled in preschool so that she would learn English more fluently and rapidly; by the time she was four, she could read and write in both English and French.

At the age of six, she was enrolled in a famous local dance school, where she met five year old Carlie Kaine, who became a good friend and, eventually, her dance partner. The two took many of the same dance classes and had similar levels of talent, often performing together. By the time Manon was in her sophomore year of high school, and Carlie in her freshman year, it was clear both of them would go far... until an "accident" crushed Carlie's legs, causing her to withdraw from dance lessons. Manon worked tirelessly to improve further, her friend in her mind. She would achieve fame for the both of them. The next school year, she applied and was accepted to an even more serious dance school in New York.

After many years of training throughout the remainder of high school and a couple years after, Manon returned to Harrisburg and immediately became a principal dancer in the local company. Even still, she wasn't satisfied, and pushed herself in practice and in life, learning more and more skills, becoming better and better.

When she was 22 years old, she was shopping downtown during the Day of Heroes. Though frightened at first, she was curious enough to stay and see what was going on, and was shocked to find her old dance partner involved. When Carlie returned the next day, Manon struggled to get back in contact with her old friend, finding it difficult due to the media taking Carlie's attention away. However, Manon was nothing if not persistent; within two weeks, she was in contact with Carlie again, and the two picked up their friendship as easily as if they'd never been separated.

When the Mirrorside Initiative was founded, Manon was the first to ask outright for a job. Though at first she was turned down due to being an "unpowered human," she was stubborn and pitched her value as an athlete and a local celebrity. Carlie accepted her in. Manon quickly proved herself a competent and capable agent, one of the best in the organization. One of her missions was to integrate into and spy on Amnesty. After some time there, she ended up becoming loyal to them as well, acting as a sort of benevolent double agent.

Trivia

 * Though Manon is sometimes referred to as "The Butcher," it is not due to her job, but rather a codename based on her surname.
 * Manon is fluent in French and English, and conversational in German.