Rhythm
NAME: Echo Lima
KNOWN ALIASES: Rhythm
BIRTHPLACE: Bunbury, Australia
CITIZENSHIP: South Korea, United States, Australia
AGE: 23
AFFILIATIONS: N/A
STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Hero, (semi-former) K-Pop Star, Idol
- SONIC VIBRATION
A pair of gloves manufactured for Echo after her accident allowed her to control the vibrations in sonic frequencies and use them to devastating effect.
- MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING
Training since she was a little girl, Echo is adept in several forms of Martial Arts.
A child prodigy, Echo Lima was on track to become a world-famous pianist by age six. Born to two musical parents (Korean mother, Australian father) she seemed primed to be a star; music was her life, and she devoted all her free time to practicing both her piano and her singing. When out with her mother at the age of fifteen, a talent scout approached them both and asked if Echo would be interested in joining a new girl group being put together in Korea: Crimsong. It meant she'd have to abandon other pursuits and attend one of the famous K-Pop Academies in South Korea, abandoning both her friends at school and her life in Australia. Echo still begged her mother to let her try, and by seventeen, she and her bandmates were famous, even touching the charts in the United States and Australia to some applause and sealing themselves as icons in the making.
Tragedy struck on her eighteenth birthday; a car crash that only injured her managed to cause her permanent issues in the cerebellum, leaving her balance an issue and her movements shaky. Her days in Crimsong were over and she was told she'd never play piano again.
Fast forward six months with a depressed Echo sitting wobbly in a chair at Steel Canyon University and signing Crimsong merch (it helps keep the lights on while she attends school) when she's approached by the school's technology department. They have a pair of gloves — a prototype at the time, bulky and clumsy — that shifts the inner workings of someone's body (their rhythms) back to some form of normalcy. They wanted these to be used to help other people just like Echo, and figured the best place to start with both testing and marketing was a former pop idol. The gloves had a secondary effect, Echo gaining the power to control the vibrations and rhythms in others and causing various forms of mayhem therein.
Since then, Echo has fought as the hero Rhythm, publicly traded and marketed as a hero to all teen girls everywhere because of her feminist stances and positive attitude. While she doesn't wear the gloves all the time, allowing herself the ability to still feel her own tragedy, she makes her way in the world and tries hard to present something for other girls to look up to. No one's life is over until they give up, and Echo will never give up.
- RHYTHM GLOVES
Dubbed the Rhythm Gloves after further development, the apparatuses that allow Echo to both stand tall and solid (and do her beloved parkour) also allow her to channel the rhythms and frequencies of others to varying degrees of success: from mild to devastating. Something in the technology resonates with her cerebellum to correct whatever it was that got damaged in the car crash and move more confidently in the world; development is ongoing for non-power-giving versions of these gloves for every day use.
- RHYTHM SUIT
After many iterations and design team consultations, the Rhythm Suit's design was finalized and development began on making it more sturdy than your average spandex. Able to take some pretty strong hits, though not reflected bullets, it gives Echo a bit more stability on the field when it comes to failing to dodge... which can happen.
- RHYTHM BOOTS
Equipped with several hidden features, the Rhythm Boots design for both form, function, and fashion: the rings around the ankles can be detached and launched to create a strong, localized earthquake through the implementation of sonic waves and frequencies; with the right stomp the boots themselves can become more weighted and keep Echo from getting knocked or thrown; the boots also contain reinforcement through strong, tensile threads that loop through the toe and along the ankle of her boot to make sure that when she kicks someone they hurt more than she does.
Teen Idol — Ongoing though it is, Echo has maintained her Teen Idol status well into her early twenties and it seems unlikely to stop. This is mostly in niche groups that are particularly fond of both K-Pop Idols and Female Heroes.
Girl Group — Crimsong was an all girl Korean Pop Group and has influenced a lot of Echo's choices today. She tends to gravitate towards the idea of female empowerment and girl groups overall.
Contractual Purity — Because of her status as a hero to young girls and her status as a Pop Idol, Echo has been forced to put forth a face of public innocence; no rebellious nights out drinking here — everything happens behind closed doors and she attempts to keep all her dirty laundry safely where it belongs.
Prophetic Names — With a name like Echo she had to be based in music and otherwise, right?
Mixed Signals — Echo's best friend and confidant; they met while doing hero work with various groups and hit it off like gangbusters. If there's something good going on in her life, something bad going on in her life, or she just wants to eat sushi at 3 am, that's who she calls and whom she will always call.
- LOOK AT ALL THAT MERCH
Echo has tons of merch as Rhythm — action figures and the whole shebang; this also extends to Crimsong merch and there's been talk of a brief revival tour for the band if all the ladies can be convinced.
- CRIMSONG
Crimsong has no defined members beyond Echo, but I am willing to entertain a few people who want to have been members. The band probably continued on briefly without Echo after her accident, but ultimately fell apart. They still have a strong following in South Korea and a modest fanbase in the states.
- SO MUCH CHARITY
All of Echo's earnings from sales of her action figures, posters, and other heroic merchandise is put right back into the community. She has some family money and still earns residuals through Crimsong merchandise, and she even donates some of that to charity.
- WHO'S THAT GIRL
Echo's physical appearance and nationality are based on Rosé of BLACKPINK. I would apologize for this, but I cannot be assed.