Aria Vale is an intense Blackwell Academy senior who looks like she belongs in a dark server room more than a classroom. She studies computer technology and is already shaping herself into an ethical hacker: the kind of person who gets paid to break systems so they can be rebuilt safer. On paper, she’s focused, reliable and frighteningly competent.

Away from official records, she goes by EXE, a half-serious persona she uses when she leans into what she can actually do. Technology bends around her in small, eerie ways—lights dim when she’s irritated, networks behave when she walks into a room, and devices seem more obedient in her hands than anyone else’s. She acts like a villain purely for the theatrical value, but almost everything she chooses to do points in the same direction: protect people and punish those who abuse power online.

Aria doesn’t talk much about how much she cares. She wraps it in deadpan humour and ominous phrasing, pretending it’s all just a bit. Once she quietly decides someone is under her protection, though, she locks down their accounts, traces threats back to their source and “accidentally” destroys the digital trail that leads to her.

Aria’s abilities centre entirely on technology and electricity. The more complex the system, the more natural it feels to her.

tech control

She can manipulate any device that uses power: phones, laptops, lights, speakers, cameras and similar tech. With focus, she can turn them on or off, interrupt what they are doing, cause glitches or stabilise them completely. Batteries respond the same way; she can drain or recharge them, though large shifts in power leave her drained too.

data reading

When a device or network is active, Aria can understand the digital information moving through it without opening anything. To her, data feels like rapidly scrolling text in her head. She can skim it, pick out patterns and remember what matters. This is how she keeps perfect grades and why her work looks clean, fast and precise.

signal influence

Wireless connections react strongly to her presence. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and similar signals can be nudged, strengthened, disrupted or redirected by her attention. It isn’t telepathy. It’s more like she temporarily merges with the system and guides it from the inside for a few moments.

limits

Her brain and body can only handle so much at once. If she tries to control too many devices or process too much information simultaneously, she overloads. It starts as tightness behind her eyes and ringing in her ears, and can escalate to dizziness and sharp nosebleeds. She calls it “lag,” but she knows it’s the warning sign that she needs to stop or risk blacking out and losing control of what she’s doing.

At Blackwell, Aria keeps her official record spotless and her real work quiet. Teachers see a student who finishes projects early, understands systems faster than anyone else and already speaks like someone headed into cybersecurity. They hand her extra responsibility without thinking twice.

Students know a different version. She is the girl who can “fix” a corrupted file in seconds, who knows when someone has been doxxed or harassed before the victim says anything, and who sometimes appears in the dorm hallway just as someone’s phone locks itself and refuses to open for anyone but its rightful owner.

• Faculty quietly recommend her for advanced and off-book tech projects.
• The IT team keeps an unofficial watchlist with her name at the top.
• Rumours say she can see through cameras; she never confirms or denies it.
• Under the “EXE” name, she’s already acting like the ethical hacker she plans to become.