Water Lily

Water Lily
Biographical Information
Real Name	Jane Lillian Dow (pronounced "doe")
Aliases	Water Lily
Gender	Female
Class	Ace
Wild Card Traits	Hydrokinesis, Sex-based healing,
Social Information
Place of Birth	Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Citizenship	United States citizen
Occupation	Waitress
Base of Operations	New York City
Affiliations	Aces High
Allies	Hiram Worchester, Sal Carbone
Origin
First Appearance	Aces High
Final Appearance	Down and Dirty
Creator	Pat Cadigan

Water Lily is Jane Lillian Dow, a woman with the power to control water. She became a somewhat famous ace in New York City in 1986-1987. A young woman at the time, Jane's most famous trait was her innocence. She came from a small town in Massachussetts to try her luck in New York, and soon got very involved with the public aces of the city. Water Lily was also somewhat unlucky, since her career as an ace saw her kidnapped by the murderous Egyptian Freemasons, duped by the Mafia, and possessed by Ti Malice. She had a friendship with ace restaurateur Hiram Worchester, and briefly worked as maitre'd at Aces High.

History

Jane Dow was born in a small town in Massachussetts. Her powers first manifested when she was sixteen. Her best friend Debbie had killed herself on account of a faithless boyfriend that had left her pregnant and then abandoned her. The boy didn't cry when he heard of Debbie's suicide. Jane Dow got furious, and made him cry, drawing water from his eyes while he screamed. After Debbie's death, her best friend was Sal Carbone, who would have been perfect for Jane, except for the fact he was gay. Sal helped Jane learn more about her water control powers, and nicknamed her "Water Lily". Tragedy struck again when Sal died pointlessly after he slipped in the bathroom and drowned in the bathtub. Jane then decided to move to New York City, it was 1986, and she was 21.

The naive girl was soon found by the Egyptian Freemasons, a sinister cult that employed several aces and jokers. The Masons practically kidnapped her, and tried to convert Jane to their cause. In May of 1986, Water Lily was rescued by several of New York City's crimefighting aces, acting in concert to destroy the Masons. Now free, Jane got a humble job as a waitress and a small apartment. In September of 1986, she was again dragged into the dangerous world of aces when the Astronomer, the insane leader of the Masons, returned to enact vengeance on those who had thwarted him. Jane survived again, and in the process met Hiram Worchester, who became infatuated with her and offered Jane a job at the Aces High restaurant.

Jane was never able to return Hiram's feelings, but she advanced quickly in the Aces High's hierarchy, eventually becoming maitre'd. In 1987, Hiram was taken by the parasitic monster Ti Malice, becoming one of Malice's secret "mounts." His personal life began to deteriorate, and so did his famous restaurant. With Hiram acting strangely and absent most of the time, Jane was forced to exert more and more authority. In the Summer of 1987, Jane ended up discovering Hiram Worchester's secret, when she made an unexpected visit to his apartment and found him with the monstrous Ti Malice attached to his back. Malice and his followers captured Jane, and the twisted joker made her one of his mounts. Now addicted to Ti Malice's "kiss" (the monster stimulated the pleasure centers of his victims while he mounted them), Jane was forced to commit several atrocities, and then discarded when Malice got bored with her.

Desperate, raving, and incoherent, Jane looked for help everywhere to shake the addiction. She eventually came to Croyd Crenson, the Sleeper, a rogue ace that had formerly flirted with Jane at Aces High. At the time, the Sleeper was the carrier of a new variety of wild card, a mutated strain that could even reinfect aces. Jane was reinfected and, in a incredible stroke of luck, drew an ace once again, gaining the unusual ability to cure victims of the wild card virus by having sex with them. Jane's reinfection also cured her addiction to Ti Malice's kiss. Unfortunately, she became a hunted woman once word of her powers of sexual healing spread through Jokertown, and every male joker wanted to get a shot at her. Jane changed her name, cut and dyed her hair, and went to work as an unremarkable waitress once again, abandoning the life of a public ace. She has never resurfaced.

Wild Card Traits

Originally, Jane was able to manipulate water with the power of her mind. She could move water telekinetically, and also can draw water from air molecules, in effect conjuring water from thin air. In this way, she is able to create sudden rainstorms and instant floods, enough to seriously disorient people. But Water Lily's most impressive ability is the power to remove all liquid from living things, in a deadly dehydration attack that could reduce a living person to dry ashes in seconds.

Her power also tended to manifest itself when she was nervous or stressed, in a form of enhanced sweating; she drenched herself whenever she felt seriously threatened.

In June of 1987, Water Lily was reinfected by a mutant strain of the Wild Card virus. She became the only person ever to draw an ace twice, and gained a different power. Now she also can cure victims of the wild card virus by having sex with them. She had sex with a joker, and the man's deformities gradually vanished during the sexual act, and he completely reverted to human form when it ended.

Appearance

Water Lily on the 2011 edition of Aces High

In the 1980s, Jane was a slender young woman with shoulder-length auburn hair and wide green eyes. She was very attractive in an unsophisticated way, with a heart-shaped face that was unlined and unmarked. Whenever she became very nervous, she would uncontrollably drench herself with her power, so she often looked like she had just came out of the rain.

Personality

When she first came to New York, Jane was a naive girl, unfamiliar with the big city. Good-hearted and brave, her natural inclination was to help those who needed her help. She had a girlish hero worship for Jumpin' Jack Flash, the handsome, flamboyant ace with fire powers. Jane was also a extremely lonely person, holding internal monologues with her dead friend Sal Carbone, and oscillating between a desire to be fiercely independent and a wish to be protected and supported. Her relationship with her own power was also ambiguous, she seemed to have a mixture of pride and fear of them. She knew she was innocent, but sometimes resented it.

Her brief years in the spotlight were a crash course on the bad, sleazier side of life. Jane was continually exploited and thrust into situations beyond her control. She soon lost her innocence and became angry when her fellow aces, few of them innocent themselves, were disappointed in her. Abandoning her career as a public ace was probably a good step for her, but it's unknown what she's been through since 1987.

Trivia

At one point, she says that her last name is pronounced like "low," not "cow."  Using this pronunciation, it would be unclear to a listener whether her name is "Jane Dow," or "Jane Doe."

Selected Reading

• Wild Cards Volume II: Aces High - "By Lost Ways" (Water Lily comes to NYC and is taken captive by the Egyptian Freemasons)
• Wild Cards Volume III: Jokers Wild - (Water Lily gets involved in the aces' final fight against the Astronomer)
• Wild Cards Volume V: Down and Dirty - "Addicted to Love" (Jane is possessed by Ti Malice)