Alice Shepherd

Regicide (gamertag)

Female

18

5’4

100lbs

Black

Green

Caucasian American

Alice is confined to a wheelchair, and that is what most people tend to see first, not the relatively pretty face or the slim figure, but the contraption of aluminium bars and wheels that allows her to move around.

She is below average height for a girl, but is almost painfully thin, with slightly drawn, features that it would not be unfair to call sharp. Her nose is just a hair from being called beaky while every point of her face seems somehow papery, though not because of her complexion, but as a result of the impression that if she moved too fast she might cut you. It would seem harsh and if she hadn’t mastered the art of a welcoming expression, and even then her features can sometimes appear unfriendly and cold. She often laments her case of resting bitch face and seems to be unable to make much difference even with the use of makeup.

At 5’4 she would never have been towering over people anyway but she sits straight in her wheelchair regardless, refusing to try and hide. The rest of her form however, continues the theme begun by her face. Alice is one of those people blessed (or cursed) with an absurdly high metabolism, and seems to remain thin no matter how bad her diet. Her arms are bony, and unusually long, but thanks to their occupation as her main method of locomotion, are toned, though not particularly muscular. Her collarbones stand out starkly, in complete contrast to her chest which is decidedly less protuberant.

Her legs are still her best feature, even if she can no longer walk on them, long and smooth skinned, not an athlete’s but toned enough to display that she was at least active. The small amount of time since the Fiend’s attack has already begun to take its toll, and her legs are now thinner and clearly less in use despite physical therapy.

Alice always professes not to really care about how she dresses, but to anyone who really knows her, it’s clear that is more of a front than a reality. Since her injury she has developed a tendency to wear bright and eye catching t-shirts or blouses, often with psychedelic designs. She’ll usually top this with a bright scarf around her shoulders. Her lower half however is a different story. Though not so different as to attract attention, Alice will wear rather plain long skirts, or more usually jeans, and rarely shorts or more revealing items.

Alice is still angry, it was only a short time ago that she lost the use of her legs and the memory and the pain is still very fresh in her mind. She was more resigned to it when it was simply believed to have been an atrocity committed by the Fiends, but when NEST’s involvement was revealed she was confused, upset and angry, and that anger is still with her. She is not going to wallow in self-pity though, even if she doesn’t know what to do. She is not yet accustomed to her new status as disabled, and will occasionally become frustrated at how difficult some things now are. Sometimes this frustration can extend to people who offer to help her, especially considering her independent and self-reliant nature, though she tries not to show it.

Alice is, perhaps not surprisingly, relatively pessimistic in her outlook, she does not look positively towards the future, not that this makes her negative and depressing however. She just has generally negative expectations, and jokes that at least she will always be right or pleasantly surprised. She doesn’t assume the worst of people at least, she just doesn’t expect anything of them either, if you’re looking for someone to believe you can be better, Alice is not the one for you.

Alice is a dedicated player of Vorpal, a popular MOBA based Esports game, she is dedicated enough that it in fact takes up most of her time, leaving little time for other interests besides the occasional book and her school work.

Alice is an extremely talented Vorpal player, with the potential to go far in the professional scene. As a result of her experience she has a relatively accomplished tactical mind, albeit one that would need to adapt to real life situations.

Her laptop.

“I’m not scared of dying, I’ll just respawn.”

Neither of Alice’s parents are particularly successful, in fact, were it not for the fact that Victoria Shepherd’s job provided health insurance was particularly generous then Alice may not have even been alive, let alone able to function. Her mother is a nurse, and her dad a long distance trucker, as a result neither of them was home much once she was old enough to go to kindergarten and look after herself.

It never bothered her, their parents had a few friends with kids about their own age, so she was rarely home alone, often spending evenings at a friend’s house. That could not be the case every night however, and she became more than accustomed to letting herself in, feeding herself, and putting herself to bed. It was a somewhat lonely life for a child, even with friends, coming home to a frequently empty house bred a strong sense of independence and self-reliance in Alice at an early age.

She soon developed an interest in video games, booting up the family’s aging computer to pass the time and find more friends online. Even so, she maintained a high grade point average in school, and was courting a number of scholarship offers before the Fiend’s attack on the fair. It soon became apparent that she had something of a gift when it game to video games, or MOBAs at least, specifically the popular game Vorpal, and at fourteen she began to attend LAN events around the city, though not as a competitor. While there she spoke to a Vorpal personality who had been invited to cast the tournament, impressed by what she was saying, he encouraged her to keep playing and maybe even to try out for a team.

The idea sat in the back of her mind for some time, until three years later when she decided that maybe she should try it, after all, it couldn’t hurt. Most teams were reluctant to recruit a seventeen year old, and a girl for that matter, but she stuck at it, and joined a team spread across the West Coast of the US. Her parents were understandably hesitant about this, but their attempts to make her play less of them game gained little traction, and it didn’t seem to be having an effect on her school work, and it made her happy. They played in a few online tournaments and usually gave a relatively good showing, but it wasn’t until the month after her eighteenth birthday, and three weeks before the Fiend’s attack that they actually won one, coming first and earning a prize pool of five hundred dollars to split between them. At that point her parents realised that this was something that Alice did love, and did want to continue, and their objections, while not quite stopping entirely, certainly no longer had any real passion behind them.

And then the fair happened. Alice had gone out to it to spend time with her ‘real-life’ friends, and by all accounts, they were enjoying things, until the Fiend’s broke out their weapons and opened fire. Caught in the initial attack, Alice was lucky to survive, hit by seven bullets, while two of her friends were killed instantly. Her mother was of course distraught when she discovered that Alice was one of the many casualties in Verthaven Central’s overflowing ER.

Alice was in a coma for four days, but woke by some miracle relatively healthy, with the exception of her legs. Three bullets, in a tight grouping had penetrated her back and severed her spinal column in two places; she had lost the use of her legs. She was held in hospital long enough to stabilise her spine, and then for some time after to ensure she was in a stable enough condition to be at home. Her father managed to procure some time off work while her mother was unable to as a result of the huge numbers of casualties in unstable conditions in the aftermath of the Fiend’s attack.

She’s had a few appointments since, ensuring that her health is still relatively stable, and she has one meeting a week with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. It is hard, but she is slowly adjusting to her new lifestyle, strange though it is.

Victoria Shepherd – Mother
Michael Shepherd - Father

Basically your character's relationship with other characters.

Other

Alice’s ability is rather unusual, and comes in two parts, though neither can function without the other. The first is to project her mind from her body, separating from it entirely, and leaving her physical form in a dreamlike state. The second part is to create a physical host for her consciousness, a tangible being formed from energy that can physically interact with the world.

In this she is not limited to merely one form, but can in fact generate a number of different projections, each with their own physical appearance, traits, idiosyncrasies and abilities. She is currently only aware of a number of these forms, and they have clearly taken inspiration from her passion, as each takes the form of a different character from Vorpal.

Knarr – This form is clearly that of one of the more prominent tanks in Vorpal, a short, stout, red skinned figure with no end of anger issues and Napoleon’s syndrome. ‘He’ is about as wide as he is tall, and ‘he’ is only 5 feet tall, but there is an awful lot of power contained in that dense figure. The association that Alice’s mind has created generates a form that is incredibly resilient, able to brush off low-calibre bullets with relative ease, and only pausing at rocket propelled grenades. Those broad shoulders are also able to muster impressive strength, and ‘he’ has a lifting power of approximately a ton. However, with that comes a disadvantage, though strong and tough, Knarr is slow, not only as a result of ‘his’ short, stump-like, legs, but also the speed with which ‘he’ can bring ‘his’ strength to bear. It shouldn’t be too hard to avoid the blows thrown by this fearsome beast of a figure, but if one connects it would deal serious damage. This form also tends to make Alice feel invincible however, and she is a lot easier to provoke into confrontation when projecting this form.

Septimus – An elderly bearded wizard who moves with surprising haste considering his hunched form, his reliance on a staff and his advanced age. Dressed in long, flowing blue robes he has a shock of long white hair and carries a staff with a suspicious looking blue glow about it. Though as capable of hitting things with his staff as any Tolkien rip-off, that is not in fact the true talent of this aggravatingly cautious, know-it-all sorcerer. This form’s stock in trade is forcefields, ‘he’ can create and maintain up to two stationary forcefields, or one that he can move with himself, these need to be within eyeline, and are connected by a thin strand of energy as they feed off the energy of the projection itself. These shields can stop most bullets that don’t originate from a 50.cal, at least for a number of shots, approximately thirty, though this can vary depending on the stopping power of the weapon in question. Thanks to the nature of surface area and force they can also stop a small car before giving out. Septimus himself is relatively easy to put out of action, and two or three solid gunshots or a sound beating could easily cause this form to dissipate.

Alabaster – The character that was clearly developed to appeal to teenage boys, with pointed ears, flawless skin, and of course, a perfectly toned hourglass figure. Oh, and her skin is pure, porcelain white, which fits perfectly with her haughty, aristocratic temperament. She is also dressed somewhat more unashamedly than Alice would ever be comfortable with, with large areas of exposed skin covered by what would clearly be ineffective as armour and shifting, crossing ribbons in royal purple. These ribbons terminate in blades, one for each hand, and she is capable of whirling and whipping them round with terrifying speed and accuracy. Each blade is double edged and glows with a faint light, and appears to be capable of cutting through everything from Kevlar to the barrel of a gun and everything in between. She is also possessed of what could easily be compared to peak human agility, capable of surprising acrobatic feats. Alabaster is the most fragile of the three, one or two good shots and she’s out of the fight, though due to her fantastic speed and agility, landing those hits can be tricky.

These are not necessarily the only forms that her projection can take, but they are currently the only ones she has learned to create. It is eminently possible that she will be able to generate other forms, though they would be constrained by the limits of her energy projection. These creatures are energy projections, so they don’t sweat, or smell of anything besides perhaps slightly burned ozone. Abilities that only affect organic beings also won’t work on them, though they will of course work on Alice.

This ability is not without its limits, and significant ones at that. First, Alice needs to be in the right state of mind, that is to say, asleep. And it has to be genuine, tranquilising her knocks her out, and as a result, knocks out her power, she needs to be in a state in which she can dream. That is not to say drugs are completely out of the question, those which merely have a drowsy effect can assist her in achieving the desired dreamlike state and it is possible that in the future she may learn to access her power through trance. Unfortunately, the precarious nature of this state means that she can be shocked out of it, instantly dissipating the form she had generated and yanking her mind back into her body, with all of the disorientation and discomfort that comes with such and experience.

Alice’s maximum range is approximately eight miles, once her projection reaches that range they will begin to weaken, and eventually dissipate after only a few metres beyond it, though she can push a little further at the risk of ashing. She also cannot project that far immediately, the projections need to manifest within the same room , only a few metres away, and make their way from there.

It takes time to create each projection, not a lot, but Alice cannot simply switch between them at will, she must first dismiss one, then begin to form a new one, a process which can take up to two minutes if she is not already strained. These projections are not indestructible, and nor are they permanent, they take energy to create and maintain, and Alice can only keep a projection active for two hours, less depending on the amount of punishment they take or energy they expend.

Ones consciousness can be shaped by the form one inhabits and as a result of her familiarity with the characters and their playstyles, Alice’s personality can also be slightly affected, as Knarr she would be more aggressive and confrontational, as Septimus incessantly careful and insufferably know-it-all, and as Alabaster she would be arrogant and supercilious. These personality changes can even accompany her consciousness back into her body for a short time afterwards.

Alice absolutely needs to be asleep or in a trance-like state in order to project, if she can’t sleep then she cannot use her ability. Similarly, if you wake her while she is projecting, then the projection will vanish immediately and she’ll probably have a crippling headache for some time afterwards. Also, once she’s created a form, it takes time to change to another one, and then that other one has to walk all the way there.

Alice’s legs are paralyzed and she cannot walk.

Optional

Reed Taylor

Male

27

5’10

178lbs

Black

Brown

African-American

Standing at 5’10 and of a moderately built physical complexion, Reed is a man in his prime, fit as most would come and arguably not too hard on the eyes. His eyes are a lighter shade of brown whilst his face is relatively smooth and clean-shaven, kept free even of stubble whilst he boasts a neatly trimmed head of hair.

When he’s at work, Reed’s usually wearing the standard shirt and tie combo with black pants and a duty belt. Off duty, he's fine with wearing sweatpants or jeans with a shirt for when he heads down to the range or out for a run.

Strong-willed and brimming with determination, Reed is the kind of man with a motivated drive for seeing things through, almost to a fault given how stubborn he can be. Whilst the past six years on the force have given him a taste of how the real world works and helped to fade some of his naiveté, it's clear he's still got plenty to learn before he gets much further down the line. Whilst he maintains a relatively calm, professional exterior there's a sense of passion and drive just beneath the surface.

Well-intentioned at heart, Reed is prone to pursuing some things to a fault, partially out of a sense of duty and partially in order to do some justice to his uncle's name. There are times he'll be up late doing paperwork, trying to establish any links he can between aspects of a case, anything to show his worth and prove he's a competent detective. He also dislikes doing things improperly and is sometimes frustrated with how people are willing to let things slide instead of pursuing them, a fact that has driven a wedge between he and his brother whom he suspects has been in touch with the wrong kind of people and is falling back into old habits.

Having spent his early childhood and lost a mother to alcohol abuse, he's also sympathetic to the plight of the poorer lower classes living in places like Eagle-Rock Row and is disgusted at the prospect of the local gangs taking advantage of it, to the point his otherwise calm exterior can be compromised. Likewise he doesn't take kindly to signs of corruption or misconduct in the department, having worked his own ass off to get where he is and wanting to help dispel the public mistrust of police officers.

The other thing that's liable to piss him off is bringing up his family, namely his brother or badmouthing his mother and uncle. The former due to.... complicated matters and the latter two because they're a sensitive topic.

Like his uncle, Reed doesn't mind heading down to the range for some target practice every once in a while and is a fan of most of the latest TV shows like Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead. Sometimes he heads out for a run when he's got the time to spare. On a lesser note, he can also appreciate a nice set of wheels.

Having been through the academy and spent six years on the beat, Reed’s picked up a fair amount of skills in his time both through training and personal experience. For one, he’s quite analytical and decisive when push comes to shove and has been given a degree of wisdom from his time on the beat. He's not a half-bad shot either, and knows his way around most firearms and practice on the range outside of work has only served to cultivate this. He’s pretty damned athletic and knows how to take care of himself in a fight- a necessary skill for a man who’s job requires him to be able to apprehend fleeing and potentially dangerous suspects whilst staying by the book, so to speak. He also speaks a little Spanish though his pronunciation is said to be off.

A graduation certificate from the police academy.

”Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but if you want shit to change it’s worth it.”

Born towards the end of the ‘80s on Eagle-Rock Row, Reed was the youngest child of two kids born into crime and poverty to a single parent, surrounded by drugs, violence and the social tensions of the time. From early childhood, their mother quickly relied on a string of deadbeat boyfriends, minimum wage jobs and alcohol to pull the three of them through life and it took its toll on her from an early stage, often forcing her elder brother to step in to assist.

Whilst his older brother, Quentin got caught up with the local street gangs working the corners, Reed was left at home with an alcoholic mother who only seemed to be aware of his existence half of the time. Quentin did as best as a kid his age could yet all the same Reed’s early childhood was one devoid of any real parental figures. It was only after his mother’s death from alcohol poisoning that the closest thing to a parental figure he’d ever had showed up: his Uncle Cassius, his mother’s elder brother.

Having been aware of their situation for some time and having already made preparations to step in, Cassius took both of the Taylor brothers in as his own children and ensured that they’d never have to face the lifestyle he’d pulled them out of ever again. Years passed by and Reed grew closer to his uncle, having never had a stable parental figure to follow whilst Quentin, being older, continued to do his own thing in order to, in his own words, “be his own man”.

Reed wanted to follow in the footsteps of the only father-figure he’d ever had and eventually wound up in the police academy, wanting to be a cop. Persistent as anyone and hoping he might make a difference in addition to doing right by his uncle, he pushed on through his training and joined up with the VPD.

Wedging his foot in the door for the beginning of a successful career, Reed flourished on the beat and worked his way through things until finally, hoping to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, he earned a promotion to a position in the VPD's detective bureau as an Investigator, a placement he's held for the past seventeen months. With times trying as ever for Reed and his fellow cops, the coming weeks will bring a great deal of change.

Helena Taylor - Mother (Deceased)
Quentin Taylor - Half-Brother - NEST ‘Agent’
Cassius Taylor - Maternal Uncle - VPD Detective

Cassius Taylor | Good | Uncle | "I want to do right by the old man, make him proud of me." |
Quentin Taylor | Shaky | Estranged Brother | "Everything we went through as kids and what’s he learned? Guess some people never change." |

None.

Aside from his lack of powers, Reed is arguably still a young man and prone to all the mistakes that it entails. Stubborn and strong willed, he can be prone to making errors as any human would. Likewise, his family ties could also be considered something to exploit.

What's good.

Cassius Taylor

“Cass”

Male

54

5’9

187lbs

Black

Brown

African-American

At 5'9 and of an average build, it's clear that Cass is headed towards the retirement age. Whilst he's managed to retain a full head of hair he's started turning grey and it's clear he's put on a little more weight over the years as his fifties settle in, though his arms still look pretty damn strong. His eyes are a typical shade of brown, weathered and speckled by the years whilst his jawline retains a short, neatly trimmed beard.

On-duty, Cass wears the standard shirt-and-tie combination with matching pants and a duty belt, his badge tucked in nicely. At home he wears whatever he can throw together when he's talking casual whilst at formal events he's known for wearing a rather pristine suit.

Cass is the kind of guy that you'd expect an aging cop to be, so long as you stay on his good side at least. The kind of man who'll sit at his desk downing coffee and donuts (though they're probably bad for his health) between case files, grumble about the ever-mounting paperwork waiting for his scribbles and occasionally mutter about how he's getting too old for this shit, if only because repeating clichés over and over has its own ironic charm.

He's a good guy at heart with the right intentions in mind (which may not always be by the book) but even he's learned that you can't always be the hero, even as a cop. Wisened by his years, he can be driven and determined, willing to see things through to the bitter end when he feels the need to yet sometimes he understands the need to back down and let a few things slide if only because the alternative isn't the lesser evil, something he's done before with his nephew if not anywhere else. He's also got a soft spot for kids and pet animals.

Likewise, he's seen a great deal of things in his time as a cop, some pleasant whilst others were nightmarish, yet even now he's learned that even a veteran cop of his age can still be surprised given the right circumstances and to avoid judging circumstances off the bat. After all, you don't expect the traumatised teen across the street who stammered all the way through the witness report to be capable of sociopathy behind their well-constructed exterior nor do you expect the gruff ex-con to be the one who talks down a suicidal gunman from executing a hostage. As said, a lot of things.

Being a cop, Cass has learned to keep his personal feelings and temper below the surface for the sake of professionalism yet there are a few things which can trip the wrong switch. For one, seeing any major hint of corruption in the department or serious misconduct by fellow officers or people in a similar position of authority is an easy way to irritate him. He remembers (if only just) the days of race riots and mass protests against the department and wants to make sure they stay as that - faint memories. That aside, it's hard as it is to get by without having to deal with a populace that doesn't trust you. Call it being pragmatic. The other thing that sets him off is bringing up his family in a negative light, particularly if you badmouth his late sister or either of her two sons.

Seeing the ever-growing presence of metahumans in the world has begun to make him feel redundant, especially with the increasing rate of metahuman-related crime and NEST's insistence on taking the reigns, yet he holds no grudges against either and if anything sympathises with the situation some metahumans have found themselves in, having come from a background often subjected to discrimination himself.

More than either of his nephews, Cass has a love for firearms and sports shooting, having been raised by a veteran grandfather who believed in a man’s rights to bear arms himself. He owns a small collection of vintage and classic firearms, including a Mauser C96 smuggled home from the Western Front by his grandfather (bearing in mind the discrimination against african-americans at the time, having it in his home bears great significance for him). He’s also a sucker for classic action movies and believes Terminator 2 is the greatest sequel to one of the greatest, if not THE greatest sci-fi film of all time.

A veteran cop who joined the force in the eighties, Cass has over twenty-five years’ worth of experience under his belt. Having been on several different detective assignments in addition to years on the beat, he’s had a broad range of differing experiences relevant to law enforcement and that combined with his initial training his given him a great degree of analytical and intuitive skills in addition to the street smarts and wisdom a senior cop of his age would have. He’s a brilliant shot, even for a cop - though this is owing to his long term status as a gun owner with his own private collection of firearms - and despite his age can still apprehend a suspect once he’s got his hands on them. He’s also a damn good cook when he needs to be.

A Mauser C96 officer’s sidearm returned home from the Western Front of WWII by his grandfather.

”Y'know what I miss? When Schwarzenegger films were fresh at the movies, not this constant edgy remake shit.”

Born into the turbulent times of the 60's, Cassius and his little sister Helena were both orphaned from a relatively early age after their father died in Vietnam and their mother was killed in an industrial accident. Without them, their grandparents stepped in to raise the two as best as they could and it was during this time that Cassius' grandfather impressed onto him a sense of duty, having been a veteran who served on the Western Front and Korea.

It was through this that Cass joined the force in the 80’s and worked his way up through the ranks during a time when social tensions were at their height, earning himself a promotion to detective in the 90’s when he proved himself worthy of the placement. For him, it was a successful career.

Yet things for Helena had gone downhill. It wasn't too long after the death of their grandfather - who'd suffered from a heart condition - that she became pregnant with her first child despite being in her teenage years, a shameful thing for many families of the time. With her grandmother being as old fashioned as she was, she wound up being cast out of their home and had to rely on minimum wage jobs and social welfare in order to survive.

Cass did what he could for his little sister, even when she began her descent into alcoholism and after the birth of her second child started taking steps to ensure their wellbeing. At one point he was prepared to involve social services and force his sister to surrender her children into care, as much for her sake as it was theirs, yet before he could do so she died from alchohol poisoning.

Taking both of his nephews into his care, Cass moved the family to University Row in order to pull them away from the influence of the gangs, having noticed they'd had a sway on Quentin. Off the book, he also put his own career at risk by personally threatening at gunpoint one of the dealers who'd placed his nephew on the corners in order to ensure they'd never come after him again whilst at the same time covering up Quentin's childhood dalliances to keep the kid out of juvie.

Helena Taylor - Sister (Deceased)
Reed Taylor - Nephew - VPD Detective
Quentin Taylor - Nephew - NEST ‘Agent’

Reed Taylor | Good | Nephew | "I couldn’t be prouder of him if he were my own son." |
Quentin Taylor | Good | Nephew | "He doesn’t show it, but he’s been through a lot. I worry about him sometimes, hope he makes the right calls." |
|

None.

Aside from his lack of any powers, it’s obvious that Cass isn’t the same man as he was when he joined the force. Nearing the age where most cops retire, he’s starting to feel the burdens of an aging body and is prone to becoming lethargic far more easily than a young man would.

So that's that.