<Snipped quote by Nosuchthing>

Even if it has turned black? XD

<Snipped quote by tsukune>

Pffffft, adds to the flavour, although I suppose American bacon might burn a lot faster than British :L

British bacon burns less fast than american stuff, at least - cause I think they're different parts, and american tends to be thinner xD

@FernStone Truly? The strips they get here in Australia are enormous. I can quite my face with one. Not that I have. Nor do I plan to in the near future.

Oh shit, forgot to post here first:

Quentin Taylor [+]

Basic Information

Name:

Quentin Taylor

Nickname/Alias/Etc:

Counterpoint

Gender:

Male

Age:

37

Height:

5'11ft

Weight:

192lbs

Home District:

RAVEN/DOVE West Coast Joint Headquarters for the time being, though he'll probably wind up sharing an apartment with his brother.

Appearance

Hair Color:

Black

Eye Color:

Brown

Ethnicity:

African-American

Physical Appearance:

Now his late thirties, Quentin's face has aged a little since his time in Verthaven, yet he's still retained those sharp eyes of his and has kept the short, neatly trimmed beard to match his equally short-cropped hair. From a glance, it's clear he's still in good health and fitness, standing at 5'11 and carrying an imposing figure, which has only been helped since his service RAVEN has improved his health (though it could be argued that the regenerative factor he's picked up has also done him some good).

Attire:

Whilst on-duty, Quentin generally tends towards wearing RAVEN's standard issue battle armor, a black mesh with kevlar along with the tactical load carrying gear. As expected, it's designed to hold up against attack from rogue metahumans alongside being able to withstand a couple of rounds. Alongside this is a helmet, with the opportunity to mount a set of goggles or a gas mask against it - though he's sometimes inclined towards leaving it off if things aren't entirely dire. Off-duty, he'll generally stick to casual clothing - a jacket, shirt and cargo pants or something similar.

Personality

Innate & Outward Personality:

The events in Verthaven and the years that have passed since then have left Quentin, in many ways, a different man. Nobler in some ways, others less so.

To strangers, he might come across as outwardly calm or collected - keeping a level head in tight situations where others might snap or otherwise lose their cool. It's not entirely an image - Quentin has learned from the years with RAVEN to keep it steady under pressure, yet those who know him well enough or even spend some time around him get to realise there's more than that to him.

Service with RAVEN has given him a certain commanding tone in his voice, or at least a sense of authority when the situation calls for it. Sarcasm and snappy remarks are still a coping mechanism for him, a means of defusing or otherwise mitigating shitty situations and likewise he'll crack a joke with people if it's appropriate, but he also knows when to buckle down, shut up and go about getting things done - which others might mistake for him being cool when in fact he just knows from experience that people who crack jokes at the wrong time don't tend to last.

Knowing that he was partially responsible for the horrific experiments perpetrated by the Hands of Science in Verthaven have left him with a degree of guilt that he's been unable to shake off and left him with an overall disgust towards those who experiment on or otherwise abuse Metahumans or their powers and in turn, given him a lot of motivation when conducting ops against them for RAVEN.

And likewise he's loyal to those he considers friends or family, especially those who've done the same for him and is more than willing to throw himself into the breach if it means backing them up. Earning this trust can be a little difficult at first, but once it's earned it's generally there to stay. In fact, it's a point of regret and frustration that he wasn't able to prevent the deaths of Sonya Mayfield and his uncle and it shows in his overall disdain for the matter when the topic is brought up.

This in turn means that his overall hatred for the Hands of Science and anything associated with them has remained a solid facet of his personality over the years. It's given him something to vent his frustrations on - and not in the healthiest way, either - where others have toned things down. Whilst it's helped keep him going, it's also something which has threatened to consume him at times - and it's not as if this point hasn't been brought up with him before.

His temper is usually cool and likewise, it can take a lot to cause him to blow up in anger - Quentin's fury is typically a patient, collected form and when it's anything but that, it's a point that something has really pissed him off.

He also still holds a disdain for narcotics and alcohol abuse, courtesy of his childhood years, but has a degree of sympathy for those affected by it.

Hobbies/Interests:

In the years since Verthaven, Quentin's picked up more of a fondness for firearms and has since taken up sports shooting as a hobby. When he's not busy he'll sometimes sit down and watch TV, maybe kill some time with video games, but otherwise he's more interested in heading out for a ride.

Skills/Talents:

Quentin’s experiences on the streets have left him with a degree of wisdom, wit and pragmatism that once well to assist him in his self-made ‘business’. On the same streets and during his time working with the unsavoury elements of Verthaven, he picked up a degree experience in the use of small arms that he'd continue develop after joining NEST and RAVEN.

Goals/Motivation

Ensuring that anyone with the same kind of mindset as the Hands of Science of the Changelings is put down, Quentin's personal vendetta has never entirely settled down. Unlike others, he's found himself unable to let go and finds motivation in preventing what happened in Verthaven from reoccurring.

History/Bio:

Verthaven [+]

Born in the early ‘80s on Eagle-Rock Row, Quentin and his little brother Reed were yet another story of 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.
By the time he was ten years old, Quentin found himself involved with the local gangs and wound up working on street corners as another peddler for some smalltime dealer in hopes of earning a little cash for his family. It was through this, incidentally, that he wound up discovering his powers - what would’ve normally be an exchange of packages with a metahuman enforcer for the gang led to him unintentionally removing the man’s ability to generate and manipulate fire and setting alight the money moments later. As it happens, it was through this that he found himself another source of income for the family; exchanging and selling powers and getting a cut from the gang for his involvement.

For a while, things seemed to go well, all things considered. The cut he earned from the gang, whilst nowhere near the amount kicked up to his bosses, allowed him to pay off the family bills yet there was no mistake that he may as well have been their property and not the other way around. A few times he found himself at risk as a result of the people he worked for and by his teenage years he’d learned how to use a gun. In fact, if tragedy hadn’t struck Quentin’s life sooner then circumstances might not have turned out as well.

One day returning home, Quentin found his mother passed out on the couch with yet another empty bottle of liquor nearby. Attempts to rouse her with words failed, so instead he left her alone, only to find her in the same state when he woke up in the same morning, albeit this time she’d turned pale and felt cold to the touch. The coroner’s report indicated that she’d died of alcohol poisoning, something of little surprise given the fact she’d been unable to kick the habit for a long time.

Lacking any other family, Quentin and his little brother wound up living in the care of their Uncle Cassius, a detective in the Verthaven Police Department and a good man who’d often done as best as he could to keep his sister on track. Under his uncle’s care, Quentin was able to cut off ties to his old gang (who, by this point had become increasingly demanding) with the aid of this uncle’s connections to the VPD and opted to push on through school so he didn’t end up like his mother. That said, the experience had taught him a couple things.

While his brother opted to one day become a cop like their uncle, Quentin had something else in mind. Perhaps it was the idea of avoiding the same poverty that had cost him his childhood, or perhaps it was the concept of having control over his life for once. Whatever the case, he wound up going on his own path in life - becoming involved with quite a few rather unsavoury characters. Whilst by no means a hustler or a gangbanger, he spent a couple of years working 'security' for a few characters in Verthaven's criminal underworld, running the front door at nightclubs and other businesses. Eventually, it grew into something else - actually working in the security sector, and then Quentin soon realised that there was a demand for someone willing to trade and sell powers, creating metahumans for big money.

With time, Quentin built up his little side-business via the aid of a contact from his early security days and before long, had a nice sum of cash saved away. Soon, he was able to afford life in relative comfort, moving into a decent condo over in the upper-class Knightdale Rows district, with enough income to keep himself afloat. Relations with his family, however, were another story - particularly between him and his younger brother, Reed.

Topping it off, he eventually wound up falling afoul of the Hands of Science, who kidnapped him and forced him to participate in their experiments using his family as leverage. The experience deeply affected him, leaving him traumatised and scarred by his inability to forget what he'd been forced to do for the Hands - and it was only with the assistance of one Meifeng Zhao and NEST that he finally escaped during a raid on the lab.

Of course, this exposed him as a metahuman - though Quentin was able to keep his criminal past concealed. Given the choice by Lihua Zhao of either joining up with NEST or facing a far less desirable alternative, Quentin took the former option - joining their ranks as an agent. Initially the prospect of becoming one of 'those' types was daunting, yet as time passed Quentin slowly warmed to the role and grew to regret his past, gaining a genuine interest in doing some good with NEST beyond enacting vengeance against the Hands of Science. Before long, he wound up reconciling with his brother and warming back up to his uncle, yet events transpired against them.

For one, the Changeling Unit came to town, led by the likes of Luis and Heartbreaker, the latter of which Quentin already despised as a result of her involvement in kidnapping him. Like the Hands of Science, Quentin fought them with a certain fury that was only rivalled by Lihua - who had her own personal reasons for hating them. And then, came an even greater foe.

The Devil of Verthaven was a metahuman greater than anything that NEST had ever faced, matched only by the resources of the Hands of Science and the ferocity of the Changeling Unit. She was a godlike metahuman, one that devastated the city in her wake and it was only through the combined might of NEST (along with several other unsavoury alliances) that she was finally brought down, at great cost. Quentin's family was not left unscathed, as his brother was injured (though later volunteering in the fight against her) and, in the confusion following her defeat, his Uncle Cass (along with a good friend) were killed by the Changelings in the confusion.

In the battle that followed, Quentin finally avenged their deaths - yet it marked the start of a new chapter in his life as the experience permanently hardened him. With Verthaven considered a ruin and NEST facing its end, Quentin set aside the thousands he'd accumulated through his past selfishness and passed the money onto the comrades who'd fought alongside him, before stepping out to face the future head-on.

Post-Verthaven [+]

It was in the aftermath of the Verthaven Disaster that Quentin assisted in founding one of the successor organisations to NEST, known as RAVEN - named aptly after the Task Force that he'd once fought alongside. With the Hands of Science still out there, scattered in pockets, Quentin volunteered himself for participating against them, holding them responsible for the actions of the Changelings and the Devil of Verthaven. Unlike his brother, who had since joined DOVE (having been recommended), Quentin sought some form of retribution against them as he found himself unable to forget the experiments he'd been forced to assist in as well as the deaths of those he cared about.

Within the space of two years, a friend and the daughter of a former colleague, Meifeng Zhao had finished her training and was now a member of RAVEN, capable of standing by herself as a force to be reckoned with. Their shared experience in Verthaven allowed the two to maintain a close bond and unlike the others in RAVEN, Quentin said nothing to discourage Meifeng's relentless attitude towards the Hands, if anything sharing the same sentiments towards them as she did. It took time, but eventually this relentless attitude seemed to pay off - the Hands were all but broken and dissappeared from the face of the Earth. Yet this was not the end of things for them - other threats were out there, like the Pure, the Allegiance or other rogue metahumans.

In short, wherever RAVEN needed him, Quentin went. And sooner or later, he'd wind up in Prague.

Another rogue metahuman had emerged from the woodwork in the capital of the Czech Republic, one known as the Beast who, like the Devil, was set on mass destruction and had burned down whole districts whenever they'd shown up. Lacking in the resources and manpower to handle such a foe, the Czechs called in support from RAVEN, MISW and KMD to assist - Quentin was among the agents deployed against them.

It was a bloodbath, to say the least - despite careful planning and the best resources that the combined might of the three agencies had brought in, the Beast was a foe that refused to go down easily. Quentin himself went toe to toe and was nearly engulfed by flame half a dozen times, suffering severe burns in the process, but in the end the Beast was put down at the cost of injuring both himself and several of his colleagues, Meifeng among them.

Fortunately, the regenerative factor that Quentin had picked up years before, back in Verthaven, spared him from a potentially unpleasant fate - instead, he was given leave for a good while, before being returned to active service. And before long, just like Meifeng, he found himself being transferred back to Baybridge on official business.

Relationships

Family:

Hider [+]

Helena Taylor (Deceased) - Mother

Still teenager when she gave birth to her firstborn, Helena Taylor was a sad tale to speak of. Years of poverty and deadbeat boyfriends (one of which fathered another child with her) led to the alcoholism which would go on to kill her, leaving behind two sons. Despite this, Quentin at least regards her fondly and seldom talks about her because of this.

Reed Taylor - Half-brother

An ex-cop, now working for DOVE, Quentin had a hand in helping to raise Reed during their mother's later years. As the two grew up, however, they grew somewhat distant and it wasn't until the events leading up to the disaster in Verthaven that they finally reconciled.

Cassius Taylor (Deceased) - Maternal Uncle

A father figure to his nephews, Cass was a detective with the VPD who wound up taking in both of his sister's sons when she died and raising them like his own. Of the two, Reed followed in his uncle's footsteps whilst Quentin went on his own troubled path in life. Nonetheless, he still cared deeply for his uncle and during the events of the disaster in Verthaven the two grew close once more. Sadly, Cass was murdered in the final hours of the disaster by Heartbreaker. Whilst Quentin avenged his death, it left him permanently hardened in his personal vendetta against the likes of the Hands of Science.

Dynamics:

Hider [+]

| Reed Taylor |

| Good | Half-brother | "Haven't seen each other in a while, it'll be good to see him." |

Quentin's younger brother and an ex-cop turned DOVE Agent, the two were once distant whilst living in Verthaven but the events and the tragedy that unfolded led to them growing closer once more, culminating in him entrusting his brother with the ability of a powerful metahuman to ensure it was in safe hands, as well as safeguarding him. The two haven't seen each other in a while, but they're on good terms.

| Lihua Zhao |

| Respected | Former Colleague | "I'm glad things worked out for her, she earned a shot at retirement." |

Under different circumstances, Lihua's first meeting with Quentin might've seen her arresting him. Instead she offered him a job, the alternative better left unsaid, but soon enough Quentin gained a respect for the woman who was NEST's top agent at the time, developing a good working relationship which blossomed throughout the Verthaven Disaster and continued on after her retirement.

| Meifeng Zhao |

| Respected | Close Friend | "Shit, we've been through so much of the same shit that she's probably one of the few that understands me." |

Meifeng and Quentin met in the Hands of Science lab way back in Verthaven, where he'd been held captive and forced to assist in their experiments. The two helped each other as Meifeng broke Quentin out of the lab and Quentin helped Meifeng fight her way out of it, which built up a mutually deep level of respect and admiration for one another. As of now, Meifeng is one of the few people that Quentin trusts enough to know of his past.

| Cindy Keegan|

| Respected | DOVE Agent/Associate | "Haven't seen her in a long time, but Reed's said enough good things about her that I know she's done well since Verthaven." |

Yet another old face from Verthaven, Quentin hasn't seen Cindy in a long time but the fact they went through the disaster in one piece together has left him with a large degree of respect.

| Shizuka Takashiro |

| Respected | DOVE Agent/Associate | "Reed's had nothing but good things to say about him on the few occasions they've spoke, and I know what he did back in Verthaven." |

Despite never having spoken much with him back in Verthaven, Quentin developed a certain respect for Shizuka during the Verthaven disaster when he drove a knife into the back of Luis' head and pulled him to safety. They haven't seen each other in years, but Quentin hasn't forgotten.

| Haruka Takashiro |

| Good | Associate | "It's been a hell of a long time, but I wonder how he's doing." |

There was hardly any interaction between Haruka and Quentin back in Verthaven but, again, the shared experience left him on good terms with the quiter half of the Takashiro Twins. But, again, they haven't spoken in years.

Abilities

Power Class:

Power: Charger & Replicator

Power: Essence

Power Transfer

Quentin is capable of transferring powers between other metahumans and himself, and vice versa, allowing use of said powers for his own intentions or keeping them in ‘storage’, so to speak. In effect, he’s a literal walking bank of powers. Quentin's power transfer ability stems from a subconscious ability to manipulate the Metahuman energy. He can absorb a bit of the Metahuman energy within himself (In other words, their power), then transfer the energy to a different person. Potentially empowering humans who would otherwise never would have manisfested a power.

Limits:

First and foremost, Quentin can only transfer powers through direct physical contact with others. It's possible for him to permanently strip someone of their powers, though the process is somewhat more taxing and requires either a severely weakened or otherwise willing subject.

Secondly, Quentin’s skill in utilising powers obtained from other metahumans can vary. Relatively simple actions such as channeling an electrical current come rather easily, whereas more complex actions such as healing a fatally wounded patient are rather difficult to perform and can often require a great deal of practice. In addition to this, extensive use of such powers can be quite taxing on a physical and mental level - particularly if he lacks skill in the use of a particular power. And, unlike one who directly holds the ability, he'll never be fully skilled in its use without years of experience.

Thirdly, he can only store and utilise a limited amount of abilities at any time - no more than say, five or six at once and that'd be pushing it.

Weaknesses/Drawbacks:

Incidentally, Quentin's ability to utilise stored abilities can be affected by just how fatigued he is. Like anyone, if he overburdens himself he'll be at risk of passing out or, at worst, losing consciousness.

Other:

Abilities currently held by Quentin

• Regenerative System - One of the oldest powers that Quentin's held, it was drawn from the Nemesis during his escape from the Hands of Science's lab in Verthaven. Whilst it doesn't render him immortal, it does allow him to recover from injuries that would kill or otherwise permanently incapacitate other men. As a plus, it's also slowed down his aging a little - though not to the extent of others.
• Superhuman Strength - Again, a power that Quentin's held for quite a while, it was also stolen from the Nemesis. Whilst it's given Quentin a heightened level of durability and strength, that doesn't mean he can lift cars or punch through plate steel like butter.

Sorry bout that.

I'm really glad to see this RP is still going strong. It's a pleasant surprise after a ridiculously long hiatus.

<Snipped quote by BurningDaisies>

You can't stop excellence that easily.

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

Glad to have you back regardless.