All players may have up to 3 characters. These characters cannot be affiliated with one another and must be on different teams/independent from each other.
Main story teams are updated by me, the GM. Others are updated by co-GMs Eklispe/Old Amsterdam.
Main story teams have a limited number of spots available, only 5 each. Side story teams are made in game by players and as such will accept as many as the players themselves will allow.
There are no limits to the total number of independent characters allowed, the game is always open for more.
If you want to form a side story team, make it happen in character, then PM me so I can update the roster.
Main story teams, as the name suggests, drive the main story of the RP. All others are welcome to do what they like in a sandbox manner. Make their own stories, interact with other players, drop into the main story following the main teams, etc.
Due to a slowing of progress, this game has a posting requirement. After you have been given an update by your GM, you have 7 days to post. After that time has hit, your character will be on a 5 day "probation" announced in the OOC. After that 5 days lapses, if there is no update or word from you as to why you have not posted, your character is forfeit as an NPC and any team slot you held is opened up to the public.
The year is 2005 on Earth Bet. This earth is much like our own. Human civilization rose at the same time. The Babylonians, the Roman Empire, Great Britain, the American Revolution, industrialization, two World Wars, so on and so forth. There is, however, a point of divergence. May twentieth, 1982 is a day that irrevocably transformed the world. A man appeared floating over the ocean. A golden man radiating his golden light like a beacon was found by a group of people on a ship, one of them dying. After a brief, silent interaction with this golden man, the sick aboard the ship were cured, healthy as the day they were born. The golden man turned and left, but his impact on the world was far from over.
The golden man traveled the world for many years, simply watching. Simply observing. Any who caught a glimpse of the golden man could feel only one thing from him: sadness. A deep, disquieting sadness that seemed to define his very existence. In the wake of it all, more like the golden man began to show up. More people with superpowers. These people were once normal, but gained amazing abilities through a process still unknown by the world at large. These people, newly dubbed "parahumans," became the biggest topic of discussion the world over as more and more of them began cropping up. Some began using their powers for selfish gain, while others became heroes like the comic books and stepped up to fight crime. Meanwhile, the golden man was not yet done making his presence known.
For years the golden man zoomed around the world nonstop, helping people. He would save orphans from wars, stop burning fires, cleaned up after disasters, destroyed a nuclear test missile, a gesture the world governments took to mean that the Cold War was over and he would intervene if any country wanted to continue it. Then in 1999, shortly after appearing with a brand new white body suit, something unprecedented occurred. The golden man was caught on camera helping put out the fire of a burning library. In the midst of it a woman spoke to him, asking his name. He moved in closer to her and, for the only time ever on record, spoke. "Scion." Then Scion was gone, off to help with a different disaster elsewhere in the world.
Scion is not the only larger than life figure to appear, however. In the last couple decades many heroes and villains have come and gone, the largest and most well known being the Protectorate. However there exist beings of unimaginable, horrible power: The Endbringers. Nobody knows where they came from, but the Endbringers are believed to be parahumans of unstoppable magnitude. The three are Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Simurgh. Ever since Behemoth made himself known in December of 1992, they have taken turns attacking one at a time approximately once every five months, leaving countless dead in their wake with each encounter. In 1999, Leviathan's attack on Kyushu, Japan, left the country devastated. Japan practically became a third world country overnight, and Japanese immigrants have flooded the States. The Simurgh turned most of the Swiss nation into violent, psychotic murderhounds. Behemoth himself is known as the "hero killer" for his body count alone. When an Endbringer shows up, everyone bands together, hero and villain alike, just to fight them off. Killing them is largely considered an impossibility, and the only individual in the world powerful enough to take them on is Scion himself.
Whether you like it or not, you are a parahuman. You have developed super powers. The world is going to Hell, so now the real question is will you take a stand to stop it? Or will you act in your own interests while you can?
Parahumans at Large
There's a lot that goes into a parahuman. They're certainly not your standard superheroes and villains, that's for sure. This section will detail the essentials you need to know about parahumans, including how they function and how you become one, starting with the biggest: Trigger Events.
Trigger Events, sometimes also known as "the worst day of your life," are how you become a parahuman. Well, it's just one way, but we'll cover the other one later (top secret, hush hush). Someone who has the potential to become a parahuman unlocks their powers via some traumatic event. It can be anything, from the death of a family member, getting the ever loving shit kicked out of them, to just one bad day. This will cause them to "trigger" and manifest their powers for the first time. What type of powers they receive is always in relation to the trigger event in some capacity. Their parahuman abilities manifest as a direct result of this event as a way of dealing with it. Unfortunately powers almost never allow you to actually overcome your trigger event. They either come too late, only help you cope with the issue, or "solve" it in a rather ironic and nefarious way. So with that out of the way, it is time to cover the classifications of powers.
Power Classifications fit into 12 different categories, and they can certainly cross over between one another. The classifications, and the kind of trigger events that cause them, are:
Mover (Effects that move you. Flight, speed, teleportation, etc.) - Drive to escape, flee, run.
Shaker (Wide area effects) - Environmental danger, ambient danger, often nonhuman or only abstractly human.
Blaster (Pewpew - You have ranged attacks built in, like lasers or fire shots) - Man vs. Man, threat approaches from a distance, or in great number, being surrounded.
Breaker (You alter yourself in such a way that rules of physics apply differently. You toggle an "on/off" switch to completely change states, such as becoming living acid.) - Abstract physical danger or harm, difficult to define pain or stress (not mental or physical.) Frequently arises from the hardest triggers to label.
Master (Minions, pets, affecting the thoughts and moods of others.) - Isolation, alienation, exile.
Tinker (Gadgeteer genius, you can build technology way ahead of our time, like hoverboards and laser guns and power armor. Every tinker has a specialty.) - Issue proves difficult to resolve, unsolvable problem, typically over an extended period of time (weeks or months).
Thinker (Perception, knowledge, skills, this includes precognition and remote vision, however true telepathy does not exist in this setting.) - Emotional or mental strain, reaching a crisis point in a short period of time.
Striker (Touch effects. If you touch something, something happens to that thing.) - Trigger results from immediate, in-your face threat, usually a singular object or individual (ie. knife, being strangled, mofo up in your grill)
Changer/Shifter (Shapeshifting and alteration of the self’s physical form.) - Issue in physical state. Body image, or a crisis of self image vs. society’s expectations.
Trump (Powers that affect other powers: add, remove, complicate, compound) - As other triggers, but altered further by involvement with other powers. Rare.
Stranger (Powers related to stealth, infiltration and subterfuge.) - Attention of a group/individual threatens emotional/mental security (vs. physical, which would be more blaster). Almost inverse of Master, but not opposite - very possible and common for there to be overlap (often creating a more influential sort of master/stranger cross).
So for example, let's say we have a parahuman that teleports, but it's not just simple teleportation. Every time they teleport, the space around them explodes. We would classify that as a Mover/Shaker, mover because of the teleportation, and shaker because of the wide damage the explosion can cause. There's plenty of combinations you can come up with, get creative! Of course, not every parahuman ends up ok, even when they're a paragon of justice. The very nature of how you become a parahuman can cause psychological damage (which is believed to be the primary reason why more become villains than heroes), but it isn't limited to just that.
Derangements isn't a recognized term in the universe, but it is fairly apt for something that affect a large number of parahumans. Sometimes their mental state isn't damaged just by the trigger event itself. Sometimes the power itself somehow alters how they think in harmful ways. After triggering, some parahumans have been known to become more violent than they ever were before, while others are affected in ways that couldn't possibly be predicted. For example, a parahuman that can manipulate emotions might have had their own emotions torn out in the process, rendering them effectively a sociopath. A parahuman that can empower dogs with greater strength may now herself think in ways similar to a dog, recognizing alphas and packs and intimidate, but have lost the ability to comprehend social cues from normal human behavior. It's a sad state, really. But enough about that, it's time to discuss one of the most well researched yet least understood facets of parahumans.
The Manton Effect, named after the famous parahuman researcher William Manton, is a theory that explains some rather odd behavior of powers. You see, the vast majority of parahumans can affect living matter, or inorganic matter, not both. For instance, a Striker may be able to supercharge anything he touches with energy until it explodes, but it could only work on non-living material, while another Striker may be able to heal damaged tissue and mend broken bones, but could never hope to reconstruct a damaged building. Years of study have gone into attempting to understand the Manton Effect, but so far nobody has any solid results. Those few parahumans that can bypass the Manton Effect are feared, and for good reason.
The Cape Community
The Protectorate: The Protectorate is the biggest organization of super heroes in the world, sponsored by the American government. It is thanks to the Protectorate that the world has a defense against the Endbringers, as many of the most powerful parahumans in the world work through them. Most tinkers are also part of the Protectorate, thanks to the government funding (after all, most of the equipment they need can't be found in Radio Shack!). They have multiple teams posted across most major cities in the United States, as well as many of the not so big cities. The Protectorate is headed by the Triumvirate, three of the most powerful capes in the world (Legend, Alexandria, and Eidolon), and they are governed by the PRT.
The Wards: The junior division of the Protectorate, the Wards are where parahumans under the age of 18 train and get experience before becoming of legal age and graduating to the Protectorate proper. They are usually kept out of the most dangerous missions when possible, though many of them are registered to help against Endbringer attacks.
The Parahuman Response Team: The PRT, as it is most often referred to, is the branch of the government which both administrates Protectorate and other parahuman matters, as well as responds to villain threats. The PRT is composed entirely of normal humans with no special powers, armed with the latest in government hardware and whatever Tinker-tech can be mass produced for them (which sadly is not very much). Anywhere there is a Protectorate team stationed there is a PRT HQ headed by a director.
The Birdcage: The Birdcage is a relatively recent creation. It is the maximum security prison exclusively for parahuman offenders. It has one way in, and no way out. Once you're inside, you're inside to stay. The very first inmate was the legendary Glaistig Uaine, otherwise known as the Faerie Queen, and even she has not made it out. Reports the she voluntarily gave up and volunteered to be the first inmate of the Birdcage should be dismissed as unfounded rumor.
Case 53s: Case 53s are an unfortunate lot. They are very rare to come by, but sadly not unheard of. Nobody knows for certain why, but some parahumans are physically mutated by their trigger events, and thus are dubbed the Case 53s. The mutation can be something small and innocuous, such as having a few feathers mixed in your hair, to the extreme and grotesque, such as being made completely of living metal or being a mass of writhing tentacles. It's enough to make them pitiable, but most of them dodge the question about their trigger event, and some are complete amnesiacs, not remembering anything about their lives before becoming a parahuman. Hmm...
Cauldron: Ah, now we've come to a most fascinating topic. Cauldron is a top secret organization, very hush hush. Why? Because they sell superpowers. Yes, you can become a parahuman without the nasty trigger event, so long as you can pay big heaping sums of cash. Well, and you're lucky enough to be approached by them, or already have a way to get in contact. Cauldron's formulas aren't perfect though, as they are the source of all Case 53s. One thing they are though is effective. Nobody who knows about them has been able to blow their whistle yet, and those who try... Well, let's just say there's a good reason that Cauldron's top enforcer is known as "The Bogeyman."
The Endbringers: Nobody knows who or what they are, but these monstrosities have been attacking ever since 1992 with no signs of stopping. They simply appear, taking turns one at a time, and wreck everything. Heroes and villains alike team up just in an effort to drive these creatures off, but even in the best of fights the death toll is 1 in 4. They are unstoppable, unkillable, machines of pure conflict. If they were ever human, they sure as Hell aren't anymore. Even with all that isn't known about them though, there is one undeniable fact: They've been holding back in every single attack.
Behemoth - A forty-five foot tall engine of destruction, Behemoth is a dynakinetic. It can manipulate all forms of energy without limitation. It is also not limited by the Manton Effect. Behemoth is the biggest and slowest of the Endbringers, but also the most durable.
Leviathan - The second Endbringer is thirty feet tall with a long tail and scaly skin. It also just so happens to be a macro-level hydrokinetic that only a few months ago sunk Newfoundland. Leviathan's arrival is heralded by storms and tsunamis, and once it has shown up in person it will create wave after wave of torrent, each stronger than the last, until it can crush anything it so desires. While submerged, Leviathan moves faster than nearly any speedster recorded.
The Simurgh - Appearing as a multi-winged woman of alabaster white skin, fifteen feet tall, the Simurgh is the least physical and durable of the Endbringers, but largely considered the most frightening of all. It is an unbelievably powerful telekinetic to start, and is also capable of using the powers of any Thinker and Tinker type parahumans within its psychic range. That would be frightening enough, if it weren't also capable of seeing and manipulating the future. With the Simurgh, you win the battle, but lose the war. It psychically attacks everyone in the area and behaves in just such a way so as to turn the people around it into ticking time bombs, or Rube Goldberg devices, in order to cause devastation at some point in the future. Could be tomorrow. Could be next year. Could be in ten years. Only the Simurgh knows.
Local Knowledge
Since you will be playing a resident of the Denver cape community, it's best to give the information that anybody in the area should be aware of. The following is a list of the major players, hero, villain, and otherwise, that you should know.
Director Kens: 62 year old Rogers Kens is the director of the local PRT, meaning he is effectively the most powerful and influential official in the area. He began his career by joining the air force at age 18 and transferred to the PRT the same day the organization as founded. He's known as a no nonsense, all business kind of guy who nonetheless has shown himself to be compassionate for the Wards and soldiers under his command. Not so much for the grown Protectorate, though.
Inkscape: The leader of the Denver Protectorate team. Inkscape is a Case 53 that looks like a humanoid octopus. His costume is a blue business suit and he carries a briefcase full of papers everywhere he goes. Classified as a Blaster/Shaker and Mover (but only in water), Inkscape can generate ink and telekinetically control any ink within his range. Some villains have been carted off to the Birdcage after the coloring from their own costumes forced itself into their eyes. He's known for being exceptionally great at paperwork.
Noble: The second in command of the team, Noble is a tall blonde woman with a white leotard costume with bubble designs. She is known to be lighter than a normal human and can emit various types of gases from her pores. Known to battle by levitating upward and shooting at criminals with two guns that use pellets of containment foam. Referred to as "Crop Duster" by the villain community, a moniker which she despises. Classified as a Mover/Shaker.
Decoy: The only evidence that Decoy even exists is his inventions. A tinker that specializes in the creation of holographic interfaces, Decoy and interact with any computer system and display anything he wants in the form of a fully interactive holographic display. He only interacts with the public via holograms, projecting the image of an overweight Japanese male. Acts as mission control for the rest of the team.
Captain Morales: A tall and exceptionally well built Hispanic man, Captain Morales has gone on public record that he is an ex commando, and his battle prowess in the field shows. He's well trained in multiple close quarters combat forms and can use nearly any weapon with proficiency. His powers are classified as a low grade Master, able to project confidence in people, using this to bolster morale for his team, or to make his opponents overconfident and slip up.
Protean: The final member of the Denver Protectorate is Protean, a shifter/brute. He doesn't wear a costume, but that tends to not be a problem for the whole "secret identity" issue on account of him being a shapeshifter. Protean is able to transform any of his body mass to resemble the physiology of any animal he knows, but is limited by conservation of mass. He is well known to have an excellent sense of humor and has been placed on probation multiple times for humorous stunts that were dubbed "bad for PR."
Sonar: Not technically a member of the Protectorate proper, Sonar is the leader of the Wards at the start of this RP (don't worry, he won't be around very long!). This 15 year old teen boy has been a member since he was 9 years old. His powers include a supersonic scream, and the ability to hear all sounds within a half mile of his vicinity no matter how quiet or the obstacles. You might think that hearing everything in such a wide area would have driven him batshit crazy by now, but he seems to have coped pretty well with it.
The Community is the largest, most powerful gang organization in all of Denver. The city used to have a problem with its gangs. Now it just has a problem with its gang. The Crips, the Bloods, and all the others folded under the leadership of a single parahuman calling himself "Patriarch."
Patriarch: A black man in his late 20s, Patriarch has a criminal rap sheet as long as your small intestines. Real name "Dominique Douglas," he started as a small time drug dealer until he triggered. Ever since he has systematically gained the undying loyalty of every major gang around. Any infighting was quickly quelled once he stepped onto the scene. His powers are currently unknown, but he is believed to be Master class.
Xolotl: A Mexican American that is, if his cape name indicates anything, well educated, Xolotl (real name unknown) is a Breaker/Mover, able to transform his body into living lightning for small bursts of speed. Thankfully he is subjected to the Manton Effect, so he cannot electrocute anybody, but he is able to swing very fast punches, shock the environment, and travel through electrical cables. Wears a costume inspired by Aztec mythologies.
Master Baiter: For PR reasons, the public knows Samantha Harris as "Troll," a name which infuriates her because she prefers to be called the "Master Baiter." Classified as a Thinker, she is able to instinctively understand a person's insecurities and pet peeves, then mashes their buttons for all it's worth. Doesn't bother with a costume.
Eyeblight: Fernando Garcia, known by his cape name Eyeblight, is a Shifter/Breaker. Known for being difficult to pin down through any conventional methods, Eyeblight can shapeshift into a being made entirely of straw at his will, becoming a scarecrow-like being. In this form most physical trauma does nothing to him while he is incredibly agile and quick, retaining all his normal strength without the weight or physical makeup. Additionally, he exudes some kind of aura that makes his new appearance difficult to stomach. Those to look at him find Eyeblight unnerving, or grotesque.
Limbo: Francine Chambers, better known by her street name Limbo, is the last of the major lieutenants within The Community. She is classified as a Breaker/Master, able to create an astral projection of herself which she can control and perceive through simultaneous to her own physical body. The exact nature of this projection is not yet known, but it looks the same as its owner in the form of a rotting corpse, is capable of flight, and is completely intangible and ethereal. For reasons currently unknown, the projection is known to stay away from large deposits of metal.
The Rockers are a small gang from Boulder, Colorado, that occasionally attempt to move in to Denver territories, They have a combination theme of punk and metal music, with earth. The unpowered foot soldiers of the gang have a tendency to fight using pickaxes.
Ceramix: This 17 year old teen is the leader of the rockers. He was caught once, but escaped from his prison transport thanks to the efforts of his lieutenant. Ceramix is classified as a Striker/Brute with the power to physically mold any stone or earth with his hands, most often applying this in the form of stone armor with which to enhance his durability and strength. He runs his gang like a rock band manager on crack and is largely considered a joke by the parahuman community, if only because he absolutely refuses to use his full potential.
Shatterpoint: The right hand man of the Rockers and the only reason they're able to get anything done. A black teenager that doesn't speak much, wears rectangle rim glasses, and wears a custom set of stone armor crafted for him by his boss. Considered to be a significantly higher threat than Ceramix, Shatterpoint is a Thinker and a Brute, capable of super strength and durability on a small scale. He won't be lifting cards overhead anytime soon, but he's still capable of much more than his small, wiry frame should allow. In a moment of idiot bragging and monologue made by Ceramix, it was learned that Shatterpoint's real power is the ability to see the weakness in any object and know exactly how much force to apply to break it.
Sabotage: Denver's most notorious cat burglar. Sabotage is a woman in her mid 20s with dark brunette hair, shoulder length, that wears a traditional black catsuit. She is classified as a Tinker specializing in deconstruction, and limited Mover. Whereas most Tinkers are able to build physics breaker technology, Sabotage is the opposite, able to deconstruct and break anything you put in front of her. The Mover aspect comes into play with her hands, which are the only part of her that has super speed. No security has thus far proven to be an obstacle for her, and although she has been captured on three separate occasions (as she is not a fighter), she has continuously broken out. A number of Tinkers, Decoy in particular, are infuriated and working hard on a form of containment that can hold Sabotage. She is known to sell her skills to anybody that can afford it.
Broker: A complete and total unknown entity to the Protectorate and the PRT, Broker is only known by a select few in the underworld. He is the man that has put together the game's local villain group and tasks them with their missions, if they so choose to accept them. He's not picky if you do them or not. Broker's powers are not understood, but he is unquestionably Trump class as he has shown himself to be completely immune to all attempts at using powers on him. Thinkers cannot account for his actions or glean information by observing him, blasters either miss or he absorbs their attacks, brutes' attacks have no more strength than a non-powered human would have on him. Whatever his game is, he hasn't told anyone yet.
Purge: The capo of the local mafia, Purge has traveled from Chicago in order to take out a piece of the Denver pie for the family. His mafia is small in number, but great in resource and aptitude. Despite being a well known criminal, nobody has ever been able to link a crime to Purge or his mafia, and those that cross him simply... Disappear without a trace.
Furnace: A young hero that made his debut a little under a year ago, Furnace is a man apparently in his early twenties that has shown himself capable of manipulating his own body temperature to boiling lava hot or extreme coldsnap extremes, while remaining immune to the effects of heat, or lack thereof, himself. While decidedly not a tinker, Furnace is an intelligent and enterprising young man that uses low-end gadgets designed to work with his powers.
Retcon: A virtual unknown, Retcon is a small time villain evidently happy with larceny and theft. Retcon has never been known to kill, injure, or even fight capes and civilians alike. The nature of Retcon's abilities are currently a highly debated topic, witnesses claim to have seen one event unfold, while the end result is something entirely di-SILLY PRT FILES, RETCON LAUGHS AT YOU HAHAHAHAHA.
More to come.
Being Parahuman
When you use the character sheet below, there are three character slots you can go for: Ward, villain in a local gang, or an independent cape (hero or villain). The story will primarily be driven around the Wards and the local gang, of which there are only 5 slots each, so I strongly encourage you to go for one of those roles before going for an independent. As the GM, I will control all of the important NPCs (such as those listed above) but you may feel free to create your own support community around your cape (family, friends, etc.) as well as portray your own minor skirmishes. If you are an independent then you will have more room to expand how you like, which includes popping in and out of the main story at your leisure, but that also means that you will not have a good deal of my focus. It is a trade off. Sorry about that. So without further ado, I give you your character sheet.
[center][h3][b]Cape Name Here[/b][/h3] [img]Picture here if you have one[/img][/center] [b]Name:[/b] Their civilian identity [b]Alias:[/b] Their cape name. Yes I want it twice. [b]Age:[/b] If you're a Ward, anywhere 10-17. Otherwise whatever you want. [b]Alignment:[/b] Hero? Villain? Anti-hero? Other? [b]Loyalty:[/b] Are you a member of the Wards, the local villain team, or independent? [b]Appearance:[/b] Pictures are fine and dandy, but I want you to be able to describe them in words. Include their costume design here as well. Remember to be realistic. A 14 year old kid off the street isn't going to be able to make a high end costume without funding or resources outside what's normally available, and most materials can be tracked. [b]History:[/b] How has their life gone up until now? Be sure to cover all the major events, including their trigger. Remember that you're a relatively new cape to the scene. You don't have to have triggered just yesterday, but it's only within the last year or so that you've decided to start using your powers. And yes, you can have bought your powers from Cauldron, just remember that it's a tremendous secret you should never attempt to reveal, lest you draw the attention of "The Bogeyman."
[center][h3][b]Personality[/b][/h3][/center] [b]Motivations:[/b] What is it that they want? What are they working toward as a larger goal? Feel free to get as creative or as simple as you like. [b]Sexuality:[/b] Straightforward enough, right? [b]Likes:[/b] [list][*]At [*]Least [*]Three[/list] [b]Dislikes:[/b] [list][*]At [*]Least [*]Three[/list] [b]Derangement:[/b] A side effect of your powers affecting your personality or thought process. Thinking like a different animal, losing your sense of direction, increased aggression, so on and so forth. It's not a required field, but it is encouraged, and does not have to be major.
[center][h3][b]Parahumanism[/b][/h3][/center] [b]Skills:[/b] Non-power based abilities you have. The things you know and things you can do, like great memory, martial arts talent, video gaming, etc. [b]Classification:[/b] Mover? Shifter? Tinker? Blaster? Mix and match? [b]Details:[/b] Get into the details of your power and how it works. The general overview, if you will, goes right here. [b]Limitations:[/b] All powers have some sort of limitations built in, no exceptions. And you are not to just put down "Manton Effect" as your only limit, everyone is subjected to that. [b]Equipment:[/b] What sort of goodies do you have on you when you're in costume? If you are a Ward, you automatically start with a Protectorate Communication Earpiece and your costume will get to incorporate a holographic computer interfacing tool, courtesy of Decoy.
Alright, and I have also setup a Skype group chat for anybody interested in joining. My skype name is Professional.Protagonist, send me your contact details with a request to be added to the group chat and I'll do ya.
Alright, and I have also setup a Skype group chat for anybody interested in joining. My skype name is Professional.Protagonist, send me your contact details with a request to be added to the group chat and I'll do ya.
Okay, should be good? Might add another piece of equipment if that's cool.
Martyr
Name: Dean Ryder Alias: Martyr Age: 17 Alignment: Hero Loyalty: Ward Appearance: Dean is a slightly lanky but still a bit muscular young man, about 6' and 120 lbs. He has a smooth face and a small nose, along with small lips. His skin is quite pale, contrasting with his bright red eyes, marking him as an albino. His blonde hair is messily swept out of his line of sight, aided by his thin-lens glasses. He wears T-shirts he made himself almost constantly, and prefers not to wear a jacket to show them off, though he will if it gets cold enough. He wears mostly jeans ranging from blue to black, with the occasional pair of shorts thrown in. If he does wear shorts, he'll probably end up wearing long socks with his almost formal looking sneakers.
Dean's costume is very simple and basic. On top of his head lie a pair of red goggles, built by Decoy with a holographic display embedded in them. He also has a small earpiece that allows him to communicate with others. His arms are wrapped in a few bandages, since he's almost always sustaining some sort of injury out of combat. He also has iron elbow pads and leather gauntlets to protect himself from slight harm. Around his torso is a Kevlar-based sheathe that allows him to hold his weapon and take another hit in combat. His metal belt holds up some basic baggy shorts hiding metal knee pads, and black and red boots wrap up the outfit.
History: Dean was originally a surprisingly normal child. Although he had a propensity to make a mess of his shirts and liked finger-painting, he was completely average for the first 5 years of his life. Then he met his uncle, Derek. Derek was a superhero with the Protectorate, and Dean heard of his exploits constantly. This didn't mean that Derek was a good person though. Derek treated everyone around him fairly bad, not including the young Dean. But still, they stuck up with Derek because he was a hero. This experience stuck with Dean for years to come.
Dean was not very popular at school. After kindergarten Dean's long rants and slight pretentiousness removed much chance he had of making friends, and over time, most people began to dislike him. Then mock him behind his back. Than to his face. For years, Dean had no idea what to do. Every day he was sad at his lack of friends and retreated further inwards, turning to the internet and music for pleasure. He even began helping his father out with his textile production stuff sometimes. But this didn't make him feel much better, and his parent's advice of "be yourself" helped so very little. Eventually, he confided in his uncle. His uncle gave him some advice. "Be a hero, kid."
Dean began working out a bit. Not fully noticeable muscle, but still, he was stronger than before, and took Track at school in an attempt to increase his stamina. Eventually, he got enough confidence in himself to attempt it. The next day, in the hallways, he encountered a senior and a junior harassing a freshman. Dean almost grinned as he approached the group. He told them to stop. They asked him why. He told them why. They told him piss off. He asked him why he should. Then one of them threw a punch, and Dean knew exactly what to do.
He dispatched the two young men, albeit with a new broken rib and two black eyes. But he had did it, he became a hero. Even if it was just a small time one. The people at school thought he was awesome, minus some of the two's friends, and for once, Dean was accepted. Then he was tolerated. Then, the whole school was back to hating him. Why, he asked himself? Did he have to be a hero again? If so, he would be willing to suffer all the bruises and internal suspensions in the world.
Again, Dean went looking for trouble, and he found it. One of the bullies he had dispatched before was back to his ways, picking on someone. Dean smiled and went up to him, tapping his back. To his surprise, the bully smiled too, at the sight of Dean's face. Dean attempted to keep his cool, as the bully told him about how he was looking for Dean. Dean was confused, and looked around. A small circle was forming around the two, comprised of the very people that had called him a hero. The bully got closer, a flame in his hand. Dean was very scared. He called to the people in his crowd, those he knew the names of, but none responded with more than "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Dean backed up against the crowd but they pushed him back in. Betrayed by the people he tried so hard to get on his side, these feelings had been building up for months. He felt stressed, anguished, and most of all, alone. His executioner raised his fist, and Dean closed his eyes.
But that scream he heard wasn't his. It sounded exactly like him, but his mouth was shut tight. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by himself. His own corpse, face down on the tile. The bully stared at the the body, then back up at Dean, the Dean he was, and stared back down at the corpse. Dean, the one that wasn't dead, spent no time in pondering anything, and took action, quickly felling the murderer with an uppercut, courtesy of the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
Dean was astounded at his own ability, to generate another him. He quickly fled the school and made his way home, to test it out again. Locking his door behind him and focusing again, he called on another version of himself, and he appeared. This Dean seemed older, and sighed dejectedly, as he appeared.
"Where's the danger? I didn't get a message." "Danger? I just want to test out my new powers. I can't believe I got superpowers! Oh man I bet all the kids at school will be so jealous! I should-" "Shut up. I only have about 20 seconds, so listen. These other You's, you don't just make them. They're from another universe, sometimes different, sometimes the same. Every time you call us, it's a death sentence. We have to die. Don't, for god's sake don't call any more. Don't be a hero. Don't. Do you hear me? Don't. Don't... don't..." He hurriedly explained, before beginning to melt into himself. He seemed to try and want to say something, anything, but all he could do was look into Dean's eyes as he slowly died.
After this, Dean registered himself as an official Parahuman and decided to be a non-combatant, sufficiently scared of killing people, himself mostly. For a few weeks, Dean was taken an interest in, but once everyone realized he wasn't going to talk about it, they started ignoring him again. Dean deigned things were probably for the best, and decided to just wallow in a depressed slump while making a blog. He also began making his own T-shirts after beginning to bond with his father more. He also kept up with track, and even did a bit of weightlifting.
But just because this Dean didn't use his abilities, that didn't mean others stopped. Dean was summoned. Sitting, silently in missus Lalonde's literacy class, he was writing a paper on something inane when suddenly, he was hurtling through space and times, eerily silent except for his own voice. "Kill the fat woman" was all he said.
With a small rush of air, Dean was suddenly in an alley, surrounded by unfamiliar people and his own corpses. Upon the ground lie a sword, and Dean grabbed it up, charging the largest woman there. Quickly she commanded him to stop, but it was no use, somehow he seemed immune. By the time she called to her slaves, she had already been run through with the blade.
Dean stood there, waiting, eyes shut tight, waiting for his death. Waiting to become an amorphous blob, a fair representation of himself even metaphorically. But said transition never came, and some people came up to him, those he didn't know. Apparently, these were his teammates in this universe, a group of people called the Wards. He had heard of them before, a junior superhero group in his city. It seemed this was the universe of a Dean who had never gotten the message. This Dean accepted the Protectorates offer to become part of the Wards and fought crime with these people.
Dean didn't know what to do. He simply made his way home, or where he thought was home, and sat in his room for a very long time. This was earth shattering. How many differences could there be in this universe? He could have been a completely different person, must have been. Firstly, he informed his parents, and obviously hey were heartbroken. He also informed the Wards, and mentioned he would probably be retiring. After this, he spent a long time, about a month, trying to find differences between the world he used to inhabit, interspersed with sadness about not seeing his real father, mother, or even uncle Derek ever again.
It seemed there was only one major split point; Not receiving the message from a Dean that this was not a power to be trifled with. This lead to Dean joining the Wards as Spawn, and having a worse relationship with his father, but having some friends. There were many minor things that changed too, what he ate for breakfast and the like, but what mattered most to Dean was that there were about 16 years of his life now muddled up. His father wasn't his father, his mother wasn't his mother, and he wasn't even himself. At this time Dean thought back. How could he solve this problem? "Be a hero, kid."
There was no guarantee that Dean wasn't going to get pulled again, and he'd never have a truly amazing relationship with his father, so the only thing he could really ever hope to do was leave a good impression on this universe. He joined up with the Wards again, now having less qualms about himself and his place in the universe. He was probably always fated to do something like this, in fact the universe he was in was probably the real universe, the "alpha," and it was his duty to join the Wards. He just hadn't seen it until now.
Personality
Motivations: All Dean wants it to be remembered as a Hero and liked. So much so, in fact, his entire point of joining the Wards was to throw himself at danger until he died. Sexuality: Straight Likes:
The Internet in general
Keygen Music
MySpace
The N64
Sprite Comics
Making T-shirts
Dislikes:
Popular Music
Studying
Celebrities
Derangement: Although Dean was already much to worried about others and not worried enough about himself, his powers have kicked that into overdrive. He barely has a will to live, just a will to propagate his existence enough to leave a lasting mark of good.
Parahumanism
Skills: Dean has been running track and lifting weights for a decent amount of time and as such, is faster, stronger, and has more stamina than your average man. Track in particular made him quite light on his feet, and he's quite fast for someone without speed powers. He's also been taking swordsmanship classes for just under a year now, and is learning at a steady but slow pace.
Classification: Master/Breaker
Details: Dean may pull another version of himself through to his universe. Alt. Dean is informed of his job while being hurtled through to another universe as a beam of light, and is transported to an unoccupied space near O. Dean. Alt. Deans may only stick around for up to thirty seconds before melting into a biological sludge. It's been hypothesized by Dean that he may be able to extend this time in some manner through practice, but he refuses to practice because he is killing Deans while doing so. One interesting facet of Dean's power is that, if he's killed, the Alt. Dean will no longer melt. As mentioned in his history this has happened to Dean once before, and he hopes it never does again.
Dean can indeed summon more than one copy of himself, though every time he summons a copy before his previous one dies, he gets a more divergent alternate universe. Summon one would have had a different breakfast that morning and nothing else. Clone 2 would have been using a different weapon. Clone 3 may have a differing set of morals due to a different upbringing, while clone 4 may be a super villain that would intentionally try to kill O. Dean. Each of these Deans has the same time limit as the last currently alive Dean clone.
Limitations: No Deans share any kind of special connection or mental link with each other, with the exception of the message of purpose each receives before being sent off. Deans are also not forced in any way to follow said purposes, in fact, it's entirely possible for an Alt. Dean to try and kill O. Dean for his spot. Dean is also entirely a regular, well-trained human with no super strength or endurance.
Equipment:
Protectorate Communication Earpiece - A device that allows Dean and his teammates to communicate. He can also use it to talk to his Alt. Deans, should they learn and input the frequency in their allotted time.
Martyr Suit - A light set of armor designed to allow fluid, fast movement. The goggles were built by Decoy, allowing holographic interfacing and the such. Unfortunately, the only real protection is the two Kevlar straps along his torso, his gauntlets, his knee and shoulder pads, and his belt.
Sword - A straight, single edged blade made from S7 Shock steel. Able to wielded effectively in two hands or one, it's an amazingly well built weapon.
Ah frack, I totally forgot a section for normal, nonpower abilities! Stupid stupid stupid! Ok, mobile right now, but I'll stick an "abilities" section in there when I have the chance.
2:00 am is the best time to go editing your thread coding, right? Right. So as it stands, the CS should be in its final form now. Huzzah.
@Kafka Komedy I'm really liking the concept for Martyr, he's really neat. Apart from adding the new "skills" section he's all set, though I do have one nitpick. I did request that the appearance section also go into detail on your superhero costume. Anyway, once skills are in I'll look again, but he's on the fast track to approval.
@ProPro Alright, he should be good but I might want to add maybe another weapon or something? I dunno I'll let the others roll in before I throw my hat in about if he's under or overpowered.
Name: Alessa Heather Alias: Messiah Age: 16 Alignment: Hero Loyalty: Wards Appearance: Alessa is a rather pale girl with a fairly thin build and a figure that's nothing to particularly brag about, though recent heroics have started to push her more towards lean musculature. She is around 155cm tall, with straight brown hair running down to the small of her back, and her eyes are green speckled with blue, though she often has them glow a bright white colour whilst on the beat, which is as a rule more than enough to obscure her features. Though she wears more normal clothing on the rare occasions when she isn't out fighting crime, typically including a long skirt and a generic shirt in some colour or another, her cape outfit is simply a large white cotton robe with integrated body armour resistant to bullets and knives and the holographic computer interfacing tool standard to the Protectorate's Denver division, running down to the ankles of her uncovered feet with the sleeves hanging loose, though it is tied quite tightly at the waist.
Before the age of fifteen, Alessa's life wasn't particularly notable as anything that might produce a trigger event on its own. The family that lived with her- including her parents, two siblings, three of her grandparents, and a multitude of aunts, uncles, and cousins- were all generally friendly folks who had pooled their resources to buy a large, almost mansion-like house and various other luxuries, though two of their number were parahumans of modestly scarred personality. One of them, a cousin with the Tinker ability to create devices containing the information on any computer in the world pre-installed- though only one computer per device- decided it would be a good idea to show off to the young Alessa just how awful the world really was, by effectively hacking into a number of servers and showing off the statistics for how much worse off than her the vast majority of humanity really was. This was, of course, a calculated move: though not really scarring by itself, as numbers and figures rarely are, it set up in Alessa a distinct unease about the state of the world, and a firm desire to make Earth a better place for humanity once she hit the right age, prompting her to begin researching into the appropriate fields, such as public speaking and various humanitarian sciences.
And then her entire family died. Late Summer of 2004, and the family was out by their pool along with a number of friends. Alessa dived beneath the surface to grab something from the bottom; a flash of light and heat hit her from above the pool's surface; and when she resurfaced, everything within a hundred meters was burned to a crisp, including her family's house, and her family and friends. In other words, nearly everyone she knew and loved was dead, and she couldn't escape the area either because even the concrete around her was on fire. Though it hardly mattered: the parahuman who had killed them all promptly showed himself, an indistinct figure wreathed in flames which would supposedly burn anything short of air, water, and a few other substances, and even those would be superheated drastically to slay any in their vicinity. In other words, Alessa was doomed.
Or would have been, if she didn't abruptly absorb the heat energy from the parahuman's next blast of flame aimed directly at her, to the point that even the water around her failed to boil. His confusion was evident, but quickly turned to anger, leading to hit her with yet more fire and flame, to similar lack of obvious effect. This in turn led to shock and surprise when, out of nowhere, Alessa fired her own burst of heat energy right back at the parahuman himself, throwing him well away from the area. To date, she does not know if he survived that attack, and has agreed to herself that if he never reveals himself to her again in her life, it'll be a hundred years too soon. Regardless, she was now alone, homeless, traumatised, and inexplicably feeling an intense urge to deal with the bad aspects of the world right then and there, with a severe sense of failure because she knew full well that as things were, she couldn't do it, especially in a relatively small and crimeless town like hers. Crawling out of the half-empty pool, she searched for any intact clothes other than her own, failed to find them, and promptly made a plan to get somewhere where she could make a difference, starting by sitting out the front of her previously-intact home and waiting until emergency services turned up.
Various formalities followed on from there, ending with Alessa in a foster home for about a week, with new clothes and bedding and what have you available. In this time, she gathered up supplies in secret, including water and food for several days, bedding to sleep under, and various other necessities. Then, once she felt she was set, she left without a word to any of the few remaining acquaintances she had, and set out at walking speed toward the nearest big city: Denver. That lasted about five days before, inexplicably, she began emitting heat and radiation great enough to start damaging her clothes and even spoiling some of her food; she soon figured out that this was a result of her absorbing the light and heat from the Sun for over two weeks without using it, only to hit an arbitrary limit that prevented her from absorbing more energy than that. She quickly rectified the situation by firing a few beams of energy out toward the Sun, but plenty of her water had already evaporated as a result; even so, she made it to the city proper with only mild dehydration, and from there to the local headquarters of the Protectorate, where she signed up as a Ward. If she had to start somewhere, why not there?
From there to the present day, Alessa's story is straightforward: she acquired a costume designed to her specifications complete with standard Ward equipment, began training in Krav Maga in order to protect herself at close range when needed, continued her education where it left off, and of course helped to fight crime as and when it was necessary. If she had her way, this latter activity would be almost all she ever did short of satisfying basic human needs; she knows, however, that to solve these inherent problems in the long-term, she must work on other facets of herself too. A proper resolution to problems such as those cannot be reached without a greater strategy in mind, in her opinion, but as long as she can't enact that strategy, she will settle for the short-term victories.
Personality
Motivations: Alessa's primary motivation is to protect others. If this means risking her own life as a cape, then so be it. In the long run, she'd very much like for the citizens of Denver, and indeed the world at large, to stop harming one another and co-operate in handling the worst threats to humanity, such as Endbringers, and global warming; for now, she is content with simply preventing crimes as they happen. Sexuality: Bisexual Likes:
Heroism and its associated activities
Training and practicing to help engage in heroism
Meditation
Dislikes:
Crime and criminals
Injustice
Out of control fires
Derangement: Due to the circumstances of her past opinions amplified by her trigger event, Alessa has a serious hero complex: she feels that if she can assist in a bad situation, she must, even if her presence is entirely unwarranted. Indeed, the primary reason she doesn't go to help out in every single Endbringer fight is because the vast majority of them are much too far away for her to reach them before they are dealt with, and knowing this eats her up inside whenever she is reminded of it. She at least has the sense to prioritise events and target worse criminals before less harmful ones, but when she isn't recuperating, she's out fighting crime, and often deprives herself of personal time as a result.
Parahumanism
Skills:
Krav Maga - As the practical purpose of Alessa's powers is to deal a lot of damage very quickly at range, it stands to reason that showing quarter in close combat is a bad idea for her, much as she'd often prefer otherwise. Whilst not necessarily helpful against many more physically-concerned capes, Alessa has begun training in Krav Maga as a last resort for self-defense, able to enhance her attacks through use of her abilities as well, and currently holds the second-lowest rank of P1.
Gun Training - As part of her Krav Maga training, Alessa has also been learning to wield guns such as the M16, both in close combat and for their intended purpose of shooting people, though as far as the latter point goes, this is rarely necessary, and she does not typically carry weapons on her in the field.
Rapid Reflexes - Not strictly superhuman in nature or specifically a skill, but a combination of MA training and her own personal hangups on the topic of protecting others have led Alessa to gradually reduce her reaction times in an effort to deal with villains and criminals more effectively; she is currently at about three percent faster than an average human, and aims to get much quicker as time goes on.
Meditation - When not doing anything else, Alessa likes to meditate in order to center and calm herself in preparation for her next crime-stopping activity. She will often do so in an active fireplace or similar source of heat, since the flames will further energise her for the fight.
Classification: Shaker/Breaker/Blaster Details: Alessa is able to absorb and redirect heat energy (any amount greater than around 20 degrees Celsius) and high-end electromagnetic radiation (from gamma to UV, as well as some visible light) that she makes contact with. This includes natural forms of these energies, such as that emitted by fire, the Sun, or even sources of fissile gamma radiation, but also extends to parahuman abilities of that sort, such as the powers of certain Blasters. The energy she absorbs can be unleashed by her in whatever manner she desires, ranging from blasts to beams to spheres, even rudimentary barriers, and can be reabsorbed if the released energy happens to strike her again.
By unleashing the stored energy in her body, Alessa can produce an omnidirectional explosion whose power varies heavily depending on how much energy she puts in; with enough energy released, it is entirely plausible that Alessa could destroy a large area of Denver with a single attack, surviving the corresponding devastation through use of her own ability to absorb any excess energy that might otherwise harm her. She calls this attack Rapture, yet fears to use it for exactly the reasons described above.
Limitations: Aside from the Manton Effect, which prevents her from simply touching a person and sucking out their heat energy like some sort of pseudo-vampire, Alessa's power has a fair few limitations. Most notably, she does not have any particular invulnerability beyond her absorption, and can't negate damage from sources that are not based on heat or EMR - in other words, she'd survive a bomb blast's heatwave at point blank range, but end up being pulverised by the kinetic shockwave and/or shredded by the shrapnel thrown out. Her energy absorption is also active constantly; whilst useful for ensuring that she always has at least some energy available for a fight in a worst-case scenario, she can't explicitly "turn off" the power at her convenience, and she can only store a limited amount of energy before she begins uncontrollably releasing the excess in all directions, even to the point of being forced into the use of Rapture to varying degrees if a large excess builds up in a very short period of time. Finally, as a logical consequence of her limited energy supply, utilising Rapture to its fullest extent by expending all of the energy she has stored up or otherwise running her energy reserves down in combat means weakening her offensive capabilities substantially, though not completely. Equipment: As a Ward of the Protectorate, Alessa possesses the standard PCE and costume-incorporated HCIT. Other than this and her outfit proper, she rarely carries around very much gear, as she does not often require it.
I'd like to reserve a ward spot, seeing as they are limited. I'm working on my character, but I do have work for at leas the next two days (if not four) so I'm unlikely to be able to get a whole ton of work on it. If that's not possible I suppose I'll deal.
Name: Alessa Heather Alias: Messiah Age: 16 Alignment: Hero Loyalty: Wards Appearance: Alessa is a rather pale girl with a fairly thin build and a figure that's nothing to particularly brag about, though recent heroics have started to push her more towards lean musculature. She is around 155cm tall, with straight brown hair running down to the small of her back, and her eyes are green speckled with blue, though she often has them glow a bright white colour whilst on the beat, which is as a rule more than enough to obscure her features. Though she wears more normal clothing on the rare occasions when she isn't out fighting crime, typically including a long skirt and a generic shirt in some colour or another, her cape outfit is simply a large white cotton robe, running down to the ankles of her uncovered feet with the sleeves hanging loose, though it is tied quite tightly at the waist. History: How has their life gone up until now? Be sure to cover all the major events, including their trigger. Remember that you're a relatively new cape to the scene. You don't have to have triggered just yesterday, but it's only within the last year or so that you've decided to start using your powers. And yes, you can have bought your powers from Cauldron, just remember that it's a tremendous secret you should never attempt to reveal, lest you draw the attention of "The Bogeyman."
Personality
Motivations: Alessa's primary motivation is to protect others. If this means risking her own life as a cape, then so be it. In the long run, she'd very much like for the citizens of Denver, and indeed the world at large, to stop harming one another and co-operate in handling the worst threats to humanity, such as Endbringers, and global warming; for now, she is content with simply preventing crimes as they happen. Sexuality: Heterosexual Likes:
At
Least
Three
Dislikes:
At
Least
Three
Derangement: Due to the circumstances of her trigger event, Alessa has a serious hero complex: she feels that if she can assist in a bad situation, she must, even if her presence is entirely unwarranted. Indeed, the primary reason she doesn't go to help out in every single Endbringer fight is because the vast majority of them are much too far away for her to reach them before they are dealt with, and knowing this eats her up inside whenever she is reminded of it. She at least has the sense to prioritise events and target worse criminals before less harmful ones, but when she isn't recuperating, she's out fighting crime, and often deprives herself of personal time as a result.
Parahumanism
Classification: Shaker/Blaster/Trump Details: Alessa is able to absorb and redirect just about all forms of energy directed at her or that she otherwise makes contact with. This includes natural forms of energy such as heat, electricity, electromagnetic energy such as light, and harmful radiation such as that derived from nuclear fission, but also extend to the powers of many parahumans too - the obvious foes this protects her from are the majority of Blasters, but it further includes many less obvious powers like healing, force fields, or mind-altering affects, amongst others. The amount of energy she can absorb seems to be unlimited, and can be unleashed by her in whatever manner she desires, ranging from blasts to beams to spheres and etcetera for damaging energies, whilst healing and shields are typically just utilised as intended, effects that would have altered her brainstate instead work to alter the minds of others in her favour, and so on.
By unleashing stored offensive energy from prior encounters, Alessa can produce an omnidirectional explosion whose power varies heavily depending on how much energy she puts in; with enough stored energy, it is entirely plausible that Alessa could effectively nuke the entirety of Denver with a single attack, surviving the corresponding devastation through use of her own ability to absorb any excess energy that might otherwise harm her. She calls this attack Rapture, yet fears to use it for exactly the reasons described above.
Limitations: Aside from the Manton Effect, which prevents her from simply touching a person and sucking out their energy like some sort of pseudo-vampire, Alessa's power has a fair few limitations. Most notably, she does not have any physical invulnerability, and can't negate the damage from a solid object: she could certainly absorb the kinetic energy from a knife or a bullet, or for instance a Brute or very fast Mover's punch, but that wouldn't particularly help her, as the knife would still pierce her skin, the bullet would still blow a hole through her body, and the Brute and/or Mover would still either deal as much (likely lethal) damage as normal, or else send her flying (again, likely lethal, as she is not immune to being flattened against the ground either), and along similar lines, most nominally-lethal poisons and venoms would kill her due to functioning in ways that do not involve releasing a large amount of energy. Her energy absorption is also active constantly; whilst useful for helping to ensure she isn't assassinated in her sleep and that she always has at least some energy available for a fight in a worst-case scenario, she also can't explicitly "turn off" the power against beneficial effects such as healing or power improvement, instead needing to apply a boost of that sort to herself after absorbing its effects from the parahuman using the ability on her, and can't "transfer" one energy type to another either. Finally, as a logical consequence of this latter limitation, utilising Rapture to its fullest extent by expending all of the damaging energy she has stored up means weakening her offensive capabilities substantially, though not completely, as the vast majority of the energy expended is consequently lost to the atmosphere, with only the excess she is subjected to being reabsorbed. Equipment: As a Ward of the Protectorate, Alessa possesses the standard PCE and costume-incorporated HCIT. Other than this and her outfit proper, she rarely carries around very much gear, as she does not often require it. (MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
This here character sheet isn't complete yet. I might want to discuss it a bit more in a bit; for now, though, I'll wait until @ProPro has added in the section for normal abilities before finishing it off, since those could well integrate into other portions of her character.
I added the section for normal abilities at 2 am, dude.
2:00 am is the best time to go editing your thread coding, right? Right. So as it stands, the CS should be in its final form now. Huzzah.
I'd like to reserve a ward spot, seeing as they are limited. I'm working on my character, but I do have work for at leas the next two days (if not four) so I'm unlikely to be able to get a whole ton of work on it. If that's not possible I suppose I'll deal.
I don't work on reservations. I provide positions based om merit most of the time, though considering we've got 5 slots for Wards and 5 for the Local Villain Gang, I'm more open to first come first serve.
Name: Natasha Castaneda Burkova Alias: Sonika Age: 27 Alignment: Villain Loyalty: Independent Appearance: Natasha is on noticeably tall for a woman, standing at 1.76m (5'8.5"). This is further offset by the fact she often wears high heels, adding several more inches to her height. Though she is Slavic by blood her features are quite Aryan, sporting short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She is in very good shape, hiding toned muscles underneath her clothing, and with her soft facial features she is actually quite attractive in contrast to her personality. Natasha often dresses appropriately for whatever occasion she may be at, but her "standard" set of clothes are formal wear business suits. Despite this she wears her costume underneath her clothes. Her supervillain costume is a white leotard made from a strong, heat resistant fiber cloth that features several blue streaks underneath her ribs that stretch to her lower back. It has no emblem or insignia of any kind. She also keeps a white eye mask and a white with blue stripes bandana to cover her face with, to further protect her identity for when she is out "working". History: Natasha Castaneda Burkova was born in Spain to an immigrant family that had fled the Soviet Union. She was raised to speak Spanish, Russian, French, German, and English, having quite the capability for all sorts of learning from even an early age. It wasn't until February 23rd of 1986, when Natasha was eight years old, that her trigger event occurred. With the ongoing Basque Conflict in Spain at the time her family was accidentally identified by counter-terrorist forces as being allied with the ETA rebellion. Natasha was wrestled to the ground and both her parents were executed before her very eyes following a brief struggle. The young girl lashed out at the soldiers, collapsing the wooden house on top of them. Nobody was killed by the awakening of her powers, but Natasha herself was hospitalized by the falling debris.
The Spanish government knew they hit the jackpot with Natasha, as Capes were still a rare and very recent phenomenon at the time. However it wouldn't be the Spanish that would keep her. The CIA from the United States abducted her with the intention of both researching her powers and training her to serve the US. This would bear no fruit as Natasha was unable to replicate her powers while in their custody. She would eventually be traded with the USSR's KGB, being traded to them for another Cape that the US found more promising. It was under the watch of the KGB that Natasha was able to draw her powers again. Leading up to the USSR's collapse, the KGB monitored and trained Natasha to serve them. She was hardly a teenager when the Soviet Union collapsed, but she was already a trained soldier and an experienced Cape. She was moved into the FSK and eventually into the FSB, serving the Russian Federation as one of their premier Cape assets.
However, around the turn of the century, Natasha was given a semblance of her own free agency. It didn't take long for the young woman with little social understanding to find herself confronted with mobsters on her way to her new home. After apprehending the thugs and turning them in, the FSB decided that her next task would be to infiltrate the Russian Mafia and serve as a planted agent. After using another Cape to brainwash the captured mobsters into thinking they found Natasha and recruited her, she was integrated into the Russian Mafia to serve as one of their Cape soldiers. Over the next few years she sold her role quite well, serving them to her fullest as an enforcer and working her way up the chain of command. Now, in 2005, she has been tasked by the Mafia to replace a recently deceased Captain who was operating in the United States. Her duties would be to take command of the Colorado branch and oversee the smuggling of arms, drugs, and people through the Rocky Mountains. While the Russian Mafia has no shortage of Capes of their own and has been in the area for a long time, Natasha herself has only been in Denver for several months. She has already learned of the geopolitical landscape and represents the Russians among The Community. While she will report to the Patriarch, above him she reports to many others that outrank her within the mafia. And, when the occasion calls for it, she reports to the FSB.
To better remain hidden from law enforcement and the PRT, Natasha has donned a supervillain alter-ego. Whenever she uses her powers she changes into costume and goes by the name of "Sonika", keeping her identity secret. While those in the criminal underworld know that Natasha Castaneda (as she goes by) is the top of the chain of command for the Russian mafia in the area, it is believed that Sonika is an entirely different person. This effort to keep a distinction between her Cape activities and her mob activities separate protects herself, her assets, and ultimately the FSB. The supervillain known as Sonika is not attached to the Russian Mafia, though some suspect that she is despite a lack of evidence. Only Natasha's lieutenants and the other leaders of The Community know that she is a Cape, and Natasha intends to keep it that way.
Personality
Motivations: Natasha is very straightforward with her goals. Ultimately she seeks to serve the FSB to the fullest extent, meaning that her motivation is to follow her orders to the best of her ability. Presently this translates into maintaining the operations of the Russian Mafia in Denver, Colorado. To this end she seeks to dominate the smuggling business of the the Rocky Mountain regions, at any cost. Sexuality: Heterosexual Likes:
Organizing
Opera
Cigars
Assassinations
Fantasy Novels
American Fast Foods
Cleanliness
Dislikes:
Insubordination
American Television Programs
Obnoxious People
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Derangement: The effect of her derangement is incredibly small, almost negligible, but ever since her trigger event she has had an aversion to compassion. While she can still feel the entire range of emotion, she is largely incapable of sympathy. It is easily masked by her cold demeanor, but there is no "deep down inside she actually cares" mentality. Natasha is just as ice-cold as she looks.
Parahumanism
Skills: Natasha has been trained in espionage, martial arts (Systema Spetsnaz), firearms, explosives, and operating aircraft. She is also multilingual, speaking five languages fluently and capable of transitioning between them flawlessly. Aside from the skills related to her years of training, Natasha is also a capable cook, has impeccable handwriting, can type at 97 words per minute consistently, and she can even sing as a Dramatic Soprano. Classification: Shaker, Mover, Blaster, Thinker Details: The fundamental core of Natasha's powers is the ability to manipulate the air in the atmosphere. This can be done in many various, creative ways. She can change air pressure to the extreme, being able to create compartmentalized vacuums or conversely creating high-pressure explosions. She can manipulate the flow of air, to create projectile attacks of varying scale or to increase her own mobility and speed. By reducing the air pressure around her to eliminate resistance and using controlled bursts of high air pressure she can propel herself to incredible speeds (though this feat requires her to hold her breath for the duration of it and also requires both time and distance to accelerate), though flying in this manner isn't often practical and instead she will use quick bursts to "hop" quickly as a means of fast movement. Natasha can even create vortexes of fast-moving wind, able to surround herself to form a protective barrier that deflects most projectiles and physical attacks or just plain creating a small tornado to trap specific targets or objects. On a more subtle level she can detect the air currents and retain passive knowledge of her surroundings within the range of her abilities. Her training has allowed her to become creative and she knows how to exploit her powers for maximum utility, both in combat and out. The power of her air and wind manipulations are nothing to be trifled with, making her very powerful on top of being versatile. Limitations: Natasha's powers are bound by the Manton Effect, but she also has a limited range for all of her various ways of manipulating air. Even her projectile attacks cannot extend beyond this range, which is approximately 100m. While she is immune to direct effects from her powers herself, she can still be affected by indirect consequences such as suffocating in a vacuum or coming to a complete stop from high speed crushing her. Her expertise and control is great, and she knows the ways she may hurt herself, but that doesn't mean those limitations don't exist just because she doesn't make many mistakes. Equipment: While Natasha has access to many advanced technologies and weaponry, she doesn't keep hardly any on her persona. She keeps a cellphone, a Blackberry, a notepad and pen, and a 9mm handgun on her person at all times. All of these are stored in a purse that she carries with her. However when she decides to go into costume and use her powers she often leaves her purse somewhere hidden so she could retrieve it later.
Alright, after working with you extensively on skype, we've got this @j8cob. Our first villain is officially approved! Move Sonika on over to the CS section.
Name: Alessa Heather Alias: Messiah Age: 16 Alignment: Hero Loyalty: Wards Appearance: Alessa is a rather pale girl with a fairly thin build and a figure that's nothing to particularly brag about, though recent heroics have started to push her more towards lean musculature. She is around 155cm tall, with straight brown hair running down to the small of her back, and her eyes are green speckled with blue, though she often has them glow a bright white colour whilst on the beat, which is as a rule more than enough to obscure her features. Though she wears more normal clothing on the rare occasions when she isn't out fighting crime, typically including a long skirt and a generic shirt in some colour or another, her cape outfit is simply a large white cotton robe with integrated body armour resistant to bullets and knives and the holographic computer interfacing tool standard to the Protectorate's Denver division, running down to the ankles of her uncovered feet with the sleeves hanging loose, though it is tied quite tightly at the waist.
Before the age of fifteen, Alessa's life wasn't particularly notable as anything that might produce a trigger event on its own. The family that lived with her- including her parents, two siblings, three of her grandparents, and a multitude of aunts, uncles, and cousins- were all generally friendly folks who had pooled their resources to buy a large, almost mansion-like house and various other luxuries, though two of their number were parahumans of modestly scarred personality. One of them, a cousin with the Tinker ability to create devices containing the information on any computer in the world pre-installed- though only one computer per device- decided it would be a good idea to show off to the young Alessa just how awful the world really was, by effectively hacking into a number of servers and showing off the statistics for how much worse off than her the vast majority of humanity really was. This was, of course, a calculated move: though not really scarring by itself, as numbers and figures rarely are, it set up in Alessa a distinct unease about the state of the world, and a firm desire to make Earth a better place for humanity once she hit the right age, prompting her to begin researching into the appropriate fields, such as public speaking and various humanitarian sciences.
And then her entire family died. Late Summer of 2004, and the family was out by their pool along with a number of friends. Alessa dived beneath the surface to grab something from the bottom; a flash of light and heat hit her from above the pool's surface; and when she resurfaced, everything within a hundred meters was burned to a crisp, including her family's house, and her family and friends. In other words, nearly everyone she knew and loved was dead, and she couldn't escape the area either because even the concrete around her was on fire. Though it hardly mattered: the parahuman who had killed them all promptly showed himself, an indistinct figure wreathed in flames which would supposedly burn anything short of air, water, and a few other substances, and even those would be superheated drastically to slay any in their vicinity. In other words, Alessa was doomed.
Or would have been, if she didn't abruptly absorb the heat energy from the parahuman's next blast of flame aimed directly at her, to the point that even the water around her failed to boil. His confusion was evident, but quickly turned to anger, leading to hit her with yet more fire and flame, to similar lack of obvious effect. This in turn led to shock and surprise when, out of nowhere, Alessa fired her own burst of heat energy right back at the parahuman himself, throwing him well away from the area. To date, she does not know if he survived that attack, and has agreed to herself that if he never reveals himself to her again in her life, it'll be a hundred years too soon. Regardless, she was now alone, homeless, traumatised, and inexplicably feeling an intense urge to deal with the bad aspects of the world right then and there, with a severe sense of failure because she knew full well that as things were, she couldn't do it, especially in a relatively small and crimeless town like hers. Crawling out of the half-empty pool, she searched for any intact clothes other than her own, failed to find them, and promptly made a plan to get somewhere where she could make a difference, starting by sitting out the front of her previously-intact home and waiting until emergency services turned up.
Various formalities followed on from there, ending with Alessa in a foster home for about a week, with new clothes and bedding and what have you available. In this time, she gathered up supplies in secret, including water and food for several days, bedding to sleep under, and various other necessities. Then, once she felt she was set, she left without a word to any of the few remaining acquaintances she had, and set out at walking speed toward the nearest big city: Denver. That lasted about five days before, inexplicably, she began emitting heat and radiation great enough to start damaging her clothes and even spoiling some of her food; she soon figured out that this was a result of her absorbing the light and heat from the Sun for over two weeks without using it, only to hit an arbitrary limit that prevented her from absorbing more energy than that. She quickly rectified the situation by firing a few beams of energy out toward the Sun, but plenty of her water had already evaporated as a result; even so, she made it to the city proper with only mild dehydration, and from there to the local headquarters of the Protectorate, where she signed up as a Ward. If she had to start somewhere, why not there?
From there to the present day, Alessa's story is straightforward: she acquired a costume designed to her specifications complete with standard Ward equipment, began training in Krav Maga in order to protect herself at close range when needed, continued her education where it left off, and of course helped to fight crime as and when it was necessary. If she had her way, this latter activity would be almost all she ever did short of satisfying basic human needs; she knows, however, that to solve these inherent problems in the long-term, she must work on other facets of herself too. A proper resolution to problems such as those cannot be reached without a greater strategy in mind, in her opinion, but as long as she can't enact that strategy, she will settle for the short-term victories.
Personality
Motivations: Alessa's primary motivation is to protect others. If this means risking her own life as a cape, then so be it. In the long run, she'd very much like for the citizens of Denver, and indeed the world at large, to stop harming one another and co-operate in handling the worst threats to humanity, such as Endbringers, and global warming; for now, she is content with simply preventing crimes as they happen. Sexuality: Bisexual Likes:
Heroism and its associated activities
Training and practicing to help engage in heroism
Meditation
Dislikes:
Crime and criminals
Injustice
Out of control fires
Derangement: Due to the circumstances of her past opinions amplified by her trigger event, Alessa has a serious hero complex: she feels that if she can assist in a bad situation, she must, even if her presence is entirely unwarranted. Indeed, the primary reason she doesn't go to help out in every single Endbringer fight is because the vast majority of them are much too far away for her to reach them before they are dealt with, and knowing this eats her up inside whenever she is reminded of it. She at least has the sense to prioritise events and target worse criminals before less harmful ones, but when she isn't recuperating, she's out fighting crime, and often deprives herself of personal time as a result.
Parahumanism
Skills:
Krav Maga - As the practical purpose of Alessa's powers is to deal a lot of damage very quickly at range, it stands to reason that showing quarter in close combat is a bad idea for her, much as she'd often prefer otherwise. Whilst not necessarily helpful against many more physically-concerned capes, Alessa has begun training in Krav Maga as a last resort for self-defense, able to enhance her attacks through use of her abilities as well, and currently holds the second-lowest rank of P1.
Gun Training - As part of her Krav Maga training, Alessa has also been learning to wield guns such as the M16, both in close combat and for their intended purpose of shooting people, though as far as the latter point goes, this is rarely necessary, and she does not typically carry weapons on her in the field.
Rapid Reflexes - Not strictly superhuman in nature or specifically a skill, but a combination of MA training and her own personal hangups on the topic of protecting others have led Alessa to gradually reduce her reaction times in an effort to deal with villains and criminals more effectively; she is currently at about three percent faster than an average human, and aims to get much quicker as time goes on.
Meditation - When not doing anything else, Alessa likes to meditate in order to center and calm herself in preparation for her next crime-stopping activity. She will often do so in an active fireplace or similar source of heat, since the flames will further energise her for the fight.
Classification: Shaker/Breaker/Blaster Details: Alessa is able to absorb and redirect heat energy (any amount greater than around 20 degrees Celsius) and high-end electromagnetic radiation (from gamma to UV, as well as some visible light) that she makes contact with. This includes natural forms of these energies, such as that emitted by fire, the Sun, or even sources of fissile gamma radiation, but also extends to parahuman abilities of that sort, such as the powers of certain Blasters. The energy she absorbs can be unleashed by her in whatever manner she desires, ranging from blasts to beams to spheres, even rudimentary barriers, and can be reabsorbed if the released energy happens to strike her again.
By unleashing the stored energy in her body, Alessa can produce an omnidirectional explosion whose power varies heavily depending on how much energy she puts in; with enough energy released, it is entirely plausible that Alessa could destroy a large area of Denver with a single attack, surviving the corresponding devastation through use of her own ability to absorb any excess energy that might otherwise harm her. She calls this attack Rapture, yet fears to use it for exactly the reasons described above.
Limitations: Aside from the Manton Effect, which prevents her from simply touching a person and sucking out their heat energy like some sort of pseudo-vampire, Alessa's power has a fair few limitations. Most notably, she does not have any particular invulnerability beyond her absorption, and can't negate damage from sources that are not based on heat or EMR - in other words, she'd survive a bomb blast's heatwave at point blank range, but end up being pulverised by the kinetic shockwave and/or shredded by the shrapnel thrown out. Her energy absorption is also active constantly; whilst useful for ensuring that she always has at least some energy available for a fight in a worst-case scenario, she can't explicitly "turn off" the power at her convenience, and she can only store a limited amount of energy before she begins uncontrollably releasing the excess in all directions, even to the point of being forced into the use of Rapture to varying degrees if a large excess builds up in a very short period of time. Finally, as a logical consequence of her limited energy supply, utilising Rapture to its fullest extent by expending all of the energy she has stored up or otherwise running her energy reserves down in combat means weakening her offensive capabilities substantially, though not completely. Equipment: As a Ward of the Protectorate, Alessa possesses the standard PCE and costume-incorporated HCIT. Other than this and her outfit proper, she rarely carries around very much gear, as she does not often require it.
I finally finished Messiah off. You are now capable of reviewing her in her entirety, @ProPro.
I finally finished Messiah off. You are now capable of reviewing her in her entirety, @ProPro.
Messiah is goo to go. Slap her on the CS tab and we can look forward to the next couple sheets. I'm hoping to get this thing started by the end of the week.
