Code: SANCTION // A liaison from Magus Prohibitum, Sanction (real name, Kalia Morfunde), Sanction serves as the occasional yoke to organized Cleaner activity. Technically a Cleaner herself, her connections with Magus Prohibitum afford her access to their activity, which she can relay as a warning or guidance to other Cleaners. Stern, business-like, and with a terrible sense of humor, her presence is preferably transient to most others, though nevertheless invaluable.
Code: CASH // A powerful shareholder in Heintje, Laurence Slanne came into Cleaner society after a drawn-out experience with a nightmare in his mansion. Two months of camera crews, exorcists both fake and real, and a few Cleaners assuming identities as ghost hunters, and he was rid of the plague. Free time and curiosity getting the better of him, Laurence developed a hobby in nightmare hunting -or, at the very least, funding missions to do so.
Code: DORM // 17-year-old "Drake" Vorsque, for all his somber attitude, loves his work. Though many tease him for being quiet, often melancholy, the Thremont high-schooler truly enjoys company. Once a blissfully unaware student, his involvement with Codename PING eventually revealed to him the underlying existence of nightmares, after which he devoted himself to fighting said entities. One of the few younger Cleaners that still maintains academy attendance, Drake makes for an effective connection to the law-abiding youth of Neo Babylon.
Code: VENGE // Sole survivor of the Thursday Dawn Massacre, Penny "Double-Take" Viritchi knows the truth; her gang, her blood, her family were not killed by rivals, but by a creature. Swearing to end its unlife, she took her ruthless nature into Cleaner culture where she's been an active member since. Volatile and violent, Penny is frequently the subject of intense reprimand from peers, especially Sanction.
Code: PING // Though she tends to avoid having to engage in combat, Ping associates herself with the Cleaners as an indispensable resource. Ping is known as a "Natural", an individual born with the ability to use a sort of intrinsic magic. Extremely rare, Ping's intrinsic magic is the ability to 'sense' magic itself. Though quiet, she's an aloof spirit that seems to enjoy the vagrant lifestyle.
Code: MOM // Owner of the Cafe Thaza, Melanie "Mom" Dresdain is a face known by most, if not all Cleaners of Neo Babylon, thanks to her generous nature and ownership of frequented what is essentially a "Cleaner clubhouse". Her two late sons were the ones to bring her into the Cleaner folds where she stayed after their deaths.
Name: Josephine Codename: End Color Scheme: ec008c 000000 Age: Mid-Twenties Gender: Female Personality:
Exacting
Obssessive
Arrogant
Dramatic
Thrifty
Determined
“diedieDIE!”
She never forgot the first shot she fired. Even at near-point blank range, she still failed to hit any vitals, and as the man gurgled, reaching out with his fat hands, she panicked and switched to auto, blowing eleven more finger-sized holes into his torso, blubbering all the while. And even when the corpse collapsed back onto the bed, white sheets staining dark red, she continued to pull the trigger, an endless clicking filling the smoky room.
“The bullets are included in the bill.”
She never forgot any other shots she fired either. Meticulously counting each and considering their prices, she charged each client, citing it as an important expense. A miser, perhaps, but she did her work well, and her appearance worked for her. No one expected a scrawny child to be a problem. No one thought that her oversized clothes hid grenades and firearms. And no one expected that she was the contract killer they hired. Anonymity kept her safe once the bullets ran out.
“I…am in control.”
But anonymity didn’t stop her fame from increasing, and as her kill count increased, so too did the difficulty of her jobs. What had gone from missions of revenge from men who had their wives stolen from them had gone to taking out drug dealers or enforcers. And bullets were no longer enough. Unwilling to back down from her profession, she sought out a Painstaker instead, learning the arcane arts from a wizened widow who never had a child. She didn’t mind being their surrogate daughter. Not if that gave her a discount. “Motivation? Boredom.”
And once she had both science and magic in her hands, what had once been a challenge was slowly…becoming forgettable. Gone were the days where she had to scrape by in a dingy motel room, drinking instant tomato soup. Gone were the days where she had to count her bullets one by one, hoping that she had enough to get by if it turned into a firefight. Gone were all those worrisome days, and with that, gone was her stimulation.
At least, until it turned out that the target of one particular job was not a human, not a mage, but a monster.
A nightmare.
She survived, barely, and when her client came up afterwards, offering a position as a Cleaner, she accepted without a second thought.
It was like her first kill once again. All fear. All adrenaline. All-consuming.
Alive.
Magic Style: Iron Revolution Disassembly, Telekinesis, Reassembly Josephine utilizes three different spells simultaneously, focusing more on speed rather than large effects in order to create a magic system that synergizes with her preferred form of combat. An ‘active’ disintegration field creates atomic dust, which is then shrouded around her by ‘passive’ telekinesis, and then ‘actively’ reassembled into the form of bullets with grains of iron sand within them in order to be recycled once more. In its most base application, she can give herself an unlimited amount of railgun ammunition, as long as her mind can keep up with the many spells in place.
Disable.bond(molecular) – The disassembly of matter into atomic dust via destruction of molecular bonds. Can be used to ‘cut’ through objects as well, at roughly the same speed as a plasma torch.
Move.object(variable) – Telekinesis, capable of moving objects at bullet speed. Passively keeps all atomic dust that Josephine created in 5 meter radius of her.
Generate.bullet(iron) – The reassembly of bullets with an iron sand core, specifically. Takes whatever atomic dust she has gathered and re-connects their molecular bonds.
Membership: New, 6 months but highly active. Equipment: Heavyware Railrifle X-16 – Silent, recoilless, and deadly. Can hold a clip of 70 bullets and has various features such as burst, semi-auto, single-shot, and full auto. An all-in-one gun that can be used for anything from close-range firefights to long-range sniping. State-of-the-art.
Heavyware Punisher EMT – Lethal and highly accurate. Can hold a clip of 15 and fire a variety of bullets. Advertised as a hand cannon that even a child can use. From HE to AP to Tracker Darts, it’s a sidearm commonly used by elite bodyguards.
Heavyware Valkyrie Suit – Lightweight and slim. Body armor that enhances both motor functions and reaction speed through biochemical processes and electric stimulation. Strong enough to deflect small firearms easily and take a few hits from heavy arms, but its main selling point is the fact that one can wear regular clothing over them. Installed with a jetpack and glider wings, allowing for superjumps and a semblance of flight.
Without the suit, she'll be dressed in fairly regular clothes, but thin and asymmetrical veins of metal will be seen running up the back of her neck, spine, legs and right arm. Her left, on the other hand, may as well stay beneath the armor.
General:
Name: Jaclyn Joy Janeway. Often called Jackie or "Three-J"
Codename: "Voice"
Color Scheme: DimGray (696969) and LightCoral (F08080)
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Personal Details:
Personality:
She knows they are frightened of her: she can see it in their wide-eyed stares at the chrome implants, the red eyes, the dead hair- then jerk away in shame when her gaze confronts them. Biotech might have earned a little acceptance (bit by bit) in the minds of the common people, yet Jaclyn Janeway has so much more than a few drops of tech.
Yes, she sees them watching her. Then she smiles. Then she sweetly says hello.
It doesn't take anyone long to notice her lightening intellect, or her equally impressive kindness. She talks fast, thinks fast, and befriends fast. She has an acerbic sense of sarcasm for everyone, but also a compliment for everyone. It is in her nature to be loving.
Even when the implants try tugging her in another direction.
Her brain's condition worsens every day right up until treatment. Months pass Voice by, until her naturally determined and optimistic personality is overshadowed by a quiet suffering. Insomnia forms bags under eyes, paranoia takes away her cheer, depression steals the light out of her smile. Psychosis will finally rob her of sanity- nothing is left.
On a lighter note, she enjoys gardening. Since receiving her final brigade of biotech, she's taken up an interest in growing otherwise sickly plants on artificial substrates and hydroponics.
On another, slightly less light note, she's terrified of doctors and robots.
Short Biography:
Jaclyn Joy Janeway was born broken.
A malformed segment of the brain left her incapable of reaching much beyond an eight-year-old's conception of the world. When she was young, her well-achieved mother and masculine father looked at her as an extension of their success: a beautiful little daughter who would make great things of herself, they were certain. When her mental flaw was uncovered, that joy turned to parental fear.
She was given her first biotech implant.
It small one, buried deep into her brain tissue, but the results were miraculous. Her intelligence sky-rocketed, she was taken from the "special" classes to the normal ones, social skills finally showed signs of life. But while no one could see the electric device adjusting her mind's every signal, she could feel it. It hurt. Very, very badly. Only after months of that little girl begging to "go back the way I was" did a shocked doctor realize the implant was destroying her. It was irremovable, but also unsustainable. She was on the path to death.
So to counteract the malfunctioning, she received five implants.
A few years passed peacefully. "Jackie", she was calling herself, was predominately the star pupil of all her teachers. Then the decay began once more: her movements were jerking, her steps were off. Her mother noticed bruises over the preteen's arms and legs, a new mark left whenever she rammed herself into furniture. Worse, she was talking to herself frequently- nobody could ignore the paranoia, either, or the gradual slip into depression. "Your brain is still fighting the original implant. By rejecting our machinery," the doctor sagely intoned, "your immune system is killing you!"
They could only hope that, by adding yet more devices, they would be able to force the girl's decaying body into accepting her original implantations.
It worked. After a lifetime spent under surgery, modification and adaptation... Jaclyn was finally safe. With one a cruel irony: her parents did this all to give her a normal childhood, but now it was too late for that. She was a teenager. A teenager with a lightning scar of metal veins running through her body, a prosthetic limb replacing her left arm, and a computer articulating thoughts on her behalf. She was intelligent, and she was mostly sane, but she was not a child any longer. Even with the best efforts of the best professionals her family could afford, the original treatment was never perfect. She still requires expert medical care every few months, or a deep insanity will grab hold.
As the years passed, Jaclyn became a sort of home-brewed academic. She never obtained a degree- citing impatience as an excuse not to bother with college- but she surprises everyone with a knowledge of botany, chemistry, physics, engineering and history. However, she's shied away from anything related to biotech.
Given her base of knowledge combined with that propensity for insanity, it is no wonder that she fell into the path of forbidden magics. She was never aggressive or anarchistic, but she did align with painstakers- more from a general curiosity than any sort of dangerous intent.
It was through this underground culture that she first came in contact with a Cleaner who, upon discovering Jacklyn's propensity for atomic control, offered her recruitment. With the growing, growing, growing threat of "permanent brain malfunction" at her back, it was an easy choice for her to join the Cleaners. She feels a drive to do something valuable with her life before it's too late, and a responsibility not to waste the second opportunity this technology has granted her.
Combat:
Magic Style:
Voice's a very willfull, rushed woman. It's reflected in her magic: while she is more than intelligent enough to skip around the arcane Law, she is far too impatient. She shirks away from thoughtcraft. All that time spent inventing a thousand loopholes would drive Jackie insane even faster.
Her powers are incredibly simple; she prefers to call them "effective". She's a Brute, kicking down the mystic barrier like a door- steam rolls her will into the universe. No specific command, no long process of casting, just one of three thoughts: move, energy, or stop. It is too time-consuming to invent a detailed method of killing, as the Thinkers do, so she opts to focus all her power into simple-yet-versatile ideas.
Voice sees no point to extravagant magic. Why cast a fireball, or summon a monster, or freeze an opponent in ice? Some mages clearly read too much fantasy. In reality, when one can control the world around them, only the most base ideas are needed to change everything.
One only needs to command a few atoms, and the whole world will shift.
Energy: Heat and energy are, if not totally the same, at least incredibly similar. Voice has learned how to command atoms to vibrate, generating both. Everything in her vicinity is consumed in ever-expanding heat, as the atoms vibrate faster and faster and faster.
It is truly a horror to see what this will do to a living creature.
Warp: Rather than forcing atoms to shake, she directs them to move. Like most Brutal spells, there is no real micro-management here. All molecules in her sight alter direction totally at random, some moving one way and some moving another. To the untrained mind, that sounds harmless. To anyone with knowledge of physics, this is utterly terrifying.
Imagine your body, when the atoms start to shift. The tissues and organs that hold you together- that make you a living creature- will lose cohesion. They will revert into a pile of disconnected cells. Your cells will revert back to a collection of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. Then the proteins, lipids and carbohydrates will revert into their basic compository elements. What remains? A pile of chemicals, and some acidic water.
She prefers never to use this power. When it is done, nothing is left but an unidentifiable mass of raw materials. Objects, nightmares, buildings, the floor, people: everything tears itself to shreds on a molecular scale.
Needless to say, as much danger is posed to her as to her target. Throwing herself fully into warping the world would be definite suicide. Her own atoms would repel away from eachother at unimaginable velocities. Not even chemicals left. Not even a speck of dust.
She casts this only in the most dire situations. Though it will kill anything made of matter, tremendous willpower is required to prevent her own atoms from fleeing.
Stop: After hearing of Energy and Warp, most people expect this stops atoms. Unfortunately for the Cleaners, Ms. Janeway is not nearly powerful enough to prevent movement on that level. To stop the vibration of atoms and the rotation of electrons around them would be... catastrophic.
This is one skill she does not need to think about. If someone attacks you, what first runs through your mind? Stop! Jaclyn has taught herself to instinctually pump magic into this thought, ceasing attacks towards her. It may erect a barrier against spells, or push an incoming bullet backwards. Of course, everytime she does it, she grows a little more weary. It will not stop a determined nightmare- it will simply hold them off.
Her code-name derives from an odd little quirk: whenever Voice's magic is used, she shouts or growls or yelps or performs some guttural vocalization. It's an instinct she developed back in the early days of her magic, when the implant was even more rejected than it is now- at a spell being cast, a jolt of pain would dance through her skin from head to toe. The habit has stuck.
Membership: Semi-new. She has been a Cleaner for a solid year. While she's adapted to the lifestyle quickly, several months were spent during this time to develop the B.I.P.A. She has executed only a small number of nightmares, but impressively, she managed to "warp" one out of existence after the rest of her team was... eaten. She has yet to be assigned a new squad, as Voice only recently recovered from massive injuries self-inflicted by the spell.
Equipment: As far as weaponry goes: she carries a fully automatic assault rifle on most missions, matched with a pistol for back-up.
Armor is another story.
B.I.P.A. stands for Biotech Interfacing Personal Armor. It's a unique device, as far as Jaclyn knows, having been made exclusively for her. She recruited the aid of several biotech experts to build a form of armor that would connect to her implants, increasing her natural reaction speed while also protecting her from simple bullets or spells.
She uses the device primarily because she knows her combat training is minimal, but her style of magic forces her to get close to a target.
Interpersonal:
Relationships: To be filled out as characters are interacted with.
Character Impressions: To be filled out as characters are encountered.
Name: Sabrina Mortimer Codename: Advent, but a lot of people just call them Doc Color Scheme: ACE7EA DE0000 Age: 32 Gender: F Personality: Inquisitive Obsessive Creative Kleptomania and hoarding: specifically when it has to do with things they might use for modification, their room is full of junk machine parts, preserved animal bits and various creations either dormant or wandering about. Generally rather cheerful and optimistic: Good for bedside manner, rather odd coming from a monstrosity or a woman elbow deep in a corpse warping the laws of nature to their will. morally consciousness: Is aware that their experiments are not for everyone, as a result they don't force their mods on anyone, even if they think they would be an improvement.
Originally an employee at Courtlandt Holdings having attended one of the Thremont Lord’s schools, specifically to study the interfacing of magitechnology and biological systems. They spent a lot of their free time locked up in a dingy apartment obsessively poking and prodding a the limits of the arcane, fascinated by the ability to create and reshape reality and frustrated in the myriad of restrictions in place. She eventually ended up looking most into the idea of using magic to create minions, first to make their life easier, then as a hobby and finally devolving into a full blown obsession.
Using modification of existing life forms and more importantly, AI controlled devices they slowly began to create more bizarre, sometimes useful, but mainly just interesting creations, with no rhyme or reason to what they worked on on a particular day. However this knowledge had to be gained by trips to the Necronomicon when hunting for info on the dark web would not suffice. As painstalkers will not meet with drones or proxy servants they ended up using their modification magic to change themselves and make sneaking in easier by making herself faster, using rudimentary chameleon tech to hide and letting them take less conventional routes with climbing claws, gills or wings. More and more modification resulted in them looking less and less human each trip and the tales of some strange beast slinking in and out of the Necronomicon is what first brought her to the attention to Cleaners, who assumed there was some nightmare that had crawled out of its hole.
He was attacked and, though she had neither the training or skills to defeat (or even hurt) the cleaner after her, her modified form and myriad of experimental creatures were enough to allow her survival till they both ended up having to flee from the approaching Agents and Policus response.
Having had to work together to escape the cleaner, after it became clear she was not in fact a nightmare, gave her an ultimatum, either join the cleaners, give up her ‘hobby’ or be hunted for the rest of her (guaranteed to be short) life for her magic. This was all because it was inconvenient to have her start rumors that could be mistake for nightmare sightings every time she or her monstrosities get noticed and they would rather not waste time following a lead only to find out it’s Sabrina again.
They accepted, because at this point their magic was their life as she had just lost everything else to the police retaliation on her infested home (and to some experimental gun-beasts exploding), and the existence of nightmares was a fascinating revelation. Getting to now help/show off her creations was an added boon so they eagerly requested they be made a member.
Predominantly creation based, they circumnavigate parts of the alchemy restrictions by making their edits to molecular structure and mass creation look like cell replication or mutation, allowing them to better mold existing flesh and machinery into specific, if similar, parts for their creation(modify DNA, make hair into cartilage, flesh from several different creatures compatible and stop the rejection of inorganic parts etc.). This energy injection is what allows the large mods to function despite their high energy requirements, feeding the body with magic rather than digestion.
Sabrina’s magic style is mostly preparatory, they modify themselves before a mission and bring along various specialized organisms to help. They can modify existing life forms by adding, removing or remodeling their physical structure, they create horror or beauty from flesh and steel, controlled by circuits and nerves.
The target of this has to stay still while Sabrina edits them, so they must either be willing or unconscious, while suspended in a glowing circle drawn around the subject (looks like a summoning circle projecting a column of light surrounding the subject). As a result the simplest thing to do is to take AI programs, that can be relied upon to not move, which they have experience in working with from their time at Courtlandt Holdings, and building something around that. Modified lab mice work well as a basis for a biological system, as do bugs, controlling the will of the organism via implanted chip but letting the bio brain do most of the literal leg work.
These are ‘bound’ to Sabrina’s will via extensive additions to her mind, magitechnology based cybernetics have been used to modify Sabrina’s brain and skull letting her send and receive signals to her various creations.
The magic can be used for rudimentary terrain manipulation and simple modifications/creations can be made on the fly out of on site equipment, the magic can also be used to heal if there is flesh available and enough time, rebuilding the damaged part of the person.
The forms are all generally made for a specific task or role. Spidery gun drones, massive attack dogs, simple spy camera equipped bugs, creatures to act as lab assistants or simply interesting looking pets.
Body examples
This consists mostly of adding parts to a human and improving the musculature than warping the body entirely and thus can be done rather quickly by preserving those parts and practically putting them on like a suit before a brief fusing period.
Full body modification, this takes much longer to swap in and out off as well as a lot of additional biomass to add additional size
Basically a Bio-mechanical mech at this point, entered and then bonded to the user who curls up in the chest cavity, but it is not stealthy and has massive power consumption, its faster to get into that a medium morph and so can be useful for an unexpected base defense rather than going out on missions.
Membership: New. Been here for about 3 months, most of that is combat training, providing medical assistance, tinkering, providing modified experimental equipment(with various degrees of success in their operation) or watching more experienced Cleaners do their work so that she can learn from them. Equipment: This mostly depends what they have done to themselves today, but they always have a collection of spare AI chips for modding stuff on the fly as well as some personal computing equipment to program said chips either on their person or on a nearby creation.
Weapon wise they either use the bioweapons(claws, blades, organic launcher weapons) of their modifications or installed/wielded laser weaponry.
Theme Song:
Relationships:
Voice She feels sorry for the woman, for the stigma her modifications bring her and for her cycle of decay, that someone would be so stupid as to put some unreliable piece of tech in some one and not ensure it was removable is a disgrace to Advent’s field. Shifting personality is complicated, but their combined chipper attitude and academic background means Advent find her rather easy to get along with while she is on the up and up, though this may not be reciprocated. As she descends the nature of her work would probably drive a wedge between them faster than the others and Advents attempts to bridge this divide probably have mixed results.
Zer0 Finds it somewhat ironic that the old men want Advent to have nothing to do with the young protege yet have forcibly placed here in a more dangerous situation than her Painstalker kidnappers. If they work together she keeps a close eye on their young support personnel, either personally if she is acting as medic or through a minion if she is on the front lines because the teenager really should not be here and she gets the impression that Zer0 might have left if not for her promise to her Gramps.
Hex A fellow Painstalker, melee fighter and minion user. Advent wishes her creatures where as resilient as Glav, though the complicated control system and free will of the beast seem inferior to her magitechnology based command and control system. Personally she seems like she could be fun to be around, a sense of humor(even if it is snark based) adds some levity to the grim bunch, though her previous gang affiliation is somewhat concerning. Advent specifically went to great lengths to avoid being recruited to any of those violent groups, so it is unlikely they have had any prior run ins with one another.
Warthog She finds the former Policus attitude to others rather inspirational, they are here with a genuine desire to protect people from the nightmares, something that seems lacking among most of the rest (including herself, though she is trying to change that). She tries to laugh off his little friendly fire incidents, suggesting she replace his eyes with something better but is some what worried he is trying to secretly do her in. The fact that in their former career they would have done so without hesitation does not help dissuade her from this worry, neither does their rather friendly attitude with the resident psychopathic assassin End, indicating he may not be the pillar of justice as they appeared to be at first glance. She can't argue with how useful the firepower he brings is though, so it is probably worth the risk to work with him.
Runner As a Painstalker they are naturally untrusting of the former Prohibitum Agent, though at least this one realizes there are more dangerous things in the world than Painstalkers. Has a similar worry of being shot in the back as she has with Warthog, tough at least this guy hasn’t tried yet. They do not get along well, in their former lives they would have been directly at odds and the tension in the air is palpable, though Runner probably should worry more about the other Painstalkers who actually have (other people's)blood on their hands.
End This one is a mess, if there was anyone the above two should be worried about it was this little psychopath and she was often surprised by their willingness to work with someone who was the epitome of what made Painstalkers dangerous. If End had ever done hits against other Painstalkers Advent may have been warned/told about End by her contacts in her previous life and as such is generally cautious around the assassin. Personally she finds the woman’s thrill seeking and lack of moral fiber a dangerous mix, she is worried that End is liable to screw up a job or worse turn on her allies simply for the thrill of it.
Arsenal One of Courtlandt Holdings’ security personnel was not someone she expected to find in the cleaners. This apparently being the third institution they had both been a part of but Advent is rather glad they did not meet in the prior two, even without Arsenal’s vitriol about Advent’s magic the woman is cold and perhaps a bit full of herself. Then again when you can call in artillery strikes out of thin air you probably have the right to be a bit cocksure. Arsenal, as with most of the others who have an extreme distaste for Advent’s work, are kept at arm's length unless they need put back together.
Echo Unlike some of the other thrill seekers Echo seems like more of a self improvement and seeking a worthy opponent kind of guy than an adrenaline junkie, which while the distinction is perhaps arbitrary is more to her liking. It might just be because she likes him more as a person, he is more fun than End or Blitz. As another graduate of Thremont lord’s schools and as the kind of person who took up magic because they like magic, though she went further than him by breaking the rules rather than simply pushing their limits. The first two might bring them together while the last may be a point of contention. As a giant living radar he is a nice early warning system and can pick up stuff her sniffer pets might miss, they probably end up working together on actually finding the Nightmares.
Blitz Lawdart armed speed freak, where arsenal is the artillery corps this guy is the air support. Shame it seems like he is kind of a jerk and the guy appears to keep to himself most of the time. Seemingly the kind of guy who can be relied upon to get down to business, but as with End his thrill seeking is somewhat concerning, though this one seems to be more uncaring than psychopathic. Considering her and her pets will end up close to nightmares if she engages them she really hopes the guy understands friendly fire and doesn't let his ally's be caught up in his aerial strafing runs. Darts traveling at up to Match 6 sound incredibly lethal for anyone in the area.
Diva Despite her age she wants to be here, unlike Zer0, she is also someone who sees the versatility of magic and advent absolutely loves what she has gone and done with. It might not be as efficient as some of the others but it’s certainly the most fun magic she has ever seen and the idea of using music to augment/structure the thoughts used to perform magic is a very interesting (she may need to steal the idea see if it can make simple healing faster). As on the other support personnel she imagines she, Diva and Zer0 will all be sticking together to provide buffs, de-buffs and healing, this she is rather happy with, as she gets a front row seats to Diva’s performance. Diva’s genuine enthusiasm and general cheerfulness are most definitely appreciated, plus her eccentricities make this whole business a lot less stressful.
Be a hero. Protect the people. Defend liberty and justice. This was the mantra that Gerard believed in. His father was an officer for Policus. To Gerard, his father was a hero – a defender of justice. He grew up on the stories his dad used to tell of people being hurt and Policus stepping in to defend them.
It was no surprise that Gerard became an officer for Policus, nor would it a surprise that he would be the hero of the Sai-Lei massacre.
The Sai-Lei was a large restaurant, known for their exorbitant prices and food that was worth the cost. Rich people tended to eat out daily at the restaurant. It was obvious that the Sai-Lei was going to be a target of a terror attack.
Thirty people died that day. Most of them magnates. Yet, sixty were, all at the hands of one off-duty officer who happened to be attempting to impress a woman. Battered, bruised, shot, and cut, Gerard managed to live through that day. After his recovery, he ended up being promoted to a new unit, one that suited his skills.
The AUT was formed shortly after the Sai-Lei massacre to combat the increasing amount of terrorist attacks. Their motto was simple - "by any means." They were given prototype weapons and armour suited to them and spent the next 30 years responding to any terrorist attack in any district. The AUT managed to gain a nasty moniker from the people - "Reapers." Wherever they go, death shall follow.
The AUT were dismantled after the Coup Incident. A group of Policus officers, disagreeing with the growing police-state, stole armaments and went to fight Policus. The AUT were the first response to the insurrection. The coup was almost instantly destroyed. No one would have expected the vast gap in power. The Commanders realized the danger of having such a powerful and neutral entity in their midst. Thus, the members of the AUT were given two choices: Retire and never speak about the AUT again or else.
Gerard was in the latter category, much like some of his comrades. They decided to stay in their base of operations. No matter who came after them, no matter what consequence, they would protect the people. They would continue their duty. They would be brothers until the end.
And the end they met.
The base was instantly destroyed by some sort of weapon. All his comrades were dead. Yet, Gerard managed to live thanks to his armour. It protected him. He escaped and spent five years hiding. By sheer luck - good or bad - someone managed to find the stash were he kept his equipment from the good ol' days. Rather than report it to Policus, they offered him a job to protect the people once more.
Gerard easily accepted.
Magic Style: Mass Shift In simplest terms, Gerard can increase or decrease the mass of objects that he is touching. This allows him to use his armour and weapon without putting immense pressure on his old body. He can also increase the mass of the suit and rifle, making recoil negligible. This, however, puts an immense strain on his body. His upper limit is around ten times the mass, and his lower limit is around one-tenth of the mass.
Membership: Old, about two years in.
Equipment: Heavyware Prototype - Jörmungandr – Created by Heavyware to fill the gap needed for Policus' heavy armaments needs, the Jörmungandr was a complete failure. Weighing one hundred pounds (not including ammunition) and firing up to 50 bullets/second (luckily, can be fired at 5 bullets/second), the gun was impossible for regular troops to carry, the recoil was unmanageable, and the barrel needed to be changed after 5 seconds of firing to prevent warping. Despite this, the prototype did end up seeing usage in the (now-defunct) AUT division of Policus by one particular member. The gun is, in and of itself, terrifying. It has a very signature sound that is loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage.
Heavyware Prototype - Mastodon – An experiment to miniaturize an exosuit for urban operation, the Mastodon was designed to carry large weaponry and act as mobile cover. Resistant to AP rounds and immune to most civilian rounds, the Mastodon is four hundred pounds of defense. However, this weight severely limits movement. The Mastodon, while the technology had been repurposed in later years, was considered a failure. It was too heavy and large for urban usage, but too small and slow for non-urban usage. It was even critiqued that it was designed for appearance and not practicality. Additionally, the Mastodon can carry 750 rounds of ammunition for the Jörmungandr - an entire 15 seconds of firing.
Relationships: Rather positive, the two work together well. He acts as a doting parent towards her, much to her chagrin. Gerard doesn't interact much with Voice. They are rather neutral to each other. Gerard thinks Doc is a degenerate. He has a tendency to shoot at them on the battlefield, intentional or not. Gerard spoils Zer0. He knows that he will not replace Gramps, but still stays close to the young girl to protect her. A strictly professional relationship. Neither one really talks to each other out of missions, but they respect each other. remind me to do this one when i'm not a degenerate
Character Impressions: Gerard thinks that Hex seems like a decent person, but is a bit rude.
Click me for pic Name: Vivian 'Vivi' Goldberg Codename: Zer0 D4em0n.exe - 'Title' she was known as while with Freudentanz.
Color Scheme: #660099 #000000 Age: 17 Gender: Female Personality:
Lethargic
Curious
Bright
Kind
Distrustful
Game Addict
Dislikes violence
Short Biography: Vivian was a more-or-less ordinary, but clever, child born into an ordinary family with an ordinary life. Since young, the girl was surrounded by the wonders of technology - developing an unhealthy addiction towards gaming.
The girl was living in the 'here&now'; not caring about her future. Soon, the growing girl discovered another part of the internet: the deep web. It was after that the game-addict picked up her very own style of magic: Thought Division. The ability to split and enhance her brain/mind into multiple parts - capable to work independent from each other or together for greater results.
With a small flame of passion sparked inside her Vivian developed her ability further and further - turning her brain into a supercomputer of sorts. Still, while she could have done so much more, all the purple-haired girl did was mess around; and one day, she messed with the wrong people.
It was a simple job for them. Abduct the girl and use her in their own interests. It didn't even take an hour. Just like that, Vivian Goldberg became a missing person.
Despite them never having managed to completely break her will, 'Freudentanz', as they called themselves, had enough experience to manipulate a young girl to do to their bidding without the fear of retaliation. Having done many things that Vivian wasn't proud of, it took around 2 years for everything to change: A Nightmare for others, a Miracle for her.
It was over before Vivian even realized that it had began. She had heard the screams. She had heard the gunfire. But by the time the old metallic door she was held in was broken open it was a group of people she had never seen before: Cleaners.
Being generally good people, an older Cleaner titled Gramps decided to take care of her - seeing the usefulness of the ability she possessed.
Vivian learned a lot from him and helped her developing Thought Division even further until he tragically passed away just a year later. Despite not wanting to be part of this part of the world, Vivian promised Gramps to fulfil his wish. Surely, there couldn't be too many Nightmares left.
Magic Style:
Thought Division&Technomancy Vivian is a Supercomputer on two legs with an Antenna on her head. Able to split her mind into multiple partitions capable to work independent or together.
What originally started out harmless, nourished into an ability that could control an entire mechanized army of death robots - as long as she has access to it. While wireless signals are easy prey to Vivi; closed off networks need some sort of entry-point: something simple like her finger touching an USB port could already suffice. While this may be useful against anything that is not a Nightmare, Vivian had to put some serious effort into developing her ability into something that was of use as a Cleaner. Ultimately, she ended up to be more of a support role - for now.
Overclocking Vivian's manipulation of devices doesn't have to be negative. Instead, the girl is also capable of overclocking the equipment of her allies. While Overclocking has usually a bad effect on the Hardware Vivian's Algorithm Control is capable to minimize the dangers.
Algorithm Control Vivian sees everything made up of algorithms. Every (re)action is followed by one, or multiple, (re)action(s). Vivian is capable of manipulating those - to an extent. Giving her or her team a more favourable outcome.
Gl1tch.exe A simple reactive offensive spell that aims to disrupt her foe. The power of this ability can vary immensely - though Vivian isn't capable of producing anything too strong. Just like the name suggest, Gl1tch.exe doesn't have to create a logical result: a gun that is about to shot a bullet could instead let out a bouquet.
Link-Up! Through simple contact with others, Vivian is capable of 'linking up' with them, treating their mind just like her own. Usually used to enhance the strength of other spell casters or collecting information. The closer the contact, the better Vivi can help. Reading the entire brain, memories and so on of someone else however requires contact on a level she refuses to do.
Membership: New
Equipment: Vivian only carries a bare minimum of equipment around as she mostly relies on her magic and is more of a background support anyways.
Liberator-XL300: A one-handed shotgun for simple self-defense. Vivian carries a few, but different, kinds of ammunition with her around.
Carbyne-Jacket and Cloak: Maybe not taking this Cleaner business serious enough, Vivian only carries a bare minimum of defense around.
Once upon a time, there was a talented Agent rising through the ranks of the Prohibitum. Jiangli Lao made waves straight out of the academy as he brought down several criminal mages and Painstakers in his rookie year alone.
After a few more years of distinguished service, Jiangli was fast-tracked into a special response unit for magical incidents too much for Policus or individual Agents to handle.
The special response team's first and only mission was an unmitigated disaster. What had thought to be a turf war between Painstakers of rival criminal organizations escalated into an utter bloodbath as a battle between a large nightmare and several Cleaners spilled onto the battle and added to the chaos.
Faced with a battle on multiple fronts, Jiangli's captain made the order to focus on the Painstakers, despite the threat of the Nightmare tearing its way through Cleaners, Painstakers, and fellow Agents alike. Jiangli followed orders nevertheless and withdrew with the rest of his squad once the Painstakers were neutralized, leaving the weakened Cleaners to endure the nightmare's assault, but protested to his superiors upon returning to headquarters. However, the higher-ups determined that the captain had made the right call in the situation.
Jiangli was incensed. Why couldn't they see that the nightmares were a threat equivalent to or even greater than any Painstaker? Rogue mages could at least reason; nightmares were utter beasts set on nothing but destruction. With no hope of support from the Magus Prohibitum, Jiangli abandoned the Agent ranks and set off in search of a way to track down and join the Cleaners.
Magic Style:
Temporal Distortion Jiangli's personal brand of chronomancy revolves around creating localized fields of temporal distortion that either accelerate or drastically slow down anything that passes through them, allowing him to bypass a mage's PRF so long as they physically touch the field that he erects. His distortions take the form of runic circles drawn in the air, and any physical object that passes through one is affected by his chronomancy. Jiangli typically prefers to use fields of acceleration while on the offensive, while decelerating attacks on the defensive.
Membership: One year
Equipment:
Heavyware Raptor Suit Mk. 8 - A well-balanced armored exoskeleton designed to be adaptable to most battlefields. Provides a happy medium of speed and protection compared to light and heavy armor lines.
Serrated Motor Blade - A sword with motorized, serrated blades that run along the edge of the blade. In other words, a chainsword. The blade is a Thremont prototype with a motor powered by will alone. Taken by Jiangli years ago as a battle trophy during his days as an Agent.
Heavyware Executor EMT - The precursor to the Punisher model, but still preferred over the Punisher by veteran marksmen. More difficult to use than the Punisher, with only a ten round magazine and a heavier frame, but fires a larger caliber to compensate. Fires HE, AP, and subsonic ammunition.
Relationships:
End Fellow pistol aficionado. Socializes on a semi-regular basis with her, bonding over their shared love of heavy pistols and mutual disgust of Advent's creations.
Voice A tragic soul. Jiangli's not particularly bothered by the implants. He'd seen worse during his time as an Agent, and from much nastier people at that.
Advent No. Just fucking no. Jiangli knew he'd be working with Painstakers when he signed up, but this tests his limits. If the threat of Nightmares wasn't the only thing keeping the group together, he would have brought this sick bastard in months ago.
Warthog Respects him as a veteran with a damn sight more field experience than his own. Sticks to a professional relationship.
Zer0 A nice kid, but too young to be doing this kind of thing. Wish she'd get off his ass about the smoking, though. He needs his vices.
Hex Tolerable. Jiangli doesn't show it, but he's still slightly hesistant to work with Painstakers after so long as a Prohibitorium Agent. Still, it wasn't as if he could fault her for developing magical abilities without warning. Hopefully she manages to stay outside of the law's reach while still a Cleaner.
Name: Elizabeth "Liza" Carmine Codename: Hex Color Scheme: 2e3192 and 121212 Age: 23 Gender: Female Personality: - calculating - sarcastic - snarky - confident - carefree - protective - has a secret soft spot for demon dog lizards
Elizabeth Carmine was born into a family of completely normal people with no magical abilities whatsoever. After being tested for magical potential and receiving almost abnormally negative results, she was sent on the same path most people with insufficient magical abilities go. The girl studied in the fields of architecture with high hopes and aspirations, but ended up as a technical assistant on some semi-legal mining colony that made most of its profits by digging up the remains of forgotten civilisations and selling the useless rubble on black markets.
One day, Liza managed to steal what appeared to be an old book from an otherwise unimpressive haul of ancient trash. She originally wanted to sell the tome herself, hoping that she'd be able to finance her ticket out of the shitty grind, but luck was not on her side. The facility was attacked by painstakers shortly after, and although they killed a lot of the workers, some of them were taken hostage, Liza included. After the panic over being kidnapped died down, the mind-numbing boredom of being locked in a cell for what seemed like a lifetime settled in. The girl started reading in the book she somehow managed to smuggle along, and although she didn't understand a word of what was written there, there was something enticing about the sound of those syllables. Something made her continue through the pages until she found herself whispering incomprehensible words.
Then, suddenly, there was meaning. The knowledge didn't flow into her, it felt like it had been there from the very beginning. As if she simply looked at the world the wrong way up until now. Suddenly, she knew what this book really was, what it meant to be its owner and the powers that came along with it. And she knew the powers that came with this ownership were her way out of the hole that was her life. To the painstakers great surprise, their unexpectedly potent prisoner had a rather loose sense of morals and didn't seek retribution for her kidnapping, she wanted to join them.
While her newfound powers bought her a place among the painstakers, her new sense of self-preservation allowed the girl to survive long enough to educate herself in the art of combat. This did nothing to stop the people around her from dying like flies though (although it is not entirely impossible that Liza's unnatural company had something to do with this).
Eventually there came the day when fate came looking for her once again. In form of a Nightmare kicking down her front door, probably attracted by the strong magical signature of the relic in her possession. About half an hour later, after that thing had destroyed half the neighbourhood, the cleaners came to help. While Liza was not able to kill the nightmare on her own, she had managed to keep it busy for long enough to be noticed and didn't hesitate a second when they offered her a job.
All of Liza's magical abilities come exclusively from the relic that is known as the CHAOS CODE. Ownership of this tome is established by reading a specific passage of the book out loud or killing the previous owner. As soon as ownership is acquired, the user immediately receives comprehensive knowledge of the language the CHAOS CODE is written in as well as awareness of where key passages are found in book, as if they had studied it thoroughly. Without this knowledge the CHAOS CODE is effectively useless, ensuring that there is only ever one person able to access it at a time. Ownership of the book brands the wielder with two runic affinities, which dictate their available spells and prohibit usage of all other forms of magic permanently. The owner of the CHAOS CODE is granted psychokinetic control over the CHAOS CODE itself and any one object that has previously been turned into a focus through a lengthy enchanting ritual. This occupies one hand per levitating object. An established focus is used to mark objects or individuals with shamanic runes through brief physical contact. The mark itself is painless, invisible and can not be removed. The wielder of the CHAOS CODE can activate all placed runes at once by reading certain phrases out of the CHAOS CODE aloud. The wielder is able to maintain a total amount of six placed runes at a time. Having six runes placed at the same time enables the option to activate a rune on any visible surface at range, but this sacrifices all previously placed runes in return. Chanting the respective passage out of the CHAOS CODE allows for all runes to activate instantly, as soon as they are placed. Runic affinities define the effect of active runes.
Liza's primary runic affinity is the GRUDGE rune. The GRUDGE rune curses the wielder, causing a RUNIC BEAST to haunt them. This RUNIC BEAST can instantly relocate to Liza's momentary location, cloak itself at will, regenerate any amount of damage and does not require oxygen or food to persist. It can be damaged and disabled, but killing it permanently is impossible. While not immediately harmful her, the contract between Liza and this creature as established by the CHAOS CODE dictates that it will end the wielders life once their ownership of the CHAOS CODE ends. When Liza activates a previously placed rune, her RUNIC BEAST will immediately attack the marked object/individual, consuming one mark with every attack. It is possible to empower the RUNIC BEAST by chanting the correct section from the CHAOS CODE, allowing the beast to freely attack the target without consuming marks, but this disables all effects of her secondary runic affinity for the duration. While Liza's own physical strikes with the focus do not exceed human strength, her beasts delayed attacks inflict significant damage with its obsidian claws and corrosive saliva. It is noteworthy that Liza is unaffected by said corrosive substance. Although activated runes force the beast to attack, the creature is sentient and acts independently whenever it sees fit to do so. Its true motivations are unknown, but there have been multiple instances implying that the creature has either grown fond of Elizabeth or seeks to extend her ownership over the CHAOS CODE. Although Liza initially named the creature "Glav", she later found a passage in the tome indicating that its name might actually be "Labolas".
Liza's secondary runic affinity is the GUARD rune. GUARD passively shields the user from physical harm by deflecting incoming attacks whenever the CHAOS CODE is being used. This can deflect up to four attacks before Liza has to recite a passage from the CHAOS CODE to recharge the ability. Four light blue flames hovering next to her represent the currently active charges. Initial activation of this ability is "free", but recharging GUARD mid-combat without a lengthy session of meditation will force the Glav to bite Liza once. The user can chant a specific section of the CHAOS CODE to empower the deflection effect, causing a burst of blue flame to erupt from the point of impact to damage attackers. However, no new marks can be placed with this chant being active. It is possible to transfer protective charges to allies in emergency situations by reading the respective passage from the CHAOS CODE, but the user can only maintain a total of 4 protective charges, and active charges can not be "recalled" from an ally. This takes away one layer of GUARD from the wielder until the shielded ally is actually attacked.
Combat suit "Firefly" The combat suit "Firefly" is a fairly standard set of utility-focused armor with a few specific modifications. The primary feature of the Firefly series suits are directional boost units that allows the wearer to leap around a battlefield at impressive speed. The main exhaust unit on its back works in tandem with several smaller exhaust units on arms and legs to amplify speed and force of basic running and jumping motions. The suit foregoes protective features almost entirely to provide maximum performance in terms of unhindered movement and agility. Its state-of-the-art regenerative fabric technology is able to repair damage done by penetrative or cutting weaponry to shield the user from extreme temperatures and vacuum. The helm Liza uses is custom-made and provides visual aid in tracking Glav's movements during combat, as well as basic vision modes. Its design is reminiscent of ancient shamanic masks described in the CHAOS CODE. All technical features of the suit are operated by an unshielded battery system that needs to recharge and can be disabled, but the suit is built with such an event in mind and so lightweight that it wouldn't hinder the user regardless.
Focus Glaive "Grudgel" A standard-issue energy glaive used by slightly more specialised forces but practically everywhere, with a few modified features. At its core the design is that of a durable mechanical staff with a purely mechanical blade on one end and a simple energy-based blade on the other. This model had its energy-blade removed and replaced by a simple industrial chromatic particle marker. Striking a target with this blunt end of the glaive will cause a small eruption of blue particle fragments that adhere to any surface and can easily be wiped off. This glaive is Liza's chosen focus. Striking any target with the blunt end imbues a rune. The blue particles fulfill no other purpose than to mark the location of placed runes for easier tracking. Removing the blue dust does not free a target of the hunters mark. Striking a target with the blade on the other side of the glaive does not imbue a rune, but offers the convenience of directly inflicting damage.
Stryker/v07 Pistol Liza carries a standard issue Stryker v7 within her standard combat equipment. She is not particularly experienced with this weapon and doesn't have a free hand to use it anyway, most of the time... but it feels nice to have one available.
SG-048 "Fragment" Grenades Two standard issue grenades that synergize nicely with her available magic and can make the nightmares shut up permanently.
Membership: Complete newb! Relationships: SOON
End @ERode Has crazy useful abilities, which is worthy of being respected in its own right, but doesn't really do anything for Hex in particular. Her unnecessary thrill-seeking seems out of place, but everyone has their vices. Hex would have been rather indifferent about this one, but what little interaction they had thus far hinted at End having some sort or problem with her for no obvious reason. And Liza is the kind of person to gain great amusement from such superficial irritation and push the envelope with sarcastic friendliness.
Voice @Jeyma While Hex regards her magical abilities with a bit of jealousy, the body that comes with it is pretty much the opposite. During her time with the Painstakers, she'd seen a couple of tech'd up freaks every now and then so the mere sight of Voice doesn't really make her flinch anymore. Ultimately she seems nice, giving Hex no reason to be mean to her.
Advent @DracoLunaris The Doc is a curious case. Her flesh-craft weapons are rather interesting to behold, and it's nice that there are still folks out there who don't exclusively rely on bullets, these days. Plus, being on good terms with the only medic around is really useful, when you have to pay for your only defense system with gaping wounds. It helps that said medic is one of the few positive and genuinely-fun-to-be-around people.
Warthog @SilverDawn He's protective, clad in heavy armor and draws a lot of attention. Hex' sense of self-preservation immediately left her a mental note to play particularly nice around this one, because getting on the good side of 'that kind of guy' always pays off.
Zer0 @Skyswimsky Hex doesn't share everyone elses 'oh gosh she's way too young to be here' kind of attitude. She respects anyone who's managed to survive and adapt, and particularly when someone specialises in backup/support roles (even if her support magics don't synergize with Hex' skillset at all). Unsung heroes, all of them. But the nightmares wouldn't give her any extra chances due to her age, so the overprotectiveness of some of the others is met with dry disapproval from Hex' side. Despite often acting like the very opposite is the case, Hex would shield the kid from harm in a heartbeat. Grudgingly.
Runner @Psyker Landshark Not much of an opinion on this one. Seems competent, but the smell and attitude are potentially irritating.
Arsenal @Click This Teleporting in airstrikes is pretty damn cool. Hex likes this one for her useful magics, despite Arsenal making it fairly obvious that the feelings are not mutual. They don't have to be friends to work well as a team, but some part of Hex hopes that she can prove her worth to Arsenal on the battlefield. She would make one hell of an ally if Hex didn't have to worry about getting blown up "accidentally".
Rui-Hai was an individual of reasonable talent that fell off the beaten track. Born a ‘Natural,’ she found a particular aptitude for her brand of magic early in her story. Using her talents as a gateway, lured by the glamor of academy life, she started her career as a student of the Thremont institutions.
The complacency of research and remaining stationary in a single place never found themselves compatible with her however, and as her talents and experience grew, she found herself drifting farther and farther away from the life of an academic. Instead, she found her stride as a hired gun, freelancing for any organization that she found to her liking or was fighting against an enemy that roused her interest, fueling her lust for adrenaline. All along the way, she would find reason to expand her inventory.
Working discreetly, she eventually found herself working heavily with a surprisingly unrelated sort of organization: elements of Courtlandt Holdings. In retrospect, it would seem obvious that certain companies would have more skeletons in the closet than others, but her jobs paid well but were infinitely boring. When she was offered the job as acting as a glorified security guard, she nearly broke off the relationship on the spot. With much persuasion, however, she was persuaded to take the job, finding herself with the mundane duty of protecting research facility.
It was there that she encountered her first nightmare. In the ensuing battle that followed, she met her match, nearly demolishing herself and the facility along with the monster in a last-ditch artillery barrage. Her relationship with Courtlandt ceased soon after, but by then, she’d already found a new job.
The cleaners.
Magic Style:
Fold
Rui-Hai focuses heavily on a specialized area of magic that at its core, is neither offensive nor defensive in nature. A more esoteric spell in nature, she folds space itself to create small portals to other locations, enabling her to store and quickly retrieve a large arsenal of weaponry for use on the fly. At long distances, she can only pass inanimate, non-biological objects, but at short ranges of roughly ten meters, she can essentially teleport at will.
Signals, such as radio, readily pass through an open portal, enabling her to use a wireless trigger to operate her larger and more stationary weapons.
Membership: Medium; about one year on the job.
Equipment:
Considering Ney’s skillset, the equipment section is more of signature selection of the collection she owns and carries.
Heavyware Standard Pistol Mk. 3 – A lightweight handgun. Small, compact, reliable, and easy to reload. Only has ten rounds per reload, but Ney never has less than enough ammo to supply a platoon.
Heavyware Vulcan X-2 – Specialized laser gatling cannon. Quiet for its type. An older model, it requires more energy and can fire continuously for seven seconds before overheating.
Heavyware QF750 Mk. 2 Field Howitzer – Rui-Hai’s crown jewel, a 155mm towed artillery piece. Considered a last resort or used in a display of superiority, she has two in her inventory. Normally requiring a crew of three to operate, like most of her more heavy weaponry, the gun is setup beforehand, and in this case, near impossible to reload in combat. Can interface with and be fed targeting data with any Courtlandt Electronics telemetry system, and be prepped beforehand with mission specific shells, including HE, AP, and illumination.
Grenades – More.
Relationships: Character Impressions: (Shit I’ll do in the morning)
Name: Chris Safenos Codename: Echo Color Scheme: fff200 & 00aeef Age: 24 Gender: Male
Personality: Tenacious, unyielding, and principled. Although he’s also boisterous, competitive, and flashy.
His shades are a near constant, and even when broken he seems to pull another pair out from… somewhere. Oddly enough, he smokes less when stressed and often goes cold turkey during any jobs he takes. Silence is almost intolerable to him, though even the faintest of sounds is enough to help settle him down.
Short Biography: Considering his abilities, it isn’t too surprising that Chris didn’t have much of a problem when it came to finding work. Policus was too rigid though. Painstakers didn’t pay any bills, even if they were an interesting lot. The Magus was even worse than Policus. And so on.
The Cleaners though. He worked with them a few times before. First for the pay and experience, and then more for the latter. The Nightmares, awful as they are, made for good enemies. He didn’t have to hold back and got to cut loose when they had to be dealt with. Apparently he made a decent enough impression that they found him after he was done with the Thremonts.
Done with an eight year stint at one of their Academies in Neo Babylon that is. A lot of the time there was spent learning how the systems he wanted to duplicate with his magic actually worked and then applying that knowledge to help in actualizing his magic. If the Cleaners ever fell through, he’s confident he could probably find a spot within Heavyware. He did a brief stint with their R&D department a few years back through a program with the school, and it was an enjoyable experience for all that he learned it wasn’t something he wanted to do for year after year.
Even earlier on, his experimentations with magic were fueled by the sights of news reports. A child didn’t necessarily comprehend the damages and danger as fights bled out into public spaces and winded up on the news. He just saw the lightning and flames that washed over the nightmare, or someone who batted aside chunks of concrete several time larger than themselves. The cool things. And naturally he was inspired.
Magic Style: Calling Chris a human sensor array is a fairly accurate summation. While well learned through the Thremont institutes, he nonetheless relies heavily on Brute methodology to manipulate the levels of energy he harnesses. His mind is just as sharp as any Painstakers though, and it must be in order to process all the information he receives.
At its most basic, Chris is capable of generating radio and light waves as well as sound pulses. Naturally he’s also able to receive any sort of bounceback, thus mimicking the function of radar, lidar, and sonar respectively. While his range can be rather large, extending his awareness past 100 yards or so increases the attention he has to devote to being distractive. To actually duplicate the effects of a sensor system and map out his surroundings at range, Chris generally cuts off all other awareness of his surroundings.
In terms of offense, he can focus and amplify the radio waves and sound pulses he releases into deadly weapon. Enough radio waves can flash fry biologicals, while a powerful enough sound wave can stagger and nauseate. As a side effect of drawing energy from his surroundings, the temperature tends to drop rather dramatically around him. Those without protection can find themselves exposed to frostbite and shock as their body temperature free falls.
Membership: Just in over a year now.
Equipment Prototype-003 “Jötunn”: The latest model of Chris’ ever developing exoskeletal armor suit, the Jötunn is designed with protection first in mind. While its bulky nature does limit his overall mobility, the suit can surge to increase maneuverability and speed in short bursts. The numerous layers of material are sufficient to withstand sustained small arms fire without any issue, while several gel layers serve to dissipate forces or harden to help withstand trauma.
More importantly though, the numerous layers serve to insulate Chris from external hazards. It was designed to function in the face of the sharp changes in temperatures his powers can cause, and protects him in environments ranging from below -100°C to brief exposures of over 1000°C.
Heavyware Sicarus (Modded): A rather ornate handgun that Chris refers to as 3-G, the base model is a reliable sidearm that fires a tight burst of three rounds. His version proves to be tougher, allowing more powerful rounds to be used, and holds 24 rounds a magazine as opposed to the standard 18.
Flight Gear Armor Name: Ian Hart Codename: Blitz Color Scheme: #003471 #9e0b0f Age: 27 Gender: Personality:
Private
Rebellious
Nihilistic
Callous
Casual
Short Biography: Ian was a Criminal. Smuggling, theft, fencing(of the illegal variety), and arms dealing were all within his domain. Of course he was eventually caught. It would be wrong to say that he was ever sorry for anything that he's done, but Ian does regret being arrested. Especially by those Policus guys.
He was released eventually and with some luck most of his hiding spots were untouched by both law enforcement and those that he did business with. After some time he found a new line of work, something where his name wouldn't be widely known. Ian found hunting nightmares as a cleaner to provide enough of a challenge to keep him interested. An old contact of his directed him towards Cafe Thaza and the rest, as they say, is history.
Magic Style:
[Speed] Ian can propel himself quite easily up to the Arcane Limit, flying in a bubble of air at supersonic speed.
[Speed Break] Velocity is measured from a frame of reference relative to something else, like passengers moving around a train. Ian, to work around the arcane limit bases the frame of reference for his magic around himself, accelerating objects moving with him to up to twice the limit. Likewise, he can also accelerate himself beyond the limit by accelerating a bubble of air around him at ever faster speeds. The upper limit of this is just above mach 4, or twice the Arcane Limit with the help of his armor in resisting the aerodynamic forces.
[Speed Shot] Ian can launch up to six projectiles up to a total mass of a pound at different targets with a velocity approaching the Arcane Limit.
Membership: 2 Months Equipment: Flight Gear: Ians armor, repurposed from a stolen military grade flight suit and aviation tech. It's purchase had set him back quite a sum of money but Ian had been unable to let it go. It protects him from small amounts of damage and helps lessen the stress that his flight puts on his body while providing valuable flight data. Darts: Custom machined projectiles that he can throw with devastating effect. Being an convicted criminal, he must make do with simple metal objects as weapons. Ian usually carries a half dozen on his person with three dozen carried on his armor. Relationships: TBA
End: Dangerous, but who among us isn't?
Voice: A sad story but someone I can trust for the moment.
Doc: I don't trust here. Nobody should tinker with a body like that and those things of hers creep me out.
Warthog: One of those lawful types and he used to be a Policus officer too.
Zer0: Potentially useful
Runner: Great, another lawman.
Hex: Quite the unknown. Could be fun to be around.
Arsenal: What an ability. Should see if she can carry some extra gear for me, would have come in handy while smuggling.
Echo: Too overbearing.
Diva: Way too young for this nonsense. She doesn't seem to be a front line fight and is useful however.
Name: Honoka Oda Codename: Diva Color Scheme: ffdae1 and 68375e Age: probably like 16 or 17 Gender: Female Personality: Honoka is bright, cheerful, and energetic. She tries to always stay positive and look on the bright side of life, no matter how bleak the situation might get. Her attitude can border on the carefree at times, much to the chagrin of her more serious peers. She tries to keep morale high among her allies, despite any friction between them it might cause. A bit of a klutz.
She takes her self-appointed idol status seriously, referring to her ops as “lives” and otherwise behaving more like it’s some sort of performance event than a life and death battle. She is not, however, a complete idiot. Being a talented mage lends itself to some amount of actual smarts, and she does a lot of work developing her abilities, both in and out of school. Her dedication to practice keeps her working hard at anything she believes is important to her future. If only someone could convince her that marksmanship and other combat training was more important than dance and voice lessons…
Short Biography: Honoka lives with her family in a fairly ordinary apartment somewhere in one of the middle-class districts of Neo Babylon. She attends a Thremont school, where she focuses on improving her magical abilities, and other schooling. She’s quite talented, but not a perfect, model student.
At a fairly young and impressionable age, Honoka fell in love with the city’s entertainment sector, particularly the young pop idols who populate a certain segment of it. She has decided that she will be an idol, one way or another. Her attempts to break into the industry proper so far have ended in failure, but she will doggedly keep trying, and continues to train on her own. She works on singing and dance lessons, writes songs and routines, and has essentially set herself up for all of the overworked lifestyle and none of the payoff. Her first attempt at just doing a guerilla concert was also her last.
Honoka’s first encounter with the Cleaners was one of coincidence. She happened to be at the site of an...incident when it happened, because she had planned to just do some sort of pop-up guerilla live show. She was brought in for debriefing after the action was over, as most would be. Her initial curiosity about the organization was rebuffed, but she was never the sort to let that stop her. Honoka persisted in harassing any known agents, or worse, trying to find more active operations against Nightmares, wherein she could interfere and assist. Eventually, she won out by sheer stubbornness, and is now a proud Cleaner herself.
Magic Style: Diva’s magical style is focused on song. She claims her spellcasting is fueled by her “idol spirit” and as such, she must sing to create her effects. Where the accompanying music comes from is anyone’s guess, though it may be a simple ancillary effect to her magical methodology. Each of her songs generates a single effect, although some are flexible enough that she can change some details (a spell granting energy resistance could be selected for a different energy type on every cast, for instance).
Spells: ELEMENT_FIELD - Enhances Honoka and her allies, providing greater resistance from a specific form of energy (fire, cold, electricity, etc.) as well as adding it to their attacks.
PRIMALTHUNDER - Damages all enemies within the area of effect, with greater damage the closer to Honoka. She can fine-tune who, specifically, is targeted.
PURGER - Binds spirits and similar immaterial Nightmare entities and forces them to manifest in a physical form. As long as the song’s effects persist, materialized creatures are vulnerable to mundane attack and cannot dematerialize except by escaping the area of effect.
MAGE_DISRUPTION - Disrupts the ability of others to use magic in the area, by essentially filling it with magical “chaff” or noise. Honoka’s own will reinforces the area around her, and reduces the overall effectiveness of enemy (or just all other) casters’ spells. A sort of countersong, if you will.
LIMIT_BREAKER - Enhances the physical ability herself and allies in the affected area. They’re stronger, faster, and have sharper senses and reflexes. Generally, this translates in an overall increase in combat effectiveness, even for the primary focus on ranged combat in the modern era. Creative uses for these improved abilities are, of course, up to the individual.
PRISM_RIOT - Creates a dazzling light show,not dissimilar to a laser show or stage pyrotechnics. The end result is it’s difficult to perceive and track anything in the area of effect, with all the conflicting shadows and extra illumination.
EMOTION_MATRIX - Magically influences the emotions of targets in the area of effect. Usually just for uplifting spirits and inspiring good energy and a near-irresistible want to dance, cheer, ignore other things in one’s surroundings. Honoka could sing a sad song and instead make people sad, or angry, and so-on, but why would she want to do that. Can be used to cancel or clear negative emotion effects, such as fear, etc.
Membership: Fairly new. Probably no more than a year. Equipment: Specially-made idol uniform: Of Honoka’s own design, this stage outfit is made out of bulletproof fabric, and is specially treated with a super-hydrophobic outer coating to resist staining and liquids. As armor, it’s extremely light, but it does look nice, and offers some level of protection.
Pinpoint Barrier System: Built into parts of Honoka’s outfit, specifically jewlery and other such things, this advanced piece of Thremont-manufactured magitech can produce a barrier-like shield to deflect or stop incoming attacks. It does, however, have an operational limit before saturating and becoming useless.
Courlandt Pulsar: A taser which fires darts containing wireless capacitors. Not as strong as wired taser options, in terms of overall kick, but non-lethal. She keeps it in case “fans get too unruly”.
Honoka owns no “real” weapons, and even the taser is probably something she has to keep well hidden.
Relationships: End: Diva wants to be friends with her, but her attempts are probably less than successful. She considers the older woman to be something of a mentor and trainer.
Voice: Nice codename. While not the sort to actively show it, especially to a person who remains cheerful in the face of adversity, Diva pities and worries about Voice. She doesn’t know enough to make any real comments on cyber-rejection or whatever else, though.
Warthog: The guy’s old enough to be her dad. She doesn’t know the details of his past, but he’s got a solid moral compass and his heroism is something she can easily appreciate. She respects him for his age and experience, and considers him something of an authority. That gun of his is too goddamn loud, which doesn't interfere with her magic. It's still a concern all the same.
Runner: His smoking bothers her, and she avoids him when he’s at it for her own health (got to protect that throat and all). Beyond that vice of his, she finds that they generally line up in attitude more than she’d care to admit. Not that they're serious or stubborn about the same things...
Arsenal: She owns, like, the coolest stuff. Kind of a jerk, though. And the sort who could probably just sit at home and participate in a whole op from there, with a little support.
Echo: She’ll happily egg him on to greater heights of showmanship at any opportunity, and push herself in kind, if he plays along. That power of his can make it a little cold for her usual outfit, though.
Sanction: She treats the Prohibitium liaison like a producer, even going so far as to refer to her as such.
Character Impressions: Advent: The Doc’s a nice enough person, but all that stuff she makes is anywhere from creepy to downright disturbing. Diva would probably trust herself to Advent’s care, though not for experimentation purposes. A decent bedside manner and respect for limits does go a long way.
Zer0: Diva is quite friendly toward Zero, being that they’re both about the same age. She’s probably tried to drag her into joining the idol charade.
Hex: Friendly rivalry. If not as an idol, at least as a mage. She’s heard Painstakers are supposed to be, like, super-bad news, though. And that monster thing following her around is freaky. At least she customizes her armor; too many Cleaners seem to value function over form.
Blitz: He’s too cold, but he can fly. How cool is that?
Theme Song: Other than the ones for her spells, probably this.
Rather positive, the two work together well. He acts as a doting parent towards her, much to her chagrin. 
Gerard doesn't interact much with Voice. They are rather neutral to each other.
Gerard thinks Doc is a degenerate. He has a tendency to shoot at them on the battlefield, intentional or not.
Gerard spoils Zer0. He knows that he will not replace Gramps, but still stays close to the young girl to protect her.
A strictly professional relationship. Neither one really talks to each other out of missions, but they respect each other.
remind me to do this one when i'm not a degenerate
Gerard thinks that Hex seems like a decent person, but is a bit rude.
