It's been two years since the Avengers saved the world. The snap undone, Thanos defeated, and the team unofficially disbanded. With the world's mightiest scattered in the wind, New York City is left with smaller, friendlier neighborhood heroes to keep her safe.
These street level vigilantes don't answer to any government organization or the police. Some are openly accepted, others, not so much. But regardless of their public image, our small-time heroes have one general goal: rid the city streets of rampant crime.
Their usual suspects consist of drug lords, crime organizations, human traffickers, and arms dealers. These "street level" threats are a far cry from the typical, end of the world affairs that the Avengers fought. But what would happen if our neighborhood heroes bit off a little more than they can chew? What if they discovered an Avengers Level Threat lurking beneath the typical crime and corruption? Would they be able to step up and save the world?
1: Lower power levels. Our street level heroes won't have anything big and flashy. Think Daredevil, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Jessica Jones, ect.
2: Please gain permission before maiming, killing, or otherwise seriously altering another player's character.
3: I don't like too many of one power/character type. So one magic user, maybe two elementalists, one alien, one shapeshifter, ect.
4: Characters should generally be 21+, but I can be convinced to allow a youngun.
5: Generally, all character powers, species, and lore should be based on ideas that exist within the Marvel universe. I.E., no werewolves, dragonborns, DnD races, or lore from another fandom. We're going for a classic Marvel vibe here!
It's three days until New Year's Eve. The ball will drop in Time Square while hundreds gather to watch and celebrate. Meanwhile, criminal scum lurk in the shadows and dark alleyways. The Kingpin remains at large, his fingers in every flavor of organized crime pie. The Hand still seeks power through mystic artifacts and resurrection. The Tracksuit Mafia is dealing in black market trades, money laundering, and auto chop shops. These are just a few of the groups our heroes will have experienced in their years of cleaning up the streets
But something strange is afoot. The police force is less responsive than usual. Local politicians are passing strange bills that only seem to make catching and prosecuting these fiends more difficult. There's rumors that someone has paid them all off. Could this be another case of political corruption? Or something far more sinister...
Name Sullivan O'Toole as Picture Perfect "They call him Mister Worldwide. They call him Mister Clean. They call him the Street Sweeper. They call him Romeo of Montague. They call him the face that launched a thousand tweets. They call him the representative of Queens. They call him Superhero.
His name? His name is Picture Perfect!" -Pinned Tweet on Picture Perfect's twitter account, made by a local fan.
Age 24
Gender Male
Sexuality Bisexual
Flash Mob "You ever feel like the world revolves around you? Well for me that ain't just a feeling, it's a truth. When I stop moving so does everyone else. The whole world waits to see what I do next. Isn't that amazing?"
Picture Perfect possesses the strange power to spontaneously make people and things around him 'freeze' at will. Time does not stop, nor do bodily functions, but for some inexplicable reason whenever Picture Perfect chooses to stand still so does the world around him. He has some measure of control over this effect at a distance, but the closer he is to the individual or object the more total the effect can be and the more powerfully he can exert it.
One on One he can easily completely freeze an individual seemingly indefinitely if they're within arm's reach so long as he doesn't move either. In terms of limits, he struggles with moderate groups of people or objects such as cars and the effect he can exert on these things is very short lived.
"Alright guys, this video was taken in Corona. I got permission from everyone involved to upload it here so my fans could see me in action, so shoutout to those individuals whose privacy will be respected! Here you go, and enjoy."
The video starts slow, depicting a corner store in operation at 2 AM. Few people milling about in what is clearly a smalltime and local shop. Suddenly a trio of armed and masked individuals rushes into the building and brandishes pistols at the inhabitants of this unfortunate store.
Typical things happen, but nothing that wouldn't be appropriate for a Youtube experience; people are ushered around, corralled into an aisle, made to hand over their phones. One of the masked individuals then focuses on the store operator and the register. Only, when he raises the gun, he suddenly stands stock-still and the cashier seems bewildered. The two other robbers do not appear to notice this yet.
Suddenly the robber shuffles in place, apparently able to use their feet- and onto the camera comes the recognizable appearance of Picture Perfect walking calmly up to the side of the robber, the rest of his body held perfectly still. Once within the building, Picture Perfect calmly looks around and takes stock of the situation. As soon as he's noticed by the other two would-be-bandits, they too freeze in place and Picture Perfect seems to speak.
the civilians all shuffle out of the building, taking their possessions back in the process, as they hastily exit the hostile environment. Picture Perfect then leaps into action.
Keeping his right arm locked in place so as to deny the robbers the use of their firearms, he suddenly pulls the adjacent gunman into a headlock and whirls him to the ground and holds still.
One robber was midstep towards the door to run away and topples to the ground, the other was turning his body to level his pistol towards Picture Perfect in a clumsy attempt to use the firearm without the use of his arm. The third, naturally, was now trapped incapable of escaping the headlock. After a few minutes of calmly surveying the scene, Picture Perfect released the now unconscious robber and sprinted aside, delivering a clean but efficient kick across the side of the prone robber's head then planted his feet and remained still once again. He slowly swiveled his head back to look over his shoulder, where the still standing bandit was panicking and trying to bring his gun up against the Superhero.
Picture Perfect slowly began to back towards the man. In his terror, the robber hastily backed away from Picture Perfect now that his legs were working again. Eventually the Superhero had the offending law breaker backed into a corner. Slowly, Picture Perfect produced a cellphone with his offhand. He raised it up steadily, and the flash of the camera can be seen as he takes a selfie with the masked robber. The next burst of movement from Picture Perfect disarmed the man, then sent him reeling to the ground.
Placing a foot on the individual to stop him from rising, Picture Perfect then turned his head up towards the camera and hit it with a million dollar smile and a thumbs up. A clean sweep.
The end of the video becomes a slideshow of selfies that Picture Perfect had taken with the masked robbers after the fact, as well as the one he took during the video, and finally a picture of him shaking hands with a police officer as they took the robbers into custody.
To avoid lengthy descriptors for this one, his eyes possess all the capabilities of an extremely high end camera system. He can zoom his vision very far, focus on scenes and situations despite the distance, determine individual faces from a crowd or distracting background, change filters and observe the world in everything from Sepia to Monochrome, and even see through sudden glares and through low light situations with perfect clarity.
Very useful for someone going around at night trying to beat up ne'er-do-wells.
Using the Marvel Power Grid, Sullivan O'Toole would have a 2 in all categories save strength and combat which would each be a 3; he is an utterly mundane and normal human being, if at the peak of physical form, in excellent shape, and possessing some basic combat training that appears to be a combination of simple martial arts maneuvers and boxing.
Weaknesses Picture Perfect's weaknesses are mundane and simple. He is only human, for one. This means when he gets hurt, it takes time and medical attention to heal. In a more specific sense, he is a thrill seeker, showoff, and has a soft spot for damsels in distress. This is to say that he's easy to bait, goad, taunt, or otherwise manipulate. Being a generally trusting individual, so long as someone possesses at least a modicum of charisma he will be inclined to hear them out rather than punch first. Oh, and flattery will get you everywhere.
Appearance "You like my drip? It can be yours too; my merch ships all over the world, check it out. Every dollar you spend on my webstore goes towards a charity of your choosing at checkout, and also keeps me on the streets keeping you safe." -Picture Perfect, himself
Picture Perfect is a handsome man of Irish-Welsh genes. Average height and build, he has done everything possible to stand out; peak physical form, distinct and manicured appearance, an aesthetic of modern street techwear, and a smile worth a million dollars has turned him into an easy to remember individual. He stands out.
Red hair flows down to his shoulders, availing itself to many distinctive styles and choices to suit the occasion. Depending on the outfit, the traditional tattoos of Celtic/Irish nature on his body may be visible; the most outstanding of which is the full arm sleeve on his right arm depicting Irish Tribal imagery in a pattern from wrist to shoulder.
Other He really does think he's the whole damn meal and the soda too. Someone please help him stay humble.
"There's a void now; it must be filled. The people are too spoiled by the true events of our modern world- they won't be satisfied by computer generated imitations and controlled explosions anymore. We need something more. Something deeper. Something that taps into the primal aspect of our consumer base and draws it to the surface. We need a new level of media. We need to raise the stakes."
The man speaking was by all appearances a young man; wealth and healthcare had taken decades off his physical age and left him with a vigor rivalling that of a man half his age. He was addressing a dark room; a conference table; his peers.
"It is fact..."
A slight trail off for dramatic effect.
"With all this news and consumption of Avengers level content, of global politics and of the end-times, it is without a doubt fact that the people have had some time to adjust to a certain level of excitement in their world. When's the last time any of you read a newspaper or checked a newsletter without hoping to hear something of a Superhero, or another world ending event? These topics have become an integral part of our culture and the collective subconscious of our society. Go ask children what they want to be when they grow up- when we were youths, the answers were 'President', 'Firefighter', 'Astronaut', 'Doctor'- and now kids everywhere just dream of being mutants like the X-men, or going out into the world armed with antique weapons, or hoping they discover some rare metal and can make a suit out of it! They dream of being Superheroes and saving the world! How can we hope to supply media for those dreams when the real world already has it all?"
A pause here, a dignified sip of water.
"This next slide is a statistical analysis of movie theater viewership, television ratings, social media clicks- you get the idea, I'll spare you the minutiae. The short end of the issue is the reason we're all gathered here today; Viewership is declining. It's noticeable. It's tangible. We all feel it. We're losing our grip on the way of things and it's all because of some costumed action stars with international contracts and no respect for the media. So we know the problem and we know the end goal- get the people back in front of the screens, get them back to having dreams that they need us to follow."
The man clicks a button on his handheld, the next slide appears depicting the city of New York.
"I believe I have a solution to our problem. We'll start small, use a control group. We'll use New York, and if in a decade the results seem to be adequate we'll expand the project to the rest of the continental states and go from there. What I am offering you, gentle men and women, is a way to get public opinion back on our side."
He smiled. He knew he had them.
"What I'm offering you, is Project Mastermind."
The camera pans outwards, leaving the conference room behind and escaping out the window. The tall skyscraper appears quite ominous in this lighting. Perhaps there's even a flash of lightning in the ba- yes, there's the roll of thunder now. At this point the camera gives a lingering and foreshadowing nod to the company logo; The New York Media Group (NYMG). Ah, subtlety.
The camera continues its strange obsession with going outwards and skywards until the audience is left staring at the familiar expression of New York City from above. Well, familiar to most; some people haven't seen movies. Oh, would you look at that, now a vicious day/night cycle is being emulated to render an effect as if a great deal of time were passing.
The camera now moves with a great deal of purpose, moving around the city. We witness many employees in jumpsuits and vests, clipboards and electrical tools, working around the city. This one is working on a Transformer. This one climbs a radio tower. That one is making some very important seeming phone calls and circling things on his clipboard. That woman seems important, the camera is lingering on her in the back of a limousine for quite some time isn't it? We should probably try to remember her. She had purple hair, it stood out quit a bit after all, and the camera did its best to give her an air of malice as well. Oh goodie, that one is even tinkering with the cellphone towers. Just what are they up to?
Enter: Sullivan O'Toole.
A young man. Scrappy. Hungry. Looking for a chance to take his shot; yearning to be the diamond in the rough; the one in a million; the Next Big Thing. The world was primed for it, he felt; all the excitement over superheroes and the hole in everyone's hearts with the dissolvement of the Avengers? It was a market ripe for Branding and rife with detritus...
All he needed to do was build his Brand.
A man with big dreams- but no knowledge of the steps needed to realize them. A man in his position does one thing; takes shortcuts. Sullivan O'Toole was a minor internet sensation. A daredevil to be precise, operating on sensationalism and a personality that was approachable and networkable. His earliest videos are of basejumping, skydiving, deep sea snorkeling, extreme paintball combat scenarios, and even some experimental cooking vlogs. He was scraping by to achieve these goals, putting his all into building an identity of social presence.
One fateful day his career had a turning point; his long time girlfriend, who had been prominent in his skydiving videos as the owner and pilot of the plane he used, broke up with him. The reason was, allegedly, she felt he was wasting his potential with this personal endeavor instead of pursuing a...
"Real Career."
His videos began to take a bit of a reckless edge, and some vlog posts included him talking about how things were hard these days but he wasn't giving up on the dream or on his fans. He'd prove her wrong with success instead of holding onto the event as an excuse for vindictive behavior and let it tear him down from what he'd built so far.
The next video to go up was titled 'The Day I Almost Died'
Sullivan was climbing a cellphone tower. A new one, recently installed for the new generation of phone networks. He was wearing a GoPro camera and every so often he looked down to check his progress, which revealed he was climbing this tower A) Freehand and B) on the roof of an already quite tall building. The same kinds of stunts he'd been pulling for years. When he reaches the apex of the tower, he crosses his legs into the railings and holds onto the antenna array as he leans out and extends a Selfie-Stick outwards from his person. The video has a rather unique perspective on the Neighborhood in Queens he was surveilling, and the crispness and clarity of the video was impressive. He was quite good at this.
But suddenly the camera goes fuzzy. The image becomes blurry. Distortion lines warp the image. Sullivan can be heard;
"What the he-"
Then the world spins. The camera falling. The next cut is back to the GoPro, which is also spinning. Heavy distortion and interference in the video revealing that Sullivan was falling and tumbling down the structure. Intermittent contact and scrabbling grabs with metal beams interrupted what otherwise would have been a plummet to the rooftop below. His landing was hard. He wasn't moving. the camera feed distorts totally at this point, its unblinking gaze upwards rendering the cellphone tower a strange and bending thing before the distortion lessens and soon the video returns to normal.
The video was almost hypnotic.
This is where the video ends; other voices crying out in concern for Sullivan.
Sullivan's next few days were a blur. His ex girlfriend, whose name was Sally, came to visit him in the hospital and dictated a standard-issue 'I Told You So' as well as a bouquet of get well flowers. He has a hazy memory of some strange men and women in suits coming to question him about the tower, claiming they were checking into damages with its structure. Eventually his belligerent responses and unhelpful demeanor warranted the suit-wearing-schmucks to pass the problem up their chain of command.
Sullivan has hazy memories of the visit, he can barely remember what happened, but he knows that a woman with purple hair came to visit him on behalf of the Suits. He only remembers three things concretely;
1) Damn she fine.
2) She was satisfied by his answers and concluded that his skull was thick, but not thick enough to have damaged the tower in any way.
3) When it was time to leave the hospital, his bills were miraculously already paid.
Some people just get all the luck.
This incident turned out to be the defining point in Sullivan O'Toole's life. Upon leaving the hospital the world just looked... Different. Everything had a glossy appeal to it. Everything was...Filtered. Edited. Photoshopped. He could see its potential at a glance. He could shift those filters and see the world in a new lens. He could stop the movie and inspect the frame.
He could make sure that everything turned out Picture Perfect.
At first this fledgling power was used scarcely, to ensure quality footage and whatnot, but eventually as his body fully recovered and his health returned so did that daredevil's edge and that hungry ambition to do more. He could up his game; take the Brand to the next level. He could fill the void. He could be a Superhero.
@ThisIsFine Just so I'm clear: this game follows more movie lore than comic book lore, yeah? So characters and species (Atlanteans, mutants, etc.) that have not appeared (save for maybe those about to appear like Kamala Khan, Jennifer Walters, etc.) in the movies/series do not exist in this universe?
@ThisIsFine Just so I'm clear: this game follows more movie lore than comic book lore, yeah? So characters and species (Atlanteans, mutants, etc.) that have not appeared (save for maybe those about to appear like Kamala Khan, Jennifer Walters, etc.) in the movies/series do not exist in this universe?
It's a mixture of both. It you want to make a mutant, Atlantean, or some other marvel canon species, then that's fine. I just don't want a bunch of demons, zombies, vampires, ect. I know that these things may exist in the marvel comic canon, but they're usually pretty rare and not considered "good guys".
Name Sullivan O'Toole as Picture Perfect "They call him Mister Worldwide. They call him Mister Clean. They call him the Street Sweeper. They call him Romeo of Montague. They call him the face that launched a thousand tweets. They call him the representative of Queens. They call him Superhero.
His name? His name is Picture Perfect!" -Pinned Tweet on Picture Perfect's twitter account, made by a local fan.
Age 24
Gender Male
Sexuality Bisexual
Flash Mob "You ever feel like the world revolves around you? Well for me that ain't just a feeling, it's a truth. When I stop moving so does everyone else. The whole world waits to see what I do next. Isn't that amazing?"
Picture Perfect possesses the strange power to spontaneously make people and things around him 'freeze' at will. Time does not stop, nor do bodily functions, but for some inexplicable reason whenever Picture Perfect chooses to stand still so does the world around him. He has some measure of control over this effect at a distance, but the closer he is to the individual or object the more total the effect can be and the more powerfully he can exert it.
One on One he can easily completely freeze an individual seemingly indefinitely if they're within arm's reach so long as he doesn't move either. In terms of limits, he struggles with moderate groups of people or objects such as cars and the effect he can exert on these things is very short lived.
"Alright guys, this video was taken in Corona. I got permission from everyone involved to upload it here so my fans could see me in action, so shoutout to those individuals whose privacy will be respected! Here you go, and enjoy."
The video starts slow, depicting a corner store in operation at 2 AM. Few people milling about in what is clearly a smalltime and local shop. Suddenly a trio of armed and masked individuals rushes into the building and brandishes pistols at the inhabitants of this unfortunate store.
Typical things happen, but nothing that wouldn't be appropriate for a Youtube experience; people are ushered around, corralled into an aisle, made to hand over their phones. One of the masked individuals then focuses on the store operator and the register. Only, when he raises the gun, he suddenly stands stock-still and the cashier seems bewildered. The two other robbers do not appear to notice this yet.
Suddenly the robber shuffles in place, apparently able to use their feet- and onto the camera comes the recognizable appearance of Picture Perfect walking calmly up to the side of the robber, the rest of his body held perfectly still. Once within the building, Picture Perfect calmly looks around and takes stock of the situation. As soon as he's noticed by the other two would-be-bandits, they too freeze in place and Picture Perfect seems to speak.
the civilians all shuffle out of the building, taking their possessions back in the process, as they hastily exit the hostile environment. Picture Perfect then leaps into action.
Keeping his right arm locked in place so as to deny the robbers the use of their firearms, he suddenly pulls the adjacent gunman into a headlock and whirls him to the ground and holds still.
One robber was midstep towards the door to run away and topples to the ground, the other was turning his body to level his pistol towards Picture Perfect in a clumsy attempt to use the firearm without the use of his arm. The third, naturally, was now trapped incapable of escaping the headlock. After a few minutes of calmly surveying the scene, Picture Perfect released the now unconscious robber and sprinted aside, delivering a clean but efficient kick across the side of the prone robber's head then planted his feet and remained still once again. He slowly swiveled his head back to look over his shoulder, where the still standing bandit was panicking and trying to bring his gun up against the Superhero.
Picture Perfect slowly began to back towards the man. In his terror, the robber hastily backed away from Picture Perfect now that his legs were working again. Eventually the Superhero had the offending law breaker backed into a corner. Slowly, Picture Perfect produced a cellphone with his offhand. He raised it up steadily, and the flash of the camera can be seen as he takes a selfie with the masked robber. The next burst of movement from Picture Perfect disarmed the man, then sent him reeling to the ground.
Placing a foot on the individual to stop him from rising, Picture Perfect then turned his head up towards the camera and hit it with a million dollar smile and a thumbs up. A clean sweep.
The end of the video becomes a slideshow of selfies that Picture Perfect had taken with the masked robbers after the fact, as well as the one he took during the video, and finally a picture of him shaking hands with a police officer as they took the robbers into custody.
To avoid lengthy descriptors for this one, his eyes possess all the capabilities of an extremely high end camera system. He can zoom his vision very far, focus on scenes and situations despite the distance, determine individual faces from a crowd or distracting background, change filters and observe the world in everything from Sepia to Monochrome, and even see through sudden glares and through low light situations with perfect clarity.
Very useful for someone going around at night trying to beat up ne'er-do-wells.
Using the Marvel Power Grid, Sullivan O'Toole would have a 2 in all categories save strength and combat which would each be a 3; he is an utterly mundane and normal human being, if at the peak of physical form, in excellent shape, and possessing some basic combat training that appears to be a combination of simple martial arts maneuvers and boxing.
Weaknesses Picture Perfect's weaknesses are mundane and simple. He is only human, for one. This means when he gets hurt, it takes time and medical attention to heal. In a more specific sense, he is a thrill seeker, showoff, and has a soft spot for damsels in distress. This is to say that he's easy to bait, goad, taunt, or otherwise manipulate. Being a generally trusting individual, so long as someone possesses at least a modicum of charisma he will be inclined to hear them out rather than punch first. Oh, and flattery will get you everywhere.
Appearance "You like my drip? It can be yours too; my merch ships all over the world, check it out. Every dollar you spend on my webstore goes towards a charity of your choosing at checkout, and also keeps me on the streets keeping you safe." -Picture Perfect, himself
Picture Perfect is a handsome man of Irish-Welsh genes. Average height and build, he has done everything possible to stand out; peak physical form, distinct and manicured appearance, an aesthetic of modern street techwear, and a smile worth a million dollars has turned him into an easy to remember individual. He stands out.
Red hair flows down to his shoulders, availing itself to many distinctive styles and choices to suit the occasion. Depending on the outfit, the traditional tattoos of Celtic/Irish nature on his body may be visible; the most outstanding of which is the full arm sleeve on his right arm depicting Irish Tribal imagery in a pattern from wrist to shoulder.
Other He really does think he's the whole damn meal and the soda too. Someone please help him stay humble.
"There's a void now; it must be filled. The people are too spoiled by the true events of our modern world- they won't be satisfied by computer generated imitations and controlled explosions anymore. We need something more. Something deeper. Something that taps into the primal aspect of our consumer base and draws it to the surface. We need a new level of media. We need to raise the stakes."
The man speaking was by all appearances a young man; wealth and healthcare had taken decades off his physical age and left him with a vigor rivalling that of a man half his age. He was addressing a dark room; a conference table; his peers.
"It is fact..."
A slight trail off for dramatic effect.
"With all this news and consumption of Avengers level content, of global politics and of the end-times, it is without a doubt fact that the people have had some time to adjust to a certain level of excitement in their world. When's the last time any of you read a newspaper or checked a newsletter without hoping to hear something of a Superhero, or another world ending event? These topics have become an integral part of our culture and the collective subconscious of our society. Go ask children what they want to be when they grow up- when we were youths, the answers were 'President', 'Firefighter', 'Astronaut', 'Doctor'- and now kids everywhere just dream of being mutants like the X-men, or going out into the world armed with antique weapons, or hoping they discover some rare metal and can make a suit out of it! They dream of being Superheroes and saving the world! How can we hope to supply media for those dreams when the real world already has it all?"
A pause here, a dignified sip of water.
"This next slide is a statistical analysis of movie theater viewership, television ratings, social media clicks- you get the idea, I'll spare you the minutiae. The short end of the issue is the reason we're all gathered here today; Viewership is declining. It's noticeable. It's tangible. We all feel it. We're losing our grip on the way of things and it's all because of some costumed action stars with international contracts and no respect for the media. So we know the problem and we know the end goal- get the people back in front of the screens, get them back to having dreams that they need us to follow."
The man clicks a button on his handheld, the next slide appears depicting the city of New York.
"I believe I have a solution to our problem. We'll start small, use a control group. We'll use New York, and if in a decade the results seem to be adequate we'll expand the project to the rest of the continental states and go from there. What I am offering you, gentle men and women, is a way to get public opinion back on our side."
He smiled. He knew he had them.
"What I'm offering you, is Project Mastermind."
The camera pans outwards, leaving the conference room behind and escaping out the window. The tall skyscraper appears quite ominous in this lighting. Perhaps there's even a flash of lightning in the ba- yes, there's the roll of thunder now. At this point the camera gives a lingering and foreshadowing nod to the company logo; The New York Media Group (NYMG). Ah, subtlety.
The camera continues its strange obsession with going outwards and skywards until the audience is left staring at the familiar expression of New York City from above. Well, familiar to most; some people haven't seen movies. Oh, would you look at that, now a vicious day/night cycle is being emulated to render an effect as if a great deal of time were passing.
The camera now moves with a great deal of purpose, moving around the city. We witness many employees in jumpsuits and vests, clipboards and electrical tools, working around the city. This one is working on a Transformer. This one climbs a radio tower. That one is making some very important seeming phone calls and circling things on his clipboard. That woman seems important, the camera is lingering on her in the back of a limousine for quite some time isn't it? We should probably try to remember her. She had purple hair, it stood out quit a bit after all, and the camera did its best to give her an air of malice as well. Oh goodie, that one is even tinkering with the cellphone towers. Just what are they up to?
Enter: Sullivan O'Toole.
A young man. Scrappy. Hungry. Looking for a chance to take his shot; yearning to be the diamond in the rough; the one in a million; the Next Big Thing. The world was primed for it, he felt; all the excitement over superheroes and the hole in everyone's hearts with the dissolvement of the Avengers? It was a market ripe for Branding and rife with detritus...
All he needed to do was build his Brand.
A man with big dreams- but no knowledge of the steps needed to realize them. A man in his position does one thing; takes shortcuts. Sullivan O'Toole was a minor internet sensation. A daredevil to be precise, operating on sensationalism and a personality that was approachable and networkable. His earliest videos are of basejumping, skydiving, deep sea snorkeling, extreme paintball combat scenarios, and even some experimental cooking vlogs. He was scraping by to achieve these goals, putting his all into building an identity of social presence.
One fateful day his career had a turning point; his long time girlfriend, who had been prominent in his skydiving videos as the owner and pilot of the plane he used, broke up with him. The reason was, allegedly, she felt he was wasting his potential with this personal endeavor instead of pursuing a...
"Real Career."
His videos began to take a bit of a reckless edge, and some vlog posts included him talking about how things were hard these days but he wasn't giving up on the dream or on his fans. He'd prove her wrong with success instead of holding onto the event as an excuse for vindictive behavior and let it tear him down from what he'd built so far.
The next video to go up was titled 'The Day I Almost Died'
Sullivan was climbing a cellphone tower. A new one, recently installed for the new generation of phone networks. He was wearing a GoPro camera and every so often he looked down to check his progress, which revealed he was climbing this tower A) Freehand and B) on the roof of an already quite tall building. The same kinds of stunts he'd been pulling for years. When he reaches the apex of the tower, he crosses his legs into the railings and holds onto the antenna array as he leans out and extends a Selfie-Stick outwards from his person. The video has a rather unique perspective on the Neighborhood in Queens he was surveilling, and the crispness and clarity of the video was impressive. He was quite good at this.
But suddenly the camera goes fuzzy. The image becomes blurry. Distortion lines warp the image. Sullivan can be heard;
"What the he-"
Then the world spins. The camera falling. The next cut is back to the GoPro, which is also spinning. Heavy distortion and interference in the video revealing that Sullivan was falling and tumbling down the structure. Intermittent contact and scrabbling grabs with metal beams interrupted what otherwise would have been a plummet to the rooftop below. His landing was hard. He wasn't moving. the camera feed distorts totally at this point, its unblinking gaze upwards rendering the cellphone tower a strange and bending thing before the distortion lessens and soon the video returns to normal.
The video was almost hypnotic.
This is where the video ends; other voices crying out in concern for Sullivan.
Sullivan's next few days were a blur. His ex girlfriend, whose name was Sally, came to visit him in the hospital and dictated a standard-issue 'I Told You So' as well as a bouquet of get well flowers. He has a hazy memory of some strange men and women in suits coming to question him about the tower, claiming they were checking into damages with its structure. Eventually his belligerent responses and unhelpful demeanor warranted the suit-wearing-schmucks to pass the problem up their chain of command.
Sullivan has hazy memories of the visit, he can barely remember what happened, but he knows that a woman with purple hair came to visit him on behalf of the Suits. He only remembers three things concretely;
1) Damn she fine.
2) She was satisfied by his answers and concluded that his skull was thick, but not thick enough to have damaged the tower in any way.
3) When it was time to leave the hospital, his bills were miraculously already paid.
Some people just get all the luck.
This incident turned out to be the defining point in Sullivan O'Toole's life. Upon leaving the hospital the world just looked... Different. Everything had a glossy appeal to it. Everything was...Filtered. Edited. Photoshopped. He could see its potential at a glance. He could shift those filters and see the world in a new lens. He could stop the movie and inspect the frame.
He could make sure that everything turned out Picture Perfect.
At first this fledgling power was used scarcely, to ensure quality footage and whatnot, but eventually as his body fully recovered and his health returned so did that daredevil's edge and that hungry ambition to do more. He could up his game; take the Brand to the next level. He could fill the void. He could be a Superhero.
Soo what’s the age range on our heroes? I’m thinking of a teen hero with a twist on it! As in twins, one with powers and other without and the one without powers pretends to have them and he powered one helps in the bg
Ooooh gotcha gotcha! I just like playing younger characters because how they end up growing/learning from stuff from that perspective and how the peeps around them affect them is usually fun to do!
Oho, this looks like fun! Even got an idea in mind. It's late for me though, so I'll see about getting on the Discord and making my character sometime tomorrow :)
Species: Human Age: 34 Birthday: June 20th Gender: Male Sexuality: Heterosexual Relationship Status: Married Work: Christian Pastor & Vigilante Affiliation: H&C Logistics Current Residence: A nice home in the Bronx area of New York
Christopher is a kind and jovial Soul. He loves to have fun and do as he wishes, yet that doesn't mean he can't be serious and even wrathful. Yet to most he comes off as jovial and a bit of a prankster. He loves to put smiles on others through just small things to get people to loosen up. He is a very confident man and many can see it, yet he never really flaunts it. Yet he is not without fault, when you cross him, he'll come back twice as hard. As often people found when you cross an agent of god, you find out how even the kindest of Angels can battle Satan.
Even with his mean streak, Christopher is quite a compassionate and caring man. He has done many questionable things to help others. He has risked life and limb on countless occasions even to the point where he had nearly been killed on multiple occasions to do what he needed. He has high respect for those who will do what has to be done for their ideals and goals, yet will not allow those who abuse the weak to be let off.
Christopher will often go and follow his instincts and his whims, and many times he will very often not stray from his feelings as he believes they are correct. Sometimes they have led to good fortune, other times they can lead to sometimes dangerous situations, but every time he follows his instincts as they are the few things he can trust when faced with a horde of ninjas and ghosts.
Appearance
Standing at 6'3 and weighing 230 pounds this man is a brick house of a man who has very dense muscles and a strong frame. He is a very handsome man and always dresses well, he grooms himself often, well more his wife does but that is a different matter. He has many scars across his body, with some of the most prominent ones being the large scar spanning his entire back that came from the grenade explosion, multiple smaller bullet wounds across his body and arms, and 2 large stab wounds from when he first encountered The Hand.
Powers/Skills
Intelligence- Well educated as he had gotten through high school, has a college degree when he became a Christian Pastor and a good bit of life experience. On the Marvel power grid, he'd be a 3.
Cunning- This is much more where Christopher excels in his smarts, he is quite a wise and cunning man, he has natural instincts that allow him to best deploy strategies without much hesitation.
Strength- That of a man at his peak, being as large as he is, he is quite powerful in strength as he can lift well over double his body weight and can throw hits able to kill normal men. On the Marvel power grid, he'd be a 3.
Speed- Being mostly normal, Christopher has no enhancements to his speed, yet he is quite quick and nimble on his feet, and very fit as he is able to clock a 4-minute mile, even at his age. On the Marvel power grid, he'd be a 2.
Durability- Christopher is a tough bastard, he has put himself through some hellish things, he has thrown himself onto grenades, into gunfights, and has been put through the wringer countless times, yet he keeps getting back up. Yet this doesn't come from any supernatural powers, just his unstoppable willpower. On the Marvel power grid, he'd be a 2.
Fighting Skills- Christopher is not only gifted in the art of 'beat shit up', but he is also an excellent marksman, has fantastic instincts, has been trained in multiple forms of martial arts for different engagements, and has used these skills for almost decades now. He has been trained in many different weapons and forms of fighting, however, his most trademark styles of fighting are Boxing and a little something he picked up: The movie art of Gunkata, which is a form of firearm and martial arts combat that focuses on close-range gunfighting with a mixture of martial arts grapples and strikes for effectiveness in most forms of close to mid-range gun-fights.On the Marvel power grid, he'd be a 5 with mastery of firearm combat and a great deal of experience in other forms.
Weaknesses
As far as weaknesses go, Christopher is a normal human, sure he is a beast of a man, however, he has nothing really else going for him. Wounds take long times to heal, getting a broken bone is a detriment for multiple months, and he doesn't have magical powers to fight with. He is no super genius fighter with god-given talent, he's just good at what he does and determined to do it.
Weapons
Christopher is a man who has much experience with most forms of weapons and the money to purchase most of them, so the question is not weapons does he have, but it's about what weapons does he decide to wield at the moment. He does however have a few favorites:
Handguns, he has a set of suppressed M1911's he always adores to use, he will often use subsonic rounds to make sure the guns are as quiet as can be.
Shotguns, he has familiarised himself with close-range combat, and shotguns can sometimes put even the most brutish or being down in a shot.
Rifles, often Christopher's go-to for dealing with Assassinations, he has had multiple commendations for his marksmanship and shooting. As even going so far as saying, if he didn't go in as a Small Arms repairman, a Marine Sniper was an obvious choice.
His fists, Christopher's favorite nonlethal option, he has metal gauntlets from his mentor which allow them to hit incorporeal entities like ghosts, spirits, and demons.
Whips, it took him some time to learn his mentor's favorite weapon, he is nowhere near a master, but he can fight with it and do some cool tricks. He has his mentor's whip which is similar to his gauntlets, but when it comes into contact with 'evil' incorporeal entities it will burn them.
Knives, one of the first weapons he has learned how to hone, he has excellent knife handling and has often fought people who are 'masters' of with them and held his own.
Short Blades, ranging from Machete's to actual short swords he has dabbled with many short blades with decent effect, he is nowhere near a master but he can use one with decent proficency.
Backstory:
Christopher was born into a hard life, his father left his mother before Christopher was even born, and his mother died due to complications. Leaving him alone, no other family took him in so he was passed off to an orphanage to be raised. There he was raised to the age of 7, when finally he was adopted. He was not adopted until then as Ismael wished to stay and take care of the kids around him, as he saw himself as that of a Brother figure, yet a pair of parents wanted him because of that very nature.
After his adoption, Christopher lived a normal life, a loving mother and father in a middle-class family. He went to school, played sports, and did normal things. He did well enough in school, he wasn't the smartest person, he had the knowledge and the wisdom to learn. Yet the thing that followed him was a smile and laughter that people found. His jokes were goofy, and his demeanor was that of a kind giant. As these years were normal and simple, as when he became old enough he enlisted into the Marine. Corps as a Small Arms repairman. He had a wish to serve his country, he always seemed to look at it as an honor.
During his time in the Military, Christopher had made many friends, he took care of people around him as a brother, and quite often he sent money back to the Orphanage that raised him, as a way of thanks to them. During his time, his work was simple, fixing guns and making sure vehicle weapons were in order. Yet things changed when wars kicked up, when he went to re-enlist, most Marines 'switched' over to Rifleman, by mistake, yet this occurred as they were expecting some real action. And soon, Christopher was thrust into battles, where he showed great skill as a soldier and as a squad leader. He had thrown his life into the line of fire to save fellow Marines, Civilians, and anyone in between. Just one of these days, God decided to call his number as a grenade fell out and landed next to Christopher. As within the moment of seeing it, he threw himself on it, throwing his bag and back onto it and saying his goodbyes and prayers to god.
Christopher woke up a month later from a coma, as he found he survived the explosion. The grenade had left him badly scarred on his back. Large shrapnel scars covered his back and the sides of his body. The doctors called it a miracle that he survived, if it was a normal person, they would have been dead, let alone alive. Christopher was released a few months later after rehabilitation and therapy. He found his world slightly changed, he had missed a few friends passing, his honorable discharge was handed down, yet the war he was in is still raging. But something strange happened, an old war buddy called him up, asking if he wanted to join a company he was now running.
Christopher joined the H&C logistic incorporated. Here he met some old buddies from before his Re-enlistment, they all joined this company under a strange woman. She was a shrewd woman and she dealt in all forms of War, yet her most lucrative business is she was a Weapons Dealer. She sells anything from low-cost Firearms, all the way to stationary artillery weapons. If war is what you want, the H&C logistics incorporated can provide you with weapons to fight it.
Christopher spent the next years in this company, getting closer to the many people within, as they all follow this near insatiable goal the leader of this Company has. Not many knew what she wanted, money? Power? No one knew, but everyone rallied with her as she had this strange charisma that was too hard to move away from. Christopher spent multiple years in this company, not knowing what much to do otherwise, he realized, it was nice here. It was simple and he had many freedoms. They traveled a lot, they did as they pleased, and Christopher was given more money than he knew what to do with. So, he sent it back to his family and the Orphanage, he did keep a bit to himself in a bank account.
He wasn't just a bodyguard to this woman though. He was also a weapon she used quite often, everyone was used in the same way. They didn't only protect her, they did what she wanted them to do, so if she wanted someone dead, they would do it. But this didn't come from her being their employer, this came from their loyalty to her. Everyone here was family, they would bleed, sweat, and die for each other. Christopher had shown this on multiple occasions as he had taken many bullets for those around him, he had gotten into fights for them, and he has killed for them.
Yet this was where his life took an unexpected turn and sent him down this slippery slope he has found himself on, as one job sent them to something much worst than anything. As they were to deliver some heavy ordinance to some third-world country, yet when they made it to the base where they were going to make the pass off, they were met with some unknown force. A group of strange people cladded in red skintight outfits, as they had taken over the base. At first, everything was calm, until hell broke loose as the motorcade was attacked by these people as they wielded very classical weapons: Swords, knives, chain blades, and etc. As they began their attack, everyone here was a skilled fighter, many had seen real combat and survived a tour or 2 in actual military time, yet they were overwhelmed quickly.
As Christopher watched people die around him, he fought with all he could, until he himself was stabbed in the stomach and chest, after which this 5'5 man picked him up and threw him to the ground. What happened next was like a blur to Christopher, however, what he saw was the woman he had been employed by for years, the same woman who he has never seen get into these fights, let alone lift a weight, start fighting. As once she killed the assailant nearby, she tried to lift Christopher, yet all she could do was drag him into the car and drove as fast as she could. Christopher was dozing in and out of consciousness as finally, he passed out. He woke up a few days later in the care of a Priest, an older man who was in his mid to late 40's. He seemed to have cared for Christopher's wounds and had housed them, as Christopher learned this man had been here as a missionary.
Yet that night he learned that this must have been a cover, as those same red cladded ninjas appeared and seemed like they were here to finish the job. But the Father seemed to have been armed and able, as he fought with a strength and grace unlike what Christopher expected. This was when he learned the name of those who had set them on this path, The Hand. That night, they fought as their lives depended on it, as when the sun finally rose the onslaught was over. This was when the priest spoke of his intentions here, The Hand was doing unspeakable work in the Occult and he was there to stop them. The Priest asked for their aid as it seemed they were far stronger than he first anticipates, as this was the point that sent Christopher down his new path.
For the next half-decade, he had spent a good portion of his life fighting The Hand, in hopes to get revenge on those he had lost to them. During this time he had gotten close to the woman he has been working for, as eventually, they started going 'steady', fighting and being together. As eventually they decided to leave the fight against The Hand and wanted something different. This is where Christopher had decided to try another call, becoming a pastor. In the midst of the fighting, he had watched the Reverend not only as a fighter but as a teacher and a spiritual guide, someone to help others when they find themselves at their lowest.
Christopher spent the next few years learning and taking oaths in a Christian school whereupon gaining his bachelor's degree he had become a Pastor as once he had finally hit the age of 32, and took to making a church in his hometown. However, first, he needed to marry the woman who had been with him since the start of his 'adventures'. After the Honeymoon, he and his wife had now moved to New York in the Bronx area, where he had set out to make a church. He was much more of a man who wanted to live small, but his wife had other ideas, she was the owner of an international Arms Dealing enterprise, so money was not much of an object to her. She made preparations beforehand to make the living there quite enjoyable, a large nice home already made, a nice spot for Christopher's Church, it was the best she could ask for and provide. Christopher didn't mind, well he did a little as the church was a little much, the church was big and quite well decorated, so that took a bit of the need to set up away.
During his time as a Pastor for his new church, Christopher had spent much of his doing things for the neighborhood. Fundraisers for different events for the community, helping the homeless, assisting in many projects around the community such as helping when homes are ravaged by the cold or rain, fixing cars that break down, and all sort of other things. Also on his off time fighting a whole new war he was not expecting, as he found people slowly disappearing now and again without a trace, he wanted to know what was going on. As this was when he ran into a new threat: High Order.
As of now, it seemed he was back in the game again, this time a little smaller scale than it was with The Hand, but dangerous all the same. Christopher called up his old mentor and asked for some assistance, yet what came in the mail shocked him. It was his mentor's old weapon, his whip, and a letter telling him that he had left that behind him, and now it was time for Christopher to make his own. Christopher thought for a bit of time, but he knew this was the right thing to do. So he had set out on a crusade against the very crimes that plague his community, suited up in some of his old gear, and armed with some sick-ass boondock saints quotes. He's fought in the dead of night, always away from where others may tread, after all, those who deal in the dark stay there.
During his time he has met countless people, many have some very sad backstories, others just enjoyed the thrill. There were a few times he had to work alongside these many different individuals, often stopping small crimes, or going more higher scale when High Order started to make moves again. Christopher had spent these next few years living the life as both a Pastor, leading those in his community to salvation, while also living as the Paladin, leading those who stand against him to their damnation.
