C R A Z Y S L O T S
A D A M L O C K L E A R ◼ S E V E N T E E N ◼ M A L E
"Double down."
"Show me your cards."
//STATS:◼ HEIGHT | 5’ 6”
◼ WEIGHT | 146 lbs
◼ BUILD | Lean
◼ HAIR COLOUR | Black.
◼ EYE COLOUR | Black.
◼ 'VOICE' TEXT COLOUR | #eab676
◼ OTHER | N/A
//DESCRIPTION:Adam has an athlete’s body, geared mostly towards stamina and brief bursts of strength. His training was imperfect since the departure of his brother, but he’s maintained some physique. Adam prefers to dress quite plain, with unbranded tees and jeans to blend into the average. Sometimes he’ll add a cowboy hat to the ensemble, a perfect addition for playing the drunk college kid on a hotstreak.
"The die is cast!"
Adam was born in Nevada at his parents home on the outskirts of Las Vegas. He lived a relatively ordinary childhood, playing cards almost every night with his family and always gathering with the local Paiute tribe and dancing every year at the Pow Wow. Still, his childhood felt defined by the kitschy lights of the city, always winking at him from his bedroom window, beckoning and beautiful.
His older brother, Curt, left for the Marines when Adam was just six, looking to see the world on the government's dime and get out from under the overwhelming presence of the city. Adam’s parents homeschooled him, as they had his brother, to insulate him from the city as he grew older, to connect him with his tribe instead of vapid glitz and glamor.
The city Adam’s parents tried to protect him from took their lives in a car accident when Adam was eleven, when he was at home under the supervision of tribal councilman Darren Anderson. Anderson would take charge of the boy, raising him alongside Curt when he returned from the marines. His parents deaths were always explained to Adam as a true accident, completely random chance, the kind of fate that could have befallen anyone. It’s here he took to gambling, starting with small change with his brother. He tried to cope with that chance and put it in perspective. The odds that he or his brother would die like that too were one in a billion. More likely he could win a hundred hands in a row a hundred times.
Once he was thirteen Adam’s powers began to develop, as small change in his hands transformed into candies and trinkets. To protect the burgeoning metahuman, Curt gave him rudimentary training in martial arts, with slightly more extensive courses in a handful of weapons. As they fought and bonded, Curt told him stories of his service and of history, Iraq and Little Crow, Uganda and Crazy Horse, and more besides. After months of training, Curt began to slow down. He schooled Adam with Anderson, worked the Paiute smoke shop, and trained after hours, but something else was taking it out of him, the light Adam used to see in his eyes. By the time Adam was fourteen, and before he had any chance or inkling to investigate, Curt was gone. The last time Adam saw him was through his second story window, climbing into the side of a blue panel van and peeling away into the night.
By now, Adam was old enough to sneak into the casinos. As long as he made his fake perfect and got his disguise right, he could pick the laziest guard and slip inside. He spent the next three years honing his craft, robbing the casinos blind by counting cards at blackjack and changing small change to high cards in poker. He could create casino chips himself with his ability, so his only weak point was cashing out. He’d been caught more than once, but he would simply dash with as many of his chips as he could carry and return in various disguises with smaller increments of tokens.
His strategy worked without major incident until he was seventeen. A handful of Aegis agents caught wind of a metahuman in the area and joined casino security on their rotation. Two of them caught him red handed at the blackjack table, trying to sneak in a generated ace of spades. He’s now been relocated to Aegis for ‘rehabilitation'.
▼ M O T I V A T I O N / O B J E C T I V E:
"The house has gone bust."
Long term, Adam’s motivations are stone simple: cold hard cash. His home tribe exists on a thumbnail of land in southern Nevada, and he intends to buy back as much as he can. He intends to earn it all his way -- counting cards in high stakes matches across the country. At some level, he hopes finding his fortune will let him find Curt and fish him out of whatever hellhole he stumbled into. On the other hand, Adam is afraid he’ll find a corpse.
He figures his enrollment at the Aegis Centre was a mistake. Ideally, he’d never have been caught at all. Still, going down for swindling the casinos had always been a possibility. Better he end up here than a standard juvie joint. Maybe he’ll learn enough to never get caught again.
▼ A B I L I T I E S / S K I L L S:
"I’m playing with a stacked deck."
//ABILITIES:◼ Instant Market | Using this ability, Adam can transform money into objects based on their value in real world economies.
//SKILLS:◼ Gambler | Adam’s been gambling since he was old enough to hold cards, and has been gambling in casinos since he looked old enough to sneak in. He’s an expert card counter with an inscrutable poker face, and he’s had to bluff or fast talk his way out of situations more times than he can count.
◼ Disguise | Adam’s had to master disguise to continue entering casinos with his face on the ‘No Entry’ board. Coupled with his ability, Adam can generate new outfits and fake identification on the fly.
◼ Melee Weapons | Adam has limited formal martial arts experience, mostly with the knife, the axe, and the spear. Years have passed since his lessons, but tilting at shadows in the desert has kept his skills sharp enough to defend himself.
//LIMITATIONS:◼ Bankroll | Due to the nature of his power, Adam necessarily has to act within his budget. If he doesn’t have the cash to make a transaction happen, he simply cannot use his ability.
◼ See It To Believe It | Adam needs to be personally aware of any deals he tries to take advantage of with his power, whether it be seeing a posted price or hearing an ad on the radio.
◼ Mark Up | Instead of a conventional energy toll, repeated use of Adam’s power instead results in a mark up on all his purchases. Before long he’s forced to pay double, triple, and beyond for whatever he tries to conjure.
//WEAKNESSES:◼ Double Down | When possible, Adam will push his luck for a greater reward. The most he’s ever made has come from doubling down. Even in non-gambling situations, Adam figures he and his abilities are so versatile that they can get him out of anything.
//SUPPORTING CAST:▼ ALLIES◼ Darren Anderson | Chairman of the Vegas Paiute tribal council.
◼ Curtis Locklear | Adam’s older brother. Currently missing, possibly deceased.
▼ FRIENDS◼ TBD | Test
▼ ENEMIES◼ TBD | Test
//STOMPING GROUNDS◼ Las Vegas, Nevada | Home of the Las Vegas Paiute tribe.
//PARAPHERNALIA◼ Ledger | A pocket size leatherbound volume in which Adam keeps track of his expenditures. In total, he has 50,000 dollars to his name.
◼ One Dollar Motorcycle | A deal from Curt, one dollar for his motorcycle, as soon as he was old enough to ride it. In theory, if Curt is still alive out there and intends to honor it, his power could produce it. Adam hasn’t found the heart to try it.
