[OOC] Epic City: Starburst

[Flood]

@Sedjwick@RoflsMazoy@Regitnui

Ace is gonna be joining the fight soon, can I get a quick rundown on the situation and setting of the fight?

[Sedjwick]

@floodtalonI think we're near Dragon's apartment. Mimic is going after Vice, and I think Magus just tossed Dian into the air with a column of earth, and now he's listening for signs of trouble while hoping his eyesight returns sooner rather than later (@Regitnui is that even going to happen?)

[Old Amsterdam]

@floodtalon
Like Sedj said. Magus is the one in obvious need of assistance, given the lack of eyesight.

[Regitnui]

@Sedjwick depending on the exact method used to render Magus blind...

[Regitnui]

OK, people in the Apartment, you have one post to describe your reaction to Dragon's rousing speech and Spectrum dragging him into the bedroom before we enter the street fight.

[ML]

Okay guys gimme a place to drop phantom the intangible one punch wonder

[Old Amsterdam]

@Mercenary Lord
Mhmm. Why don't you go ahead and make a post reestablishing what he's been up to since the Scatterer thing? The fight going on right now is taking place at the tail end / immediately after that fight ended. I'd say at this point the fight Phantom had been in is over 100%.

[ML]

Taron Duke - Bombard

Name
Taron Duke

Epic Identity
Bombard

Age
19

Faction
Epic (???)

Ability
Bombard's abilities are twofold. Firstly, he is shockproof. Any blast wave, tremor, or shock wave will not hurt him. An explosion's heat and shrapnel could cause him harm, but the blast wave would do him no harm. If he is thrown into a wall, he will still take damage, but he can use his abilities to cushion the hit to some degree.

The second ability is his offensive ability. Bombard can control the velocity of any air within his line of sight (he cannot control air inside buildings unless the building has windows, nor can he control air inside a person's body unless there is a hole in their body, etc). For example, he is able to rapidly raise the velocity of a sphere of air, which results in a radial explosion of powerful shockwaves. Effectively, he can create explosions without fire or ignition. Velocity increases are instantaneous.

Furthermore, because of his shockproof nature, he is capable of using these explosions to "fly" through the air, though it's more akin to repeated detonations beneath his feet, making it dangerous to use for too long.

The limits of this ability are at approximately Mach 5, where air flow begins to transfer to hypersonic, and the air molecules themselves begin to break down and lose electrons. At that point, his abilities no longer considers the air to be "air", despite what anyone else might think. Also, the more air Bombard attempts to affect at once, the less velocity he can impart on it, being inversely related by the volume he attempts to influence.

As an example, Bombard can cause 1 cubic meter of air to move at Mach 5 (about 1715 m/s), and 10 cubic meters of air to move at 1.715 m/s. Decreasing the volume of affected air can allow it to move slightly faster than Mach 5, but the increase is logarithmic, not linear.

Weakness
Rap, country, and bluegrass music.

Personality
Taron is a strange mix. He listens to Gregorian chanting, but has little impulse control. He is loud when speaking, but his diction is impeccable, always complete sentences and perfect grammar. More than anything else, he wants to be a hero, but is incredibly, unbelievably bad at it. In a nutshell, he is a hotheaded man who desperately wishes to stay calm, but has yet been unsuccessful.

When angered, he speaks very little, instead hissing, grunting, or shouting.

He views those who don't help him as against him, even if they don't even know of his existence. As an example, he once said hello to a beautiful woman as she was walking down the street, and she, like any normal person, said hello back and continued walking past him. He sent pieces of her splattering across a nearby alleyway, thinking she had spurned him.

Easily manipulated by those who help him or praise him in a genuine fashion. To clarify, he needs to feel as if he is friends with someone, and then he would support them doggedly.

His sense of justice is somewhat skewed, and those who show him kindness/attention are more likely to be spared from his sudden outbursts. He remembers all the crimes he commits, and he knows they're wrong, but at the end of the day, he simply can't control himself, and tries to rationalize his actions. As a result, Bombard is constantly unhappy with his life, and spends much of his time drowning his sorrows in various distractions. These distractions do not help with his temper, or his self-loathing.

A would-be hero, but no one has been able to survive his anger long enough to guide him along that path. He feels intense regret for his parents' deaths, but has no proper way to mitigate it.

Appearance
Image Reference
Heavily shadowed eyes belie his general lack of sleep. Taron's hands tremble easily when he undergoes any particular emotion, and he generally wears heavy coats, even during warmer weather. He doesn't seem to overheat, and he rarely sweats.

Background
Like many kids, Taron grew up with anger issues. He could never control himself when he became incensed, no matter how badly his parents tried to control him. For most of his youth, this was more of a nuisance than a problem, until he began going through puberty.

His parents decided therapy might be a good step. He hated going, fighting tooth and nail to stay home whenever possible. This all came to a head at age 16, when, during a particularly spirited bout of therapy, something switched inside him, and he annihilated the office, bringing down the entire building in his rage. His therapist, the security guard in the room, and his parents all died in the collapse.

Taron survived, to his utter horror. He knew it was his fault, and he knew that there was no going back. He fled the scene, the city, the state...he ran as far and as fast as he could, and suddenly discovered he could fly on his way across Iowa.

Eventually, he ended up in Epic City, where he saw an opportunity to make amends for his crimes by protecting the innocent, destroying the people who used their powers for evil, and saving the world from the evil Epics.

That turned out to be easier said than done, and he quickly became obsessed with the idea of good and evil, with himself and his "friends" being good, and others being evil. People who might have been a good influence on him found themselves annihilated if they said something even remotely out of line.

He still fights for his morals, but the poor man no longer has any idea of who matches his idea of evil.

Here's this guy, finally wrapped up and finished. Not quite a hero, not quite a villain, but definitely powerful, and possibly and easily molded kinda guy. lmk feedback if you like/dislike him

[Gardevoiran]

@Regitnui
OH SHIT GONNA GO EDIT REAL QUICK HCHAAAAAAAA--

[Regitnui]

@Banana what? You people seem to assume a lot.

[Gardevoiran]

@Regitnui
It could be interpreted as that so hard though.

[Regitnui]

@Banana, you have a smutty mind, preacher. They weren't going to do anything there beyond a little petting. After, on the other hand...

[ML]

how bout that bombard tho

[Old Amsterdam]

@Mercenary Lord
I'd mentioned the subject and haven't really discussed the matter yet.

From my immediate mind, I don't see anything wrong with him. Given some things we've got cooked up, there's some good character development options for him.

I give my seal of approval, though we'll need to wait for @Regitnui

[Regitnui]

@Mercenary Lord@Old Amsterdam, Sorry. Here's a stamp of approval. Expect the musical tastes of Epic City's villains to be fleshed out in the near future... First person to correctly guess what Khan (Kryptonite leader) likes, gets a prize.

[ML]

Neat, I'll work on something today.

[ML]

Wait, so what happened to the giant evil void monster?

[Regitnui]

@Mercenary Lord We have plans for it.

[ML]

Okay but like, is it still just rampaging around

because last i checked phantom was there when it showed up, should he engage that thing?

[Old Amsterdam]

@Mercenary Lord
It's last noted location was in the direction of the Wilds.

And no, I do not recommend engaging. It would not go well.