Hmm... it naturally depends on the setting, but some form of former-human uploaded and enhanced is an interesting route to take. At what point do they stop being a human? Do they consider themseleves human longer than society, or vice versa? And what parts of humanity do they want to hold on to?
Other times, it's time to strap on mirror shades and robot arms, and jack into cyberspace. Especially when it's hilariously 80s and wars are fought over 200mb chips, computing power beyond comprehension.
The 'Red Devil' sinks beneath the waves from a barrage of fire, it's treasure and supplies lost. The crew swim for shore, clutching anything that floats for support.
The red-haired captain surfaces with a deep breath of air, carrying the ship's sole devil fruit user under one arm, a small sea-chest in the other, kicking to shore. The stronger swimmers among the crew, or those who evacuated first, help them to shore, hiding out under a jetty.
Brenda regains consciousness as the sea water pours off of her, still weak and shaky. The captain slides the chest over to her. "Whatever's in here must be pretty important for a hammer like you to risk taking a swim. It's bad luck for the Captain to leave the ship before any crew though." he says gruffly, without letting Brenda speak. "Looks like this is it for the Red Devil Pirates for now... but you're not really one of us. Only picked you up at the last port. You can lie low in town, slip away on another ship when all this dies down." He shakes his head, and shouts "Besides, we're not used to fighting with you. You'd only hold us back. Go on, get out of here!"
Brends slides back when the captain begins shouting, then turns and runs. She doesn't understand all of his words, but the meaning is clear. As she goes, the captain turns to look at the navy ship and his cutlass. "It's bad luck for the newbie to die before the Captain, anyway."
And so, Brenda finds herself running through the town, soaking wet with only the clothes on her back, the tools on her belt and the deeply precious but ultimately worthless treasures in her little chest. She spends so much time looking behind her for incoming cannonballs, she doesn't look at what's up ahead...
Hmm... I shall begin a post running away from the carnage. If I don't happen to interact with the PCs after too long, I'll stow away on a random ship and just so happen to pick that one.
Personality: Happy, upbeat and infinitely curious, Brenda tries her best to see the bright side in any situation. She panics easily, but quickly regains a manic sort of composure. She's more likely to act before thinking and deal with the consequences. The common tongue is her second language, so she sometimes misunderstands.
Home Island/Sea: Okidou Island, East Blue. An island with large forests of strong trees, chiefly exported for shipmaking. The island's inhabitants take care to the forests to ensure they plant more trees than they cut down, to ensure future livelihood. The people have their own language.
History:
Brenda grew up on Okidou Island watching the varieties of ship arrive to buy the islands wood, amazed that pieces of her homeland would travel so far. She always wanted to find out how the ships were made.
When she was nine, a storm sunk a ship near Okidou's coast. The people all helped out with the rescue. Much of the cargo was lost under the sea, but Brenda rowed her home-made raft out, swam down and found a watertight box containing a devil fruit, which she ate back at her 'secret hideout', a beach hut she also made herself.
Brenda loved her amazing new powers, but the folk back home weren't quite so happy. The captain of the sunken ship was especially displeased, as he intended to trade the fruit for a large supply of wood, to supply his shipyard. Regardless, something about the young girl's passion for carpentry appealed to him, so he made a deal with Brenda's father. She would come with him to work off the cost of the fruit, learning a shipwright's trade.
Ten years later, Brenda has finished paying off the fruit (Which also happened to be the day her tutor decided she'd learned all he could teach) and set out to explore the oceans, see new styles of carpentry. While she was working at the shipyard, Brenda took plenty of photographs (Some kind of snail-based camera?) to write letters home, and as a farewell gift the master of the shipyard gave her an empty book, to fill with memories of her journey.
Fruit:
Maze-Maze no Mi, AKA the Mix-Mix Fruit. Paramecia Type. Brenda has the ability to turn herself and other objects into a putty-like substance by rpidly kneading it with her hands. They turn back if left alone, but while transformed it can be mixed with another liquid or transformed substance, to combine the two. She can also separate the objects again by reaching 'in' and pulling it out.
Common uses for Brenda include mixing a wooden plank into glue, to get a substance that's sticky and applyable by brush but hardens into a solid wooden coating, mixing a hammer into her hand for an iron punch, or mixing cloth with a sheet of metal to easily shape it, then remove the cloth and end up with metal in the required shape.
The chief limitations on the ability are that Brenda can only transform an object small or light enough for her to lift, as she needs to use both hands to putty-ify something, and she is unable to use her ability on living creatures other than herself. Soaking combined objects in saltwater also unmixes them if done within the first few days, as the sea nullifies the devil-fruit power.
It also has a tendancy to activate when Brenda is distracted or startled, mixing her with her gear. Her hat and hair often fuse as soon as she stops paying attention, giving her a hairstyle in the shape of a hat, with it's decorations mixed in. If Brenda trips into a pile of bricks, she may turn to putty and splatter into them, reforming herself very blocky. And she tends to wake up in the morning with a pillow for a head.
Mix-Mix Combine Rapidly knead into putty and combine two or more objects.
Mix-Mix Augment Combine an object with a part of her body, to boost herself somehow, or gain some measure of control over it. (e.g. Hammer fist, rope tail, telescope eyes)
Mix-Mix Full Body Putty Brenda transforms her whole body into putty. Very limited mobility, but greatly increased defence. Needs to be in this state to use Mix-Mix Full Body augment
Mix-Mix Full Body Augment Brenda combines her whole self with an object or objects. This needs a greater supply of objects to be effective, or else they are too diluted.
Mix-Mix Separate Pull objects out of a Mix-Mix technique, restoring them to their original properties.
So far, Brenda can only use Mix-Mix Separate on objects she's added to the mix herself. She may develop the ability to undo other mixtures or compounds in the future.
As well as the size limitation, the more alive something is, the harder it is for Brenda to work on it. Something completely inorganic is the easiest, with 'dead' organic matter such as a plank, cloth or a steak being only a little harder. A living plant is the limitation of her ability. Animals or people (Other than herself) are beyond Brenda's capabilities to alter. For now, anyway.
Fighting style: Brenda is not a skilled fighter, but if pressured into a fight her style would be best described as 'wild brawling'. She throws whatever is to hand, mixes tools into herself for extra punching power and crawls under tables, over chairs and slams doors in faces or dumps pots on heads. She's no match for a skilled fighter, but can keep an amateur off guard long enough to escape. If cornered, she'd probably try setting something on fire.
Ship Position: Assistant Shipwright
Bounty: Insignificant (May have picked up a few hundred for petty crimes in local jurisdictions, but nothing that would cross a sea)
Personality: Happy, upbeat and infinitely curious, Brenda tries her best to see the bright side in any situation. She panics easily, but quickly regains a manic sort of composure. She's more likely to act before thinking and deal with the consequences. The common tongue is her second language, so she sometimes misunderstands.
Home Island/Sea: Okidou Island, East Blue. An island with large forests of strong trees, chiefly exported for shipmaking. The island's inhabitants take care to the forests to ensure they plant more trees than they cut down, to ensure future livelihood. The people have their own language.
History:
Brenda grew up on Okidou Island watching the varieties of ship arrive to buy the islands wood, amazed that pieces of her homeland would travel so far. She always wanted to find out how the ships were made.
When she was nine, a storm sunk a ship near Okidou's coast. The people all helped out with the rescue. Much of the cargo was lost under the sea, but Brenda rowed her home-made raft out, swam down and found a watertight box containing a devil fruit, which she ate back at her 'secret hideout', a beach hut she also made herself.
Brenda loved her amazing new powers, but the folk back home weren't quite so happy. The captain of the sunken ship was especially displeased, as he intended to trade the fruit for a large supply of wood, to supply his shipyard. Regardless, something about the young girl's passion for carpentry appealed to him, so he made a deal with Brenda's father. She would come with him to work off the cost of the fruit, learning a shipwright's trade.
Ten years later, Brenda has finished paying off the fruit (Which also happened to be the day her tutor decided she'd learned all he could teach) and set out to explore the oceans, see new styles of carpentry. While she was working at the shipyard, Brenda took plenty of photographs (Some kind of snail-based camera?) to write letters home, and as a farewell gift the master of the shipyard gave her an empty book, to fill with memories of her journey.
Fruit:
Maze-Maze no Mi, AKA the Mix-Mix Fruit. Paramecia Type. Brenda has the ability to turn herself and other objects into a putty-like substance by rpidly kneading it with her hands. They turn back if left alone, but while transformed it can be mixed with another liquid or transformed substance, to combine the two. She can also separate the objects again by reaching 'in' and pulling it out.
Common uses for Brenda include mixing a wooden plank into glue, to get a substance that's sticky and applyable by brush but hardens into a solid wooden coating, mixing a hammer into her hand for an iron punch, or mixing cloth with a sheet of metal to easily shape it, then remove the cloth and end up with metal in the required shape.
The chief limitations on the ability are that Brenda can only transform an object small or light enough for her to lift, as she needs to use both hands to putty-ify something, and she is unable to use her ability on living creatures other than herself. Soaking combined objects in saltwater also unmixes them if done within the first few days, as the sea nullifies the devil-fruit power.
It also has a tendancy to activate when Brenda is distracted or startled, mixing her with her gear. Her hat and hair often fuse as soon as she stops paying attention, giving her a hairstyle in the shape of a hat, with it's decorations mixed in. If Brenda trips into a pile of bricks, she may turn to putty and splatter into them, reforming herself very blocky. And she tends to wake up in the morning with a pillow for a head.
Fighting style: Brenda is not a skilled fighter, but if pressured into a fight her style would be best described as 'wild brawling'. She throws whatever is to hand, mixes tools into herself for extra punching power and crawls under tables, over chairs and slams doors in faces or dumps pots on heads. She's no match for a skilled fighter, but can keep an amateur off guard long enough to escape. If cornered, she'd probably try setting something on fire.
Ship Position: Assistant Shipwright
Bounty: Insignificant (May have picked up a few hundred for petty crimes in local jurisdictions, but nothing that would cross a sea)
Parent: Nuwa, the Chinese goddess who created mankind from yellow clay and repaired the pillar of heaven.
Age: 22
Appearance: A Chinese woman, fairly pretty with dark hair and eyes and skin the colour of clay. Tall for her ethnicity, and tends to roll up the sleeves and trouser legs on her project-issue clothes.
Serial Number for prison: 8268
Powers: Can reshape earth, stone, metal and flesh with a touch, moulding them like wet clay. Has also demonstrated the ability to consume such materials. Using these abilities on living creatures is not fatal, but is permanent until altered again.
Abilities: Moderately skilled at sculpture. Some training in environmental sciences. Speaks Chinese and English.
Job or Skill: Student of Environmental Science at Shanghai University.
Background: Mei's abilities first manifested themselves a few years ago, but she did her best to keep them hidden, while practicing in secret. Her secret was revealed when a fellow student was struck by a car, and she used her power to heal them in front of many witnesses. In resisting capture by Project Myth several operatives were altered in melee. Mei was 'convinced' to restore them before her transfer to th facility.
THREAT LEVEL: Medium. Subject has shown no indication of ranged powers. Important note: subject is to be allowed no earthen or metal objects. Specially treated cell is constructed from plastics and wood.
This looks like a fun and exciting ga,e to jump into as my first on this forum. I figured I should discuss character options before clicking that big tempting 'Apply' button though.
Right now, the idea I have is based on a character from an old RP on another forum that never got off the ground.
Brenda Wirrit is a young shipwright who has up until joining the party has been hitching her way across the oceans, working for her passage. It's her dream to see all the major sights on the oceans, and fill her scrapbook with souvenirs.
She has the power of the mix-mix fruit (Japanese translation unknown) which lets her transform herself or other objects into putty and mix them together into a single object with attributes of both. She's unable to work it on objects too heavy for her to lift, or on living creatures other than herself, but this may change with experience. Her favourite trick is mixing wood and glue to fix cracks in ships.
Possible other quirks (undecided on whether or not to feature all of them) include:
A tendency to mix herself with other things (e.g. Her hat with her hair) when not concentrating. A pet octo-cat from the only time she managed to mix-mix living creatures. Always wears inflatable arm bands, in case of water-related accidents. A native of an island which doesn't speak the standard world language. Carries a phrase book and is still learning difficult words. May sometimes use the 4kids translation. (Captain... Chaser? Oh, Smoker! Sorry, the words sound the same to me.)
So that's my pitch. Look forward to hearing feedback.
That's what my name is from, anyway. I'm from the UK and a fan of many genres, from the mythological or sci-fi, to realistic. I'm a sucker for anything that'll let me use the word posthuman though.
