Blizz

To Claim a Starting World

Yeah it’s more on me for writing myself into a corner than anything else. I like the way this was done though, it’s a neat way to run an rp

To Claim a Starting World

Imma be real with y’all I’ve been thinking about what to post for what? A month or two? I’ve lost motivation for this one. Sorry.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

...Terrorism.” Takeda here had tracked her down, raided a shop, and set fire to several cars to tell her about that. Ellie let out a puff of air after looking him dead in the face for a while four seconds after he finished talking. This wasn’t the first time someone actually came to her for help, but normally it was from people she ran into. Kids who walked around in the later hours, people who got harassed by thugs often. Sometimes she’d walk into a store for some alcohol and walk up behind a robber, just to reach around and throw him through the doors like a tennis ball- sometimes even literally. ”So. You need me to help you take out this weapon before people get hurt badly.” Takeda wouldn’t be lying after all this, everything in his story was too concrete, too consistent to be some diversion. Besides, what else’s she gonna do?

”Well, ‘Kay. I’ll bite. Let’s do it. Get on.” There want any apprehension in her voice. Ellie was like that, he was obviously too soft to dare and pull a gun on her anyway. She dropped the helmet onto her head as the motorcycle growled to life. Ellie waited for Takeda to get on and get comfortable. Once he was, she could see a few streaks of light starting to creep up. Flashlights. People were investigating already. Looks like the cops got here in time. ”Alright, hold on tight-“ Ellie’s left hand lit up, she brought this hand visibly down to the side of her bike to where the engine was. The glow of her hand moved to under her bike. Suddenly, the hum of the engine became a shout of the engine. It roared like a beast. In a flash the two of them were flying down the midnight road like a shooting star across the blackness of space. A puff of light was all that was left behind to suggest anyone was at the end of that street in the first place. Ellie and Takeda moved at well over 100MPH for the better part of the next 10 seconds. There was something about the rapidly decaying glow that mixed unnaturally well with the gasoline in her bike that gave Ellie the speed of a demon on that thing.

In record time, the two of them made it back to the apartment complex. Ellie coasted the bike up the sloped driveway and snaked through the first floor of the parking lot with her foot off the gas. Finally she parked it smooth as water. It’s like she never even left. As the two of them got off the bike, Ellie pulled her helmet off in some sexy B-movie moment where her hair flowed out. ”We’re clear now.” She switched the bike off and made her way up. ”C’mon.” She said to him, expecting Takeda to follow her. ”Just keep quiet. People sleep at this hour.” And then they were upstairs.

Ellie’s apartment was just the way she left it, nice and quiet. She instantly walked over to the couch and lazily sat down on it. A ceiling mounted punching bag was visible in the corner of the main room. ”So. A weapon that destroys cities...”

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Ellie was already stepping through the glass window before he spoke. In fact, she was prepared to take his leg out from under him before he started running his mouth about being a scientist. ”Meta...sciences. You’re a scientist? The hell are you doing here?” He definitely didn’t look the type to rob a store, hell, he looked like he just rolled out of bed. At least Ellie got dressed before she did. The hell was this guy on about? ”What are you talking about? What weapon?” Sirens started creeping up on them the more they spoke. She was still lit up, and the light started to fade bit by bit as she saw he wasn’t actually armed. Wait, how did he know her name? ”So you come out here in the middle of the night, blow up some cars and start snatching things in a jewelry store just to tell me something? You’re not exactly in a good spot here.” Her fists still lit up, she turned her head for a few seconds as the flashes of red and blue began to come into visibility.

”Know what? Fine.” She grabbed this “Takeda” guy and bolted out the door with him in tow just before the cops got there. The city block was largely pitch black, and there was a streak of gold running across the sidewalk with this guy before her Sunlight faded off. Now they sat by her motorcycle. The cops finally came and started sweeping the place, everything past the burning cars would be hard to see with the blackout. In a flash, Ellie had bum-rushed the guy over to her bike, now that they were plenty of feet away from the scene, they had a moment. None of the cops would think to look over this way, if anything, they’d go looking for the grid’s failure. At least, until they start sweeping the surroundings. ”This better be good.”

”Okay, you wanna talk? Talk. You got three minutes before I 180 this and drop you over there.” She sat on her bike like the was ready to take off, since it was obvious this guy was fishy. Blowing up cars to get Ellie’s attention was one thing, painting the scene with the busted up shop was another, but actually bagging the jewels inside? A thief doesn’t really go that far just to say “sike” after. Then again, why would he have an ID? ”A weapon. Some plan. My name. Start explaining.” She didn’t come off as hostile, just very composed, and somewhat confused. This was going to turn into one hell of a night. Ellie was sitting with both legs thrown to one side like a chair, with him in front of her.

”We’re not going anywhere until you explain yourself. You sound like you know I’m not gonna budge. Talk.”

/ / H A L C Y O N / /

Sam, the wandering motherfucker with the sexy tunes

[ BASICS ]

---

[ NAME ]

Sam Jester

[ AGE ]
25

[ GENDER ]
Male

[ COMMUNICATOR OF ]
Bragi

[ MYTHOLOGY OF BRAGI ]

The first poet in human history, the Aesir god of poetry and music rumored by some to have been born mortal and granted godhood and welcomed into Asgard by Odin himself. Bragi is the only member of the Aesir tribe permitted to wander among the nine worlds, and always has a song or a tale ready to share. Bragi was born as the child of Odin, leader of the Aesir, and a Jötun named Gunnlod.

---

[ APPEARANCE ]

---

[ PHYSIQUE ]

Eye candy and pretty eyes. That's what people usually see when they look at Sam. His body has a lot of toned muscles from his travels around the country. He typically wears a lot of baggy clothes, sweatpants, vans shoes, hoodies, denim coats. That kind of thing. He’s got a decent amount of muscle on him, enough to take a few rounds of a fist fight.

[ HEIGHT / WEIGHT ]

5' 10" | 197lb

---

[ PERSONALITY ]

---

[ PERSONALITY DESCRIPTION ]

Sometimes peaceful, sometimes downright insane, occasionally aloof, and maybe just a bit of a hedonist. Sam is a drifter who goes where life takes him. He’s not one to start fights, but prefers to end them either in the building of a bridge or the breaking of someone’s nose, if it comes to that. Sam’s largely a pacifist, go with the flow type of guy. In his own words, “Life’s too short to bitch, let’s enjoy ourselves.” Where there’s a pretty face, or a nice bottle of something alcoholic, you’ll fine him right there living life how he knows it best: Like every day is the end of the road. It is rare to see Sam with a sullen look on his face, like nothing ever gets to him. You can’t really tell if that’s true or not, but he’s always the type you want to be around when there are spirits to be lifted, laughs to he had, and glorious, wicked, stupid fun to be had. Sam comes off as brash, and having little more than surface level emotional understanding, but he is one of the most loyal friends you’ll ever meet. He will take a bullet - literally - for someone he feels good about, which isn’t many people. More often than not, he finds himself flirting death, so to speak: having an unsolicited laugh with the angry looking guy in a bar, figuring out which concoctions of alcohol will hammer you fastest, the usual loose cannon energy. As much of a chaotic goofball he may seem like, Sam has a serious side to him. You just don't see it often. He knows when to chill out and keep quiet.

In some respects, Sam fits the archetype of the “Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass” the most. He's more socially intelligent than in any other way, and typically comes off as this disastrous fool who only cares about music and getting hammered, but when you really get to know him, you see that there is in fact a very understanding and wise mind behind that face of is. Sam has an understanding of tough subjects that most people prefer to ignore, but ironically that is the thing that drives him to live life the way he does. When the party stops and the sun goes down, Sam is that friend people can depend on until the end as long as you need him to be there. Live free, die together. That’s Sam’s perfect life. For all his wild ways, there is a piece of him that sometimes feels like he's too loose. You're only truly free when you have nothing left to lose. Sometimes he thinks about how his life could’ve been if it weren’t how it actually was, but what can you do if you don’t run with it?

[ LIKES / DISLIKES ]

Alcohol (Mead mostly) | Music (duh) | Travelling | Freedom

---

[ BIOGRAPHY ]

---

[ Place of Origin ]

North Carolina

[ BIO ]

“Well. I was born in an okay-ish town down in North Carolina. It was alright living there, enough to do to keep ya sane and not too lonely. It was just me and mom, we weren’t lonely though, we had it pretty alright. Lots of family friends came over a lot, lots of mine did too. I started playing a guitar when I was a little kid, never met my dad, but apparently he was pretty good, so I kinda took after him that way. I think. Anyway, I never wanted to do anything much with that, didn’t wanna take the heart outta the sound, everything was normal more or less. Dated a few guys, a few girls too, had the occasional fist fight with some ass who played football- not my type. That was fine and all, but towards the end of high school? That’s when stuff got funny for me.

Me and some of my closest friends had been saving cash up for a while, we wanted to go travel a little together and see the world for what it was before we had to go to college and let it make us what it wanted us to be. One of them took us up towards Tennessee, and then we went to Ohio and came back. A bit later we went to Florida to see the ocean. We got drunk. I don’t think I’ve ever had that kinda fun with anybody. A few months after I graduated, when I was 19, it came time where everyone was going off for school. I still had some money saved. I thought to myself, “Y’know, I don’t really know if I’m ready for that.” I wasn’t. Who the hell is?

So...I took the car I had since I was sixteen and left.

I went all up and down the country, New York, Oregon, Nevada, hell, I went to Alaska once too. Since then I’ve been to just about everywhere in America, except Hawaii ‘cuz I don’t speak Hawaiian, and Arkansas. Let’s be honest, no one actually likes Arkansas. I got into a bit of a rut later down the line, started running on fumes. No cash. That’s when I started playing for money and winning with cards. I didn’t just get good for sport, I played to win. Haha. It’s been fun so far. It’s been real. I’ve seen just about everything out here, met more people than I can even remember, saw so much. I dunno how I can leave all that behind. These days it’s all I know. I’ve got nothing left to lose but money and sleep. Not even my guitar, since, well, there’s a god of music in my head.

A few months ago, Bragi popped into my life, thought I was on some bad drink or something, but nope. God. Kept telling me about how I was meant for more, how my songs would live on forever, the usual god talk. He’s alright, been there and seen me through some real shit so far. He told me how to make mead and everything but told me only to drink it when I was in danger. I figured that out the hard way when some guy shot me over a game of poker. Three aces. One five. One seven. Woke up in my jeep with a hangover and a bullet scar and an empty magic booze flask.

And that’s how I got here. Pretty wild, huh?

Yeah, that’s how I like it.”

[ REASON FOR CHOICE ]

Sam is a free spirit whose life is comprised of revelry and song. They say this is the thing that made Bragi become a god at the will of Odin himself. It only seemed fitting for someone such as him.

---

[ POWERS ]

---

[ RELICS / FAMILIARS ]

The Mead of Poetry: Sam is the only mortal in all the world who knows how to recreate this stuff. The way to make it is memorized in his head. The Mead of Poetry is a magical drink that grants a higher state of being to people who consume it. This higher state of being includes incredible mental focus and clarity as well as healing properties to the body. Wounds that would otherwise kill you without proper medical attention heal in an hour once you’re on the mead. The trick to this is that it isn’t easy to make, in fact it takes months for the mead to become effective before the bottle is even opened. Also, since it’s something that gods are known for drinking, it’s the strongest drink on earth. Discretion is advised.

Sam describes it as “1000 Proof.”

[ POWERS ]

Magic Guitar: All of Yggdrasil could crash down on it, all of the sickening Hvergilmer river could drip across it, and not a scratch would be made. Nothing can break Sammy's magic guitar. The strings will never snap, the body will never crack or bend. Sam can also somehow pull out of thin air. It looks like a magic trick where you pull a rabbit out of your hat. On top of that, Sam can magically alter the way the notes sound when plucked from the strings. One moment they sound acoustic, the next they sound electric. Sure, that's not the most practical thing to have, but can you really call yourself the communicator of Bragi without a godlike instrument?

Empathetic Song: A magical string of notes that instill a specific emotion in a desired creature as long as they are capable of feeling such an emotion. Fear. Rage. Peace. It takes a bit out of Sammy to do this, and it takes even more depending on who hears it, and all it can do is implant intense feelings in the mind. It's not actual mind control, more like suggestions. This can take the form of a song of serenity, where calming energy comes through, or a song of terror to make people suddenly very motivated to turn and run. This works easier on people will less willpower, or animals. Another god-chosen? Not easy. It would take a lot more effort.

Rune Weaving: A 24 letter alphabet of magical symbols dating back before the time of Christianity can be called upon through the use of Sam's musical magic. Each note he can play is representative of a certain rune. A certain high for Algiz, a certain low for Uruz, and so on. This means that stringing together certain notes creates a magic spell depending on the composition. Combining Uruz with Thuriaz would create a very destructive blast in a certain direction. The only problem with this is that some combinations don't work together. You can't combine Raidho and Isa. The more runes added to the spell, the messier the meaning becomes. If Sam were to just spit out a bunch of runes, either something unpredictable could happen, or nothing at all. This is more or less the same thing as actual Vitki magic, except more awkward since it's preformed through an instrument.

[ INVOCATION ]

Bragi

Bragi is called upon through a certain set of notes, a simple and melodic one that causes him to appear. While Sam’s more than capable of playing just about anything that involves strings, this takes a lot out of him. Arguably, he could just crack open some of the mead of poetry and shred all day, but that wouldn’t be the best idea when you want to not have a record-holding hangover the next morning, or drunk like a sick dog in an hour. Bragi is an Aesir god, therefore he appears human, looking to be in his late 40s.

[ OTHER INTERESTS/SKILLS ]

Incredible Musician: This goes without saying, really.

Blunt Weapons: Specifically, his guitar. Since it's unable to break and can always appear out of seemingly nowhere whenever he wants it to, it's a good weapon.

Frithmaker: Sure, winning fights against godly monsters is cool, but why not drink together and laugh for once with the bad guy? Sam isn't a stranger to sitting down with people he isn't exactly on speaking terms. Once they do, he works it out pretty easily. One way or another. Either that, or someone's brains are getting smashed.

Self-Reliant: Sam knows how to live alone. It’s not much of a skill, but it is when you’re independent.

Poker Jesus: Reading the table, calling the best bets, winning the most cash. Your chances at beating Sam in a poker match are embarrassingly low. He's damn good at it. Not that being very skilled at poker helps win mythological fights, but it means Sam has plenty of cash on him.

---

[ MISC ]

---

[ BIRTHDAY / SIGN ]

November 31st | Sagittarius

[ FAVORITES / LEAST FAVORITES ]

Strong mead | A good party no matter how big or small | Seeing new things and new people

[ SEXUAL PREFERENCE ]

Pansexual

[ MUSIC/MOVIE/BOOK/GAME TYPE ]

Favorite bands include My Sleeping Karma, Mors Principium Est, Draconian, Mogwai, and The Kings of Frog Island.

/ / H A L C Y O N / /

pog

/ / H A L C Y O N / / A Mythology RP

HoNk

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

@Estylwen

Have you considered making a discord server where we can all talk abt the rp and our character interactions easier? I’m asking because most rps I’ve been in have one.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Ellie couldn’t sleep.

Between having to work on a banged up car that absolutely reeked of Marlboros, watered down booze and what she assumed was some kind of weed and the usual 150 push-up, 150 leg kick exercise she always did before even touching the punching bag at her apartment...Ellie was a little wide awake. More so than most people would be at this hour. Then again, aren’t heroes typically up at night anyway? Currently the woman was sitting up in her bed staring out a window. 12:01. It was dark out. A little too dark for her tastes. What’s a girl with steel-crushing strength to do on such a dead night like tonight?

The only thing she never gets tired of, obviously.

Ellie threw on some pants, and her boots, oh and the gloves. They’re sexy. The only sounds that accompanied Ellie in the dead silent, barely illuminated apartment were the accession along sound of crickets or the flash of a firefly. It felt like all of Tenebrae was sound asleep. Naturally of course, someone was undoubtedly out and about stirring up trouble. There were always self made heroes and self made baddies out at this night. Ellie was used to the idea of going around and beating on the bad guys. She’d been doing it since high school. God, this building was so damn quiet...Ellie grabbed her keys and her gun, the two room apartment she lives in wasn’t very bad to look at, nice couch, nice tv, pretty open kitchen across the way if you wanna watch the news while you whip some eggs, even a punching bag hooked to the ceiling. Ellie’s phone light was all she was using to see, didn’t need the bright lights. Her apartment was on the third floor, at least 50 feet up from the ground, give or take. Typically, people climb three flights of stairs and leave through the main entrance, passing by tens of tens of doors where others lived.

At least, normal people do.

---

Ellie hopped out of her bedroom window and closed it behind her. She was standing on the metal staircase that acted as a fire escape. There weren’t even cars on the road. Down on the ground was the garage where people parked. This was also the destination of Ellie’s...shortcut.

Thud

A flash of sunlight was the only thing to break the dreary facade of Tenebrae’s midnight. A falling star from the third floor onto the ground, right by the front entrance to the building. Ellie landed feet first on the pavement light as a feather. She strolled off the path and into the garage, like an angel just descended from heaven in a padded rider’s jacket. Down she went to find her ride with a click of the keys and a chirp of the beast.

Contains imagery with immaculate sexual appeal (Source: Ellie) Viewer discretion advised

Ellie’s motorcycle was old but gold. The back had storage trunks, out of which she pulled a solid black helmet and rode out with style, and discretion.

12:20. The air was chilly and crisp. Nothing Ellie wasn’t used to. The steers were quiet as she took the pace a little slower, only going 20 down the roads. Nights like this brought her peace, even if she couldn’t sleep through them. Most of the bad guys she dealt with were at night, every now and then someone throughout the day hours got roughed up, but most of it was in the face of few eyes. Life was good. What was that sound? Was that smoke she smelled? ”That’s not right...” And so she sped on, following the distant crashing noises that shook the calm of the night. Trouble. Her head was calm and clear, this isn’t unusual to her. Well, it is, but if it’s a bad guy, nothing new would be found.

And found she did. A bomber. She rolled up to the end of a street, a good 20 feet away from where a jewelry store was being raided. Cars ablaze on the sides of the road. This was a mess. Ellie slowly brought her bike closer and closer, a final blast shook the store. It seemed someone was trying to cause a distraction to direct attention to the damages. Either way, that final blast gave away the intent. Parking the bike on its leg, she stepped off.

Night became day.

Ellie’s clothes began to permeate a warm, orange light as she bravely and coldly strolled down the streets building up energy across her body. 15 feet, more light. 10, more light. She was coming up on the scene like a human candle, the light wasn’t very spectacular considering how much of her body was covered, but she stuck out. Finally she stood outside a shattered window, inside was a thief haphazardly bagging whatever he could. Easy pickings, really. It’s certainly bold to just walk up to someone who’s blowing things up when all you’re planning on fighting with is your hands, but that’s really all this girl needs. Besides, there isn’t much that can get past her Sunlight.

A sharp crack of the knuckles in Ellie’s two hands proceeded the very much intentional announcement of her presence, oh, and so did her yelling.

”Knock knock, chucklefuck.”

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

I hear the hungry ghost calling out in the night...

_{"Can I watch 'em as they fall
When they finally try to stand?
Redeem myself
For everyone I've buried with these hands?
I fight
And I fight
Just to keep the spark alive
But if there's nothing on the other side
Why can't I leave well enough alone?
And go to the light?"}

Codename

Sunrider
N/A

“Not in it for the fame.”

Secret Identity

Ellie Harper

Age

34

Gender

Female

Role

Vigilante

Appearance

5'7", 190lb, lots of muscle, boxer body. Ellie's got a real case of Eye Candy Syndrome going on for the guys and gals who like getting stepped on, she has a peaceful, almost harmonious atmosphere that surrounds her. Ellie walks with her head held up, in an "I'm confident, deal with it" sort of way. Her skin is tough to the touch, you can tell when her hands wrap around your own that she's got stories to tell of days long gone.

Vigilante

Dominant Trait

Strong-Willed

You can’t ever keep Ellie down. She always gets up with the same straight face and same temperament. You can take the sun out of the light, but you can take the light out of the sun. Ellie’s the tough woman everyone knows, she lets things rush over her like a wave, but stays standing like a mountain. Beyond that, she’s vindictive, Ellie doesn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for people who deserve what’s coming to them, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any mercy. In fact, mercy is something she prioritizes over anything else, Ellie will not use her powers if she can get away with handling an issue without them. Having the strength to crush a car with your fists means having the burden of using that strength responsibly, and Ellie doesn’t see everything as a nail. There is a time to draw swords, and a time to draw lines. In a way, you could consider Ellie a bit of a dreaming pacifist, but she’s more than just a dreamer, that’s why she’s out doing work as a Vigilante behind the back of the law, because she has the drive to get something done that they don’t. Deep down, however, it’s a little personal to her. Years ago, Ellie made some very bad choices, and now works to make amends in the best way she knows how, which is to go out and get rid of people like her. Redemption in her own eyes, answering only to her free-spirited self.

Ellie's got a certain wavelength she rides on that people really understand when they understand her specifically. One minute she's giving a punching bag all kinds of hell, the next she laughing and smiling like a drunk doofus. By day she's a go-with-the-flow and sting-like-a-bee type of lady. By night she's a live-free-and-fuck-shit-up and light-the-night-right-the-fuck-up type. A real whirlwind of vibes, she is.

Goal

Redemption

Superpower

Sunlight

A little bit of concentration, and a warm, sun-like glow starts to emanate from Ellie’s body. She simply calls his Sunlight. This energy only exists as a result of her power she manifested before she was even 10 years old. The purpose of this Sunlight is that it empowers Ellie’s body to do the things she is used to doing. Enhanced strength, faster movement, greater endurance. Ellie has learned to use this energy constantly, like a high voltage battery. With just a flick of her wrist, her entire hand will start glowing like it was lit on fire, and suddenly there is a hole in somebody’s car. It’s like she goes from being made of skin and bone to being made of oak. Ellie isn’t really used to the idea of super speed, but she can outrun plenty of people. Most people can run at a speed of 9MPH, if Ellie were to channel as much Sunlight as she possibly could before burning up, she’d be able to move at 15.

Burning up is something that happens when she, or anyone for that matter, absorbs too much Sunlight energy. It’s like overheating, except your body is overworked. Your heart rate will spike abnormally, your blood pumps too much, and it’s generally like an adrenaline rush that will leave you very fatigued. Ellie’s body is accustomed to this, being the conduit through with Sunlight is created, so she can take a very large amount of it in before even noticing the effects or burnout. The ironic thing is that smaller amounts of Sunlight can actually have the opposite effect: Ellie often finds herself managing bruises or cracked bones with her energy. Cracked ribs, twisted ankles, and torn muscles can get healed faster than normal in the presence of Sunlight. At Ellie’s limit, you could heal that kind of thing overnight, but others would take longer. She’s not used to playing doctor to others, however.

The only problem with this power is that, like all forms of energy, it dissolves with time. While Sunlight is built up in Ellie’s body, she can direct however she wants, and she can certainly drum up a good deal of it in a matter of seconds, but that would be enough to deal out 30+ pound punches in bursts. There’s no consistency doing that, and the energy would recede in roughly 30 seconds. If Ellie wants to go on the defensive, she’d have to continuously channel Sunlight while she’s throwing fists and once it’s built up, then she can make it flow around her body. Think of it like a fire: it isn’t enough to build it, you have to maintain it too. This is why the low level healing she can manage doesn’t really translate well into another person’s body as well. It would take hours to heal someone else. While that may be an upside for something like a broken leg, you’d still be better going to a doctor. This burning effecting is a way she manages to subdue some criminals. By making their body work overtime and run itself ragged, they're left fatigued.

Other Skills

Self Reliant

Ellie can take care of herself, she always has.
“Got my own job at a car shop. Know how to cook, don’t need no man for that, haha. Ladies...”

Martial Prowess

Very skilled in hand to hand combat, fitting for someone with such a superpower.
“Been settling problems with my hands and feet since I was a kid. Boxing, that kinda thing, except a bit better when I light up.”

Motorcycle Rider

She handles a motorcycle like it's second nature to her. Can't lose the sun if it's on wheels.
“Did I mention I like motorcycles? You didn’t think I run around the city to fight crime, did you?”

The Almighty Glock-19

Ellie also keeps a gun handy, it's always good to have some hard metal under your finger, even if you can crush bricks with your palms.
“Stay strapped all day long, or be badly clapped upon. Never know when a Christmas tree fist won’t help. Hell, sometimes I can light it up too, the bullets just kinda...hurt harder.”

History

Ellie's theme song

"Oh boy...

When I was 9, maybe 10, Sunlight first came to me. My dad wasn't entirely thrilled about me fooling with it in the house. I got a little older and started experimenting with it, started writing stuff down. When I got around to high school I actually had a bit of control over it. Lots of people talked about their powers openly there, lots of kids, anyway. Most of the teachers were really nasty about it, they wouldn't let us talk about something that literally made us who we were, because we were "too young" to understand them. I didn't exactly enjoy that, and I sure as hell didn't enjoy that law they made saying we can't use our powers. I didn't let that get to me though. I kept using Sunlight in private, late at night I'd sneak out and go to the park and start throwing punches, it helped get the anger out from being all smothered. At least that's how I felt then. When I got a hold of a punching bag for my room, I spent hours there. That was where it all went south. One day I was riding my bike - not a motorcycle - home after school. A man stopped me. He called himself "Fendrix." Fendrix was a villain who got inside my head, he had some kind of telekinetic stuff going on, and told me about how he was looking to stick it to the government. He told me he was putting together a gang of people mad at the world. I don't know how he found me, or how he knew anything about me. My kid brain thought it was a good thing.

I started spending less and less time at home, telling dad I was in an after-school thing. Fendrix's gang was called the Gray Dragons. They called themselves heroes, visionaries even. They were terrorists. They went after people who were in favor of that law. They stole, they killed. They weren't special, they just wanted an excuse to raise hell. I didn't understand that as much until I was in the middle of high school, towards the end of my third year. People started getting serious about cracking down on stuff, and I started thinking more and more about my decisions. Before that, I had went with them all the time to rob places, hell, I snuck out almost every night. I had plenty of money saved up, sure, but I stopped caring. I was free, I was doing my own thing, why'd I want to stop that? Because it didn't feel right. I've killed people, I've put people in the ground and got away with it because of those guys. I couldn't quit, though. Fendrix said if I betrayed him, he'd expose me. That would've ruined my chances of changing. I didn't care, of course. He was trying to control me, and that was the reason I ran with his Gray Dragon shit. I didn't want to be controlled. I decided one day I just, wouldn't show up. I told them I was sick, and didn't show up for days. Fendrix sent one of his toadies, Jake, to see if I was fine. I'm lucky my dad passed him off as someone just trying to break in. He got arrested and sold us out. He tried to pin it on me to, but the next time I snuck out to meet up with them, I overheard them talking about ratting me out. Guess what? They were already busted and no one believed I was in it because I was just some kid in school who one of them snuck up on.

The next day, Fendrix decided if he couldn't get me in trouble he'd get me in a box. He came to the school with a fucking weapon. He tried to shoot me when I was walking out of the main door at around 3pm. The only reason he didn't is because I recognized that shit-eating beard. In a matter of minutes everyone ran, cops came, and everything. I ran inside, it was like something out of a damn movie. Just me and the guy who moved things with his mind in a building alone, settling something they started years ago. He was looking for me, shouting around corners about how I'd never change, how I was always gonna be a killer, a rotten apple. The same monologue every manipulative con with a gang said when someone wanted to switch sides. I believed him, but I wanted to believe I was better. I was absolutely sick of being ran around. I wanted a better life. I hid for a few minutes and charged myself up. And by charged, I mean really charged. These days I don't channel as much Sunlight as I did then, sometimes I do to test my limits, but my whole body lit up like I was on fire. Fendrix knew that glow anywhere, and not a single one of his bullets did anything to me. I dropped him like a fly. The news said he died before he even hit the floor, and no one knew it was me, because I told them I was hiding somewhere else.

That's how I slipped away from everything. There was one guy left who I think faked his death. He's probably living his life right now.

Every now and then I'd sneak out still, just to think about all the stuff I did. I robbed people, I hurt families, I broke them up. I put people in the ground. People who went up against the gang, people who didn't even know who we were. I graduated a year later, and then...I just coasted a while. I moved out to figure myself out. Hopped from one friend's house to another, finally landed a job after another year or two, but before then I didn't know what to do with myself. I had plenty of cash for a while, but no other connections. I was still the same person I was, we all had codenames, and mine was Sunrider. Probably because of the way it looked when I ran from the cops. I never want to hear that name again. I got a job and an apartment, I was stable. I still don't know how I hid all of that from everybody, and now no one knows, that's good, but I did. That's when I figured I'd use my Sunlight for good instead of bad. When I was 20, I started down a path to redeem myself. I learned to handle my emotions, learned to use my powers in better ways. I like to tell myself I'm different, having thrown a bunch of helpless criminals into a police station when no one's looking, but I can't help but wonder how long it's gonna be until something happens. One of my friends might one day hear about someone named Sunrider. I don't know how long I have until my past catches up to me, maybe it won't. I don't care.

For as long as I'm here, I'm going to use my powers in they way they deserved to be used. In a way, I guess that's really all this is about, not so much being good, but just being better. I guess...I really just want to be able to tell myself "I'm not a villain" when the sun finally sets in the end. Is that so bad?"

The Ocean’s Trident

Codename

Rainsinger

“Not anymore.”

Secret Identity

Linus Malden

Age

48

Gender

Male

Role

None

Appearance

Hider

Dominant Trait

Independance

For as long as he could remember, he’s gone his own way. Linus is neutral to people and what they do. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care what they do, just that it isn’t his problem and he’ll remember it. Linus is only worried about living the rest of his life. He has no dreams, he has no motives. Linus is a solemn and peaceful man with a focused, yet tired look in his eyes. He has an atmosphere of quiet, warm loneliness which is anything but sad. In his younger days he was much more driven to do things, now Linus coasts along the flow of time and goes where the roads let him. Overall, there’s really nothing about him that stands out, he’s just a meta drifter with a nasty history that lives life in relative peace post-pseudocide.

One could describe him as a chaotic neutral character. Where some people have chapters of redemption in their lives, Linus skipped it. He plays by his own rules, not being concerned with the protecting or harming of others. Individuality is his primary characteristic in life. Linus has definitely made friends that come close to him, even enough to consider drinking buddies, but his tendencies to stay moving and detached come from the circumstances of his life, rather than his desires. As much as he’d like to settle down, sometimes you just have to leave. Whatever will be, will be.

Having said that, Linus isn't cold, or anti-social necessarily, he values good people. Linus appreciates when he runs across people that can be trusted, even counted on; He just knows when to let go. Linus keeps what he calls a realistic view of the world, he doesn’t buy into hopes and promises, has no dreams of bright futures or any of that optimistic stuff you probably hear out of superheroes. He’s dancing to his own rhythm, and that’s all he needs at the end of the day.

Goal

Peace

Superpower

Hydrokinesis

Rain, waves, clouds, storms. Linus' powers are all about shaping and commanding the forces of water in whatever form he chooses. It's quite a fitting power given someone like him. A few applications of this include: walking on calm water, forming water into a barrier with varying degrees of success, always having relatively safe drinking water, and large impact attacks with a blast radius. The specifics of Linus' powers are foggy, since water is such a simple thing in nature, yet very complex in action. Water can slash mountains in two, or bring life to the barren. Linus often uses this ability as a manner of defense, rather than aggression, slamming waves into people can hurt, but it's also good for scaring people away. A better way to describe the confines of Linus' water based abilities would be to highlight the specifics of what he can't do given the open-endedness of them. The limits involve the properties of the water he manipulates; Linus cannot change the temperature of water, therefore, he cannot alter its state. This means he can't turn ice into snow, or snow into water, but it doesn't mean he can't work with that. He also can't pull water out of a human body, so no choking people.

The height of Linus' hydrokinesis involves walking on waters that aren't in any kind of intense movement such as highly windy oceans, or forming storms above the sky. While he can't condense water into a liquid form directly, he can catalyze clouds into raging storms, so to speak, by compressing the clouds together. Before you know it, the peaceful sky has become a monsoon of thunder, downpour and great waves on the horizon. One moment you will be trying to chase after this man, the next you're soaked, probably have a set of bruised ribs, and now Linus is standing on a tsunami coming your way.

Other Skills

Self Reliant

Just like Ellie, there's nothing he needs from another person to survive.
"Been doing this for years. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."

Seafaring

While he was away, most of his time was spent on a boat of some sort.
”It gave me a sense of peace...”

Hiding

Fake identities, VPNs, and untraceable credit cards are up his alley. Linus isn’t a criminal, just someone who used to be.
I don’t expect people to come after me. That’s just because they can’t find me. I’m fine with that.”

Isolated

No one knows Linus. No one will notice if he’s gone. It’s good for slipping away.
”No one will miss me. I’m fine with that.”

I’m coming home

History

Well, I don’t have anything terribly interesting to say. Nothing really profound or anything, not like her that is. I know about what Sunrider did to Fendrix- dropped him like a hat. Can’t say I blame her, we all knew he had it coming, someone had to do it, I heard Carver got taken in years ago. Something about a bad robbery with a snitch on the other side of the wall Carver burned through. Nothing anyone can do about that one. Fade...Ah, who the hell knows... Anyway, not long after that, I left. I was already in the middle of high school by the time Sunrider was even born, so I was fine there. I had plenty of cash, a few favors I could pull too. All I needed was wheels and before long, I was gone. Don’t think she ever came looking for me, I don’t want her to.

See, Fendrix was already getting rough with us all back then, started running us around more and prying on us just as much. I dunno if he just got greedy, or if he got paranoid, but something went to that guy’s head that made him stop taking us seriously. Everything we did together was based on trust, I had it rough growing up, so it was pretty hard to trust him in the first place, but then? I knew it wasn’t gonna end well. After I left, I made sure to bury everything I left behind, Linus isn’t my birth name, and I gave that life up. Unlike Sunny Hands, I wasn’t afraid to stick my head out, so I had to make sure people would only put my face to a dead me. man named Grayson Danvers died in a nasty factory fire in eastern Tenebrae. They never recovered a body. With that out of the way, I went northeast.

Okay, not just northeast, really, I went anywhere I could find boats and saltwater. Meta laws weren’t as stringent out those ways as they were back home, and being able to calm rough waves made it hard for people to turn me away. I sailed the ocean with other people, keeping myself just out of reach so to speak, and got paid. Sometimes we pulled fish out of the sea, sometimes we hauled things across it, around the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes we just fixed up our ship and others. It was good work, people knew me had the guy they always wanted during a storm. I could literally walk on water when someone fell overboard. I probably spent a bit more time on a ship than I should have, but it was peaceful out there. No one gave me a hard time for using something I was born with. I was safe, I was just fine, the money was good too.

Now, you’re probably wondering. “Why the hell’d you give that up if it was so great?” Well, our captain died. He got sick a few months ago out in some pretty cold water. We went through cold days, but I guess the weather changed a bit too fast, next thing you know, there’s rime down our deck and on the crates we were moving. Lots of us huddled together, but he got the worst of it at the wheel. Pneumonia. He put up a good fight for maybe a week and a half, died in his sleep. He was already pretty old anyway. He was a good guy, always took care of his crew. I hope he’s doing fine in whatever god’s backyard he went to. He wrote us all a note saying his last wish was for us to sell that ship and split the money. He always thought of us.

“I won’t be needing her where I’m going, take care, boys.”

So, that’s exactly what we all did. Got a quarter of a million, don’t ask me how, I didn’t do the selling, and split it between the 14 of us. I don’t know what Sunrider’s been doing the last two decades, but for me, that was it. I basically got a shot at an early retirement. I’m sure the rest of the crew is probably with their families right now or finding new crews, but me? I think I’ll head back to Tenebrae. It’s been around twenty years, no one will remember me, besides, I’d definitely like to see what everyone’s done with the place. A short visit for a few days, take a trip down memory lane, see if my favorite coffee shop ever shut down. Hell, maybe I’ll run into her while I’m down there. I’m sure I’ll recognize her. Who could forget seeing the sun come out of someone’s hands? Not sure if she’ll recognize me, I’d like to think she won’t. Honestly, I hope so. Maybe it’s a bad idea, but I’m getting old. Never hurts to go home and see what’s still what.

I’ll be there soon.

The Woman Who Can’t Be Touched

Codename

Fadeaway

Secret Identity

Katherine Woods

Age

52

Gender

Male

Role

None

Appearance

[Entry Not Found]

Dominant Trait

Enigmatic

Unknowable, and untraceable. Calling her “hard to find” is an understatement. You’ve more than likely passed her on the street and didn’t even recognize her, because only three people are alive right now with knowledge of what she looks like. If Fadeaway wants to be found, she’ll find you.

Goal

None

Superpower

Phase Blink

The complex explanation, is that she imposes her sense of want onto the molecular structure of a relevant instance and anything touching it, to reposition the all at a mentally specified location. The short explanation is she can teleport between locations. As long as Fadeaway actually knows the location she is teleporting to, she can theoretically phase to any place, meaning she can appear at any place in Tenebrae at any time, in the blink of an eye. She can also bring others with her, if she wants, but teleporting multiple people adds more stress on her body, more “weight to the hole” as she describes it. The “hole” is an abstract portal that she opens to teleport, which you normally can’t see, but it opens just long enough to allow her to step across it. The process of phasing can be slowed to a visible speed, meaning the portal remains open, as a result, there are strange offshoot applications of this portal generation, have you ever seen someone accidentally punch themselves in the face?

The only trade off of this power is that while Fadeaway can theoretically phase to the opposite end of the planet, it’s not as if she can just snap her fingers and appear in another country. She would have to make a number of smaller phases at her maximum distance, which is a vague and non-concrete measure of ten kilometers through walls, and twenty through open air. It gets shorter either way when you add more people onto that. Carrying others, the best she can do through a single phase is four other people through 50 feet per phase. Fadeaway often only uses her portals in actual engagements, such as causing a charging attacker to somehow run face first into the ceiling, or trip over their own head...don’t ask.

Other Skills

Escape Master

You’re not gonna catch her. Period.

Scouting

If there’s space, she can find a path. Fadeaway is the best one to send in for information gathering about a place, since she can come back in almost no time at all.

Self Reliant

This goes without saying, being the one who never had the luxury of calling for backup in the old days.

History

“Alright. How to begin this...”

“When I was young and in my twenties, I had a daughter named Molly. I loved her, I’d rather not talk about her father. He loved us both, and was a good man, but...it’s a bitter memory. My daughter was born with some considerable health problems, adding that onto the fact that all three of us were metas, we struggled to find help. She remained in the hospital for weeks, only occasionally getting the opportunity to see home. We managed her treatment with uneasy success, but after he died, it was near impossible. I was desperate. That was when I met him. Fendrix. He was at the hospital too. As for why, I didn’t know. He told me everything about himself, how he was a meta, bitter about many things, that he wanted to do something about it all, and that I could find ways to help my Molly.

That’s how I became a Gray Dragon. I did unspeakable things to perfectly innocent people, all for money. I found myself uncaring, because, in a way, Fendrix wasn’t wrong about the things he said. He often spoke to us about how unfair the world was, and how we didn’t have to tolerate it. His philosophy was that a hurtful world couldn’t be trusted to not make hurtful people. Neither me nor the other two were really concerned with that. We had our reasons. We needed each other to fulfill them, and that was enough for Fendrix. It was enough for everyone. I made a conscious effort to keep as much professional distance between me and them as could be managed. Given my abilities, it wasn’t particularly hard to do so. If I wasn’t with my daughter, paying off doctors, I was using the name Fadeaway to get things done undercover. Robberies, raids, you name it, I was there before it all took place, all for money. Hurtful worlds make hurtful people.

That went on for a long time, and I never gave it a thought, it was working. My girl was getting better, slowly. No child should’ve had to go through that kind of pain and isolation. Being homeschooled from a hospital bed? It’s awful. It wasn’t perfect, but I did what I had to do for her sake. It was either throw in with a gang, or let my daughter die. That was all I cared about, until she joined us. When a girl calling herself Sunrider showed up, I felt sick. Fendrix said she wanted freedom. She couldn’t even drive a car, and she was there. It made me think about the circumstances of children. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t blame her. I’ve done worse because of children. I never spoke to her much, seeing her made me feel uneasy, especially when she killed people.

It was horrifying, seeing what she could do, wasted here. I’m glad she did what she did. By the time she was a woman, Fendrix...changed. Something inside him seemed to fall away, something that separated the hurtful from the person. He started going rogue. Causing trouble just to cause it. It was like someone just removed the collar off a wild animal. None of us liked it, but who were we to stop the man who gave us hope? Grayson was the only one who held a candle to him, if he said it wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t worth it. You can imagine the flooring I felt when Sunrider defeated him with her hands alone. I didn’t believe it.

I couldn’t.

I don’t want to talk about the rest. I’m not proud of it.

A Man in the Wrong Places

Codename

Carver

Secret Identity

Nathan Ridge

Age

49

Gender

Male

Role

None

Appearance

Hider

Dominant Trait

Dangerous

Goal

Normalcy

Superpower

Pyrokinesis

Broad thermal manipulation, spontaneous combustions, and the basis of virtually everything Carver was capable of. Carver generates heat in terrifying amounts, enough to do anything from warm a room to incinerate a building. Carver never figured out how he could generate so much thermal energy out of nowhere, except that after an excess amount of use, he always felt fatigued and weak for a while. Carver used this ability in numerous ways, from kickstarting reactions in his less-than-honorable methods to keeping the gang warm in the winter months. Despite being a very dangerous meta, fine control was always on Rainsinger’s side; the more refined technique Carver ever had with his flames was throwing a fireball. In simple terms, everything he did had a blast radius. If you got in the way, you were just a casualty that couldn’t be helped.

Other Skills

Chemistry Expertise

If there is a chemical reaction that results in an explosion, napalm, something highly acidic or otherwise unpleasant, Carver is familiar with it.

Pyrotechnic Affinity

Pipe bombs, fishing wire-bang snap alarms, you name it. Carver always took a liking to grenade-esque tools. It’s no wonder he carried a custom made grenade launcher around.

Illicit Knowledge

If you ever need to know how to spot a card skimmer, how to turn a hotel door keycard into someone’s new credit card (no, seriously) or what combination of buttons make vending machines pay you then you talk to Carver.

History

“Grew up around the east parts of the city, wasn’t exactly easy but at least I had it better than Rain. I lived with my mom and younger sister Rhea. We never knew our dad, just heard he was a pretty hard criminal in a prison somewhere out of state. Trying to raise two kids on your own wasn’t easy back then, but we managed. I snagged a job at a junkyard after high school to help out, the cash wasn’t anything to write home about, but it helped out more than enough so I was more than fine with it. Unlike the others, everything was mostly just that for me. While I was slipping mom half my pay to make things easier and Rhea was in grade school, I squared the other halves away for myself, no one minded. I was gonna use that to get into a college and get a better job; don’t get me wrong, working in a scrap yard was pretty respectable, problem being you only had a job when scrap was around.

Anyway, in school I always did pretty good with chemicals and numbers, Rhea never failed math, so I figured I’d work off that. Looking back on it though, I don’t think I could’ve made it, by the time everything went south I only had about $3,000 saved up. See, I lived through what a lot of metas would’ve called a “dark age” where those humanist kooks kicked us around a lot. Back home in my neighborhood, people had the decency to not give a damn if you could fly or make it rain or disappear. Everyone on the block knew I could light things on fire. They didn’t mind, even better they thought it was practical. Then some old woman moved in down the road from me, and realized she was surrounded by metas. Turns out she was humanist. I swear, it did not even take a damn week for half the humanists in the city to come barging in and messing everything up for everyone. Including my family.

One day, my little slice of the city was just fine, metas lived there in huge groups because it was quiet. The next? Dozens of cars and vans with humanist junk painted on the side come in and start screaming about how they were there to, and I fucking quote, “clean up.” Wasn’t pretty. They were throwing bricks through windows, smashing cars with baseball bats, and beating up kids. You see what I’m getting at here? Yeah, Rhea. She was outside when everything went nuts, with a friend of hers playing around with her powers, she could float. Maybe an hour went by before I could find her and mom. She was only 13 but she got her head damn near caved in by some gym rat. I’m pretty sure I blacked out, there was fire everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Screaming. Cars flying away. I guess I scared them off. That was when the cops came and pinned all of that on me.

Being a meta, in a neighborhood full of metas, they skipped all the legal stuff and just dropped me in a jail cell. They didn’t even take me to a court room. I spent...what? A year, year and a half in there when the boss man found me. Couldn’t tell you how, the guy always had some loony way of doing something. He broke me out in exchange for coming to his gang. Gray Dragons, he called it. That’s where I met the happy family. Sunny, Fade, Cool-as-a-cucumber. Turns out they all had pretty crummy experiences too, and were gonna work everything out together and look out for each other. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice, they were pretty decent people. I’m not proud of everything I did, but I got to see my family again after that. Every now and then I’d sneak home and say hi to them. Rhea always did good in school, and mom was doing alright. I told her about my stash, so she was doing alright. Everything was alright. Just fine.

Much as I hate to say it, I actually liked Fen. He didn’t screw people over, well, for a while anyway. He got me out of something I didn’t ask for, and I always told myself that I could one day go home. That was a fucking lie. I talked to them all about it, and everyone except Fendrix was fine with it. He started on about how we couldn’t flake on each other or whatever he said. He got over it though, I guess he just took it personally. I didn’t blame him, the guy wasn’t all there. And then...he lost his shit. Fendrix started lashing out at the world, had us do more hits, more and more. Eventually it got to the point where we weren’t even stealing things, we were just causing pain. At first I didn’t think much of it, but I didn’t sign up for just plain violence. Rain found me one day and started talking about a plan he had. Said he was gonna fake his death and wanted Fendrix to believe it. The plan was to have Fendrix think he attacked me and I just defended myself. He wanted out, honestly, I did too. Rain said he knew about my family, and how they scraped by a little less than they should’ve. He told me he’d leave behind a stash of enough green to get us all pretty far. To tell you the truth, he could’ve just asked and I’d be fine with it. He was always a decent guy. More or less.

That was before Sunny dusted Fendrix. Fade just disappeared- and I mean permanently this time - and we went through with the fire plan anyway. We caused a stir with one of the gangs in the area, and they chased us into a factory building. I burn it to the ground. He got away...I didn’t. I’m not mad. I’d like to think everything’s alright out there, maybe one day I’ll find out. I don’t know anymore.”

Hurtful Times Make Hurtful People

Fendrix

Aliases

Boss
Fen
Old Man
Monster

Secret Identity

”James…James West”

Age of Death

32

Gender

Male

Role

Gray Dragons Leader
Brains of The Show
The Boss
The Glue that Held us Together

Appearance

Dominant Trait

Rage

Sadness

Power

Goal

”Honestly…Who knows anymore.

Superpower

”It was some kind of telekinetic stuff. Except he couldn’t just pick something up off the ground with his kind like you’d think. He had to push up the bottom. If he wanted something to move left he pushed from the right, never really figured it out myself. His powers were nasty, Grayson was dangerous, but Fendrix was scary.”

Other Skills

”Real powerful.”

”Fucking crazy.”

”A good leader.”

History

”How do you even describe that guy…He was like a wounded animal.

”Fendrix and I first met at Tenebrae Hospital. He wasn’t looking for me, when I was there, he was already there for a while. I never asked why.”

Pretty sure the guy had lots of issues. Usually whenever someone left he liked to keep tabs on ‘em. But if I told him I was gonna sneak out to see mom and Rhea, he got soft. I guess he took it personally, in a good way.

”I always felt that there was something hidden inside of him. Something he wasn’t proud of, and was just simply unhappy with. One day, it was like he just…snapped. He started taking out his anger on the world. It wasn’t anything a child like Ellie should’ve had to witness. Nathan tried to talk him through it, several times. He was always a bit more...sympathetic than a lot of people who survived like us.”

”I dunno what set the man off, he went off the radar a few days, then he came back with the roughest look since the day Carver got locked up. Suddenly we're watching the news and a whole block was leveled. It’s no wonder the kid offed him. I think maybe he was putting up with a lot of things before then, the kinda thing you don’t open up to superhuman criminals about. Maybe it ain’t my place to say, but he needed help. Badly.”

”I didn’t know a lot about Fendrix, just that he was pretty powerful and knew how to keep us in line. When he changed, he wasn’t anything short of a nightmare. The only person in our group that had so much as a chance at matching him was Rainsinger. When someone like him avoids a fight, you know that no one around needs to pick it. If Grayson couldn’t do it, none of us could. I couldn’t even believe it myself when he went down in one hit. I was too young to understand many of the bad things he did, so I don't exactly have a terribly clear picture of his entire reputation. What I do know, and it's enough, is that he was absolutely awful. Nothing could get in his way and live to tell about it. Fact is- I just got lucky.”

”I tried to help him out some here and there. I could tell he needed a hand. But Fen- he wasn’t exactly given to confiding in people. Whatever was troubling the poor bastard must’ve been hard, but still, all those people he hurt were innocent. I mean- We all hurt people back then, and we didn't do something we didn’t need to, but he was killing people just because he could. It was sad, pathetic, even. I wish I knew he was gonna go after Sunny. All those people out there were one thing, but that kid didn’t deserve the life we lived. She coulda gotten clean from here. If we were there we could’ve helped her. I guess she didn’t need it.

"Sure, you could say he was an okay leader and knew how to keep people in check, and just leave it at that, but there's more to the old man than that. If you ever stopped and thought about the way he acted, there'd be something else there. Hunger. Fendrix always had some nasty look in those eyes of his, the kind of look someone has when they're staring as a stack of solid gold bricks, that don't belong to them- greed. Maybe he just let it all get to his head, hell, maybe a therapist is all he needed. Ain't my concern to figure it out, sure as hell don't care now. Point is, he's dead. He's gone, and the whole world's better off that way. Sure, it's still got guys like me hanging on, but that's the difference between me and the boss, hanging on. He'd bomb a street to fix a termite problem in a building, or take out anyone who stood in his way sort of like Carver would, only on purpose. Ya see what I'm getting at here? Fendrix, he didn't have a filter, no discipline. No discretion, he wanted something, he just went for it. I guess that's what changed him. He started wanting more and more, until he got more than he could chew. Turns out, you can't really chew on a glowing fist."

"I never figured out what make Fendrix act the way he did, he was cold, distanced. He always focused on doing something to the world around him, rather than anything to himself, and in the middle of all those self-destructive issues, you could see some faint trace of something in pain. It wasn't hard to spot it, if you could be bothered to look. In the end, he was just...hurtful. He snapped, and went from someone who needed serious help, to someone causing serious pain. Someone had to get rid of him, and put him out of his misery. Grayson didn't dare step to him, which is a rather undeniable testament to Fendrix's power. Nathan was dangerous because of his skills, Grayson, his mentality. Fendrix was just fearless. He had nothing to lose except his life. It didn't matter to him, because quite literally nothing stood to hold him back. Certainly not us, we were just all in it for personal reasons. Now that he's dead, I think everyone can rest easier. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's dead. Someone like that can't be helped, and needs to be put down. It just makes me wonder what could have been different. I'm not one for any considerable sympathy, I just find it strange. He had taken so much from so many people, but was left with nothing. We'll never know. But that's fine."

"Rest in peace, crazy bastard..."

"Tough break."

"It couldn't be helped."

"Good riddance."

---

Nocturne

Codename

None

Real Identity

Jack Hawthorne

Age

18

Gender

Male

Role

None…yet

Appearance

Hider

Dominant Trait

Good friend

Peaceful, quiet, and genuine. Jack gives off the atmosphere of someone who is tired 24/7, when is isn't. He prefers spending time with small numbers of people, and using his head over his fists. Jack feels a sort of responsibility to the people that trust him. He is usually an easy going, laid back person that is good at keeping his head level and calm. Jack likes to think about people beneath whatever they're feeling, even monsters have emotions, after all, but if things get too tense, it's likely he'll try to find a way to stop whatever's happening. He can be counted on to be trustworthy and sincere, and to not be one to go behind your back or just give lip service to tell you what you want to hear. Jack doesn't fit the conventional image of a vigilante, by all accounts, he's still a kid who hasn't made a place for himself in the world. Some people are old as dragons, and they've had their whole lives to tell their own stories, but his has only just begun. What he does will shape who he becomes, as well as who he meets along the way.

He is at a crossroads in his life, part of him wants to find a meaning in what he is as a meta, the other wants to just live as he always has, but he feels like he can't do that forever. Eventually, everyone will see him as a meta, and that will change everything. Whatever happens, it won't happen any time soon. After all, everyone starts in the dark, at the bottom as low as Hel itself. The only way is forward.

Goal

Purpose

Superpower

Umbrakinesis

In simple terms, Jack controls pockets of space that are lacking any form of light. In complicated terms, he bends darkness alter its physical properties, or rather, make it actually have physical properties. This is done in a range of ways, such as stretch a shadow on a wall to a certain length and making it travel from the second dimension to the third, literally materializing nothingness, to sniffing out light. His powers are vague, saying you change the state of a shadow and then use how you see fit doesn’t paint a clear picture, and it doesn’t always make the most sense to Jack either, but it is a very difficult thing to get around if you’re not careful. There’s always a lamp to black out, always a shadow to touch. The inherent, and ironic obscurity of his powers make practice difficult, because it feels like his powers don’t have defined rules. Some metas can lift things with their kind, but not the earth, or of a certain weight. There are overarching rules to most powers that act as a universal checklist, but for him, it feels like everything has a different set of rules to work by.

Jack can theoretically change the state of darkness to anything he sets his mind to. Often when he was younger, he would give it density and mass to make a blade out of it. Imagine a foggy knife that appeared to be colored with vantablack paint that you can’t physically hold. The entire thing really only makes a decent amount of sense as Jack himself, and even then sometimes the physically impossible nature of it stumps him every now and then. He sometimes tries to rationalize it as “something that doesn’t have to make sense when it simply works.” The many forms the shadows seem to gravitate around include solid matter, fog, some form of viscous water, and more. At one point, it could feel like you're walking through a very thick smoke, the other, it might feel like hollow water brush past you, others, it's simply shadows that can be touched.

Thankfully, this makes the seemingly undoable apparent enough to write down, as he often does. For one, while it’s possible for Jack to snuff out a light source, he can only do this to particularly weak light sources. A lightbulb or a lamp, or the ceiling lights in a room, for example. He can’t simply black out the sun, as amazing as that would be. Even if he could, it takes constant, conscious effort to do such a thing. Next, shaping darkness depends on what he can work with. It’s almost like he makes darkness a tangible form of matter when he shapes it. If he makes a wall of darkness for example, it becomes solid, but a shadow big enough is necessary. The power Jack wields answers to a constant dynamic between sources of light and pockets of darknesses that can change constantly.

Even though Jack spends a lot of time experimenting with these powers, there are many things he still lacks the understanding of. Lots of metas have decades of training with their powers as well as years of practical experience, he only has a few of both. But even still, six years of experimenting no doubt has yielded some interesting results.

Most of his powers are vague and inconsistent in nature, but there is at least one thing that he knows for absolute certain. There is a connection between the capability of his powers, and his emotional level. In times of extreme stress, there is a risk that his powers will consume him, and he will drown.

It’s best if you don’t ask him what that means.

Other Skills

Slippery

Jack is good at getting away and keeping his head down, especially in places where visibility is poor
"Not sure why, maybe it’s because of what I was born with…"

Power Control

Growing up in a safe home, Jack had plenty of time to figure out the way his powers work, more so than most his age.
”I was able to learn the ins and outs of what I could do because my parents are fine with it.”

Empathy

Emotional intelligence is Jack’s strong suit. He knows how to connect to people by seeing things their way. He’s good at processing emotions, especially his own, he has to.
”You can fix a lot of things wrong with people just by figuring them out well enough. Sometimes it takes more than others, like for yourself.”

Fade to black

History

"I have nothing serious to talk about. I'm still in high school for a month or two longer. I live with my parents, and lucky for me, they aren't humanists. I got lucky when my powers manifested. I was 12, and I saw a shadow on the wall start to shake, like it was made of water. I reach up, and it reached back. It scared me, badly, and it scared them too until they realized their son was born with the power to make shadows dance around. It was stressful for them, neither of them are metas, they had no idea how to raise a kid like me, but they tried. I never had to worry about getting kicked out, or anything like that, they weren't upset with me. It's just...I think they weren't ready for the chance it would happen. My mom and dad tried to see past it, and they did, but it was something they knew nothing about. They couldn't help me come to understand this power, so I spent hours alone figuring out myself. Still do. Turns out, there's a lot of rules I can break with this, and by rules, I mean rules like the one that says a shadow is nothing but a spot where light doesn't reach. I can make it more than that. It's useful, too. Once, I was helping my dad clean out the garage, and an 8 foot tall shelf fell over. I was fast enough that I made my shadow jump up and grab it. He probably would have been crushed otherwise, that thing felt heavy.

They're old, they were only a little older than I am when the humanists started organizing. I think they thought all the hate would have been wasted on them, because they knew that they'd have a kid who would be at the mercy of it all one day. They were right. Still, though, we don't always see eye to eye, but it's fine, they're trying. I talk to them a lot about vigilantes, and they disagree with the notion of that. I don't blame them since they come from a place without personal understanding. We metas don't have the same protections as my parents do, so we protect each other. They're patient enough that they're willing to actually think about that, but that takes time. They're trying to learn, and that's good enough for me. I don't tell them this, but sometimes I consider becoming one myself. They'd lose it if I said that to their faces any time soon.

There was this time a while back, when I walking home from school with a friend, since we didn't live far. Well, he's a bit more open about him being a meta than I am. We walked past a bunch of older looking guys who blocked us, because they recognized him. They started shouting a bunch of that humanist junk you hear, and one even pulled out a knife. I just reacted, next thing we knew, the shadows out from under my jacket snaked around my hands and made a weapon, like a pole or a stick. It wasn't much, since it was pretty bright out. Anyway, I swung for the fences, and he didn't get back up. The shadow in my hand broke over his head, the other two turned and ran. So did we. We made it off that street really fast in case we were spotted. That stuck with me. There aren't many metas around my age that can explore their powers as freely as me, and I have all this understanding built up...I feel like I could honestly write a book on this one meta ability, the thing is, I know how to use it, just not where. I want to find a way that this can be put to a good use, stopping giant shelves from falling over might keep my dad from getting smashed ribs, but there's so much more I can do if I knew what to do. I want to put it to good use, somehow. Looking out for others is something I was always good at, even if getting in metahuman fights is a bit different.

I'll figure it out eventually."

---

Rimerunner

Callsign

Rimerunner

Real Name

Marie Simmons

Age

39

Gender

Female

Position

Merahin Snow Ranger

Appearance

Dominant Trait

Confidence

Marie is always seen with her head and shoulders up like she means business. She has a capable and do-it mindset that comes from patrolling the frigid mountains in her backyard. Marie is a Snow Ranger, proud of it, and takes the position seriously. People that know the woman behind the badge know a tough, fluid and smooth person that knows how to handle adversity. As a Ranger, Marie has a reputation for being dedicated, dependable and thoughtful. Every day she peers over weather reports and wildlife notes, and never skips a patrol. She knows the hills like the back of her hand, as a Ranger should.

When you get to know Marie on a more intimate level, she is sincere and takes notice of things you say, and the details behind them. She makes it a point to look into a person beyond what they say and do, towards what they are like underneath. Some might call it being perceptive, but she calls it listening when others say something. Marie would describe herself as a simple woman, “Help the town, love my wife, simple as.” She has little concern for the way metas are treated in other parts of the world, something she’s very much aware of. Merahin is her home, and she has done far too much for its people to be concerned about the way politicians debate over her right to exist. To that end, her loyalty is to her home, and anyone who lives there. A friend of Merahin is a friend of Marie.

Goal

To keep Merahin’s hills safe

Superpower

Cryokinesis

The power to halt the friction of atoms, and sap heat from the environment. Marie's powers involve manipulating cold temperatures and freezing matter. In her own words, she makes things really, really cold. She uses this power to maintain stability around Merahin in some way or another. Sometimes, Marie uses this power as a way to prevent snow from displacing itself around her footsteps by freezing it colder than the ambient temperature. This results in thin sheets of ice that hold up just long enough for her to traverse them, which is where she got her callsign from. Another method includes "cold welding" where two pieces of material can be stuck together when rime builds up between them. This is done to build barricades out of tightly packed snow, which become walls of ice. In Merahin, these are used by Marie to wall of unsafe areas of the hills, or to post up at night for when she is out longer than she expected. In this sense, Marie's powers are well suited for tactical, pragmatic purposes. She is not from Tenebrae, and while she could certainly just give someone frostbite, none of the techniques she knows involve outright combat. Her best bet in an actual fight would be to simply take somebody out from far away with a rifle. Her ability to manipulate terrain comes from a place of practical need and natural hazards, rather than life-or-death gang wars. Marie has used her powers to soothe burns, build up walls, fill in cracking ice over lakes, and more. You would think that ice-based abilities would be rendered pointless in a place where everything is cold, but thermal regulation is needed anywhere you go.

Marie cannot manipulate the weather, you would think that changing the temperature of the surrounding air very fast would cause fluctuations, but you would need someone with fire-based abilities to do something like that. And while her powers technically involve draining heat from one place, the heat does not simply disappear. When Marie freezes a body of water for example, she is either completely halting to movement of subatomic particles that make up friction, or pushing heat away from an area that needs to be cooled down. This the closest thing to thermal manipulation that Marie can manage. Normally, heat isn't something you can outright "destroy" heat, but meta powers have shown to break the laws of physics before.

Other Skills

Wilderness Proficiency

Rifle use, tracking, navigating, and monitoring weather make up a few of the things Marie had learned as a Ranger.
"As a Snow Ranger, your purpose is to watch over the land and anyone who walks into it. You have to know it."

Fine Power Control

While most metas have a respectable grasp on their powers, Marie is familiar with a number of techniques that you don’t get to learn by simply being in a gang of dragons or knights.
”It turns out that being able to freeze water in Alaska is more useful than you would think. When matter freezes, it contracts like a muscle. Up here, things have to stay that way because that’s how they’re built.”

Lay of the Land

There isn’t a single river, valley, switchback, or landmark in all of Merahin’s hills that Marie isn’t familiar with.
I’m a Ranger for a reason.”

Winter Child

Being born in one of the coldest parts of Alaska, and having powers that make it colder, Marie is well accustomed to cold weather. She occasionally jokes that her wife only fell for her because she saw the vapor rolling off her back when she carried their dog in from a snowstorm with only a tank top on.
”I could swim from one end of Merahin to the next without a jacket on. It’s probably a side effect of my powers, but the cold just doesn’t bother me.”

Ridge, this is Ranger Simmons, calling in from Point 7C

History

My story’s not much. Born and raised here in Merahin, I grew up surrounded by people who told me that, should I ever get some kind of superpower, that I ought to take pride in it. Everyone around me was taught the same thing, and it made sense. Heard stories about the way some metas get treated down below the border, it sucks. I’m lucky I wasn’t born in a place like that. One day, I realized I could make things cold- really cold. I’d go to take a warm bath after a long day, and the water would make a snapping sound. Next thing I know, I’m breaking ice for a whole day. Took me a while to figure out how it worked, but eventually I did, with the help of a girl named Shaynen. We were around 15, and she can float off the ground like a bird.

It’s pretty damn cool.

I always enjoyed the hills, always enjoyed hiking up a mountain and seeing the view. It reall makes you appreciate the peace of it all. This place is cold enough to kill you if you aren’t careful, but Merahin…It just doesn’t die. I’ve hunted animals before, it was something of a rite of passage in my family, we lived only half an hour from Ridge Point. Everything was relatively normal for me.

Well, a few more years, and by then, Shay and I are dating. By then I had actually been training with my powers, trying to find a practical use for them. Most people around here have generators in case of snow storms, and back home ours used to run awfully hard since it was old. Sometimes it’s smoke. I made sure it didn’t get hot enough for that. Keeping things cold when they need to stay cool was nice, but I wanted to put it to some real use. I wanted to be a Ranger. I should say, the Rangers are a whole three generations older than me. None of the very first are around anymore, so they knew what they were doing. We still do. I got in touch with them, and another year goes by after I’ve learned everything a Ranger learns. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t have taught myself, but who am I kidding, the Rangers are the best damn thing a meta like me can get next to my wife. That was about ten years ago, when we got married. We’d been living together ever since.

Then one day, about six years ago, a ship we hadn’t seen come steering into the docks, and I met a man named Linus. He and his fellow sailors stayed for a whole week while their ship’s pieces were fixed after they hit some ice. Linus was an alright guy. A bit reserved and quiet, but he opened up once he got a drink or two. He appreciated Merahin for what it saw metas as, just people. He told me that he came from a place where metas were lucky if they could eat more than once a day. Me, and a few Ranger buddies talked with him for hours the whole time his ship was in town, and once or twice a month, they’d all come back for some downtime. The town was near their routes. Every time we talked, Linus seemed more and more happy to be here, I think he was really well moved by the way he could just breathe around here. It made me feel a bit sorry for him, for me this was always the bare minimum. Linus told me a lot about that place, about the people he knew, the things he had to do, the ones he wasn't proud of, and more. The way he talked to me and Shay, it'd make you think he didn't share this sort of thing very often. He was closed off, distant even, about home. His old friends, his father, it all weighed on him. It's no wonder he felt at peace when he was sailing across the world.

Something about him always seemed…tired. Linus always got this look on his face like he never wanted to pack up and get on the ship again. Like he wished he was born here. The way he looked at this place when he was settled down, it was the kind of face you make when you’ve spent all your life being scared of something and have trouble believing that thing isn’t around anymore. I haven’t seen him in a while, maybe he found it. Whenever he talked about Tenebrae, I knew he wasn't missing home. He always had an air of loneliness about him whenever he thought about that place. I think he wished he could go back, but knew if he did, there'd be nothing there. Linus came around with his crew like that for the last few years, but I've heard their captain wasn't doing so well. I talked to him too, he's an old goat of a man. Who knows, maybe Captain Miles will retire somewhere warm, and Linus might retire up here in another ten years or so. He became a good friend to me, my wife, and a couple other Rangers he got to know. I remember once, when I was walking down the docks with him, after the ship was ready to leave. That was about a year ago, and it was the last time he had paid us a visit. He told us that Miles was getting worse, and it wouldn't be long before he'd have to retire, even if he didn't want to. I told him, "You know you can always come here to us and settle down in Merahin. We'd be happy to keep you."

I don't have the words to explain the way his eyes looked out at the town after I said that. I think he wanted me to mean that. And I did.

I’m sure he’ll be back soon.