ErsatzEmperor said
Who is this mystery character, pray tell?
Well good a time as any. BEHOLD!! Taskmaster!
Player Name: NightRaider
Character: Taskmaster
Aliases/Nicknames: Anthony “Tony” Masters, Captain Masters, the “Minister of Defence”
Alignment: Good (WTL)
Affiliation: S.H.I.E.L.D.
Character Origin:
Anthony Masters remembers very little of his own life. From what he has gathered from service files, he has served with the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. all of his adult life. He served in the US military in 1990s, particularly in the Gulf War. When he showed a perchance for stealth and close-combat in the field, he graduated from basic infantry to Covert Ops over his tenure and upon returning home from service, was offered a place at S.H.I.E.L.D. where he ran several successful missions. Prior to the incident that lead to his condition, he had just begun serving as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s chief hand-to-hand trainer.
The reason for the gaps in his memory is from an experimental serum, originally developed during WWII, which was modified by S.H.I.E.L.D. using notes of the original Super Soldier program. Masters volunteered to be the test subject. Repeated testing showed that Masters had developed the ability to memorise and duplicate any person’s movements merely by watching them. The side effects of the experiment were that this memorisation ability came at the cost of his personal memory. Masters began forgetting where he was, what the testing was for, even who he was. In order to bypass this, S.H.I.E.L.D. inserted a syntho-organic, micro-data storage device into his brain, that was linked to it but could not store or erase new memories from it, only access the ones stored on it. Masters has direct access to this device so he can manage what specific memories he retains. As a result, Masters requested that he put back on active duty under the new code name: Taskmaster.
Taskmaster Data Storage Unit Summary (Taskmaster Eyes Only)
My name is Anthony Masters. I’m currently 32 years old. My birthday is February 24th.
I am a former US Army soldier and Special Covert Operations operative. I joined the Army when I was 19 and served as a S.C.O. when I was 25. Look up “Masters, Anthony: Service Record” in S.H.I.E.L.D. database for full details.
Both my parents are dead. Killed in a house-fire when I was serving overseas. Their names were Bill and Virginia Masters.
I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. as the head CQB trainer and currently work in the field under the codename: Taskmaster.
Reason for memory loss: memory override due to possession of my photographic reflex power.
This power was gained upon injection of a serum that granted these powers.
Fighting Styles saved and filed for later use:
Wing Chun
Savate
Capoeira
Karate
Muay Tai
Sambo
Judo
Aikido
Jiu-Jitsu
Fencing
Kyudo
Camouflage
Stealth techniques
Canne de combat
Armament Marksmanship
Captain America (current and former)
Nick Fury
Recently discovered ability to mimic others voices. Must investigate further.
Powers and Abilities:
1. Photographic Reflex Memory: Ability to duplicate almost any physical act that he sees done by someone else only once. This includes combat movements, sleight of hand, practice-based exercises (e.g. piano), marksmanship, archery, gymnastics and aerobatics. A side effect of the photographic reflex is that the speed at which the techniques are observed can affect his movements, increasing in velocity, giving him a burst of near-superhuman speed. He has also discovered that he can copy the vocal muscle movements of others to mimic their voice patterns.
2. Superior Athletic Capabilities: Taskmaster is a naturally athletic individual who has trained his body to near peak-perfection, even rivalling many superpowered heroes and villains in terms of athleticism and physical conditioning.
3. Expert Tactician: His years of Army, Covert and S.H.I.E.L.D. service have shown Masters a myriad of different tactical strategies and procedures, all of which is saved on his organic drive.
4. Equipment: Taskmaster utilizes a variety of S.H.I.E.L.D. tech, depending on the mission at hand. No matter the mission, he always carries the same equipment: a pair of SW1911, custom-built in black often with silencers attached and a modern double-edged shortsword, based on the classical xiphos used by the Greeks, updated with a modern grip and metal blade,a mix of titanium and secondary adamantium for cost-effectiveness. He also wears a custom bodysuit uniform, made of a prototype fibre mix similar to Kevlar but much thinner and elastic to allow easier hand-to-hand combat. Taskmaster made some personal modifications to the suit, reinforcing the forearm and shin pads to allow harder strikes and protect better when blocking. He also added a face mask to hide his identity, a skeletal version to induce fear in his rivals and because one of his pupils thought “it looked cool”.
Weaknesses:
1. Full Physical Duplication: Taskmaster cannot copy a feat that requires a power to accomplish. E.g. he may observe someone lifting a huge weight and be able to duplicate the correct movements but cannot replicate the superhuman strength to fully accomplish the act.
2. Energy/Projectile Duplication: Cannot duplicate any energy/projectile capabilities for the same underlying reasons.
3. Underlying Disciplines: He can mimic certain actions but not actions that occur after or are connected to the action. For example, he can mimic a dive into water but not how to swim (unless he observes the swimming action) or mimicking a song that he observed on the piano but he cannot compose his own as he does not know the musical scales.
4. Random Amnesia: When Taskmaster copies a new action, it copies over old personal memories (except those saved in his organo-drive) However the organo-drive can only hold a small amount of information due to the intricacy of the surgical procedure, the device could not be that large. So if Taskmaster learns new information, then duplicates a new action, this may copy over the new information. The override is random in what memories it goes over.
Why do I want to play this character?:
While I love the mainstream superpowered characters like anyone else, I love 2 other types of characters in the Marvel (and indeed, the overall comic) Universe: the lesser known superpowered characters (such as Deadpool) and the characters that have nothing but their wits and maybe a slight edge. I feel Taskmaster fits into the former. I became fascinated with Taskmaster after learning of him through the Deadpool comics. I feel he would be an excellent character to play in the roleplay as his backstory is very vague and he is one character who has not been revisited and rehashed to death, meaning many avenues have not been explored and I intend to do this.
What do I plan on doing with the character:
Not giving too many details away, I plan to reinvent Taskmaster as a “good” but more in the vein of the down-and-dirty hero, the antithesis of Captain America, the hero who does what needs to be done for the good of everyone.
Sample post: WIP
replace white mask with…
