Phantomlink959

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter Got it.

EDIT: I uh... may have gone a touch overboard on that first post. Whoops.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinterWhich scene? Sewers, school, or crime scene?

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter I'll leave it up to your discretion when Argus comes in.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinterHe has a short temper, but it's only agitated under extreme conditions. Bit impulsive at times as well, but only really loses control in specific cases such as dealing with a fleeing suspect or when someone is in imminent danger.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter

EDIT: I... don't know why the mention isn't working.
EDIT edit: Ah, I managed to add an S to the end. My bad.
Here we go. I can make adjustments until he's acceptable if you have specific complaints.

Appearance: A natural shape-shifter, able to move between two forms -in part or in full- at will.

His default appearance is that of a young adult human with bright red dreadlocks that reach his neck, coarsely textured olive-tan skin, and fierce-looking gray eyes, a large nose, square chin, and thin lips. He wears black jeans held up by a black belt with gunmetal grey buckle and studs, on which hang several black polyester pouches for carrying his gear and a plain dark red t-shirt. Over his shirt he wears a black leather jacket with a red band on the left sleeve.

The other form he can assume is his natural form; A humanoid reptilian form slightly larger than his human shape, with grey scales, red eyes, and a tan underbelly. Rather than legs, his torso terminates in a whispy smoke-like tail that is hot as fire to the touch but will not cause ignition of flammable materials. This form possesses four-fingered hands with razor-sharp bone claws protruding from the tips.

Name: Argus Grau (assumed name, real name unknown; believed to be Arabic.)

Code name: Firebrand

Age: 240

Species: Djinn

Powers:

Shapeshifting: can switch between human and djinn forms at will, if given adequate time can alter the appearance of his human form.

Enhanced healing: As A Djinn whose life force and mind are sustained by a magical flame at the core of their being rather than an organic brain and heart, Argus can heal from wounds to both his human shell and Djinn body by consuming combustible materials to strengthen his Djinn memory magic, granting energy to repair his other forms.

Memory magic is a fundamental part of a Djinn’s true nature. They are able to view and extract memories through touch as well as fabricate false memories to replace the ones stolen. Stolen memories are drained of their emotional energy and serve as fuel for a Djinn’s magic, including their memory magic. Though it takes time to find specific memories, the versions viewed are the closest to the true events possible as they are not filtered through layers of other memories which alter a person's perception of the events. Viewing memories directly is also significantly faster than taking the time to interview a witness when details are needed urgently, and more effective than interrogating suspects in custody as they are unable to lie about the events in question or stall for time.

Most importantly, memories still stored in short term memory can be accessed, extracted, and replaced in am atter of seconds as they have not yet been committed to long term storage and still remain on the surface; allowing for the rapid retrieval of information and simultaneous deletion of sensitive knowledge from witnesses when investigating and containing an incident.

Enhanced resilience: As his mortal bodies (both Djinn and Human forms) are effectively hollow shells to protect and animate his Inner Flame, Argus is noticeably difficult to kill. Though he can be injured to slow him down and injuries to his shell will continually weaken his flame, he can continue operating after any injury which does not outright kill or dismember him.

Peak human abilities: Though easily outclassed by most other mystical creatures, Argus’ ability to manipulate his human body allows him to maintain the peak physical condition possible for humans.

Strengths:
Argus is strong willed and though not especially intellegent is a prodigy at memory manipulation.

His own innate ability to alter memories provides him with a small degree of resistance to mind magic, and a strong capacity for determining if memories (his own or those of others)have been tampered with.

His natural resilience and enhanced physical abilities make him an effective fighter, though he has limited martial arts training, with his only notable training being for a technique few have heard of, ‘harq makhlab’ or “Burning Claw”, an art used exclusively by Djinn.

Weaknesses:
Unlike humans vampires or other mythical creatures, Djinn require three core forms of sustenance to survive and remain healthy. They must consume food to maintain the condition of their human form, fuel to strengthen their Internal Flame, and, being unable to generate their own mana, Memories to power their magic. Though his human form provides a shield against the effects, a Djinn’s true form is highly vulnerable to water both natural and magical.

Argus is often hot-headed and easily made confrontational when angered, resorting to physical violence when detaining a suspect rather than using a stun device or knockout spell.

Though his memory manipulation is powerful, it is heavily limited by the time it takes to be utilized properly, the cost of magical energy used to create or alter memories, and the need to consume memories to fuel it. Fake memories created by Djinn magic are also unable to alter a person’s personality, as they are devoid of any of the emotional energy used to fuel Djinn magic, and the spell used chains together real memories through the gap created by removal of the original.

If Argus ever runs out of mana completely, he will permanently lose his ability to use it as he is unable to naturally replenish his mana. This effect could be reversed with the help of another Djinn (using their own magic to replenish his own), but they are incredibly rare outside of the Middle East, their traditional domain; and losing your powers is considered incredibly shameful of Djinn, often resulting in them being ejected from their kingdom.

Bio: Argus is a Djinn and early case for (As well as addition to) the BOSA. Ge claims to have come to America after fleeing from his home -a small kingdom of Djinn somewhere in the Arabian desert- after angering the leader of his people and being sentenced to life in prison.

After spending several months in hiding, he was discovered by the BSA after several cases of unexplained Amnesia were uncovered in Virginia. Though he was originally to be detained, he was released from custody and recruited after revealing the great secret of the Djinn, explaining that he was simply trying to survive, and that his homeland had dispatched a bounty hunter to bring him back for punishment. Now on working parole, Argus serves as an information containment and interrogation specialist for the organization due to his advanced memory manipulation abilities compared to the memory spells used by human mages and the MIB-issue neuralyzers.

While initially he was required to wear a magic suppression device and be accompanied by a handler when on duty he has recently acquired good standing within the bureau and has been given leave to enter the field without being assigned a handler and having his magic suppressed. Though he has earned some freedom to operate, Argus is still technically on probation and required to remain on base unless accompanied by other agents or on field assignment. Has developed friendly relationships with many other agents due to his restrictions on leaving BOSA headquarters.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

[@KatherineWinter]Recent memories would only take a few seconds, older memories would take proportionally longer to locate wand 'watch', but if they need to go that deep in a person's memory they'll probably be in custody already.

I considered giving them the ability to induce a hypnotic state to prevent reaction when he's combing through memories but figure that's a touch overkill. Thinking about it now though it could be useful to help balance things out.

As for an excuse to touch them, a handshake would do it for brand new memories that are still on the surface.

As for duration, I've met a lot of cops (police family) and it's not uncommon for them (detectives in particular) to prolong a handshake while they try to get a feel for someone. Alternatively, have him 'arrest' suspects, put them in cuffs, gives him a prolonged period to work in.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@Blueflame I mean, his species kinda has to go poking in people's heads if they want to keep their magic. They've probably got a natural resistant to being trauamatized by other people's memories.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

I mean, he can view memories without erasing them and without people being able to lie about what they saw. That's a pretty good way to gather information from witnesses (and interrogate prisoners)

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

Although my character will be a specialist in containment, he will still be a fully trained agent and thus be fit for general mission deployment. I'd wager that someone with his skills would probably see a LOT of field assignments becauese of his skills being effective for ongoing information suppression rather than being limited to cleanup after the fact. Just take a couple seconds to wipe a person's short-term memory and drop in a prefabricated hollow of going to the grocery store and getting lost or something.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

@KatherinWinter
To quote Will Smith:

Nah nah nah.
The good guys dress in black, remember that
Just in case we ever face to face and make contact
The title held by me, MIB
Means what you think you saw, you did not see
So don't blink be what was there is now gone
The black suits with the black Ray Bans on
(skip a few verses)
With the quickness, talk with the witnesses
Hypnotizer, neuralizer
Vivid memories turn to fantasies
----
Basically, witness containment specialist. Like a living neuralyzer but more effective, more precise, and better control over what falsified memories they are given to cover up the missing time. Also no risk of brain damage if the same unlucky bastard ends up having to be dealt with multiple times. Trim off the last, say, hour worth of memories. Set them up with memories of a blind date that didn't go so well, and you're in the clear. Or a blind date that did go well if you've got enough people to work with.

It'd be slower than just neuralyzing them, but the end result would be a lot cleaner.

They've also got the ability to heal rapidly (in the original Islamic mythology, Djinn are made from 'smokeless flame'), so I basically made it so they can repair their bodies by consuming combustible materials to replenish their internal flame; plus the ability to switch between their Djinn and Human forms but that doesn't impact their abilities besides the human shell not being able to use their memory magic. If you REALLY want to prevent him from altering memories when not on the job, have him wear something that locks him into his human form when he isn't in the field dealing with witnesses.

I didn't figure the rapid healing would be an issue (or even a big deal) since that's a common feature of a lot of fantasy races.

EDIT: After I typed this up, I had a thought. If you allow me to use this version of Djinn, it'd provide a good way of decommissioning characters in-RP if their player decides to leave without having to just pretend they didn't exist. Just have him spend a couple hours with them, talk to them, formulate a good cover story for why they've been away from their old life for so long, then trim out the real memories and replace them with hollows; none of that 30 year coma nonsense they did with Agent K in MIB II