Robeatics

[OPEN AND ACCEPTING] HALT! Life of the City Guard.

@Greenie Sure, take your time! I'm free most of tomorrow, so whenever you respond I'll be able to whip up a reply.

[OPEN AND ACCEPTING] HALT! Life of the City Guard.

Just realized I forgot to put my character in the character tab. :p And yep, the Meg-Ysriel collab is underway!

[OPEN AND ACCEPTING] HALT! Life of the City Guard.

Hider

Ysriel Starkeeper

Race: Ysriel was raised by nymphs, an ethereal, all-female race that thrives wherever there is untamed wilderness. She is a half-breed, one of many borne of the nymphs’ common affection for humans, though she is the only half-breed in her flock to stay with her mother after being born. Nymphs are a very social race, and congregate in marshes, rivers, springs, and wherever else water and forest collide. They have no strict hierarchy, though will defer to the eldest nymph for guidance. Infants and nymphs rarely mix; their pregnancies last only a few months, and as soon as the child is born, they pass it along to the father, to be raised among his people. Nymphs are generally peaceful, and will only attack to defend themselves; though woe be to whoever drove them to violence.

Appearance: Something about Ysriel is naturally immaculate; she bleeds, sweats and gets filthy just like any inhabitant of King’s Knell, but all it takes is a dip in any kind of water and her skin is back to being supple and unblemished, her hair untangled and silky. The only sign of her line of work can be found in the rough callus on her hands. She carries herself confidently, and is always ready to offer a warm smile. Not much distinguishes her from a full-blooded human at first glance, and walks with easy grace, though is terrible at navigating cramped streets without bumping into people and things. Her clothing seems to be skillfully woven from vegetation, her only armor is a pair of cheap boots, an old helm, a pocked leather breastplate, and bracers, and she keeps a simple sword at her belt.

Age: 21

Former Profession: Stargazer, animal sweet-talker, flower kisser (self-trained), explorer.

Skills:

Water Affinity: Ysriel can breathe underwater, and swims much faster than any human should, as if the water itself wills her forward. Falling into water, even from great heights, will not harm her, and any water she touches becomes as clear and clean as the mountain water she comes from, up to a few feet from her body. Minor cuts and scrapes are healed when she submerges herself, while severe wounds stop bleeding, but are not healed.

Friend of the Wild: Animals naturally calm near her, though will not follow her commands unless they have been trained as such.

Fleet Feet: While Ysriel is a weak fighter, she is very athletic, possessing great stamina and speed when running and swimming.

Personality: Ysriel is, above all else, curious. The other nymphs cared little for the world beyond their domain, but Ysriel often left the water to wander the forest and cliffs. She adores animals of all kinds, and seems unembarrassed when she fawns over them loudly in public. She is kind to a fault, naive when it comes to the many liars and manipulators of the city, and sees her work as the path on the way to a grand, heroic destiny. She is afraid and distrustful of the undead and demons, and avoids them when she can. When she is with friends, she can be a sharp trickster, dancing away from the ire of the tricked, laughing all the while. She has a natural cleverness, though nothing to yet apply it to.

History: The Starkeeper flock has always kept to the steep cliffs and hidden springs of the Twinkling Mountains, maintaining many of the springs that coalesce into the River Knell. They go ignored by the dwarves, whose lumber and mining operations are easier done further down the mountain, though many an adventurer has braved the snow-dusted peaks to serenade them.

One such adventurer, an older man named Claudius Lysander, set out along the River Knell in search of peace. He’d been a faithful guard of King’s Knell, back when the guard was more respected, but retired in grief after his wife was murdered by a criminal he’d arrested years before. He had no family, nor any children, and opted to leave the city before he became just another lonely, mad peasant.

He sequestered himself in the woods, chopping down only the trees he needed to make a small shed to sleep in. He drank from a spring nearby, gathered herbs and berries, and admired the quiet of his surroundings. Having lived and fought in the city all his life, he hunted rarely, and always used the most of the animal. The Starkeepers watched him as he gathered water from their spring, and a few admired his gentleness and respect for their land and its creatures. Ysrala, the eldest of the flock, watched and admired him the most, and eventually revealed herself to him.

Claudius became quickly enamored with the beautiful nymph. Every day, he sat at the edge of the spring and told stories about King’s Knell; its people, its appearance, and--to Ysrala’s morbid delight--its crime. She seemed to think of him as a kind of legendary hero for hunting down so many evil people, and he saw no harm in failing to correct her. The other nymphs always hid themselves, though listened to his stories with varying degrees of amazement and distaste.

In only two months, Ysrala was pregnant. Claudius was overjoyed, if a little concerned about raising a child on the peak of a mountain. But he dreamt of the perfect family: Ysrala, cradling his child in her arms, smiling at him like rays of the sun.

Then the hobgoblins came.

A violent offshoot tribe that had migrated from the Highlands, the hobgoblins rushed in and set camp like a furry avalanche. It wasn’t long until they found Claudius’ cabin. Ysrala watched, hidden in the trees, as her lover was dragged from his cabin and killed. While the hobgoblins would be driven away by the dwarves eventually, Claudius' death was the harsh result of their visit.

Months later, the nymphs were left with a baby. Some suggested giving it to the dwarves, but Ysrala, spurred on by Claudius’ excitement, decided to keep it. She weaved a floating basket out of cattails and hyacinth, serving as the baby’s crib. Ysrala knew the perfect name then: Ysriel, or “drifting flower” in the old fae tongue.

Little Ysriel spent the first few years of her life swimming. Her first steps beyond the spring were wobbly, but it wasn’t long until she was running out of the spring, running through the forest, clambering over rocks with more energy than the other nymphs could imagine. By the time she was a teenager, she could sprint to the edge of the forest and back without stopping, and explored the Starkeeper domain with fervent wonder.

When she’d mapped every inch of their moon pools, riverbeds and springs, and when the animals of the forest had grown wise to her pranks, she became restless. She was a young woman now, bustling with human wanderlust. She was loyal to the Starkeepers and didn’t dare ask to leave, but in secret, she’d sit by the road up the mountain, watching the occasional caravan pass with longing eyes.

Ysrala saw the change in her daughter easily. She’d told Ysriel all about her late father, including the stories he’d told Ysrala. It was no wonder the girl envied her father’s no-doubt incredible adventures. She would hate to see her go, but she couldn’t hurt her child and force her to stay. Perhaps, Ysrala thought, Ysriel would return someday with stories of her own.

Nearly every nymph had grown to love Ysriel, and offered her gifts for her journey. Pack laden with them, Ysriel waved the Starkeepers goodbye, and set off down the road. She looked out-of-place on the dusty road, drawing stares from other travelers, but miraculously, no one bothered her. She managed to hitch a ride on a kindly trader’s cart the second day, and she regaled him with fae songs and riddles to shorten the long journey to King’s Knell.

Past the gates, she bid farewell to the trader, and blindly set off in search of the nearest guard station. It was getting darker and lonelier the longer she searched, until she left the lower end of King’s Hill, wandered lower and lower into the city, and found herself flanked by two men. She was effortlessly thrown to the ground, her pack ripped away and searched at swordpoint. The men seemed disappointed at their catch: a bundle of flowers, little wood carvings, and other bits of garbage that wouldn’t fetch a pittance. Ysriel, however, seemed like a fine enough catch on her own, and just before they descended upon her, a guard appeared, just like the hero she’d always dreamed about.

The guard fought the two men well enough that they abandoned the pack and ran off. Ysriel, seemingly unfazed by the near-trauma, gathered her things and gushed to the guard all the way to the guard house on 22d Cleaver Street. She insisted that she wished to join the guard, and upon dropping Cladius Lysander’s name, seemed to catch the attention of at least a few guards. In a week’s time, somehow, she carried the proud title of recruit--”fresh meat”, as some guards called it. She trained harder than many of the recruits, who came to the guard either out of desperation or debt. Even so, she was a flimsy fighter, entirely unaccustomed to even holding a weapon.

Ysriel has been in the guard for a few months now, and while she can’t hope to win a fight against a trained criminal, she can fend them off long enough for other guards to come help. Slowly but surely, she is being taught to read and write, and serves as a bright, if still burgeoning, part of the Cleaver Street guard house.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@nitemare shape Right, I totally understand. I hope you feel better, and your issues are resolved. No worries!

@Fallenreaper I've been meaning to join the chat, but I keep getting distracted. :p I promise I'll pay a visit soon!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Hate to pester you about this, @nitemare shape, but do you think you could add Lisa to the roster on the OP?

Walking the Line
Subject GE-04 - Lisa Hernandez Robeatics

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Damn, if I knew my asking for clarification would cause argument I wouldn't have said anything. I trust the GMs' judgement, that's all I'll say.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

What I'm getting from my layman's interpretation of Sarah's powers is that she's the scab of an extradimensional entity who can spontaneously create illusions that solely she can interact with. Could she treat a baguette like a motorcycle and ride around town on it? What constitutes a changing of properties? It's a cool character concept, I just could use some more practical examples to wrap my head around.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

A home in Royal Park
Months ago

“Thomas? Come inside, sweetpea, dinner’s almost ready.”

Thomas continued rocking on the swing, searching the dark sky for stars. Hannah stood halfway out of the sliding door on the deck, her face shadowed by the lights inside. The night was chilly this time of year, but not so much that he needed anything more than a sweater. The lights of the city drowned out the horizon in dull white, stretching in all directions until giving way to the void above him. No stars tonight. He went inside.

Scott sat at the table in his work clothes, skimming through a puzzle book while Hannah finished dinner. He didn’t look away from his book when Thomas settled in next to him. “You’ve been spending a lot of time out there, Tommy. How about a telescope for your birthday?”

Thomas shrugged, plucking at a bit of thread on his place mat. “That sounds good.”

Maria scurried up from the couch and sat next to Thomas, kicking her legs in her chair. She perked up at the sound of the microwave beeping. “Mom, the corn’s done.”

“Yes, baby, I’m getting it.”

Maria leveled a smirk Thomas’s way. “You’re gonna get kidnapped if you stay outside too long.”

Thomas frowned at the table, picking at the place mat more fervently. “No I’m not. We have a fence and lights, stop being stupid.”

“I’m not being stupid, there’s a kid down our street who got kidnapped. He was on his porch and these guys came out of nowhere and grabbed him! Then they did stuff to him and gave him dog legs. Channel 10 was talking about it.”

Thomas snapped up. “Mom, Maria’s being weird!”

Scott finally dragged his attention away from his puzzles. “Kids, settle down. Nobody’s been kidnapped, Maria, this neighborhood’s one of the safest around.”

Hannah set the bowl of corn on the table. “Well, for this city anyway.”

Scott shifted in his seat, his brow furrowing. “Hannah, we’re barely even in the city. If some supervillain attacks the Whole Foods on the corner, then we’ll--”

“--please Scott, let’s not talk about that again. I’m sorry for bringing it up, I just--”

“--stop. It’s alright.” Scott offered his wife a tired smile, though it did not break the newfound tension. “Let’s just enjoy dinner, alright? Let’s pray.”

Maria seemed blissfully unaware of how tightly her parents linked hands, and eagerly led them in prayer. “Dear Lord, please bless these gifts…”

Lost Haven outskirts
Two months later

“Oh god, just don’t hurt us!”

GE-04 was getting tired of hearing the same thing from so many different faces. The humans could seem so dignified when she watched them from afar, toying with each other, asserting power through social subtleties that she couldn’t understand. But as soon as they saw how small they were, how easily they could be stripped of all power, every pretense crumbled away until all that was left was animalistic fear. That’s exactly what it was; a prey response. She’d wandered through the woods long enough to see it in every facet of Earth life: hawks eating mice, foxes eating rabbits, GE-04 ripping the doors off of people’s cars and mugging them.

The prey this time was a couple with three children in the back seat. It was night, the only time GE-04 dared to wander freely through the countryside. She’d felt a familiar pang in her stomach, saw familiar lights poking through the trees by the road, and promptly stepped right in the car’s path. It had screeched to a halt, she approached, and now she stood on the passenger’s side, glaring through the hole where the car door used to be.

The man continued to beg. “Please, my kids--j-just take whatever you want!”

“Food.” She intoned impatiently. Her eyes rolled down to a bag in one of the children’s hands. Familiar. She reached into the car and jabbed her finger in its direction, much to the shrieks of the children. “Quiet! Give me that.”

“M-my chips?”

GE-04 growled and pointed again, then snatched the offered bag. “Water,” she said.

At that point, the family glanced at each other in equal parts fear and confusion. The woman at the wheel timidly offered, “I h-have...my water bottle…” She gasped when GE-04 grabbed the metal bottle from the cupholder between the driver and passenger’s seats.

“Do you have more?” GE-04 asked, clutching her meal to her chest. “I need more.”

“Oh Christ. Laura, honey, get the bag from the gas station, it’s--okay, this is all we have. Please, p-please--”

GE-04 ripped the bag from the man’s hands and stepped back. “Go.” She didn’t bother to stay and watch the car screech away, now occupied with bringing her spoils back to her hiding spot.

It was an ugly little shed, leaning half against an old oak whose brown leaves kept it always shaded. GE-04 had to dip her head down to get through the creaky door, and was met with the same dusty bookshelf, bed frame and table she’d known for months. She’d organized a few little piles on the table, comprised of various leaves, rocks and food wrappers. They served as the only source of decoration, and she liked to stare at each rock and leaf and trace the veins and cracks of each with her fingers. She was getting better at handling the softness of the world around her, and didn’t crush as many rocks with a casual grip anymore.

She plopped down on the metal bed frame, which squealed in protest. She set the bag of mystery food aside and focused on the chips, which had already been opened. As she ate, she watched the leaves outside the door rustle with the wind, shrouded in comforting darkness. This was her life now, she supposed. Whatever it had intended to become, she would never know.

Yet her mind couldn’t help but wander. She wasn’t human, not like the humans that roamed the forest in their cars. Some humans were small. Tyler called them “children”, but she couldn’t discern their purpose beyond being small, noisy, and staunchly guarded by their “parents”. Well, their parents staunchly guarded them when faced with threats that couldn’t rip every last one of them apart without challenge.

She had yet to kill a human firsthand, but she and the humans knew she was capable. She’d attempted it on her first night of existence, but one human had been armed, the other lucky. The police she was unsure about, as she hadn’t stayed long enough to survey the damage she’d caused. She couldn’t bring herself to care about their fates; they made their choice when they saw what she was.

She prodded around the plastic bag, finished with her chips, and laid its contents out on the bed frame. A pouch of jerky she was sure to devour next, small bags of trail mix, more chips. She was getting tired of snack foods. The forest around her ugly little shack called to her, and beyond it, she could hear the faint cacophony of the city. The sounds themselves didn’t catch her ear, but the minds: whirring, panicking, droning on through their daily human processes. It would be deafening if not for the distance. She wondered if Tyler was out there somewhere, if he felt any more significant for giving someone like her some perception of the world she was forced into. Time had made her bitterness towards him less so. He was a human like the others, and she couldn’t much blame him for his cowardice.

But she wiped her thoughts away--focusing on them made the distant noise worse. She drank the stolen water, ate the stolen jerky, and tried to fall asleep in a shack that was not made for her. Maybe, years ago, it served a purpose to some human. Every nail they hammered into the wood perhaps sated little dreams, one by one, until those dreams were forgotten, the wood left to rot.

She traced a fingertip over a deep crag in the wall near her face. Maybe some human slept in the same spot she now lay. Where did they go? Maybe they would be happy to see her using the shed again. Maybe they wouldn’t panic and turn their minds to painful static, or run away, or shoot at her. She drifted to sleep, wondering after the things she’ll never know.

A home in Royal Park
Three months ago

“Please, honey, think this through! Where would we go?” Scott chased his wife through the halls of their well-styled home while she swung a suitcase wildly between rooms.

“Anywhere but here, Scott! You’ve seen the news lately, this is no place to raise children!”

“I have a stable job, we’re almost through the mortgage, and this neighborhood hasn’t been hit since--”

“--since D-Day, Scott! When goddamn demons came out of goddamn nowhere and killed two people on our block while masked freaks wrecked the city! Now more freaks are--are killing people in the streets!”

“Honey, please, think of Tommy and Maria. Moving states can have such an impact on them! You want them doing drugs or running off like their no-good--”

Hannah whipped around, holding a single finger up to silence Scott. “--no, Scott. We agreed we would never mention them. They’re out of Thomas and Maria’s lives now, do you want to give them another crisis to--oh!” She cut herself off upon seeing Thomas at the doorway to the foyer. She and Scott must have been yelling too loudly to hear the front door open. “H...how are you back from hockey, sweetpea?”

“Liam’s mom drove me home.” Thomas set his hockey bag and ice skates down, eyeing the luggage Hannah was carrying. If he’d heard the details of their argument, he hid his reaction well. “Are we going on a trip for my birthday?”

Hannah chewed on her lip, lost on how to respond. She looked to Scott, who quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Well, we wanted it to be a surprise, but we’re going camping! Just packing for the cabin a little early.” He gave her a sideways squeeze.

“Oooh!” Thomas ran up and hugged Scott, then Hannah when she dropped her suitcase. “Thank you so much! I’ve been reading about the different animals we have in this area. I bet I can print out a checklist and see if we can find them!”

Hannah’s wide eyes quickly softened, for Thomas’ sake. “My little scientist. Just like your father.”

Scott’s hand moved from Hannah’s shoulder to her back, rubbing it in soothing circles. “Well, I like to see myself as more of an environmental engineer. Those scientists are all talk.” He teasingly tousled Thomas’ hair, then loosened his work tie. “Alright, Tommy, you should get started on your homework.” Judging by the look his wife gave him, their argument was far from over.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Character you have created: Lisa Hernandez

Alias: Subject GE-04

Speech Color: Blue

Character Alignment: Walking the Line

Identity: Secret

Character Personality: Lisa doesn’t remember anything before her Meta transformation. She is wary of everyone, and will lash out if she feels threatened or startled, with often disastrous results. She doesn’t have much of a moral compass, and makes little distinction between right and wrong, having forgotten important lessons about justice and equality from her old life. She has no concept of personal space once she recognizes someone as nonthreatening, though hates being touched if she hasn’t initiated the contact first. She is very gullible once she thinks she can trust someone, though only remains loyal for as long as her new ally can keep her interested. In calmer moments, she likes to stare at the sky and nature. Nighttime, dark colors, and silence relaxes her the most.

Appearance immediately after escape

After Intro Arc

Origin Info

Born and raised in Chicago, Lisa Hernandez had a perfectly normal childhood: her parents were loving, and had money to spend considering she was their only child. Lisa fostered a deep love for painting from an early age, and, after receiving a Hispanic scholarship from Lost Haven University, was well on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a professional illustrator. She worked hard in college, enough to catch the eye of one of the younger biology professors. Dr. Gregory Toothman was the talk of the science department, and soon swept Lisa off her feet. She graduated, and not long after, married Dr. Toothman. His connections opened up opportunities Lisa couldn’t have dreamed of, and while she was working happily in her dream career, he was making a name for himself in the scientific community of Lost Haven.

With the help of a new, better-paying job working for a private company, Dr. Toothman bought his new wife a large home in the suburbs outside Lost Haven. Lisa was pregnant, and after giving birth to their son Thomas, was happy to work from home and take care of the baby. Soon her baby became an energetic little boy, who was always happy to greet his father after his long absences on the job. Lisa had stopped trying to glean any information from her husband about what he did at his job, and was content to live her life without ever knowing. She became pregnant again, and this time she had a daughter named Maria. Dr. Toothman had been gone for days leading up to Lisa’s labor, and she was alone in the hospital while she recovered.

She returned to an empty house. Upset by her husband’s absence, she entered his office, determined to know at least something about the career that forced him to miss his daughter’s birth. She found more than she bargained for--files on several people dubbed simply “Subject”, charts attached to some of the files that mapped their status over time. The worst of it was the samples: tiny vials filled with blood, but some of the samples were near-black, and moved slower in their vials. It was disturbing, like something out of a science fiction movie. She left his office quickly, and said nothing to her husband when he returned. But those files and samples gnawed at her with a question she’d been asking herself for years, and finally she needed an answer. She planted a simple tracker into Dr. Toothman’s car, and traced it to the countryside beyond Lost Haven’s city limits. The tracker went dead just minutes before she could meet its location, and before she could turn back and go home, her car was ambushed, and she was captured.

She awoke to a sterile table, doctors, scientists, and needles.

The years wore her down. She accepted her fate after a while, and hoped one of the many tests she was put through daily would eventually kill her. She forgot the faces of her children, her parents, and her husband. After a while, she forgot her own face. Then her name. She was only another subject, GE-04, a designation tattooed on her body like a brand.

The scientists seemed pleased by her reactions to the serum they pumped into her every few months. She could feel her body change over that time, her baby fat disappearing, replaced by muscles she never knew she had. After years of hell, her last day seemed like any other. She was wheeled into a familiar operating room, her arms and legs bound by huge cuffs on her wrists and ankles. She didn’t flinch when they injected her with more serum, needle after needle in different places. A tingling began in her chest before it spread, out and out, burning, melting her down to nothing, until she was blinded by the scorching rays. In the distance she felt her husband’s presence and heard her children’s voices, somewhere beyond the pyre, beyond the room.

When she awoke, she was running. Desperate, nameless, lost. The world was a blur of darkness and pain. She had no idea from where or to where she was running, only ran, faster and faster, until the loud noises stopped and she could rest.

Hero Type: Brick/Psychic

Power Level: World Level

Powers

Evolution: GE-04 has yet to metabolize the last of the serum, and as such her powers are not yet at their full potential. As certain catalysts and stressors are introduced, her full strength, speed, and other attributes will be realized. ((Note: I'll only introduce the range of her powers that were accepted the first time I submitted my CS. Any additions that weren't originally accepted will be cleared with a GM beforehand.))

Empath: Subject GE-04 can tap into the minds of others and read their thoughts. Currently, she cannot control or direct her power, and indiscriminately picks up on the surface emotions of others in a disorienting mess. The harsher the emotions, the more agitated she becomes. Yellow-white light sparks from her eyes, shining brighter as she pushes her power further.

Endurance: Few things can actually harm GE-04. Bullets crumple against her skin like spitballs, poison is metabolized as smoothly as candy, and disease doesn't seem to affect her in any way.

Super-Speed: GE-04’s maximum running speed currently clocks in at around 300 MPH.

Rudimentary Flight: If GE-04 focuses, she can float. Having only recently discovered this power, she can move neither quickly nor meaningfully in any direction but upward. If her focus breaks, she will fall.

Attributes (Currently)

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 180 lbs

Strength Level: 20 Tons

Speed Level: 300 MPH

Reaction Time: Normal Human

Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort: 1 hour

Agility: Normal Human

Intelligence: Average

Fighting Skill: Untrained

Resources: Minimal

Weaknesses: In her current state, she can barely control her psychic powers, and the feeling of unwillingly probing strangers’ minds causes her great distress. She has difficulty reading the minds of other Metas. She also doesn’t know her own strength or speed, and can bash into buildings or break things if she isn’t extremely careful. She's weaker to attacks utilizing superheated flame, plasma, extreme cold and the like, while supremely high-voltage electricity and strong magic are potent methods of incapacitation. She can’t break her wrist cuffs on her own, which deliver an agonizing shock if tampered with. She's easily distressed by the sight of blood.

Supporting Characters

Dr. Gregory Toothman
Lisa’s ex-husband. A scientist working for Gene Co’s Black Project branch. Has cut all ties with his former life.

Thomas Carver
Lisa’s son. Eleven years old. Adopted into a family with his little sister. Doesn’t realize his parents are alive.

Maria Carver
Lisa’s daughter. Seven years old.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Eeee, I'm excited. My post should be up either tonight or tomorrow.