EDIT to clarify some abilities. [hider=David Lin - Phantom] [u]Name[/u] David Lin - Lín Dà​wéi - 林大为 [u]Epic Identity / Musician Name[/u] Phantom - Mèiyǐng - 魅影 [u]Age[/u] 24 [u]Faction[/u] Epic [u]Ability[/u] [hider=Dream Phantoms] While physically unconscious, David's Epic powers allow him to create an incorporeal body, which his mind can then inhabit while his body rests. This phantom cannot be harmed by physical means, including firearms, blades, poisons, etc. David can make the phantom totally invisible, or entirely visible, or anything in between. He can cause the phantom to grow to enormous sizes, or shrink down to the size of a quarter. It is not affected by gravity, solid materials, or weather events. He can fly at tremendous speeds, but as his speed increases, his ability to process the world around him decreases. It doesn't appear in cameras, or mirrors, but can be recorded by video cameras as a sort of ethereal shimmering. The phantoms are also not required to look like David. They can be any shape or size, including the stereotypical ghost, a tall, pale man with no face, and whatever else David has in his head. This shapeshifting is limited to what David can imagine, however, and oftentimes anything he is not very familiar with will look artificial, when scrutinized. Thus he can only reliably imitate himself, his family, a cockatiel, a black shorthair cat, and his most recent ex-girlfriend. He can also take the form of that tall faceless man with reasonable accuracy, given that it's faceless. [s]Currently, Phantom's size is no representation of his strength: and as he grows larger, it becomes harder for him to use his telekinesis. His voice, however, scales proportionally with his size, allowing his voice to boom across the city, or be nothing but a tiny squeak.[/s] After the battle with the Kryptonites at the dock, David's telekinesis has begun to magnify slowly. At the battle, he was able to hurl entire shipping containers while hopped up on adrenaline. His power level is slowly climbing due to guidance from other Epics. He's working on Johnny Depp, but David's voice always gives him away. People around him can hear him when he talks, and his voice never sounds like anyone but his own. That may change as he gets more practice, however. [s]Lastly, David has minor telekinetic abilities: his phantom can exert as much strength mentally as he can while physically awake, and not any more. He can lift moderately heavy boxes, throw a baseball, or punch someone, but he can't stop bullets or lift up entire buildings.[/s][/hider] [u]Weakness[/u] David's powers only function while he is unconscious (sleeping, sedated, or otherwise). During his waking hours, he is as powerless as any other person. Furthermore, his physical body has no invincibility. Coffee and other stimulants, while technically not an Epic weakness, prevent him from sleeping easily, and thus prevent him from using his abilities. Furthermore, clairvoyants can sense David's phantoms, and harm him through telepathy if they so desire. [s]David's powers, while useful, are no more effective at [i]fighting[/i] than the average man's fists, or weapons.[/s] None of these are really considered "proper" Epic weaknesses. His power-nullifying weakness is Chinese Oolong tea, which is why his powers didn't manifest until he moved out of his parents house. It's a staple at his home, and smelling, touching, or drinking that specific type of tea renders David's abilities useless for twelve hours after contact. [u]Personality[/u] David was generally a calm and measured person before his powers manifested, and he tries to maintain that now. The only problem is that due to his abilities, he always feels just a bit sleep deprived, leading to a short temper in most situations. His biting sarcasm can feel as if it comes out of nowhere, since he generally looks like a friendly guy, all things considered. He constantly second-guesses himself to see whether or not he's being brusque, since he knows that it happens. He didn't really have too much of an interest in Epics, until he became one. He still tries to avoid conflicts with Epics in the real world. In the dream world, he prefers to remain hidden from view as well. He's not shy, really, just indifferent to the random power squabbles that so many Epics get caught up in. He'd much rather just lie low, pickpocket people in his sleep, and work on his art. He really gets a kick out of being functionally invincible while asleep. David will sometimes intervene in petty crimes while he roams, to watch the looks on their faces when their fists pass right through him. Also, it's wrong to rob people less fortunate than you, or in a harsh position. Everyone wants to help others, that's who humans are. The tricky part is that humans can also make an ungodly amount of excuses and rationalizations for bad behavior, and David is as flawed as anyone else. If someone was being mugged while he was awake, he would keep walking. At night, though, petty thieves will fear the phantom. Side note: David can speak both English and Chinese, but his Chinese writing and reading suffer from a lack of use. [u]Appearance[/u] [url=https://i.imgur.com/UJDXpZJ.jpg]Image Reference[/url] --- David has no special costume, nor any usual clothing. He buys a lot of graphic tees on Amazon, and gets his pants from the Walmart clothing section. Sometimes his parents/aunt buy him clothes (usually socks). Every once in a while he likes to dress up in slim fitting dress shirts and nice khakis, but normally it's when he's trying to make a good first impression. His eyes seem to always have bags under them, probably a side effect of never sleeping properly. He's either awake for real, or awake in the dream world. His phantom forms generally wears a long cloak of shifting greys, whits, and black, which blur together and makes those who see him feel...unnerved. The cloak has a hood which he can wear if he's feeling it. [u]Background[/u] David was born into a fairly conservative family in Guangzhou, China, and was raised there for several years. When the Epics began rearranging the Great Wall in northern China, however, his family decided to migrate to the United States, in an attempt to stay safe and avoid Epics. It worked for a time, until the Epics moved into New York and set up shop. David and his family had integrated themselves well into NYC's Chinatown, so when the High took Manhattan, there was nowhere for them to run. Luckily, the Triads based in NYC were adept at dealing with megalomaniacs, and Chinatown was able to adapt to the new reality with relatively little chaos. Not to say that the world wasn't incredibly more dangerous: no, now there was twice as many hazards. David's father put it best: 危机四伏. "Danger lurks on every side". Still, his parents were no fools. They kept to themselves, raising their son as best they could. This meant sending him to a school where he could mix with the other cultures of the United States, and learn English like a native. They pushed him to succeed like many Chinese parents, but they had misjudged the changing world around them in this respect. After David saw one of his high school friends kidnapped and murdered by a crazed lunatic Epic for no reason at all, he realized there was absolutely no real point in good grades or studying hard, not when an epic could rip you out of your world in a blink if they felt like it. His grades slipped as his motivation failed, and he found himself falling more and more into sketching, playing the violin, and making digital music. His parents were livid, but despite their disappointment, he continued to live with his parents until he was 22, working at a fast food place and saving the money whenever he could. By night, he went to community college courses, and took private lessons to improve his musical skill. His parents were somewhat mollified by this, since he would give them money for rent, bu eventually he and his mother had an argument to large to smooth out, and he was evicted by his parents. Luckily, he'd had some money saved up, and was able to find a...somewhat affordable, run-down apartment complex in Manhattan where he could stay for a time. It was around the same time he met Annie, who was his first serious girlfriend after he left home. They didn't live together, but they were close. Eventually, though, she grew fed up with his lack of motivation in the world, and it was over. Of course, while they were together, he discovered his Epic powers for the first time, and spent a lot of time experimenting and dicking around in his dreams. It was hard to give the real world much credence when he spent so much time in an amazing world of flight and invisibility. After she left him, he decided to go around pretending to be her for a few nights, and found that he could imitate her to perfection. He doesn't like to, but a pretty girl can go some places that a guy can't. Now he's just been keeping on with his life in the same way. Working fast food to get paid (he's a manager now), avoiding other Epics and troubles, and trying to make it big in the huge Manhattan EDM scene. However, the more he gets a handle on his abilities, the more he's been wondering if life as a superhero might be something for him. Maybe as a spy, a rescue worker, or something similarly suited to his particular set of skills. [/hider] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4342270]Supporting Cast[/url] [hider Taron Duke - Bombard][u]Name[/u] Taron Duke [u]Epic Identity[/u] Bombard [u]Age[/u] 19 [u]Faction[/u] Epic (???) [u]Ability[/u] Bombard's abilities are twofold. Firstly, he is shockproof. Any blast wave, tremor, or shock wave will not hurt him. An explosion's heat and shrapnel could cause him harm, but the blast wave would do him no harm. If he is thrown into a wall, he will still take damage, but he can use his abilities to cushion the hit to some degree. The second ability is his offensive ability. Bombard can control the velocity of any air within his line of sight (he cannot control air inside buildings unless the building has windows, nor can he control air inside a person's body unless there is a hole in their body, etc). For example, he is able to rapidly raise the velocity of a sphere of air, which results in a radial explosion of powerful shockwaves. Effectively, he can create explosions without fire or ignition. Velocity increases are instantaneous. Furthermore, because of his shockproof nature, he is capable of using these explosions to "fly" through the air, though it's more akin to repeated detonations beneath his feet, making it dangerous to use for too long. The limits of this ability are at approximately Mach 5, where air flow begins to transfer to hypersonic, and the air molecules themselves begin to break down and lose electrons. At that point, his abilities no longer considers the air to be "air", despite what anyone else might think. Also, the more air Bombard attempts to affect at once, the less velocity he can impart on it, being inversely related by the volume he attempts to influence. As an example, Bombard can cause 1 cubic meter of air to move at Mach 5 (about 1715 m/s), and 10 cubic meters of air to move at 1.715 m/s. Decreasing the volume of affected air can allow it to move slightly faster than Mach 5, but the increase is logarithmic, not linear. [u]Weakness[/u] Rap, country, and bluegrass music. [u]Personality[/u] Taron is a strange mix. He listens to Gregorian chanting, but has little impulse control. He is loud when speaking, but his diction is impeccable, always complete sentences and perfect grammar. More than anything else, he wants to be a hero, but is incredibly, unbelievably bad at it. In a nutshell, he is a hotheaded man who desperately wishes to stay calm, but has yet been unsuccessful. When angered, he speaks very little, instead hissing, grunting, or shouting. He views those who don't help him as against him, even if they don't even know of his existence. As an example, he once said hello to a beautiful woman as she was walking down the street, and she, like any normal person, said hello back and continued walking past him. He sent pieces of her splattering across a nearby alleyway, thinking she had spurned him. Easily manipulated by those who help him or praise him in a genuine fashion. To clarify, he needs to feel as if he is friends with someone, and then he would support them doggedly. His sense of justice is somewhat skewed, and those who show him kindness/attention are more likely to be spared from his sudden outbursts. He remembers all the crimes he commits, and he knows they're wrong, but at the end of the day, he simply can't control himself, and tries to rationalize his actions. As a result, Bombard is constantly unhappy with his life, and spends much of his time drowning his sorrows in various distractions. These distractions do not help with his temper, or his self-loathing. A would-be hero, but no one has been able to survive his anger long enough to guide him along that path. He feels intense regret for his parents' deaths, but has no proper way to mitigate it. [u]Appearance[/u] [url=https://i.gyazo.com/af7041637eae6506056ec5126c8b7094.png]Image Reference[/url] Heavily shadowed eyes belie his general lack of sleep. Taron's hands tremble easily when he undergoes any particular emotion, and he generally wears heavy coats, even during warmer weather. He doesn't seem to overheat, and he rarely sweats. [u]Background[/u] Like many kids, Taron grew up with anger issues. He could never control himself when he became incensed, no matter how badly his parents tried to control him. For most of his youth, this was more of a nuisance than a problem, until he began going through puberty. His parents decided therapy might be a good step. He hated going, fighting tooth and nail to stay home whenever possible. This all came to a head at age 16, when, during a particularly spirited bout of therapy, something switched inside him, and he annihilated the office, bringing down the entire building in his rage. His therapist, the security guard in the room, and his parents all died in the collapse. Taron survived, to his utter horror. He knew it was his fault, and he knew that there was no going back. He fled the scene, the city, the state...he ran as far and as fast as he could, and suddenly discovered he could fly on his way across Iowa. Eventually, he ended up in Epic City, where he saw an opportunity to make amends for his crimes by protecting the innocent, destroying the people who used their powers for evil, and saving the world from the evil Epics. That turned out to be easier said than done, and he quickly became obsessed with the idea of good and evil, with himself and his "friends" being good, and others being evil. People who might have been a good influence on him found themselves annihilated if they said something even remotely out of line. He still fights for his morals, but the poor man no longer has any idea of who matches his idea of evil.[/hider]