[center][h2]Data's Characters[/h2][/center][hr]
[center][b]Personal Characters[/b][/center]

[hider=Holly Farstel]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/JdiDhNm.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][h1][i]Holly Farstel[/i][/h1][/center][center][h2]15 | 5'3 | Gamma Two[/h2][/center]

[center][b]Powers/Abilities:[/b][/center]
Pause: Holly has the ability to overdrive her mind, boosting her reactions to the point where the world is almost stopped for her. A second for the world would be an hour for her, for example. It allows Holly to make a new, fully thought through course of action in a position where she has more information or she needs to quickly figure out a way to get out of a sticky situation. Doing this also boosts her thought processes to match, making her slightly smarter in this time.
Limited Probability Advisement and Computation: Holly can look at a course of action and calculate her probability of managing to commit to and complete that action, but cannot calculate the effectiveness of that action. A harsh but accurate example is that she can calculate how much of a chance she has to break someone’s arm, but cannot calculate if breaking the arm would put him out of the fight or if he would just keep swinging. For the effectiveness, she has to just use her own head to figure out how effective something will be.

[center][b]Skills:[/b][/center]
Escape Artist; Holly will always have a plan of escape, even in situations where everything is fine and dandy. Backing out of an awkward conversation and picking her way out of cuffs are both the same to her; she needs an out, whether that is claiming she needs to go to the bathroom and then slipping away or working out a route of escape for when the opportunity arises.
Intelligence: Holly knows when it’s time to break or if she can stay just a little longer, and has the common sense to suspect what may be around the corner without having to peek first. She doesn’t need her ability of probability advisement to know when something is a stupid idea.
Street rat: Even in places she hasn’t been before, Holly knows what a good place is to hide and a bad place. She knows the places where the cops roam little and the places that the cops keep on lockdown. She knows the druggies, she’s familiar with the gangs, and she has her badman contacts, couple human, few para. She’s street-smart.

[center][b]Weaknesses:[/b][/center]
Criminal: Though not at the status where every cop would recognise her, a cop running a check on her would probably not find an innocent girl. Because of this, Holly avoids going to the police for any reason, and tries to keep somewhat of a berth between herself and them if she sees one in the street.
Caught in a Daze: Holly can sometimes end up stuck in a daze if she is thinking too much whilst using her powers. The probability of many actions can confuse and distract her until she snaps out of it. Someone smart can stick her in a bit of a loop if she falls for it.

[center][b]Brief History:[/b][/center]
Nothing was very good in the early points of Holly’s life. She was what many would call born into the life of crime, under the parenting of a father and mother who mugged, stole and robbed for their lives. Her parents becoming criminals to survive was their choice, after refusing to go to university, to college, to schooling. Holly’s was not her choice - it was how she was raised. She knew that being a criminal was bad, was [i]evil[/i], but after she started committing crimes she found herself in a hole that she couldn’t dig herself out of - but didn’t necessarily [i]want[/i] to get herself out of. What kept her onboard for slipping into homes was the fact that she could come out with phones and money, and she would get away with it. Sure, she may have been noticed once or twice on CCTV, and may have been hunted by the police (as well as competitors in the criminal business) a few times, but that was a part of the risk to her, a part of her lifestyle. There wasn’t a way out.

Holly found herself orphaned at the age of nine and placed in an orphanage after her parents were killed in a robbery gone wrong; the owner had been home, and he was not happy about the unexpected intrusion. It was often forgotten that she even lived in the orphanage by those caring for the children as she would spend long days and nights outside. As she grew up, the times that she spent away from the orphanage grew longer, until she left for good, preferring the streets to the stooges who claimed they were [i]good[/i] at taking care of children.

From there, Holly began her criminal activities again - by thirteen, she was partaking in small crimes, such as shoplifting to keep herself alive and afloat, selling stolen bits and pieces from electronic shops to gangs to give herself a little money. She was barely touched by the gangs not because she was unique or of high stature with them, but because she was a reliable source.

It was at the age of fifteen that the top of the Tower exploded, and the already tactful Holly was given a gift to help her in her criminal ventures. Ever since the explosion, Holly found herself more calculative about situations she placed herself in, putting more planning into her moves. Finding an advantage came with a scare for her, however; she found that she could pause whilst on the run from the police. She had wondered if she had been caught for she could not move, however she realised that nothing else was moving, either. It took her some time to figure out that she was moving, just at an extremely slow pace, and even longer to figure out how to make everything move normally again. Once she had escaped and time had passed where she was not on the run, she practised controlling the power by watching birds and people, and then triggering a Pause so that she could see everyone and herself slow down. With her new abilities unlocked, she used them to further her criminal activities, and used them to her own advantage, not anyone else’s.

[hider=Sample Post]
“You just sit back, alright kiddo? There ain’t nothing Ingrid don’t like more than someone interrupting a meeting, so don’t be kickin’ shit around, yeah?”

The girl took a moment to process what her friend was actually saying, but she nodded her head in the meanwhile. Holly was always amused by Alessandro’s wording, which she felt was good as if she wasn’t it would be quite hard to talk to him every time she paid a visit, or rather, he paid her [i]for[/i] a visit to hand over whatever she had nabbed for him. As it was, he was a friend to her, and helped keep her up and afloat when she needed it.

“Holly, you gotta tell me you understand, yeah? I don’t want the boss kickin’ my ass.”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” Holly replies, holding her hands up in surrender for a moment. She wasn’t too happy that she wasn’t getting paid immediately, but Alessandro needed to get the cash from his boss to pay her this time, and his boss was going to a meeting with a dealer who operated in the gang’s area and needed to pay the racket fee. Once Holly got the cash, she was going to buy a few candy bars and then screw around in a park somewhere.

Holly and Alessandro strolled down the sidewalk together, making their way to what Alessandro claimed was the meeting place. Holly knew these streets well, and made it a mental game to try and guess which alleyway that Alessandro’s boss had picked to meet in. It always interested her in what the casual citizen would think if just off the streets a whole different world took its place in the darkness of the space between streets.

“Deputy Fatboy is out of his cage again,” Alessandro commented, nodding his head across the street. Holly couldn’t help but giggle as she looked over to the opposite side of the street. The deputy Alessandro was speaking about had all sorts of different names, all of which began with the word [i]fat[/i], but everyone knew who was being spoken about whenever he was brought up. Alessandro had told her that there was a betting pool within the gang on whether Deputy Fatboy was [i]actually[/i] a deputy or just some security guard from a small office somewhere that loafed over to the donut shop every day. Holly, though an established criminal, was still learning about some stuff such as criminal [i]culture[/i]. When Deputy Fatboy was around, there was sort of an unspoken rule that nobody does wrong, that they let the man take his donuts and go on his way. He was a [i]treasure of the area[/i], some had said.

With Fatboy bellowing through the door about a lack of sugar-coated donuts, Holly was not one to disagree.

“We’re here,” Alessandro said suddenly, and turned into an alleyway. Holly followed, immediately spotting the bulky man that stood within. She recognised him, having met the man a few times before, but she always felt a little [i]unsafe[/i] around him. He creeped her out, but so far they only had a working relationship, with most activities conducted through Alessandro - Holly had no doubt that the bossman had others like Alessandro that acted as middlemen to others like herself.

“About time. Got your guns?” Bossman said, his voice booming. Alessando flashed his instantly, with Holly hesitating before showing her own. She had received it one time instead of money, by her request, from Alessandro. Holly was not confident in using it, and had never drawn it so far, but she wanted it as a safety tool, something to use if she needed to defend herself. Even then, she wasn’t sure she could shoot someone. She may ruin someone’s day by snatching their phone or wallet, but she wasn’t sure she could end a life.

It was a short walk from there to the main meeting place, where one lonely woman stood with her arms crossed and waiting. The trio approached the woman, and it was Bossman that took the lead. “Your time is up. That means you need to [i]pay[/i] up.” He commanded, simply holding his hand out. It looked to Holly that Bossman had been through this kind of process plenty of times already, and fully expected the druggie to hand over the racket fee.

Things went to hell immediately. There was a flicker of movement from a little further down the alley, and before anyone could say or do anything about it, a shot rang out. Bossman fell instantly, and before Alessandro or Holly could get their guns out, the woman was already on top of him, stabbing and cutting him with what looked like a butcher’s knife. The screams began and then ended instantly from Bossman, and Holly held her pistol with shaking hands, not able to work up the courage to pull the trigger, and then triggered a Pause.

It was almost like a still image in front of her now. Blood halting it’s spread from Bossman’s throat and gut, the woman’s blade buried almost unmoving in Bossman’s chest. A figure down the alley holding what looked like a pistol of his own, and she saw Alessandro’s gun in her peripheral vision. Taking a little time to calm herself, she began looking for places to hide or take cover within her line of sight. Mentally, she automatically calculated her chances to reaching the positions before the gunman turned to engage her.

When she was ready, she unpaused, diving for cover behind a dumpster. Alessandro shot the woman atop Bossman, before receiving a shot to the chest, going down. Holly stared wide-eyed at Alessandro’s unmoving body as she heard footsteps creeping closer to her. She froze up, not sure what to do, barely feeling the strength to lift the pistol that she still held in her hands. Just as the footsteps landed next to her, Alessandro let out a sudden roar, lifting his own pistol to shoot the gunman three times: Holly flinched as the body dropped down next to her, and then quickly ran over to Alessandro, kneeling next to him.

“Holly, I’ll be fine. Bug out, call the guys and tell them what happened,” Alessandro says to her. Holly clutched his hand, letting a few tears drip, before wiping them away and nodding - she was confident when she wasn’t in the immediate threat of death. From where the trio had originally came from she heard sirens, and quickly got up to bolt after a whisper of goodbye to Alessandro. She ran all the way down to the end of the alley and waited there at the corner, to see who was coming. After seeing that none-other than Deputy Fatboy was running into the alley, Holly continued her escape, knowing that at least Alessandro was going to get help. She knew it wouldn’t be his first rodeo in prison.
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[hider=Phoebe Harper]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/b7gvAzn.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][h1][i]Phoebe Harper[/i][/h1][/center][center][h2]26 | 5'6 | Gamma Four[/h2][/center]

[b]Powers/Abilities:[/b]
Biomechanical: Phoebe is merged with the armour that she wore when the tower exploded. As a result, she is now a lot more robust in form both exterior and interior, with her head being one of the few things remaining visibly human when she isn’t wearing a helmet. Whilst her outer body is now the armour that she was wearing before, her inners are now made up of a biometal caused by the merging of the armour with her body. Due to this new form of her body, she is stronger, more dexterous and slightly faster than a normal human, and a lot more resilient to damage. Though her exterior is now the armour, she can still feel and sense with touch through it.

Other advantages to being biomechanical is the ability to shut off certain parts or senses, such as shutting off the sense of pain. This comes with it’s own disadvantages, as she may not know how much trouble her body is in if she turns off pain reception, and doing things such as disabling her lungs may also not be the best of ideas. She can also do the opposite of shutting off certain parts and boost parts of herself, though she does need to be careful not to push herself too far.

Being biomechanical on it’s own is dangerous, but paired with the equipment that the armour merged with her has, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Riot gas, a taser and a small enclosed pistol in her right arm are just a few of the utilities that she has.

[b]Skills:[/b]
Hand-to-Hand / Knife-Fight range engagements: Phoebe is very experienced in close range fighting, both unarmed as well as armed with melee weapons either purpose-made or environmental. She can take on most opponents with ease.

Tactical Knowledge: Phoebe has inside knowledge of the MPD and it’s operations. When evading the MPD, she has knowledge of tactics that they would use to try and capture her or anyone else, and can use that to run circles around them unless she’s in a direct confrontation with them which could result in more instinctive actions from her foes.

[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
Power Loss: A lot of what Phoebe operates with relies on efficient power. She can still operate with a loss of power by any means, but she won’t be at her full potential. A sudden power loss can also disrupt her, either halting or manipulating her by triggering changes in her internal systems or preventing her from adjusting them, for example, suddenly removing her hearing or increasing her sense of touch to the point where it is painful.

[b]Brief History:[/b] Phoebe served in the MPD as soon as she was able to do so, for throughout her young life she felt that it was her place to be helping people and making Marlon city a better place to live. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, she had witnessed countless crimes from burglary to murder in an alley. Phoebe felt that by joining the MPD, she would be helping in putting a stop to such crimes happening. In her later years of school she began pushing herself to train in order to prepare for the MPD, but as she was already physically fit there wasn’t too much to push herself to do, and entering the MPD was a breeze.

Phoebe served as a perfect officer within the MPD, becoming knowledgeable in it’s tactics and objectives as well as, later, a supervisor that other officers could look up to. Years after she entered the MPD, she was offered a position in the wetwork side of the MPD and accepted, working closer with the management of the MPD in tasks such as corporate security for Lorne and counterespionage. The longer she stayed within wetworks, she realised that she was not helping for the public interests but helping for the hand of corporations, for whoever spoke to higher management. She didn’t like it.

The woman was given her out when the Tower exploded. The fact that she could not take her armour off at first terrified her, and she ran some tests on herself as to figure out what she now was, such as trying to poke a needle into herself to see if she still had skin beneath the armour. She came to accept that she was no longer just flesh, instead now her armour was her. The only reason she could still take off her helmet was that it wasn’t on when the Tower exploded, and so wasn’t attached to her like the rest was. As Parahumans started to become hunted, Phoebe ditched the MPD while she could, taking to the streets. She proceeds to fight crime, but she does it for the justice, not for the fake goals of the MPD. She had to avoid them, too; she wouldn’t be surprised if she was high on their hit list.

[hider=Sample Post]
The problem with trying to help fight crime was that she made herself noticeable, and that was something that she did not like doing, not nowadays. Paras were a ‘threat’ to normal people, not just because they were doing things such as attacking donut shops as the news proclaimed, but to the normals, they were [i]scary[/i]. Phoebe did not blame the normals; back when she served with the MPD, a man robbing a store with a gun was scary enough, but someone who could make you vanish in the blink of an eye into ashes was much, much scarier. 

Phoebe made her way down an alleyway within the grand city. People would wonder how the alleys were safer than the streets, but she felt a lot better at dealing with common thugs than she did the MPD. Whilst the normal beat-cop MPD patrol would be easy to deal with, the backup most certainly would not, and it would keep coming. Compared to that, she would much rather take on a few thugs if they tried to pick a fight. But even in the safety of the alley, she still disguised herself. Trousers and a hoodie that fit over her body, with a hoodie that came down over her head to hide her helmet from immediate view. Someone looking at her head-on could probably spot it, but she wasn’t counting on being hidden entirely. After all, if she got into too serious of a fight, she’d end up ripping the clothes off for more mobility. She found it funny that now she felt a little naked when she wasn’t wearing a disguise, because her armour felt like her skin now. It was a part of her body, not a piece of apparel.

A loner walking in the alleys was an obvious target, so perhaps she [i]did[/i] get more bother from the thugs. She spied a trio of them up ahead, stepping out to block her path. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t bother to talk to them or play the role of the helpless victim. The stun-staff on her back was in her hands, and she thought the first of her targets recognised the fact he was screwed the second before she shoved the end of the staff at the man’s chest, causing him to keel over in shock. She threw herself at the second and third of the men, the former of which was withdrawing something from his jacket. She saw it was a pistol the second before she broke his wrist, and caught the third man with the back of her staff before jolting the second one. With all three down, she pulled up her hood, which had fallen down during the fight, put her staff back on her back, and continued her walk. Clean and simple.
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[hr]
[center][b]GM / Story Characters[/b][/center]

[hider=Syren]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/cM6xOuN.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][h1][i]Syren[/i][/h1][/center][center][h2]24 | 5'6 | Omega Five[/h2][/center]

[b]Powers/Abilities:[/b]
Darkness Mimicry: Syren has some capability to utilise the darkness itself. She can shroud herself in the darkness, removing herself from sight (though not any of the other senses such as sound or smell). She is also able to make darkness immaterial, causing it to not become an entity affected by light and thus remain even if light is shone upon the darkness. Syren can also project darkness by emotion, such as pain. Doing so can remove unwanted emotions from herself and be used as a physical weapon.

Mind control: Using the darkness, Syren can influence the minds of others. It takes effort to do so on the strong minded, however she is able to influence weak-minded individuals easily. A positive side effect to this is that once she gains control of the person she learns what makes them tick, meaning it’s easier to convince them to do something [i]without[/i] mind control once she releases control of them.

[b]Skills:[/b] 
Diplomacy: Syren is efficient at negotiating for her goals, and not just because of her mind control. A people person as she is, she can talk people into doing the dirtiest of deeds, or trick them into disadvantaging their own position with her words. She is experienced in letting people cling to hopes and simple lies. Sometimes truth, if they deserve it.

Swordplay: Syren is experienced with a variety of sharp melee weapons, from simple knives to, as the name suggests, swords. She has a shortsword that she carries with her.

[b]Weaknesses:[/b] 
Corruption: Syren’s para abilities come at the cost of losing herself. The darkness corrupted her mind, originally driving her into a crazed state, and now leaving her in a hostile state, attacking those who threaten her either directly or indirectly, or just for sport or fun. She is a threat to those she has not allied herself with, even if they are doing nothing but going on their day.

Light: Within natural light, Syren’s abilities are very much lessened, and within artificial light she is only slightly lessened, though that is based on how bright the light is that she is in. She can still use some of her abilities, however it causes her more harm than it does good in most cases.

Playing with her Prey: Syren will often play with those she is preying on, using her abilities to stalk them, mess with them, make them fear her. She does this both due to her predatory, dark mindset and because she knows that she is strong, however this can lead to her underestimating her opponents or potentially putting herself in a weak position if her prey is looking for an opportunity.

[b]Brief History:[/b] Syren was not always Syren. She was once Penelope Hertzfonzi, a young lady who grew up in a posh, rich area of Marlon City. As the daughter of two successful business executives of an international company, she was treated to high-class balls and activities, such as fencing with a high-paid tutor. She was being melded by her parents to be the high-class woman that she was meant to be, and with an endless bank account, Penelope did not care. If she couldn’t get something from the front channels, she got them from the dark, back channels that her position granted her contacts with.

Penelope grew used to using the dark channels to get what she wanted, and soon grew into dark obsessions. Her parents did not like her using the back channels and preferred her using more public, [i]legal[/i] services. It was not because of the illegalness of what she was doing, but it was more so for the public image and building the right kind and variety of contacts. Nonetheless, Penelope continued her obsessions, only using the public channels where needed. Soon, she had started her own business, created her own reputation within the dark channels. A private gang, a mafia owned by herself, to be rented out to whoever bought it’s services. People died, illegal objects transported, all for funds in her bank account, all for power. The Reapers became a force to be reckoned with, and their leader Penelope, codenamed Syren, was a powerful hand in the criminal underground of Marlon City.

However long she stayed in this position of power, Penelope did not remain in it forever. A few years down the line of the establishment of the Reapers, Penelope was found by Law Enforcement to be their leader. Her luscious residence was raided by a full MPD SWAT team, and after a gunfight with a few of her goons on guard, was apprehended. At court a full week later, she betrayed nothing of the Reaper’s operations whilst on the stand, and was temporarily placed in a holding cell during a short adjournment of the court. It was at that time that the Tower exploded.

As power filled her, Penelope was corrupted by the darkness that took over her and made her into a Para. In a crazed state, she experimented with her powers not by her own doing but by the darkness within her leading her own, forcing her hand and pressing her into a crazed state. With such a scene in front of them, the pair of guards at the holding cell might have tried to apprehend her or even shoot her dead if they weren’t affected by the Tower’s detonation as well, various new Para abilities manifesting on them as much as they were on her. And by the guidance of the newfound darkness within her, she won the battle of who could ‘control’ themselves first. Syren broke out of the holding cell, ruthlessly killing both guards, ripping their worthless bodies apart and taking their equipment. Their belts became bandoliers in a new arsenal made from their equipment. She was no longer Penelope. She was Syren.

It was only when Syren had completely escaped that she controlled the crazed state that she was in. It wasn’t hard to hide among the initial chaos of the city, however, three days later it had calmed enough that she could make new plans, using the new abilities that she had gained. The first step was meeting back with the Reapers, an easy task, as she knew where the main base of operations was, and where her Second would be operating and running the Reapers while she was in prison - or, while she was [i]meant[/i] to be in prison.

Things did not go as planned, however. Instead of presenting command of the Reapers back to Syren, she was told that she would no longer be the leader. Syren made the decision that if she was no longer the leader of the Reapers, then they would have to go. She brutally tore her own organisation apart not by logistical trickery or by cheating the organisation apart with little tricks, but by killing each and every member. She went from hideout to hideout, some of which had taken the change in leadership wholeheartedly and tried to fight for their lives, some of which knew nothing and welcomed her back with welcome arms. She almost felt bad about slaughtering the latter. 

Some time later, Syren became a member of the Church of the Para, however that was mostly in title. Syren was given free reign in her ways so long as she aligned with the Church. All that meant for her was that she was not to harm any other member of the Church. Otherwise, anyone was free game; whether Human or Para, there was always prey.



[hider=Sample Post]
“It hurts, doesn’t it?”

The man before Syren was a broken mess. He was her prisoner, her spoil, a young man not far past his twenties and just starting to touch the ground floor of the high class. He belonged to her in this moment not from any kind of ownership but fear itself. He was unshackled, his movement unhindered, but that was because he would not move by his own will. He wished to obey her to her fullest, to receive as little pain as possible from her, and to die as fast as he could. To disobey only made it slower.

A middle-ranked patron of the Church had passed by her chamber after news from those lower in the chain about her present activity, asking and then begging her to stop what she was doing to the man. Even a normal human did not deserve the punishment that she was giving the Para - though, she could have argued that the man was no longer a Para. His abilities had rested in his left hand, which was separated from him and resting at the man’s feet; that was [i]not[/i] part of his abilities. Syren would have done a lot to someone interrupting her pleasures if it were not for her vows to the Church, her solemn word that not member of the Church would be harmed. Thus, she ignored the patron, and he was forced to leave with threats that he would tell those higher in power in the Church. Not that it mattered to her - her activities were already noted.

“Answer me,” Syren spoke, her voice calm, soft yet wicked.

“Yes, my lady,” the man answered, in a tone that was [i]trying[/i] to be respectful - for his own safety. Syren was lenient with him.

“I bet it does, doesn’t it? I too was filled with pain, great pain, when I was abandoned. Tell me, who was I abandoned by?”

The man hesitated, clearly trying to come up with an answer. He became very distracted as Syren moved the tip of her knife closer and closer to the man’s chest, where she had ‘enticed’ him for more answers before. Just before the tip of her knife came into contact with his chest, she pulled it back, spun it on her finger, and then jabbed the back of the hilt at his chest, directly onto one of his wounds. The man cried out in agony, before yelling an answer. “The Reapers!”

Syren smirked. She had been planning to strike him a few more times, however a correct answer got its rewards. Syren moved closer to the man, settling herself down so she straddled his lap, causing him to wince in agony as she planted her legs either side of him on top of the chair. “And who, in the Reapers, betrayed me? I’m thinking of one individual in particular right now. Name that individual, and I shall grant you your reward.”

The man squirmed a little, trying to think as the woman atop him caused him pain by just sitting there. Syren gave him time. After a few moments, she leaned her face closer and closer to his until they rested just a few inches apart. “Time’s up. What’s your answer, precious?”

The man stared at her for a few moments, wide-eyed. Finally, he whispered the one word Syren was looking for. “Me.”

Syren gave him a sweet little smile. “Good boy,” she whispered. She tilted forward, touching her lips against his in a deep kiss for just a few moments, and then gave him the true reward he deserved. Removing her lips from his, she turned the knife over in her hand and shoved it into his belly. And then again. And again. And again. Playful giggles turned into outright laughter in only a few moments. And then, like the man’s life, it ended. A few seconds passed, and then the laughter started once more. The man’s life, however, did not.
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