Xiro Zean
Sloth
Hero Name: Swarm
Real Name: Hana Salem
Look: Woman, Middle Eastern, Boring Clothes, Concealing Costume, Character Mask
Abilities: Heightened Physical Abilities, Insect Control, Venom Generation
Secret Identity
Internship, Photography Club, Parents
Your mundane life comes with a series of obligations. When time passes, roll + your Mundane to see how you’re managing your obligations. On a hit, things are going pretty well—you have an opportunity or advantage thanks to one of your obligations. On a 7-9, you’ve lapsed on one obligation, your choice. On a miss, you haven’t given your normal life anywhere near the attention it deserves; the GM chooses two obligations that are going to bite you in the butt.
Team Moves
Potential o o o o o
Advancements
Labels
Danger: 0
Freak: 0
Savior: 0
Superior: 0
Mundane: +3
Conditions
Backstory
Real Name: Hana Salem
Look: Woman, Middle Eastern, Boring Clothes, Concealing Costume, Character Mask
Abilities: Heightened Physical Abilities, Insect Control, Venom Generation
Secret Identity
Internship, Photography Club, Parents
Your mundane life comes with a series of obligations. When time passes, roll + your Mundane to see how you’re managing your obligations. On a hit, things are going pretty well—you have an opportunity or advantage thanks to one of your obligations. On a 7-9, you’ve lapsed on one obligation, your choice. On a miss, you haven’t given your normal life anywhere near the attention it deserves; the GM chooses two obligations that are going to bite you in the butt.
Team Moves
- When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them if they see you as the person wearing the mask or the person underneath. If the former, mark potential and clear a condition. If the latter, take In uence over them if you reveal yourself.
- When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, tell them a secret about who you really are. Give them Influence, and shift your Mundane up and your mask’s Label down.
- The Mask (Freak)
You wear a mask and hide your real identity. Once per session, you can affirm either your heroic or secret identity to switch your Mundane with your mask’s Label. When you reveal your secret identity to someone who didn’t know it already, mark potential. - Game Face
When you commit yourself to save someone or defeat a terrible enemy, mark a condition and take +1 ongoing to all rolls in direct pursuit of that goal. At the end of any scene in which you don’t make progress towards
that goal, mark a condition. When you fulfill your goal, mark potential. - Mild-Mannered
When you try to use your civilian identity to deceive, trick, or slip past someone, roll + Mundane. On a hit they buy your facade. On a 7-9, choose one:- you’re still under observationOn a miss, one of your civilian obligations rears its ugly head.
- you leave something incriminating behind
- you’re forced to make a fool of yourself to sell it
Potential o o o o o
Advancements
Labels
Danger: 0
Freak: 0
Savior: 0
Superior: 0
Mundane: +3
Conditions
Backstory
- Q: When did you first put on the mask? Why?
A: "I first put on the mask... Pretty recently actually, around the time I got my power a few months ago. But I'm not gonna lie and say it was for some altruistic thing like wanting to save the world or make a difference. I wanted to feel special, and I wanted to call my own shots for once." - Q: Why do you keep a secret identity?
A: "Plenty of reasons, but I guess it just boils down to "no parents, no consequences, no problem."" - Q: Who, outside of the team, knows about your dual identity?
A: "Nobody. The less my life overlaps, the better." - Q: Who thinks the worst of your masked identity?
A: "Oh, the cops, definitely. During my first outing I accidentally screwed up one of their investigations while conducting my own, and that rookie mistake let the bad guy get away. Some of the pro heroes and media might qualify by extension." - Q: Why do you care about the team?
A: "Well, they're showing me the ropes and they're not terrible people. Besides, it's not like I'm a super competent hero on my own, ha..."
When Our Team First Came Together
We saved the life of someone important, either to the city or to us. Who was it? Why are they important?
Relationships
Influence
You look up to your teammates; they seem to have this superhero thing figured out. Give two of them Influence over you.
We saved the life of someone important, either to the city or to us. Who was it? Why are they important?
Relationships
- Doktor Faust/Andrea knew you from your civilian life first.
- You refused to tell ___________________ your secret identity when they asked.
Influence
You look up to your teammates; they seem to have this superhero thing figured out. Give two of them Influence over you.
- Doktor Faust/Andrea
- Polaris/Alex
Q: Why did she choose 'Photography Club' over all the other clubs?
A: Freedom of expression, even if that's within school approved limits. It lets her go out there and see new things without having to constantly be explaining herself.
Q: And her job as an intern is doing what, where?
A: In my head, I always imagined her interning at the universe's rough equivalent to Stark Industries or Wayne Enterprises. Being a coffee grabber is a lame internship duty, so she's probably involved in helping with some STEM-based field (dunno which, but I'm leaning towards something biomimetics-y) or business/sales/marketing stuff, I haven't quite decided.
Q: And does this relate to her going to college or towards a career of some kind?
A: Yes. 100x yes. Her parents want her to get into a really good university so she can live out a successful life, so they constantly urge her to put herself out in the community to get those volunteer points, and to keep her grades up. She's got little to say on the topic, but it'd be a lie to say she doesn't worry about it. She's good enough at school though, which is why Schoolwork isn't an obligation.
Q: Any interesting pictures? I'm sure you have some amazing ones that you couldn't help but take, being that you had to have had your camera with you sometimes when you are out super heroing as Swarm.
A: "Well I don't bring it around anymore - the really good cameras are expensive stuff and heroing is very destructive business - but I'll admit to using the bugs for some photomacrography or getting good vantages. Also to taking shots of parahuman on parahuman combat. And crime scenes. A lot of crime scenes."
"...It's probably a good thing that I delete those last ones off my computer. People might think I'm weird."
Q: And speaking of Swarm, don't lie to me. I 'know' that you have to be pissing off your parents and your internship and the photo club. You're Swarm, and being Swarm is VERY inconvenient when it comes to time share. I'm sure you have broken curfew. I'm sure you've been late for your internship multiple times and I'm sure you've missed more than a few club meetings. How do you balance it all?
A: "Hahaha. That's funny. Well, to answer the question, the legions upon legions of drones help. They help a lot. A bunch of mindless bugs are way better than the biggest group of classmates in the world when trying to finish up a project, that's for sure. Other than that, it's just your usual combination of elbow grease, schedule prioritization, and lying plausibly."
Q: And how do you keep your parents from prying too deeply in you private life, because parents aren't idiots and if you aren't too careful, they WILL find out that you are Swarm. And based on what you already told me, that's not a good thing.
A: "Well, to be frank, I don't know if it would be a completely bad thing... But I also don't know if it'd be a good thing either. Which is what worries me."
"But that's not answering the question, is it? Usually I try to prioritize getting my parental obligations out of the way, but obviously that doesn't always work. And I've only been at this for a few months at this point! The method I've been using has been working fine, though I'm loathe to keep using it. The elaborate scheme just feels wrong."
"Basically it's this (admittedly over)complicated plan to normalize this kind of behavior. If I act suspiciously enough in more innocuous situations, I can get away with it when it counts because it wouldn't subvert their expectations. Plus, benefit of the doubt goes a long way. As long as I don't falter too much in my studies or my jobs or whatever, I should have at least a little bit of leeway for bullshit."
Q: On the point of Ian, woman are on him like stink on a monkey... which makes me ask what you think of him?
A: "Well for a guy calling himself Incubus, he's a lot more tame than I'd expected. I mean he only hit on me twice - once for each identity, even. Still don't know if I should be flattered or offended by that, but it's not like I'm a whore for boys' attention; so I just filed all that under 'stuff that definitely happened'."
"But yeah, the whole demon part's a bit troubling - that definitely wasn't the way I thought I'd get my Sunday mornings validated, that's for sure. Next thing you know I'm gonna turn out to be the avatar of Beelzebub or something."
"But back to the point, I don't really think he's a bad guy per se. He has bad powers and bad precision and bad habits and... And he's part of the team and it definitely feels like he pulls more weight than I do, so who's the girl who talks to bugs to complain?"
A: Freedom of expression, even if that's within school approved limits. It lets her go out there and see new things without having to constantly be explaining herself.
Q: And her job as an intern is doing what, where?
A: In my head, I always imagined her interning at the universe's rough equivalent to Stark Industries or Wayne Enterprises. Being a coffee grabber is a lame internship duty, so she's probably involved in helping with some STEM-based field (dunno which, but I'm leaning towards something biomimetics-y) or business/sales/marketing stuff, I haven't quite decided.
Q: And does this relate to her going to college or towards a career of some kind?
A: Yes. 100x yes. Her parents want her to get into a really good university so she can live out a successful life, so they constantly urge her to put herself out in the community to get those volunteer points, and to keep her grades up. She's got little to say on the topic, but it'd be a lie to say she doesn't worry about it. She's good enough at school though, which is why Schoolwork isn't an obligation.
Q: Any interesting pictures? I'm sure you have some amazing ones that you couldn't help but take, being that you had to have had your camera with you sometimes when you are out super heroing as Swarm.
A: "Well I don't bring it around anymore - the really good cameras are expensive stuff and heroing is very destructive business - but I'll admit to using the bugs for some photomacrography or getting good vantages. Also to taking shots of parahuman on parahuman combat. And crime scenes. A lot of crime scenes."
"...It's probably a good thing that I delete those last ones off my computer. People might think I'm weird."
Q: And speaking of Swarm, don't lie to me. I 'know' that you have to be pissing off your parents and your internship and the photo club. You're Swarm, and being Swarm is VERY inconvenient when it comes to time share. I'm sure you have broken curfew. I'm sure you've been late for your internship multiple times and I'm sure you've missed more than a few club meetings. How do you balance it all?
A: "Hahaha. That's funny. Well, to answer the question, the legions upon legions of drones help. They help a lot. A bunch of mindless bugs are way better than the biggest group of classmates in the world when trying to finish up a project, that's for sure. Other than that, it's just your usual combination of elbow grease, schedule prioritization, and lying plausibly."
Q: And how do you keep your parents from prying too deeply in you private life, because parents aren't idiots and if you aren't too careful, they WILL find out that you are Swarm. And based on what you already told me, that's not a good thing.
A: "Well, to be frank, I don't know if it would be a completely bad thing... But I also don't know if it'd be a good thing either. Which is what worries me."
"But that's not answering the question, is it? Usually I try to prioritize getting my parental obligations out of the way, but obviously that doesn't always work. And I've only been at this for a few months at this point! The method I've been using has been working fine, though I'm loathe to keep using it. The elaborate scheme just feels wrong."
"Basically it's this (admittedly over)complicated plan to normalize this kind of behavior. If I act suspiciously enough in more innocuous situations, I can get away with it when it counts because it wouldn't subvert their expectations. Plus, benefit of the doubt goes a long way. As long as I don't falter too much in my studies or my jobs or whatever, I should have at least a little bit of leeway for bullshit."
Q: On the point of Ian, woman are on him like stink on a monkey... which makes me ask what you think of him?
A: "Well for a guy calling himself Incubus, he's a lot more tame than I'd expected. I mean he only hit on me twice - once for each identity, even. Still don't know if I should be flattered or offended by that, but it's not like I'm a whore for boys' attention; so I just filed all that under 'stuff that definitely happened'."
"But yeah, the whole demon part's a bit troubling - that definitely wasn't the way I thought I'd get my Sunday mornings validated, that's for sure. Next thing you know I'm gonna turn out to be the avatar of Beelzebub or something."
"But back to the point, I don't really think he's a bad guy per se. He has bad powers and bad precision and bad habits and... And he's part of the team and it definitely feels like he pulls more weight than I do, so who's the girl who talks to bugs to complain?"
