Ay, a Worm RP, haven't seen one of these in a bit. I'm a bit on the fence in regards to joining--not because of the premise or the characters mind you--but uh...if this is still open, tentatively count me in?
One question, have you gotten any player villains yet?
Still open, yeah. As for PC baddies...Leaning away from those for now, but I'm not entirely opposed.
Ugh, it was like he could feel the clock boring his skull open.
Truth be told, he had been dreading this day ever since it was dumped on him. All because he tried to be the smart guy in the room....Last time he made that mistake....Again. Fukuda could feel his eyebrows scrunching up in consternation; somehow, this was all going to blow up in their face. Maybe literally, given the fact they were bringing two Tinkers on board. Speaking of...
To at least take his mind off his impending doom, Atsushi took to reading the files they had handed off to him yet again. The details on those who had been picked out by him, or in a few niche cases, those who came to them instead. The subtle clicking of the clock could still be heard, in spite of his best efforts. Fifteen minutes. He'd given the kids a deadline; 6 PM. Roughly thirty minutes after most of them would be out from school. Time to arrange for anything, maybe get some food, or just goof off before something this high-stress. He didn't know.
He tried getting comfortable. The meeting area they'd set up for The Wards, lying just below the prison sector, had some pretty cushy seats, so there was that. Beyond that, though...Pretty sparse. A few terminals for them to use, keep track of things, watch out for teammates from the safety of HQ when/if necessary...Probably play video games if they were slacking off. That, and the still hidden-from-view foldaway monitor, for when important people (like himself, heh) had to make some big announcements to the team without being there, or fill them in on dire information that couldn't be passed onto their terminals. Alright, enough beating the damn bush. His personal datapad flipped open (thanks, Tech Wizard, for these complicated damn iPads), he began scanning through the files once more.
Scraprig (Jane Rosner) [Heavy Machinery/Human Interfacing: Tinker 4 (potentially misjudged, will be reevaluated with newer designs)]
V (Carmen Foster) [Object Cloning: Blaster 6/Shaker 6/Tinker 1]
That was all he could handle. The Director humbly closed the file and slid the pad away. These kids were gonna be a hassle...But it wasn't like he had much say in this. Roll with the punches...He took a breath, trying to push away the creeping sense of doubt about this, when the ping of the elevator rang out. Looks like the first arrival...
Date/Time:November 11th, 2022. 5:48 PM.
Location(s):Redline PRT Headquarters
A fairly biting 33 degrees made worse by some moderate winds and the downfall of snow drifted by a young woman, huffing and puffing in motion. Her blue hoodie kept the worst of it off alongside the snow boots made for trudging through the fresh white coat paving the sidewalk, though she still found herself stumbling from the rush she was in. There might be twelve minutes left, but Beverly didn't care! There was NO WAY she would be late for this! And she'd be prone to if she didn't treat it like a hurry, get caught up on something or other...
And so she stormed forth, darting to and fro, barely avoiding other passing pedestrians on her way. "'Scuse me! Pardon! Oh, m'bad, sorry!" Passing apologies left and right to folks she nearly barreled over in her single-minded charge. The southern tinge of her voice stood out amongst the northerners of Redline, but most paid her little mind; beyond being in a rush, she was a polite young lady, at least.
"Let's see....Right from Circadia High, left on Queen Street, and then..." She glanced to the side and immediately recognized it; the PRT HQ, in all its menacingly dull glory! Beyond the fancy shield-based insignia denoting the building as such, she'd probably quicker assume it was some kind of prison, with the barred windows and tough-looking gray exterior. Still, in spite of the natural gloom of the locale, she was brimming with excitement. Oooh, this was gonna be great! She even had another example piece in case the Director fella asked her again! Though, she did wonder what had happened with the shortcake dispenser she'd made the last time around....
Regardless, steeling herself (or in this case, puffing her cheeks out and taking as close to a stern look as she could manage), the girl strutted her way right into the lobby!...And promptly shook all the snow off of her to the carpet below like a dog, pushing the hood away to reveal her mess of poofy brown hair, spilling all the way to the waist.
Almost instantly, she found herself caught by the eyes of the receptionist, barely raising a brow. "May I ask what you're doing here, young lady?" At first, Bev froze like a deer in the headlights. What was she doing here again? Her brain worked through that conundrum...Slower than she liked, because it kept going back to her unfinished project. Ugh, what was it....Right! Passcode thingy, to prove we're The Wards 'n all that.
"Ahem...'Scuse me! I've been a victim o' crime. Here to complain my pet hedgehog got sent to the future by, uh...The local chapter of Hell's Angels!"
Complete random nonsense. Perfect for proving you are who you are. With a curt nod, the receptionist buzzed an Officer into the room, who escorted her to the elevator...To the prison level? At first, Bev was pretty confused, but the fella guiding her along gave her a look that said 'shush', so she kept quiet. Eventually, near the back of the prison level, they approached a wall. It...Well, it was a wall. Just as she was about to question it, however, the man got closer to it, raising an eye to a small section of it. She couldn't repress herself seeing a neat scanner pop into existence, gleaning the gentleman's retina. "Ooh, retinal scanner...Like the movies! Neat..." She probably would've kept going, but surprisingly, she found herself staying restrained thanks to what happened next.
The wall unfolded itself, unveiling another elevator, going even further down. Subterranean base?! Oh, this is so cool! Seemed this was where her guide was leaving her though, merely gesturing the young lady to head on in. She did so with glee, quickly booping the button as her descent began...And the elevator opened.
Fukuda, for his part in this, just groaned. Workshop. Of course she was first...
Catching his glance, she gave a cute wave before hastily trotting over, her energy evident in each move she made. "Hiya, Mr. Fukuda! Or...Do I call ya Mr. Director now? Or just Director? Oh! Or is it like what Fashionista said, Director-san?" She stood at attention, like a puppy waiting to be pet. Atsushi was already regretting all his life decisions prior to this moment.
"....Director's fine. Go ahead and get comfy, we're still waiting on the others."
For her part, miss Hillshire gave a curt nod and plopped in a seat nearby, pulling out...Some weird metal sphere? Fukuda nearly had a heart attack just by her whipping it out so abruptly, but stopped when he recognized what she was doing. Tinkering with it idly. Either an unfinished project, or just something to keep her damn hands busy. Either way, not something that was immediately going to blow up in their face.
Small victories, and all that.
With a grim determination, he watched the elevator expectantly for the other youths. This was about to be a long, long day....
"I'm not going to kid around here. Now, I've faced down my fair share of wicked souls...But Writhe is worse than any of them, and almost none of them would've been called Slaughterhouse material. As the leader of those deviants, Writhe is cunning, cruel, and manipulative; his words are just as dangerous as his actual Powers. Personally? If you run into him....I wouldn't bother trying to fight him. Just get the hell out of there."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Currently, Writhe's identity is still an unknown factor that is being investigated into to this day, to no avail. All we can offer here is small advice on how to not die when confronted with him. Firstly, you should know he rarely fights with intent to kill; no, he wants much worse than that. Use that to your advantage, and be a coward. Some of the greatest heroes of our time have fought Writhe head-on and made little to no headway, so it is unlikely you would either. You are far better off trying to make distance from him and fleeing the scene. If combat is necessary...
While not quite a Brute, he is abnormally strong, and it is not recommended to engage him in hand-to-hand due to his unique physiology. Keep an eye on stray shadows in the vicinity; each and every one of them is a potential weapon or escape route for Writhe. If you have the misfortune of being confronted during the night, treat everywhere as a space that could be threatened by him. Because it is, and it will be. Lastly, do not fight him for any extended period of time; he will slowly siphon off your Power and life, and leave you too weak to resist. This is the worst case scenario. We at PRT do not put this lightly, but if this occurs...We recommend you find a way to end your life prior to whatever he or The Seven have in store for you, for your own sake.
[ IDENTITY ]
Tearaway
[ REAL NAME ]
Matthias Freeman
[ POWERS ]
Man-Made Creation Manipulation [Shaker 7]
[ DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS ]
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking; 'what the hell is 'man-made creation manipulation'? Understandable. In layman's terms, Tearaway had powerful telekinetic abilities that functioned on a macro and micro scale, but with the tight restriction of only being usable on things we've made. Which is a lot, in most cities; buildings, roads, cars...The list goes on. And when he can weaponize a whole city against someone, he's more than threatening enough. His only weakness was his slightly poor range...That, and getting crushed to death by Amazon."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Matthias Freeman was born and raised in Redline, Maine, to a single father who worked in construction. His life was bereft of much note until an incident where a teenage Matthias, hanging out around a construction site waiting for his father's day to end, was caught up in a terrifying earthquake. Under extreme stress, and his life on the line when a pile of steel girders threatened to crush him, he Triggered, stopping them with a quivering raised hand.
Unfortunately, he had been seen by all those at the construction site...And even more unfortunately, in spite of this miraculous awakening, his father had not survived this incident. Left with nothing, and no way to keep his new talent secret, the young man turned to crime with his newfound Power...And found it exhilarating. For a time, at least. As he grew older, he recognized his spats with hero Capes as they were; little more than games, both sides dancing around the truth of the matter. They weren't trying. He was growing bored of his life, finding a newfound eagerness to truly find out what he was capable of.
Then he was found by Writhe.
The rest, as they say, was history. As one of the first members of The Seven, he, along with five others (including their leader, Writhe), wreaked havoc on Redline before fleeing for a new target. This first Slaughterhouse, however, was short-lived; barely a year into their run, Tearaway's luck ended alongside many other of the OG Slaughterhouse members when The Guardians got involved in their games in Charlestown, Rhode Island. He found out the hard way what it would mean when both side stopped pulling punches; Amazon, in a brutal display of Brute strength, pummeled right through his defenses made of roads and buildings, and splattered him across the upended streets, giving a grisly end to the man who wanted to test his limits.
Powers-wise, the Director explained it best. A highly potent telekinetic who had both large-scale and fine-tuned control over the very specific, yet quite broad, descriptor of 'man-made creations'. His major weakness was a lack of proper range on his ability, but this wasn't necessary to exploit for one as strong as Amazon.
"You know, as far as members of The Slaughterhouse go, I think ol' Volkov here might've been the dumbest there was....Next to literal children and a fungus monster. Still, just because he wasn't the brightest doesn't mean he wasn't threatening. His raw strength was highly dangerous to pretty much anyone not named Guardian or Amazon, and that's before you factor in his weird Striker gimmick; things he hits with his left hand became ignited in flames, or electrocuted by his right. I honestly feel worse for the Capes who did manage to take those hits....Poor Hercules never looked quite the same. Didn't help that he could regenerate like a motherfucker, and the fact that, while his regenerative Power could be run dry, the closer it got to that point, the worse his Striker Power became. While it never got bad enough, for a time, we speculated he could've been the first Striker to hit - and breach - the 10 mark on the Scale. Point is, guy could've been a huge problem...If he wasn't an idiot. Heh, can't believe he died like that..."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Andrian Volkov was a refugee of Gaia's Awakening on December 15th, 1998, which cracked apart the land once known as Russia into multiple distinct chunks set adrift across the Artic Ocean. Prior to that, he was an infamous super-criminal, known for his cruel methods in dealing with insubordination and ruthlessness in battle; he'd never crossed that unspoken line, but he loved drawing close to it. But something about that man had changed after Gaia, and his arrival to Alaska. There, he kept isolated in bitter rage, craving the day he could unleash his fury on the Earth Goddess again. He was a man who had lost everything.
And then Writhe found him.
It was easy to tilt his rage off-course; why bother with Gaia herself, who might not emerge for years after what had occurred, where there were perfectly good, foolish heroes and villains who had failed the Motherland in some form or fashion? Andrian took the words of this specter to heart, and joined The Six. Now known as Crackle, he was one of the integral pieces of the group that allowed them to engage in such brash head-on battles amidst some more vile games, easily outmaneuvering, overpowering, and incinerating enemy frontliners. A force to be reckoned with. For him, all those who died at his hands were a warm-up to when Gaia would emerge once more.
Thus, he recklessly thought it good fortune he found the opportunity to fight Guardian himself at Rhode Island; the Unstoppable Fist versus the Immovable Shield! If he could fell the legendary Guardian, then it proved he was ready for The Mountain's return! Unfortunately for him, things did not end that way. While he was an excellent combatant, his strategics in the long-term were...Poor. When he was met with forcefields, he reacted with brute force. Useless. Eventually, Guardian, having accepted the fact that this man would never surrender and would continue his dark road, entrapped him in a force field, intending to have him brought to the infamous Birdcage...
What he couldn't anticipate was Crackle accidentally igniting the interior of the force field, effectively trapping himself in an inescapable furnace. While Guardian couldn't bear to watch....He also knew he couldn't drop the field. Thus, slowly, agonizingly burning away through his regeneration, he met his fate there, turned to a charred corpse before Guardian himself.
[ IDENTITY ]
Mask
[ REAL NAME ]
Unknown
[ POWERS ]
Master of Disguise [Stranger 5/Thinker 1/Striker 4-10]
[ DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS ]
"Mask was...Strange, as far as Strangers go, and yes, I'm aware how ridiculous that sounds. She wasn't necessarily very superhuman...Or Parahuman, if you prefer. Whatever it was, it gave her a disgustingly good knack for disguising herself, a minor Thinker ability to mimic voices she had heard before to near-perfection, and an equally strange Striker perk; the longer she went undiscovered or unnoticed, the stronger her next attack would be by leaps and bounds. We'd seen her kill Brutes, given enough time. Nothing could stop her short of being found out or gunned down. Luckily...We did the latter."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Mask's identify even after death went unconfirmed; they had undergone severe levels of surgery to remove any trace of who they may have been, down to the fingerprints, and blood samples went unmatched. So as it stands, we know very little of the individual prior to them joining the Slaughterhouse Six.
We can safely confirm that, given she was a complete non-entity to the PRT, Writhe himself was unaware of the individual, implying they tracked him down instead to join his mission. The first case of Parahumans strangely seeming to 'flock' to Writhe, for lack of better term. Due to the nature of her work, we are left with very little to say on regards to her.
Her Power has been explained already, so instead, we will go over how she was brought down. Her goal in most sightings of The Six had been to infiltrate PRT Squads, sowing dissent before eventually striking, killing entire squads before they knew what hit them. Even with Strange protocols in effect, she had managed to evade any capture prior to the Rhode Island Slaughter. While we knew her methods, we were powerless to prevent them, with our Thinkers being too valuable to field on the off-chance Mask could gain the upper hand over them. Thus, it is by sheer luck - and brutality - that she was stopped. One Officer Reed Karnath, upon being one of the few members remaining after she had begun to pick them off, unleashed lethal fire haphazardly amongst the rest of his team, killing the rest of the squadron alongside the Slaughterhouse Spy. At least....We can only hope it was her, given that from that day forward, no record of Mask, either among The Six or otherwise, was ever made.
[ IDENTITY ]
Decay
[ REAL NAME ]
Christopher Parkins
[ POWERS ]
Disintegration Aura [Shaker 10]
[ DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS ]
"So, I think we're all familiar with the Manton Effect; keeps people from using their powers directly on people, or sometimes it's the opposite, only able to use their powers on people, living things, etc...I'm generalizing. Point is, it's a good thing. Keeps abilities in checks, for whatever the reason might be. The problem is when someone breaks it. You get fuckers like Decay. Can't say for sure what happened to the kid; he was barely sixteen when he was apart of The Slaughterhouse Six. Regardless, it must've been some serious shit, because his Power decided that the only thing worth protecting was him. Thus, you get an area of effect around the kid that eats away at everything around him from the inside out, barring himself and the damn ground he's standing on. People, plants, animals, concrete, steel....None of that meant shit. They were all as good as dust in that aura. The fact we managed to put him down was no small feat...."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
While we identified him as Christopher Parkins, a youth who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts about a year prior to appearing as Decay when he leveled most of his hometown, little else is known about the boy. After whatever strange incident prompted his Power, he traveled across Massachusetts, barely able to keep himself alive. It seemed as if he didn't know how to turn his own Power off; a walking sphere of eradication crossing the land, unable to eat or drink. We did our best to keep tabs on him without showing ourselves, given the youth was in a clearly unstable state and liable to be resistant to aid.
....It was highly regrettable when, one night, Writhe appeared and simply left with the boy.
The next time Decay appeared, he was a member of The Six; a quiet one, but with supreme loyalty to Writhe, perhaps because he had somehow helped the boy grasp his Power, now able to turn it off and on. Regardless, the destruction he wrought was intense, and engaging him was an impossibility. Our brightest Tinkers were clueless on answers, and our Movers weren't fast enough to kill him before they would likely be turned to dust. But in Charlestown, Rhode Island, Gatecrasher stepped up.
His superior mobility put him far out of any risk Decay could pose, and he was able to evacuate citizens without issue. He also managed to kill Decay, creating a cluster of collapsing portals to go off in the boy's face, too fast for his decay to destroy in time; in the end, his body was ripped asunder, and his Power ended. A brutal end, one that still likely hangs on Gatecrasher, but a necessary one.
[ IDENTITY ]
Frostbite (originally Ice Queen)
[ REAL NAME ]
Natalia Porter
[ POWERS ]
Heat-Sapping Ice Projectiles [Blaster 6 (Shaker)]
[ DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS ]
"Frostbite's a case all of us here in the PRT still have regrets over. None of us ever knew the specifics beyond her close confidant, the hero known as Hephaestus, who arranged for The Elementals to become a team after The Six were first ended. Whatever the case, Natalia used to be a hero. Ice Queen. A damn good one, if I say so myself. While I can't speak for her psyche, it just...Didn't line up. I can't puzzle together why she joined Slaughterhouse, and I guess I never will. Still a damn shame....Least her kid's fightin' the good fight. Or was, until the new set of Guardians popped up..."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Frostbite, otherwise known as Ice Queen, or in her plainclothes identity, Natalia Porter, used to be a heroine in Redline, Maine, beloved both from a hero perspective and as a person. Which made it all the stranger when she took sides with The Six, for reasons still undisclosed. The hero Hephaestus seems to know something, but has vehemently refused to ever comment on it.
Regardless of the exact situation, she brought a concerning amount of focused firepower to their arsenal. While only able to produce a handful of projectiles at a time, Ice Queen was well-practiced; deadly accurate, and quick to act. Her icicles, for lack of better term, moved fast and could pierce into solid steel with relative ease, not even mentioning the fact that they sapped heat from anything they struck, giving her an edge of lethality she had never practiced in her time as a heroine. Her end was a tragedy more than all the rest.
In the Rhode Island Slaughter, Hephaestus insisted on participating while Frostbite was present, and faced her head-on. He kept her busy long enough for Deadshot, a long-range Blaster who forms energy-based ammunition for firearms, landed a single shot. It was all he needed. After that, in spite of the ongoing battle, Hephaestus solemnly left the scene, later going on to form The Elementals, seemingly by Ice Queen's wishes, and also taking care of her now orphaned son, Kane Porter, who later became Glacier of The Elementals.
[ IDENTITY ]
Plaguespreader
[ REAL NAME ]
Bertram Ahlgrim
[ POWERS ]
Chemical Warfare [Tinker 8 (Shaker/Brute/Trump/Master)]
[ DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS ]
"This isn't your grandma's World War chemical warfare; no. When you get a Tinker whose got almost nothing left to lose, with a talent as broad as 'weaponized chemicals', you get a lot of crazy shit. Plaguespreader's made Power-nullifying toxins, mass-kill plagues, incendiary clouds, hell, he made a gas that induced temporary trance-like states onto those who inhaled it; instantly suggestible, just as good as being brainwashed...For a few minutes. This was only scratching the surface of what he could do. Sky was the limit with him, and Writhe wanted to see him fly..."
[ PROCEDURES/KNOWLEDGE ]
Bertram Ahlgrim, AKA Plaguespreader, alongside fellow Six member Aimiliona Baumann, AKA Seer, were both from the German city of Stuttgart. Sadly, around their time period of the early 90s to early 2000s the city was under a dark rule; a powerful Master named Warmaster had laid claim to the whole city, declaring it his 'nest of war'. With his Power, he could incite people to rage, giving them increased strength and durability at the cost of their state of mind, turning them into rabid berserkers who would only heed his word. Doing this to a notable number of the people of Stuttgart, he allowed them to rampage, wishing to see truly great warriors rise in the face of the adversity, believing himself some sort of sick herald. Perhaps with a capital H.
The exactness of their lives is not known to us, but we believe the situation of their city placed them in the right state of mind to cause their extreme Tinker Triggers. Bertram was the more aggressive of the two, so while Aimilia developed defensively, huddling away while her mechanized minions did what they must, he found his tools of the trade to be more violent and vile in nature, though not in the way one would expect. Bertram understood that 'traditional' weapons were not where power lied. No. To strike true and kill without remorse, you needed to be able to target them beyond the exterior. Reach within....
April 6th, 2003. An unknown, presumably Tinker-made explosive is detonated in the city square of Stuttgart. The exact compounds are unknown, but a gas similar to mustard gas was released in massive quantities, spanning the city. Within minutes, severe blisters and rashes began manifesting across those infected. Eyesight was lost among these minutes, and many showcased signs of fever, nausea, bloody noses, vomiting, and severe shortness of breath. Many innocents died, but the Berserkers suffered worst; driven mad already, they gave no thought to tearing themselves apart from the vile itching sensations they could feel across their entire bodies, effectively rended to death by their own two hands. Warmaster himself, crippled and helpless, couldn't defend himself when a small troop of spindly, human-like drones approached and tore him limb from limb without mercy.
It didn't take Writhe long to find the two of them, after what they had done.
Ultimately, they knew they had nowhere to run; regardless of the crimes Warmaster visited on them, they both understood that the other Capes wouldn't care. They were the monsters. But they were monsters that survived. With Writhe's help, they would continue to survive.
Between Plaguespreader, Seer, and The Hidden, this version of the Slaughterhouse was prone to extreme acts of guerilla warfare; able to stay out of sight to an aggravating degree, and performing their foul acts through the use of the drones and the many toxins they carried with them, it took the PRT nearly a decade to officially end off this era of The Six. Ironically, their final defeat took place in Redline; the origin of their sinister squadron. Still, the Tinker Age of the Slaughterhouse Six lives on in infamy to this day.
Plaguespreader and Seer have an...Interesting situation in the modern day. When Bertram was finally bereft of weapons and at the mercy of the Capes in Redline, he revealed his ultimate weapon; a Dead Man's Switch, of which both he and Aimiliona share. Small drones surgically implanted into them, atop their still-beating hearts. If it were to stop beating, their threatened contingencies would be put into place. Across the globe, armies of drones armed with the worst things Bertram could imagine would emerge and wreak unprecedented havoc. The drones were also rigged so that if they were interfered with in any fashion, they would also go off. Thus, Plaguespreader gave the Capes an ultimatum.
He, and by proxy Seer, would submit to their defeat and be taken into whatever custody they deemed necessary. The only request? That they stay together, no matter what. Thus, even to this very day, both Plaguespreader and Seer are being kept in a small, remote section of the infamous Birdcage, never to be trifled with by anyone or anything ever again; alone together forever....For now.
"It's V. Like, um, CTRL-V. The keyboard shortcut? Copy and paste?
Name: Carmen Foster
Alias: V
Age: 13
Gender: Female; she/her pronouns
Personality: Carmen could most aptly be described as a ball of sunshine. She’s a relentless optimist, reacting to most situations with a smile. She’s outgoing and tries her best to make new friends. But, more often than not, she’s not successful, because, well… Carmen is awkward. Her words always seem to come out wrong, twisted. She drives people away with her unending enthusiasm. But Carmen is resilient. Her nerves are easy to ruffle but, otherwise, she maintains her optimistic disposition in the face of everything. Pain, rejection, mocking- she manages to keep a good face on despite it all.
After all, she only cries in private.
Carmen is intelligent too. One might even call her a nerd. She’s into everything- from cartoons to stuffed animals to computers. She’d never admit most of her interests to the other Wards, but she can often be seen reading a Percy Jackson novel with a stuffed unicorn in her lap. She earns good grades and is proud of it, almost addicted to the high of it all.
Appearance: Carmen is shorter than average for her age, being 4’9” and not showing any sign of growing beyond that quite yet. She’s small, weighing in at 98 pounds. Her small stature betrays her status as a late-bloomer- something she secretly hopes to overcome soon.
Moving beyond her small stature, Carmen is of Mexican origin. Her skin is a smooth medium-brown, and her hair is a deep brown, curly and shoulder-length. Her eyes, too, are an ochre brown and they sparkle with secret mischief and hope.
Biography: For as long as Carmen can remember, it’s just been her and her mom. Valerie Foster had her first and only daughter young. Carmen’s father had never been in her life. It isn’t something she angsts over. In fact, she prefers not to know a man who was shitty enough to never want to speak to his own daughter. For the first few years of Carmen’s life, her mom and her hopped around from apartment to apartment, her mom from job to job. That was before her mom found her calling as a cop though. Now, they live in Redline in a mid-level suburb. Carmen doesn’t remember the before much, but she knows life is good.
Valerie Foster raised her daughter to be tough. She doesn’t take people’s shit and doesn’t get into trouble. And if she did… well. Valerie is a disciplinarian, a tough-love sort of woman. But that’s not to say they aren’t close. Carmen loves her mother and her mother loves her back. Carmen is the center of her mother’s world.
When she got to middle school though, things started…changing. It was unsettling. Mom got a new boyfriend, who was nice enough but threatened the dynamic. And kids turned mean. The world turned mean. Carmen was tough as always, but sometimes there are problems you can’t fix. And this was one of them. Things piled up. And one day, she exploded and the solution appeared right in her hands.
Carmen’s trigger wasn’t one she could hide from her mom. Although she wasn’t in the PRT, as a cop, she had all too much experience dealing with Redline’s parahumans. And Valerie had never liked parahumans- always mistrusted them. They were trouble, even the heroes. And to find out her daughter had become one of them? It strained their relationship to the point of breaking, and it still is. Committed to keeping her daughter on the straight and narrow, Valerie found out about the new Wards program through a law enforcement contact and quickly enrolled her daughter without her input.
Powers: (DESIGNATION: Blaster/Shaker 6, Tinker 1)
V’s power allows her to summon any object she has a good understanding of out of thin air. As she would put it, her power comprises two functions: copy and paste. She copies an object by learning how it operates and committing it to memory, and pastes it by summoning it. Her objects do not obey the laws of physics. If destroyed or altered, they’ll simply disappear, and any chemical testing reveals that they’re made of no particular material. Put rather confusingly, she turns raw energy into anything she chooses. Her objects can only be summoned directly into her hands and disappear within one hour.
Her power has a burnout function. Once V creates too many objects within a 12-hour period, she can no longer summon any more. That limit depends on specificity (ie a pink AK-47 that fires bubbles instead of bullets vs a gun), necessity (Epi-Pen while someone is in active anaphylaxis vs a hammer when one is nearby), complexity (a high-tech Tinker gun vs a BB gun), and size (ie a skyscraper vs a piece of string). The rules are all very complicated but V can feel herself running out, akin to a battery. She has to conserve her power carefully.
Skills: None to speak of. (aka pls god don’t make me do this section)
Mind control is cool.
It's short and not my best work, but here it is.
Gave her the once-over and I like what I see! Consider her accepted, and welcome to The Wards! Get 'er on up in Characters. :)
Also congrats on being the baby of the group now lol
"Ah, feels good to be back in the swing of things. Now, where to start...?"
Name: ????
Alias: Writhe, The Seven's Head, The First.
Nicknames: N/A
Age: Unknown
Gender: Presumed Male
Personality: Writhe is the worst kind of monster; the one that still feigns a humanity it lost long ago. If it weren't for his unnatural, monstrous appearance, wreathed in shadow with tendrils hungering for prey practically trembling in anticipation, his personality wouldn't make you suspect a thing about him. He acts casually in any situation, even when there are others in The Seven who probably want his head. He never gives off anything more than an air of confidence and aura of pure assurance; he knows what he wants to do and how he'll do it, and will never hesitate, merely...Reconfigure his ideas, if something goes out of place, or piques a new interest in him.
Underneath that cool exterior is a vile creature. His existence, even by his own words, is to cause despair for others, to drive people into the depravity he knows they are capable of; and he wants to be the one to bear witness to it. That twisted desire, paired off with an unnatural charisma, may be what draws deviants to him, and be what allowed him to forge The Six initially. He takes great pleasure in that work, and surprisingly, just as much in seeing himself thwarted, to see the 'good guys' doing their best against his horrifying odds. After all, what good would wickedness be without its opposite to pair with? Dreadfully boring. And bored is the one thing Writhe never wants to be. He can be patient, and tolerate days, months, even years of silence...But inevitably, like a predator that had been caged, only to be abruptly released, he will always pursue his base nature at the earliest convenience. A beast, but with the social graces of the best of humankind. A terrifying combination.
One thing that interests him beyond his goal are Parahumans at large. Perhaps it is because they wear those cracks of the heart, mind, and soul on their sleeves with their abilities, instead of those who Writhe has had to break himself. Perhaps he can relate to them, knowing they've each got their own little demons, whereas he has become his. Or perhaps it is merely because he understands the potential each Parahuman has; the ability to change the world for the worse. Perhaps it is all of the above. Regardless, he takes special interest in them, evident in how he fights against Powered individuals of all sorts. He...Toys with them. Striking enough to keep them off balance, but taking his time to try and pry into their psyche; to understand them. To break them. Like some kind of deranged Shadow Shrink, he works his way into how they think and act, and then decides what to do from there.
Sometimes he just lets them go; maybe he's decided they're more trouble than they're worth, or he takes enough interest in them to let them see another day, but just doesn't want them with him. On other occasions, he may try and recruit them, preying on their vulnerabilities to find what he needs to say. Others, well...He doesn't like it, but sometimes, they just aren't very interesting. Those ones he disposes of pretty quickly. Just no fun. On the other hand, sometimes he takes an interest in an individual, but can't fit them into his spots; doesn't want them to just walk off, but they can't join him, or won't. In those cases, he just tries to break them until they submit or shatter, both are enjoyable for him either way. Emotionally, physically, even mentally. All fair game to him, and he likes to mix the three together for the best and most interesting results.
Normal people, civilians, are usually beneath his interest beyond their scope in his 'games' he plays with Capes. Just dull, living their quiet, mundane lives. Not even worth prying into. On occasion, though, he may find an otherwise normal individual that he takes an interest in; sees the spark of potential. Those people, he likes them a lot. It's one thing meeting like-minded individuals...It's another altogether to make one yourself. Those impressionable sorts, who just need a push in the right direction, or a shove into a place of darkness....It's ecstacy to him, making a new member over simply finding them.
Appearance: No one is certain why he looks the way he does; presumably it has to do with his ability, but even then, it's...Off-putting. Any time he shows up, he always looks like this. A mere shadow of a human being, nearly no discernable features to him. Just those piercing white eyes, the sole feature of an otherwise featureless form. He stands around 5'9, but...It fluctuates, changes with his almost fluid moments, terrifying as they are. His form no longer seems bound by a body in the human sense...Which only adds to his monstrous reputation.
Then there are the tendrils. Like extensions of himself, tentacles of inky darkness that stretch around him, eager to act...Eager to kill. If his size is left to be questioned, then these are even more puzzling. They seem to reach out from the center of his back, coiling around him; roughly the length of his arm. However, they can go far longer than that, stretching across the length of a street to pursue his targets, dragging them back to despair...
A flash of images, with feelings that mean nothing now to the thing that is Writhe. Whatever past this man had, it was cast aside the day he became this monster, and he has no intentions of returning...If he ever could to begin with. The first thing Writhe ever did, after all, was kill one of the original four of The Guardians; Shockwave. It was a horrific scene straight from a slasher, the kind of bloodied mess that could only come from a beast with nothing to lose, and nothing to gain. All that left was violent instinct, a desire to life. For what?
......
He didn't care. He would keep living.
Eventually, he found purpose, not through his own musings, but in what he discovered he was being painted as; the terrifying bogeyman who had killed a member of The Guardians, and thwarted the rest who had tried to contain him. Fooled Guardian, outskilled Amazon, and outmaneuvered Gatecrasher. He was a menace...Perhaps that was something worth being. And so it would be.
He traveled across the United States. Capes found it impossible to pin the man down; his method of travel was untraceable, and his attacks too unrelated and abrupt. He outthought Thinkers left and right, avoiding capture and always ending up on top. Eventually, attempts to track and contain the thing that was now being dubbed Writhe were ended. They resolved to doing damage control, arriving where he would appear, control the carnage, and try to apprehend him when they could.
This game of cat-and-mouse was different from the usual stuff of Capes, because this rat bit back. And soon, other vermin flocked...
People just as twisted as he, though perhaps not in the same ways. Still, it gave him an epiphany. His goal to sow fear and raise hell would be made all the easier, and certainly more interesting, with others that wished to join. A sick little family of freaks. How fitting. Thus, the Slaughterhouse Six was born.
This has gone on for almost twenty years, with the Six (or now, The Seven) getting beaten back, though never without loss of life...And hope. Even their latest defeat in New York, costing Writhe six of his fellow freaks, was not without horrific blowback. One of them, Fallout, could control and emit radiation, and focus it into radioactive bursts of energy. A fun power, and Writhe had big hopes for what would happen when he was pushed too far. He was proven right, since he went nuclear over The Big Apple, leveling most of the city along with himself. Writhe, of course, escape.
He has been on his lonesome for a time, perhaps giving the world a chance to breath. Just meant he had to raise the stakes even more for their next appearance...And bolster their numbers, of course.
Powers/Skills:
[DESIGNATION: Stranger 6/Mover 9
/Trump (Brute, Master, potential Thinker)]
Umbral Trespassing: Writhe's ability allows him to traverse in a 'shadow world', which he accesses by slipping into even a small spot where there are shadows to be seen, or where general darkness dominates the area. While in this area, Writhe is impossible to track and immune to nearly any form of assault, and in this area, he can traverse to any other spot where his power would be applicable and emerge there. This travel is not instantaneous, but it is far faster than he could traverse on foot. His high Mover ranking is less towards raw speed and more towards inconceivable levels of mobility. In an area of darkness, he can submerge and emerge nearly anywhere, striking from any possible location, all while practically camouflaged in the shadows, even his bright white eyes strangely remaining unseen in darkness. Writhe has been seen making unorthodox usage of this ability, such as sticking in limbs to strike out at different locations, while staying stationary in another spot, or dragging others into and through the 'shadow world', allowing him to control the locations of enemies and allies.
The Powers specified in this section are to remain out of the public eye for fear of raising additional concerns about The Seven and Writhe himself. This is also due to some of the Powers spoken of in this section to be speculative, as his skulking nature makes properly understanding his capabilities troublesome.
Shadow Body: His body seems entirely comprised of a pseudo-amorphous, shadow-like substance. It grants him Brute-level resilience to most conventional forms of offense to a noteworthy degree. Comparable, if not nearly as potent, as Progeny. Energy-based assaults, such as fire, lightning, or pure energy itself seem somewhat more effective, though not perfect. He seems to possess a sensitivity to light, and light-based attacks can cause notable damage to him. Natural sunlight or other forms of non-Powered sources of light, while causing minor pain and perhaps disorientating him, are not effective means of defeating him.
Unnatural Senses: Writhe possesses the ability to see flawlessly even in pitch darkness, and potentially also has the ability to detect things that are nearby or on top of shadows, as he has shown oddly high awareness in attempts to ambush him, implying some form of extrasensory ability.
Shadow Tendrils: Emerging from the center of his back, anywhere from two to six dark tentacle-like creations can sprout out, granting him his Master classification; unnatural extensions of himself that are stronger, faster, and tougher than he is, and can stretch out to 30 feet away from his position. However, he has ways to...Ignore this restriction. Apparently, these extensions can utilize his Trespass ability, extending through the 'shadow world' at even higher speeds than they already moved at, reaching out from the darkness to strike at targets. While their normal method of attack seems to be wrapping around the target's limbs to restrict movement, and then drag them off (or bludgeon them across the ground/walls as necessary), they can also act like spears, piercing into individuals and writhing around inside them to unpleasant degrees, effectively tearing them inside out. This is where his name originates...Because it's what he did to Shockwave.
Power Draining: His aforementioned 'Trump' classification, Parahumans within a currently unknown range of Writhe will began to experience a slow draining of their ability, which is expedited by proximity to Writhe, or God forbid direct contact from him or his tendrils. Eventually, the Power is restored after some time away from Writhe, usually multiple hours, on occasion even days if contact was prolonged. However, this is merely an aspect of the true effect his ability intends to perform...Regardless, he's able to 'flip' this ability on and off as he wishes, so as to ensure he isn't weakening fellow members of The Seven.
Life Siphoning: Those within his radius, or getting into contact with Writhe, begin to feel weaker, sluggish, feeble...Unwittingly having their very life taken from them. When used on Parahumans, their abilities interrupt this process, essentially interposing between the effect and their life force, at the cost of the ability itself weakening, and eventually failing altogether, rendering them just as vulnerable. While what the power does with this energy is unknown, presumptions from the Think Tank include it being used to extend his life, grant him temporary high-level Brute strength, or even simply as a fuel source for his other abilities. Perhaps all of the above. It is notable that he has never drained an individual to death; whether this is because he cannot, or because it doesn't serve his purposes, remains unknown. As mentioned before, this Power is not permanently on, and in fact, Writhe seems to keep it as a trump card of sorts for particularly troublesome scenarios.
Silence: Strangely enough, Writhe seems to give off no sounds beyond when he speaks. He cannot be heard breathing, the fall of his footsteps are completely silent to even the most superhuman of hearing, and even when he is struck, there is an odd, awful silence to it. On an equally strange note, he also seems to have no smell to him, either.
Parahuman Thinker: Given his unnatural 'charisma' and ability to interact with other Parahumans, we have reason to suspect he may possess a Thinker ability orientated around understanding other Parahumans and their abilities. This is entirely unconfirmed from the Think Tank, so it is mere speculation.
Other: The only concrete information the PRT has on Writhe's past is that he is almost certainly a former resident of the USA. Beyond that...He's a disturbingly large blank in history.
"You know that, uh, people died a lot even before Capes, yeah? You can't get complacent because of... all that."
Name: Edwin Charles
Alias: Schrödinger
Nicknames: Ed. What, they can't all be creative or witty.
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Personality: Even before his Trigger Event, Edwin's always had a bit of... death anxiety. Thanatophobia. A series of close calls as a young child imprinted on his mind, etching memories that, while he can't necessarily recall, shaped the kid he is today. He's always jumpy, nervous, difficult to keep still. Think less 'tweeker needing a fix', more 'feeling eyes on his back'. He has a lot of frantic energy coursing through him in any situation save for the absolute safest, giving him a very narrow focus, a one-track mind that he does his very best not to derail. Now multiply that by about 9 post-Trigger Event, and that's a lot of his deal nowadays.
Upsides? Well, there's very few; Edwin's anxieties make him pretty rough around the edges, leaving him terse and bratty and generally bad with people. His singlemindedness makes him very effective at doing what needs doing, pragmatic in his approach, seeing as he's always on the edge of Fight or Flight. Due to a need to be heard (stemming from the idea that his anxieties have to be taken seriously) he can also be quite direct with people - blunt, honest, and not taking any bullshit... not to say that he's always able to get the words out. It's also sparked a surprising creative streak in him. If Edwin wasn't a Cape, he could make a nice living as an artist.
Appearance: Edwin is tall. Very tall. Not, like, being-tall-is-his-power tall, but tall for a normal person. A clean 6'7" in height, in fact. He's not very picky with his wardrobe, though there is a consistent theme of baggy clothing, layers, long sleeves and long pants - things that make him bulkier, that he could "turtle" inside of, in a manner of speaking. He also always wears glasses, since he's so near-sighted as to be practically blind and refuses contact lenses.
As a Cape, he gets a little flashier. A deep gray cowl and a match open-front skirt, mimicking the Grim Reaper's iconic cloak, overtop some standard protective gear - thick vest, pads on the joints, steel-toe boots, etc. His wireframe glasses are replaced with a pair of prescription safety goggles wrapped around his head. The most striking element is a bright red jacket combat jacket worn over it all, the pockets and holsters holding various self-defense gear (collapsing batons, hand taser, maybe a pepper spray or two), made to turn him into a tempting target. It wasn't his idea.
Biography: For the most part Edwin's life had been pretty normal. His mother left his father early in his life, so he doesn't really know much about her. His dad raised him as well as he could by himself, but a few times he grew neglectful, leading to a very young Edwin to end up in dangerous situations more than once. Physically he came out of them okay, but the collective near-death experiences traumatized the poor kid - the memories were repressed, barely even registering in his mind, but the feelings stuck with him for the rest of his life.
This wasn't his Trigger Event, though. Beyond those awful moments Edwin existed as anyone would, though the budding signs of his thanatophobia cropped up around kindergarten, when the very thought of sharpening pencils, reaching for books on high shelves, or sitting under a faulty light made him almost too fearful to pay attention. Things were... tough for him from then on. Every step forward in overcoming the fear was accompanied by him aging and growing more aware of everything that could be what does him in. Edwin became marked as 'the weird kid' in his schools, too anxious to hold friendships for long, and for a while he was ostracized. Come Freshman Year of Highschool, however, he met someone who understood him. Not fully, but enough. They became highschool sweethearts, and the relationship had a very positive effect on him. Nearing senior year, Edwin had most of the fears under control.
Then he got his powers.
When the school year was to start, Edwin was in the hospital - nothing major, just a broken leg and a mile-long stare. By the time he healed up, he was being investigated for manslaughter. When that charge cleared, another one cropped up. And another. And one more. The last year of his school life became an unfortunate series of terrible tragedies that left him under harsh scrutiny, as the nature of his powers were juuust esoteric enough to not be understood by civilians or noticed by Capes. After a while of having these powers (and after a handful of house arrests), Edwin grew... as close to comfortable as he could be with it all. He trained a little on his own, cultivating a very slight modicum of control, as well as picking up more mundane self-defense techniques, and spent most of his free time writing, drawing, painting, just making things from the confines of his home. Right before he turned 18, someone finally connected the dots, and he was picked up by the PRT. For his own sake, and for the people around him.
Edwin was almost too old to join the new Wards division, but between his tumultuous mental state and low grasp on his powers, it was deemed necessary.
Powers: (Designation: Mover 5 / 1, Trump ?, Thinker 2) Edwin has an eclectic set of powers that, despite being unrefined and unable to be controlled directly, make him a very disruptive element. • Protective Spatial Displacement: Edwin's most notable power is the ability to avoid harm by swapping places with another person. Of course, that's just the easy way to say it. A completely passive power, it triggers at the precise moment when some form of injury would otherwise come to him, switching his position with that of the closest person to him that is clear of whatever danger there is (ie, if someone were to shoot him point-blank he'd swap with them, but if he was caught in a burning building with another person, the swap would be with someone outside, safe from the fire). The swap isn't just of placement, but also their position in space (ie, if someone shoots him while his hands are raised, the swap would have Edwin holding the gun and their hands being raised the same way). The power only triggers if significant harm will come to Edwin - it wouldn't save him from being flicked with a rubberband, but will save him from anything between a solid punch to complete body annihilation.
There are three main flaws with this power: the first, obviously, being that Edwin has no say in who he ends up swapping with, it's always the nearest, safest human being. The second is that it does not trigger entirely consecutively. A full three seconds is needed before it will trigger again - not a long time, but enough for someone to get the drop on him. The third is that it only works on things that he's aware of happening. Things that fall outside of his awareness (even something like hearing a gun click or tasting a bit of poison) won't trigger it. • Minor Teleportation: After a concentrated effort put into training, Edwin has managed to grow a very, very slight handling on this power, allowing him to manually teleport a short distance (roughly less than five feet from his starting location). There is still a 'cooldown' of three seconds before he can do it again, but interestingly this isn't tied to the main power, meaning he can teleport and, in the same moment, be displaced from harm. • Power Eclipsing: The full ramifications of this facet have yet to be explored, but one final quirk of Edwin's Spatial Displacement is the capability of overriding a Cape's own powers. For the brief window of time when Edwin is truly vulnerable - the three seconds after a swap - Edwin essentially usurps control of the powers of the person he swapped with, as if they're still 'catching up' to their owner's new position in space. However, this only happens if the reason for the swap was due to a usage of powers to begin with. If a Cape were to get at him with mundane means, then this element won't occur. • Heightened Senses & Instinct: Alongside all that poofing and goofing, Edwin also gained supernaturally enhanced sense - taste, touch, smell, and hearing, but not sight. As well, a kind've 'sixth sense' has been enhanced, most likely the primal instinct that alerts people to danger (in layman's term, a Spidey-Sense). This combines to give Edwin a greater awareness of things around him, possible threats, and an extra heap load of anxiety. But, that one isn't part of the package.
Skills: Having already feared death, dying, and injury for most of his life, Edwin has learned a good amount of ways in keeping himself safe, from the use of common self-defense weapons to a hodgepodge of martial arts, namely for disarming and disorienting people. He also has a very artistic side to him, a skill he's cultivated regardless of what's been happening in his life. Painting, design, writing, he's dabbled in it all.
Other: Iiiii would like to flyyyyyyy
I decided to go a direction of, a sorta 'guy at the front who does not want to be there' angle, which I think could be interesting. Not sure if the "Trump" aspect is viable, but! Suppose that's for you to decide :p
Poor kid. Between him and Jane, we got two members who look like they're gonna flip their shit any second xD. Jokes aside, I think he looks good, and while he's a bit older than they were going for in the Initiative, well; it's a new thing, they can bend it around a bit, and his situation certainly calls for some action, seeing as he's liable to get others hurt if left to his own devices. Beyond that, the Power's just neat, including the small, strange Trump application; should be interesting! Get him into Characters. :D
Defensive, dodgy, twitchy, squirrely. What more could you say? Jane acts like she's got something hiding under the floorboards that would land her in prison when you try to press her for intimate details about herself. Whenever you get her talking about something like her tech, or just something as mundane as the weather, she's perfectly fine. But the moment you ask why she doesn't have a birth certificate, it's a long story, and she doesn't know what you're talking about, she just has it stuffed away somewhere too inconvenient to get at this particular moment. Also, she's suddenly very busy. As long as you don't get too close, she's chill and like to hang around you. That is, if you can get around her at all. Being a tinker, Jane tends to stay locked away somewhere for hours at a moment's notice staring at a piece of something that's supposed to move, and she won't come out until she makes it move exactly the right number of degrees that it's supposed to move, so help her god.
Jane is also a little...weird around big crowds. She starts getting paranoid and acts like she's looking for someone, but if you ask, she doesn't know what you're talking about and you're being weird. It's hard to tell if she's trying to find someone, or if she's trying to not be found by someone. She might even be to make sure someone else isn't found. You can never tell with her. She's scrappy like that.
Appearance
Scruffy and taller than some girls, Jane is visibly an active person. Her hair is always cut in a very choppy way, which is probably because she's literally been chopping it with a knife for the last few months. The most notable thing about her is the spindly and geometrically messy left arm she has. Her right arm moves like a human arm, while her left tends to move in very jittery ways, and has the manual dexterity of a leopard seal. If you can’t tell it’s mechanical by the fact that she chops a tin can in half like her hand is the jaws of life, wait until she rolls up her sleeve and a fog light shines out of her wrist.
Biography
Who’s askin’? All you need to know is she lost her arm after a villain gang rolled through her town a year and a half ago, and she triggered roughly six months after when she ran into them again. Mind your own business! Well, if you must know, she’s also been living in an abandoned junkyard for roughly the same time that she’s been a parahuman. It’s not pretty, but at least she can rig something up to keep herself warm at night. Jane’s trigger event is on a need-to-know basis, bucko, and you don’t!
Powers/Skills
Despite acting like a Stranger to the core, Jane is a Tinker whose speciality is…complicated. If you asked her, she would say some convoluted thing like “Electro-cybermechanics.” Anything that consists of a combination of electrical technology and mechanical, as well as anything that can interface with an entire human is something Jane should theoretically be able to work with. This includes robot suits, heavy duty gizmos, and, much to her fortune and general gratitude, mechanical limbs. How they work is also “complicated,” much like the work of any tinker on the planet, but she also has a much more concrete specialty in the form of scrapping and repurposing. The problem with this is that everything she makes in such a way looks like something out of a low-budget Mad Max movie, but easily accessible.
Jane can turn a drive train and a break pad into a comically long angle grinder, turn a microwave into a kit bashed computer, and only god knows what would happen if she got more than rusted up junk to play with. Her arm was made from a lamp, a table saw, a rusted-out truck axle, a bedbug-infested recliner, and a cut-resistant glove she shoplifted once along with a pack of doubled stuffed Oreos. Also, it only has three fingers.
It looks like shit, but it fucking works.
Other
• Jane spends a lot of time in public libraries, about as much as she does trying to make her arm less shitty.
• She doesn’t have a birth certificate. Or a state ID…or driver’s license, or SSID. Not that you would want to, but you wouldn’t be able to exactly prove that Jane Rosner is her real name.
• She’s also not technically a resident of Redline.
• Her favorite superpower is probably Amazon’s. She thinks Amazon is hot.
• In the last few weeks, she’s been heavily considering joining the Knights Aspirant so she can have money and get out of a nasty-as-sin Junkyard. There are no hero teams who would want a tinker whose gimmick is junk, but if she’s lucky, the power armored mercs will.
Took me a while to get to her, but Jane's looking good! Most she might need is a mention of how she gotten involved in The Wards Initiative. Plenty of ways how that coulda gone down, but it's up to you xD
Regardless, feel free to throw her in Characters! :)
"You can count on me! But, er, y'might wanna check in 'fore ya mess with my tech..."
Name: Beverly Hillshire
Alias: Workshop
Nicknames: Bev, Hills
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Personality: Beverly can come off as...Hyperactive. When she's talking to others, in stark contrast to most other Tinkers, she's usually the one with the reins, dragging the conversation around as she bounces from topic to topic with mile-a-minute thoughts pouring from her head and through her mouth, and when she's on her own, you can usually catch her muttering to herself more often than she isn't.
Most of the time, she's completely unaware that she has devolved into utter rambling until someone can get her to shut her trap. She doesn't really do it intentionally; more of a side effect of her ability, and Bev does her best to keep it in check when she can. If you can get by her babbling, she's a southern sweetheart who just wants to do her best to be useful to other people, and she takes the opinions of others to heart...Perhaps more than she should. While outwardly quite put-together, energetic and excitable, her deep-seated need to be needed, and to have the appreciation of others, is something that both drives her and can drag her into dark places.
While not a complete sheep, Bev is quick to fold under positive reinforcement, and as such could be manipulated in these ways. She does her best to be her own boss and use her head, but in spite of being a Tinker, she finds her heart does most of the thinking for her...For better and worse.
Appearance: Miss Hillshire is clearly one of a good handful of high school gals to finally hit that final growth spurt, and the results speak for themselves. She stands at a respectable 5'9 ft., and weighs in at around 155 lbs. Which might be a bit of chub, but she's got plenty of muscle! Not quite the kind you get working out or the sort, but the kind earned by hard labor and hand-crafting affronts to the laws of the universe. Her skin is lightly tanned from hidden years making Tinkertech in the shipyard. Her face, while toughened by the nature of her work and a few experiments gone rogue, maintains a certain softness to it, and her sharp red eyes, while at first perhaps seen as fierce and intimidating, instead speak to her joyful nature as they sparkle with mirth in the heat of her passion projects, and a mass of curly brown hair that manages to cascade all the way to her waist.
She tries to keep her clothing simple, both because she doesn't particularly care about it, and because it'll make her work easier the less it gets in her way. She normally wears a teal blue sports top alongside a comfortable pair of black zip-up leggings. On her waist, she might normally have a dark blue hoodie tied there, but in the colder months of the year, she's usually wearing it instead. Lastly, she wears heavy-duty black boots and fingerless gloves. The boots might look a bit too large for her, but she likes them because they're airy and still keep the heavy snow out. Mostly.
As for her costume, well...She didn't think that far ahead. She's thinking maybe some kinda big mask? Maybe like a welder's? Ooh, that'd be cool! And probably some satchels or a bag for all the stuff she likes carrying around. That'd be good. And probably something better than her civvie clothes to cover her, though she's clueless on what. She'd make armor or something, but those don't come out too often....Oh well! She'll figure something out.
Biography: Beverly and her family weren't originally from Redline; about eight or nine years back (she's sorta forgotten), they moved from a quiet town in Oklahoma to way, way up to Maine because her pa got a job offer they couldn't resist. It hurt a bit, because she was happy with where she'd been from. Had some good friends, was doing well in school, getting involved in the neighborhood....But, well, some things just gotta happen.
She didn't fit in as well here, and the situation around the city was completely different from what she'd grown up with; it was scary, but more pressing for someone like her, it was confusing. She liked being able to understand things, yet she couldn't wrap her head around all the chaos, the gang wars, and most of all, the villains. But like an ostrich with its head in the sand, she decided to ignore these things that just couldn't fit into her brain, and move on with life.
Long story short....Redline happened.
Bev lost her pops, and her mom wasn't taking it well. Didn't help that shortly afterwards, her Tinker ability had manifested; for weeks it left her mind in shambles, sandwiched between her tidal wave of emotions and a disgusting flow of blueprints, concepts, and a desire to create. It's always those early weeks that are the hardest.
She learned to cope by hanging out in the shipyard. Her ma would've had her head if she knew about it, with all the gang stuff that went down this side of the city, but it kept her out of her spiraling parent's hair for a bit, and let her organize her disheveled thoughts as she took bits and pieces from scrapped ships, and began building...Things.
There was no rhyme or reason, and it pissed her off. She could never make what she wanted to make; only what her stupid head decided to. While eventually she grew to enjoy the process, of letting her mind wander and design whatever it fancied, she still holds some bitterness in how it functions. Still, she looked on the bright side; at least she wasn't a villain. Heck, when a member of The Mutants accidentally got ahold of something she had been working on, it put them on ice. Literally, like a cryogenic grenade. Making an impromptu citizen's arrest and not sticking around to be questioned, Bev was a bit giddy at the excitement building in her. Building her tech was one thing, but getting to see it in action was something else altogether!
Eventually, Beverly became anonymously known as The Shipyard Tinker, and due to the peculiarity of her devices and the mystery of her nature, none of the ill forces present attempted to pull anything with her. Heck, sometimes she even got to make small deals with some vigilantes or, on the rare chance, honest-to-gosh heroes who were interested in some Tinkertech to give them an edge. It was fun while it lasted!
Earlier this month, however, her little hideout was spoiled by Mr. Fukuda, though he made her an offer she couldn't possibly refuse. The Wards Initiative?! Becoming a proper Cape?! Working with OTHER CAPES HER AGE?! The thought was static to the mind and a charge to the heart. She hadn't managed to make much friends in her time at Redline, but surely this would be a good chance, and she'd get to help the good guys on top of it all! AND have access to PRT resources, even including the work of other Tinkers?! There was no way she was passing this up!
Powers/Skills:
[DESIGNATION: Tinker 5 (tentative 2 in any other given Classification)]
Chaos Creations: Beverly's Tinker talents are nearly limitless in thought, but quite so in practice. She generally does her best work making cheap, quick-and-easy devices that possess a short shelf life if not give consistent proper maintenance. However, her process also involves some...Peculiarities. For one, she has no conscious say in what exactly she makes, essentially Tinkering by instinct over anything else, and in fact has made things in her sleep more often than she'd admit. This means she just makes what she makes, and has to roll with it. This also means she generally doesn't know the exact applications of any given thing she makes, though she can usually intuit it well enough.
This also comes at the cost of focus. If she does attempt to properly work through a design and put her mind into it, it tampers with her natural process. Anything she makes this way generally becomes of much poorer make, more ineffective, or prone to being incredibly unstable and/or dangerous. The only things she can put some level of intent behind are builds based around the scanning and monitoring of vital signs, though she's hesitant to elaborate on why this might be.
Hands-On Learner: While not classified as being apart of her power (yet), Beverly possesses deft hands and is skilled at hastily putting things together, or taking them apart, and seems to gain a decent idea of how to do those processes to any other tech she lays her hands on. This might just be a talent of hers, but the PRT are still debating this being a possible Thinker, or perhaps even Striker, part of her capabilities.
Cooking Intuition: Beverly has gone on record to claim she has little to no experience cooking or learning to cook, but has shown a strange aptitude for it not unlike her ability to inherently Tinker without much thought, though thankfully without the edge of randomness. In other words, she's a very competent cook, and has a small hobby of making and baking sugary delights on some off-time, as she finds sweets helpful to give her an extra boost getting through her process.
Well-Built: While nowhere near superhumanly strong or fast, having to haul around all her junk by hand, and working it by hand, has built some impressive muscle on her, making her stronger and quicker than one might anticipate; though it's not like she's well-versed in hand-to-hand or anything.
Other: As her time as The Shipyard Tinker, she got offers extended to her from both The Mutants and Knight Aspirant. While she seriously considered KA, she ended up turning both of them down. Hopefully they don't put two and two together when Workshop makes her debut...
Finished - wanted to be a bit unorthodox with it, but I can change it to a more traditional sheet if needed.
Thought about making this character a girl since we're kind of a sausage fest rn, but I really liked the face claim I found for him. Might make a new girl in the future if we are allowed multiple characters.
Will send his Trigger event via PM sometime tomorrow probably - gives me time to edit and clean him up lol.
"'Where'd I get this?' Jeez, well that's a bit direct, don't you think? You should really- wait, don't take it!"
Name: Wilbur Levin
Alias: Gray Man (You need to hire better PR people, 'Machiavelli' is a way better name.)
Nicknames: 'Justin Case', 'Doogie Howser', 'Jackie Daytona', 'MacReady', and several other aliases are on file. Mr. Levin is prone to adopting these false personas when interacting with others, especially if he is attempting to go undetected.
Prefers being called 'Will' during casual interactions.
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Personality: Mr. Levin is a charismatic, personable, and manipulative individual who regularly changes how he acts around staff and his fellow Wards. He seems especially close with Dr. Williams, his therapist, as both are interested in the same hobbies (notably, cinema). The PR department is quite fond of Mr. Levin, as he is able to easily deliver lines and has a disarming demeanor that makes him more approachable.
To most people, Mr. Levin seems to display a warm and friendly demeanor, allowing him to close distances very quickly. As he builds a rapport and understands them more, he refines his persona, becoming much more reserved and less dynamic - something Dr. Williams believes is due to needing less bombastic actions to get attention. Mr. Levin has been seen on numerous occasions going far beyond what is expected of him in order to help his friends, either legally or legally. However, while being quite amicable to those that fulfill his need fo-▂▃▅▃▅▃▃, he is quick to use innocent bystanders to further his own goals (See: The Coffee Incident).
Mr. Levin often invites staff and coworkers to interact outside of work hours, especially those whom he is already close with. Some staff believe this is due to his ▂▃▅----▃▃▅▅▃▃, but it could also be a genuine attempt to form new interpersonal relationships. It is HIGHLY recommended that high-level staff and PRT members deny any and all attempts to fraternize that Mr. Levin offers to them, as it can lead to an easy breach of Master/Stranger protocols.
Mr. Levin is a pathological liar, and all reports he makes should be backed up by either another Ward, or a direct superior. Despite his claims to regret his past actions, his behavior is why-
(The rest of this section has been deleted.)
Appearance: Mr. Levin is a teenage male, caucasian, 5'7 and 140 lbs. He has green eyes, and lacks any notable scars, tattoos, or other markings.
Mr. Levin has an extensive wardrobe, covering a wide variety of genres and various 'fits'. He will change outfits depending on what people he plans to interact with, an attempt on his part to blend in and be more approachable. Typically, he will default to formal attire, and will 'dress down' by removing his coat and/or dress shirt.
As Gray Man, Mr. Levin's attire is quite generic - a simple suit and tie combo, with a black motorcycle helmet to preserve his identity. This suit is not especially different from his usual attire, though Levin will wear a bulletproof vest underneath it if he is expecting to receive fire.
Biography: Mr. Levin has lived his entire life in Redline, Maine, and was born to a family of three - Robert Levin (Father), Barbara Levin (Mother), and Cole Levin (Brother). There is little information on record of Levin's early life - he received average marks most of his life, and had little involvement in sports or extracurricular activities. When questioned, Cole claimed that Levin had spent most of his youth playing with friends or helping his brother study.
Around 12 years old, Levin's father was killed in a robbery that occurred in his store. It is around this time that more information on Levin appears - detentions for encouraging fights and stealing, shoplifting, and three suspensions over the course of his middle school career. Due to a life insurance payment, the family was able to support these outbursts, as well as pay for Cole to take his bar exam.
At age 15, Levin's mother Barabara got into a car accident and was rendered comatose. Due to this incident, Cole was designated as Levin's guardian, and Levin continues to visit his mother on a weekly basis at ▅▃▂ Medical Center.
Shortly after this incident is the earliest record of Levin's interactions with ▅▅▃▅▂
Mr. Levin seems to have an incredibly deep-seated desire to be liked, as well as what Dr. Williams describes as 'acute imposter syndrome and ▅▅▃▅▃▅▂▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▃▃▅▅▅▅▃▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▃▃▅▅▅▅▃▅▅...rumors...▅▅▅▃▅▅▅▃▅▂▂▂
▃▅▂▅▅▅...video footage...▅▅▅▅▃▃▅
▂▅▂▂
(A large portion of this section, including various interviews and statements, is either deleted or has been rendered completely nonsensical.)
▅▂▃...which caused a great deal of stress for Levin. Thankfully, his brother managed to reach a plea bargain with the prosecution - in exchange for no jail time and a minimal mark on his records, Mr. Levin would join the recently forming Wards team to complete his community service hours.
When further biographical information was requested from Levin to fill his file, he was purposefully vague and deflective. As a result, only information with physical evidence is included in this file, with little contribution from Levin himself.
Powers: (DESIGNATION: Master/Stranger 4, Thinker 0) (NOTES: Standard Master/Stranger protocols should be exercised at all times, passwords among high-level staff must be changed on a biweekly basis.)
Mr. Levin uses his voice as a medium for his power, causing those who hear it to be affected by the Master component. When speaking, everything that Levin says will be taken at face value by the listener, regardless of its absurdity or preexisting evidence to the contrary. Tests have shown that Mr. Levin could convince staff volunteers and paid subjects of nearly anything - including, but not limited to, 'Owing me (sic) 20 dollars' (See Test 013 .mov), 'Leaving your oven running' (See Test 020 .mov), and most notably, 'The sky is brown, and Archangel is attacking.' See Test 029 .mov
Or, you could just say I'm really good at lying.
While Mr. Levin can persuade someone of nearly anything, there are a few topics that lie outside of his ability. When talking with Dr. Anderson (See Test 007 .mov), Levin claimed that 'We have been married for three years!'. Dr. Anderson's eyes glazed over briefly before she immediately denied having ever met Mr. Levin in her life. This, along, with several other (Tests 012, 022, and 023) examples of similar claims, indicates that Mr. Levin is incapable of convincing individuals of things that are deeply engrained in their memories. Examples include important relationships, a job they've held for 20 years, and anything that they know cannot change without notice.
Yeah, if I could convince someone of stuff that big, I'd pull an Annie and become some rich person's kid, not play superhero.
Mr. Levin's power doesn't have a known duration but breaks instantly upon evidence that contradicts the 'lie' being given to the target. Subjects seem to have an awareness that they've been Master'd after the effect is broken, and most have described it as a 'slimy feeling in (their) gut'. Repeated 'breaks' in short succession result in growing discomfort in the target, eventually becoming disorientating, or even causing paranoia and intense migraines. Mr. Levin seems to suffer the same effects when his power ends, which is presumably the reason he is able to identify if someone under his effect has broken free.
Mr. Levin's power extends as far as his speaking range carries it, with electronic devices like Megaphones or Telephones either drowning out his 'natural' voice or simply not being 'soaked' with his power. Additionally, Mr. Levin has stated that there is difficulty in turning off his powers - according to him, they are his 'default', and suppressing them requires active focus.
It is theorized by certain staff members that Mr. Levin possesses a secondary thinker ability, which allows him to 'read' people around him and identify how to act to, quote 'Make people like him more.' It is unknown if this is truly a Parahuman ability or simply a skill that Mr. Levin is exceptionally proficient in - as a result, he has been given a tentative 'Thinker 0' rating until further research can be done.
(COUNTERMEASURES: In the event Gray Man goes rogue, his Master and Stranger rating will both be raised to 6 due to his knowledge of Master/Stranger Protocols and the function of Ward staff and heroes. Protocols must be strictly enforced, and passwords will be immediately changed. Any incoming personnel, guests, and staff must present proper identification to a security officer, who will be behind soundproofed glass and communicate with an electronic system.)
Yeah, or bring a gun. What do I look like, Guardian?
Skills: People Person: As expected of a Master/Stranger, Mr. Levin is exceptionally skilled at manipulating others, even without the direct use of his powers. He has on more than one occasion broken into the Ward computer network and altered documents pertaining to himself without permission (lol), despite there being no evidence he possesses an understanding of programming. In addition to this hacking, he also regularly brings alcohol into Wards HQ, and has been given several warnings against doing so - but no guard has ever stopped him, due to his friendly relationship with many staff.
Planning: Mr. Levin is somewhat infamous for his 'cons', plans that he orchestrates in order to accomplish something he wants after his typical persuasion has failed. These can get quite elaborate, as seen by 'The Coffee Incident' (See Laxatives .mov). Despite his short time in the Wards, his ability to accomplish complicated and large-scale operations with minimal manpower and resources makes him very dangerous to leave unsupervised.
Disguise: Mr. Levin is quite skilled with make-up and styling hair, a result of his mother's profession as a Beautician. He makes great use of this with his power, capable of disguising himself with wigs, makeup, and various other implements in order to keep his civilian identity anonymous, while also preventing villains from targeting him as a known Master. His skill in tailoring, while not as notable, is high enough that he chooses to request thread to repair his outfits, rather than order new ones or pay for repairs.
Other: Mr. Levin has a tendency to use sarcasm to disarm situations which, thanks to his power, is often taken quite literally by everyone involved. If you are confused by something Mr. Levin says, please ask him to clarify what he means, and remind him to focus on his speech exercises.
Finally got to this thing - not naming any names, but whoever reads this file next, be sure to tell your coworkers to not write next week's password on a sticky note, ok?
Did my own little edits, I felt like you guys were missing some important information!
What else to add, what else... Oh, my favorite superpower is Super Speed. Gatecrasher can blow me, the coolest Mover in The Guardians will always be Relativity, no question. RIP
Okay, first of all....This sheet is fucking incredible lmfao. However, it seems written with the idea that The Wards have been active for a while at this point, which technically, they haven't (though it isn't impossible for enterprising members to visit prior to the first proper gathering of the team, which will be the focal point of the RP's beginning; that can explain most of this, including the...Shudders 'Coffee Incident'.). Beyond that heads-up though, like I said, I love this sheet, and I love my man Will here. Accepted for sure! Get 'em on over to Characters :D
Personality: Well-read, but lacking formal education. Knowledgeable of many things, but not social niceties. And of course, with a predilection for gluttony, making sure that every bit of food is eaten and every edible drink is drunk. This gluttony extends to knowledge as well; he wants to know more and more and more, reading every book and label and manual he can unless it's in a language he does not understand.
Surprisingly, he lacks obvious evidence of mental scars, something he is quick to reassure his teammates hides evidence of deeper trauma. After all, he would state, he was born poor and underprivileged and he had Powers. Of course, he Triggered like the rest of them!
Appearance: For his civilian appearance, Andrew regularly uses his stipend from The Wards to buy the trendiest civilian clothing possible, with a preference for blue and white shirts and jackets. He also reveals his natural hair color, which is brown.
As a Cape, Andrew uses his powers to turn his hair silver, because he thought it was cool. He also prefers the costume shown in his picture, because he likes it.
Biography: Andrew was deposited in an orphanage close to a Public Library. It was an orphanage of love, of warm food and light and a constantly burning fire in the winter. It was beautiful and musical and it was all he could want. Not just that, but the Public Library was close enough that even at a young age, he can cross over with minimal adult supervision and lose himself in the books for hours. He was intelligent, precocious, and it was clear that someone was going to adopt him after a while. However, he always insisted to his prospective parents that they pick another kid or set of kids first; they needed it more than he did.
This continued until he was past the normal age for adoption, but the boy had already resolved to work at the orphanage he lived in to take care of other children. Then one day, a person who came to adopt one of his friends dropped a suitcase after leaving in a hurry, and Andrew resolved to return it once the person came back... Only to find some of the younger kids have picked the locks, searching for candy.
After scolding the children, Andrew glanced through the suitcase's contents and found papers and a strange vial inside; some of the former in English. Reading quickly through them, he grasped enough to know that the vial was an illegal compound intended to be tested on the kid who was going to be 'adopted' by that man. More importantly, it was a vial that was likely to turn a person into a monster or give them a strong Power; whichever was more likely.
Rage filled the boy. As the 'adopter's' car returned to the parking lot, Andrew opened the vial and drank its contents without hesitation. If the man wanted to turn his friend into a test subject under the guise of adoption, he had another thing coming!
The man burst into his room as he doubled over in pain. Then blue light filled the area, and Andrew faced the fraud who was going to prey on his friend and prepared for a confrontation.
No one knew what happened after that, but some days later, Andrew arrived at the nearest PRT office, saying that he had heard about the budding 'Wards' initiative, and that he had powers and wanted to join...
Powers/Skills:
Andrew is reasonably well-read and knowledgable, with a special focus on history and fantasy literature. He is also being taught how to fight with swords, guns, and strangely, axes; this training has made him atheletic.
Hope Manipulation (Trump/Shaker/Master 8) - Andrew/Hope draws from his own Hope and the ambient hope of everyone within 50 meters of him in order to create a number of effects that cover every other Class of Power, including energy blasts, force-fields, energy constructs, flight, cellular regeneration, and material alteration.
The Drawback of this? This is Worm we're talking about; the world is crapsack and his teammates have strong traumas and the mental issues those cause, meaning that they might not be interested in hoping for a better future. Also, prolonged use (12 to 24 hours) depletes his hope and the hope of others, eventually sapping their will to live and rendering them catatonic and zombie-like if they don't commit suicide.
Sub Powers: These classifications assume an average level of hope in the affected area.
Energy Blasts (Blaster 6): Blue energy blasts of manually variable power capable of knocking a person off their feet and inflicting mild burns or blasting through unprotected flesh and punching straight through steel. These can be thrown as simple blasts or sustained beams.
Energy Shields (Shaker 6): Semi-transparent energy shields capable of halting a speeding car in its tracks with only moderate strain. Though, something as heavy and solid as a speeding armored truck will likely shatter them. Shields can be formed up to 2 meters away from himself, large enough to englobe him and anyone close enough to fit inside as well. The shields can be shaped somewhat but are always spheroid or semi-spheroid.
Energy Constructs (Master 2-?): Energy which can be shaped into tools, weapons, or small structures like miniature bridges that are as durable as titanium alloy unless specified otherwise. Can be as small as a screw or as large as a truck. However, the major caveat is that he must actually know how to physically build what he summons. For every object, he must have the theoretical blueprints for dedicated to memory. Technically, he could make anything, but advanced electronics and Tinkertech are far outside his reach. The more complicated the object, the more energy and concentration required to create it. The most complicated thing he has managed to make with it so far is a wheelbarrow, but this power will only grow in utility and menace with time and study.
Flight (Mover 4/Breaker 1): Andrew can fly up to the speed of a small civilian helicopter, and his body is protected from the air resistance and friction of moving by his own power.
Cellular Regeneration (Brute/Striker 5): Andrew can heal his own injuries, even loss of limbs, and heal the same in others as well. He can also purge poisons and diseases and even rewrite another person's genetic disorders out of their DNA. However, he needs to touch the person being healed, concentrate his attention on them, and it costs a lot of energy.
Material Alteration (Striker/Changer/Stranger 2): Andrew can change the color, shape, and appearance of his clothing and any items he directly touches, but he cannot increase their durability; this means that he needs normal armor to protect his body, which The Wards provide. The changes are permanent but can only target inorganic or dead material (like his hair or clothing fibers). He can target something as small as a singular hair. He can alter an object's size to match that of something with equal weight. Effectively, mass is generally conserved.
Hope Sensing (Thinker 1): This allows him to sense the ambient emotion of hope in living creatures within 50 meters of him. This sense is incredibly broad, so he is unable to determine the number of people in the range or identify specific people. Within 5 meters of himself, however, he can apply greater focus to uncover hidden people, able to foil some Strangers or find trapped victims under rubble and the like.
Other: My favorite superpower is Actual Magic, which does not exist in Worm. Failing that, my own Hope Manipulation.
Looks good! Most I'd say though is make the prolonged use problem a bit more...Noticeable? If it takes the better half of a whole day for any actual effects, then that'll never come up, even in some of the wildest fights imaginable lol. I'd put it closer to 1-2 hours, and that the effects might be expedited due to a lack of hope, or excessive use of the abilities. Once that's handled, go ahead and throw him into Characters!
And @Lewascan2 Overclock is clear! Though it might be prudent to come up with some kind of vulnerability in the power; sure, it needs time to ramp up, but by the time he's hit X2 or X3 he's already too fast or strong for a good handful of Capes, and he can keep this thing running as long as he wants. I'm just....Not sure what that would entail. xD. For now, he's accepted, though I'd like to come up with something to make him slightly more reasonable.
rexgn,
Baphomini,
Crimson Flame,
JewelSerket,
Qia,
shylarah,
Randomness,
Izurich,
soren,
Guardian Angel Haruki
