Member
Obscene Symphony
Name
Adrian Vastano
Codename
Sandstorm
Age
20
Gender
Male
Species
Mutant
Ethnicity
Trappist
Home Planet
TRAPPIST-1g (An icy planet about 39 lightyears from Earth.)
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Personality
Affable, easygoing, and way too casual in mixing murder and leisure in the same sentence, Adrian acts like a guy who's just trying to have a good time at work. This can be a bit unsettling to his fellow operatives when 'work' is a life or death shootout. In training exercises at the academy, he'd spend all but the tensest of moments bantering over the comm and advocating for showy maneuvers. Though despite this seemingly careless attitude, he does take his assignments seriously, and the safety of his comrades in the field even moreso. Still, he's a consummate risk-taker, sometimes to his own detriment. When pressed on this, Adrian asserts a 'get rich or die trying' philosophy with little thought to the consequence of his actions beyond the resultant paycheck.
Off the job, he maintains his rambunctious nature, trying his best to keep himself and the people around him entertained, even if the antics are unwelcome at times. He thrives on positive responses - laughter, praise, anything that says his presence is having an impact on the room. He calms down a bit in more intimate settings; no need to put on quite a show for only one person.
Off the job, he maintains his rambunctious nature, trying his best to keep himself and the people around him entertained, even if the antics are unwelcome at times. He thrives on positive responses - laughter, praise, anything that says his presence is having an impact on the room. He calms down a bit in more intimate settings; no need to put on quite a show for only one person.
Height
5'11"
Weight
160 lbs.
Notable Features
Adrian is fairly pale and his eyes are an unnatural shade of red, though his hair retains a solid black color. He's otherwise indistinguishable from a normal human if his eyes are covered.
Appearance
Adrian is lean, though definitely in shape, not that one can tell under the multiple layers of clothing or bulky armor he favors. Only in completely sunless environments like the inner decks of a spaceship or a subterranean colony will he expose more skin than his hands and face, and he nearly always has a pair of tinted goggles wrapped around his head or neck, if not actively covering his eyes.
Biography
Born the bastard son of a native spaceport worker and a spacefaring father he'd never met, Adrian spent his early life in subpar living conditions. Despite the presence of one of the largest ports on the planet, his hometown was, like most Trappist settlements, built mostly underground for protection from the elements. Much of the native population developed a lack of adequate pigmentation over time because of this, and the constant skin shedding induced by Adrian's mutations only exacerbated this condition. Trips to the surface usually ended with Adrian cloaking himself in a cloud of dust rather than subject his photosensitive eyes to the light of the sun any longer, and such grandiose displays quickly earned the young mutant a reputation as, well, a mutant.
Mostly shunned by the native community at large and confined to the lower levels of the city where the sun wouldn't reach, he spent much of his time around foreigners in the midst of their illicit back-alley dealings. They fascinated him, even if they wanted little to do with a mutant child either. With all their money, they could go anywhere; these travellers weren't confined to a single hole in the ground on a frozen rock in the ass end of the galaxy - or at least that's what Adrian thought. He heard of entire planets built for pleasure, and assumed that was just where all these people lived. Money would solve all his problems, but even a prepubescent Adrian could see his prospects were limited on TRAPPIST-1g. Most of the colony's revenue came from mining, though the job was hardly lucrative for the workers. Crime looked to be the most promising avenue, so Adrian tried to linger around as many unsavory characters as he could in order to try and glean as much information about the greater galaxy as he could.
This worked out about as well as one would expect. No ruthless crime lords personally invited a ten year old to join the ranks of their syndicate, no smugglers enlisted him as a courier to sneak drugs to their buyers, they just passed him by like everyone else. Except one. When he was twelve, he ran into some sort of lawman hunting a man in the depths of his colony. Noting a mutant as a rare find and potentially useful asset, the man informed the curious boy about the GBA in passing, and Adrian immediately seized on the organization as his ticket offworld.
His mother was hesitant to let her son enter such a dangerous profession, but she could do without the extra mouth to feed and the stigma of raising a mutant child, and thus gave the boy her blessing if not her encouragement. Once he'd fully enrolled at the academy, Adrian quickly tried proving himself in as many teamwork exercises as he could. His ability was versatile, and where some would-be tacticians were frustrated by his lack of tact in many cases, it was often offset by the advantages that near-total control over the enemy's visibility brought. Despite his usefulness to a team, he was - and still is - criticized by some as being too childish and nonchalant with his approach to the profession. He acts like he sees bounty hunting as a game at times, where the prize is money and the penalty for failure is injury and/or death - and he's not nearly concerned enough about said price of failure.
Mostly shunned by the native community at large and confined to the lower levels of the city where the sun wouldn't reach, he spent much of his time around foreigners in the midst of their illicit back-alley dealings. They fascinated him, even if they wanted little to do with a mutant child either. With all their money, they could go anywhere; these travellers weren't confined to a single hole in the ground on a frozen rock in the ass end of the galaxy - or at least that's what Adrian thought. He heard of entire planets built for pleasure, and assumed that was just where all these people lived. Money would solve all his problems, but even a prepubescent Adrian could see his prospects were limited on TRAPPIST-1g. Most of the colony's revenue came from mining, though the job was hardly lucrative for the workers. Crime looked to be the most promising avenue, so Adrian tried to linger around as many unsavory characters as he could in order to try and glean as much information about the greater galaxy as he could.
This worked out about as well as one would expect. No ruthless crime lords personally invited a ten year old to join the ranks of their syndicate, no smugglers enlisted him as a courier to sneak drugs to their buyers, they just passed him by like everyone else. Except one. When he was twelve, he ran into some sort of lawman hunting a man in the depths of his colony. Noting a mutant as a rare find and potentially useful asset, the man informed the curious boy about the GBA in passing, and Adrian immediately seized on the organization as his ticket offworld.
His mother was hesitant to let her son enter such a dangerous profession, but she could do without the extra mouth to feed and the stigma of raising a mutant child, and thus gave the boy her blessing if not her encouragement. Once he'd fully enrolled at the academy, Adrian quickly tried proving himself in as many teamwork exercises as he could. His ability was versatile, and where some would-be tacticians were frustrated by his lack of tact in many cases, it was often offset by the advantages that near-total control over the enemy's visibility brought. Despite his usefulness to a team, he was - and still is - criticized by some as being too childish and nonchalant with his approach to the profession. He acts like he sees bounty hunting as a game at times, where the prize is money and the penalty for failure is injury and/or death - and he's not nearly concerned enough about said price of failure.
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Powers
Dust Bowl - The upper layers of Adrian's skin rapidly regenerate and can flake off into specs of pallid ash-like particles, which he can levitate and direct at will. The resulting cloud is dense enough to be employed as a smokescreen, unless Adrian wills it to diffuse enough that one can see through it, and he commonly uses it to mask his or his allies' movements on the battlefield. The particulate matter can also wreck havoc on delicate electronics, should it find a way inside, or simply induce a coughing fit in an opponent who forgets to cover his mouth. Adrian must be in physical contact with his cloud at all times to manipulate it, and can only control one cloud at a time, though it can be as amorphous as the space it inhabits allows.
Power Limits
- Adrian cannot maintain control over any of his dust that breaks off from the main cloud, though he can begin directing it again if his cloud restablishes contact. Otherwise, the dust will stagnate and eventually settle on the ground.
- As his dust is produced from the outer layers of his skin, shedding excessively in a short period can lead to rawness and even bleeding in extreme cases.
- He also starts peeling if he hasn't shed enough dust in a few days. Gross.
- The cloud is often as much of a visibility hinderance to Adrian and his allies as it is to his enemies, though he can alter the density of the cloud at will if he needs to take a quick peek through it. Otherwise, his policy is usually spray and pray.
- Adrian's mutant physiology leaves him with many defects commonly associated with albinism; his skin burns easily in sunlight and his vision ranges from poor to abysmal, especially in bright environs. He typically copes with this using heavy clothing and protective eyewear.
- As such, he's heavily dependent on keeping his helmet visor or goggles intact in combat if he wants to aim his weapon or operate outside during the day.
- He can’t control the dust produced by sunburnt skin, it flakes off uselessly instead until the wound heals - though it does so at a much faster rate than a mundane human would.
Fighting Style
Contrary to what his mutation might suggest, Adrian loves to make his presence known on the battlefield, if not his exact position. While he usually lurks unseen in a plume of dust, he rarely makes an effort to hide from his quarry the fact that someone is approaching, though he does reposition himself frequently to keep his targets from discerning where in the cloud he may be. Adrian favors volume over accuracy in his shooting, due to the difficulties of aiming from inside his dust storm. To compensate, he's privy to drowning an area in a continuous spray of bullets or energy bolts until his cloud can overrun their position and give him an opportunity to advance with more impunity. At times where he's operating without cloud cover, Adrian favors the bold maneuvers and frontline vigor his armor was built for, constantly trying to push forward and overwhelm his opponents as quickly and brutally as he can.
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Daily Skills
- Equipment maintenance.
- Cleaning his own dust out of weird places. (He kinda has to be if he wants the air vents in his room to function.)
Combat Abilities
- Misdirection and distraction.
- Suppressive fire.
- Mediocre grappling skill.
- Area control.
Flaws
- Adrian is hardly a marksman, and being the epicenter of an obfuscating cloud of dust leaves few chances to shine as one anyway. He can usually hit center mass, but he's nowhere near a trickshot artist.
- His ability is less useful when he has to create dust from scratch, leaving him with little more capability than a normal human until he's generated a workable cloud.
- Not very mobile when toting his full arsenal; reliant on cloud cover to reposition safely.
- Tends to burn through ammo very quickly.
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Equipment
- 'Desert Storm' Tactical Combat Harness - A modified suit of armor more befitting a shock trooper on some desertified frontier world than a mere bounty hunter, customized to include reservoirs of Adrian's dust strategically placed under the plating in multiple areas. The suit is capable of vacuum sealing itself for use in space, however this prevents any more dust from escaping and cuts off Adrian's control of external clouds.
- Adaptive Visor - Features varying levels of tint to adjust to ambient light levels, as well as a night vision mode and integrated baseline HUD elements.
Weapons
- Heavy Plasma Repeater - A hefty piece of hardware, comparable to a light machine gun for kinetic weaponry purists, useful for laying down suppressive fire through a cloud of dust or just filling a target with so many holes he ends up more cauterized tissue than man. Adrian typically keeps this magnetically locked to a holster on his back in reserve unless the situation specifically warrants aimless gunfire.
- Standard Issue GBA Assault Rifle - Adrian's primary weapon in the field, a simple and reliable kinetic weapon with semi- and fully-automatic modes of fire.
- Standard Issue GBA Combat Knife - It's a simple kinetic knife, nothing fancy.
- Energy Pistol - For when everything else is out of ammo or he just can't find an excuse to be toting a rifle.
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Likes
- Overkill.
- Praise.
- A well-executed ambush.
- Risk-taking that pays off.
- The ambience of a dimly lit ship drifting through space.
- People who don't take themselves too seriously.
Dislikes
- Bright lights.
- Suns in general, really.
- Hot weather.
- Being outmaneuvered.
- Pretension.
- Pointless hesitation.
- That ozone smell left in the air after an energy weapon shootout.
Fears
- Abandonment.
- Helplessness.
- Heights, surprisingly.
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Theme Songs
