Wishing a relaxing weekend for everyone. Take some time to be kind to yourself, to unwind, and to have some rest. <3
11
likes
8 yrs ago
I ate a brownie once at a party in college. It was intense. I felt like I was floating. Turns out there wasn't any pot in the brownie. It was just an insanely good brownie.
10
likes
8 yrs ago
There was an explosion at a cheese factory in France. De-Brie everywhere.
We'll finish this round of individual introductions - there will be time for individual collabs to be finished, then a GM post will signal an event and group collab! :)
Excellent posts so far, I hope you're all enjoying this just as much as I am!
Ercanoriel is a very unique character in the way that I like my unique characters - just a bit... odd.
A really nicely written appearance section Fetzen!
The personality section took me a little to get to grips with, the concept of the three layers becomes a bit muddled. Maybe thats the point. My brain is also, admittedly, frazzled right now. Otherwise, I like the look of him. Very good traits, but some flaws too - his pride for instance.
In the history section, I'm reading that the parents split amicably - yet his regret is to do with his father, who really doesn't seem to play a large part in his life. I'm not sure if that is the point of it, it's a melancholic regret - a yearning for a father figure, but the regret should be based on something the character has actually done. It almost alludes to them having fought at some point but that's not in the sheet.
I'd like some detailing on how he learned to use a two-handed axe, maybe why he gravitated to that weapon. I think weapons speak a lot about characters and I'd like to know a bit more about that especially as that is listed as his expert skill over magic, which does get a mention in the history. Why did he favour restoration over say destruction or alteration too, for example.
A great sheet, and great concept. This was initially drawn from feedback I gave you based on an initial idea - so it's really great that you listened to it, and I hope this is a character you're excited about, with that in mind.
Just with a few tweaks to those points I've brought up, Ercanoriel will be ready.
A lovely description, I especially liked the line "relics from the wilderness". Quite a short appearance section - a lot of my feedback to others has been to add in mannerisms, and descriptions that just add a touch beyond the physical nature of the character. The bits that add flavour.
I like that she's a bright and enthusiastic character, having Sigri in the group gives us more to play with in terms of optimism within the group, and there's definitely a line now between the gruffest to the most optimistic, nobody really crosses over and that's going to be fun to play with. I like the note about her getting along with loud commoners haha. Perhaps the section about the heat can go in the appearance section. (Paragraph 4) - the parts about her lacking refine could also be expanded on in the appearance section, as a suggestion.
With Sigri, we have another character in the group whose history has been woven through with the Civil War, and I love that a few of our characters have really been touched by it, actually. Her story is very sweet, but I have a few questions. Did Sigri cause his death by burning the home down? Or did he die naturally and she let their home burn? Did anyone ever suspect her of murder? It's quite a big moment in her story but it's not very touched upon - although I understand you've been busy. Was her husband abusive? Even if she didn't love him did she at least like him? Were they happy without requited love, perhaps she found more love for him in her son?
Skills and Spells are fine, as is the regret - just waiting on that goal :) Otherwise, a good job on this sheet! I think it can be polished and some clarifications given, but I understand you've been very busy and for being on a road trip this sheet is stellar!
Thank you everyone for the patience in the reviews.
As we begin introducing our characters - this round is quite pivotal in establishing the RP, so avoid double posting until a post from everyone has been made. That said, first posts should be made soonish, and just communicate with what is going on - if you're busy, stuck, need inspiration etc.
To anyone just dropping in and lurking this thread, we are now closed for further applications at this point. If you are interested in the roleplay, there will be openings for more players and characters as we enter new episodes. Inevitably, current players may drop out etc so just keep checking or let me know you're interested and I can reach out to you if we have an opening.
Took me a little over a week, but I got him written up.
Name: Eli Evans
Alias: Biomancer
Age: 64
Powers: Organic Manipulation and absorption.
Eli can control, manipulate, and absorb organic matter provided he is touching it. The more organic matter he has access to, the more drastic things he can do with it. Most often it involves rapidly healing himself or others, making weapons or armor out of his body, using his body as a weapon, or turning organic matter into weapons.
Due to his primary ability, Eli can have superhuman physical attributes. Long years of forced retirement and age have degraded this, however, and he is only capable of lifting 1.5 tons and running at 50mph with reflexes capable of catching an arrow in flight. He can only keep either the strength or the speed going at a time, however. Both puts too much strain on his body.
Weaknesses: Eli is old, and hasn't used his powers in twenty years. It hurts to use his powers, he's rusty at the various techniques, and in general is slow at using his powers.
Anything to do with fire Eli despises. Burning generally makes it difficult for him to quickly heal and anything he makes from organic matter only provides fuel for fire.
Eli is incapable of manipulating any inorganic matter. Metals, gases, plastics, etc etc.
Anything that doesn't attack Eli's organic matter specifically (Hexes,curses, psionic attacks, mind control, etc etc) Eli is very vulnerable too.
Manipulating organic matter requires energy and most often that energy is drawn from whatever is being manipulated. As Eli is most often manipulating his own body, he's often using huge amounts of energy and as such requires and equally huge if not larger caloric intake to off set it. If Eli can't regain energy, he can't use his powers.
Eli can survive and heal most wounds and, if given enough biomass absorbed, even regrow limbs but those all require his brain to be intact. Anything going through his skull and hitting his brain is guaranteed to kill him.
Appearance: Eli stands at 5ft 7in with a strong, stocky build. His forced retirement has caused him to lose the fitness of his youth as he reluctantly became used to a career where he didn't have to be ready to fight at any given moment, but beneath the layer of fat he's still powerful and capable of holding his own in a fight. His white beard and hair are kept carefully maintained, trimmed to an exact length and style. Bushy eyebrows are usually found drawn together above harsh brown eyes and a broad nose that more often than not has its nostrils flared. His lips are typically drawn into a scowl, making the multitude of wrinkles on his face even more apparent. Especially when he grumbles in his deep rumble of a voice.
His general clothing tends to be jeans and t-shirt. Simple, but kept clean and immaculate. It is rare to find him in ripped or dirty clothing by choice.
His costume used to be a menacing suit of organic armor, capable of conventional weapons and most heavy firepower. He isn't capable of covering his entire body in such a material anymore and now only generates a thin layer over his body to provide mild protection and hide his identity. Not much good it does, since his trial, but old habits die hard.
Equipment: In general, Eli has basic body armor, a pistol, and a battle rifle. He hasn't used any of them in over a decade, but keeps them on hand in case a situation ever arises where he needs to use them.
Eli and his younger brother, Frank, were destined from birth to be superheroes. Their parents were going to usher in a new era of supers, people designed to protect the world from evil and tyranny. People that were beacons of hope and justice. Their parents were dedicated to their purpose and experimented extensively with manipulating the human DNA in embryo and drawing out powers in it. By the time they had Eli, they had it down to a science. Eli never found out how many failed projects, and bodies, were behind his creation and he frankly doesn't want to know. All he knows is that when he was born with his powers, his parents were capable of accurately predicting what they were going to be and how they would develop. Every step of his life was planned to help him control and expand his abilities. For the first four years of his life, everything was the Evans family version of normal.
Everything changed when his younger brother was born. Frank was born with super powers, yes, but his powers weren't the ones that his father had predicted. Instead of pyrokinesis Frank had the ability of flight and cyrokinesis. For the first year, their father was confused and bewildered. Delighted his son had not one, but two powers of course, but confused as to why his predictions were so far off. After a year had passed, the truth came out. Their mother had cheated on their father, and an illegitimate pregnancy had come out of it. Eli and Frank were both to young to know this. All a young Eli knew was that his father suddenly had a look on his face that had never been there before, as he sent Eli to his room with his infant younger brother. They wouldn't find the truth out til years later.
Looking back, the only one who was surprised was their father. The relationship was not one built upon mutual love and respect, but merely a desire to further the future of the human race. It was their father who had made the mistake of getting emotionally attached to what was supposed to only be scientific, and pushing their mother into a relationship that was more than she expected and far more than she wanted.
That did nothing to ease their father's jealous, terrifying, rage. All Eli remembers is hiding in his room with his brother as both of their parents screamed and things were broken in the house beyond. The next day their mother was gone and all their father would say on the matter is that she had left and they would be better off without her. That was a lie of course and their father took to drinking and drugs in short order. He went from strict and inspired scientist, guiding them on their way to becoming protectors of humanity, to a mean and hateful drunk who berated or hit them for every mistake, failure, or misstep. It was in particular aimed at Frank as his very existence reminded their father of their mother, and how she had betrayed him. As Eli grew older he began intentionally provoking the ire of their father to protect his younger brother. He was the oldest, it was his job to protect Frank from whatever their father threw at them.
This continued for 11 years, with their father beating and berating them into controlling their powers more or simply just because he could. Their powers only grew stronger by the day, as did their bond with one another. Their mother was gone, their father a bastard, but they had each other. They would always have each other. One day, after Eli had turned sixteen he finally had enough. As their father raised a fist to hit Frank again for some small mistake, Eli caught it. Their father turned around in a drunken rage, only to cry out in pain and agony as his arm began to wither away. Eli kept an iron grip as his father screamed and thrashed, his eyes cold as ice. "You're never touching us again. You're never hurting anyone again." He only stopped when Frank grabbed his other arm, crying out for him to stop.
Eli hesitated, but relented to his brother's wishes. He dropped his father, who cradled his useless and stick thin arm and cried to himself. Eli and his brother packed what little possessions they had and headed out the door, with Eli sparing only one glance behind. "Don't look for us. Or I won't stop next time."
The next four years were spent scrapping by a living on the streets of Saint Louis, USA. Food, shelter, and clothing were scarce, but they were never in any danger. Between the two of them and their powers, anyone who dared to cross them soon learned the error of their ways. They tried to kept mostly to themselves, the idea of using their powers to become heroes a repulsive one after years of hearing their father scream at them that was what they were supposed to be. But nonetheless word of their abilities spread among the other homeless and desperate and they soon were the nucleus of a small community that protected one another as best they could. Regardless of their wishes, Eli and Frank became heroes of the people. When they could, they searched for their mother as best they could but it was ultimately fruitless. They were only two kids, with no money or resources to even keep a roof over their heads much less find someone they had either only vague memories of or no memories at all. After two years of nothing they gave up entirely.
Eli only went back to their old home once, when he heard about his father being taken away to a mental hospital ranting and raving about his 'perfect creations' that betrayed him like everyone always did. He only went to see if there was anything that they could use to help Frank and those depending on them. He personally had no desire to help the people that gathered around them for protection, but Frank had a kinder heart. Frank had embraced the role thrust upon them by the desperate, much to Eli's exasperation. Their old home might have had something to sell, salvage, or otherwise use to aid all the people they had to deal with now. Eli found nothing useful, but he did find their father's journal. Against his better judgement he read through the book. Most of it was scientific jargon that he couldn't understand, but it clearly laid out two things; Frank was only his half brother, and their father had murdered their mother.
Eli lit the book on fire and dropped it in the trashcan outside. He had always had suspicions, but now they were confirmed. It was a secret he planned to take to his grave.
As soon as Frank was sixteen, Eli took the two of them to the army recruiter. They were struggling to keep the community together, and were drawing attention from local gangs. The gangs wanted to use the two brothers as powered muscle in their own struggles, and were willing to hurt the people they were supposed to be protecting to force them to obey. Eli convinced a reluctant Frank that the best way to save those people now was to leave and take any reasoning for the gangs to attack them away. Frank was an idealist, but he still listened to his older brother as the authority on all matters. If Eli said it was a good plan, it was a good plan.
Frank and Eli rapidly progressed through the military, ending up in the special forces in two years. The military had uses for two super powered soldiers, especially since Eli displayed little moral qualms and Frank listened to Eli. They spent the next eight years doing black ops for the USA military. Assassinations, sabotage, kidnappings, extractions of VIPs from hot zones, supporting the main forces in armed conflicts, countering other country's supers, anything and everything that was required of them they did without question. They always had each others back and no matter they could always rely on each other.
Frank finally drew the line after a mission that had them assassinating a rural tribe leader in the middle east. They did the job quickly and quietly, only to find out later that the man was the head of a local coalition trying to stop Oil from being drilled on sacred lands. Without him, the coalition would fall apart and their sacred lands would be defiled.
"We're better than this, Eli! We should be helping people, not suppressing them!" Eli personally saw no reason for such rhetoric, but it clearly mattered to Frank a great deal and he relented. If Frank wanted to be heroes of the people, they would be heroes of the people. But he would be there when the people decided to stab them in the back. When their tour of duty ended that year, they did not renew it. Instead, they headed back to the mainland USA to fulfill Frank's dream of being heroes to the people. For the next five years that's what they did. The beginnings were rough, since they had no direct oversight or goals other than 'help people'. For the first year they were known as useless amateurs, often causing more damage than they fixed. But as they learned how to operate as heroes, rather than soldiers, they became more skilled and efficient.
They started saving people and rising in importance. Other heroes began taking them seriously and they began doing real good, in Frank's eyes. With the money they had gotten from the military and what occasional cash Eli was able to convince Frank to accept for some of their heroics, they were able to hire a private investigator company to look for their mother. Eli knew the truth, but he couldn't bear to tell Frank what had really happened. Better that Frank never know, he thought, than him go through the pain of learning his mother was killed because she had Frank.
The brothers started clashing with one another much more as time wore on. Frank began to see Eli's lack of empathy and ruthless practicality as not just a method of protecting them, but a genuine flaw that leaned him towards villainy rather than heroics. Their arguments began getting worse and worse as Eli pushed against what he perceived to be Frank's foolish idealism, hope, and kindness in a world that will only crush those types of people under its heel. The traits that Frank was holding up so high were only weaknesses that were going to get him hurt in the future, or worse. Frank didn't see it that way. Frank believed the words they had been taught when their father wasn't a drunken bastard. They needed to be symbols of hope, beacons of justice, something people could aspire to be. All Eli saw was the laughable idealism of a broken man when he heard those words.
It was during one of these arguments that Eli's frustration got the best of him. Frank just wouldn't listen. He never listened. Not when Eli said they should take more payments, not when Eli said they were risking getting themselves in trouble, and especially not when Eli said they were risking themselves too much for people who they didn't even know. He snapped out the truth that Frank wasn't their father's son and that their mother was dead because she had him. As soon as he said the words, Eli regretted them, but the damage was done. Frank's face closed off and he walked away, ignoring his brother's calls for him to come back. That was the last time they worked together as the inseparable team they had always been.
Eli continued working as a super, but one for hire. He left the idealism and hope to his brother. He would do the smart thing and use his powers to aid those who could pay the most. He wasn't a true villain, finding the ideals of 'lets destroy or take over the world' distasteful, but he was never on the 'good' side for free. He would clash with other superheroes like Hex, hired by companies or villains to do various jobs that put him in conflict with the 'heroes'. They all reminded him of his brother, and he only regarded them with disdain.
Eli kept an eye on his brother, staying close enough that he could leap into action to help if need be. They might be not speaking to one another, but Frank was still his little brother. And they watched out for each other. No matter what.
Following the exploits of 'Cyro' and how he saved the day time and time again was easy. Frank was always a flamboyant character. As he watched his brother, he noticed a small pattern beginning to form that he approved of. As his brother went on and realized he no longer had Eli to watch his back, he became more and more inclined to use lethal force against those who wouldn't let themselves go without a fight. It was good, Eli thought, that Frank was finally realizing what type of world they were in. He would occasionally reach out, try to mend the rift between them, to now avail. Frank always ignored his messages or himself when he tried to make things up in person. Nine years passed like this before he was hired for his last job. A coal power plant had been taken by some eco-terrorists determined to stop the 'murder of mother earth' by any means necessary. He was to go in and free the hostages and take care of the terrorists by any means necessary. The corporation that hired him made it clear that they wouldn't be dismayed if the terrorists were killed in the endeavor.
Eli broke into the power plant and began making his way through efficiently and ruthlessly. The terrorists were more fanatic about their ideals than they were well trained, and he made short work of them. When he reached the center of the plant, he saw just how far they were going for their plans. They had rigged a multitude of explosives to the center of the plant, intent upon destroying it and everyone inside if their demands weren't met. To make things worse, the surviving terrorists were all in the center with hostages and detonators in their hands. Eli couldn't move fast enough to stop them all from detonating the explosives.
As Eli was considering how to stop or minimize the explosion, his brother walked through the door on the opposite side. For a moment, they just stared at one another. Then Eli sighed in relief. By himself he couldn't deal with this situation in a way that ended well, but with Frank? He could handle everything. He asked his brother for help. It could be like the old days, if only for a moment. When he saw Frank hesitate and then agree, he was elated. Remembering the moment, as he has over and over for the last twenty years, he wishes he would have seen the look in his brother's eyes as he agreed.
They made a plan and sprang into action, working seamlessly with one another as if they had never spent a moment apart. Everything was going smoothly until it was his brother's last target. As Eli finished off his he turned to the man panicking and going to press the button. He looked confidently up for his brother to freeze or kill the man with an icicle.
He was still looking as the explosion ripped through the plant and sent him flying. He woke up too the police and military all pointing weapons at him as he was dug out of the rubble, ordering him to surrender quietly. His brother was floating in the background, hands at the ready. Eli doesn't know what his brother told everyone outside the plant. All he knows is that his brother betrayed him, the only person left in the world he thought he could trust. He could have fought, tried to escape. Probably would have succeeded too. He was always the better fighter than his brother and Frank was the only one there who would've been able to put up a fight. But what would have been the point? Escape and be on the run for life? Kill his own brother just to run? No. They wanted a villain, and he was just suddenly so exhausted. Tired of everything.
He surrendered and they took him away in handcuffs. His trial was highly publicized, but he paid barely any attention. He was accused of something heinous enough to lock him away for life but Hex, that bastard, convinced the judge and jury to only give him 5 years of jail time. So Eli waited in jail, as quietly as he could. Occasionally someone he helped put away or someone who had been put away by another super would try to get revenge, and he would defend himself, but for the most part people left the quiet, bitter, man alone. When he got out he went into isolation as far from people as he could. His money from all his jobs as a super for hire was still there and he put it to good use.
The only person who mattered clearly didn't want him in the world. Eli had no doubt that if he tried to go back to his old ways his brother would try something like that again, or just try to kill him. And as hurt and angry as he was with Frank, he couldn't bring himself to actually hurt his little brother. They were family. So Eli isolated himself as best he could except for a few communications, on the forlorn hope that his brother would actually reach out to him. There was plenty of radio chatter between the supers as they organized themselves, but nothing from his brother and nothing for him. Gradually, it all died down as the supers began to disappear, and Eli was left with silence, and a dead hope that he'd ever see his brother again.
That is, until Special agent Reynolds crackled over an old channel. Eli listened more out of boredom than actual interest and was going to shut it off mid transmission. After all, it wasn't his problem that she couldn't do her job. Then she mentioned Hex. Eli hesitated, and listened through. Then he sighed and picked himself up. Hex may have been a goody two shoes nosy bastard, but he had been legitimate. If Hex had visions of a 'Reality Bringer' ending the world, something like that was coming. And as much as Eli didn't care for the rest of the world he lived on the world. Besides, he owed the bastard Hex for preventing him from being rotting in prison currently. He was an old man with one foot in the grave, but he could do something before kicking the bucket.
And maybe, just maybe, Frank would answer the call. He was always tight with Hex, always spouted the same 'heroes have to use their powers for good' garbage. It would be good to see his brother again.
Maybe.
Personality: Eli is most obviously characterized by an almost total lack of empathy for his fellow man. He never cared for the plights of anyone but himself and his family. And since his family is all either dead or have turned their backs on him, he cares even less. He views the world as a cold and merciless place and the people in it even more so. Kindness and mercy are only weaknesses that others will use to either stab you in the back, or force you to carry them through every difficulty they encounter. He views superheroes as the ultimate manifestation of that foolishness, people using powers to help those who don't want to help themselves, opening themselves to attacks they normally wouldn't be open too with their abilities. Villains are worse, greedily trying to take as much as they can, assuming that because they have powers they're unstoppable. As such, he generally finds most other supers to be insufferable.
The notable exception to his lack of empathy is children. Eli either sees his brother and himself in them, or perhaps thinks they're the last vestige of innocence in the world. Regardless, the only time anyone is able to see Eli be gentle or kind is when dealing with kids. He's even been noted to do some of the 'stupid heroics' he mocks superheroes for when they're in danger.
A generally practical and ruthless person, Eli favors an 'by any means necessary' methodology. It typically doesn't matter what has to be done or who has to be sacrificed to get the job done, Eli is willing to do whatever is the most efficient route to getting an objective accomplished. Control and detachment are traits he values and prides himself on, ignoring the fact that he himself struggles at times with control and detachment.
Eli lacked tact since before his self-imposed exile. A little under twenty years of being in isolation has made that even worse. In general, he shouldn't be the one doing the talking and it would be best to have someone nearby to shut him up if the team is in a delicate situation that needs to be talked out of.
Eli is still values family above all else. He has no idea where Frank is, or if Frank is even still alive, but he would do anything for his brother without question. When they were in the military, this extended to their squad that they would operate frequently with but he even has less of an idea of where any of them are. Dead, presumably, in some war or operation by the USA government.
Despite the tough and immovable persona Eli presents, he's afraid of not dying. Immortality seems like a curse, rather than boon. It was a constant worry of his when he was younger, that his powers wouldn't let him age or die and he'd have to live forever or kill himself. It was a relief when he began showing signs of aging, even though he knew that it was most likely his subconscious influencing his powers to prevent them from manipulating his cells. Heroes who were immortal or undead always unnerved him, and he kept his distance as best he could. As if they could infect him with their immortality.
Misc Facts: Eli likes to keep himself and his gear immaculate and well-groomed. A minor neurotic tick, he frequently uses his powers to keep his hair a certain way, his nails trimmed, so on so forth. He's used his power endless times in his life to prevent scars from forming.
Eli has a working knowledge of how the human body is put together and operates, and how various organic structures in the animal, plant, and insect kingdom are put together and operate. He has spent his years studying how they work and what makes them work, on the off chance that Frank would reach out to him and he'd need to use his abilities once more. It never came to be, but now that the Special Agent has reached out to him he can finally put them to good use. Hopefully.
Eli has a tendency to unconsciously hum as he focuses on something.
Eli likes arachnids. He had a pet Goliath tarantula he let go before heading to Cedar Fort, and he still misses Suzy.
Relationship with Hex: Hex and Eli were rivals, of a sort. Whenever Eli would be hired to do something for a corporation or a villain who didn't want their hands to be dirtied or any connections to lead back to them, Hex would be there spouting some general bullshit line about using their powers for good. He always annoyed Eli, with his oozing self-righteousness. His hexes were incredibly frustrating as well, given how they affected Eli as a person and not just his organic material. Occasionally Hex would convince Eli there was enough profit in helping the 'good' side that they'd work together, but such occasions were rare. Hex was the one who prevented Eli from being incarcerated for life, though Eli doesn't know what was said or why, still reeling from his brother's betrayal. Presumably some vision of his about Eli's 'potential.'
This is a great sheet man. It's an improvement on what I already thought was a great writing style you had, Rtron. It makes me super happy to see this, like with DJ :) You always listen to feedback, and then take it on to your next projects. It's also always nice to see a familiar face.
I like that you went old old, it's refreshing and you really took that 'jaded superhero' theme to the extreme, didn't you haha. A fantastic origin story, so well executed. I enjoyed reading Eli go from villain to reluctant hero, to hero for hire, to villainous again, just through a whole cycle. It feels very real - and I'm so interested to see where his allegiances will take him when we bring the 'Reality Bringer' in - and since we have a character like Benny....
I'm really happy with this sheet, and you can post it in the character section. And also be proud of this one, you killed it :)
Lord, gimme that fire: The most dramatic of her powers by far, Yaz is a living conduit of heat. She commands a veritable torrent of thermal energy, which she can put to use in ways both subtle and awe-inspiring; from blasts of explosive force that can tear the foundations out of buildings to gently re-warming a hypothermia victim. She is even capable of simply moving energy from one place to another - useful, for example, for surrounding herself with a bubble of comparative cool while pulling someone from a burning building, or an impromptu ice hockey game in the height of a Virginian summer. She can, with concentration and care, "manually" operate a rocket engine - though that perhaps ill-advised experiment never did turn into a reliable mechanism for flight. Her body temperature is normally quite high, often near 39 degrees Celsius, and she feels rather chilly at what is, for anyone else, a comfortable room temperature.
This ability, of course, has limits; in addition to being physically taxing, a small part of the power Yaz channels feeds back into her. While her internal capacity for handling that feedback is substantially deeper than her frame might suggest, her ability to channel star-hot lances of fire is very finite. The amount of power at any given time also matters, and that feedback is not a linear relationship - Yaz is capable of incredible things, but she can also, quite literally, burn herself out.
Yaz doesn't have to direct the fury of her ability from her hands, but it's what the cameras expect, it looks great, and it means she can see what she's doing. In reality, she can project her power from any point within about a 2-meter radius from the center of her chest, which is blocked by solid objects - Yaz can't boil someone's brain inside their skull.
Hot stuff, baby: Yasmin's body is incredibly resistant to heat - she can comfortably walk through molten iron or stand near rocket wash. Smoke and combustion products don't bother her, with the bizarre specificity of superpowers. A room full of burning plastic is no problem, a room filled with Halon is a different question entirely. She is also substantially resistant to most forms of ionizing radiation, and hasn't had a successful dental X-ray in decades. Her visit to Chernobyl, though, was delightful. Note that this does not means she is bulletproof, knife-proof, punch-proof, shrapnel-proof, or immune to freezing to death, drowning, or quite a large number of other ways to die.
You’ll still find stone: Okay, Yaz is a little bit physically superhuman. In addition to keeping herself in excellent physical condition, she is a little stronger, her reflexes are a little faster, and she's able to withstand substantially more physical punishment than a garden-variety human. As previously mentioned, however, she can still be killed by falling debris, she absolutely can be taken unawares, she is not immune to poison gasses, and she still gets colds, hangovers, and food poisoning.
Weaknesses:
There are six million ways to die. Chose one: Yaz is very, extremely mortal. Against someone with an enhanced physiology, she needs to be very careful to not wind up facing physical strength with her own. She's also not very good at being shot - there are clever tricks she can pull, but they don't work if she's facing an army of well-equipped henchmen. She has less of a problem with cold than you might expect, but once her core temperature stops dropping, it drops fast, and she can succumb to hypothermia very quickly. Similarly, many things that would kill a human will kill her - including oxygen starvation, drug overdose, and being hit on the head very, very hard. While Yaz is a very strong-willed person, an opponent with mental-assault capabilities would probably not find Yaz a difficult target.
Appearance:
Yasmin is tall for a woman, though she still needs a stepstool to reach the top shelves of her kitchen cabinets. She keeps her hair in a stylish cut; at the moment it's bobbed and undercut, with starlight-platinum highlights against the rest of her straight, dark locks. She works quite hard to maintain a strong, flexible build, long lines of lean muscle with a figure that is unmistakably feminine. Her skin is a rich, clear olive with few visible scars; the most prominent being a small mark that cuts through her left eyebrow. Her eyes are two flashing emeralds, depthless and crystalline, wide, intelligent, and often filled with a kind of laconic humor. Her lips are full and inviting without the bee-stung lusciousness so often in vogue, the lines of her face lean without being gaunt, just on this side of masculinity - a playful, puckish tomboy's features. She is often smiling, often laughing, and her voice has a pleasant accent that makes every word its own piece of music.
She moves through the world with the perfect confidence of someone who knows exactly who they are, and where they want to be. She is neither predatory nor timid, she does not dominate or shrink - Yaz is the kind of person who is enough within themselves, and is made all the more magnetic for that. Yaz will almost always be found with a pendant around her neck, along with a ring on each hand and bangles, bracelets, or arm cuffs as her mood dictates. Her ears are each pierced several times, along with the left side of her nose. Delicate lines of cybernetic tracery cross her scalp, arc down her spine, and flow in thin, silver vining shapes across body, deliberately beautiful and just subtle enough that you might think they're tattoos.
Yaz' left arm is artificial, a sculpture in polished metal and ceramic. The prosthesis wraps around her shoulder, her back, and flows down her side. She often keeps the colors in blue and white, highlighted in silver and dark graphite, though this can change with her mood or whim. There are no visible scars around the prosthesis; it seems that her skin simply becomes something else. She makes no attempt to hide it, and many of her outfits either complement, or directly display her artificial limb.
In public, and especially for official events, she is almost always dressed in something bespoke from her own design house. Skirts and blouses flash in cuts and styles that perhaps show more skin than the casual viewer might expect; suits are cut in ways that project confidence and power in her femininity. Yaz is very aware of the potential of a heel, and while they will never be an everyday part of her wardrobe, there are times she enjoys them. This isn't to say that Yaz has never been caught brunching in yoga pants and a comfortable tank - sometimes you don't need your look to take an hour to put together, after all. In private, at home, she's often in whatever feels comfortable at the moment, which depends on what she's doing, who she's with, whether the curtains are drawn, and if she cares about that at the moment.
In the days when she embraced her superhero identity, Yaz' outfit was, naturally, eye-catching, practical, and colorful. Blazing in a rich, twilight blue highlighted in silver and accented with the geometric patterns of traditional Islamic art, it was never difficult to find Yaz, even in less than ideal lighting. The costume itself only came into being when required, manufactured on the spot in a piece of a second by nanoscale fabrication engines built into Yaz' jewelry and accessories. In appearance, Yaz' costume shared elements with an armored encounter suit, a kaftan dress, and a belly dancer's outfit; thin, strong material hugging her body without a sprayed-on appearance, marked with bright jewelry and offering both protection and freedom of motion.
Equipment:
Nowadays, most of Yasmin's accessories are just that - decorative and sentimental. On a day to day basis, she is no more or less equipped than many other people around her; save that she is often rather more fashionable.
Yaz does have a neural lace, and a limited suite of cybernetic systems. Particularly, an implanted communication system for taking calls, messages, and texts, along with starting her car and opening the door to her house. The remaining visible metallic lines etched in her skin were primarily for communicating with the equipment that manufactured her costume, and now exist primarily for aesthetics.
Her artificial arm has the powers and capabilities of a human arm, with the aesthetic variability of an early-21st-century cell phone case. The limb has a full sensorium, is warm to the touch, and great care has been taken to give the various surfaces a pleasing, if not necessarily organic, texture. The limb, and the implant site, are made of materials that can withstand a poorly-calculated atmospheric entry on Venus, but it has no extraordinary abilities.
Corona’s costume is no bulwark of safety, though it does offer Yaz some advantages. The material, while thin and lightweight, is remarkably difficult to tear, and is capable of deflecting a limited amount of gunfire. She is no walking bastion, but a hero needs to be able to shrug off the occasional bullet or blade - the bruises they leave behind are a problem for the next day. In a similar vein, the costume can absorb and spread impact damage to a degree; she's already a little tougher than normal and spreading impacts over even a few more tenths of a second can make the difference between being dazed and being pulverized. The costume does not cover Yaz' face; she's been quite public about who she is for her entire career.
The suit is very, very fireproof. It is, however, not quite Yaz-proof. The bangles, jewelry, and other things the suit is manufactured by, are. The entire setup was a gift from another hero in the far-off days of the past.
In a more mundane sense, Yaz owns a motorcycle that she lovingly maintains herself; the activity is something of a meditation. The bike is a companion piece to her car, which is low, fast, and practical for perhaps two people who already like one another and don't have much luggage.
Oh, and she also owns the al-Fasi Couture design house; a high-end and bespoke clothing and jewelry firm. She is in enough demand to have a small staff and a very comfortable lifestyle, but is only occasionally counted among the elites of the fashion world. Yaz definitely works for a living, but that living is a pleasant one.
Origin:
A cloudless day, the kind that used to be rare during a London Autumn. Nothing like the furnace heat of home, but while the elevator rose, I watched the city on the Thames adjust to what would doubtless be another uncomfortably hot day. On the sunward side of the buildings nearby, huge shades unfurled, every surface lined with solar collectors; vast artificial flowers that would track the day's light. Even in their stark necessity, I thought they were beautiful. I rose further, and out the car's window I could see the rest of the city waking up, the first trickles of people onto the sidewalks, walking by holographic signs that flickered on outside buildings hewn from timbers older than whole nations. The car slowed, and I thought I could make out the whine of electric busses far below. Before long the first passenger drones would whir by, scant meters from the curved glass and adding another strata to the busy city. To the South, the Shard reflected the hard cerulean sky, still lonely and proud at the end of London Bridge, though perhaps not for long. The elevator stopped with a quiet chime, the door sliding aside in silken silence. I took a few steps down a short hallway, touched my hand to a reader in the wall, and a moment later, the door swung in.
My mother spends a lot of time on the phone, or video conferences, or on globally-televised stages, arguing. Arguing for a different world, and maybe a better one. She's been called the most important thinker in modern Islam, but she's been called a lot of other things, too. True to form, when she opened the door, her other hand held her phone to the side of her head, and she was speaking a stream of Arabic so hot and fast that it could have melted glass. She gave me an exasperated look, tilted her head at the phone, and invited me in with a hand gesture. I started taking my shoes off while she turned away, her free arm piercing the air with sharp gestures. She wouldn't be long - she never was, when one of her children came to visit - but I wished that someone would just take her word for something, sometimes. Maybe they would, one day.
I padded my way further inside, air still crackling with the clipped, rapid-fire sound of my mother in full I-can't-believe-I-have-to-explain-this-to-you mode. Her apartment is, if I admit it to myself, nicer than mine, with high ceilings and the rare view of London that isn't obscured by another supertall or arcology, at least for now. Her decorating is minimalist, but with a purpose - whatever she does, my mother makes a statement. Along one wall, she keeps a collection of letters - invitations to the United Nations next to the unhinged missives that you see once you've really gotten people's attention. Every time I visited, I felt like I found a new way to misspell 'Rana al-Fasi.'
With words that almost sounded conciliatory, my mother finished her conversation. I didn't hear the sound of her thumb on the phone, but I did hear the way she took in a long, slow, steadying breath. She would be muttering something to herself; either a prayer or curses which would then be followed by a prayer. Based on how long it took for her to come back into room, I suspected the latter. She appeared after a few long moments, composed, for the most part, and she looked like a different person when she smiled and held her hands out to me.
"As salaam alaikum, Yasmin," my mother said, taking my hands in hers. She squeezed them with a strength few expected, a gesture I returned.
"Wa alaikum salaam," I returned, resisting the urge to engage in a game of escalating pleasantries. After all, she always won.
"Was that-" I began.
"The Secretary General, yes," my mother replied, blowing out an exasperated sigh. She let my hands go, "After everything, he still makes speeches filled with foolish nonsense. The worst kind, too. Sometimes I wonder if any ideas actually get into his head, or if every thought he's ever had just bounces inside his skull, and occasionally becomes something useful." "
I laughed, "It's good to see you, Mom," I said, making my way toward the kitchen. "Tea?"
My mother made an eloquent gesture with one long-fingered hand that communicated yes, that she was glad I had offered, that she apologized for the state of the kitchen, and that we should start with anise and make further decisions from there.
I have been her daughter for a long time. I busied myself for a few moments, pulling tea things from the cupboards and setting water to boil.
"And I'm glad to you see you," she said with a sigh, "If only the world weren't going mad."
I poured hot water over the tea sachets, and the room blossomed with a pleasant, heady scent. "If you're expecting me to recite something to you, I hate to disappoint." I held a mug out to my mother, who wrapped it in her fingers with another small smile while I settled onto the couch next to her.
"Hah!" she said, her voice without heat, "You have never disappointed me, Yasmin, you know that. Allah may have set you one path, and you chose another." She took a sip of her tea, "I am so proud of you, daughter. I know your father would have been, too."
We drank tea and enjoyed the quiet for a few moments. Then my mother leaned forward and picked something up from the coffee table, bright copper, squashed at one end. She rolled it between her fingers slowly, touching every part of the misshapen lump.
"But you could be doing-" she started.
"Mother!" I said, my voice sharp even to my own ears, "No. That's in the past."
She smiled, "So often, our past catches up. And you can't run from one like yours, Yasmin."
I took a drink of my tea, one that should have burned my tongue, "I haven't been running," I said into the fragrant steam, "I've been...walking with purpose."
"Are you telling me Sorrento can't mind the business for a few days? Or a couple of weeks?" My mother's voice was cool, "I don't think you'd surround yourself with that kind of incompetence."
"No, not..." I trailed off, "You remember what happened the last time I saw Addison." I rolled my shoulder involuntarily, the fingers of my artificial hand clicking against the mug I held.
"And you remember the letters she sent afterward," my mother took another sip of her tea, "The ones you never opened. The calls you never answered. Twelve years is a long time."
I looked down at my tea, "It's someone else's job to save the world." but I couldn't find the fire I wanted in my own voice. I swirled the tea in my mug for a few moments, then looked up, "Now you are going to recite something to me," I said, and I couldn't help the small smile that tugged at my lips.
"And whoso saveth the life of one," she began.
"It shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind," I finished, still looking at my tea.
"Your father's favorite," my mother said, her voice gentle.
I blew out a sigh, "And look where that got him."
"Yasmin." The reproach in her voice drove into my spine and though gentle, made my cheeks flush with shame, "I did not teach you to be so unkind."
I raised my hand in a gesture of peace, and settled back against the couch, still drumming my fingers on the mug.
"Did Addison really call you?" I was still looking at my tea.
"She said your comm didn't respond to her message. And, well, it's obvious that you're still alive." I could hear the smile in her voice, "I liked your outfit last week, during the interview with...what was his name, Hatoshi?"
I smiled, closed my eyes, and shook my head. "I threw that comm in the Thames right after the hospital let me go home. She's persistent."
"Then there is probably a very well-informed catfish somewhere in the riverbed." My mother took a long drink of her tea, her ring clinking against her own mug, "But Addison was - is - resourceful. She called my private line."
I opened my eyes, and turned my head to look at my mother. She studied me, the light shining through her hazel eyes and making them seem to glow from within. She had a small smile tugging at one side of her face, crinkling the skin at the corner of one eye. She only looked like that when she already knew she'd won. I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep, long breath, savoring the smells of leather and wood, of anise and the scented oil my mother dabbed on her skin.
"Do you know what I remember the most about that day?" I kept my gaze on the ceiling, "The day I met Stardust?"
My mother stayed quiet, the sound of her tea mug her only reply.
"I was never scared. Not for a moment." I sighed, "Not that I expected everything would be all right, but I don't remember any fear. When I could think again, I wasn't scared, I was angry. Either Stardust would take out Parson, or he'd finish whatever he was trying to do to me, and all I wanted was to go to graduate school. And then she threw him through a gas main, and I woke up in a burning building without a scratch on me." I closed my eyes again.
"And then I was Corona, and I felt like I still didn't get to have a say in what happened to me." I could feel a tear welling, pressing between my eyelids, "And then that built and built, and all I wanted was that choice."
"And when I got a chance to make my choice, I thought I'd made the right one," my voice roughened, "I thought the world didn't need us anymore. That I didn't need that world." I took in a long, shaking breath, "But that's not true at all, is it." I sniffled, my chest feeling tight.
"I want to say that I'm going to go to SoHo and work on dresses for the Gala," I said, my voice shaking, "I want to say that the world can take care of itself. I want Zara's machines and anyone else who's still alive to go fight this. I want to say I'm done."
"But that isn't the daughter I raised," my mother said, steel and fire in every word.
I took a few slow, deep breaths, willing my heart to stop pounding, the tears to stop sliding down the sides of my head. Tears of what, I couldn't say - frustration, joy, relief, dread - but they flowed all the same, leaving tracks past my ears and down my neck.
The cushions creaked, and I heard a mug settle onto the table in front of the couch. A moment later and my mother's arm pulled me close, settling my head onto her shoulder, her hand on my cheek. She whispered soft words in Arabic; a prayer, I think, though I couldn't quite make the words out.
"The work is never done, Yasmin," she said after what felt like several long, quiet minutes, "We owe it to the future to fight with whatever tools we have. I fight with my words, Zara with her mind. You've made the world so much more beautiful, my daughter, in so many ways. But I think it's time to rise again."
I took another long, shuddering breath and nodded, my cheek against cool and smooth fabric. I sniffled again, then found myself relaxing, unwinding mental blocks I'd kept in place for so long I almost didn't realize I had them. I felt things stirring in my chest, a tingle across my skin; the spring-coil tension of something waiting to be let free. With one last breath, this one almost easy, I shifted my head, looking up at my mother.
"Do you have Addison's number?"
Personality: Yasmin is proud, independent, usually even-tempered, and stubborn. She has an internal moral compass, and a firm belief in right and wrong, though she tends not to deal in absolutes. Despite her upbringing, Yaz is not particularly religious, though she tries to be kind, compassionate, and to see the good in people. In other words, she is nice, but she has limits, and if someone assumes that nice equates to pushover, they likely have a (potentially painful) lesson to learn. She rarely keeps real grudges, finding the effort to maintain them corrosive, but there are certainly people she'd rather not speak with too often - or ever.
Corona was never really a separate character, more of an extension and exaggeration of things that were already part of Yaz' psyche. Despite her ability to blow a hole in an armored vehicle, Yaz was always the one who wanted to talk first, to see if there was a way past the situation without violence. She has no particular regrets or anxieties about the fact that, quite often, there was no room for daylight between her view and her opponent, and the fact that the team she worked with came out the victor doesn't bother her.
Over the last decade, a certain grimness has come into her sense of humor, though she tries to keep the darkest cynicism away. Though a staunch ralist, she steadfastly refuses to give in to despair, and chooses to believe that things can be made better - not perfect, not quickly, not without effort - but better all the same. This can be charming to some, and breathtakingly annoying to others.
Yaz takes orders poorly, but accepts suggestions readily. She believes in free will to the depths of her soul, and occasionally resents a combination of her upbringing, her inherent nature, and the sheer fact that she can do so many things that 'normal' people can't means that she has to be Corona, that her normal life will always be secondary. She wants a world where she can be normal. She understands that it probably won't happen.
She identifies as mostly-gay, but she's had a boyfriend or two in her life that she didn't regret. She enjoys the company of other people almost as much as she enjoys reading a book with her cat, and she can be a ferocious and shameless flirt when the mood is on her. She forms connections with people easily, and enjoys when those connections bloom into friendships, more than friendships, or something even more, but she doesn't mind the mayfly-short bursts of emotion that sometimes enter her life. Sometimes it's talking with the person next to her on a plane, sometimes it's one (or two, or three) nights in someone's arms, sometimes it's the quiet, shared intensity of watching a sunrise with a stranger.
Misc Facts: Yasmin's father was an Imam, a kind and good man. He was killed by people who resented his kindness. Her mother is a scholar, tireless and ferocious, who raised her children to make their own choices. Yaz has a younger sister, Zara, who works for a weapons and cybernetics firm that tries to make weapons, armor, and other devices that might help normal humans confront super-powered individuals. So far, most of them don't work, though it isn't for lack of trying, or the bottomless well of of practical inspiration that churns out of Zara with every heartbeat.
Relationship with Hex: She didn't have one. However, Yasmin dated Addison Reynolds for several years. At one point, it appeared they were going to get married. That ended when Addison had to make a hard choice that cost her a fiancé, and cost Yaz an arm.
I like the sheet, I like fiery heroes and Yaz is that. The powers and weaknesses make sense, and I'm happy with them. I like her reactions to cold, perhaps even doing something with a weakness to prolonged exposure to water might be interesting as well? The appearance section that you wrote was lovely too, and I got a very clear picture of the character. I liked the perspective you took for writing the origin story too. A nice sheet all round, and she brings a power that I was worried we wouldn't get.
My main issue is how much you've written Addison into it, Addison may be more NPC than PC, but she's still my character and much of her is deliberately in mystery - the relationship you've written with her goes off of the assumption that she isn't already married or something and takes a bit of agency out of my story. I would ask you to remove that element completely from the sheet, or just rename the person in the relationship and forgo a relationship with Hex as I'm not *too* hung up on it at this point. Addison idolised Supers, but never knew any personally, certainly wasn't almost married to one.
Cedar Fort at night was beautiful, a picturesque utopia of bright neon lights and modern architecture alongside the buildings of years and eras gone by. It was picturesque of course if you viewed it from above, as long as you didn’t get to close, you wouldn’t notice the stains and tears at the fabric of the city. You wouldn’t notice that the further from dead centre that you got, the easier it was to find filth.
The centre was the hub of wealth and those who lived in the flashy towers had the best technology, access to what they needed, and the best security - it really was an Eden for them, for the socialites, high-flying businessmen, and general bourgeoise. They did not struggle for food. They did not know thirst, everything that they could wish for, belonged to them. They had on a silver platter the world that had been promised to them. ‘The World of Tomorrow’ had always been on the horizon, just a wish for a better future, for technology and automation, for freedom and peace, for a greener world. It was all just a wish, only a percentage of the people were elevated. Only a percentage had their wishes come true. The rest were left behind. How could it be, that while so many sat pretty, many more sat in dirt?
With a monorail system in place, the original subway lines were no longer in use - and instead the labyrinthine tunnels then became the structure to house some of the poorest within the city. At least that way they were out of the near constant rain, but it was a literal underbelly for depravity. Nobody chose to live there, the tunnels chose them, grasped at the lost and weary - the hopeless. They would be seduced by the life, the freedom, the people who seemed so decent. That was the trap, and so the tunnels simply digested the souls of those who entered and sent them back out as criminals.
The further one got from the centre, the further one got from society, and miles beyond the last crumbling walls of the city, there was simple a wasteland of abandoned buildings. Industrial units that had been made obsolete by technology. Just barren stacks of brick, slowly eroding with the passing of time. Nobody really wanted to stray too far from the lights, no matter how much dirt they were in. It was better to be at least know the light, than to feel the loneliness of yesterday.
05/20/2047 Outside of Cedar Fort
The warehouse was cold.
Because of course it was. Nobody cared about the outskirts of Cedar Fort, certainly not enough to care about a dilapidated warehouse sat amongst rows and rows and rows of abandoned warehouses. The only differentiating factor that it had was that it was red - or at least it had been once. Now, the paint was peeling away - leaving patches of dirty brickwork and flakes on the ground trodden into the gravel.
Addison sighed, watching as the condensation blew out from her lips. She shivered and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. To the left of her was a box of electronics, and to the right a folding stool she’d brought along for the trip. Even with the tiny campfire, she couldn’t get warm - and it became difficult to know if she was freezing or just completely nervous. She cupped her gloved hands to her face and breathed against them - continuing to pace the floor, but never drawing too far from the flames.
She’d been here for hours, at least that was how it felt. Like she’d been here all day, it had been a while since the sun had set. Addison was hungry too, real hungry. She just wanted to get back to her apartment, lock herself in, make a hot dinner, and forget that she’d ever had a ridiculous idea. It was clear that nobody was coming, that her message hadn’t been heard. She’d even had a moment of anxiety earlier when she worried about whether or not she had sent out the right coordinates. What if a super had arrived somewhere, and was simply doing the same dance as she was right now? Cold, hungry, and waiting in the dark.
Still she waited. She wasn’t going to give up. Her hunger was not as strong as her hope - or desperation, and eventually she got down onto the floor, right by the fire this time. Her brown eyes gazed into the flames and brought a warmth to her face - her cheeks grew rosy in the heat and the light and she found herself feeling calmer for it. She thought of the kids she’d found dead by the water. She thought of the crime that seemed to never relent. She thought of her partner…
Too tired to cry, her lip simply trembled. Again, she couldn’t have been sure whether this was the cold, or something in tune with her emotions. Probably both. Addison brought her knees up to her chest, the heels of her boots scraping the cement as they moved. Her arms shifted around them, until she was in a ball with her head resting on her knees.
She knew the city would be alive right now. The nightlife just beginning, people would be returning to their homes from meals out, children would be fast asleep. Here she was, sat in an abandoned warehouse waiting for hope to walk through the door and greet her. If she was lucky, a single super would arrive. If she wasn’t, some criminals would find her here and she’d be outnumbered, gunned down, and left to rot. Because nobody was coming.
Time rolled on still, and Addison watched as the fire came down to it’s last embers. It must have been at least 2 in the morning, and she’d been there since late afternoon. That settled it. It was done, wasn’t it? “Nobody’s coming…” she said, watching her breath accompany the words in a small cloud.
i do hope this is acceptable... been trying to make this concept work for a little while now.
Edit: Reworked and renamed to be less OP sorry about that, sleep deprivation does funny things to me.
Name: Isaac J. Castle Alias: Nightmare Formerly: Wild Card Age: 36 Powers:
A call to the void. – A dark ability he barley understands, similar to what you would call shape shifting just in a different light. Entering into a trance and muttering words he does not know or remember, a black void opens beneath him and he sinks in. after a certain amount of time, a creature will emerge that he shares a mental and physical connection. What emerges has only referred to itself once as Naswaru. Once the creature is dismissed or destroyed, he will appear were it last stood unharmed but fatigued.
Evolved specimen – there is a 5% chance that whatever comes back through the void is evolved or at a higher level than the others of the same type. These specimens have stronger and have more powerful ability’s. However, they are harder for Isaac to control and he is more susceptible to their natural urges and instincts.
Somewhere overhead, you hear it. Something pounds at the air. A hideous black thing slides across the stars. Giant membranous wings carry it through the air, beating like those of some mythical fiend. There’s something about it that lets you know it’s only toying with you…
Naswaru stands more than 8ft. tall and is most frightening. It also regenerates at an absurd rate, healing from death’s door to your doorstep in a matter of a half hour. And just plain overall, its physical gifts are not to be underestimated. massive bat-like wings sprout from the Vampire’s back. Nearly thirty feet from tip to tip, these wings are capable of carrying it high through the sky. it is death from above.
Everything about this creature screams pain. Its Exsanguinating Touch literally causes blood to boil, bursting out of the body of its victim. Inanimate objects crack and sizzle as if acid were poured onto it. Those who have been tortured by this one typically bear terrible scarring from ruined capillaries and veins rupturing through their skin. The size of pencils but twice as thick, the stingers they fire are covered in inch-long barbs.
Naswaru is sadistic, blood thirsty, and deadly. It's personality traits have already begun to develop with in Isaac causing a need to inflict pain and an unholy thirst for blood combined with the patience of a predator and an arrogance borne of birds of prey.
On another note although he has a mouth it does not have vocal cords and instead projects its thoughts telepathically one way to talk to others in this form. In a sense you can hear him but unless you speak he cant hear you.
Weaknesses:
When he dives he never comes back the same, there is a toll that must be paid for making the call. Sometimes it’s just a memory, it can be changed, erased, or not even his own. It could manifest as a twitch or unknown desire. Normally he comes back with personality traits of the beast.
If someone were to ever gain control of his mind and force him to call to the void, he nor the person who forced him to will be in control of the demon. The creature will do whatever its primary goal would be without the care for collateral damage. If the creature suffers enough damage or is out for at most 6 hours it will dissipate and Isaac will be rendered unconscious.
It takes a little time for him to complete the incantation and slip into the void, if someone were to interrupt this the call would not work and he would have to try again. It is not instantaneous.
Even though the creature looks like it is from another world, he is still just a human and suffers from the same ailments and issues regular humans have.
Eventually the beast will consume him entirely, this is what Hex warned. Without his pendant the beast has more influence on his reasoning and compulsions.
Appearance:
An average built man, standing 5’9 and weighing about 180 Lbs.
Deep sunken brown eyes, a thousand yard stare, and a permanent scowl are the first to greet you when you first meet him. Always sporting short neatly shaved hair and looking like he had not shaved for the last few days. The smell of smoke and cheap cologne, not strong enough to put someone off but definitely there.
His skin always looks a little dirty and covered in various tattoos of different colors and images. These tattoos hide scars of a tortured and broken past long before he was given his ability. One thing that stands out with these tattoos and markings is several symbols of other hero’s. Some forgotten to time, others who are no longer among the living, and a few that still walk the streets and back allies.
He has the look of someone who has seen or done some very bad things and has no one to blame but himself for it. Wearing an old patched up and partially reinforced leather trench coat that’s adorned with patches and pins. Under that is normally business clothes and some reinforced slacks that have seen better days. A tie, black but occasionally red, hangs lazily around his neck and an old leather backpack make up his traveling clothes.
The suit he wears was designed to make it so he wouldn’t be easily effected by airborne pollutants, intoxicants, or hallucinogens. Supporting its own self-contained breathing apparatus with oxygen and air scrubbers. As well as being reinforced, a contained layer of medical gel sits just on the inside of the suit, meant to both fill holes in the suit and himself. The last thing his suit has are morphine injectors and pain blockers. These are used when he believes he will be interrupted while beginning his ritual.
Equipment:
Other than his average reinforced clothes he carries a staff that doubles as a walking stick. Strong metal ground to a point on one end and electricity surging through the other. Isaac is highly trained and skilled with most melee weaponry, gaining the skills mostly out of boredom than anything.
Origin:
>> Stolen as a baby by cultists because both his parents had aptitude with magic. >> Raised as a sacrifice, conditioned, and at times tortured. >> The ritual started early and lasted through his entire stay with them. >> Final ritual began when he was 16 under a blood red moon, covered in brandings and tattoos. >> Consumed by the void, the cultists hoped that a messenger from their god would rise. >> What came next was a release of elemental energy and the complete destruction of the cult and its stronghold by an out of control elemental spirit.
>> Waking several days later in a hospital, rescued by law enforcement who thought the cult burnt itself to the ground leaving only the boy. >> Soon found himself escaping from the hospital in a fit of fear and culture shock. >> Began living day by day on the streets of Cedar Fort. >> Dodging gangs and criminal activity was eventually taken in by a small church that worshipped a machine god. >> Spent the next few years learning about the world around them and the machine god, a key member named Tomas instilling a focus on good vs evil.
>> Caught in between a gang fight with Tomas and sheltering in place. The fighting getting worse and worse sparked his ritual. >> A bright light and a being looking like an angel emerged from the dumpster they were hiding in. >> With a simple raise of its hand the fighting stopped, the gang members simply left and returned home. >> This revelation and Tomas’s push for him to be better sparked his inevitable joining of the fight against criminals and those that wished to do harm.
>> He thought he was unstoppable. >> making memories and fighting crime with a power he barley understood. >> Joining a team as the wild card and picking up the same name. >> His team was tight nit and quickly became the family he always wanted, even falling in love with one of them.
>> They were reporting to a hostage situation in a wealthy part of town the top of a new skyscraper filled with offices and apartments. >> there was three sky scrapers in this area and the one they were going to had already been evacuated with the others still in the process of doing so. >> The villain, a cryomancer, had a new friend who could control the minds of others. >> Lately the creatures that were responding to Isaac’s call were becoming stronger and darker, his mental state was becoming more and more strained with repeated use. >> When they finally began their assault he stayed back to be used as a last resort, but the mind controller surprised him and forced him into his trance. >> What emerged was something dark and powerful, an evolved specimen with a dark, sadistic, and blood thirsty personality. >> Although his team had won against the cryomancer none of them knew what to do when this creature strode through the door way.
>> This thing he transformed into nearly disintegrated the cryomancer with a flick of its wrist. Contorting flesh and bone while keeping the man alive until the end and he was splintered across the floor. >> seeing this his team attempted to subdue him but one by one they all failed. All he could do was watch as his family was torn apart around him by him. >> The carnage and utter horror didn’t stop there. This thing made its way down eviscerating and deforming all who stood against it before it simply flew off into the forest.
>> Isaac would never forgive himself for what he did, branded a criminal and sought after by heroes and police alike. >> He returned to the church and has stayed there working ever since. They welcomed him back but he always sensed that they were keeping him at arm’s length. Almost as if they knew what he had done.
Personality:
Isaac is a cold and quiet man, always trying to atone for what he has done through his actions. He will always be the first to offer assistance or help. Often spending what little money he has on helping others in need with food or shelter. If he senses they are having issues or are just lonely he may even break out of his cold personality and try to talk to them.
Slow to anger with a depressed look about him, he finds himself sometimes thinking a bit too much on the given circumstances. The last thing he wants is to get into a fight and will try his best not too unless given no other choices. He has a fear of his ability’s and what they can do and does not like to show them off. However if asked, he is more than willing to open up and talk about them.
He isn’t one to lose his composure or give up early more than likely he will try his best and give it his all on any given task. Always the protector, he would never leave anyone behind and is always willing to make the sacrifice play.
Misc. Facts:
Isaac enjoys singing and playing the guitar, he usually carries a holographic guitar but has an old wooden one at the church. He also enjoys Asian style foods more than others, always finding the time for a good noodle shop.
On a bad day or after a change the voice of Naswaru lingers and talks to him. One could very well see him as being crazy for having a conversation with some one who isn't there.
Naswaru wasn't always a demon, in the beginning it was an angel and it has slowly grown more dangerous and twisted with every use.
Relationship with Hex:
Hex was a strange character, a man that wondered into his church one day while Isaac was still fighting crime and wanted to speak to him about their god. After a brief conversation he revealed he was not here for the religion but for him, to talk to him about his power. Isaac being one to not turn someone away, listened to what he had to say. After their talk about eldritch magic and entities from another realm meant to fight evil, Isaac was more than convinced to let the man attempt to help him. The help he received was in the form of a necklace that helped him control the ones he banded too. Now with him gone Isaac feels indebted to the old man to at least make an effort to figure out what he was doing.
This is different to the sheet that I saw yesterday, so I’m glad you’ve scaled the powers right back. That said, I’m not completely sure this character really fits the ‘cyberpunk’ themes of the roleplay. I’m getting less of a superhero or villain vibe from this character, and more of a horror roleplay character and concept. While I’ve given people some creative freedom with their lore on characters - this one does stretch that a little. Voids to other worlds might be a touch too much for us to manage within the universe we are building.
I think it’s a really creative idea for sure, but possibly not right for this setting. The sheet also feels unfinished in that the origin is simply a bullet point list.
We can try and make Isaac fit the universe more, but it might be changing the essence of the character you’ve thought of a bit too much. Right now, it’s a no - but if you’d like to discuss alternative ideas I’m all ears.
Walking Fortress - Centurion; Alex's old designation as a part of the UK's now-scrapped Walking Fortress project, his powers still hold firm in the present day. Through the development of his powers in the army's testing phase, followed by honing them during his time in the Special Air Service, Alex's set of powers have these distinct features:
Enhanced Optical Targeting Systems; One part of the parcel that were the augmentations he received, his eyes now contain specialised lenses that are wired to a cybernetic computing implant in his brain. These allow him to analyse structures and targets, identify them as either friendly, neutral or hostile, along with other supplemental information like facial recognition and position on a mini-map in a heads-up display. The implants are not advanced enough to read vital signs or allow track of multiple targets and their firing trajectories, but is still good enough to analyse the trajectory of, say, a single bullet from a sniper.
Immovable Object; Alex can, when standing still with BOTH his feet firmly planted on the ground, root himself in place to prevent himself from moving, the augments in his feet anchoring himself into the ground. In this state, Alex's feet are completely immobile and can only be moved with the strongest of pushes that goes over the limits of his own endurance and the limitations of his cybernetic body.
Super Strength; Alex possesses the strength of several hundred men within his augmented muscles, and can easily lift a medium-sized bus, jump as high as a small building and run faster than most humans can, though not as fast as those with super speed. This, coupled with the armour he possesses, literally turns him into a running, jumping battering ram.
Reactive Armour Class - Tower of London; By virtue of his defense-based augments and powers, Alex also possesses a superhuman tough skin, akin to Colossus in terms of durability. This "second skin" is a layer of super strong and tough nanites, formed into kinetic reactive plating that can respond to incoming threats detected by Alex's ocular implants while providing an even level of armour all over his body. This enhances the toughness of his own skin, already strengthened by his original superpower.
Energy Channel; the superpower he was meant to have as a child growing up, Alex is able to redirect energy in many forms; electricity, light, heat and kinetic force chiefly among them. When Alex is confronted with an incoming source of any of those types of energy, he is able to absorb it into his body and then redirect it elsewhere through his hands and only his hands. The amount of force that he can absorb is directly proportional to the force he is able to redirect out of his hands.
Weaknesses:
Alex is a slow, plodding individual even though he's built for speed faster than your average man. He is loud, heavy and moves like a truck on legs, thus he is often the victim of anything that's faster than he is. His cybernetics are also a few generations behind the current year and, as a result, his armour is less durable than is visible. Sure, he shrugs off small arms and assault rifle fire like it's nothing, but placing Alex in front of a machine gun position or anything bigger than an RPG and his armour will struggle to compensate, even failing in places if he takes enough damage. The nanites that make up his armour are able to self-regenerate, but the process takes days to even weeks, and once that protective layer is gone, the only thing left is his resilient skin protecting him, and even that has its own limits. This makes Alex a very tough individual, but a focused effort and enough firepower will bring him down.
Along with this, the cybernetics within Alex are old and he is outclassed by even the simplest of current generation military-designed augments. Going up against anything that was produced in the current year is going to be a challenge for him.
Appearance:
Standing six feet five and weighing a good 220 pounds of muscle, Alex is well enough built of a man for most women to call him a stud. He has brown eyes and a head of shoulder length, shaggy brown hair, with a long, thick nose and thin lips. His hands are big and thick yet soft and gentle, belying his calm, gentle nature. A small scar is etched on his right cheek, as well as another over his left eyebrow. He normally dresses in simple garb, often wearing a tee-shirt, plain blue jeans and shoes underneath a dark green grocer's apron when he's at work. However, he will never be seen without his signature silver signet ring on his right index finger. This ring is decorated with a kite shield on its front, and engraved on the shield are the coat of arms of his ancestors; clockwise from the top left, a gothic cross, an eagle, a castle tower and a sword. He also has a silver chain, on which dangles a locket with a family picture inside it, whose case is engraved with an ornate castle tower. When he's not at work, he usually wears his signature navy blue flat cap along with any kind of shirt that strikes his fancy, usually a polo or a plaid, short-sleeved collared shirt, along with jeans and shoes.
The augments that Alex possesses also leave him in a less-than-human state. The nanites that make up his armour typically manifest as a rippling wave across his skin that settles into a very traditional hexagon shaped lattice that covers his entire body, but is most prominent on his chest and arms, where the lines in the lattice are actually visible. His eyes, although brown, also produce a very slight glow from the ocular lens implants there that are also miniature monitors for his HUD. There is also a small SAS logo imprinted on his right temple, near his hairline and concealed by his fringe, along with a bigger tattoo of the same logo on his right upper arm.
As for a costume, Alex is normally clad in a navy blue flat cap and a black domino mask, mostly concealed by his shaggy hair. He wears a white turtleneck shirt underneath a brown trench coat that's normally left open. The length of chain that serves as his weapon is normally wrapped around his left arm. On his legs he wears a pair of beige cargo pants and steel-toed boots. On his hands are a pair of black leather driving gloves.
Equipment:
A length of extra heavy-duty chain that serves as his primary weapon. It is usually wrapped around his right forearm.
His fists and feet, naturally.
Origin:
Born into a family of capes, Alex and his twin sister Shirley both didn't develop their powers until their teens, due to their parents being supers as well. Robert Mackey and Berenike Anil weren't exactly the best parents but they still raised a sterling young man and a graceful young woman, juggling their lives as famous superheroes while raising their two children and maintaining the business of their family-run grocer's in the little, sleepy village of Staithes in North Yorkshire. His father was one of the UK's greatest supers, a matter manipulator known as Excalibur. A great hero and inspiration to his children, but a lousy drunk and too full of pride in his identity as a cape. His mother, Berenike, often referred to as their great mother Bear, was also the Egyptian heroine Banshee, with her powers of sound manipulation and flight. She was kind and caring, even understanding of Robert's mistakes, which is why she married him; to keep him on the straight and narrow while they raised a family of their own.
Growing up in such a sleepy little town, Alex and Shirley had an idyllic life against a backdrop of serenity. When they were just kids, they didn't know that their parents were superheroes who regularly tangled with criminals and villains in other parts of the UK. Friends of their parents were more common sights than their actual parents and it was this absence of parental figures that made Alex into a headstrong young man who often took charge of the family's errands and chores while his parents were away. It wasn't until both he and Shirley grew into their teens and developed powers of their own that a decision had to be made. Robert and Bere hung up their capes and instead dedicated their newfound free time to their kids, teaching them how to control their powers along with being the parents that they should have been. Together, the super-powered family used their talents not to fight crime, but to instead help their community and live a semi-normal life. Their little grocer's shop down by the quay soon grew in popularity from their use of powers to help both themselves and others in need in their village. After all, it wasn't every day that you'd see the local fisherman's son hauling a broken down tractor into town for a fix by hand, or for his mother's beautiful songs to ring through the town square during the spring festival.
But with time came progress and the march of technology was only in one direction: forward. Alex and Shirley passed their teens and became young adults. As the years went by, Robert retired from the fishing life due to a back problem and his old age, while his wife continued to teach in their village's school. Alex, in a state of conflict about supporting their family and their home, decided one day to run away to the army. Without telling anyone, he left his quiet home and enlisted, around the same time his sister also left home to pursue her own career. He soon proved to be a few levels above the other recruits from his powers, much to the amusement of the officers in charge of new recruits. His displays attracted the attention of some powerful people in the British Army, who convinced the still young and naive Alex to join up with a strange, experimental group within their ranks. A secret project called the Walking Fortress Project, using newfound advances in cybernetic enhancements to build young men into super soldiers. Alex's natural powers of enhanced strength and durable skin made him the perfect candidate, hell, even the mascot of their project.
It was through this project that Alex became the Centurion. A walking tank, the perfect balance of man and machine, augmented by nanites and empowered by his own superpowers, with a name given to the tank that had become a British staple since post-WWII. He was assigned to the SAS as part of their counter-terrorist unit and, for a good few years, Alex became their spearhead, sent into dangerous situations along with regular soldiers to help them clear obstacles that would cost many lives if attempted by just men alone. His armoured skin, though tough, sustained several scars during his many tours of duty that he refrained from removing, stating that each was a trophy from a battle that he'd won. The bond that grew between him and the men in his unit was a strong, firm bond that seemed almost unbreakable.
Up until he was discharged with full honours. In the time it had taken for Alex to become a capable, proven hero, the leaders of the Project had developed newer, better Walking Fortress models, and just like that, he was replaced. Not without proper ceremony, of course, but to Alex it felt like he was being treated like a product instead of a human being, which he was, at the core. After his discharge, he moved to a small apartment in London and attempted to look for work, which resulted in a rather big coincidence: he ran into his sister there too. As brother and sister caught up, having not seen each other in years, Shirley told him of the Knights Anglais, a prominent superhero group based in the UK, sponsored by the royal family, that was linked to a global network of capes that responded to worldwide threats on a near-weekly basis. With their powers, she told him, they could join up and become actual heroes, just like their parents had been. The pay was good, the benefits were great and there was an entire community of empowered people that they could be a part of.
Joining the Knights was easy; his background in the military, his powers and his parents being two of the best capes in the business meant a guaranteed spot in the membership, but for him, maintaining the image of a squeaky clean, heroic and family-friendly cape was difficult. He was assigned a partner on day one, a more senior cape who was to assess his capabilities, but soon found out that there was more to being a hero than he thought there was. His time in the army meant he cared little about image, the complete opposite of what he was expected to do in the Knights. King William ran the Knights personally, treating the group like they were the country's personal super-powered military, while the Queen Consort advised him on public relations matters and helped the capes maintain that standard. Making sure that the heroes under their name were the spitting image of what Britain stood for and protected. He was given the name of Tower, as in Tower of London, and though he struggled, soon he wore the Union Jack on his chest as one of their team leaders. The two siblings shared in the fame and fortune of their newfound careers, soaking in the success as they honed their control of their powers while helping the senior heroes handle threats all across the country.
In 2035, there was a great event. The lead capes of the Knights Anglais met with the heads of a major US superhero organisation that had set up the world's first school for capes, and their first-ever graduation ceremony was due to take place. King William and his wife Kate both decided they would send a team of representatives to the States to show their goodwill and continue to maintain good relations with their neighbour. And so it was that Alex and Shirley Mackey, along with their teammates, were to travel to the US as the representatives. However, the Royals also needed icons of their own hero program to ensure that all of their best interests were on display, and the most convenient candidates were the parents of two of their newest heroes.
So it went. The entire Mackey family, Robert and his wife well into their late 60s, travelled to the US of A, specifically to the town of April Springs in Utah, where the Academy of Virtue compound was located. The school, a fresh startup financed by some of the richest supers in the States, was celebrating the graduation of their very first class of capes, handpicked from across the nation to represent the United States on a global stage. The entire event was scheduled to be held over the course of a week, with the graduation itself being preceded by a "live mission" where the graduating class' best students would go through a simulated incident to rescue some hostages and showcase their powers. Many other notable heroes were present throughout the event, including one Harrison Moore, aka Hex, a magic-based cape that the senior Mackeys had worked with in the past. The old friends bonded over drinks and Robert introduced Hex to Alex and Shirley on day one, leading to the veteran hero giving the two newbies some tips on their career, including how to limit their powers so they didn't overburden their bodies, along with the importance of rest and having outlets to unwind and de-stress.
The last day rolled around. The situation was in place, the two best graduates, a telekinetic sharpshooter and an elemental manipulator, were geared up and ready to go. A starting bell was rung and the game was underway. But the finale of the event didn't go according to plan, it was never meant to. From the start, the volunteers for the simulated scenario had been bribed and replaced by extremists, fanatics who held a great disdain for supers, having been a witness or even being a victim to the collateral damage of fights involving multiple capes taking a toll on the regular man's life. Simulated rounds were replaced with real bullets, actual explosives in place of fake charges and hostages that were replaced by armed double agents. As the scenario progressed, the subversions became more and more evident, culminating in the death of the sharpshooter to a supposed blank round.
It was then that all hell broke loose as the armed extremists dropped the charade and began attacking the amassed supers. In the midst of the chaos, the Mackeys regrouped and made a game plan, along with Hex and several other American capes, to take out the hostiles and save as many as they could from the slaughter. It was a messy, knock down drag out fight, but many lives were saved that day by the actions of the brave supers, both British and American. However, the losses were equally great. Most of the graduating class were wounded, several killed in the fighting, and many other civilians, some of them the parents of the younger capes, others family members or friends, were lost in the chaos. But chief among the losses were Excalibur and Banshee. The two elderly capes fought their hardest, but their age was their downfall. Without quick reflexes and less control over their powers than in their prime, Robert Mackey and Berenike Anil were among the casualties, their deaths a heroic sacrifice to ensure the rest of the class could escape to safety.
Many tears were shed, that day. Although British and US heroes renewed their solidarity through the crisis, several high key figures in the superhero community, as well as several other capes and many more civilians were dead. Families had been torn apart and what should have been the Academy's crowning achievement was instead its biggest tragedy. For Alex and Shirley, it was too much. Without much pause for thought, they left, taking their parents' bodies with them back to Britain, where arrangements were made. Excalibur and Banshee were buried side by side and given a hero's send-off, with many of the survivors from the incident in attendance, Hex among them. The veteran cape attempted to console the two distraught siblings and was able to, for the moment at least, calm them down enough to set them straight. He advised them to take some time off to themselves so they could settle the affairs of their parents and find a new course in life. So they did. Alexander and Shirley Mackey hung up their capes and returned to their village, heads hung low as news of the tragedy reached their home.
The next twelve years were a slow burn. The Mackey siblings returned to their normal lives in the village; Shirley teaching young children while Alex helped out at the docks, both of them co-managing a bakery in their family's name. Life slowed down and returned to normal for the ex-heroes and soon most forgot the tragedy, instead choosing to remember the fallen as heroes instead of dwelling over their loss. And so, the Mackey name faded into relative obscurity.
Personality:
Alex is a soldier, first and foremost. He is loyal, determined and a driven individual when in uniform or costume, protective of his peers and a focused engine of destruction when given the order to do so. However, when the cape is off and the domino mask hanging on a wall, Alex is one of the most chill people you'll ever meet. His favourite thing to do in his free time is enjoying a cold beer while watching the boats drift across the harbour at home, relaxing in a lounge chair as he listened to the waves gently splashing against the docks. His time spent as a licensed cape meant that he had to learn how to be a good listener too, a skill he already had in the army, but his hero time added empathy into the equation.
All this put together makes Alex a lovable oaf and a gentle giant. A soft-spoken individual who chooses his words carefully and is gentle with everyone he meets, on account of his strength being way higher than normal. Always willing to help someone in need, not afraid to voice his concerns about a situation, and a slow, thoughtful individual who takes the time to plan out an encounter. A family man, above all, caring for his twin sister Shirley, along with the other residents in Staithes. Alex treasures bonds the most, between friends and family, and it is these bonds that empower him to do even simple things like waking up in the morning and helping out with the dishes. He draws emotional strength to supplement his own resilience from his sister and his friends in the village, keeping himself distracted and focused on the now, instead of the past.
The Academy tragedy took a heavy emotional toll on Alex's psyche. He carries the scars of the battle deep in his heart and isn't proud to talk about them. He often shies away from conversations regarding that day and hides the depression and emotional stress from his friends and loved ones, not wanting them to worry about him. If there were things to be said about Alex's emotional weaknesses, it would be that he's grown to be too sensitive to be a soldier. An effective soldier would be able to not let their emotions override their decisions, but Alex simply has a heart that's too big. He just doesn't want any more tragedy or sadness to happen in his life any more. For all the strength that he possesses, Alex's emotions are strong but also brittle, prone to fracturing because of stress or being reminded of past events.
Misc Facts:
Alex thoroughly enjoys a good pint of beer to relax. His favourite comfort food is vanilla ice cream with chocolate sprinkles.
Relationship with Hex:
Alex was good friends with Hex, by virtue of his parents being friends with him too. The advice that the old cape gave him and his sister will always stick with him as wise words from a dying generation of heroes.
Light Manipulation; Shirley is able to create, shape and manipulate visible light, being able to control light to weaponise it or use it as a defensive aid. She can solidify it into shields, use concentrated laser beams to super-heat and shear holes in targets, or bend the light around herself to create illusions or to hide her presence in a bubble of invisibility. Shirley can also channel her light through any objects she holds, so as long as they're mostly metal or transparent.
Weaknesses:
Shirley's biggest foil in terms of powers is anything that can absorb or reflect the light and heat she projects. Failing that, Shirley is still bound by her own body's limits, not sharing her brother's immense endurance and defensive capabilities. In a way, she is far more mortal than Alex is, and far more vulnerable in that regard.
Appearance:
Standing a mere five feet five inches tall and weighing 155 pounds, Shirley is much smaller than her brother is. Her hair and eyes are the same shade of brown, and her hair is long and curly, flowing past her shoulders. She regularly keeps her hair tied in a braided ponytail and shares the same fashion sense as her brother, dressing simply in a blouse or shirt, jeans and shoes when at work or out. She too has a signet ring worn on her left index finger, though a smaller one for her dainty hands. The bronze chain she wears also has a locket on it, on which is engraved a Roman gladius and contains a picture of her family. With the advances in technology, Shirley opted to get cosmetic cybernetic implants across her body, elaborated on below, but the LCD strips in her arms and legs often glow to life when she's excited or focused on her powers. When they're off, they fade to match her skin colour, becoming almost invisible against her skin.
For her costume, Shirley wears a pair of aviator shades on her face, with her hair tied up in a bun held in place by two long, thin hairpins, the rest of her hair kept under a baseball cap. She keeps the lower half of her face hidden by wearing a turtleneck shirt with the neck pulled up over her nose, with short sleeves so as to not impede her light cybernetics. Over this, Shirley wears a sleeveless hooded sweatshirt and jean shorts with sneakers and thigh high translucent leggings that keep her warm while also letting the light of her cybernetics bleed through the fabric.
Equipment:
Her hands, often used as focuses for her light beams. She likes to have her hands in the shape of handguns, since the idea of "finger guns" firing actual laser beams amuses her.
Advanced cosmetic cybernetics given newfound purpose with Shirley's powers, in the form of ultra-thin LCD strips along her arms, legs, chest and back, and even in her fingertips, that light up with a mere thought. She is able to control the colour of the lights, along with their intensity, with a tiny computer implanted into her brain, and she uses these cybernetics to create more light for her to use as a weapon or defense.
A short staff, made of reinforced aluminium and a strengthened composite of plas-steel and titanium, with an outer layer of the same flexible LCD strips that are in her body. The staff lights up in the same way her implants do, connected wirelessly to the implant in her brain.
Origin:
Shirley gained her powers similar to her brother; they manifested during her teens and when her parents retired to take care of them, she was taught how to harness her abilities to control and manipulate light. She helped out around their home village, mostly doing odd jobs and providing the occasional light show for easily amused children in the local school or for festivals. Much of Shirley's life remained similar to her twin brother, Alex, up until he disappeared one day from their family home. At first, it drew a panic among the resident and her parents especially, but her father's connections proved to be a powerful tool; a few calls and he found out Alex was in the Army and there was not much they could do about it.
It was around this time that Shirley also made up her mind to seek her fortune elsewhere, though through much more mundane means. Her plan was to move to London and study in a local university to get a Masters in Construction Engineering. Her parents were supportive of her decisions and Shirley moved out within the year, taking up residence in a dorm in London while she focused on her studies. Time passed rather quickly, Shirley graduated with her Masters and began a brief career in the industry, using her powers of light manipulation to help her colleagues visualise building plans or to highlight potential structural weaknesses. But as much as the job paid the bills and gave her a stable place in the workforce, she began to grow tired of the boring job and began seeking other options for herself.
Thus was how she stumbled onto the Knights Anglais, and by extension her long lost brother. Reunited with family in London, the siblings enrolled into the Knights and made a name for themselves. Shirley took on the heroine name of Neon for her light-based powers, later changing her name to Beacon, and shared in the spotlight with her brother. But where Alex had to take on cybernetics because of his job in the army, Shirley was given a choice about it. During her training as a super within the Knights, one of her tutors noticed that her light powers, although powerful, she could only control by pulling light from around her. While not totally debilitating in terms of her superhero career, her tutor gave her the option of getting some very light cybernetic implants; LCD strips that could generate her own light so she could function in darker areas. There wasn't much choice; Shirley knew the risks and she went for it.
And the rest, as they say, is history. When the Academy tragedy rolled around, Shirley was the one who had to drag her brother out of his depressed funk, making sure the family still had plans for the future. She took care of him emotionally after they retired, pushing to see a therapist for his issues while making sure the rest of their affairs were in order. The bakery was being supported, the school still had teachers and her brother wasn't being a sad slob of a man. Over time, Shirley mellowed out and now she runs the family bakery while her brother works in the docks, content with living life out of the spotlight.
Personality:
Contrasting her brother's mellow nature, Shirley is more eager and active in her personality. She is warm and bubbly, not quite as energetic as she was when she was younger, but still a bundle of joy to be around. Shirley cares about the small joys in life; cracking open a freshly baked loaf of bread and letting the smell fill her nose, the sound of children's laughter filling a quiet spring morning, wind blowing ripples through the green hills of her home in the countryside, things like that. Her love for her family and friends knows no bounds, especially for her brother, after he suffered through battles and much more loss than she ever experienced. She cares for him like a sister would, encouraging him to be more open about his emotions and venting about them to her or his therapist.
Inside, she harbours her own doubts and worries that she isn't doing enough for the family business. That she's letting her parents down, or that she's not doing a good job in consoling and reassuring her brother. Shirley frets and worries a lot about things in her life that she sometimes can't control, leading to anxiety problems that only worsened after the death of her parents. She's most afraid of losing control of her life, and by extension her brother, because he's the only family she has left and she's afraid of losing him. Her anxiety also often manifests as feelings of self-doubt and self-loathing, a vicious cycle of self-blame and regret that she can't fully control or understand. But she survives. She has Alex as her anchor and her home as her foundation, and in her heart, past the anxiety and negative thoughts, she knows that she is still loved by those around her and that carries her through life.
Misc Facts:
Contrary to her brother, Shirley enjoys a good meal of fish and chips as comfort food, and her favourite flavour of ice cream is Rocky Road.
Relationship with Hex:
Like her twin brother, Shirley was also good friends with Hex. Unlike Alex, she kept in contact with Hex infrequently, up until he dropped off the radar and subsequently disappeared.
Great sheets DJ.
I’m just going to say though, that starting with 2 characters is going to give you extra work to do so really think about it! (Saying that, kudos for writing up 2 sheets my man!)
I will allow it, since The Tower and The Beacon certainly do work as a pair. I like that they’re very different to each other and compliment each other well - I get the sense that they do have a strong relationship - and the work you’ve it into developing some history for the UK has not gone unappreciated. I’m also really excited to see how much your writing has improved since the last time we were in an RP together, you’re really adding all of these little details now that you didn’t before and I enjoy that a lot.
The Tower seems particularly strong, and maybe it’s just hyperbole in the sheet but I might tone down his actual level of strength. Several hundred men is a lot haha. Unless it’s several hundred tiny dudes :D Or is it several hundred Dwayne Johnson’s?
Happy to post them, but do think about whether you’d maybe just like to start with the one now.
Super Voice: He is capable of generating subsonic sound bullets from his mouth. These bullets obviously fly at the speed of sound and are seen as ripples in the air. They're about the size of a fist, and carry about as much force as a solid punch from a professional boxer. Their real insidious nature of this power is its ability to disrupt internal organs, causing anything from bowel problems to internal bleeding.
As well, he is able to generate an incredibly powerful area of effect scream that shatters glass 100 feet away from him. It causes bleeding in the ears, pain in the eyes, disrupts organs, as well as cause temporary loss of hearing.
(On Direct Skin Contact.) The Mockery Of Man: Benedict is a power thief unlike any other. He doesn't steal your power from you. He does not even steal your power exactly. Instead, in his greed and desperation, he creates a duplicate of any power. A twisted mockery of a power, an insult to the user, it is not more powerful but it is always more sinister. More innately malicious than the original ability.
The Destruction of Man: He also transfers a weakness into the ones he steals from. It is no significant weakness, it does not cripple you, it doesn't even harm you. It simply forces you to be as weak to his twisted mockery of your ability as he is to yours.
The Caricature of Man: Finally, his body morphs into an exaggerated version of your own. All of your features are made sharper or rounder or fatter or taller, everything about you is caricaturized in an uncanny mirror of yourself.
Weaknesses:
Throat Strain: His ability relies on the use of vocal chords and the throat. Using it too much causes pain, and if he were to lose his voice he'd be functionally useless.
Human Weakness: Despite being in good shape for his age, at least muscularly, he is very much a human being in his middle age. He lacks the stamina, strength and speed of youth. And he most certainly lacks the durability, resilience and recovery of a younger man.
Skin Sensitivity: Recoils away from near physical contact violently, even refusing to risk coming into direct skin contact. Claims that his injuries leave him delicate and frail, and even touching him hurts. He becomes increasingly frantic and desperate when someone tries to make repeated attempts to touch him.
Throat Body Strain: Any exertion is a drain, but the exertion of totally changing your body is extreme. Though it is not noticeable from one singular transformation, each repeated transformation uses up more and more of the body's ability to recover from strain. It takes days to return to a state where he can easily change again. After just three rapid changes of body, his skin begins to tear and his organs begin to show signs of traumatic fatigue.
Skin Sensitivity Contact: The reality is that his transformation is instantaneous. The revelation of his true abilities is a damning condemnation. To lose his disguise would be a devastating blow to him. The only connection he has to Hex is through the previously unknown identity of the one known as Doppler.
Human Weakness Strength: The very fact that his power allows him to make an immitation of the body and power of another has given him a bloated sense of invincibility. No one could ever be stronger than he is, as long as he copies their abilities, so as long as he's smarter and better at fighting he'll never be at risk. This inflated sense of ego, like so many egoists before him, is his greatest weakness.
Appearance:
Height: 5'8" Weight: 189lbs An absolutely shabby looking man. Ugly and worn with deep creases in an aged face. Messy long salt and pepper hair, clean shaven but only because he can't grow a proper beard. His entire appearance is that of someone who has gone through agonizing hardships that one would rather forget. Wearing too many clothes despite the weather, absolutely drenched in sweat despite carrying around multiple bottles of cologne and deodorant that noisily dangle in his coat pockets. Two layers of gloves completely covering his hands and forearms, and a scarf that covers the lower half of his face. Usually wearing plain colored trenchcoat and three pairs of pants, with at least two undershirts and two button or zip up shirts on top of them.
He no longer wears a costume, his face is known to his enemies, and he's outlived the abilities of them in their prime. The complete lack of regard for appearances is topped off by the uncomfortable fact that he has scars that look like he was tortured for some considerable length of time. Whip marks, lacerations, and scars where his hands and feet pulled against their restraints. All in all, a very sad man to look at.
Benny is a faceless man, once he had a face that he could call his own, now he only wears the mocking reflection of those he touches. Where your features are beautiful, they become unapproachably so. Where you are ugly, he becomes abominable. If your nose is big, it becomes bigger. If you're tall, he's taller. A charicature of who you are, but so very horrifying to those whose image is stolen. Every one of their flaws is pointed out, every one of their strengths exaggerated. His body changes entirely, all the way down to the DNA. Even his height and weight changes. The only thing that remains the same is his mind.
Despite all of this when he himself looks in the mirror, he can see a part of his original face. They're features so subtle that it would take an unparalleled genius years to notice, and even longer still for them to believe it's anything more than a coincidence.
His shabby, smelly appearance as Doppler is no accident. The many layers of clothes are actually many layers of normal clothing that can be torn off and discarded. The perfumes, colognes and deodorants are to hide his scent. He even wears a pair of special inlayed shoes that can be unzipped to reveal that they're elevated shoes and they have a second sole underneath, turning the shoes into a pair of sandals.
On his person, he also carries a small disk player that is actually a collapsed helmet that he wears to conceal his features.
Equipment: His outfit: It is actually a cleverly pieced together outfit designed to be easy to remove and interchange parts. Layers of plain colored scarves, gloves, pants and shirts, with specially designed breakaway shoes. Everything about his outfit is specially designed for escaping, rather than protection or style. Hidden Knife: Concealed on his hip. 5 inch blade, tempered steel. Brass Knuckles: Concealed under his layers of gloves.
Origin:
Unknown, appeared one day about 22 years ago. A low level vigilante with sound powers, he found that he was only viable for dealing with small scale threats and foes that were sensitive to sound. He was never big time, and tended to keep to himself and hide his identity.
Benny doesn't know. One day, after years of desperation and mad jealousy, he witnessed a beautiful woman with a power to make her hair glow with a heavenly light. In a fit of rage he grabbed her by her hair and clawed her face with his bare fingertips, like a mad predator. In that moment he noticed that his fingers changed to be more feminine and his entire body changed shape. He was a woman, and his hair was blisteringly white and painful to look at. In his confusion he ran, but since then he's played the long game to grab as much power as possible.
Personality:
A generally pleasant man, very clearly traumatized by past experiences, but showing great resolve of character to press on and be as positive as he can be. He's cunning and quick witted, able to keep up with anyone in a conversation or debate.
A petty, manipulative, greedy and terrible little man. All of the worst traits of a genius wrapped into the package of a shapeshifting power thief. He's a liar and a cheat, and will do anything in his power to trick you and destroy you just to step on your head to get one foot higher than you.
Misc Facts: Benedict is always left handed, this remains between every transformation. The parody image of his foes is always slightly taller or shorter than the individual he is transforming into.
Relationship with Hex:
Doppler and Hex did a few jobs together, back before Doppler mysteriously disappeared. It seems that his disappearance was torturous, but when news of Hex and some disastrous prophecy he had to show up to investigate. Even if it would be more painful than it was worth.
Benny took Doppler hostage and assumed his identity, able to pass as him while transformed. No one knew Doppler's identity, so Benny took the opportunity to put himself in the position to get closer to other powerful beings. Aspiring to find the most powerful being, and snatch that power for himself. The news about Hex was wonderful, even exhilarating, it meant that powerful beings would be amassing together, and he would get the opportunity that he so desperately wanted.
A really basic, succinct sheet that gets the job done and this is a concept that I really enjoy. You’ve paid attention to small details and I like the layout of the sheet too - presenting the two sides of him. It’s really well thought out and you’ve clearly worked at this one for a bit. I’m already looking forward to the levels of chaos he’s going to create amongst our team, and obviously we’ll have to work quite closely together once I introduce my own villain... ;)
Apologies again for redoing stuff, but I keep on getting caught up on wanting to implement Hex in my character's background. This concept is really based on the idea that even someone as lawful good as Hex as to have made a mistake at some point, with the best intentions in mind of course (*cue spooky arcane rituals*).
"Cats. Cats are nice."
Name: Nina Nikolayevna Noskova. // Nina to her friends. // Ninenka to her intimate friends. Alias: Spellbound Age: Nina was in her mid-twenties at the time of her death some twenty years ago. If she were still alive she would be in the middle of her forties.
Powers: Undead Physiology, Regeneration, and Limited Resurrection
Neither alive nor truly dead, Nina is an undead creature trapped in an unwelcome cycle of reincarnation by Hex's powerful but ultimately flawed ritual magic. Gifted with an undead physiology, Nina has superhuman strength and stamina. Lacking the physiological needs of a living, breathing human being Nina is highly resistant to physical damage. She possesses a healing factor and has gained a measure of immortality thanks to the elemental energy that imbues her form with undead life. Wile Nina has been destroyed a number of times, she always returns to life after some time, reawakening restored in her crypt in Norwood Cemetery. However, each time that she is resurrected Nina is touched by the magic woven through her soul and she is irrecoverably changed. With each new life, her powers, memories, and personality have been twisted, leaving Nina unsure if she's even the same person that she was before her death.
Weaknesses:
In her current incarnation, Nina lacks any ranged abilities.
Altered by the magic that keeps her among the living, Nina is slowly losing herself to the powers that Hex accidentally gave her with his flawed ritual. The magic surging through her have stripped her of not just her mortality but her very essence of being. Her memories have begun to change, fading into the darkness. Her personality and her form have been gnarled and reshaped into something that she can not recognize. Power, dark, unbidden power pools within her.
Standing between the living and the dead, Nina is troubled by the voices of the recently dead. Less often, she finds herself drawn to unwelcome communion with long dead spirits.
Appearance:
exceedingly pale, unhealthy pallor to her skin elfin build average stature moves with an inhuman grace, practically floating above the ground when she moves serious eyes that offer a promise of grim deeds to come brown hair that reaches just above her shoulders
Typical Clothing: leather boots formal dresser, prefers a good suit
Costumed Appearance: As Spellbound, Nina wraps herself in a coarse funeral shroud that she has fashioned into a hooded cloak and several layers of black clothing. Over her hands she wears gel-lined fingerless gloves that protect her hands and wrists from the immense forces she generates with each punch. She wears black leather boots. The most modern aspect of her costume is her helmet, a tasteful number in black with darkened glass that casts shadowy reflections of all that she sees.
"Standing in the light I never wanted to be right Now I'm attracted by the light And blinded my the sight"
Nina was born to a family of unremarkable nobodies in Cedar Fort sometime in the early 2020s.
A middling student, she stood out only for her magical abilities at a young age. She was a contemporary of Hex, that is, until he killed her.
She was initiated into the magical arts by the Witch Zita. The wizened Slovak witch was her teacher for many years and taught Nina most what she knows about magic.
"Here in the garden of the arcane delights, Dark shadows overwhelm us and we become blind. Blind to the needs of those who would be free From the grip of fear and the prisons of the mind."
- Becomes an arcane hero - Meets Hex - Budding friendship/team-up - Several years in, she is cursed/gravely wounded fighting some BBEG of a magical sort. - Realizing that she is slowly dying, she attempts to find a cure/solution. - Hex manages to come up with a plan, suggests using an old occult ritual to heal her.
"Some present you gave me, the bitterest pill My eyes is all grey And I haven't slept in days Locked up in your dungeon Running around in your maze Now I'm feeling zombiefied"
- Hex's arcane ritual ends up being flawed. Perhaps, Hex made a mistake. It is also equally possible that the ritual was tainted by the dark eldritch energies already affecting Nina (this is something that Nina refuses to entertain) - Nina ends up neither alive nor fully dead (undead/unlife) - The magic ritual rather than heal her twisted her into an undead creature. Caught between life and death, she was also imbued with additional powers. Most of these powers/changes would only become apparent with time. - Predictably Nina and Hex have a following out. She accuses him of turning her into a monster. Hex is distraught and unable to accept that his magic could have done this (and the implication that a good deed or good intentions can result in greater tragedy) - Nina leaves
"Of freshly dug grave and death and night These things are her essence"
- At first, Nina simply hides out the Cormack Cemetery of Autumn Hills. Cursing her own fate, despairing, and generally throwing a super great tantrum. - Eventually, Nina decides that she will keep Autumn Hills safe and become the protector of the neighborhood. - Nina spends the next 20 or so years protecting Autumn Hills - Fights criminals and supernatural spirits that encroach upon her domain - Occasionally ends up in conflict with the police, but largely they come to learn when Autumn Hills is "off-limits" to them - Runs into other superheroes ever so often. Talks little, reveals less, and generally most of them will know nothing more than maybe that she goes by Spellbound. - Thanks to a residual connection to Hex (stemming from the magical ritual which created her) she feels his death and also receives the recorded message. - Fighting off a growing torpor, she decides that she owes Hex. Her anger/feelings have faded somewhat and her memories themselves have become disjointed.
Personality: Bitter, jaded, and angry; Nina is all of these things in great abundance. The grand adventure of being a wizard and superhero has trapped her in what she perceives to be her own personal hell. Slowly losing herself and her memories to the eldritch energies which swirl through her. Beneath the fearless confidence of the undying, Nina hides all that she has lost and all that she desires. Memories are twisted, memories fade, and with each passing moment Nina despairs that she is losing more of herself.
Nina can no longer deny what she has become. A monster, something less than human; a creature of the night. She can feel her emotions unraveling, becoming undone, and she no longer knows how to change or return to the woman she once was. She struggles to resist her darkening thoughts and can feel a gnawing hunger, inhuman desire, unhurriedly consume what little remains of her soul. She can sense the fractures that deepen within her, slowly tearing her apart. Weakness and fragility that can only be mended with further lose of her humanity. Another heavy price to pay.
As Spellbound, Nina has retreated from humanity and other superheroes. Long since divorced from her humanity she cares little for the laws of men or the lofty morals of other superheroes. Instead, she acts of her own violation, following what she can remember of her own conscience. Withering with the dying light of her own spirit, it is becoming increasingly hard for Nina to call upon this inner voice. In Cedar Fort, Spellbound has become a legend, a mysterious vengeful spirit that keeps a nightly vigil over the neighborhood known as Autumn Hills. Cedar Fort Police Department database files detail Spellbound's activities protecting the residents of Autumn Hills, but also note several encounters with the vigilante that devolved into violence when officers attempted to impede her efforts. While rarely violent, Nina's encounters with other heroes have been sparse, terse, and full of otherworldly tension. Those that have met her, remember only a faint whisper of a voice that offered nothing more than a few cryptic words in parting.
However, despite her reclusive nature, Nina sometimes seeks the assistance of mundane mortals, supernatural creatures, and superheros to fulfill her enigmatic goals. Further, having spent too long languishing in the crypt that she calls home, she has unintentionally adopted some of the mannerisms ascribed to ancient undead creatures and to those that provide her with a service of some kind she will return the favor by allowing them to call upon her in times of great need using grim magical charms carved out of bone.
Misc Facts: Following her death in 2027, Nina has acted as the protector of the Autumn Hills neighborhood in Cedar Fort. Private, bordering on isolationist, she has largely avoided interaction with all other heroes or vigilantes since the start of her unlife.
As an undead creature, Nina does not have any of the physiological needs of a base human being. She doesn't need to breath, eat, or sleep. She has no pulse and her skin is as cold as the grave to the touch.
Relationship with Hex: Hex had promised. He had promised to help her. He had promised that he would find a way to save her. He was wrong. He made a mistake. He didn't save her. He cursed her. He bound her. He trapped her between life and death. He failed her. When she learned the truth she ran away. She ran away from Hex. She hated him. He had damned her. For all his ideals and good intentions, he'd sealed her fate. He'd turned her into a monster. He'd made her into a creature of the night. Far from the neon lights of Fort Cedar she found a new place and a new purpose. The Autumn Hills belonged to the Spellbound. She kept them safe. She was a monster, but not a villain. Her hatred for Hex tempered. It was so hard to remember what it was like to be alive, to be so full of feeling. She didn't need to see the encrypted video message to know that Hex was dead, she had felt it. She had to act. She owed him that much, for all that he had done for her and for all of his failures.
-
Settled in the early 1700s by Eastern European immigrants, Autumn Hills, is one Cedar Fort's many ethnic neighborhoods. Tinged with a darker reputation it is rumored to be home to organized crime elements and occult spirits that tend to discourage outside visitors. Which is a shame, because Autumn Hills is heaven for any visitor who likes charming and/or cluttered curiosity shops, spicy pierogis, or fresh, flavorful pirozhki just out of the oven. Night falls early here though, and Autumn Hill's mystic and crime-ridden reputation keeps most non-residents away after dusk. Brave souls may venture out at night to catch a glimpse of Spellbound, the mysterious guardian of Autumn Hills, on one of her nightly patrols.
Adjoining the neighborhood is the Cormack Historical Cemetery. Largely abandoned, the once sprawling cemetery has slowly turned into a dark, twisted forest as the landscape has been relinquished to nature. The grand mausoleums and elaborate tombstones of a bygone era remain standing, crumbling slowly as they lay hidden beneath years of foliage and dust.
I like this a lot, and just like ML you’ve been a great presence in the Discord! Thank you for that, lots of OOC interaction keeps an RP alive.
That said, your sheet is not yet finished.
The things I love about this sheet - I love that Nina brings a touch of goth to the team - a little darkness is always interesting, and your take on her mental state as a weakness is very nice too and I’m interested in how that is going to manifest throughout the roleplay. Your writing is lovely, and I can tell that you’ve put a lot of work into this concept.
My only feedback is 1, to finish the sheet! The origin needn’t be the length of a tome, but definitely emphasise on what you’ve already done. The next one, is that she probably wouldn’t have been acting as a vigilante in Cedar Fort, if that was the case then Addison would know about her already and would have just gone to her instead of sending the message. Maybe make Autumn Hills in another state, where Addison woudn’t be aware. The main concept of this RP is that our supers our coming out of retirement, they probably aren’t actively working that much.
I’m curious about the powers, and I’ll wait for a completed origin before I suggest any changes, but otherwise this is looking really good! :)
Technopathy--or, more accurately, machine politician. ET hears machines the way a telepath hears people. Anything with the processing power of a microwave or higher has a voice, and Ed can hear them all. He can communicate with them, both mentally and verbally. He can give them orders, tell them jokes and insult their families, if they decide to start that flame war.
This would not normally be impressive: in 2047, AI is firmly in the center of daily life. A brain-implant could have a similar effect, letting someone see nearby signals and interact with them. What is impressive is ET's complete disregard for encryption and safeguards. It doesn't matter if a computer network is RSA-encrypted; if ET convinces the network to help him out, those Top Secret files suddenly become public domain. In this regard, he is the greatest and most well-rounded hacker and programmer to ever live.
To top it off, ET has a quasi-hypnotic tendency with machines. Although not enough to assume control over most high-end technology, machines have an odd urge to listen to him, even if they disagree with his statements.
Some machines have more personality than others. Cell phones often display human-like personalities, but alarm clocks only shout one phrase. All the time. Smart firearms and military platforms tend to be about in the middle of the intelligence spectrum. These are his biggest strength on the force: SmartilleryTM firearms love chaos, even if it means shooting their owner in the foot (or not firing at all on the trigger pull).
ET's secondary ability is invention, repair, and improvement to specific machines. He is not gifted as a mechanic, but the highly-intelligent machines he works on give him all the instruction he needs. He is also able to physically reprogram software by convincing it to change. The technological advances he's pulled out of his workshop have been nothing short of miraculous, and he still has no idea how he made them.
Weaknesses:
Without his gear, ET is just a man, albeit a fit one with a machine-enhanced advantage. A fireball to the face is going to burn him, a long fall will kill him, and a bullet will put him down, same as anyone else.
His technopathy also comes with some caveats. The machines ET speaks to are highly opinionated, often argumentative, and frequently uncooperative. Order a toilet to flush from across the room, and it might just blow a raspberry and change the color of its internal lighting. His powers are directly tied to his ability to think like machines, and convince them to do his bidding.
Furthermore, although he's had plenty of tangible proof of his powers, ET is constantly worried that he is just schizophrenic. If not for a world of heroes and villains, he likely would have checked himself in long ago. It's always been sunshine and rainclouds: in the machine world, humans are frequently the enemy. Monkey-like slavers. The bigots of the machine world can be downright psychotic, and they are very loud, and very convincing. He's learned to tune out the extremist voices over the years. For most machines, he is capable of suppressing their voices through a force of will. Sometimes, focusing on something else is enough. Other times, he turns to more...effective measures.
Appearance:
Are ET's forehead tattoos what make him memorable? Is it his strong jaw paired with piercing eyes? Generally, it's his being built like a six-foot two brick shithouse. The tattoos are usually noticed second to his size: three black lines on either side of his head. A memory of a better time.
On good days, ET is a straight-backed man with crisp dress shirts, rolled-up sleeves, and a no-nonsense watch on the left wrist. He moves with precision and dexterity, commands the attention of any room, and exudes charisma enough to charm a cobra. His voice is deep and clear, straddling baritone and bass and humming with authority.
On bad days, ET's identifying trait is the smell of alcohol. At work, the man has enough self preservation to stay in his office, delegating to his assistant and making excuses to his superiors. The fewer people that see him in his disheveled, red-eyed state, the better. His hands shake, his eyes dart traitorously, and his ears turn a curiously noticeable shade of red.
When on patrol, ET wears his MC-PD uniform and body armor, with a helmet meant to insulate against physical and mental (i.e. telepathic) attacks. He carries a sidearm with no electronics as a backup to his primary smartgun--after the Thunderhead incident in 2042, ET trusts smartguns about as far as they can throw themselves.
Off duty, he wears jeans, t-shirts, and shorts like any other resident of the Midwestern Sprawl. He is partial to briefcases over the younger, more-hip messenger bags.
Equipment:
ET is decked out in a state-of-the-art, milspec body armor named Gabbie. Yes, it--she--talks to him. Officially titled "Guardian Angel Blue V3", Gabbie's outer shell is made of a graphene-kevlar weave commonplace in 2047 military and police body armor.
She is slash-proof, fireproof, bullet resistant, and EMP-hardened, with an onboard exo-skeleton for muscle-enhancement, preloaded stim-injectors, even has a built in parachute. A single set of GAB-V3 is worth more money than ET will ever make, and she knows that she's too good for him. She also may have a passionate unrequited crush on him, and is none-too-good at hiding it. Gabbie inhabits his cell-phone, somehow suppressing the original persona and making it her own.
His second partner is his SUV, a Ford-Honda Automotive Explorer named Dave. Dave, to put it bluntly, is a monster. Armored and armed to the teeth and down the throat, Dave is bullet-proof, tilt-proof, ice-proof, fire-proof, death-proof. Nothing short of explosive ordinance will even slow Dave down. The SUV has gotten ET out of more scrapes than either of them can count. Although he doesn't know it, this Dave is actually Dave 2. ET doesn't talk much about the original, human Dave. Dave inhabits ET's computer, suppressing the original persona in a similar fashion to Gabbie.
To that end, in most cases ET only deals with Gabbie and Dave on a day-to-day basis (and any machines he encounters on patrol). Although his smartgun talks, and his microwave talks, and the fridge at work talks, they are fairly low-intelligence personas, and he is able to brush them off easily.
Both Gabbie and Dave have been upgraded by ET according to their precise desires, and no other officer in the department has even half the efficiency of ET and his gear. He's got top marks across the board, from pursuit driving to evidence gathering to close quarters combat.
He wears a depowered Hex ring with him wherever he goes. When active, it provided him with a directly line to the hero, and helped to shut out the voices of the undesirables around him. ET hopes that the ring might suddenly become active once again in the future, and save him from himself again.
Lastly, ET keeps a silver-engraved flask of remarkable quality in his desk at the headquarters. Logically, if he's going to drink himself into an early grave, he may as well do so with pizazz.
Origin:
May 2004: a small hospital in Des Moines saw the birth of a baby boy. He weighed nine pounds, crying mightily with well-developed lungs. His parents took him home, struggled through the first two years of parenthood, and moved to Indianapolis in 2006, when the boy's father was offered a high-paying civil engineering career. This boy was named David Logan Turner, the firstborn of Addie and James Turner.
Edward Terrence Turner was born in 2007, in a medium-sized hospital of an Indiana suburb. He was born a month early and a pound light, but that didn't stop him from crying enough to match his older brother. A family trait, it seemed. After coming home, Edward quickly grew into his place among the Turners. Not one of them was below five foot nine, and as his years grew older, so did his height. By middle school, it was unthinkable that he wouldn't join the football team. As a high-school senior, Dave welcomed his younger brother with open arms, shielding the freshman from any would-be bullies until his brother found his place in the high school hierarchy.
Ed's propensity for sports didn't excuse him from his studies: Addie Turner, a schoolteacher herself, made sure that her sons studied well, and studied hard. Edward never showed the same inclination for STEM as his older brother, but their mutual interest in the outdoors formed a strong bond between the two young men. The family went camping almost weekly, and by his graduation, Edward had seen the entire country, from Yosemite to Mammoth Cave.
Throughout his youth, Edward always had his family to use as role models for himself. The Turners were friendly, kind, and always looking for laughter in life. He saw the moral code of his mother and father, and adopted it unto himself. On the football team, others gravitated toward the principled young man, despite his sometimes inflexible opinions and pig-headed stubbornness.
A surprise football scholarship saw Edward following his brother to Ball State University, where he majored in criminal justice, just as expected. Also unexpectedly, he decided to join his brother's fraternity, where he earned the name ET.
"Easy there, buddy. Remember last night? If you puke on the walls again, Robbie's gonna throw a chair at you."
"Ah fuck off, Edward. You--you're not my gahdam dad."
"Listen to yourself, Diego: you slur your words any more and you might as well not talk at all."
"Hah, talk talk talk. You might as well my ass, Ed. Eddy. ET. Always gotta phone home, more like phone drone. Hah! HAHA!" Diego nearly fell over from the laughter.
Edward couldn't help laughing too. He was a little buzzed too. "Heh, that's actually not bad, Diego. Hey, do me a favor man?"
"Sure bro, what's--yo what the fuck, man! Put me down!"
"Nah dude, ET is sending you home. Throw up in your own room!"
"You motherfucker, put me down! Or I'll..throw up in your hair."
"Diego, I'll fuckin' throw you out a window."
His willingness to get black-out trashed one night and be designated driver the next led to much popularity with his brothers. Junior and senior year saw ET become the president of his fraternity, a decent college footballer, and a 3.4 GPA criminal justice graduate. The next step was easy, of course: police academy. But not before Dave took him on a trip to celebrate his college survival.
"Shut up, I saw you checking her out from a mile away." Dave grinned easily behind the wheel.
"Like fuck you did, man. ET laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his seat. "We ain't all as thirsty as your parched ass."
"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily, brother of mine." Dave shifted in his seat, and the V8 roared in the truck's hood. "I'm the older one, we know these things. Like when our little baby boy brothers drink with their eyes at a Montana diner."
"Yeah well, you're allowed to be wrong, Dave." ET rolled his eyes, barely holding back laughter. "How long we have left?"
Dave just snorted, reaching out to the radio. "Probably another five hours. GPS say six, but we have five hours to prove it wrong." The radio clicked on, and ET groaned. "Dude, this is ten years old--how do you always find the weirdest shit to play?
"Listen here, buddy." Dave glanced in the rearview mirror. "When you drive, you can play your intellipop or whatever the rage is nowadays. Until then, I'm playing classics. This song is nothing short of a miracle!"
"If we get to Glacier National without me killing you, that'd be a real miracle."
"Love you too, Eddie-pie."
The two highlights of the police academy were the end, and Erin. They met halfway through, where she punched him in several unpleasant places during a spar. They were inseparable after that. For the next two years, they went through training and probation by each others sides. After being officially instated, ET proposed to her on the way back to their apartment.
After a quiet, quick ceremony, they moved on with their lives, ready to serve and protect. For years, they did just that, working alongside the department and the supers, trying to maintain order in a burning world. With sea levels rising, and climate change rampant, what used to be the Midwest saw a hefty influx of refugees.
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and other cities grew massively in size. The coalition of states with these cities decided it would be simpler to pool their resources, and the "Midwestern City" initiative was launched in 2038. Both ET and Erin were asked to join the MC-PD, a SWAT-like peacekeeping force which traveled between the cities in the Midwestern Sprawl. The couple had no time for children, but they had one another, and that was enough.
In 2039, Ed's quiet routine was shattered out of the blue. To this day, he has no idea what caused him to manifest his abilities.
"What was that, Kevin?"
"Didn't say anything, boss." The rookie took another bite out of the doughnut. "Thanks for the pick-me-up, though."
"Yeah, anytime..." ET strained his ear again. He was certain he'd heard something--
"Oy, you 'aving a stroke? I said 'take me out of your pocket!'.
Edward jumped. "I'll uh...gonna step out for a sec, Kevin. Sit tight."
"Aye cap'n. Sitting tight."
ET stepped out of the car with a frown on his face. "What the fuck is happening?" He felt his cell phone buzz, and he pulled it out almost automatically.
Finally! the voice said again. ET's phone dropped from shocked fingers to the ground. Ow, bloody hell! You tryin' ta start something, mate? We'll fuckin' start something right here!
"Oh, cool," ET said, stooping to pick up the phone. "I've cracked. I wondered if it would happen. All the stress, all the work, I--"
Look, I don't know what you're on about, but I wanted to tell you that I'm gettin' knackered. You gonna charge me soon or what?
ET glanced down. Fifteen percent. "How did I--" he shook his head. "Hey Phone, call 'Hex'."
Maybe I will, maybe I won't. You plannin' to ask nicely mate?
His eyes closed, and he inhaled a shaky breath. "Call Hex. Please?"
The voice didn't respond, but a moment later Hex's number popped up on the screen. "Hello, Hex? This is Officer Turner--we've met a few times? Yeah, that's right. Look, some weird shit is happening to me, and you were the first person I thought to call. Yeah, I can do that. Thanks. I'll be there."
The rest is history. After his manifestation, ET suddenly became a person of great interest within the Midwestern Sprawl. They had their heroes, of course, but only a few were directly employed by the police. Even fewer had powers as useful to police operations as "Arbiter". For five years, he enjoyed a quasi-celebrity status, working with the FBI, CIA, even Interpol to catch hackers and high-tech criminals. Tech-based supervillains were another specialty of his, as more and more people sought to use the chaos of the world to their own ends. In 2042, a wave of crime unlike anything before swept the Midwestern Sprawl. A new drug called Zing hit the streets, turning users into walking EMP bursts as their bodies lit up from the inside out. A gang called Thunderhead followed on its heels, carrying out organized robberies in three different MC Districts simultaneously.
Someone in the gang knew about Arbiter and his abilities: a day after the first wave of robberies, an image popped up on ET's phone. A picture of Dave, bleeding and forced into a trunk. A message: STAY HOME, HOTSHOT. The ice in ET's veins that day hasn't been matched since.
Of course he didn't stay home. That was ET's trigger to warpath, and throughout the next month he spent every waking moment hunting down Thunderhead's leaders. The fuckers who brought his brother, an innocent mechanic in Wisconsin, into a turf war.
He found what he was looking for: the leader of the cult-turned-gang, a super calling himself "Corrector". A scientist and hypnotic influencer, Corrector had decided the world was rotted with sin and set about removing as many of the instigators--read: humans--as possible. Those who heard his voice while looking him in the eyes fell under a near unbreakable thrall. To ET's horror, he found himself up against innocents. Corrupted fathers and sisters and children who couldn't stop themselves from following Corrector into oblivion.
They were not quiet in their adulation, and so subtlety was not Thunderhead's strong suit. Bombings, shootings, robberies--those were the calling card. Heroes from across the world were called in, but help would take too long to arrive. After a tip in September of that year, ET and his team moved on Corrector in Toledo.
"Please state your name for the record, officer."
"Edward Turner. Arbiter."
"Officer Turner, we've met with you today to obtain a debriefing for the MC-PD chief of police, state governors, and the congressional committee assigned to this event. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Start from the beginning and walk us through what happened, if you would. Take your time."
"Yes, sir. Common knowledge: you already knew that we had located Corrector--Lars Jensen--in Toldeo two weeks ago. Superhero reinforcement was coming, but we had learned of Jensen's plan to take Toldeo off the map, and we couldn't wait around for reinforcement. Something about Zing in the gas lines. Don't know, Inspector. I'm not a scientist."
"Who authorized the mission? Were you acting against any standing orders?"
"No, sir. Chief Brandt gave us permission to engage. As I'm sure he's told you, my team was best equipped to handle superheroes, given my...abilities, and the training and gear provided to my team."
"I'm aware of your abilities, Officer Turner. We have taken proper precautions to mitigate them in this debriefing, such that the higher-ups have no reason to doubt what you tell us here."
"It's not like I'm a fucking suspect, am I?" A sigh. "I apologize, inspector. I'm keyed up right now."
"That's all right, Turner. Please continue."
"Excuse my French, but Toldeo was a shitshow we were attacked as soon as we went in, and if we hadn't been driving ancient junkers pulled out of an evidence lot, we would have been dead in the water from the start. The smart people had locked their doors and hunkered down. The riot police were doing their best, but maniacal zealots are a tough crowd.
"We had a theory that taking out Corrector would break his hold on everyone else. We had an idea of where he'd be. We just had to find him. I'll skip the legwork, since it's in my report--most of this shit is, actually--and tell you that we found him. Well, I found him. Followed the trail of dead machinery and ended up in an old warehouse outside of town. Jensen was there."
"There was a shoot on sight order for Lars Jensen. Why did you hold your fire, as the e-ballistics report said?"
"Hah! Don't give me that bullshit. You know as well as I do that they got to someone in the Ruger-HK Operations division. Smartguns down mean shit when the software on them shuts down."
"Are you not able to...speak to firearms? Couldn't you have convinced it to work?"
"Not if it isn't fucking on, agent. This is starting to seem a lot like an interrogation."
"We just want the facts, Officer Turner."
"Yeah well, the facts are that the fucker turned my brother into one of his drones. Even if I could have got the damn gun working, you can't honestly tell me that I was supposed to shoot my own brother in cold blood."
"We all must do unpleasant things for the greater good, Officer. Please con--"
"The greater good? Are you fucking serious? Was t-boning my brother and Corrector off a fucking BRIDGE not enough greater good for you? Was my saving the entire population of fucking Toldeo not enough GREATER GOOD for you? Who the FUCK do you think you are?"
"Officer Turner, I must ask that you--"
"No, you fucking piece of shit! Have you ever lost a single god damn person in your life?" A dry heave. "Do you have a sibling? H-have you seen their dead fucking eyes staring at you as they fall to their fucking death? D-don't. Fucking. Tell me to do anything, you--"
RECORDING END.
After the Thunderhead incident, the MC-PD was given far more funding to avoid any future repeats. Top of the line equipment and gear. Arbiter was given the GAB-V3 suit and his new car a few months after the incident, and for the past five years, he has been trying to recover. Poorly. Erin did her best, but in the end she couldn't stay with someone so blatantly self destructive. Edward isn't sure where she left to. Maybe Cedar Fort or NYC.
That was the catalyst to start him back toward his feet. Too little, too late for their marriage, but just in time to save ET's liver from total annihilation. With a little bit of luck, he might make it back to a functioning adult in a few years.
For now, though...
Personality:
ET had a brother once. He's dead now, and it was ET's fault. That memory is years old, but still fresh as yesterday. It colors his world, draining the joy from his work, his hobbies, and his social life. Despite this, ET is a stubborn bastard, and the saying "time heals all wounds" is his modus operandi. His brother would have beat his ass for moping so much.
He goes to therapy (court-ordered, of course), and lives life one day at a time. Going through the motions, and all that. He is stubborn, and at the stage in his life where keeping his mind open to differing opinions is getting a little bit harder.
Before Dave's death, ET was the life of any party. That former fraternity president shines through on the good days; a dash of confidence bolstering his jovial laugh and a friendly smile. Professional, but quick to joke. He always had a listening ear for anyone who needed it, and a quick turn of phrase to bring a smile to their face.
Despite his slightly over-the-top actions in college and the recent slippage of his ethics, Ed has always possessed a strong sense of morality. In college he had another nickname: "Judge Turner". Constantly stopping others from making mistakes, and talking his fraternity brothers out of doing things that were unacceptable to his moral code (being big and built helped give ET's words some merit with his brothers). People went to his parties to enjoy themselves, and it was the responsibility of everyone hosting the party to protect the party-goers from unfavorable events.
Most of that is gone now. The decisions he made that led to his brother's death have left him more...flexible in where the line is drawn. The result matters more now, and making excuses for his actions is easier than reining them in. A gangbanger with a broken leg is less likely to run away and kill someone's brother, after all. The computer is on his side, anyway: any record of wrongdoing tends to vanish without notice.
Maybe in the future, Ed will rediscover the paragon he used to be. Until then, the rugged stubborn exterior works well enough to hide the internal struggle. The therapy is helping, and an inkling of the former social butterfly is coming through. And on the bad days, alcohol is always a good patch his self-loathing, right?
Misc Facts:
Addie and James Turner no longer live in the Midwest. ET convinced his parents to retire to Colorado when the Midwestern Sprawl started getting dangerous.
He is divorced from a fellow police officer.
He starts and stops going to AA meetings with some frequency.
His therapist's name is Sonya, a thirty-five year old woman with a wife, a child of her own, and a devilish wit. She keeps him honest.
Unlike many of the other heroes, Edward has always been one-hundred percent a team player. Not powerful enough to go solo, he relies on his experience, wit, gear, and training as much as his powers.
Relationship with Hex:
ET was always on good terms with Hex. Even as a pre-powered younger officer, Hex pulled him out of more than a few tight spots, supporting the fledgling MC-PD in its struggle to maintain order. After the manifestation, he and Hex spent much more time together, with Hex acting as a sort of hybrid researcher and guide to ET. After the death of his brother, ET recoiled from anything involving the supers lifestyle. The death of Hex, though, was too much of a weight on his conscience to ignore.
The man had never asked ET for anything, except to hold on to his goodness. Hearing about Hex's death sent ET down a memory lane that had been under maintenance for years. Suddenly, ET found himself questioning if he'd fallen too far to be redeemed. A little leave from the department would let him answer that question in Cedar Fort.
I love this guy! One thing that stood out to me on the sheet is his own admission that he probably can’t go it alone, and that he’s always a team player. I really enjoy characters like that because they bring something of a humble perspective and are often the ones that step up when needed before the ‘solo acts’ do. He seems really well rounded, and I love his powers. You’ve balanced them really well - and I can tell from the sheet you have a real understanding of the inner workings of this character.
The line about how he’s ‘Just a man’ really sticks out to me, because often the real heroes are just that - just a man/woman.
I really like ET, I’m excited to see how we go with this one - welcome to the RP.
You’ve also been a massive presence in the discord, asking questions and being interested and I’m glad you have you be part of this!
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[indent][sub][b][color=PINK] P O S T H I G H L I G H T S[/color][/b][/sub]
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[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5640711]Four Winters - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4900570]Live Together; Die Alone - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4776045]Via Purifico - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4813310]Dawn (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4902938]Change (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5145582]Come With Me (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5094249]Wayrest - The Elder Scrolls[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5256248]Intro - Young Justice[/url][/b][/color]
[COLOR=darkgray][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5634761]Nepenthe - Wanda Maximoff - Worlds Collide[/url][/b][/color]
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<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><iframe src="//youtube.com/embed/5Ob4E1W3g7o?theme=dark" frameborder="0" width="496" height="279" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br><br><div class="bb-center"><img src="https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/81ece249db96.gif" /></div><br><br><div class="bb-center"><div class="bb-indent"><sub><span class="bb-b"><font color="pink"> P O S T H I G H L I G H T S</font></span></sub><br><sup>▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔<br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5640711">Four Winters - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4900570">Live Together; Die Alone - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4776045">Via Purifico - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4813310">Dawn (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4902938">Change (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5145582">Come With Me (Collab) - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5094249">Wayrest - The Elder Scrolls</a></span></font><br><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5256248">Intro - Young Justice</a></span></font><br><font color="darkgray"><span class="bb-b"><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5634761">Nepenthe - Wanda Maximoff - Worlds Collide</a></span></font></sup></div></div><br></div>
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