ANNOUNCEMENT: Preparations for Episode 5

[yoikes]

Spoiler: Castle, M

CASTLE, M

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• Skills and Flaws
• Tools & Weapons
• Gallery

• Heroism Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Strength	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Defense	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Agility	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04
  Willpower	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05
  Energy	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03

• Full Name
  Mitch Castle
  
  Nicknames
  Mitch, Castle, "Power Thief"

  
  Codename
  Borrower
  
  Gender
  Female
  
  Age
  17
  
  Rank
  B Rank
  
  Limiter
  Active, Level 2
  
  Role
  Student
• Race
  Chinese-American

  
  Hair
  Dark Brown
  
  Eyes
  Dark Brown
  
  Height
  5’ 8”
  
  Figure
  Coltish

  
  Notes
  Wears glasses (Has both the normal looking one and one used for sports/in action)
• Adaptable
  Mitch can quickly adapt to her new surroundings, in a new group of friends or in a new environment. She can quickly adjust and change her own self to fit the new situation.

  
  Stern
  Mitch could be firm and strict, especially when there is 'rule breaking' being involved. She's not afraid to scold someone for cutting into the line, or for smoking in a non-smoking area and could be harsh to even her own sisters.

  
  Reserved
  Mitch is friendly, but there's always a side of her that she keep to herself. She's a little bit of secretive, hiding her own problem and conflict from others. She tried to solve it on her own, stubbornly refusing to tell and ask someone to help with it.

  
  Hesitant
  Mitch always doubted her own self, her own choices. Can she do it? Can she actually be a hero? Did she make the correct choice? She's having a serious problem to trust her own judgment, and afraid to make an irreparable mistake. It takes her a while before deciding on what to do.

  
  History
  Born to an American father and Chinese mother, Mitch is raised in Shanghai with her two younger sisters. As a child, Mitch never really has a dream to pursue. That boy wanted to be a pilot, that girl wanted to be a nurse. And Mitch? She never dreamed of something, she couldn't see herself becoming someone. So she attended school, went to cram school and have fun with friends aimlessly and without a goal.
  
  Until an accident occurred and Mitch finds out about her power.
  
  She was visiting an amusement park with her friends when someone's superpower activated for the first time, the poor man is unable to control his terrakinesis that's causing massive earthquake and boulders being lifted off the ground and thrown into every direction. People panicked, pushing each other as they ran to all direction. Mitch was shoved down to the ground, and before a boulder could hit and injure her badly a hand made out of solid rock leaped out of the ground in front of her and blocked it.
  
  Mitch, confused, thought that she has the same power as the man. She tries to control the earth, but nothing happens. It took her and everyone a while to realized what her power can actually do.
  
  After graduating from middle school, she is told to attend a Training Facility. Her parents decided to send her to Training Facility 108, a place far from home so she could learn to live alone. Attending the facility and surrounded with people with powers made Mitch realized that she is no longer a normal person and that she has the power to do something and to be an even better person that she was before. She's quite excited, but at the same time really troubled.
  
• Jefferson Castle
  A man who worked in the export-import business. He traveled quite a lot but always find time to have some quality family bonding. Mitch is really close with her father, doing some activities together like traveling together across the countryside. After he finds out that Mitch has a superpower, he and his wife decided to keep a close watch on their 2 youngest to see whether they have one too.

  
  Chan Yi
  Jefferson's wife. They met at a Chinese New Year party held by Jefferson's company, and five years later gets married. A housewife who's trying her best to take care of three daughters especially when her husband is not home. Yi sees Mitch as a capable and independent child, especially since she's the oldest, and teach her to take care of her sisters. Worried that all of her daughters has power and are given a burden that might be too hard for them to handle.

  
  Chan Fang / Alice Castle
  Mitch's sister, 2 years younger than her. Angsty teenager who just entered puberty, she often clashed with her parents and Mitch and like to tease the youngest. Rebellious, Mitch worried that she might be hanging out with the wrong crowd at school. Think that her older sister's power is really cool and wondered if she has a power too.

  
  Chan Ling / Gabrielle Castle
  The youngest sister, 5 years younger than Mitch. The sweetest child in the world, she never had a malicious intent and always smile and friendly to everyone even to stranger. A crybaby who easily cried when teased or mocked. Really saddened to see her older sister left home to attend the facility.

  
• Power Replication
  The ability to mimic and replicate other people's power and use it for herself.
  
  Power Scanner: Her power allows her to be some sort of a power radar. She can sense people who have a power and differentiate them from normal people. Aside from sensing whether someone has a power, she can also sense what kind of power they have. Psychical, something that related to human's mind, or a shape shifting ability. She can guess it, but she doesn't really know what it is or what it can do.

  Ability Learning: Mitch can copy other people's power by first observing how the power is used and studying it.

  
  Limitations
  Observation: Mitch has to see the power being used first, and she have to observe what it can do. For example, the terrakinesis power. She saw the man use the power (unconsciously) and watch as it shook the ground and lift off rocks. After seeing what the power can do, only then Mitch could copy the power and uses it as her own.

  Study: She must understand how the power work first before being able to actually copy it. This might take a while.

  Only one: She can only copy one power at the time, and the power will only last for 30-45 minute and an hour at the longest. The stronger the power, the shorter the duration.

  Distance: She can only copy someone's power who are in a 30m radius from her and are within her eye visibility.
  Delay: After copying someone's power, she cannot copy it again for an hour.

  Uncontrollable: She doesn't own the power, so she has to be cautious when borrowing someone else's power for the first time as she could harm herself or her own friends if she's not careful. Aside from she doesn't know how to properly use the power, the power could get out of control (like the terrakinesis man from her past).

  Fragile: Mitch is not a machine nor an actual superhuman. Her body is that of a normal human. The more she uses her power to borrow, the more exhausted her body is. And what dangerous is that Mitch doesn't know exactly how many is her limit. 2 As? 3 Bs? Or 5 Cs? She is forced to be picky to choose which power to copy, and when to use it to fight.
  
• A list of non-superpower (mundane) skills and flaws that your character has. Mundane skills include knowledge such as first-aid training, cooking, paleontology, etc. Mundane flaws include physical disabilities, or expanded information on negative personality traits such as gullibility, clumsiness, vanity, etc.
  
  Keep in mind that your character's superpowers might affect some of their normal skills, for example, we all expect hyper-intelligent supers to have more knowledge-related skills in this list than the average character. However, these skills and flaws should all be things that your character could lose their powers, and still retain.
  
  All characters should have at least two skills and two flaws.
  
  SKILLS:
  Mandarin & Cantonese: Born and raised in Shanghai, aside from using it daily Mitch was also taught Chinese in school. She picked up Cantonese from her mom, who use it when talking with her relatives.
  
  Cooking: Mitch always enjoyed cooking, but occasionally it's a bit hard to find ingredients for Western dish in Chinese market. When she's in America, it's the opposite of it. The Chinese food she cooked always taste different, but maybe it was just her missing home.
  
  FLAWS:
  
  Too Kind: She is so kind, it's dangerous, as she will be willing to jump into dangerous situation to help someone when she can. This also make her quick to accept an apologize even when she knew that logically, she shouldn't do that and be more cautious.
  
  Easily Distracted: She is very easy to be distracted.
  
  
• Formerly known as the Augmentations tab, it has now been renamed to Tools and Weapons, and will contain exactly what it says - a running list of tools or weapons that your character carries on them and uses along with/instead of superpowers.
  
  Her phone [Tool] That's right, her smartphone. With a few taps and a click, she could find the scientific explanation for a power that will then allow her copy said power.
  
  Notebook: [Tool] She cannot fully trust technology, which is why she kept everything written in her A5 notebook. Inside, she wrote down every information about powers that she knew about especially about the ones belonging to the students and staffs of Facility 108 with waterproof pen ink.
  
  N/A [Augmentation/Tool/Weapon] Hopefully, a power suit in the future....
• Although there is now a spot for a character image (since most of you have one), the Gallery tab remains as an area for you to post additional images, theme songs, and so on.

Fixed Mitch's!

You're welcome! OWO7

They both make sense to me. Loved Naran’s 'Messiah Conplex' flaw, with the whole 'want to save everyone' thing. I relate to that a little bit >w<, I think that was smart to include as well.

Tomoko is adorable, I love her so much and don't see anything wrong.

But, I stopped wagging in first, to let others who are better at this and see things I don't, talk first.
I started suggesting things for Mitch because Sin said they didn't know what to suggest and suddenly the idea came to me in a flash. You can say I was misteriously inspired XD

But yeah, I'm staying in the second base. I AM more of a problem solver (but not the one to spot it, usually) and like Syrenrei said on Discord, I'm 'incorrigibly nice', critique is not for me >w<

Aww, thank you!

Mitch: Borrower is a classic hero trope, and I've liked her ever since she was the only girl to take Lucas's sudden appearance in stride. Happy to have her on the team.

Sato Tomoko: IMOTO-SAN! DAITSUKE! ISSYO NI IKIMASHO, NE?

Naran: I approve. And to everyone who thinks she is only A rank, I submit to you: A kinetic energy capacitor might take a long time to charge, but there is no theoretical reason she needs to have an upper bound on the charge, nor a maximal power upon discharge. The upshot of this is that, given enough time to charge, she could potentially cause an extinction level event with one punch. Admittedly, unlike one punch man, she'd die from that, but still. She is, and deserves to be, a hard S rank. 9 Energy brought down a bridge by just looking at it. 9 energy in supplementation to 5 strength is terrifying to contemplate. She could easily level buildings with that, and could plausibly write a world ending event as a prompt. Awesome.

Tomoko: NEE-SAN! DAISUKI? WATASHI MO! UN!

Naran: When i create Naran, i create her with the thought of her being able to punch a hole through a building / ship when her limiter is turned off. But never in my mind i imagine that with enough charge, she could do such a huge damage!
Aaron vs Naran might be interesting to see?

 

[Aldur]

I recommend colouring the stat pips like you did before so that we know what happens in the event of his cybernetics being shut down/taken away.

You also cut off suddenly at the end of the social enhancer, that seems like a mistake rather than unfinished.

It was pretty late las night when I was writing and I just gave up and went to sleep. I decided it's better to post it than to postpone it.

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Quick clarification, yoikes , does Naran rhyme with Aaron?

Or is it like Nah-rahn?

 

[welian]

A summary of the stats, based on the Google Doc I was working on a few days ago:

• The health stat is primarily concerned with the immune system, and the body's ability to recover from illness and injury to flesh. Since 1 to 3 is considered normal human range, and normal humans recover at normal rates, any character with accelerated healing or immunity to poison or disease should have 4 or more points in health to reflect their abilities.
• Strength is the stat for physical strength, the load that the musculoskeletal system is able to bear and/or deliver. Strength affects lifting, pushing, pulling, climbing, running, swimming, etc. There are many different types of strength.
  
• For defense, we are concerned with the body's ability to resist physical damage. Types of damage considered are punctures, lacerations, burns, etc. Defense can also (but doesn't always) reflect pain threshold. Defense does not take into consideration immunity to disease or poison, as that is a function of the health stat.
• Agility is a measure of nimbleness and dexterity. It is the stat for fine motor skills, as opposed to strength's gross motor skills. Superpowers that involve nimble, precise movements and sharp reflexes will have a high agility score.
• As always, intelligence is for reasoning skills, not "book smarts". Powers that augment quick thinking, problem solving, creativity, pattern recognition, memory, spatial reasoning, and more, will have high intelligence scores.
• Willpower scores are dependent on determination, focus, and concentration. It also affects mental fortitude. Many supers with "active" powers - that is, powers that must be actively and willfully controlled, as opposed to passive powers that are controlled subconsciously - have higher than normal willpower scores.
• Finally, energy - it is not a miscellaneous stat, I promise. Energy is the go-to stat for powers that involve what I call "ex nihilo", which means "out of nothing". Conjuring constructs, animating objects, raining down fire, farting lasers, ripping and stitching space, these (and more) are all powers that require some sort of additional energy to function.

As we go through and re-review our characters and create new ones, let's ask ourselves the following questions:

• What is the primary stat that my character relies on?
• Where do their powers come from, and how do they work?
  
• Do these numbers give a reasonable idea of what to expect of their powers and role?
• Am I putting as more thought into the numbers than I am the description of their powers? If so, am I overthinking the stats?
• How does my character' powers compare to other characters with the same primary stat?
• Am I following the description of the stats faithfully, or am I assigning points based on what I feel my character should be like?
• What is my character's role in the narrative? What is their role in the gameplay?
• What can my character and their powers do to support someone else during a situation?

I've also seen over the past few days, some ruffled feathers over critiques. A critique of a character is not a critique of you, as a person. They are opportunities for other players to speak up and ask questions about your character, and point out inconsistencies that you might have missed (or that I or another GM missed, when characters were approved the first time around).

When Aegis first started, the system was much looser, and we had less people. As we've picked up players, I've been trying to make my system more rigid, and keep the internal logic of the world as consistent as possible. It doesn't always work, my background is 100% in freeform roleplays and not dice systems or game theory. Things are not balanced, and not all situations or powers can be reflected to both the degree of detail AND freedom of imagination that most people would like to have in here. I know the urge to make a strong character who can compete in combat is powerful and all-consuming, but so is the resentment that festers in the group when there are blatantly unequal and disproportionate contributions to the story.

One more time, I'd like to point everyone to Kevin Bolk's "A Tribute to Big Dan" and give it a read. It's a eulogy of sorts, for a famous con-goer that I also knew. But more importantly for you guys, it has powerful advice for how to play fairly.

But most importantly, be a “Big Dan” for someone else. If possible, be a “Big Dan” to as many people as you can. If there’s one thing the response to his passing has shown me, it’s that the most beloved and fondly remembered folks aren’t the ones who are simply great heroes in their own stories, but those who go out of their way to be amazing supporting characters in other people’s stories as well. Big Dan changed my life and I know deep down to the essence of my being that if I can be half the friend to at least one other person that Big Dan was to everyone around him, I could leave this world content. I only wish I had a chance to tell him that. Kevin Bolk

Go be heroes, you fucking assholes, and fix your stats while you're at it.

 

[Gus]

MOAR FEEDBACKS!!!

Aldur Big Fan of Pritchard, have been from the start. Add flaws and I'd say he's all set. Maybe clarify the social enhancer? As I recall, it mostly just allowed you access to personnel files, giving you the insight a dossier would give (or a peek at the CS) Maybe a list of suggestions of helpful things to say for defusing tense situations? In any case, my approval is assured pending only finishing what you started

Giyari Love Swan, as always. Approval!

B Bag o Fruit Lazarus is so much fun. Creeptastic and weird. Well imagined and beautifully twisted hero. I would add descriptions to the relationships list. Surely, Lazarus has some kind of bizarre outsider's insights into his fellow travelers. Also, I think the tern should go in the weapons tab. Just because you don't know how to handle it doesn't mean its not dangerous. Also, the bird whisper's last command was to be helpful. So maybe the bird will help fight your enemies (And thinks the flesh suit you are wearing is just not you and should be removed as a poor fashion choice... What a helpful tern!)

Also love that "Mr. Allen McNabb" goes under nicknames.


As for Van Can, I would add "beer" and "weed" under tools. Also a deck of cards and poker chips. She should also add at least Kendrick and Manami and Chris to 'relationships'

Petrovich looks like the boss from hell. Should be fun writing when we finally get testing thread going.

Dano History looks better now. Still not sure why powers would result in disbarment though... maybe add something about having used them unethically? Like causing a car accident to discredit a witness or something? Or having been framed for doing so? Just having powers wouldn't seem like it would be enough on its own. Love the codename. Good choice.

Father should probably go in relationships tab. Maybe mom also? What was her role in the abuse? Enabler? Fellow Victim? How does he feel about her? Any Siblings? Contacts from Lawerly days? Relationships don't have to be limited to PCs.

Lastly, I still feel like the power needs more explanation. I like it, and I am not trying to change how it works; like I said, it is your power, it should work how you want.

Still, we DO need to understand from a mechanical perspective HOW it works. This is a highly interactive RP and I guarantee that novel situations will come up that will require some kind of theoretical framework to sort out. I would suggest 'permeable' if you don't like 'porous'. The holes could be nanoscopic in size: imagine a force field 'screen door' where the holes are on a scale so small that you can barely get a smallish molecule through. So maybe water would be stopped by surface tension, but air can breeze on through. Super fluids could seep through but no others. Solids would be stopped unless they are smaller than 10 nanometers or so, which would stop even viruses, as well as any currently extant nanobots. This seems like the easiest way to explain stopping solids and liquids but not wind. Fire might be stopped if it was say, napalm, but super heated gasses could get through. Electricity could get through, I think? I have been thinking about this shield thing on and off all day... Force(field) of habit.

Other clarifications needed: Does it need to be anchored to a solid surface or can it be free floating? If you make a sphere can it be rolled around like a giant cat toy, or is it anchored directly to the fabric of reality and utterly immobile. When it stops moving objects, does it give, or is it rigid? If you run into it full tilt face first, what would that feel like? Would it break your neck or gently stop you like a feather pillow? Or if you like the the (micro) screen door idea, does it give you a (micro) cheese grater pattern on your face like a rash?

I get that it is meant as a simple straightforward power, but one thing I have learned: nothing is simple. Gotta dig into things, ore you will end up scrabbling for answers on the fly later.

Natealie Don't give up! I was not criticizing at all. Just a suggestion. And I gave my approval regardless. And no conversation I have ever had was a waste of my time.

Syrenrei As noted Anthony is actually D rank. As for Lars, I put him at 4 for two reasons. First intelligence is kinda special. Hard to measure, with no hard limit like strength or reaction time. He is meant to be the brilliant villain trope, like Lex Luthor or Joker. In a way, that is a stat to account for ManicMuse 's critique that nobody could do all the things he has done by age 30. That is true for normal people. All I can say is: some people aren't normal. I had a college professor who had her PhD in math by 17. Lars is like that but for magicians.

The second reason is simply that he is mad. Round the bend. Crazy but like a fox. His insights extend beyond what is normal because he does not think normally. He thinks so far outside the box he has bumped into the fourth wall. He is smart enough to find us out. Or crazy enough. It will also make little difference to how I play him. He is ridiculously smart.

FWIW, he did pass committee as is. But it is not like I didn't think about it. He is the quintessential mad genius. What do you think welian Does intelligence have enough flexibility to have 'normals' at a 4? People like Luddeus make me wonder if we sometimes hit 5...

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Necessity4Fun
Take note!

Gus
Aaron
You forgot to close the [LIST] on your skills and flaws tab but otherwise he has my approval.
Lars
Has my approval. In the way that you approve a mass murderer, you know...
Manami
Skills look fine to me. As someone with an agility of two, I could probably have thrown a barbed flesh whip into an open mouth while swimming. I approve.
Kate
Little bit of a formatting error in the Tools and Weapons tab, and the skills and flaws aren't labelled as such, but that's all cosmetic. I approve.

yoikes
Mitch
Funny and completely irrelevant story: I once had an idea for a Illithid-esque character in a superworld that had powers like Rogue, where it could mimic the powers of those it was nearby, but what it'd do was devour the brain of its supervictims and store them inside its body, so after it killed a superhuman it retained their- Hm, what? Oh, yeah, Mitch has my approval. Just put her in the RP more!
Tomoko
You know she's listed in the character sheets tab as 'Tomoko, S', right? Was that intentional? No matter, I approve.
Naran
Wait what? Courage and altruism and order are 999999 and then 1 composure!? what the fuck happened!! I mean, that's fine if you did it intentionally... just, huh. I approve anyway. Get to smashing through buildings!

Syrenrei
Luther
I hadn't seen the thing about entering and exiting at the same velocity until just now. I don't know why, but that just strikes me neat (a phrase people use all the time)! It's almost as if... well... as if her skin... displaced the object... through, time. *cough*...

Welian saw nothing, we're okay.

Aldur
Eve
Fuck yeah Jericho!! Approoooove!
Pritchard
I approve, but be sure to give Eve and Ioana the limelight too!

Teh Frixz
Avoyelles
Coo-l'yeh! Gar ici, dem couyons, dem bo'riens don' lik de mglw'nafh a' ol' Aveey? Oo ye yi! Iss jes bracque! Wowaron de subjic', ah' 'pprove de li'l bebelle a bon couer!
Tabitha
I approve. We need more criminal framings and mass exposure to happen to shy teenagers.

Dano
Trent
Consider a lung wall. It's exactly the right amount thin that liquids cannot pass through it, but gasses can. The problem of course being that solids can and do if they're pointy enough. I think of Trent's shield as functioning kind of like that? Except made of shiny energy stuff.

Alternatively, consider this slight tweak: Lasers, lightning, radiation and such can penetrate his shield, but solids, liquids and gasses cannot travel through it because it doesn't permit atoms through, in its default state. When it's around him, or him and other people, his brain instinctively won't let him stop gasses getting through because, y'know, he'd die. So it shifts the phase of the shield a little, making it ever so slightly weaker but allowing him to breathe.

Giyari
Jason
... Maybe a lower composure? Other than that, I approve.
OOH OOH! Can he emit a frequency that makes his knife vibrate at extreme speeds!? Causing it to be able to cut through hard solids!!?? Ooh ooh ooh!! *runs off into the distance*

 

[Gus]

I approve of Pritchard.

 

[yoikes]

Quick clarification, yoikes , does Naran rhyme with Aaron?

Or is it like Nah-rahn?

From what i could gather in the net it should be 'Nara-an' for Mongolians, but for our characters it would be more like 'Na-raan' or 'Nah-raan'

Mitch
Funny and completely irrelevant story: I once had an idea for a Illithid-esque character in a superworld that had powers like Rogue, where it could mimic the powers of those it was nearby, but what it'd do was devour the brain of its supervictims and store them inside its body, so after it killed a superhuman it retained their- Hm, what? Oh, yeah, Mitch has my approval. Just put her in the RP more!
Tomoko
You know she's listed in the character sheets tab as 'Tomoko, S', right? Was that intentional? No matter, I approve.
Naran
Wait what? Courage and altruism and order are 999999 and then 1 composure!? what the fuck happened!! I mean, that's fine if you did it intentionally... just, huh. I approve anyway. Get to smashing through buildings!

1. That um sounds um interesting yeah
2. Should i change it?
3. Lol yeah ;3

 

[Bag o Fruit]

So does not rhyme with Aaron.

Unless for some reason you pronounce Aaron like 'Ah-rann'

 

[yoikes]

It's 'Aa-ron' for me?

 

[Syrenrei]

Right now the rules (as I understand them) are normal humans can only have 1 to 3 in a stat, with 1 being poor and 3 being exceptional. Any stat for any character that is 4+ must be justified by a superpower and, if can not be, ought to be reduced accordingly. If Lars is allowed to be intellect 4 without a supporting supowerpower, we are then redefining what 3 intelligence is as others understand it. It's no longer "exceptionally smart" but "smarter than average" and the spectrum it encompasses is reduced.

To be fair, if Lars is passed with intellect 4, ALL characters should have the ability to retcon and adjust their stats again, even if they were previously accepted, to be able to be intellect 4 (or essentially geniuses/prodigies) if they so choose. To make other stats more linear, I think we would also need to consider making the 4 stat for strength, defense, health, agility, and willpower also reflect that 3 is "above average" and 4 is for "extremely exceptional." It would not be fair if someone had to pay 4 intellect to be a child genius, but then someone with 3 strength was one of the strongest weightlifters in the world; one is paying more than the other while they are both one in a million stat-wise.

I am really opposed to having humans having more than 3 in a stat simply because we already have a boundary and rules that say "3 is the maximum for humans." I've seen characters proposed in discord with 4s in stats that were told, "you can only have 3 in any stat without a superpower ability." We even discussed how some real life people in AEGIS would be supers!

I'll be the jerk that says it. I don't think we should bend this rule. If we do bend it, we have to bend it for everyone to be equitable.

Yours truly,
Mrs. Killjoy

 

[Bag o Fruit]

So far, we have been bending it for everyone. Billy Petrovich has an INT of 5.

Look at it like this: If the max possible intelligence of an E-rank is three, then any super that happens to have thrown four points into INT is capable of learning things that normal humans physically can't comprehend. The INT stat would be insanely unbalanced. What would it even mean to have a nine??

 

[Gus]

First of all, I don't think you are a jerk for citing the rules.That is a legitimate view to take of rules. Generally speaking, that is how rules are meant to work.

My pushback is only this: This is a creative writing RP, not a wargame. In creative writing, as I understand it, rules are there to cover the vast majority of cases, not to brook no exceptions, ever, like an immutable law of physics. In writing, there is a fine art to knowing when to break the rules to achieve an artistic effect. Reasonable people can disagree about when it is art and when it is grandstanding.

This is not a hill I intend to die on, and I will play him exactly the same either way. I will bend around the rules if I have to do so. I just think the idea of a normal human taking on supers merits the rules bending around him. (and may I say, Lars would find it enormously gratifying that this many writers are paying attention to him. I can picture him preening under all this scrutiny, whatever the outcome)

In any case, I get that there is dissatisfaction about everything not being exactly and perfectly fair and equitable down to the smaller jot and title. And I don't want to contribute to that. Truly I don't. I want people to have fun writing this story with me. I don't want to hog this world. I just want to contribute a verse.

All I ask, from my end is that you (among others) consider that you may be thinking of the rules in the wrong context, as if we were playing dungeons and dragons or, to go really old school, chainmail. There is a place for rules to act like that, but I don't think it is here. I think the rules in a game like this are healthy guidelines that you should have to show very good cause to break before breaking them. That will always be a negotiation, because it is always a judgement call.

In my opinion, the rules should serve the story, not the other way around. That is my two cents.

 

[Syrenrei]

This is ridiculous.

We are asking to have different rules for different characters.

That different characters are beholden to different restrictions for stats.

I want you to think about this long and hard, because I certainly am. This means I gave my characters an intellect of 2 when I could have (and maybe should have) given them a much higher intellect because the intellect stat was completely different than I understood. Why should I justify it with an ability? I do not need to if another doesn't.

I am on board with supers that need an intellect 4 and their powers requiring it to having that stat inflated. I approved Max, who has a higher intellect because he has to store all these skills that maybe a typical person could not categorize and digest before distributing with his power.

I can not and will not endorse bending the rules for multiple characters, while others and entirely beholden to them. Why? Because people have paid points to have strengths and their ability/power to really write that out, to shine, and to excel, is now being mitigated. It's not a big deal to the people bending the stats because they get to have their cake and eat it too. Who it injures are those that have something that, is, let's say, super high intellect and yet when it comes to a battle of the wits they find that some normal guy with intellect 3 is a powerhouse they can't conquer. He's occupying their space. This goes for all the statistics really.

I see the stats as a way to help make sure everyone is equitable. If people are making characters with lesser stats, yet acting as if they have more, they are being better at a larger number of things. This means people who have the stats they are acting as if they have (intellect, defense, health, agility, strength, willpower, or energy) that stat without following the rules for it, without paying for it, are taking advantage of them. Say I was to make a D-rank super with higher intellect and yet you played Lars as intellect 4, and their intellect 4, then why did I bother making that higher intellect character? What use are they? I paid more points but I get no boon for it. I run into the potential of being no greater than someone without the neat ability I meant.

I am focused on stats (to welian's frustration) because I want it to be fair. Right now things do not feel fair. The spirit of the stats is to have balance. If we are not going to make our best efforts to remain faithful to them, and respect what they are trying to do, and if every other character is bending them, then we have to look around and realize what that might do to the story.

You're right, this is creative endeavor. But even in my best RPs we almost have an unofficial stat system; we distribute what people can be good at, and what they are truly terrible at. I would never dream of making a genius in a 1x1 that is simply smarter than any other genius my partner has. Hell, I did a super power RP and my powers were roughly equivocal to my partners (we both had 5-person teams). I bet if I had a tabletop sheet I could write them down and even make them match on paper without bending rules. That is what I want here.

 

[welian]

I'm going to cast my lot with Syrenrei.

My top priority right now, as the GM, is consistency. And consistency to me, means making sure all the characters follow the same rules for the stats, and that's "do not exceed 3 in a stat that your power doesn't affect".

I want to be clear, I am not retroactively punishing anyone. This is my failure as a GM, to provide rules that are as clear and consistent as possible. I am trying to get everyone on the same page before we proceed much further with the story, and that means pulling some people back and pushing others forward.

Bending the rules is fun, and is necessary at times. Without Gus prodding at the rules, I would have never considered shifting stats as a mechanic (I still don't personally like them, but seeing a faithful effort to put them into practice has changed my opinion of the viability of them in my system). For that, we should thank him. Were I a more skilled GM, I would consider more lenient application of the stats - but there's the problem. I am not a more skilled GM, this is my first time running a roleplay with a stat system, the stats are a hodgepodge of D&D and Pokemon inspiration, it's been revised quite a few times over the past year, and this is also the largest and longest-running roleplay I have ever run.

You are dealing with a GM who is drawing the map as she goes along, and I'm asking you to stick to the rules (as boring and rigid as they are) - not because I have anything magnificent planned, or because the story exists for the purpose of testing this stats framework, but because I don't know what the fuck I'm doing or where I'm going, all I know is that there is a fine line between "bending the rules because the GM trusts us as writers" and "setting a precedent for less-trusted and vetted players to exploit and manipulate an immature system that the GM isn't experienced enough to identify and correct the flaws in", and once that line is crossed - intentionally or not - Aegis will be dead in the water and it will not be returning.

 

[Dano]

***UPDATED***

Edwards, Trent

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpower
• Skills and Flaws

• Heroism Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	5
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	5
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	8
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	4
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	7
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	3
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	9

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	3
  Strength	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	2
  Defense	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	2
  Agility	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	2
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	3
  Willpower	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	5
  Energy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	7

• Full Name
  
  
  Trent Edwards
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  
  Mr. E
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  
  Halo
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  
  Male
  
  
  
  Age
  
  
  34 years
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  
  A
  
  
  
  Limiter
  
  
  Inactive, Level 3
  
  
  
  Role
  
  
  Faculty – Disciplinary Counselor
  
• Race
  
  
  Caucasian - British
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  
  Brown
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  
  Brown
  
  
  
  Height
  
  
  6’0”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  
  179lbs – Average build, but on the fit side of average
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  
  Blue Card Holder.
• Positive Personality Trait
  
  
  Charismatic - Trent is an extremely charismatic guy. Typically people like him before he even has a chance to say anything because he radiates "awesome" (or maybe it's just his personal barrier that outlines every inch of his body and emits a soft white glow) in his perfectly dressed self, stark white teeth and .
  
  
  
  Neutral Personality Trait
  
  
  Silver Tongue - If there were some that weren't impressed by his appearance or glow, then chances are he could still persuade them. Trent is a walking infomercial and could sell ice to Eskimos or sand to a camel.
  
  
  Neutral Personality Trait
  
  Center of Attention - due to his narcissistic nature, Trent feels he needs to be the center of attention in almost all circumstances. His quest for fame often drives many of his decisions to insert himself to situations.
  
  
  Negative Personality Trait
  
  
  Arrogant - Because of his narcissistic ways, it has made Trent quite arrogant, thus making him likely to rub people the wrong way, especially if they have a good amount of self confidence or willpower. The tone in his voice often comes across as demeaning because he has a hard time understanding how others can let themselves look and act like.... slobs.
  
  
  
  History
  
  As a child, Trent grew up in a wealthy household were perfection was expected of every member of the family. Pushing him to continually find ways to improve, Trent's father often expressed his disappointment in his seven year old son's lack of perfection. It wasn't long after that Trent began to physically train his body. On his 8th birthday he became a child model and was the only child under 10 years with the muscle tone he had acquired. Despite his success as a model, his father disapproved all the same. The disapproval turned into physical abuse with shoving & hitting. Every time he brought home a paper with a grade less than 100% he would receive, sometimes an excessive (when his father was intoxicated), a thrashing, usually with a leather strap. Trent oddly enough continued to seek his father's approval and pushed himself to be perfect in every way as he continued through his teen years. It wasn't until he was 17 and he had finally found perfection, or what he had thought constituted it. He had reached valedictorian status and had been accepted to Cambridge Law after acquiring 600 UCAS points. His father, rather than congratulating Trent, backhanded him across the face as he shouted "ONLY 600 UCAS POINTS?!?!? I HAD OVER 700 WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE!!!! YOU ARE A DISGRACE!". That's when it happened... Trent's skin began to glow and the impact of his father's hand bounced from his face only millimeters from his skin as a ripple of energy crossed his face from where he had been "struck". He felt nothing as he looked up into the face of the family patriarch. Trent was not sure what exactly was going on, but what he did realize was that his father could no longer hurt him.
  
  After that incident, he left home and never looked back. He was able to stand on his own, he knew who he was and what he needed to do for success. Trent kept his powers to himself and went to law school, graduating in record time. It was only a handful of years after when he was disbarred from practicing law when his powers were discovered. Since family had been the driving force for him to succeed it backfired and created a narcissistic young man who seeks fame, power and wealth. What drives him is the will to become even more recognized than his father and to be able to look down upon him from his higher status in society.
  
  He knew that if he couldn't gain fame from taking down big names in the UK that he would have to make a new name for himself across the pond as a 'Halo'. It was much different than Trent had imagined when he thought about helping local officials round up common criminals. Sure he got his name and picture in the paper a few times but it wasn't the fame he was after, he needed more. That's when Trent had heard about the Aegis facility and decided to apply for a position....
  
  
• Other Character's Name
  
  
  Roger Edwards (Dad) - Abused as a child, Trent has had nothing to do with his father for the past 17 years
  
  Eleanor Edwards (Mother) - Always afraid to speak up to protect her son, she turned to alcohol to cope and has a goblet of wine with her at all times (practically)
  
• Primary Power
  
  
  Protective Medical Barrier: Trent has the ability to create a solid barrier that makes it impossible for atoms to pass through The barrier has regenerative properties and anyone within the barrier is "showered" with accelerated regeneration.
  
  
  
  • Supporting Power: Trent has the ability to pass through the barrier he creates.
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  • There can be only one...: Trent can only have ONE barrier up at a time whether it is his "natural" self barrier or one he creates at a distance
    
    
  • Size does matter...: The size of the barrier cannot exceed 720 cubic feet (that's roughly a dome 7ft high and 14ft in diameter). The height and diameter can change, but the volume of which it can hold remains the same. The barrier does have a "floor" to it and is always a domed shape
    (which is where the enhanced strength partially comes from).
  • Can't touch this... yet: Trent's barrier will not allow atoms to pass through it. While his barrier is extremely durable, it does take a toll on him. He can generally keep a barrier active as long as he needs if there is nothing catastrophic going on (small gun fire, thrown objects, etc...). If the barrier is hit by a vehicle, it would take a chunk out of Trent's energy holding it in place. A single object colliding would take a bit out of him, but if nothing else occurred he would regain his energy due to the accelerated regeneration. He could hold the barrier in place for six hours before really needing to rest. A constant barrage of large objects, munitions, etc, would take its toll and Trent would only be able to hold it for 15 minutes before he passed out from exhaustion.
  • 
    
  • Don't distract me...: Trent can project a barrier up to 35m away. While doing so he must be solely focused on that barrier in order to keep it active. He may project the barrier or materialize it centered on himself, which is easier to maintain and take less focus due to the regenerative effects it provides.
• Skill: Bluffing - because of his "silver tongue" Trent can often bluff his way out of a sticky situation, one where his powers are not sufficient.
  
  
  
  Skill: Calculating - Trent, being a Cambridge Law grad, knows how to assess risk to ensure that before he commits to a task that it will bring him some level of public recognition.
  
  
  
  Flaw: Narcissistic - Trent takes immaculate care of himself (hence the health 3) and prides himself on his dashing good looks and social status. If a single hair is out of place, a thread loose on his clothes, or anything else cosmetically wrong with him then there's an issue and he needs to get it resolved immediately. He feeds off of fame in any form, but is an insatiable need.
  
  
  
  Flaw: Egotistical – Trent places a lot of value on himself and loves to talk about his accomplishments in order to make others feel envious of him.
  

 

[Gus]

I am not bored by the rules. Rules that you can't break foster creativity. I will edit Lars appropriately when I get home.

I still think there is room for trust and flexibility because trust has to be earned, and anyone who comes in here wanting trust out of the gate doesn't understand how trust works.

While I get your point Syrenrei I fear you are completely missing mine: I am not suggesting that rules be bent wily nilly. Far from it. I am suggesting that a conversation can be had about bending rules on a case by case basis. And that rule bending SHOULD receive extra scrutiny. I am NOT advocating for special rules for some and enforce them rigidly for others. I am advocating for looking at the idea and deciding collectively, on a case by case basis, if the idea is cool enough to get a pass. Or if it needs a pass. Some cool ideas can be bent themselves to fit within the rules and still be cool. Kate is cooler for the contortions I had to put her through to make her fit in.

Also? I personally think you are being unnecessarily alarmist about the unfairness of it all. I did actually pay points for Lars's intellect, I just prodded at the rules for what still counts as normal human.

Should I have submitted him as a D rank? Maybe so, but that was not the conception of the character I had. So I prodded at the rules. And the rules prodded back. And that is fine, I will bow to the pressure.

What I find disturbing about the nature of this conversation is the degree to which I feel excoriated personally for even pressing the conversation in the first place. I am not trying to take anything away from anybody, I just want to write a good story. I want other people to help. Making other people uncomfortable doesn't serve that end, so I regret any part I had in that. But I have tried very hard to demonstrate, in both word and deed to demonstrate that has never been my intent.

 

[Gus]

All right, so I clearly have some editing to do. Starting with the easy stuff; first up, Manami needs a tweak to personality. I wrote her up originally as 'timid' but that was not how she turned out once I started writing her. Turns out all she needed was some excitement in her life to shed that shell, and tooling around the world in a fishing boat with mom and dad wasn't doing it. Also, based on her deference to authority (plus a history of mental conditioning) I have moved one point from Will to Agility. I will also do a B rank version after this for comparison.

Spoiler: manami

Hamasaki, M

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• [COLOR=#ff4d4d
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• [COLOR=#ff4d4d
• Gallery

• Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05
  Proaction	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Composure	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Strength	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	3/7
  Defense	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Agility	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Intelligence	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Willpower	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Energy	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  
• Full Name
  Manami Hamasaki
  
  Nicknames
  Umi
  
  Codename
  Stingray
  
  Gender
  Female
  
  Age
  Approximately 23, exact birthdate unknown
  
  Rank
  C Rank
  
  Limiter
  Active chip, Level 2
  
  Role
  
  Student
• Race
  Japanese
  
  Hair
  None
  
  Eyes
  Black
  
  Height
  5'4” OR 6' 11”
  
  Figure
  Lithe and lean (125 pounds) OR Massive and Muscular (275 pounds)
  
  Notes
  Blue scaly skin, flattened nose, nictitating membrane over eyes, gill slits below ears, webbed digits, needle like teeth, brow ridge and other fins. When angered or desperate, especially in aquatic environments she increases about 30 percent in height and more than doubles in muscle mass.
  
  
• Biography[/COLOR]]
  
  Excitable
  Everything is new to Manami. Chronologically she is in her early 20s but experientially and mentally she behaves more like a seven year old. Her sense of wonder about the world is untouched by darkness or cynicism. She is utterly innocent and overjoyed by the tiniest details.
  
  Disciplined
  Her tendency to subsume her aims for others would almost be crippling except for her single mindedness of purpose once she has set about to complete a task. If you could get her distracted, you could probably redirect her to a different task just by asking, but distracting her once she is engaged is no mean feat.
  
  Patient
  While in 'docile' mode, Manami has almost limitless patience. She will put up with almost anything, apart from a physical threat to herself or to Kyo or Makoto.
  
  Excitable
  Coming from a country famous for its single edged swords, it is somewhat ironic that Manami's best quality can also be her worst. She has a tendency to go off half cocked, leap twice before looking once, cut twice and measure not at all. Her sunny disposition is not appreciated by everyone, and can become very annoying or even dangerous when cool clear thinking is required
  
  History
  
  Manami was born about twenty years ago, presumably in or near Japan. She was discovered floating in the open sea off the southern coast of Kyushu by a husband and wife on their fishing vessel. They informally adopted her, and together the three of them have fished their way across two oceans. Her past is largely unknown, even to herself. Sometimes she has flashbacks, but refuses to talk about them. She is an atypical C rank super, in that her powers are virtually undetectable (apart from the obvious physiological differences) unless she is submersed in water, or very recently emerged from it. Only in the ocean can she reach her full potential. She is more graceful, strong, and clear minded when she is not expending so much effort fighting for each breath. Tragically, when she returns to her natural element, she feels more keenly than ever how alone she is, and wants nothing more than to get back to the surface world where she has a family, and can at least dream of having friends.
  
  
  
  After almost three years, her adoptive parents have reached an impasse; they have taught their daughter all they can, and they are very proud of her progress. Last month though, they docked in Baltimore, and the terrorist attacks made them realize that there are things a super needs to know in the world as it stands that they don't know how to teach her. On the morning of January 24th, they showed up on the doorstep of 108 looking to further their daughter's education.
  
  
• 
  
  Kyo and Makoto Hamasaki
  
  Manami's adoptive parents. They live with her on their 30 foot fishing boat, and have been moving from place to place for six years. Raising Manami has been, like raising any child, both terrifying and rewarding. The scale and character of the challenges however, were unique. She was a bit of a blank slate when they first encountered her. At first, she was prone to violent outbursts, but that was quickly moderated by her strong desire to please. She seemed to be so starved for kindness that they could hardly help but give her all they had. She soaked up their love and tried her very best to become the child they had waited too long to have. Makoto taught her to fish, and to make top notch sushi. Kyo taught her martial arts, specializing in the naginata, which gave her a much needed focus and outlet for her occasional violent urges. They are her world. Up until recently, she was halfway convinced they were the whole of the world, and she is a little alarmed to realize just how many people there are in this new place.
  
  
  
  Kendrick Haywood
  
  "Kendi-Kun" was Manami's first real friend, not just at 108, but in the world. She still cares deeply for him, but sees him a little differently since the day of the Jailbreak, where he showed that he can be mean sometimes, even with little to no cause.
  
  
  
  Sensei Mallory
  
  Mr. Mallory looks funny, but he is kind. On her first day, she misunderstood and thought Mr. McNabb was named Mr. Mallory, but her confusion was soon fixed by Kendrick.
  
  
  
  Sensei Ward
  
  Mr. Ward is even funnier than Mr. Mallory. He may seem gruff but Manami has taken combat training before, and she knows the difference between martial discipline and mean.
  
  
  
  Sempai Vicky
  
  Sempai has laser eyes, but she doesn't want to use them. Manami sometimes wishes she were normal too, so she thinks she understands, but she can't be sure. Sempai Vicky doesn't seem to want to talk about it.
  
  
  
  JJ
  
  Jay-Jay seems a little shy at first, but Manami has been on two adventures with him now, and maybe he is not shy at all.
  
  
  
  Green Hair Girl(Bianca Atillo)
  
  Green hair girl seemed mean, but then Kendrick was even MORE mean. Manami wishes everybody would be more nice.
  
  
  
  Sensei McNabb
  
  Of all the teachers, Mr. McNabb has the most fun classes. He smells like fish and he makes funny jokes to make Manami laugh. She is also very concerned with learning about emotional composure because she hopes it will keep the Oni securely locked inside her forever.
  
  
  
  Sensei Van Can
  
  At first she seemed very strict, but she is actually the most understanding teacher at the school. She has long talks after class with Manami which she enjoys so much she sometimes is late for supper.
  
  
  
  Sports Bra Girl (Julie)
  
  She fell out of the sky one day and squashed Kendrick, but Manami wasn't watching and only heard about it later, which is probably good for both of them.
  
  
• Codename: Stingray
  
  Manami can breathe underwater and swim faster than all but the fastest torpedo. She has eight inch retractable stingers hidden in the fleshy part of her forearms. They have barbed ends and razor sharp edges. She also has enormous strength potential, but can't tap it fully while on dry land.
  
  
  
  
  • Attack mode:
    
    When angered or threatened, Manami has flashbacks of some kind, which can sometimes cause a dramatic physical response. Her body increases in size, more than doubling in muscle mass. Her normal stingers extend outward on twelve foot long muscular whips. Her strength increases to well beyond normal human capabilities, though breathing air curtails her power severely. These episodes can last for as little as a few minutes, or up to several hours depending on stress levels during the incident.
    
    
    
  • Deep ocean life support: Manami is virtually immune to cold as well as changes in pressure, and has low light vision and EM sensitivity (but only in salt water)
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  • Animal Savage fury:
    
    When she shifts into attack mode, Manami's intelligence and will are both reduced to subhuman levels, and she acts on pure instinct.
    
    
    
  • Limiter chip kicks in hard:
    
    When reverting to docile mode after an incident, the shock knocks her unconscious for anything from 2 minutes up to 24 hours depending on how long she was in her savage state, and how much effort she made. Regardless of those factors, she is always ravenously hungry when she wakes up.
    
    
    
  • Worst of both worlds:
    
    She gets sick if she does not spend at least an hour exercising in the water each day; eventually she would dry out and die. Contrariwise, the longer she spends in the water, the less connection she feels to her life above the waves. She is terrified that if she spends more than a whole day in the water that she will lose her humanity altogether and become the monster inside her forever.
    
    
    
  • Monstrous appearance:
    
    Even when her inner demons are under control, by normal human standards, she looks like a monster on the outside. For a young woman trying to find her place in human society, this is more than slightly problematic.
    
    
    
  • Gills work better than lungs:
    
    While she is unusually strong for a young woman of her height and weight, breathing air is not good for Manami. Eventually, if she doesn't get breaks from it, it would kill her. As it is, she gets clumsy and struggles to think clearly after barely a minute of struggling for breath. Her muscles are also severely limited in potential when she can't get enough oxygen.
  
  
• Skills and Flaws[/COLOR]]
  
  Skills
  
  
  • Martial Arts: Traditional women's style, specializing in Naginata and Jiu Jitsu tricks.
    
    
    
  • Hunting: Deep sea fishing is a very different skill for Manami than what her foster parents practice. Nevertheless, she is extraordinarily skilled at it.
    
    
    
  • Cooking: Sushi is a speciality, but hardly the only thing in her repetoire.
    
    
    
  • Limited English: Getting better everyday
    
    
    
  • Stealthy swimming: She can also be pretty quiet on land, but is especially stealthy in the water.
  
  
  
  
  Flaws
  
  
  • 
    
    [*]Boisterous: Manami gets excited about the least little thing. The only force on earth more powerful than her shyness is her enthusiasm for life. Does that not sound like a flaw to you? You obviously have not spent enough time around her yet. In addition to being overly cute, her naivete can result in her getting enthusiastic about some very bad ideas.
    
  • Slow witted: She does better in the water, but most of her friends are land dwellers. She tries to keep up, but gets easily confused. Partly the language barrier, but mostly the hypoxia.
    
    [*]Suggestible: It is not obvious to those who don't know her well, but Manami shows clear signs of powerful mental conditioning. Given the right sort of 'suggestion' she can be made to go along with almost anything, especially if suggested by someone she sees as an authority figure. Unless specifically forbidden by a greater authority in her mental hierarchy, she will do almost anything anyone asks of her.
  
  
• Theme song:

Spoiler: manamiB

Hamasaki, M

• [COLOR=#ff4d4d
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• Skills and Flaws
• Gallery

• Stats[/COLOR]]

  Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05
  Proaction	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Composure	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	2/3
  Strength	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	3/7
  Defense	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	3/4
  Agility	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	1/2/3
  Intelligence	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Willpower	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Energy	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  
• Full Name
  
  Manami Hamasaki
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  Umi
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  Stingray
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  Female
  
  
  
  Age
  
  Approximately 23, exact birthdate unknown
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  B Rank
  
  
  
  Limiter
  
  Active chip, Level 2
  
  
  
  Role
  
  Student
• Race
  
  Japanese
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  None
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Black
  
  
  
  Height
  
  5'4” OR 6' 11”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Lithe and lean (125 pounds) OR Massive and Muscular (275 pounds)
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Blue scaly skin, flattened nose, nictitating membrane over eyes, gill slits below ears, webbed digits, needle like teeth, brow ridge and other fins. When angered or desperate, especially in aquatic environments she increases about 30 percent in height and more than doubles in muscle mass.
  
  
• 
  
  Self Sacrificing
  
  Manami could hardly be more selfless. It is not that she will go out of her way to help a friend in need. She will drop everything to help anyone with anything.
  
  
  
  Disciplined
  
  Her tendency to subsume her aims for others would almost be crippling except for her single mindedness of purpose once she has set about to complete a task. If you could get her distracted, you could probably redirect her to a different task just by asking, but distracting her once she is engaged is no mean feat.
  
  
  
  Patient
  
  While in 'docile' mode, Manami has almost limitless patience. She will put up with almost anything, apart from a physical threat to herself or to Kyo or Makoto.
  
  
  
  Timid
  
  Manami is by nature quiet and shy of people. She is terribly afraid of the 'oni' inside of her, and does not like to let it out.
  
  
  
  History
  
  Manami was born about twenty years ago, presumably in or near Japan. She was discovered floating in the open sea off the southern coast of Kyushu by a husband and wife on their fishing vessel. They informally adopted her, and together the three of them have fished their way across two oceans. Her past is largely unknown, even to herself. Sometimes she has flashbacks, but refuses to talk about them. She is an atypical C rank super, in that her powers are virtually undetectable (apart from the obvious physiological differences) unless she is submersed in water, or very recently emerged from it. Only in the ocean can she reach her full potential. She is more graceful, strong, and clear minded when she is not expending so much effort fighting for each breath. Tragically, when she returns to her natural element, she feels more keenly than ever how alone she is, and wants nothing more than to get back to the surface world where she has a family, and can at least dream of having friends.
  
  
  
  After almost three years, her adoptive parents have reached an impasse; they have taught their daughter all they can, and they are very proud of her progress. Last month though, they docked in Baltimore, and the terrorist attacks made them realize that there are things a super needs to know in the world as it stands that they don't know how to teach her. On the morning of January 24th, they showed up on the doorstep of 108 looking to further their daughter's education.
  
  
• 
  
  Kyo and Makoto Hamasaki
  
  Manami's adoptive parents. They live with her on their 30 foot fishing boat, and have been moving from place to place for six years. Raising Manami has been, like raising any child, both terrifying and rewarding. The scale and character of the challenges however, were unique. She was a bit of a blank slate when they first encountered her. At first, she was prone to violent outbursts, but that was quickly moderated by her strong desire to please. She seemed to be so starved for kindness that they could hardly help but give her all they had. She soaked up their love and tried her very best to become the child they had waited too long to have. Makoto taught her to fish, and to make top notch sushi. Kyo taught her martial arts, specializing in the naginata, which gave her a much needed focus and outlet for her occasional violent urges. They are her world. Up until recently, she was halfway convinced they were the whole of the world, and she is a little alarmed to realize just how many people there are in this new place.
  
  
  
  Kendrick Haywood
  
  "Kendi-Kun" was Manami's first real friend, not just at 108, but in the world. She still cares deeply for him, but sees him a little differently since the day of the Jailbreak, where he showed that he can be mean sometimes, even with little to no cause.
  
  
  
  Sensei Mallory
  
  Mr. Mallory looks funny, but he is kind. On her first day, she misunderstood and thought Mr. McNabb was named Mr. Mallory, but her confusion was soon fixed by Kendrick.
  
  
  
  Sensei Ward
  
  Mr. Ward is even funnier than Mr. Mallory. He may seem gruff but Manami has taken combat training before, and she knows the difference between martial discipline and mean.
  
  
  
  Sempai Vicky
  
  Sempai has laser eyes, but she doesn't want to use them. Manami sometimes wishes she were normal too, so she thinks she understands, but she can't be sure. Sempai Vicky doesn't seem to want to talk about it.
  
  
  
  JJ
  
  Jay-Jay seems a little shy at first, but Manami has been on two adventures with him now, and maybe he is not shy at all.
  
  
  
  Green Hair Girl(Bianca Atillo)
  
  Green hair girl seemed mean, but then Kendrick was even MORE mean. Manami wishes everybody would be more nice.
  
  
  
  Sensei McNabb
  
  Of all the teachers, Mr. McNabb has the most fun classes. He smells like fish and he makes funny jokes to make Manami laugh. She is also very concerned with learning about emotional composure because she hopes it will keep the Oni securely locked inside her forever.
  
  
  
  Sensei Van Can
  
  At first she seemed very strict, but she is actually the most understanding teacher at the school. She has long talks after class with Manami which she enjoys so much she sometimes is late for supper.
  
  
  
  Sports Bra Girl (Julie)
  
  She fell out of the sky one day and squashed Kendrick, but Manami wasn't watching and only heard about it later, which is probably good for both of them.
  
  
• Codename: Stingray
  
  Manami can breathe underwater and swim faster than all but the fastest torpedo. She has eight inch retractable stingers hidden in the fleshy part of her forearms. They have barbed ends and razor sharp edges. She also has enormous strength potential, but can't tap it fully while on dry land.
  
  
  
  
  • Attack mode:
    
    When angered or threatened, Manami has flashbacks of some kind, which can sometimes cause a dramatic physical response. Her body increases in size, more than doubling in muscle mass. Her normal stingers extend outward on twelve foot long muscular whips. Her strength increases to well beyond normal human capabilities, though breathing air curtails her power severely. These episodes can last for as little as a few minutes, or up to several hours depending on stress levels during the incident.
    
    
    
  • Deep ocean life support: Manami is virtually immune to cold as well as changes in pressure, and has low light vision and EM sensitivity (but only in salt water)
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  • Animal Savage fury:
    
    When she shifts into attack mode, Manami's intelligence and will are both reduced to subhuman levels, and she acts on pure instinct.
    
    
    
  • Limiter chip kicks in hard:
    
    When reverting to docile mode after an incident, the shock knocks her unconscious for anything from 2 minutes up to 24 hours depending on how long she was in her savage state, and how much effort she made. Regardless of those factors, she is always ravenously hungry when she wakes up.
    
    
    
  • Worst of both worlds:
    
    She gets sick if she does not spend at least an hour exercising in the water each day; eventually she would dry out and die. Contrariwise, the longer she spends in the water, the less connection she feels to her life above the waves. She is terrified that if she spends more than a whole day in the water that she will lose her humanity altogether and become the monster inside her forever.
    
    
    
  • Monstrous appearance:
    
    Even when her inner demons are under control, by normal human standards, she looks like a monster on the outside. For a young woman trying to find her place in human society, this is more than slightly problematic.
    
    
    
  • Gills work better than lungs:
    
    While she is unusually strong for a young woman of her height and weight, breathing air is not good for Manami. Eventually, if she doesn't get breaks from it, it would kill her. As it is, she gets clumsy and struggles to think clearly after barely a minute of struggling for breath. Her muscles are also severely limited in potential when she can't get enough oxygen.
  
  
• 
  
  Skills
  
  
  • Martial Arts: Traditional women's style, specializing in Naginata and Jiu Jitsu tricks.
    
    
    
  • Hunting: Deep sea fishing is a very different skill for Manami than what her foster parents practice. Nevertheless, she is extraordinarily skilled at it.
    
    
    
  • Cooking: Sushi is a speciality, but hardly the only thing in her repetoire.
    
    
    
  • Limited English: Getting better everyday
    
    
    
  • Stealthy swimming: She can also be pretty quiet on land, but is especially stealthy in the water.
  
  
  
  
  Flaws
  
  
  • Excitable: Manami gets excited about the least little thing. The only force on earth more powerful than her shyness is her enthusiasm for life. Does that not sound like a flaw to you? You obviously have not spent enough time around her yet. In addition to being overly cute, her naivete can result in her getting enthusiastic about some very bad ideas.
    
  • Slow witted: She does better in the water, but most of her friends are land dwellers. She tries to keep up, but gets easily confused. Partly the language barrier, but mostly the hypoxia.
  
  
• Theme song:

This second version does not have the personality edits, just a tweak to stats suggested by miniTrex who I can't seem to tag. I think I like the C rank better, but I could have Anthony come in and realize she needs retesting after watching her during the water portion of the final exam if there is a lot of strong opinion that she should be more combat capable. (I kind of like that she is not dangerous until she is though)

Next up two versions of Lucas's stats without changing rank

Spoiler: classicLucas

Marsolet, L.

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpower
• Skills and Flaws
• Tools & Weapons
• Gallery

• Heroism Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05
  Kindness	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04

  
  
  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Strength	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Defense	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Agility	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Intelligence	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Willpower	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Energy	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02

  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Full Name
  
  Lucas Maxwell Marsolet
  
  Nicknames
  
  Luc
  
  Codename
  
  Amp
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  Age
  
  17
  
  Rank
  
  B Rank
  
  Limiter
  
  None
  
  Role
  
  Student
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Heritage
  
  French Canadian
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Brown
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Brown/Scarred over
  
  
  
  Height
  
  5' 7”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Rugged but graceful; gymnast build (175 pounds)
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Jagged Scar across abdomen and chest. Missing right eye.
  
  
  
  
• Heroic
  
  Lucas is not too sure who he used to be, but he knows who he wants to be now. He remembers what it felt like to die, and he wants his life to mean something. He wants a cause to fight for. He is a little vague as to what that cause might be, but he will throw himself into it with a will when he finds it. If he has to die again, so be it, but he will be damn sure to make it count.
  
  
  
  Bold
  
  Near death experiences tend to change people, and Lucas is no exception. Complementary to his seeking for a cause, he wants to experience everything life has to offer; to suck out the marrow of life, and not when he shall come to die, discover again that he had not lived. Discovering a hidden ability to regenerate tends to make one a lot less risk averse as well. Lucas is orders of magnitude more mature and confident in himself, and will probably shock the hell out of people who knew him before.
  
  
  
  Amnesiac
  
  Nearly bleeding out in the zoo parking lot took a lot out of Luc, including his entire childhood and most of his recent past. He still remembers his martial arts training, as well as how to drive a stick shift. Basically anything beyond muscle memories is gone.
  
  
  
  Fatalistic
  
  Some things never change, and Lucas's attitude toward fate seems to be one of them. Given how deeply the message was drilled into him the last seventeen years, it makes sense he would keep this attitude toward life. Even his amnesia doesn't phase him. Like everything else, he thinks: “Sure, why not that too?"
  
  
  
  History
  
  Lucas Marsolet was a late bloomer, as supers go. The upside was that he got to have a mostly normal childhood, but on the other hand, it meant he got a very late start getting his powers under control. They manifested unexpectedly during a trip to Paris last summer. An attack by a European S class super-villain should have been the end of him, when, in a fit of foolhardy bravery, he stood up to challenge the villain. In a way it was the end of him. His old life, as a normal human kid was over. He had just begun to come to terms with his mother's death. It had been almost two years. He had a place to stay, and part time work that he found meaningful. School was back on track, and college was looking possible again; maybe even a school in Paris. It was to investigate this possibility that he had finagled a small portion of his inheritance from the lawyers to make that fateful trip. He had been poised on the brink of happiness. His life had made sense again.
  
  
  
  The next thing he knew after the attack, he was lying face down on the wrong side of the safety fence in a power substation in Denmark, naked, with all his body hair singed and smoking. No more Paris. No more school. Well, not normal school anyway. Still. When life gives you lemons...
  
  
  
  Lucas had adapted to the idea of seeking a blue card quite quickly, once the shock had worn off. He took a test for his GED so he wouldn't have to face being ostracized in his old school for his new gene status. Most other students had avoided him since his mother died anyway. Or maybe, to be fair, he had avoided them. At any rate, this added a whole other level of discomfort around “normal” kids, that he was just as happy to avoid. He threw himself into training in JKD full time during the day, and studied the blue card curriculum diligently at facility 108 in the afternoons and evenings. With a little luck, he'd have been ready for his blue card test shortly after his 18th birthday.
  
  
  
  Luck. In retrospect, not really a defining characteristic of his life so far. Sure, 1/14/40 could have gone worse, but all in all, his life story so far reads like an extended game of “Fortunately... unfortunately...” for life and death stakes. The latest chapter is “Fortunately his new found regenerative abilities kept him from dying... Unfortunately it didn't stop him from brain damage...
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Mr. Bellmont
  
  Lucas's French tutor was as close to Lucas as a father ought to be. His biological father had left them when he was six, but from as far back as he could remember, Mr. Bellmont had come over to the house three evenings per week for two hours of language study and cultural lessons. His mother always said it was important that he understand his father's culture, and that she could not help him with that, being thoroughly assimilated herself.
  
  
  
  Sifu Isagawa
  
  When Lucas had nowhere else to go, his JKD instructor gave him a position as live in student at her studio. He is responsible for doing laundry, cooking morning meals and evening meals, making tea, and keeping the practice area clean. He also teaches introductory classes three nights per week, and in return he gets private lessons, food, and a place to sleep.
  
  
  
  Note that Lucas does not recall either of these relationships. He has been wandering aimlessly the last month or so, and as far as they know, he is dead.
  
  
  
  Danny Travis
  
  When Lucas disappeared and was presumed dead, he left his car “Justice” idling in the street. Danny Travis rescued it from being towed and put it in storage. When Danny had his own near death experience less than two weeks later, he used the car to get some distance from the whole AEGIS 108 clusterfuck. Just as he was on his way out of town, who should he find wandering down the side of the road, but the car's former owner. Fate, it seems, has plans for these two.
  
  
  
  Johanna Castle
  
  Another super with electrical powers. She and Lucas met under trying circumstances: her father's goons abducted him and unlawfully imprisoned him with her and a dozen other supers who are being used as slave labor to power the local electric grid for free. With Luc's unique powers, she has hatched a plan to get them out of her father's clutches.
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Electron Based Biology
  
  Lucas's entire body mass is electrons. (Approximately 14 trillion coulombs of pure negative charge) This gives him superhuman reflexes due to unusually high nerve conduction velocities. It also makes him effectively immune to electric shock. His powers first manifested when a cybernetic super punched through him into a high voltage transformer box. He has since been struck by lightning twice, and allegedly was involved in a brief brown out of the entire state of Maryland during official commonwealth testing. Allegedly.
 This means he can't touch anything conductive, unless he concentrates very hard, or cranks his limiters up to maximum. It passes through him, or him through it.
  
  
  
  He can effectively teleport through any conductor into the space adjacent to any other conductors connected to it. He still has some trouble navigating the power grid, but he is getting better at it. Power substations are like beacons. Generators are to be avoided, as they can cause disorientation. Individual outlets are tricky to pinpoint.
  
  
  
  If he passes through non superconductive material repeatedly, it will heat up rapidly, as the current is enormous. The heat will burn him almost as badly as the metal, but he can cut through metal like an arc welder if he is willing to effectively hold the arc with his bare hands. He can regenerate afterwards (see below) but it doesn't make it any less painful as it happens.
  
  
  
  It is important to note that his electrons have an affinity for each other, rather than a repulsion. It is not clear why this is so, but it causes an important difference between him and other electromorph supers. His charge imbalance produces no net voltage, and thus he cannot produce electric shocks at will as many other electricity themed supers can.
  
  
  • E = m*c^2: When plugged in to an external power source Lucas can shape the electrons from the current flow into solid mass. Mostly he uses this to rebuild himself in a kind of 'powered regeneration'. He can regenerate almost any wound short of brain death, at a rate proportional to the available power. This aspect of his power went unnoticed during testing as their 'test injuries' were minor scratches, and they didn't repair right away, only overnight while he was plugged in. In retrospect, the rapidity with which his 'rain scars' healed should have been a clue. He has also learned to generate a few small physical objects, such as his clothing and his trusty chain whip. In principle he could probably produce larger things given enough power, but so far those are all he can manage.
    
    
    
    
    
  • P = I^2*R: Lucas does not get along with electronics devices. Living in the modern world without access to modern electronics, this is not so much a tertiary power as a curse. If a robot was misbehaving however, Lucas passing through its circuits would probably calm it down right quick, if not permanently. As noted in the general description of his abilities above, if he passes repeatedly through the same conductor, he can generate enormous heat, but this will burn him badly to do so.
  
  Limitations
  
  
  • Unique Physics:He CANNOT cause massive electric shocks at will, because his electrons have an affinity rather than a mutual repulsion like ordinary electrons, and thus don't produce an electric field of any substantial magnitude. He can walk around like a normal human and touch people and objects, as long as they are not highly conductive.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Altered Biochemistry: Rather than food, Lucas needs a dozen or so kilowatt hours of electrical power each day, or more if he needs to regenerate. Water is no longer part of his diet either, as it has an unfortunate tendency to dissolve his flesh; his constituent particles randomly disperse throughout the fluid. Rain is extraordinarily painful for him, and it turns out that immersion in water won't kill him, but will dissolve him completely, incapacitating him until he can pull himself together and find a place to dry out. If he can't get plugged in on a regular basis, he will pretty rapidly become weak and effectively starve to death within a week or less.
    
    
    
    
    
  • EMF Hypersensitivity: Strong magnetic fields, especially oscillating fields such as those near electric generators and motors can cause him to become disoriented and nauseated. As noted under powers, electronics don't fare well if he passes through them. In addition delicate electronics such as cell phones and computers tend to misbehave in his mere presence. WiFi can give him a headache from prolonged exposure; he pretty much always has a headache.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Fast, but not fast enough: When 'teleporting' through a conductor, Lucas travels at about half the speed of light. If he is only traveling a few inches, such as through a metal door, this is not really an issue, but if he is traveling through miles and miles of interconnected cables, he gets lost very easily; choosing your exit at 335 million mph is tricky.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Imperfect Regeneration: While he is certainly lucky to be alive at all, his ostrich encounter did leave a jagged scar across his chest. The eye the vultures took never grew back, but simply scarred over. Every time he charges up, his body is rejuvenated, but he seems to have a new default body. Whether his brain will eventually recover or continually reset to his current amnesiac condition remains to be seen.
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  Jeet-kun-do: Lucas has been trained with his sifu from 2029 until January of this year. This would make him a formidable fighter even without the enhanced reflexes.
  
  
  
  Bilingual: Lucas is equally fluent in French and English. He tends to lapse into french when agitated or angry, as the profanity is more... expressive.
  
  
  
  Stick Shift:While he has little need for conventional transportation anymore, Lucas does know how to drive, and unusually for 2040, is most familiar with manual transmission ICE vehicles.
  
  
  
  
  
  Missing eye: Enhanced reflexes don't help if you don't see the punch coming; when fighting a southpaw, Luc is at a distinct disadvantage. Lack of depth perception makes it hard for him to land a punch correctly also, which is why he tends to rely more on the chain whip.
  
  
  
  Not so handy with the ladies: You might think the 'french' thing would help, but you'd be wrong. Either the romantic instinct is the exclusive domain of the Parisian French, or the acadian equivalent skipped a generation in Lucas. Luckily he has learned to teleport without leaving his clothes behind. That should dial down the awkward factor a little bit.
  
  
  
  Out of touch: Quite apart from the amnesia, Luc's knowledge of current events and popular culture are severely curtailed. His inability to use electronic devices cuts him off from the vast majority of modern culture.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  Items: Lucas's clothes and his trusty chain whip are typically all he has on him. He has no ID or limiter or cash because nothing can travel with him through the power grid. Eventually he may be able to make other items out of electrons upon arrival at his destination, but so far that is the whole of his possessions in the world: A 15 foot length of chain with a weight on the end, and some clothes that look... odd.
  
  
  
  
• theme song:
  
  
  
  

Spoiler: EnergyBoosted

Marsolet, L.

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpower
• Skills and Flaws
• Tools & Weapons
• Gallery

• Heroism Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05
  Kindness	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱	04

  
  
  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Strength	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Defense	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Agility	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Intelligence	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Willpower	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Energy	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05

  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Full Name
  
  Lucas Maxwell Marsolet
  
  Nicknames
  
  Luc
  
  Codename
  
  Amp
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  Age
  
  17
  
  Rank
  
  B Rank
  
  Limiter
  
  None
  
  Role
  
  Student
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Heritage
  
  French Canadian
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Brown
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Brown/Scarred over
  
  
  
  Height
  
  5' 7”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Rugged but graceful; gymnast build (175 pounds)
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Jagged Scar across abdomen and chest. Missing right eye.
  
  
  
  
• Heroic
  
  Lucas is not too sure who he used to be, but he knows who he wants to be now. He remembers what it felt like to die, and he wants his life to mean something. He wants a cause to fight for. He is a little vague as to what that cause might be, but he will throw himself into it with a will when he finds it. If he has to die again, so be it, but he will be damn sure to make it count.
  
  
  
  Bold
  
  Near death experiences tend to change people, and Lucas is no exception. Complementary to his seeking for a cause, he wants to experience everything life has to offer; to suck out the marrow of life, and not when he shall come to die, discover again that he had not lived. Discovering a hidden ability to regenerate tends to make one a lot less risk averse as well. Lucas is orders of magnitude more mature and confident in himself, and will probably shock the hell out of people who knew him before.
  
  
  
  Amnesiac
  
  Nearly bleeding out in the zoo parking lot took a lot out of Luc, including his entire childhood and most of his recent past. He still remembers his martial arts training, as well as how to drive a stick shift. Basically anything beyond muscle memories is gone.
  
  
  
  Fatalistic
  
  Some things never change, and Lucas's attitude toward fate seems to be one of them. Given how deeply the message was drilled into him the last seventeen years, it makes sense he would keep this attitude toward life. Even his amnesia doesn't phase him. Like everything else, he thinks: “Sure, why not that too?"
  
  
  
  History
  
  Lucas Marsolet was a late bloomer, as supers go. The upside was that he got to have a mostly normal childhood, but on the other hand, it meant he got a very late start getting his powers under control. They manifested unexpectedly during a trip to Paris last summer. An attack by a European S class super-villain should have been the end of him, when, in a fit of foolhardy bravery, he stood up to challenge the villain. In a way it was the end of him. His old life, as a normal human kid was over. He had just begun to come to terms with his mother's death. It had been almost two years. He had a place to stay, and part time work that he found meaningful. School was back on track, and college was looking possible again; maybe even a school in Paris. It was to investigate this possibility that he had finagled a small portion of his inheritance from the lawyers to make that fateful trip. He had been poised on the brink of happiness. His life had made sense again.
  
  
  
  The next thing he knew after the attack, he was lying face down on the wrong side of the safety fence in a power substation in Denmark, naked, with all his body hair singed and smoking. No more Paris. No more school. Well, not normal school anyway. Still. When life gives you lemons...
  
  
  
  Lucas had adapted to the idea of seeking a blue card quite quickly, once the shock had worn off. He took a test for his GED so he wouldn't have to face being ostracized in his old school for his new gene status. Most other students had avoided him since his mother died anyway. Or maybe, to be fair, he had avoided them. At any rate, this added a whole other level of discomfort around “normal” kids, that he was just as happy to avoid. He threw himself into training in JKD full time during the day, and studied the blue card curriculum diligently at facility 108 in the afternoons and evenings. With a little luck, he'd have been ready for his blue card test shortly after his 18th birthday.
  
  
  
  Luck. In retrospect, not really a defining characteristic of his life so far. Sure, 1/14/40 could have gone worse, but all in all, his life story so far reads like an extended game of “Fortunately... unfortunately...” for life and death stakes. The latest chapter is “Fortunately his new found regenerative abilities kept him from dying... Unfortunately it didn't stop him from brain damage...
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Mr. Bellmont
  
  Lucas's French tutor was as close to Lucas as a father ought to be. His biological father had left them when he was six, but from as far back as he could remember, Mr. Bellmont had come over to the house three evenings per week for two hours of language study and cultural lessons. His mother always said it was important that he understand his father's culture, and that she could not help him with that, being thoroughly assimilated herself.
  
  
  
  Sifu Isagawa
  
  When Lucas had nowhere else to go, his JKD instructor gave him a position as live in student at her studio. He is responsible for doing laundry, cooking morning meals and evening meals, making tea, and keeping the practice area clean. He also teaches introductory classes three nights per week, and in return he gets private lessons, food, and a place to sleep.
  
  
  
  Note that Lucas does not recall either of these relationships. He has been wandering aimlessly the last month or so, and as far as they know, he is dead.
  
  
  
  Danny Travis
  
  When Lucas disappeared and was presumed dead, he left his car “Justice” idling in the street. Danny Travis rescued it from being towed and put it in storage. When Danny had his own near death experience less than two weeks later, he used the car to get some distance from the whole AEGIS 108 clusterfuck. Just as he was on his way out of town, who should he find wandering down the side of the road, but the car's former owner. Fate, it seems, has plans for these two.
  
  
  
  Johanna Castle
  
  Another super with electrical powers. She and Lucas met under trying circumstances: her father's goons abducted him and unlawfully imprisoned him with her and a dozen other supers who are being used as slave labor to power the local electric grid for free. With Luc's unique powers, she has hatched a plan to get them out of her father's clutches.
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Electron Based Biology
  
  Lucas's entire body mass is electrons. (Approximately 14 trillion coulombs of pure negative charge) This gives him superhuman reflexes due to unusually high nerve conduction velocities. It also makes him effectively immune to electric shock. His powers first manifested when a cybernetic super punched through him into a high voltage transformer box. He has since been struck by lightning twice, and allegedly was involved in a brief brown out of the entire state of Maryland during official commonwealth testing. Allegedly.
 This means he can't touch anything conductive, unless he concentrates very hard, or cranks his limiters up to maximum. It passes through him, or him through it.
  
  
  
  He can effectively teleport through any conductor into the space adjacent to any other conductors connected to it. He still has some trouble navigating the power grid, but he is getting better at it. Power substations are like beacons. Generators are to be avoided, as they can cause disorientation. Individual outlets are tricky to pinpoint.
  
  
  
  If he passes through non superconductive material repeatedly, it will heat up rapidly, as the current is enormous. The heat will burn him almost as badly as the metal, but he can cut through metal like an arc welder if he is willing to effectively hold the arc with his bare hands. He can regenerate afterwards (see below) but it doesn't make it any less painful as it happens.
  
  
  
  It is important to note that his electrons have an affinity for each other, rather than a repulsion. It is not clear why this is so, but it causes an important difference between him and other electromorph supers. His charge imbalance produces no net voltage, and thus he cannot produce electric shocks at will as many other electricity themed supers can.
  
  
  • E = m*c^2: When plugged in to an external power source Lucas can shape the electrons from the current flow into solid mass. Mostly he uses this to rebuild himself in a kind of 'powered regeneration'. He can regenerate almost any wound short of brain death, at a rate proportional to the available power. This aspect of his power went unnoticed during testing as their 'test injuries' were minor scratches, and they didn't repair right away, only overnight while he was plugged in. In retrospect, the rapidity with which his 'rain scars' healed should have been a clue. He has also learned to generate a few small physical objects, such as his clothing and his trusty chain whip. In principle he could probably produce larger things given enough power, but so far those are all he can manage.
    
    
    
    
    
  • P = I^2*R: Lucas does not get along with electronics devices. Living in the modern world without access to modern electronics, this is not so much a tertiary power as a curse. If a robot was misbehaving however, Lucas passing through its circuits would probably calm it down right quick, if not permanently. As noted in the general description of his abilities above, if he passes repeatedly through the same conductor, he can generate enormous heat, but this will burn him badly to do so.
  
  Limitations
  
  
  • Unique Physics:He CANNOT cause massive electric shocks at will, because his electrons have an affinity rather than a mutual repulsion like ordinary electrons, and thus don't produce an electric field of any substantial magnitude. He can walk around like a normal human and touch people and objects, as long as they are not highly conductive.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Altered Biochemistry: Rather than food, Lucas needs a dozen or so kilowatt hours of electrical power each day, or more if he needs to regenerate. Water is no longer part of his diet either, as it has an unfortunate tendency to dissolve his flesh; his constituent particles randomly disperse throughout the fluid. Rain is extraordinarily painful for him, and it turns out that immersion in water won't kill him, but will dissolve him completely, incapacitating him until he can pull himself together and find a place to dry out. If he can't get plugged in on a regular basis, he will pretty rapidly become weak and effectively starve to death within a week or less.
    
    
    
    
    
  • EMF Hypersensitivity: Strong magnetic fields, especially oscillating fields such as those near electric generators and motors can cause him to become disoriented and nauseated. As noted under powers, electronics don't fare well if he passes through them. In addition delicate electronics such as cell phones and computers tend to misbehave in his mere presence. WiFi can give him a headache from prolonged exposure; he pretty much always has a headache.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Fast, but not fast enough: When 'teleporting' through a conductor, Lucas travels at about half the speed of light. If he is only traveling a few inches, such as through a metal door, this is not really an issue, but if he is traveling through miles and miles of interconnected cables, he gets lost very easily; choosing your exit at 335 million mph is tricky.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Imperfect Regeneration: While he is certainly lucky to be alive at all, his ostrich encounter did leave a jagged scar across his chest. The eye the vultures took never grew back, but simply scarred over. Every time he charges up, his body is rejuvenated, but he seems to have a new default body. Whether his brain will eventually recover or continually reset to his current amnesiac condition remains to be seen.
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  Jeet-kun-do: Lucas has been trained with his sifu from 2029 until January of this year. This would make him a formidable fighter even without the enhanced reflexes.
  
  
  
  Bilingual: Lucas is equally fluent in French and English. He tends to lapse into french when agitated or angry, as the profanity is more... expressive.
  
  
  
  Stick Shift:While he has little need for conventional transportation anymore, Lucas does know how to drive, and unusually for 2040, is most familiar with manual transmission ICE vehicles.
  
  
  
  
  
  Missing eye: Enhanced reflexes don't help if you don't see the punch coming; when fighting a southpaw, Luc is at a distinct disadvantage. Lack of depth perception makes it hard for him to land a punch correctly also, which is why he tends to rely more on the chain whip.
  
  
  
  Not so handy with the ladies: You might think the 'french' thing would help, but you'd be wrong. Either the romantic instinct is the exclusive domain of the Parisian French, or the acadian equivalent skipped a generation in Lucas. Luckily he has learned to teleport without leaving his clothes behind. That should dial down the awkward factor a little bit.
  
  
  
  Out of touch: Quite apart from the amnesia, Luc's knowledge of current events and popular culture are severely curtailed. His inability to use electronic devices cuts him off from the vast majority of modern culture.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  Items: Lucas's clothes and his trusty chain whip are typically all he has on him. He has no ID or limiter or cash because nothing can travel with him through the power grid. Eventually he may be able to make other items out of electrons upon arrival at his destination, but so far that is the whole of his possessions in the world: A 15 foot length of chain with a weight on the end, and some clothes that look... odd.
  
  
  
  
• theme song:
  
  
  
  

The logic behind the change is that this would govern his regeneration, and creation of simple materials out of electricity, as well as following the energy precedent for teleportation. It does NOT allow him to project electric shocks. In point of fact, I don't think he can even serve as a conduit for electric shock by touching a power line and touching the bad guy, because the electrons would just become part of him. I am thinking five might be a bit extreme; I might go with four and put one back in Strength. Alternatively, maybe classic Lucas is better? I did give him 2 in energy, with my thinking there being that while his powers are sort of energy based, the energy doesn't come from him. If the power is out he can't make stuff or heal. (He can still teleport through wires though)

Next up, two possible versions of everybody's favorite problem child, Lars...

Spoiler: LarsE

MAGNUSSON, L

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Skills and Flaws
• Tools & Weapons
• Gallery

• Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Altruism	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Strength	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Defense	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Agility	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Willpower	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Energy	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  
• Full Name
  
  Lars Njall Magnusson
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  Larry
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  The Magus
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  
  
  Age
  
  36
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  E Rank
  
  
  
  Role
  
  Snubbed as a teacher. Now he's a villain... Happy?

  
  
• Race
  
  Caucasian
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Blonde
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Heterocromia Iridis 

  
  
  
  Height
  
  6' 3"
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Rail thin, almost gaunt. (145 pounds) 

  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Right eye is blue/violet, Left is amber/pink.


 In public, he is almost always in disguise.

  
  
• Affable
  
  Easy going and fun to talk to is the first impression most people take away from meeting Lars. He is inveterate storyteller, as well as a gifted showman with a natural sense of how to entertain and amuse. He has a flair for the theatrical especially comedy. He tends to become especially voluble when he has had a few drinks, but rarely imbibes as his powers require concentration to work properly. Some of his powers revolve around more... exotic chemicals.

  
  
  
  Inventive
  
  While not much of an engineer himself, Lars has a penchant for finding new uses for existing technology. He mostly uses this for creating ever more elaborate illusions as well as pranks. Often both at the same time.

  
  
  
  Mischievous
  
  Lars absolutely loves a good prank, and will go pretty far out of his way to set one up. He is a big fan of the long con, and has been known to play out his prank scenarios over weeks or even months. 

  
  
  
  Unhinged
  
  During middle school, Lars had a break with reality. Like many overly bright youngsters, he did not get along well with others, and when his one close friend was killed in a freak accident, he lost his mind. He could not cope with the idea that what happened to him might not matter in any larger sense than his own personal feelings about it. He decided that he was going to have to become the focus of the story. History. He reinvented himself, becoming everybody's best friend. The cool kid. The class clown. The entertainer. The class president. The heart-throb. By the time he was in high school, he realized that he was too big a fish and rural Minnesota was too small a pond. He started making his plans over twenty years ago. And they are nearly ready. Even the gods will see him now. They will see him, and they will tremble.

  
  
  
  History
  
  Lars was 12 when he decided to chart a new course in life. He wants to meet the author. Or authors. Of everything. But especially him. Ultimately, it is all about him. He has re-created his entire being from the ground up, several times over, in pursuit of this goal. First he made a name for himself as stage magician under the name of “The Amazing Magnus” After a couple of years on the circuit, he got bored of that and decided to become an independent investigator and paranormal hero. “Codename: Magnus” had some successes, and even earned a blue card in spite of having no actual powers. (Not that commonwealth ever found out about that; officially he is a C rank reality manipulator) Next, he made a small fortune selling virtual reality tech under the brand name NeoMatrix technologies. He sold the company to Fenrir robotics in 2033 for 2.7 billion dollars, and retired at 29. He recently resurfaced in Baltimore, having spent several years analyzing world wide data about A6G23 related events. There are several anomalous patterns, and they all point to one inescapable fact: Baltimore is the focus of the story. The universe revolves around... Baltimore. What are the odds of that? If he is ever going to meet the storytellers, the groundwork of his story needs to be laid there. He has been quietly setting up shop there for the last four years. He applied for a job at facility 108, but not as himself. Most of his visits to the building were purely holographic. He guest taught a few classes, and then disappeared again. He infiltrated the Knights of Raguel in yet another persona, and provided them with some media savvy and holographic tech. He can't say he was impressed with them, but they will likely have a part to play. The overture is over. The curtain is about to rise... and Baltimore may never be the same.
  
  
  
  One last thing: Lars has spent his whole life telling stories. Performing. Transforming. Everything he has ever done is misdirection. Nothing is as it seems. Whatever you see, that is what he wants you to see. Ask him if any of it is true, and he won't even know what you mean. This version of the truth is as true as anything else you could know about Lars. All that can be said for certain is this: A man like that is dangerous.
  
  
• Tiberius Bartholomew Davidson & Terri-Beth Andrews
  
  Local Vaudevillians. Probably the only humans on the planet that Lars truly cares for more than he does himself. They are an old and happily married couple of humbugs, who are as charming a pair of pickpockets and con artists as you could ever hope to meet. They introduced him to old school theatrical story telling techniques, which triggered the first fundamental change to his plans since he began them. They are also the first (and only) people he has ever confided to about his theories about reality. They were unconvinced, but it doesn't seem any crazier than any other religious experience they've ever heard of, so they let it slide. Time will tell what the cost of that indulgence might be; the story he plans to tell will likely involve tremendous suffering for many.
  
  
  
  Skuld Blanco
  
  Minnesota twin cities retired police captain. Lars's second cousin once removed, the daughter of his great aunt Hilda. She was the one who gave Lars his first real shot at crime fighting, and while she frequently claims it was his antics that nearly drove her to take early retirement, she will also grudgingly admit that he was very effective at clearing unsolved cases. She is a relatively rare merging of Latin and Norwegian culture, making her a dangerous person to cross. She has her father's quick temper, and her mother's capacity to carry a grudge. That she will still take Lars's calls is a real testament to his charms.
  
  
  
  Katheryn Barrett
  
  A charmingly nutty hero of the twin cities who is almost as crazy as he is, Lars finds her a useful contact in the news media. He has also never known anyone more susceptible to hypnosis in his life. The disturbing thing is that she has moved to Baltimore. He'd always assumed she was a bit player, supporting cast for Aaron at best. But now she is here. The writer's are trying to tell him something...
  
  
  
  All the dedicated little people without whose support this show would not have been possible
  
  A seemingly limitless string of friends, former lovers, and dupes, none of whom seem to ever mind being used as pawns in Lars's endless games. Well, his parents mind a little. His mom in particular hates when he refers to her as an 'extra.' His dad thinks it is all a big joke, but then, he thinks puns are funny. He loves all of his supporting cast members, in his own way, but ultimately he is the star, and sometimes extras just have to leave the show.
  
  
• 
  
  Skills
  
  
  • Sleight of hand: This is his primary source of 'power,' and when people think you are actually magical they don't think to look for it.
    
    
    
  • Disguise: Ever since his apartment was burned down with him nearly in it back in the mid thirties, Lars has become quite paranoid and rarely goes out in public without a disguise. All his safe houses and bolt holes are well equipped with elaborate make up stations. When he goes out to specifically stir up trouble he chooses neighbors to imitate and then monitors them for weeks afterward to determine if he stirred up real trouble or not.
    
    
    
  • Misdirection: If slight of hand is his go to technique, misdirection is the way he lives his life. At some level, virtually everything he does is aimed at directing attention away from his true intentions.
    
    
    
  • Lockpicking: This is his second favorite technique after slight of hand. The AEGIS techs were convinced of his ability to teleport when he escaped from a locked room and called from a payphone down the street. The fact that he did this on camera involved some additional technological jiggery pokery, but speedy lockpicking and good old fashioned stealth were the primary skills.
    
    
    
  • Stealth: A classic versatile skill that no good thief should be without. Most people think it involves ninja like mystical powers of silent movement. Most ninja will tell you: it is all about the misdirect. Get the enemy to think they know where you are and look there. Be somewhere else.
    
    
    
  • Pickpocketing: One of Lars's all time favorite tricks involved secondary testing. The technicians locked him in an exam room with high tech locks and state of the art 'psychoportation limiting fields' They were so confident of their high tech toys, they neglected to notice he had stolen one of their key cards when he arrived at the building. He escaped before they had even got back to their monitors and slipped it back into the tech's pocket as they were sitting down, then hovered behind them until they noticed him. He still gets the giggles over that to this day.
    
    
    
  • Bribery: It is a delicate thing to know when to attempt this and when it will just make things worse, but plausible deniability will probably get you out of trouble even when it fails...
    
    
    
  • Forgery: Disguises will only get you so far. At a certain point you need ID. Owning a dozen different houses under a dozen different identities makes for quite a bit of practice. It also gives you resources to make ever more elaborate forgeries. Lars has gone so far as to create an entire identity complete with a 9 to 5 entry level job in order to gain access to a university building. It is a point of pride that he worked the job long enough to get his first paycheck without ever once showing up to work. He didn't even cash the check, though he does have it framed somewhere. That identity, along with its employment history, is one of his favorite 'good luck charms' for deep cover projects.
    
    
    
  • Cold Reading: Lars has a keen sense of body language and other 'tells' but the core of the technique is to start vague and throw out dozens of details and then zero in on the ones that get a reaction. The more gullible the mark, the more 'Amazing!' his predictions become. Not being recorded doing it is also key. Allowing time for the mark's memories to exaggerate the event amps the amazing factor amazingly. For skeptics, who might be familiar with cold reading, the key is to do research ahead of time and do a hot read. Nothing is better for the reputation than impressing a skeptic, because that smarmy know it all will tell all his friends.
    
    
    
  • Perceptual theory: The root of almost all stage magic is the ability to get the audience to watch the wrong hand. The best magicians have a deep understanding of how the mammalian brain processes perceptual data and how attention shifts, skipping ahead to the next thing in a predictive way, regardless of whether the prediction is legit.
    
    
    
  • Hypnosis: While most stage hypnotism is utter bullshit, there are some people who are very susceptible to suggestion. Most 'fantasy prone' personality types have certain tells that Lars has learned to spot. It is amazing what people will play along with if you find the right buttons to push.
    
    
    
  • Independently wealthy: While a few hundred million dollars in the bank might not be wealthy by the standards of modern American oligarchs, that plus a dozen or so houses spread across the city purchased under assumed names, as well as a few fully equipped holography labs is plenty enough for Lars's plans for now.
  
  
  
  
  Flaws
  
  
  • Dramatic: If caught between what is pragmatic and what makes a good story, Lars will always choose the story. This will get him caught. Eventually.
    
    
    
  • Cheerfully Ruthless to NPCs: It's not like they're real! Why do you get upset over a few cosmetic changes to the number of bit players in the world? Taking an arrow to the knee doesn't make you interesting, it makes you annoying! Be interesting and live, or die entertainingly to flavor the story.
  
  
• Holograms: Tool Holography can make incredible illusions given time to prepare.

  
  
  
  Satellites: Tool WiFi surveillance can easily find out things “you couldn't possibly know”

  
  
  
  Internet: Tool Google ditto.
  
  
  
  Specialty magicians equipment: Tools Google it. It's amazing.
  
  
• Gallery

Spoiler: LarsD

MAGNUSSON, L

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• Skills and Flaws
• Tools & Weapons
• Gallery

• Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Altruism	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Proaction	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Strength	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Defense	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Agility	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	05
  Willpower	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Energy	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01

  
  
• Full Name
  
  Lars Njall Magnusson
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  Larry
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  The Magus
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  
  
  Age
  
  36
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  E Rank
  
  
  
  Role
  
  Snubbed as a teacher. Now he's a villain... Happy?

  
  
• Race
  
  Caucasian
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Blonde
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Heterocromia Iridis 

  
  
  
  Height
  
  6' 3"
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Rail thin, almost gaunt. (145 pounds) 

  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Right eye is blue/violet, Left is amber/pink.


 In public, he is almost always in disguise.

  
  
• Affable
  
  Easy going and fun to talk to is the first impression most people take away from meeting Lars. He is inveterate storyteller, as well as a gifted showman with a natural sense of how to entertain and amuse. He has a flair for the theatrical especially comedy. He tends to become especially voluble when he has had a few drinks, but rarely imbibes as his powers require concentration to work properly. Some of his powers revolve around more... exotic chemicals.

  
  
  
  Inventive
  
  While not much of an engineer himself, Lars has a penchant for finding new uses for existing technology. He mostly uses this for creating ever more elaborate illusions as well as pranks. Often both at the same time.

  
  
  
  Mischievous
  
  Lars absolutely loves a good prank, and will go pretty far out of his way to set one up. He is a big fan of the long con, and has been known to play out his prank scenarios over weeks or even months. 

  
  
  
  Unhinged
  
  During middle school, Lars had a break with reality. Like many overly bright youngsters, he did not get along well with others, and when his one close friend was killed in a freak accident, he lost his mind. He could not cope with the idea that what happened to him might not matter in any larger sense than his own personal feelings about it. He decided that he was going to have to become the focus of the story. History. He reinvented himself, becoming everybody's best friend. The cool kid. The class clown. The entertainer. The class president. The heart-throb. By the time he was in high school, he realized that he was too big a fish and rural Minnesota was too small a pond. He started making his plans over twenty years ago. And they are nearly ready. Even the gods will see him now. They will see him, and they will tremble.

  
  
  
  History
  
  Lars was 12 when he decided to chart a new course in life. He wants to meet the author. Or authors. Of everything. But especially him. Ultimately, it is all about him. He has re-created his entire being from the ground up, several times over, in pursuit of this goal. First he made a name for himself as stage magician under the name of “The Amazing Magnus” After a couple of years on the circuit, he got bored of that and decided to become an independent investigator and paranormal hero. “Codename: Magnus” had some successes, and even earned a blue card in spite of having no actual powers. (Not that commonwealth ever found out about that; officially he is a C rank reality manipulator) Next, he made a small fortune selling virtual reality tech under the brand name NeoMatrix technologies. He sold the company to Fenrir robotics in 2033 for 2.7 billion dollars, and retired at 29. He recently resurfaced in Baltimore, having spent several years analyzing world wide data about A6G23 related events. There are several anomalous patterns, and they all point to one inescapable fact: Baltimore is the focus of the story. The universe revolves around... Baltimore. What are the odds of that? If he is ever going to meet the storytellers, the groundwork of his story needs to be laid there. He has been quietly setting up shop there for the last four years. He applied for a job at facility 108, but not as himself. Most of his visits to the building were purely holographic. He guest taught a few classes, and then disappeared again. He infiltrated the Knights of Raguel in yet another persona, and provided them with some media savvy and holographic tech. He can't say he was impressed with them, but they will likely have a part to play. The overture is over. The curtain is about to rise... and Baltimore may never be the same.
  
  
  
  One last thing: Lars has spent his whole life telling stories. Performing. Transforming. Everything he has ever done is misdirection. Nothing is as it seems. Whatever you see, that is what he wants you to see. Ask him if any of it is true, and he won't even know what you mean. This version of the truth is as true as anything else you could know about Lars. All that can be said for certain is this: A man like that is dangerous.
  
  
• Tiberius Bartholomew Davidson & Terri-Beth Andrews
  
  Local Vaudevillians. Probably the only humans on the planet that Lars truly cares for more than he does himself. They are an old and happily married couple of humbugs, who are as charming a pair of pickpockets and con artists as you could ever hope to meet. They introduced him to old school theatrical story telling techniques, which triggered the first fundamental change to his plans since he began them. They are also the first (and only) people he has ever confided to about his theories about reality. They were unconvinced, but it doesn't seem any crazier than any other religious experience they've ever heard of, so they let it slide. Time will tell what the cost of that indulgence might be; the story he plans to tell will likely involve tremendous suffering for many.
  
  
  
  Skuld Blanco
  
  Minnesota twin cities retired police captain. Lars's second cousin once removed, the daughter of his great aunt Hilda. She was the one who gave Lars his first real shot at crime fighting, and while she frequently claims it was his antics that nearly drove her to take early retirement, she will also grudgingly admit that he was very effective at clearing unsolved cases. She is a relatively rare merging of Latin and Norwegian culture, making her a dangerous person to cross. She has her father's quick temper, and her mother's capacity to carry a grudge. That she will still take Lars's calls is a real testament to his charms.
  
  
  
  Katheryn Barrett
  
  A charmingly nutty hero of the twin cities who is almost as crazy as he is, Lars finds her a useful contact in the news media. He has also never known anyone more susceptible to hypnosis in his life. The disturbing thing is that she has moved to Baltimore. He'd always assumed she was a bit player, supporting cast for Aaron at best. But now she is here. The writer's are trying to tell him something...
  
  
  
  All the dedicated little people without whose support this show would not have been possible
  
  A seemingly limitless string of friends, former lovers, and dupes, none of whom seem to ever mind being used as pawns in Lars's endless games. Well, his parents mind a little. His mom in particular hates when he refers to her as an 'extra.' His dad thinks it is all a big joke, but then, he thinks puns are funny. He loves all of his supporting cast members, in his own way, but ultimately he is the star, and sometimes extras just have to leave the show.
  
  
• A glimpse beyond: Things Fictional Characters Are Not Meant To Know
  Lars seems to know things he shouldn't know. He does things people can't do. Not normal people anyway. It is hard to know what is mere trickery, what is lucky guesswork, and what is truly spooky knowledge of the multiverse.
  
  
  • Fourth wall winks: Not particularly useful, but creepy to readers.
    
    
    
  • Weirdness magnet: Heroes and Villains in a comic book universe come to expect a certain amount of day to day weirdness as par for the course. At a certain point though, it strains credulity. One coincidence too many can drive a man mad. Lars hit that point ages ago.
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  
  
  • Not even sure if it is real: Lars may be crazy, but he is far from stupid. His 'power' doesn't actually allow him to do anything. All he knows is that his hunches seem to work out, and he is pretty sure it is everyone else that is crazy.
    
    
    
  • Slave to the story: Even if it is not practical, Lars is subject to tropes of the genre. Sometimes this forces him to act against his own interests, or do things that seem... wrong. He's genuinely not sure if he is a puppet, or just crazy. But if he finds strings, woe betide the one pulling the other end of them.
    
    
    
  • Fragile mind : Lars' delusions (if they are delusions) have kept him from the brink of true existential despair for his whole life. Drawing him into conversation about his beliefs, while dangerous, could push him into a catatonic state, or eventually, with proper care, make him whole again.
  
  
• 
  
  Skills
  
  
  • Sleight of hand: This is his primary source of 'power,' and when people think you are actually magical they don't think to look for it.
    
    
    
  • Disguise: Ever since his apartment was burned down with him nearly in it back in the mid thirties, Lars has become quite paranoid and rarely goes out in public without a disguise. All his safe houses and bolt holes are well equipped with elaborate make up stations. When he goes out to specifically stir up trouble he chooses neighbors to imitate and then monitors them for weeks afterward to determine if he stirred up real trouble or not.
    
    
    
  • Misdirection: If slight of hand is his go to technique, misdirection is the way he lives his life. At some level, virtually everything he does is aimed at directing attention away from his true intentions.
    
    
    
  • Lockpicking: This is his second favorite technique after slight of hand. The AEGIS techs were convinced of his ability to teleport when he escaped from a locked room and called from a payphone down the street. The fact that he did this on camera involved some additional technological jiggery pokery, but speedy lockpicking and good old fashioned stealth were the primary skills.
    
    
    
  • Stealth: A classic versatile skill that no good thief should be without. Most people think it involves ninja like mystical powers of silent movement. Most ninja will tell you: it is all about the misdirect. Get the enemy to think they know where you are and look there. Be somewhere else.
    
    
    
  • Pickpocketing: One of Lars's all time favorite tricks involved secondary testing. The technicians locked him in an exam room with high tech locks and state of the art 'psychoportation limiting fields' They were so confident of their high tech toys, they neglected to notice he had stolen one of their key cards when he arrived at the building. He escaped before they had even got back to their monitors and slipped it back into the tech's pocket as they were sitting down, then hovered behind them until they noticed him. He still gets the giggles over that to this day.
    
    
    
  • Bribery: It is a delicate thing to know when to attempt this and when it will just make things worse, but plausible deniability will probably get you out of trouble even when it fails...
    
    
    
  • Forgery: Disguises will only get you so far. At a certain point you need ID. Owning a dozen different houses under a dozen different identities makes for quite a bit of practice. It also gives you resources to make ever more elaborate forgeries. Lars has gone so far as to create an entire identity complete with a 9 to 5 entry level job in order to gain access to a university building. It is a point of pride that he worked the job long enough to get his first paycheck without ever once showing up to work. He didn't even cash the check, though he does have it framed somewhere. That identity, along with its employment history, is one of his favorite 'good luck charms' for deep cover projects.
    
    
    
  • Cold Reading: Lars has a keen sense of body language and other 'tells' but the core of the technique is to start vague and throw out dozens of details and then zero in on the ones that get a reaction. The more gullible the mark, the more 'Amazing!' his predictions become. Not being recorded doing it is also key. Allowing time for the mark's memories to exaggerate the event amps the amazing factor amazingly. For skeptics, who might be familiar with cold reading, the key is to do research ahead of time and do a hot read. Nothing is better for the reputation than impressing a skeptic, because that smarmy know it all will tell all his friends.
    
    
    
  • Perceptual theory: The root of almost all stage magic is the ability to get the audience to watch the wrong hand. The best magicians have a deep understanding of how the mammalian brain processes perceptual data and how attention shifts, skipping ahead to the next thing in a predictive way, regardless of whether the prediction is legit.
    
    
    
  • Hypnosis: While most stage hypnotism is utter bullshit, there are some people who are very susceptible to suggestion. Most 'fantasy prone' personality types have certain tells that Lars has learned to spot. It is amazing what people will play along with if you find the right buttons to push.
    
    
    
  • Independently wealthy: While a few hundred million dollars in the bank might not be wealthy by the standards of modern American oligarchs, that plus a dozen or so houses spread across the city purchased under assumed names, as well as a few fully equipped holography labs is plenty enough for Lars's plans for now.
  
  
  
  
  Flaws
  
  
  • Dramatic: If caught between what is pragmatic and what makes a good story, Lars will always choose the story. This will get him caught. Eventually.
    
    
    
  • Cheerfully Ruthless to NPCs: It's not like they're real! Why do you get upset over a few cosmetic changes to the number of bit players in the world? Taking an arrow to the knee doesn't make you interesting, it makes you annoying! Be interesting and live, or die entertainingly to flavor the story.
  
  
• Holograms: Tool Holography can make incredible illusions given time to prepare.

  
  
  
  Satellites: Tool WiFi surveillance can easily find out things “you couldn't possibly know”

  
  
  
  Internet: Tool Google ditto.
  
  
  
  Specialty magicians equipment: Tools Google it. It's amazing.
  
  
• Gallery

So. I am fine with dropping Lars's intelligence to 3, but he needs that outrageous skill set to be the villain I have in mind. Alternatively, he could actually be a D rank super with some kind of visions like Red's daughter, except with the odd little detail that he can't tell if any of it is real because his mind is too far gone. That has the benefits of taking the intelligence thing off the table and explaining how he acquired such an outrageous collection of skills. It also helps explain how he fooled the Minnesota techs into thinking he was C rank: The enigma field actually does affect him, just not in the way he convinced them it did. That accounts for his increased intelligence also because as long as he trusts in his delusions, they will guide him to insights that could not be had any other way. This adds the weakness that if he can be convinced to doubt himself, his whole world will implode.

I kind of like the original, because my vision was of an ordinary guy taking on supers toe to toe through trickery. The power of vision mixed with delusions is nice though in that it barely counts as a power. Anyway, those are my two proposed directions for Lars. Curious to see which people find more palatable.

Lastly, I'm going to take on Aaron, but I am not sure what exactly people want changed. I am going to go back and re-read the whole thread for specifics... I have one possible edit in mind but I am not clear if it would be perceived as an improvement or not.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Mini T-Rex has changed her name back. Here, let me tag her for you: ManicMuse , look above me ^

 

[Gus]

OK. Hopefully this, combined with previous discussions, will get ManicMuse on board with Aaron.

I reduced strength to 1 and boosted energy to nine instead, and rewrote his power description (major changes in red. there are a few other minor tweaks) I think this clarifies a bit how the powers are connected, and in retrospect, what he does makes more sense with energy than strength (it was not an option when he was first written) He is not actually super strong; it is just that when enormously massive things are set into motion, less massive things tend to get brushed aside. This also somewhat solves the issue of why him walking around doesn't push the earth of its axis: he isn't exactly pushing to move, he is just directly doing work on himself through gravitational self interaction.

Spoiler: AaronRevised

Mallory, A

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• Skills and Flaws
• Gallery

• Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Proaction	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Strength	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Defense	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Agility	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Willpower	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Energy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09

  
  
• Full Name
  
  Aaron Iapetus Mallory
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  Blacklight, Deadstar, Singularity Man (Earlier codenames. He refused to answer to blackhole boy)
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  Solo
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  
  
  Age
  
  43
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  S Rank
  
  
  
  Limiter
  
  Active, Level 4
  
  
  
  Role
  
  Teacher (Collateral Damage and You!)
  
  
• Race
  
  Uncertain. Blurry.
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Dark
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Dark
  
  
  
  Height
  
  6' 1”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Heavyset (430 Sextillion tons)
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Hazy shimmering effect near the surface of his skin, like a heat mirage; darkens to inky black void during high stress incidents. He has been described by AEGIS staff physicists as "A living singularity" There are any number of reasons why this is impossible, and when pressed for theories, those same physicists will typically point behind you, scream "LOOK OVER THERE!" and run away. Probably something to do with weakly interacting dark matter.
• Kind
  
  His heart is as soft as his skin is impervious. Aaron came of age as a hero just as the violence of Rapture was erupting, and bore witness to the worst corruption the commonwealth had to offer. In spite of his experiences—or perhaps because of them—he maintains an unwavering commitment to treating all human beings as precious. Even the worst of the worst.
  
  
  
  Guarded (but fighting it)
  
  It has taken a lifetime for Aaron to come out of his shell, but recent events made it clear that he is ill suited to living purely in his own head. He has decided to make a concerted effort to reach out to people, especially his students. It goes very much against his nature to open up and talk to people, but he knows he can never make the world change the way he wants without getting involved in it. It is long past time for him to stand up to himself on this, and with God's help, he will do it.
  
  
  
  Inspired
  
  Aaron hit rock bottom in the early part of January 2040. He thought he had been there before, but this was a whole new level of hell. Apparently, what he had needed was not a therapist, but a priest. Aaron is a changed man, and has thrown himself back into his work to the exclusion of all else. He feels he has his answer, and his purpose in the world, all sewn up in a nice neat package.
  
  
  
  Driven
  
  In some, this might be seen as a positive. In Aaron, it may eventually become so. Right now, it is damned dangerous. He has not slept in nearly two weeks. Or eaten. It is debatable whether he needs food or sleep, but this level of obsession simply cannot be healthy. Believing you are on a mission from god to change the world is one thing when you are a starry eyed idealistic kid, but when you literally have the power to move planets, a little restraint is vital. His first act after returning to work from his inspiring encounter with the priest was to build a massive death trap for practical tests. His second was to terrify a pack of journalists. Old Aaron was far too self doubting to do any real damage. New Aaron seems to have no doubts at all. A time may be swift approaching where Aaron needs to be put in check. But who is going to do that?
  
  
  
  History
  
  Aaron was born at the dawn of the modern age of super-humans. Now, somehow, he has reached an age where he no longer understands the new generation; their ways are an utter mystery to him. As a millennial's millennial growing up, he could never have imagined becoming an out of touch grouchy old man pining for the good ole bad old days. Apparently, unplugging for almost 15 years will do that to you. That and untreated PTSD, or whatever they're calling it nowadays.
  
  
  
  Aaron was 21 when the rapture happened. Fresh out of college, with a newly minted blue card and full of political idealism and ideas, fighting terrorists seemed like the right thing to do. The only thing to do. But then, things got complicated. Experiments came to light. Nasty secrets surfaced. Good and evil became less and less clear, until he became increasingly disturbed by the idea that he might not be on the right side of history. By his mid-twenties he had had enough, teleported to mars, dropped his limiter there, and jumped back to South America where he spent the next fourteen and a half years living on a primitive farming collective, basically working as a tractor. He wasn't exactly happy, but at least he was useful.
  
  
  
  Three years ago, he had an epiphany of sorts, and decided it was probably time to leave the farm and get back to his old life. About two years ago he was hired by director Swan to teach at facility 108, but only just arrived in early January; it was a long, long walk. Upon arrival, he almost immediately regretted returning to the life. He was on the point of quitting, and only stayed because his fellow teacher Eve was too badly injured during the 1/14/40 terror attacks to take over classes. After 10 days of spiraling deeper and deeper into depression he broke down on the steps of the Basilica just before dawn on the 24th. An elderly priest with a slight Irish accent gave him a good talking to, and set him on a new path. It is probably too soon to tell if it will stick, but for the moment, Aaron is a changed man.
• Joey Belladani
  
  He doesn't hear much from Joey anymore since he stopped getting groceries delivered. Recently though, it has become clear that he can't just go without eating indefinitely, nor is buying out the seven eleven on the way to work likely to be practical in the long term. Maybe he can find him through the soup kitchen downtown.
  
  
  
  Lisa Ramsey
  
  Lisa is Aaron's AEGIS assigned therapist. She is on call 24/7, though she has a caseload of 5 other S class individuals deemed psychological security risks. Lisa has been meeting with him virtually through video chat programs for about a year. He's never said much, and after their last session, they were both ready to give up on therapy, but he had a personal epiphany in late January, and now looks forward to their sessions.
  
  
  
  Eve Knox
  
  Assistant teacher, badly injured in the Knight Day attacks. At first Aaron couldn't wait for her to come back to work so he could quit in good conscience. Now, he can't wait to show her what he has planned for class each day. Her stellar performance at the Horseshoe Casino heist gave him some new ideas to try.
  
  
  
  Batel...?
  
  He did not get a last name. In retrospect he wished he had asked for contact information; she'd have made a great guest lecturer for personal combat in CD&Y. Maybe Red knows who she is or where she trained.
  
  
  
  Jamie Bishop
  
  One of 108s many troubled teens, she has taken a shine to Aaron after what is rapidly passing into AEGIS legend as "Let's murder some students at work day" (A competing moniker is "Death Traps & Gas Chambers" a local gaming company is trying to market that as a new tabletop RPG)
  
  
  
  Penelope Urbain
  
  108's live-in power plant, she is as toxic personally as she is physically. Aaron likes to visit her because he is one of the few staff who can and live, and also because he intuits that part of her social nastiness springs from loneliness. Whether this will effect any real change remains to be seen.
  
  
  
  Page Morgan
  
  Aaron has always felt that in a thriving institution, one should cultivate a healthy and respectful relationship with two people: The Secretary and the Janitor. They are the heroes that EVERY institution needs, though to be sure, not all of them deserve. So far, he hasn't even met the Janitor, and…well let's just say Page Morgan is not impressed with him so far. He hopes to change that over time.
  
  
  
  Katheryn Barrett
  
  Apparently, when you come back from a decade long exile, you're supposed to let your old team mates know you're back. Kate was NOT happy about hearing via the news rather than a personal message.
  
  
  
  Father...?
  
  Apparently having a nervous breakdown plays hell with one's social graces. He should have asked the man's name! Aaron would like very much to tell the kindly old priest what a profound effect his advice has had, but when he went back to the basilica nobody knew who he was talking about. Without a name, he is at an impasse.
  
  
• Living Singularity
  Aaron is the impossible man. He weighs a little more than Saturn, but is smaller than the average sumo wrestler. This gives him near infinite density, but also provides the nearly unlimited energy necessary to move himself around in spite of being effectively impossible to move. That energy is used almost exclusively for movement, leaving practically nothing left over for anything else; he can't fart lasers or anything like that. The energy that sustains him against total implosion seems to end mere nanometers from his skin surface, protecting his surroundings from devastation. This also gives him a sort of 'contact telekinesis' type of effect: basically if Aaron moves, anything he is touching will move with him. If he stops, it will stop too. This is subject to the stress limits of the environment and the objects, as noted under flaws below
  
  
  
  
  • Gravitational 'Radar': Aaron can sense the presence of any mass within about 40 astronomical units. It is difficult for him to sense anything smaller than about a ton, but if he concentrates he can sometimes distinguish nearby objects down to about 100 kg, if they are moving. It is much easier to detect objects silhouetted against the sky. This sense is not blocked by solid objects, and can detect hollow spaces inside larger objects as small as about 10 feet across.
    
    
    
  • Wormholes: When there are other heavenly bodies above the horizon, Aaron can use himself as a bridge to connect Earth's gravity well to the other body's gravity well, opening a wormhole. He can pass through the wormhole almost instantaneously, but the time required to open such a wormhole is just a bit longer than the time required for the light cone of the current gravity well to intersect the neighboring one. (Protecting causality, among other things.) The traces of the tunnel remain open for a few minutes after he passes through, and can be reused and slightly re-aimed during that timeframe. He cannot bring anything with him that doesn't fit snugly; anything more than about an inch away from his skin gets sheared off by tidal forces during transit.
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  
  
  • Newtonian Physics: Ordinary objects Aaron interacts with must still respect the third law with respect to each other, so he can only ever exert as much force on anything as the thing he is bracing himself against can support, or until he exceeds the stress limit of the object. (Picture trying to lift a 50 foot yacht with one hand: either you punch a hole in the hull, or the ground you are standing on, if it is soft enough. Lift failed, either way.) If he pushes on a wall, his feet will generally slip backwards against the ground's insufficient friction rather than knock the wall down. Additionally, when it comes to accelerating via local gravitation, the third law seems to completely take a holiday. He falls like anyone else, and when he hits the ground it hurts him, not the whole earth.
    
    
  • Vertigo: Being able to sense the spin of earth, as well as the motion of every other major body in the solar system, can have unpredictable effects on Aaron's equilibrium. He is always a little dizzy, but at odd intervals this effect becomes briefly intolerable and will drop him to his knees, vomiting uncontrollably. Sometimes he can puzzle out when an episode will hit in advance from reading horoscopes. The fact that this works bothers him.
    
    
    
  • Needs to breathe : This makes him vulnerable to chemical attacks, and puts severe limits on his teleportation, due to the minimum range, as noted below. Also, if he somehow falls into deep water when the moon is not up, he is toast.
    
    
    
  • Unable to use vehicles: To be pedantic, he can use them as furniture, he just can't use them to go anywhere, unless they are capable of towing, say, Saturn. The planet, not the model of car.
    
    
    
  • Ponderously Slow: Most people don't think much about the effort required to walk around, because it just isn't noticeable. Aaron's legs each weigh about 9 times the mass of the earth, and his arms are roughly half of that. He brings new meaning to the term power walking. His top speed is between 2 and 2.5 miles per hour, and you can actually count a whisker over 'one Mississippi' in the time it takes him to get up to speed. Even with the nigh infinite energy field that suffuses his being, moving around is tiring. This also makes it impossible for him to throw things any significant distance, or indeed, even to throw a punch per se. He CAN however, swing a massive lever, such as a telephone pole or truck trailer, to great effect, if he is careful not to break it.
    
    
    
  • Wormholes Suck: The minimum range for his teleport is about a light second, and that takes him to the moon. There's no air there. Mars is not much better, and is anywhere from three to twenty two minutes away, depending on planetary alignment. Venus is the very worst place he has ever been and he is never going back if he can help it. Under ideal conditions, he can get anywhere in line of sight of the moon in under 6 seconds, providing it is above the horizon. If he is using mars, he can get anywhere on earth, but might need multiple bounces off a variety of bodies. It can take up to an hour to set up a long jump like that. For short range teleports within 8 to 10 miles, he has much better accuracy--within a few hundred feet as compared to up to ten miles for a long jump, and can cut the setup time in half by forming the outbound and return tunnels simultaneously. Once set up, a tunnel will remain usable for a few minutes before dissipation. He has only recently begun using teleportation again, as the horseshoe casino robbery wouldn't wait for him to walk. He had previously sworn never to travel by wormhole again, but his sudden confidence and scope of the threats they are facing has changed his mind.
    
    
    
  • Sudden Stops HURT: Running into solid surfaces such as the ground or a wall will stop Aaron almost instantly as if his mass were not unusually large. Usually this is not a problem, as he rarely goes faster than 2 miles per hour, but if he falls, he accelerates at 9.8 m/s/s like anything else. He has been knocked out by falls as short as six feet (which he can manage just by falling prone from standing) He theorizes a fall of 25 feet or more might kill him. He is reluctant to test this, and is not over fond of heights.
• Skills
  
  
  • Mechanical Engineering: Aaron was a double major in college, learning practical applications of physics as well as enough basic theoretical physics to understand how not to core out the planet with his wormholes. He can also build cool stuff like massive steel death traps.
    
    
    
  • Emergency First Aid: Basic Blue Card training
    
    
    
  • Blue card application of law: ditto
    
    
    
  • Acting: His one elective in college. It has been a long time since he has been onstage...
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Flaws
    • Softie: His compassion will be his undoing
      
      
      
    • Incautious: Overconfidence AND faith in his friends? Aaron is going for the Trifecta of weaknesses!
• Theme song:
  
  
  
  

 

[ManicMuse]

Necessity4Fun
Gus

​

OK. Hopefully this, combined with previous discussions, will get ManicMuse on board with Aaron.

I reduced strength to 1 and boosted energy to nine instead, and rewrote his power description (major changes in red. there are a few other minor tweaks) I think this clarifies a bit how the powers are connected, and in retrospect, what he does makes more sense with energy than strength (it was not an option when he was first written) He is not actually super strong; it is just that when enormously massive things are set into motion, less massive things tend to get brushed aside. This also somewhat solves the issue of why him walking around doesn't push the earth of its axis: he isn't exactly pushing to move, he is just directly doing work on himself through gravitational self interaction.

Spoiler: AaronRevised

Mallory, A

• Stats
• General
• Appearance
• Biography
• Relationships
• Superpowers
• Skills and Flaws
• Gallery

• Heroism Meter
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Courage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱	08
  Altruism	▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱	06
  Order	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Kindness	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Proaction	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Diplomacy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱	07
  Composure	▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱	05

  
  

  Ability Statistics
  Aspect	Scale	Total
  Health	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Strength	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Defense	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09
  Agility	▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	01
  Intelligence	▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱	03
  Willpower	▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱	02
  Energy	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰	09

  
  
• Full Name
  
  Aaron Iapetus Mallory
  
  
  
  Nicknames
  
  Blacklight, Deadstar, Singularity Man (Earlier codenames. He refused to answer to blackhole boy)
  
  
  
  Codename
  
  Solo
  
  
  
  Gender
  
  Male
  
  
  
  Age
  
  43
  
  
  
  Rank
  
  S Rank
  
  
  
  Limiter
  
  Active, Level 4
  
  
  
  Role
  
  Teacher (Collateral Damage and You!)
  
  
• Race
  
  Uncertain. Blurry.
  
  
  
  Hair
  
  Dark
  
  
  
  Eyes
  
  Dark
  
  
  
  Height
  
  6' 1”
  
  
  
  Figure
  
  Heavyset (430 Sextillion tons)
  
  
  
  Notes
  
  Hazy shimmering effect near the surface of his skin, like a heat mirage; darkens to inky black void during high stress incidents. He has been described by AEGIS staff physicists as "A living singularity" There are any number of reasons why this is impossible, and when pressed for theories, those same physicists will typically point behind you, scream "LOOK OVER THERE!" and run away. Probably something to do with weakly interacting dark matter.
• Kind
  
  His heart is as soft as his skin is impervious. Aaron came of age as a hero just as the violence of Rapture was erupting, and bore witness to the worst corruption the commonwealth had to offer. In spite of his experiences—or perhaps because of them—he maintains an unwavering commitment to treating all human beings as precious. Even the worst of the worst.
  
  
  
  Guarded (but fighting it)
  
  It has taken a lifetime for Aaron to come out of his shell, but recent events made it clear that he is ill suited to living purely in his own head. He has decided to make a concerted effort to reach out to people, especially his students. It goes very much against his nature to open up and talk to people, but he knows he can never make the world change the way he wants without getting involved in it. It is long past time for him to stand up to himself on this, and with God's help, he will do it.
  
  
  
  Inspired
  
  Aaron hit rock bottom in the early part of January 2040. He thought he had been there before, but this was a whole new level of hell. Apparently, what he had needed was not a therapist, but a priest. Aaron is a changed man, and has thrown himself back into his work to the exclusion of all else. He feels he has his answer, and his purpose in the world, all sewn up in a nice neat package.
  
  
  
  Driven
  
  In some, this might be seen as a positive. In Aaron, it may eventually become so. Right now, it is damned dangerous. He has not slept in nearly two weeks. Or eaten. It is debatable whether he needs food or sleep, but this level of obsession simply cannot be healthy. Believing you are on a mission from god to change the world is one thing when you are a starry eyed idealistic kid, but when you literally have the power to move planets, a little restraint is vital. His first act after returning to work from his inspiring encounter with the priest was to build a massive death trap for practical tests. His second was to terrify a pack of journalists. Old Aaron was far too self doubting to do any real damage. New Aaron seems to have no doubts at all. A time may be swift approaching where Aaron needs to be put in check. But who is going to do that?
  
  
  
  History
  
  Aaron was born at the dawn of the modern age of super-humans. Now, somehow, he has reached an age where he no longer understands the new generation; their ways are an utter mystery to him. As a millennial's millennial growing up, he could never have imagined becoming an out of touch grouchy old man pining for the good ole bad old days. Apparently, unplugging for almost 15 years will do that to you. That and untreated PTSD, or whatever they're calling it nowadays.
  
  
  
  Aaron was 21 when the rapture happened. Fresh out of college, with a newly minted blue card and full of political idealism and ideas, fighting terrorists seemed like the right thing to do. The only thing to do. But then, things got complicated. Experiments came to light. Nasty secrets surfaced. Good and evil became less and less clear, until he became increasingly disturbed by the idea that he might not be on the right side of history. By his mid-twenties he had had enough, teleported to mars, dropped his limiter there, and jumped back to South America where he spent the next fourteen and a half years living on a primitive farming collective, basically working as a tractor. He wasn't exactly happy, but at least he was useful.
  
  
  
  Three years ago, he had an epiphany of sorts, and decided it was probably time to leave the farm and get back to his old life. About two years ago he was hired by director Swan to teach at facility 108, but only just arrived in early January; it was a long, long walk. Upon arrival, he almost immediately regretted returning to the life. He was on the point of quitting, and only stayed because his fellow teacher Eve was too badly injured during the 1/14/40 terror attacks to take over classes. After 10 days of spiraling deeper and deeper into depression he broke down on the steps of the Basilica just before dawn on the 24th. An elderly priest with a slight Irish accent gave him a good talking to, and set him on a new path. It is probably too soon to tell if it will stick, but for the moment, Aaron is a changed man.
• Joey Belladani
  
  He doesn't hear much from Joey anymore since he stopped getting groceries delivered. Recently though, it has become clear that he can't just go without eating indefinitely, nor is buying out the seven eleven on the way to work likely to be practical in the long term. Maybe he can find him through the soup kitchen downtown.
  
  
  
  Lisa Ramsey
  
  Lisa is Aaron's AEGIS assigned therapist. She is on call 24/7, though she has a caseload of 5 other S class individuals deemed psychological security risks. Lisa has been meeting with him virtually through video chat programs for about a year. He's never said much, and after their last session, they were both ready to give up on therapy, but he had a personal epiphany in late January, and now looks forward to their sessions.
  
  
  
  Eve Knox
  
  Assistant teacher, badly injured in the Knight Day attacks. At first Aaron couldn't wait for her to come back to work so he could quit in good conscience. Now, he can't wait to show her what he has planned for class each day. Her stellar performance at the Horseshoe Casino heist gave him some new ideas to try.
  
  
  
  Batel...?
  
  He did not get a last name. In retrospect he wished he had asked for contact information; she'd have made a great guest lecturer for personal combat in CD&Y. Maybe Red knows who she is or where she trained.
  
  
  
  Jamie Bishop
  
  One of 108s many troubled teens, she has taken a shine to Aaron after what is rapidly passing into AEGIS legend as "Let's murder some students at work day" (A competing moniker is "Death Traps & Gas Chambers" a local gaming company is trying to market that as a new tabletop RPG)
  
  
  
  Penelope Urbain
  
  108's live-in power plant, she is as toxic personally as she is physically. Aaron likes to visit her because he is one of the few staff who can and live, and also because he intuits that part of her social nastiness springs from loneliness. Whether this will effect any real change remains to be seen.
  
  
  
  Page Morgan
  
  Aaron has always felt that in a thriving institution, one should cultivate a healthy and respectful relationship with two people: The Secretary and the Janitor. They are the heroes that EVERY institution needs, though to be sure, not all of them deserve. So far, he hasn't even met the Janitor, and…well let's just say Page Morgan is not impressed with him so far. He hopes to change that over time.
  
  
  
  Katheryn Barrett
  
  Apparently, when you come back from a decade long exile, you're supposed to let your old team mates know you're back. Kate was NOT happy about hearing via the news rather than a personal message.
  
  
  
  Father...?
  
  Apparently having a nervous breakdown plays hell with one's social graces. He should have asked the man's name! Aaron would like very much to tell the kindly old priest what a profound effect his advice has had, but when he went back to the basilica nobody knew who he was talking about. Without a name, he is at an impasse.
  
  
• Living Singularity
  Aaron is the impossible man. He weighs a little more than Saturn, but is smaller than the average sumo wrestler. This gives him near infinite density, but also provides the nearly unlimited energy necessary to move himself around in spite of being effectively impossible to move. That energy is used almost exclusively for movement, leaving practically nothing left over for anything else; he can't fart lasers or anything like that. The energy that sustains him against total implosion seems to end mere nanometers from his skin surface, protecting his surroundings from devastation. This also gives him a sort of 'contact telekinesis' type of effect: basically if Aaron moves, anything he is touching will move with him. If he stops, it will stop too. This is subject to the stress limits of the environment and the objects, as noted under flaws below
  
  
  
  
  • Gravitational 'Radar': Aaron can sense the presence of any mass within about 40 astronomical units. It is difficult for him to sense anything smaller than about a ton, but if he concentrates he can sometimes distinguish nearby objects down to about 100 kg, if they are moving. It is much easier to detect objects silhouetted against the sky. This sense is not blocked by solid objects, and can detect hollow spaces inside larger objects as small as about 10 feet across.
    
    
    
  • Wormholes: When there are other heavenly bodies above the horizon, Aaron can use himself as a bridge to connect Earth's gravity well to the other body's gravity well, opening a wormhole. He can pass through the wormhole almost instantaneously, but the time required to open such a wormhole is just a bit longer than the time required for the light cone of the current gravity well to intersect the neighboring one. (Protecting causality, among other things.) The traces of the tunnel remain open for a few minutes after he passes through, and can be reused and slightly re-aimed during that timeframe. He cannot bring anything with him that doesn't fit snugly; anything more than about an inch away from his skin gets sheared off by tidal forces during transit.
  
  
  
  Limitations
  
  
  
  
  • Newtonian Physics: Ordinary objects Aaron interacts with must still respect the third law with respect to each other, so he can only ever exert as much force on anything as the thing he is bracing himself against can support, or until he exceeds the stress limit of the object. (Picture trying to lift a 50 foot yacht with one hand: either you punch a hole in the hull, or the ground you are standing on, if it is soft enough. Lift failed, either way.) If he pushes on a wall, his feet will generally slip backwards against the ground's insufficient friction rather than knock the wall down. Additionally, when it comes to accelerating via local gravitation, the third law seems to completely take a holiday. He falls like anyone else, and when he hits the ground it hurts him, not the whole earth.
    
    
  • Vertigo: Being able to sense the spin of earth, as well as the motion of every other major body in the solar system, can have unpredictable effects on Aaron's equilibrium. He is always a little dizzy, but at odd intervals this effect becomes briefly intolerable and will drop him to his knees, vomiting uncontrollably. Sometimes he can puzzle out when an episode will hit in advance from reading horoscopes. The fact that this works bothers him.
    
    
    
  • Needs to breathe : This makes him vulnerable to chemical attacks, and puts severe limits on his teleportation, due to the minimum range, as noted below. Also, if he somehow falls into deep water when the moon is not up, he is toast.
    
    
    
  • Unable to use vehicles: To be pedantic, he can use them as furniture, he just can't use them to go anywhere, unless they are capable of towing, say, Saturn. The planet, not the model of car.
    
    
    
  • Ponderously Slow: Most people don't think much about the effort required to walk around, because it just isn't noticeable. Aaron's legs each weigh about 9 times the mass of the earth, and his arms are roughly half of that. He brings new meaning to the term power walking. His top speed is between 2 and 2.5 miles per hour, and you can actually count a whisker over 'one Mississippi' in the time it takes him to get up to speed. Even with the nigh infinite energy field that suffuses his being, moving around is tiring. This also makes it impossible for him to throw things any significant distance, or indeed, even to throw a punch per se. He CAN however, swing a massive lever, such as a telephone pole or truck trailer, to great effect, if he is careful not to break it.
    
    
    
  • Wormholes Suck: The minimum range for his teleport is about a light second, and that takes him to the moon. There's no air there. Mars is not much better, and is anywhere from three to twenty two minutes away, depending on planetary alignment. Venus is the very worst place he has ever been and he is never going back if he can help it. Under ideal conditions, he can get anywhere in line of sight of the moon in under 6 seconds, providing it is above the horizon. If he is using mars, he can get anywhere on earth, but might need multiple bounces off a variety of bodies. It can take up to an hour to set up a long jump like that. For short range teleports within 8 to 10 miles, he has much better accuracy--within a few hundred feet as compared to up to ten miles for a long jump, and can cut the setup time in half by forming the outbound and return tunnels simultaneously. Once set up, a tunnel will remain usable for a few minutes before dissipation. He has only recently begun using teleportation again, as the horseshoe casino robbery wouldn't wait for him to walk. He had previously sworn never to travel by wormhole again, but his sudden confidence and scope of the threats they are facing has changed his mind.
    
    
    
  • Sudden Stops HURT: Running into solid surfaces such as the ground or a wall will stop Aaron almost instantly as if his mass were not unusually large. Usually this is not a problem, as he rarely goes faster than 2 miles per hour, but if he falls, he accelerates at 9.8 m/s/s like anything else. He has been knocked out by falls as short as six feet (which he can manage just by falling prone from standing) He theorizes a fall of 25 feet or more might kill him. He is reluctant to test this, and is not over fond of heights.
• Skills
  
  
  • Mechanical Engineering: Aaron was a double major in college, learning practical applications of physics as well as enough basic theoretical physics to understand how not to core out the planet with his wormholes. He can also build cool stuff like massive steel death traps.
    
    
    
  • Emergency First Aid: Basic Blue Card training
    
    
    
  • Blue card application of law: ditto
    
    
    
  • Acting: His one elective in college. It has been a long time since he has been onstage...
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Flaws
    • Softie: His compassion will be his undoing
      
      
      
    • Incautious: Overconfidence AND faith in his friends? Aaron is going for the Trifecta of weaknesses!
• Theme song:
  
  
  
  

 

[Dano]

Gus

I have a question about Aaron. If he has 1 for strength but weighs as much as Saturn.... if he swung his arm he would utterly destroy whatever it came in contact with due to the sheer weight.....similar to a wrecking ball.... the 1 in agility makes sense, but 1 in strength does not. I'm not disagreeing about his use of energy to move and do his things... but because of how his weight would be used throwing his arms around it would be seen as "super strength". You also mention in his limitations that he needs to breathe, makes sense... but what doesn't make sense is wormholing to the moon (which lacks oxygen....) and you say it takes an hour to setup another wormhole (half that in some circumstances) so how does he not die of asphyxiation? (and please dont tell me he 'holds his breath' XD). The last question I have is this.... he has a Level 4 limiter, before he received the limiter, where was he? wouldn't his weight knock the earth from its rotation? I'm just trying to understand the character in how he is presented, it's not a dig at you or anything so please don't take it that way. I sincerely look forward to your answers.

 

[Gus]

The idea is that he has enormous mass, but doesn't acquire momentum when moving that mass because he is isolated from the rest of the normal universe by the discontinuity at the surface of his skin. That same property that protects his surroundings from what should be enormous gravitational force (roughly 30 billion gravities at a distance of a dozen yards or so iirc) makes it so that he can ONLY move by expending his own energy and continuing to do so. If he encounters an obstacle, momentum cannot help him overcome it. If he keeps pushing, then the third law applies to the environment with him as the force transmitter between whatever he is pushing on and whatever he is braced against. (so if he is standing on a beach and tries to push over a tank, he will probably just skid backwards).

There are only two cases where the 'wrecking ball effect' comes into play. First is if something is caught between two parts of Aaron that he is bringing together (typically hands, but... y'know, could be knees or something). Both parts of him move with nigh incalculable force and the thing in between is obliterated. The second case would be if something tries to move him, using it's momentum, like say a car running into him. That does not obliterate the car, because the size of the force is limited by the car's velocity and mass, but it DOES hurt the car more than running into the most solid earthly barrier imaginable. Faster than about 60 mph, this would be lethal to the occupants, regardless of restraint.

The time taken is the time to set up the required spatial distortions which he does before leaving. The actual transit time is minuscule. The idea for this is taken from Lawrence Krauss' book "The physics of Star Trek" where he describes what warp drive might look like in this way: If you want to make a trip at arbitrarily fast speed, you need to bend space to avoid the limitations of general relativity, but the spatial distortion itself cannot propagate faster than light speed either, so if you want to jump 4 light years it will take at least four years to set up the bridge, but when it is ready, you can cover the distance instantly. The upshot is that he only needs to hold his breath for a split second, and given his high defense, he can take the pressure changes. Venus is an issue because the atmosphere is so corrosive and clings to him upon return. If he is not careful, he can get a snootful of acid when he takes a breath upon return to earth.

As for the limiter, he wears one because the law says he has to do so, but they have a tendency to break because they were not meant to deal with the surges of enigma particles that can take place around him. They also don't do a lot because he is in a stable equilibrium: his mass is cut off from influencing his surroundings except in very close contact (such as the aforementioned car crash) In game, nobody knows why this is so, it just is. In the meta-game, my pet theory is that he interacts with ALL the earths across the multiverse at once, so earth's gravity effects him as if he were normal size. (There is some precedent in string theory for gravity 'leaking' off into other universes, but it is highly speculative.)

There is actually something related to the plot holding all that energy in check ever since he acquired his powers at the age of six, but the reasons are being held back for the time being. I have discussed them with Welian from way back. When I first created the character, I was a little vague on where the energy and mass came from in the first place, but I woke up one morning about a year ago with the answer fully formed in my brain. It is the one secret I have managed not to blurt out yet because I am bad at secrets and I really really want to tell everyone the full details of his origin. But not just yet.

The known details of his origin are underneath the "day 1" spoiler tab near the bottom of the first page of prompts: https://www.rpnation.com/threads/writing-prompt-responses.247559/

The first origin is Lucas, Aaron's follows that.

 

[Syrenrei]

I've been busy with kid stuff. I had a physical/check-up for the 2-year-old yesterday followed by preschool graduation. I can NOT believe that is a thing now... they even had caps and gowns!

On to characters, since I have a physical scrawled list:

Gus : I really appreciate the effort you put into your characters. I know I come across as a tight ass sometimes, and I apologize for that. I want you to realize I'm not gunning for you, or your characters, and I am this passionate about rules and stats across all of the profiles. If anyone else had jumped in here asking about bending rules I would have responded similarly. D. Rex can vouch for my displeasure towards him when he made Oppie regenerate with (I think) health three. =)

Okay, now that we have that out of the way.... I think C-rank Manami makes a lot of sense just moving that one point into agility. I see your point about strength affecting her speed in the water, rather than agility (Mr. Syrenrei persuaded me on this), but I definitely feel Manami would be nimble in the water. I'd see her as an upper end of the three stat in agility because she would conceivably have the grace and dexterity of an Olympic athlete when she's in the water. I used to do a lot of swimming myself and there is definitely more to it than raw muscle so I think agility three fits this concept you have for her well!

Aaron I.... frankly don't understand half of this stuff. I think that moving points from strength to energy makes sense from what little I grasp of the science behind it. My biggest concerns for Aaron were always that he was the strongest S-rank out there (since Red is the only other active S and can't destroy the world) so it's very easy for him to feel larger than life in the scenes he is. I think anyone playing the character would have that struggle. Out of curiosity, since I am not good with science, how often can he wormhole? How often would the moon or Mars be in sight to allow him to use that power? Adding that to the sheet might make the wormhole power seem a little less overwhelming. I don't think you need to change his powers, just adding more detail to that limitation gives me an idea of how often we might see wormholes in our future. =)

Lars I think you should stick with E-rank human with 3 intellect personally. I know he won't be the smartest cat around, but I'm not sure he really needs to be to stand toe-to-toe with your heroes. Lars has ambition and that goes a long way towards making him a convincing villain. How many hyper-intelligent people do you know? And how many of those people are ambitious and ruthless enough to pursue things like Lars? Some of the brightest people I know are lazy assholes and that hubris will always hold them back. Additionally, Lars is rich. Money goes a LONG way towards helping close the gap between supers and regular humans. With enough money you can be Bruce Wayne. Why do you need to invent all the amazing tech? Just buy it! He can use his wealth to employ supers that are smarter than him but not as clever at manipulating the media, or are easily blackmailed, or just make poor life decisions a lot. In looking at the RP most of the supers in our story aren't capitalizing on their power to get rich quick. Even if they tried, the majority of the population aren't supers and might frown upon their efforts. This is a space where Lars can take advantage! Really, I think just clever + ambitious + rich can take Lars a long way.

Lucas is... hmmm. I guess I have questions about him. Given that his body isn't normal, what can kill him? What can hurt him? Does he have immunities? I think he's a cool concept but I don't want to sidestep stats for him just because his composition isn't flesh. For example, health is the ability to recover. Technically we could argue that the body need sleep and fuel of its own (water, maybe medication, food) to heal and regenerate. Just because Lucas has a difference source and process to heal doesn't mean he shouldn't follow the health score idea I don't think. Since he does require electricity and it's not perfect regeneration I don't think he needs a high health score, but I think it should be above three. He can still conceivably recover from things a normal person can't, even if the resources to do so aren't readily available. Additionally, I think if he can make stuff out of electricity that should count as a construct, but the energy cost should be relatively low. I'd compare this to a fire manipulator not being able to make fire, but being able to control it. I'd think they'd need an energy score (or maybe will score?) to justify the manipulation. And lastly, I think his 'teleportation' in agility is fine. It's not a 'real' transport to me since he has to travel (as I understand it) through conductive objects. He couldn't 'teleport' from a field in the middle of nowhere to a car parked in front of my house, right? If so that's more agility to me than energy. His form isn't flesh and bone, but he's just traveling obscenely fast with the form he DOES have, rather an opening some sort of portal and jumping through.

Anthony looks solid to me, he has my vote!

yoikes
I like Tomoko a lot. I'm usually frothing at the mouth over how much RPN has Japanese characters everywhere, but she has a nice, clean, simple power and I like that she's not an adult. Very cool!

For Mitch, since I've never seen her in action, I was sort of curious how the copying of other powers worked. Rogue is my favorite X-Men so I naturally adore this idea, but what sort of limitations does she have on the strength of the power? Could she copy an S-level power like Aaron or Red? Would it be at the same strength as Aaron or Red's powers? I know the powers last, at most, an hour, which is I assume how long she can copy a D-rank. What about a C, B, A, or S? I'm just trying to get a feel for how it works. =)

Giyari
I'm still salty I haven't seen more of Swan but he has my vote. Very neat character. I love old dudes. I wonder if when he and Eve run into each other if their powers interfere with each other?

 

[yoikes]

I like Tomoko a lot. I'm usually frothing at the mouth over how much RPN has Japanese characters everywhere, but she has a nice, clean, simple power and I like that she's not an adult. Very cool!

For Mitch, since I've never seen her in action, I was sort of curious how the copying of other powers worked. Rogue is my favorite X-Men so I naturally adore this idea, but what sort of limitations does she have on the strength of the power? Could she copy an S-level power like Aaron or Red? Would it be at the same strength as Aaron or Red's powers? I know the powers last, at most, an hour, which is I assume how long she can copy a D-rank. What about a C, B, A, or S? I'm just trying to get a feel for how it works. =)

Yay glad that you like Tomoko!

Yes, she can copy S-level power.

Yes but she's smart enough to know that without proper training, she'll risk losing control of the power / 'badly injure' herself.

The more she 'mastered' a copied power, the more effective and the stronger she can use said power.

I also have this idea:
The stronger the power (Energy), the faster she will be exhausted and the shorter the time will be. So if she copies, say, Naran's power, Mitch will probably will only able to use it once (since she need to charge and use it before the time runs out) and risk breaking her bones because she doesn't have the same physical strength / body endurance as Naran's. Kinda like Boku no Hero Academia's Deku when he uses One for All for the first time.
But since Red only has 7 Energy, she could use his power a little bit longer.

At this point of the story, she only ever copied about 4~10 powers at most and still lacking in training (though i assume off screen she would train with her friends from her mission I WILL TRY TO WRITE A RESPONSE ASAP PLS DON'T BITE ME ;A;)

Right now, i would put it as:

• S: about 5~12 minutes
• A: about 10~20 minutes (She copied Klaus's power for about 10~13 minutes, i think?)
• B: about 25~45 minutes
• C: about 45~60 minutes
• D: about 55~65 minutes