birth of venus
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HEARTLESS
code by Nano
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birth of venus
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birth of venus
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birth of venus
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SALOMΓ Y RAFAEL IGLESIAS
your new favorite black market dealers
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
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erzulie
cheers for spring; for life; for a growing soul
Zahair Cassidy
coded by incandescent
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SavannahSmiles
ΠΌΡ fΞ±ΡΡ ΞΉΡ Ο Ο ΡΟ ΠΌΡ, ΠΈΟΡ ΡΠ½Ρ Π½ΡΞ±Ξ½ΡΠΈΡ
Althea Feyisa Kaison
# The healer
# abigail cowen
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
monkeydoll555
OC Tormentor
coded by xayah.α¦
Unrlstic
true neutral
work in progress/possible fc change.
left
right
coded by natasha.
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artemis.
β
forged flesh
autonomous neotype artificially intelligent supercomputer
A.N.A.I.S.
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
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idiot
π΄π©π¦ πΈπ’π―π΅π΄ π΅π° π£π¦ π₯π¦π΄πͺπ³π¦π₯.
Nevix
The Bologna Bombing Line
"Down the corners and streets,
I'm a rat of the city.
I'm not a lot like me." - Sidney Gish "Rat of The City"
β DOSSIER.
Name: Orrin Bakker
Nickname: Obi (O.B.)
Age: 28
Gender: Cis Man
Sexuality: Bisexual
Date of Birth: October 30th
Place of Birth: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Race/Ethnicity: White (Dutch-American)
β VISAGE.
Hair: Brown, curly
Eyes: Brown
Skin: Slightly pockmarked, reddish
Height: 5' 10"
Distinguishing features: Extensive cybernetic modification, while made to look natural, is visible to a trained eye.
Wardrobe: Workwear, Neutral Colors
Donal Finn
β PERSONA.
Personality: Obi is a nervous, neurotic man. Every decision he makes is followed by prolonged periods of worry as to whether it was the correct decision. To Obi, every social interaction is a mine field, every interpersonal conflict a bitter war. The only times Obi is ever sure of himself are when he's working on machines or when he's thinking about the world around him. Obi is sure that the system he lives in, the institutions that govern the lives of he and his neighbors, are somehow either broken or inherently flawed. Despite his nervous nature, Obi is possessed by a need to do something about it. Where once he could hide away behind his mechanical work, he is now burdened with the idea that it is not enough. That there are people responsible for the suffering he sees and that they must be held to account.
Of course, Obi's brain is not entirely his own. While he and Signal Mercer are separate and distinct consciousnesses with their own memories and personalities, having another voice in your head for more than fifteen years changes you. When he's upset, Signal knows who he should blame. When he's angry, Signal urges him to lash out. It's not all negative impulses though. Signal has already died once, and knows no fear. Signal has never once doubted herself. Recently, finally, those aspects have begun to rub off on him.
Occupation: Mechanic
Positive Traits:
-logical
-straightforward
-loyal
-hardworking
Negative Traits:
-neurotic
-risk-averse
-asocial
-moody
Likes: Chinese food, tinkering, silence, cats, black coffee, his neighbors
Dislikes: Small talk, being rushed, formal events, wealthy people, the police
Fears: Obi is no stranger to worry, much of his life is defined by it. He worries constantly over his social interactions, how people perceive him, how he intends to pay the lease each month, whether any of the police that walk past his store know he's performing illegal modifications. Worry, to Orrin at least, is different than fear. The only thing that Obi really fears is dying without having made an impact. He wants very desperately for things to change, and he wants to be the one to change them, but is sometimes paralyzed by the fear that everything he does might be for nothing.
β ABILITIES.
Power: Mechanical Aptitude
Strengths:
-Mechanical Aptitude: Obi has a natural, intrinsic understanding of machines and their function. He can fix nearly anything given enough time to examine a mechanism, and is especially gifted at the modification, repair, and installation of cybernetic augmentations. He is better with mechanics than electronics, but can still figure out and work with most computer systems he stumbles across.
-Mercenary Memories: Signal Mercer, the consciousness stuck inside Obi's brain, was once a high-level corporate mercenary. She's capable with nearly every single traditional weapon, and has decades and decades of combat experience. She's able to teach this to Obi on the fly when he's in control, and can perform much of what she used to do herself when she's in control.
-Cybernetic Augmentation: Obi possesses many cybernetic augmentations, mostly of his own design. His metal limbs and strengthened joints make him more formidable than an unmodified human. Subdermal armor plating protects him from lower-caliber small arms fire. Augmentations to his brain make him more capable of living with the consciousness of Signal Mercer in his mind, and upgrades to his eyes make him more perceptive and aid in the delicate work of machine repair. He has access to various tools inside his false limbs, such as blades and grappling cables.
Weaknesses:
-Electromagnetic Pulse: Because so much of Obi is cybernetic, an EMP would render much of his kit temporarily useless and give him a splitting headache.
-Hydrophobic: Because of Obi's extensive cybernetic augmentation, he's much heavier than a normal human and is not buoyant. He will sink to the bottom of any large-enough body of water. Even if he doesn't sink, too much water is bad for his mechanical parts which will require maintenance if extensively soaked.
-Two Consciousnesses: Because Obi and Signal are two different people, with differing personalities and motivations, they can be pitted against each other by a clever enough enemy. A conflict where both are wrestling for control of Obi's body would immobilize him at best and might destroy his brain at worst.
β HISTORY.
Relationships:
-Signal Mercer: The ghost in the machine, Signal Mercer is the consciousness that was spliced into Obi's brain as a child. She was a corporate mercenary who was killed when he was only two years old, and the two have been linked since he was twelve. While their relationship was originally adversarial, they've come to an understanding. They're at a point now where they might call each other friends. Obi grew up with Signal, essentially, and while he could never think of her as a parental figure he does trust her enough to solicit advice. Signal might mess with Obi, and occasionally seize control of his body during moments of weakness, but the relationship is mostly symbiotic.
-Jan Bakker: Obi's paternal cousin, a year or two older than him. They were close as children, and Obi briefly lived with him as an adult before he purchased his mother's store. The two remain on friendly terms. Jan works as a bartender in Heartbeat City.
-Stranger: Obi's cat. Deeply evil, but also his best friend. She lives in his shop and loves to interfere with whatever he happens to be doing.
Background: Born to a happy, if poor, family in Amsterdam; the first three years of Orrin's life were simple and relatively free of strife. His father was an electrician and his mother repaired certain types of already-archaic industrial manufacturing equipment. When Orrin was around three or four, The Change occurred and the upheaval radically altered their lives. Though no one in the family went through direct or obvious Change, Orrin's father was killed in a bombing while working on the electrical system of a government building. Three different radical groups with wildly different ideologies all claimed credit for the bombing, which also killed a handful of civil servants and a high-ranking municipal politician. The disaster economy more or less destroyed his mother's industry, and so the family moved to Heartbeat City on the advice of a friend in the city.
While things weren't necessarily better in Heartbeat City, time had passed and order was beginning to return to a post-Change world. His mother was able to eek out a living applying her mechanical knowledge to making unlicensed modification and repairs to cybernetics. Her clientele was mostly criminal, and while he had no idea at the time, Orrin's family was under the direct protection of The Hell Hounds. In school around this time, Orrin received the nickname Obi, based on his initials, from a teacher. The name stuck, and Orrin went almost exclusively as Obi from this point forward.
Around the time of The Change, Obi started to display a virtuosic understanding of machines and their function. He started with disassembling and reassembling his toys and various household electronics. By the time he was five, he was helping his mother with her work on cybernetics. By the time he was seven, he was better at it than she was. Neither Obi nor his mother knew whether his mechanical aptitude was a result of The Change or generational natural talent, and because of that ambiguity he was never catalogued by The Census.
When he was 11, a Kedron Corp recovery squad raided his mother's shop. Word had gotten out that Kedron technology was being illegally modified and installed. Obi's mother was killed in the raid, and he was placed into the custody of the corporation. At the same time, Kedron's scientists were researching technology to implant Artificial Intelligences into human brains. The idea was that there'd be a commercial application, personal assistants that were only a thought away. Much of the early testing was done on corporate prisoners, using AI's that were patterned off real human minds because it was cheaper at the time then producing truly artificial intelligence. They'd hit a roadblock, though. It would work on a test subject, but only for a few months. Eventually, either the real person or the artificial intelligence would overwrite the other. This usually resulted in brain death. It had been theorized that if a child subject was used, if a mind were allowed to develop with another consciousness, they could co-exist.
When he was 12, Kedron scientists implanted him with a chip containing the consciousness of a long-serving, long-dead corporate mercenary named Signal Mercer. Signal's consciousness had been copied and saved against her will during her career, and now, decades after her death, she was sharing a mind with a child. Despite some early difficulties adjusting, it soon became clear that the test was a success. With only minor brain augmentation, a human had been able to incorporate and co-exist with another intelligence. The only problem was that, at this stage of testing, the process was irreversible. Signal could not be removed without killing both her and Obi.
Shortly after this, a whistleblower found their conscience and went to the police. Obi was rescued. It was quite a scandal, front page news for a couple days. Kedron received a hefty fine. Obi bounced around the system for a while, and when he became an adult, he bought his mother's old shop and began to continue her work. He also continued her relationship with the Hell Hounds and began to obsessively modify his body with cybernetics.
Recently, though, something eats at him. Despite his comfortable life and his rescue from corporate clutches, he feels like there is something yet to be done. He looks around him at the misery and decay in Heartbeat City's slums. He looks up, hundreds of stories up, at the penthouses and corporate offices. He sees how insulated the wealthy are from the consequences of their actions. He sees the millions of people chewed up and spat out, seen as nothing more than data-mines for targeted marketing by a system that cannot help but to consume. He has the thought that he and Signal could change things, if they were to try, and it would only require a small amount of incredible violence.
"Don't tell me 'that's the past'
I live in the past, Jack.
It ain't even that different." -Billy Woods "Red Dust"
β DOSSIER.
Name: Signal Mercer
Age: 82 (56 at death)
Gender: Cis Woman
Sexuality: Homosexual
Date of Birth: December 6th
Place of Birth: Heartbeat City
Race/Ethnicity: Black (American)
β VISAGE.
NOTE: Signal Mercer currently only exists inside of the brain of Orrin Bakker, all descriptions of appearance are descriptions of her prior to her death in 2066
Hair: Black
Eyes: Yellow-Brown
Skin: Crisscrossed with combat-related scars.
Height: 5' 8"
Distinguishing Features: Prosthetic left leg and lower jaw
Wardrobe: Flashy, but combat effective. Lots of purple.
β PERSONA.
Personality: From an early age, Signal was driven by a desire to be great at something. After a lot of trial and error, she realized that her talent was violence. Violence, then, went on to define parts of her identity. Far from a stone-cold killer, Signal had to suppress an understanding that murdering people over a stock dividend was wrong, an understanding that she did not particularly enjoy hurting people. Suppressing that weakness, suppressing any vulnerability, became habit. Confidence became a tool for her, a way to rise above the circumstances she found herself in.
Signal can be abrasive at the best of times, and outright mean at the worst. Despite this, she possesses a selfless streak and lacks a self-preservation instinct when it comes to protecting anyone she even remotely cares about. She can come off as careless or unserious, but is internally always in the process of trying to figure out the correct course of action.
Despite her bravado. internally Signal is wracked by guilt and anger. They eat at her. Her death made her realize the futility of all that she'd done in her life. A trail of bodies, innocent and guilty, with nothing to show for it except her own corpse and some glowing quarterly reports. She hates herself, for falling into that life and not being able to get out, but not as much as she hates the people who gave her orders. In her new digital afterlife, she's driven by revenge more than anything else.
Occupation: Electronic Ghost (formerly Mercenary)
Positive Traits: Strong, Fearless, Competent, Clever
Negative Traits: Abrasive, Sarcastic, Guilt-Ridden, Impulsive
Likes: Alcohol, Completing a Task, Punk Rock, Celebrating Victories
Dislikes: Authority, Backing Down, Cowardice, Insects
Fears: Almost nothing frightens Signal, who spent several decades getting shot at for a living. She's not terribly fond of bugs, but aside from that her only real fear is dying again without having held the people who sent her to her death accountable.
β ABILITIES.
Refer to Orrin Bakker
β HISTORY.
Background: Signal was born in 2010, long before The Change. She was born and raised in Heartbeat City. Her parents were both retired military officers, and after an unremarkable school career she followed in their footsteps and joined the military. There, she excelled. While she had no particular taste for violence, she had an undeniable talent for it. She fought in nearly every boots-on-the-ground military operation in the 2030's. In 2039, after more than ten years of service, she lost her leg to a grenade while on an off-the-books operation in East Africa. Recent advancements in cybernetic protheses gave her the option of returning to the field, but she'd grown bitter and jaded. By the 2030's, the military had dropped the pretense of 'police action' or 'counterterrorism' and was openly fighting over natural resources. Nothing that she'd done in the last ten years had felt quite right. A brief stint in civilian life, however, reminded her that killing people was her only marketable skill. After only a few months, a former soldier under her command convinced her to join Kedron's mercenary division.
For the next two decades and change, Signal fought Kedron's enemies. After ten years, she was the most experienced mercenary in their employ and they treated her as such. She knew, on some level, that she was not doing good in the world. It was at least as morally unsound as her work in the military, if not more so. But now she was being paid accordingly. She enjoyed a certain kind of dark celebrity, her name whispered like a ghost story everywhere on the streets of Heartbeat City. In 2050, she lost her lower jaw to a combat android and had it replaced. Sixteen years later, she was dead. Shot four times during a raid on the scene of potential corporate espionage. She bled out in an alley, her attackers dead only minutes before she was.
Unbeknownst to her, her body was quickly recovered by Kedron. Advanced, experimental technology was used to create a digital copy of her consciousness. This copy sat "on ice" for about ten years, until it was dusted off and implanted in the mind of a child named Orrin Bakker in 2076. This process was difficult, but after a few years, her and Obi reached an understanding. As Obi grew up, Signal found herself begrudgingly liking the kid, even if she couldn't help but mess with him.
Now, Signal's been nursing a grudge for twenty-six years. She wants back at the people who sent her to her death, and who forced her into a digital afterlife. She wants revenge for the things she was made to do, even if she did them willingly at the time. She wasted her whole life fighting other people's wars. This time, she wants to fight her own. Her and Obi are in agreement on this, even if they have different reasons.
I live in the past, Jack.
It ain't even that different." -Billy Woods "Red Dust"
β DOSSIER.
Name: Signal Mercer
Age: 82 (56 at death)
Gender: Cis Woman
Sexuality: Homosexual
Date of Birth: December 6th
Place of Birth: Heartbeat City
Race/Ethnicity: Black (American)
β VISAGE.
NOTE: Signal Mercer currently only exists inside of the brain of Orrin Bakker, all descriptions of appearance are descriptions of her prior to her death in 2066
Hair: Black
Eyes: Yellow-Brown
Skin: Crisscrossed with combat-related scars.
Height: 5' 8"
Distinguishing Features: Prosthetic left leg and lower jaw
Wardrobe: Flashy, but combat effective. Lots of purple.
β PERSONA.
Personality: From an early age, Signal was driven by a desire to be great at something. After a lot of trial and error, she realized that her talent was violence. Violence, then, went on to define parts of her identity. Far from a stone-cold killer, Signal had to suppress an understanding that murdering people over a stock dividend was wrong, an understanding that she did not particularly enjoy hurting people. Suppressing that weakness, suppressing any vulnerability, became habit. Confidence became a tool for her, a way to rise above the circumstances she found herself in.
Signal can be abrasive at the best of times, and outright mean at the worst. Despite this, she possesses a selfless streak and lacks a self-preservation instinct when it comes to protecting anyone she even remotely cares about. She can come off as careless or unserious, but is internally always in the process of trying to figure out the correct course of action.
Despite her bravado. internally Signal is wracked by guilt and anger. They eat at her. Her death made her realize the futility of all that she'd done in her life. A trail of bodies, innocent and guilty, with nothing to show for it except her own corpse and some glowing quarterly reports. She hates herself, for falling into that life and not being able to get out, but not as much as she hates the people who gave her orders. In her new digital afterlife, she's driven by revenge more than anything else.
Occupation: Electronic Ghost (formerly Mercenary)
Positive Traits: Strong, Fearless, Competent, Clever
Negative Traits: Abrasive, Sarcastic, Guilt-Ridden, Impulsive
Likes: Alcohol, Completing a Task, Punk Rock, Celebrating Victories
Dislikes: Authority, Backing Down, Cowardice, Insects
Fears: Almost nothing frightens Signal, who spent several decades getting shot at for a living. She's not terribly fond of bugs, but aside from that her only real fear is dying again without having held the people who sent her to her death accountable.
β ABILITIES.
Refer to Orrin Bakker
β HISTORY.
Background: Signal was born in 2010, long before The Change. She was born and raised in Heartbeat City. Her parents were both retired military officers, and after an unremarkable school career she followed in their footsteps and joined the military. There, she excelled. While she had no particular taste for violence, she had an undeniable talent for it. She fought in nearly every boots-on-the-ground military operation in the 2030's. In 2039, after more than ten years of service, she lost her leg to a grenade while on an off-the-books operation in East Africa. Recent advancements in cybernetic protheses gave her the option of returning to the field, but she'd grown bitter and jaded. By the 2030's, the military had dropped the pretense of 'police action' or 'counterterrorism' and was openly fighting over natural resources. Nothing that she'd done in the last ten years had felt quite right. A brief stint in civilian life, however, reminded her that killing people was her only marketable skill. After only a few months, a former soldier under her command convinced her to join Kedron's mercenary division.
For the next two decades and change, Signal fought Kedron's enemies. After ten years, she was the most experienced mercenary in their employ and they treated her as such. She knew, on some level, that she was not doing good in the world. It was at least as morally unsound as her work in the military, if not more so. But now she was being paid accordingly. She enjoyed a certain kind of dark celebrity, her name whispered like a ghost story everywhere on the streets of Heartbeat City. In 2050, she lost her lower jaw to a combat android and had it replaced. Sixteen years later, she was dead. Shot four times during a raid on the scene of potential corporate espionage. She bled out in an alley, her attackers dead only minutes before she was.
Unbeknownst to her, her body was quickly recovered by Kedron. Advanced, experimental technology was used to create a digital copy of her consciousness. This copy sat "on ice" for about ten years, until it was dusted off and implanted in the mind of a child named Orrin Bakker in 2076. This process was difficult, but after a few years, her and Obi reached an understanding. As Obi grew up, Signal found herself begrudgingly liking the kid, even if she couldn't help but mess with him.
Now, Signal's been nursing a grudge for twenty-six years. She wants back at the people who sent her to her death, and who forced her into a digital afterlife. She wants revenge for the things she was made to do, even if she did them willingly at the time. She wasted her whole life fighting other people's wars. This time, she wants to fight her own. Her and Obi are in agreement on this, even if they have different reasons.
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mangomilk
big oof
anomalisa cypranusia
a spark hits the sky...
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
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forgot10
24 : HE/THEY
russel ibon quarter
even a worm will turn;
make peace when we can
make peace when we can
flight
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
NAME: Russel Ibon Quarter
NICKNAME(S): Riq (Rick)
AGE: 31
GENDER: Transgender Man (he/him)
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
BIRTHDAY: Leo
BIRTHPLACE: Small town, middle of the US
PERSONALITY: Annoying gnat that schmoozes his way everywhere.
OCCUPATION: Journalist / photographer (wistfully a freelancer; but works mostly for gossip/drama news stations)
POSITIVE TRAITS: Lighthearted, inviting, and hard-working
NEGATIVE TRAITS: Judgmental, shallow, and incredibly nosy
LIKES: drama, secrets (his own and others), history of the world, summer weather, spiders
DISLIKES: buzzkills/party poopers, fictional books, digital storage
NICKNAME(S): Riq (Rick)
AGE: 31
GENDER: Transgender Man (he/him)
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
BIRTHDAY: Leo
BIRTHPLACE: Small town, middle of the US
PERSONALITY: Annoying gnat that schmoozes his way everywhere.
OCCUPATION: Journalist / photographer (wistfully a freelancer; but works mostly for gossip/drama news stations)
POSITIVE TRAITS: Lighthearted, inviting, and hard-working
NEGATIVE TRAITS: Judgmental, shallow, and incredibly nosy
HEIGHT: 5'6, often wearing boots that make him 5'9
WEIGHT: Under 100 lbs
FACECLAIM: Manny Jacinto
ETHNICITY: Mixed (Filipino-Chinese)
WARDROBE: Large coats, dark bottoms, large/heavy boots, business casual. Optional weighted jackets or ankle weights.
WEIGHT: Under 100 lbs
FACECLAIM: Manny Jacinto
ETHNICITY: Mixed (Filipino-Chinese)
WARDROBE: Large coats, dark bottoms, large/heavy boots, business casual. Optional weighted jackets or ankle weights.
ABILITIES: Flight and Self Density Manipulation
Self Density Manipulation/Buoyancy - Riq is much lighter than the average person, allowing him to be more agile and jump great heights and distances with ease.
Flight/Air manipulation - This is what really allows Riq to take flight, though it takes energy both mentally and physically to keep himself up. The distance his air manipulation can go is within 15~ feet of himself. The maximum speed he can move air is at 55 mph/47 knots, the minimum is as much as a sigh.
STRENGTHS:- Riq is an expert in free running (and parkour) and is able to traverse most any environment with great ease.
- Hard to use his strength against him as there is little weight behind any physical attacks from Riq.
- Due to his near weightlessness, Russel can move while making very little noise (only the rustling of fabric or breathing would give him away). He has virtually no audible foot-steps.
- Due to Riq's hollow structure he is not capable of taking much damage and often is physically the weakest person in the room due to his 'buoyancy'. This does impact his ability to fire weapons as recoil is a TERRIBLE time for Riq.
- Unable to stay in constant flight for longer than one and a half hours.
- No superhuman strength or constitution to protect him from large falls or going over certain heights. A relatively normal guy.
FAMILY:
Parents both living (both powerless) though separated when Russel was a teen, healthy relationship with both
One younger sister (powerless) who is 10 years younger than him, pursuing a master's degree, healthy relationship
AFFILIATE(S):Jaaz (not legal name), co-creator of [insert clever title: website that is like TMZ but for supers and suspected supers and the drama that is not ready for headline news], with the ability to operate both eyes separately, she calls it "Dual Monitors for Her Brain", though not from the Change but rather cybernetics
BACKGROUND: With an unremarkable childhood for a boy affected by the Change; Riq always chased after others, not living in anyone's shadow though not seeking the limelight. He always found that if he seemed so bland, who else could have a secret story behind their plain facade?- It is likely that no one (in terms of the government) knows about Riq's powers as he keeps them methodically hidden, and only uses his powers to sneak around to take photos/video for work, or to eavesdrop better. Puts his nose in places it shouldn't be and Riq's powers bring out the worst of this.
- Has a website run with a colleague that posts scandalizing content that is too juicy to be sold to entertainment news outlets. Heartbeat City is just the place to be for Russel.
DISLIKES: buzzkills/party poopers, fictional books, digital storage
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PlusUltra
Five Thousand Club
β DOSSIER.
Name: Rachel Livsey, Formerly Annette Rose
Nickname: Lady of Escalation, Bug, Rae
Code Name: Imago
Age/Date of birth:: 18 (October 23, 2074)
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Homosexual
Place of birth: Badger Bay/US
Race/Ethnicity: Russian/Jewish Decent
β VISAGE.
Hair: Bruenette
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 6' 3", 190cm
Distinguishing features:
Wardrobe: Rachel tends to be averse to form-fitting outfits when not operating as a Changed individual, with much of her body concealed under loose and baggy clothing in dark or neutral colours. She forgoes eye-catching colours or designs in an effort to not stand out or draw attention to herself.
Face claim:
β PERSONA.
Occupation: Fiction Writer, The Brockton Spiral
Personality:
Her personality is coloured by extreme trauma from which she has never allowed herself time to recover and heal. Clinically depressed, and she seems incapable of being content for more than a few hours at a time. As a result, she is strongly defined by the coping mechanisms she developed. She compartmentalizes the world around her into set categories and engages in a prolonged mental justification based on these categories for how she deals with them. For example, she tends to judge her allies by their motives, and enemies by their actions. This compartmentalization results in her current goal always being the most important thing to her, shunting everything else aside rather than thinking about it, desiring clear divisions between each. The primary issue with this being she is not consciously aware she is doing so until later reflections. She is almost incapable of not helping people, given the opportunity. It's so bad that it keeps her from functioning as an actual hero, as she always tries to find the course of action that will save the most people, even if that requires extreme ruthlessness on her part. The people who consistently set her off are those with the power to help others in need but who choose not to. While she doesn't claim that what she does is inherently good, nor does she really act on her long list of grudges, she does tend to judge the motives of actions against herself and her friends much more harshly than her own. Her focus on momentum can also be a issue, she just keeps going. Even when she breaks, she doesn't really stop or allow time to heal, she just prunes off what she can so she can stick to her chosen course.
She is constantly emphasizing her failings and deprecating her successes. One running example is her insistence that she is not good at dealing with people in spite of all evidence to the contrary. This is tied with her negative self-image, seeing herself as lacking any real femininity and the reason she keeps her hair long and unbound even while in costume because she considers it one of the few markers of femininity she has. A girl in desperate need of some positive socialization, and to be kept in check by a fair and honest authority figure. Unfortunately for her, the closest thing like that available to her before arriving in the city was a team of supervisionless supervillains. Her mindset is pragmatic and detail-oriented, but her moral sense is borderline dogmatic. She honestly wants to change, but has extreme difficulty changing her attitude and methods particularly when pushed and a situation escalates, tending to fall back on old habits. When given time to breath in her few moments of calm, it becomes clear however that beneath everything she's an empathetic, gregarious, dorky perfectionist with poor emotional awareness that she struggles to control.
β ABILITIES.
-Insect Manipulation
Possesses a unique mind that transmits and receives information via yet unknown channels that grant her total control over most arthropods. So although she usually controls a variety of insects, she can also control a number sea creatures such as Crabs, Lobsters, and Krill, some Mollusca like slugs and snails, and can even control certain in-body parasites such as heartworms. This transmission has an effective range of nearly twenty city blocks.She can make her minions do things that they would not normally do, and push them to the limit where they end up harming themselves with how much effort they put in, destroy themselves to accomplish tasks,[produce so much web silk that they physically couldn't produce any more or stinging while injecting little to no venom. She doesn't require "organized" insects. Once they leave her range and she stops controlling them, her bugs revert to their normal behaviour patterns. However, if she has given a command to them while still in her range, she must intentionally dismiss the instruction she gave them or give them a new one, or else they will continue to fulfil their last command. Her power designates what classifies as a "bug", and thus what she can control, during her powers manifestation based upon her understanding of the term and the human knowledge.
She has an almost vast ability to focus on multiple insects at once or to focus on other things while also using her insects, essentially giving them unnatural levels of processing and mental multitasking. She can give general instructions, in which case she is only vaguely aware of their movements, or guide individual insects through complex tasks, in which case she is more precisely aware of their movements and environment. This is done via offloading the processing required onto the power itself, allowing her to manage multiple tasks at once when using her bugs, but only engage in a single in-person task at a time that does not employ her power. She may sometimes use her bugs to "channel" her emotions, mental processes, social cues and body language, lending her an "aura of indomitable calm". However perceptive individuals may still be able to pick up on such things by instead turning their focus onto her bugs behaviour. Based on the combined sensory input of large numbers of insects, She can gain a very clear mental picture of whatever they're interacting with. She can also sense the biology and location of every bug she can control, including an innate understanding of their biology i
Her power can also perform actions automatically that Taylor did not intend to do. For example, if Taylor was so focused on listening to a conversation that her bugs may react to her irritation and reveal that she is eavesdropping. Her power may sometimes perform actions by habit when she is incapacitated, continuing to follow previous commands to unintended conclusions or when she is in an altered mental state, without her conscious instruction. In environments where bugs are scarce, or when dealing with materials that they don't interact with well, her image of the area can become less reliable. It is also important to note that she can not create insects on the fly, and thus is usually limited to either those carried on her person or those in the local area.
-Insect Embodiment
She holds the ability to transfer her consciousness fully into any insect within her range or the inverse, drawing insects into her body. By doing so she is capable of taking on traits or reshaping them as needed. This is naturally limited by the available biomass at hand, though she can employ this to combine insects in order to increase there natural size or even take on new forms.
β HISTORY.
Originating from a lower-class family within the city of Badger Bay, a coastal city that has long since been locked in a stalemate between warring gang factions. Loosing her mother at a young age in a tragic accident, the event would drive a rift between Rachel and her father as he struggled to deal with the loss and became distant, as she took a similar path leading to a unsteady home life. This would only be compounded by the loss of her best friend, the anchor eventually becoming the ring leader in a vicious bullying campaign in her under funded public school.
When her change came, she had hoped it would lead to a path to becoming a hero, but a series of well-intentioned actions, and sacrifices from necessity would slowly chip more and more of her away until she would become known to the public as the Villain Humbug. A warlord of sorts, she had attempted to use the position to push the gangs out, with ever-escalating actions until the day she succeeded, and realised she had lost track of her initial goal of making her home a better place. Instead Humbug had become seen as worse than the problem she sought to remove, she got what she had wanted but could not honestly say it had been worth it.
Making a final sacrifice, she would cut ties with everything she knew and had built, instead starting over in Heartbeat City
β EXTRA.
Name: Rachel Livsey, Formerly Annette Rose
Nickname: Lady of Escalation, Bug, Rae
Code Name: Imago
Age/Date of birth:: 18 (October 23, 2074)
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Homosexual
Place of birth: Badger Bay/US
Race/Ethnicity: Russian/Jewish Decent
β VISAGE.
Hair: Bruenette
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 6' 3", 190cm
Distinguishing features:
Wardrobe: Rachel tends to be averse to form-fitting outfits when not operating as a Changed individual, with much of her body concealed under loose and baggy clothing in dark or neutral colours. She forgoes eye-catching colours or designs in an effort to not stand out or draw attention to herself.
Face claim:
β PERSONA.
Occupation: Fiction Writer, The Brockton Spiral
Personality:
Her personality is coloured by extreme trauma from which she has never allowed herself time to recover and heal. Clinically depressed, and she seems incapable of being content for more than a few hours at a time. As a result, she is strongly defined by the coping mechanisms she developed. She compartmentalizes the world around her into set categories and engages in a prolonged mental justification based on these categories for how she deals with them. For example, she tends to judge her allies by their motives, and enemies by their actions. This compartmentalization results in her current goal always being the most important thing to her, shunting everything else aside rather than thinking about it, desiring clear divisions between each. The primary issue with this being she is not consciously aware she is doing so until later reflections. She is almost incapable of not helping people, given the opportunity. It's so bad that it keeps her from functioning as an actual hero, as she always tries to find the course of action that will save the most people, even if that requires extreme ruthlessness on her part. The people who consistently set her off are those with the power to help others in need but who choose not to. While she doesn't claim that what she does is inherently good, nor does she really act on her long list of grudges, she does tend to judge the motives of actions against herself and her friends much more harshly than her own. Her focus on momentum can also be a issue, she just keeps going. Even when she breaks, she doesn't really stop or allow time to heal, she just prunes off what she can so she can stick to her chosen course.
She is constantly emphasizing her failings and deprecating her successes. One running example is her insistence that she is not good at dealing with people in spite of all evidence to the contrary. This is tied with her negative self-image, seeing herself as lacking any real femininity and the reason she keeps her hair long and unbound even while in costume because she considers it one of the few markers of femininity she has. A girl in desperate need of some positive socialization, and to be kept in check by a fair and honest authority figure. Unfortunately for her, the closest thing like that available to her before arriving in the city was a team of supervisionless supervillains. Her mindset is pragmatic and detail-oriented, but her moral sense is borderline dogmatic. She honestly wants to change, but has extreme difficulty changing her attitude and methods particularly when pushed and a situation escalates, tending to fall back on old habits. When given time to breath in her few moments of calm, it becomes clear however that beneath everything she's an empathetic, gregarious, dorky perfectionist with poor emotional awareness that she struggles to control.
β ABILITIES.
-Insect Manipulation
Possesses a unique mind that transmits and receives information via yet unknown channels that grant her total control over most arthropods. So although she usually controls a variety of insects, she can also control a number sea creatures such as Crabs, Lobsters, and Krill, some Mollusca like slugs and snails, and can even control certain in-body parasites such as heartworms. This transmission has an effective range of nearly twenty city blocks.She can make her minions do things that they would not normally do, and push them to the limit where they end up harming themselves with how much effort they put in, destroy themselves to accomplish tasks,[produce so much web silk that they physically couldn't produce any more or stinging while injecting little to no venom. She doesn't require "organized" insects. Once they leave her range and she stops controlling them, her bugs revert to their normal behaviour patterns. However, if she has given a command to them while still in her range, she must intentionally dismiss the instruction she gave them or give them a new one, or else they will continue to fulfil their last command. Her power designates what classifies as a "bug", and thus what she can control, during her powers manifestation based upon her understanding of the term and the human knowledge.
She has an almost vast ability to focus on multiple insects at once or to focus on other things while also using her insects, essentially giving them unnatural levels of processing and mental multitasking. She can give general instructions, in which case she is only vaguely aware of their movements, or guide individual insects through complex tasks, in which case she is more precisely aware of their movements and environment. This is done via offloading the processing required onto the power itself, allowing her to manage multiple tasks at once when using her bugs, but only engage in a single in-person task at a time that does not employ her power. She may sometimes use her bugs to "channel" her emotions, mental processes, social cues and body language, lending her an "aura of indomitable calm". However perceptive individuals may still be able to pick up on such things by instead turning their focus onto her bugs behaviour. Based on the combined sensory input of large numbers of insects, She can gain a very clear mental picture of whatever they're interacting with. She can also sense the biology and location of every bug she can control, including an innate understanding of their biology i
Her power can also perform actions automatically that Taylor did not intend to do. For example, if Taylor was so focused on listening to a conversation that her bugs may react to her irritation and reveal that she is eavesdropping. Her power may sometimes perform actions by habit when she is incapacitated, continuing to follow previous commands to unintended conclusions or when she is in an altered mental state, without her conscious instruction. In environments where bugs are scarce, or when dealing with materials that they don't interact with well, her image of the area can become less reliable. It is also important to note that she can not create insects on the fly, and thus is usually limited to either those carried on her person or those in the local area.
-Insect Embodiment
She holds the ability to transfer her consciousness fully into any insect within her range or the inverse, drawing insects into her body. By doing so she is capable of taking on traits or reshaping them as needed. This is naturally limited by the available biomass at hand, though she can employ this to combine insects in order to increase there natural size or even take on new forms.
β HISTORY.
Originating from a lower-class family within the city of Badger Bay, a coastal city that has long since been locked in a stalemate between warring gang factions. Loosing her mother at a young age in a tragic accident, the event would drive a rift between Rachel and her father as he struggled to deal with the loss and became distant, as she took a similar path leading to a unsteady home life. This would only be compounded by the loss of her best friend, the anchor eventually becoming the ring leader in a vicious bullying campaign in her under funded public school.
When her change came, she had hoped it would lead to a path to becoming a hero, but a series of well-intentioned actions, and sacrifices from necessity would slowly chip more and more of her away until she would become known to the public as the Villain Humbug. A warlord of sorts, she had attempted to use the position to push the gangs out, with ever-escalating actions until the day she succeeded, and realised she had lost track of her initial goal of making her home a better place. Instead Humbug had become seen as worse than the problem she sought to remove, she got what she had wanted but could not honestly say it had been worth it.
Making a final sacrifice, she would cut ties with everything she knew and had built, instead starting over in Heartbeat City
β EXTRA.
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Steve Jobs
Died of ligma
Valorous Order x Code by Serobliss
Benjamin Lynch Jr.
Lovecraft
Villain
Full Name / Benjamin Lynch Jr.
Gender / Male
Combat Experience / Excellent
Birthplace / Las Vegas, NV
Birthday / January 20th
Race / White
Height / 1.83m
Gender / Male
Combat Experience / Excellent
Birthplace / Las Vegas, NV
Birthday / January 20th
Race / White
Height / 1.83m
Last edited:
jones573
gen, you viper
Rosemary Abbot
the club owner
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
β DOSSIER.
Name: Rosemary Abbott
Nickname: Ms Rose
Age: Turning 65 real soon. Expect a party.
Gender: cis woman, uses she/her pronouns
Sexuality: bisexual
DOB: June 2nd, 2028
Place of birth: Heartbeat City
Race/ethnicity: black/african american
β VISAGE.
Hair: long and silvery white, down to her waist, usually pressed straight as a pin
Eyes: dark brown
Skin: a warm brown, wrinkled with age
Height: 5β2"
Distinguishing features: The fingers on her left hand are withered and scarred.
Wardrobe: While at the Atrium or out and about the city, Rose dresses in suits and business wear, usually in solid black or white. When she gets home to her apartment, she changes directly into sweatpants and an old tshirt.
Face claim: JoAni Johnson
β PERSONA.
Personality: Rosemary is a no-nonsense lady, and she doesnβt suffer fools. She does, however, suffer from bouts of compassion, and often develops a soft spot for certain staff or even patrons of the club. This does not mean she lets them get away with anything- besides maybe a kiss on the cheek- or break her rules, but she will help them out as she is able.
She likes to be busy, always finding something to do with her hands. She also usually finds something to do with her ears- She enjoys knowing whatβs going on with others, and gossip is a guilty habit of hers. She enjoys knowing though, and not necessarily sharing it.
Occupation: proprietor of the Atrium club, and frequent bartender there
Positive traits (4+): Loyal. Discreet. Hard working. Confident without being cocky.
Negative traits (4+): Slow to open up, even to those she trusts. Tends not to have a lot of faith in much, whether institutions or people. Can be quick to anger when she feels betrayed, and knows how to hold a grudge. Usually thinks sheβs right, even when presented with evidence otherwise.
Likes (4+): A stiff drink. Abstract and modern art. Thai food. A busy night at the club. Sudoku puzzles. Her collection of houseplants.
Dislikes (4+): People mouthing off to her. People complaining to her about her staff or service. Sore feet after a long night of being on her feet. Heavy rain. Smoking/smokers. Driving.
Fears: Death and her own mortality. That there will be an incident at the Atrium too large to handle quietly, and the police will shut her down. Public speaking.
Ailments: n/a
β ABILITIES.
Power: Pain induction. If Rose places her hands on someone and concentrates, she can cause a crippling pain in their body- Imagine the worst thing you could feel, times two, in every part of your existence. She developed this power about 10 years ago during menopause, and very few know about it.
Strengths: The pain that Rose can cause is immediate and terrible, and has never failed to stop her victim in their tracks. Additionally, she is able to turn it 'off and on', so that she doesn't cause pain anytime she touches someone- Though she couldn't do this initially.
Weaknesses: Rose must be touching her victim, and cannot 'project' her power. As she is not a very physical person or a good fighter, she is not always able to get close enough to someone to touch them. Using this power for more than about a minute at a time also has adverse effects on her own well-being- She gets dizzy and lightheaded, and will eventually vomit blood if used for too long.
β HISTORY.
Relationships: None of your business
Background: Rose doesnβt talk a lot about her past, or her life before the Change. She certainly had one- Unlike a lot of the young folks she sees in her line of work, she remembers what it was like in the beforehand. She remembers that it wasn't all roses and sunshine, the way some people like to pretend it was.
She grew up in Heartbeat City, and has rarely left. Sometimes she regrets that, but whatβs done is done. The world is a different place now, and not entirely safe for an older woman to travel alone in.
She was married, with a kid, when the Change happened. It took those away from her. She was bitter, for a while, and a lot of that bitterness was directed at these new people. But she grew past that, eventually.
How she got the money to open the Atrium is not known. Rose was never poor- She worked as a hotel manager, and her husband in private security consultation, and they did all right for themselves. But they werenβt terribly wealthy either.
But fifteen years ago, she bought the old train depot and began renovations. It took about two years to complete, but since then itβs been open to the public and mostly thriving. She likes to work the floor with her staff, bartending and bussing, but sheβll admit that she canβt do it as often as she wants- A lot of times sheβs holed up in her office, crunching numbers and placing orders for copious amounts of alcohol.
Rose serves a variety of clientele, and she doesnβt much care who they are, so long as they donβt bring any violence through the doors with them. Thereβs a private corner always reserved for what she knows to be one of the cityβs many gangs, and sheβs seen a few heroes come up to her bar too, hoping to avoid the spotlight among the flashing lights and mass of bodies.
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Gears
Harbinger of War, Chaos, and Poptarts
name: Eddie Gears
nickname: Void
age: 21
gender: Male
sexuality: Heterosexual
date of birth: Unknown to him
place of birth: Unknown to him
race/ethnicity: Caucasian with βIrregularities in DNAβ not allowing a heritage test.
β VISAGE.
hair: Brown
eyes: Green
skin: Paled
height:
distinguishing features: Scar on left side of face, glowing eyes
wardrobe: Enclosed environment jacket with gas mask
β PERSONA.
personality: Serious, Cold and haunted by past.
occupation: Private Investigator/Mechanic
positive traits (4+): Brave, has Initiative, understanding, Empathetic
negative traits (4+): Cold, Unfriendly, erratic, easily distracted
likes (4+): Quiet , Inventing, Cats, Explosives.
dislikes (4+): People, The Government, Music, Heroes
fears: Death, Memories
ailments: Unkown sickness making him randomly weak.
β ABILITIES.
power: Eddie is able to manipulate portals to a parallel dimension to travel to locations he has been to in the past, as long as he knows where it is located on a map.
weaknesses: Water, Gold
β HISTORY.
relationships: Brother is Dead, Friends are Dead, Ex is dead
background: Eddie was a test subject for the disgraced Shu Corporation, his abilities tests on to create a perfect weapon. After he and the subjects escaped, they swore to stop the corporation from hurting anyone, fighting for justice under the name: Nova Team. Nova would swoop in and fight crime, Eddie teleporting the team away before the media could get much of them, their identities concealed by their blue uniforms. Eddie was primarily the transportation, forced to sit out many of the more dangerous missions by his brother, the leader. He and the younger escaped test subjects simply relaxed in the safety of the bunker they had taken over, with Eddie training so he could one day prove himself.
One day, there was division among the ranks. Eddieβs brother clashed with a few members who sought fame and fortune for their exploits, despite their rule to put innocents before them and their image. Half of the team left, forcing Eddie into the more dangerous missions- before the corporation found the team. A group of mercenaries murdered every member, leaving Eddie for dead next to his brother and girlfriends ashes, golden bullets disabling his abilities.
nickname: Void
age: 21
gender: Male
sexuality: Heterosexual
date of birth: Unknown to him
place of birth: Unknown to him
race/ethnicity: Caucasian with βIrregularities in DNAβ not allowing a heritage test.
β VISAGE.
hair: Brown
eyes: Green
skin: Paled
height:
distinguishing features: Scar on left side of face, glowing eyes
wardrobe: Enclosed environment jacket with gas mask
β PERSONA.
personality: Serious, Cold and haunted by past.
occupation: Private Investigator/Mechanic
positive traits (4+): Brave, has Initiative, understanding, Empathetic
negative traits (4+): Cold, Unfriendly, erratic, easily distracted
likes (4+): Quiet , Inventing, Cats, Explosives.
dislikes (4+): People, The Government, Music, Heroes
fears: Death, Memories
ailments: Unkown sickness making him randomly weak.
β ABILITIES.
power: Eddie is able to manipulate portals to a parallel dimension to travel to locations he has been to in the past, as long as he knows where it is located on a map.
weaknesses: Water, Gold
β HISTORY.
relationships: Brother is Dead, Friends are Dead, Ex is dead
background: Eddie was a test subject for the disgraced Shu Corporation, his abilities tests on to create a perfect weapon. After he and the subjects escaped, they swore to stop the corporation from hurting anyone, fighting for justice under the name: Nova Team. Nova would swoop in and fight crime, Eddie teleporting the team away before the media could get much of them, their identities concealed by their blue uniforms. Eddie was primarily the transportation, forced to sit out many of the more dangerous missions by his brother, the leader. He and the younger escaped test subjects simply relaxed in the safety of the bunker they had taken over, with Eddie training so he could one day prove himself.
One day, there was division among the ranks. Eddieβs brother clashed with a few members who sought fame and fortune for their exploits, despite their rule to put innocents before them and their image. Half of the team left, forcing Eddie into the more dangerous missions- before the corporation found the team. A group of mercenaries murdered every member, leaving Eddie for dead next to his brother and girlfriends ashes, golden bullets disabling his abilities.
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Zenterfold
β _ β
Leo Barker
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
Last edited:
jones573
gen, you viper
Daniel Araya Flores
the proprietor
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
β DOSSIER.
Name: Daniel Araya Flores
Nicknames: Danny
Age: 48
Gender: male
Sexuality: bisexual
date of birth: October 1
place of birth: Heartbeat City
race/ethnicity: Chilean heritage, of mixed/ambiguous Latinx and European ancestry
β VISAGE.
Hair: Dark brown, usually not past his ears. Usually has a mustache and some stubble, though he occasionally changes up the facial hair.
Eyes: Brown
Skin: lighter skinned, with some wrinkles- crows feets and laugh lines
Height/weight: 5β11β, 180 lbs. I imagine heβs a bit stockier than Pedro Pascal.
Distinguishing features: Nothing particular
Wardrobe: He has some nicer outfits, but he is generally not a very stylish man. He spends his time as a caretaker of an old building, and has a seven year old, so. T-shirts, stained pants. Heβll often throw on a button down to class things up a bit, but the effect may be ruined by a missing button or peanut butter smear.
Face claim: Pedro Pascal.
β PERSONA.
Personality: Daniel is a very kind and caring man, to the point that he has sometimes put others needs above his own. Not that heβs a complete pushover- The rules and boundaries he does have, he abides by and enforces firmly. He is devoted to his son, but could probably stand to spend more time with people his own age. He enjoys puzzles and mechanical challenges and finds great satisfaction in knowing how something works. He craves safety and stability for himself and his son, and knows that staying in Heartbeat City may not be the best way to facilitate that. Daniel is usually just a few crises away from closing up the Daffodil and moving, but so far he has always pressed on.
Occupation: Owner and caretaker of βThe Daffodilβ, an old hotel downtown that has been converted into housing units that mostly caters to powered people. Since his wifeβs death, Daniel has enforced a strict neutrality around the Daffodil. You work for a gang? You a superhero? You can be a resident, sure. But you canβt bring that stuff in with you. If the authorities come around looking for you, heβll let them in- If they can produce a warrant. Itβs a fragile ecosystem, but so far itβs held.
Positive traits: compassionate - intuitive - handy/good at fixing things - inspires trust and loyalty - reliable - dedicated
Negative traits: has a hard time saying no - dwells on the past - low confidence in himself and his choices - unable to advocate for himself the way he does for others - constantly emotionally exhausted
Likes: his son, andy - spending time with andy - things being stable and predictable - cooking, mechanical repairs, anything where he uses his hands - being liked by others - having a drink or two before he goes to bed
Dislikes: the gangs/powers of the city, especially when they try to operate in and around the Daffodil - golf - his in-laws - people trying to tell him how to raise andy or commenting on how hard it must be to be a single dad - dogs
Fears: his son developing powers he canβt control - the truce around the Daffodil being violated - that he might be a bit of an alcoholic
Ailments: Depression and suicidal thinking after his wifeβs death, though that has improved quite a bit. Alcoholic tendencies.
β ABILITIES.
None.
β HISTORY.
Wife: Lucy Ashton, deceased. Shot in a fight between gangs, died when her powers overtaxed her trying to heal the wound.
Son: Andy, 7 (and a half!) years old.
In-Laws: Mr and Mrs Ashton. Their relationship with Daniel and Andy has been... rocky since Lucyβs death.
Dating: Heβs slept around a bit since Lucy died, but it never lasts long. He feels guilty that heβs betraying Lucy and guilty to his current partner because he doesnβt think he can be a good partner. Plus, he has a kid- Thereβs only so much effort heβs willing to put into finding a babysitter.
Background:
Daniel is an average, ordinary man and has been for all of his life. Good with his hands, he graduated high school and went right into work, jumping between mechanic shops, handyman services and construction jobs. About 15 years ago, heβd worked his way up to assistant manager for a reputable contractor in the city. He was paying his bills on time, looking for an apartment in a nicer area of town, and ignoring his motherβs prodding that maybe he ought to find a nice girl to settle down with. Heβd always been a bit introverted, and his occasional hook-ups suited him just fine. What did he need a romantic partner for? Then he would be sending flowers to his girlfriend instead of his mother, Daniel teased her.
And then, of course, he met Lucille Ashton. As in βAshton Banksβ, the company her family had founded. As in βAshton Parkβ, the green space dedicated to her great-great-great grandfather. As in the βThe Ashton Hotelβ, the decrepit old building that took up a quarter of a block in downtown Heartbeat.
She wanted to hire the company Daniel worked for to help remodel the old hotel. She wanted to turn it into housing units, for the cityβs growing population of displaced people with powers. She wanted each unit to have its own bathroom and kitchenette. She wanted to start the construction in the worst areas of the hotel and work their way towards the better parts. Lucille Ashton was very straightforward about she wanted.
After a month of working together, she wanted Danielβs number. And for him to pick her up at 7 oβclock sharp on Friday.
He was there at 6:59, with his best shirt and an armful of daffodils.
Her parents were not entirely approving of their relationship. They would have much preferred she take an interest in the son of one of their society friends. But Lucy had never been in the habit of bowing to their preferences, and she and Daniel were clearly very happy together, so they put their misgivings aside after the first few years. They had daffodils at their wedding, and instead of going on a honeymoon, they painted rooms at the hotel together.
The first years of their marriage were devoted to getting The Ashton running- One hundred and twenty units were now operational and ready for residents. (One hundred and nineteen, since Lucy and Daniel took the one right off the lobby for themselves.) There was a lot of red tape to wade through with the city, about who could stay there and for how long. Shelters have different rules and regulations than temporary housing, which have different rules and regulations than apartments, which have- Well. Lucy had the law degree and connections to social work programs, so Daniel let her sort that all out. He helped the residents move things in and changed lightbulbs and helped them wrap up the windows with winter-proofing when the cold came.
It was hardly luxury condos- Pretty much anything that was relatively serviceable was left as is, as the money for that first remodel had been prioritized elsewhere. (Like on the radiators and plumbing and a working fire system.) But Lucy had plans for further development, and things like job training that corresponded to powers, and childcare and starter bank accounts. Lucy always had plans, which was good. A lot of people needed the services she wanted to offer. More and more people were manifesting powers, and finding their lives turned upside down.
The Change, obviously, had been the biggest influx of people suddenly finding themselves with extraordinary abilities. But a sudden appearance of superhuman powers could occur anytime- Doctors speculated that a body in stress was more likely to do so. Puberty. Menopause. Pregnancy.
Lucyβs pregnancy went fine, up until the last month or so. She glowed. She projected beams of light out of her eyes and out of her hands. Sometimes it was solid and sharp, and on occasion it cut her and others around her. It exhausted her, draining her own energy dangerously.
When Andy was born, it got a bit better. Easier to control.
But not by much.
When the gangs brought their fight into the lobby of the Ashton, Daniel begged her not to interfere. Lucy didnβt listen.
She got involved and broke up the fight, and it might have been fine. But sheβd used too much of the power she didnβt understand, and she couldnβt turn it off when she no longer needed it. It consumed her, trying to heal the injuries sheβd gotten in the fray when a doctor would have been more helpful. By the time the ambulance arrived, Lucy was dead. And the baby was crying.
That was seven years ago. Daniel keeps a close eye on his son, scared that heβll develop powers he canβt control. He keeps a close eye on the hotel, too. Itβs βThe Daffodilβ now, for Lucyβs favorite flower- After the media frenzy and the possible shut-down and all the bad press on what having a bunch of mutant freaks around would do to the neighborhood, his in-laws didnβt want their name associated with the place. He tried βLucyβs Placeβ but they didnβt like that either, and he tries to keep on friendly terms. Not because he wants to, mind you. They certainly donβt approve of him keeping the hotel open, or raising Andy there. Or pretty much anything he does. But while Lucyβs inheritance covers the maintenance and taxes on the place, he knows the furnace will go sometime, or the roof over the abandoned rooms will finally give in, or who knows what else.
Heβs got some permanent residents, some who stay for a couple months, some who just need a place to crash. Officially he doesnβt collect rent or advertise himself as a shelter, so he gets away with running things the way he likes. Heβs got a few employees, who keep the peace as muscle or sit at the desk, and he repairs the dryers himself. The folks who can afford to pay for living there do so, and the ones who canβt, find other ways to chip in. The vegetable garden on the roof, put in by a plant manipulator, always thrives. An electrokinetic fellow once saved him two months of power bills by charging up the buildingβs generator each morning.
Winter can get pretty hectic- The fear of powered people becomes secondary to the fear of cold, and they get more mundane folks seeking shelter from the weather. He tries to prioritize teens and those with children, and folks who might not be able to get housing elsewhere. Not all of his residents are the friendly sort, but he thinks they respect him. He hopes they do.
He tries to get involved with their life, if it seems appropriate. After Lucy diedβ¦ Well, there was more than a few times when Daniel figured Andy would get on just fine without him. He had rich grandparents who would be happy to take him in, right? Danielβs better now, he thinks. He hasnβt thought about killing himself in a good while. But still, it helps to know other people rely on him.
Thereβs a pair of older teenagers up in 228 that have dinner with him and Andy on Wednesday nights, and he makes them tell him how their online class are going and they roll their eyes when he uses slang incorrectly. Itβs nice. Except the girl, Sadie, didnβt show up for her shift at the desk on Tuesday. She didnβt text either, but she might have run out of minutes. And even if she didnβt- Well, thatβs teenagers for you.
But when he checked on them on Wednesday, no one answered. Marge down the hall, an old woman was invincible to bullets and knives and teeth but not diabetes and arthritis, peered out from behind her locked door and said she hadnβt seen them in days. Which Daniel was going to have to take as truth- Marge was agoraphobic and spent hours going between her windows and her peephole to watch the other residents as her only form of amusement. And Jason from downstairs hadnβt come to take her trash all month and it was starting to smell, Marge complained.
After Daniel had taken out her trash- which had indeed smelled foul, though the overall scent of the place was strong regardless- heβd gone to check on Jason. When Jason didnβt answer, Daniel got his set of master keys and checked. No one was there, though most of Jasonβs stuff was. Same for the twinsβ unit.
People leave, often without notice. But they donβt usually leave so much stuff.
Daniel tries to respect his residentsβ privacy. He tries not to worry.
But maybe heβs gonna keep a closer eye on things.
And then, of course, he met Lucille Ashton. As in βAshton Banksβ, the company her family had founded. As in βAshton Parkβ, the green space dedicated to her great-great-great grandfather. As in the βThe Ashton Hotelβ, the decrepit old building that took up a quarter of a block in downtown Heartbeat.
She wanted to hire the company Daniel worked for to help remodel the old hotel. She wanted to turn it into housing units, for the cityβs growing population of displaced people with powers. She wanted each unit to have its own bathroom and kitchenette. She wanted to start the construction in the worst areas of the hotel and work their way towards the better parts. Lucille Ashton was very straightforward about she wanted.
After a month of working together, she wanted Danielβs number. And for him to pick her up at 7 oβclock sharp on Friday.
He was there at 6:59, with his best shirt and an armful of daffodils.
Her parents were not entirely approving of their relationship. They would have much preferred she take an interest in the son of one of their society friends. But Lucy had never been in the habit of bowing to their preferences, and she and Daniel were clearly very happy together, so they put their misgivings aside after the first few years. They had daffodils at their wedding, and instead of going on a honeymoon, they painted rooms at the hotel together.
The first years of their marriage were devoted to getting The Ashton running- One hundred and twenty units were now operational and ready for residents. (One hundred and nineteen, since Lucy and Daniel took the one right off the lobby for themselves.) There was a lot of red tape to wade through with the city, about who could stay there and for how long. Shelters have different rules and regulations than temporary housing, which have different rules and regulations than apartments, which have- Well. Lucy had the law degree and connections to social work programs, so Daniel let her sort that all out. He helped the residents move things in and changed lightbulbs and helped them wrap up the windows with winter-proofing when the cold came.
It was hardly luxury condos- Pretty much anything that was relatively serviceable was left as is, as the money for that first remodel had been prioritized elsewhere. (Like on the radiators and plumbing and a working fire system.) But Lucy had plans for further development, and things like job training that corresponded to powers, and childcare and starter bank accounts. Lucy always had plans, which was good. A lot of people needed the services she wanted to offer. More and more people were manifesting powers, and finding their lives turned upside down.
The Change, obviously, had been the biggest influx of people suddenly finding themselves with extraordinary abilities. But a sudden appearance of superhuman powers could occur anytime- Doctors speculated that a body in stress was more likely to do so. Puberty. Menopause. Pregnancy.
Lucyβs pregnancy went fine, up until the last month or so. She glowed. She projected beams of light out of her eyes and out of her hands. Sometimes it was solid and sharp, and on occasion it cut her and others around her. It exhausted her, draining her own energy dangerously.
When Andy was born, it got a bit better. Easier to control.
But not by much.
When the gangs brought their fight into the lobby of the Ashton, Daniel begged her not to interfere. Lucy didnβt listen.
She got involved and broke up the fight, and it might have been fine. But sheβd used too much of the power she didnβt understand, and she couldnβt turn it off when she no longer needed it. It consumed her, trying to heal the injuries sheβd gotten in the fray when a doctor would have been more helpful. By the time the ambulance arrived, Lucy was dead. And the baby was crying.
That was seven years ago. Daniel keeps a close eye on his son, scared that heβll develop powers he canβt control. He keeps a close eye on the hotel, too. Itβs βThe Daffodilβ now, for Lucyβs favorite flower- After the media frenzy and the possible shut-down and all the bad press on what having a bunch of mutant freaks around would do to the neighborhood, his in-laws didnβt want their name associated with the place. He tried βLucyβs Placeβ but they didnβt like that either, and he tries to keep on friendly terms. Not because he wants to, mind you. They certainly donβt approve of him keeping the hotel open, or raising Andy there. Or pretty much anything he does. But while Lucyβs inheritance covers the maintenance and taxes on the place, he knows the furnace will go sometime, or the roof over the abandoned rooms will finally give in, or who knows what else.
Heβs got some permanent residents, some who stay for a couple months, some who just need a place to crash. Officially he doesnβt collect rent or advertise himself as a shelter, so he gets away with running things the way he likes. Heβs got a few employees, who keep the peace as muscle or sit at the desk, and he repairs the dryers himself. The folks who can afford to pay for living there do so, and the ones who canβt, find other ways to chip in. The vegetable garden on the roof, put in by a plant manipulator, always thrives. An electrokinetic fellow once saved him two months of power bills by charging up the buildingβs generator each morning.
Winter can get pretty hectic- The fear of powered people becomes secondary to the fear of cold, and they get more mundane folks seeking shelter from the weather. He tries to prioritize teens and those with children, and folks who might not be able to get housing elsewhere. Not all of his residents are the friendly sort, but he thinks they respect him. He hopes they do.
He tries to get involved with their life, if it seems appropriate. After Lucy diedβ¦ Well, there was more than a few times when Daniel figured Andy would get on just fine without him. He had rich grandparents who would be happy to take him in, right? Danielβs better now, he thinks. He hasnβt thought about killing himself in a good while. But still, it helps to know other people rely on him.
Thereβs a pair of older teenagers up in 228 that have dinner with him and Andy on Wednesday nights, and he makes them tell him how their online class are going and they roll their eyes when he uses slang incorrectly. Itβs nice. Except the girl, Sadie, didnβt show up for her shift at the desk on Tuesday. She didnβt text either, but she might have run out of minutes. And even if she didnβt- Well, thatβs teenagers for you.
But when he checked on them on Wednesday, no one answered. Marge down the hall, an old woman was invincible to bullets and knives and teeth but not diabetes and arthritis, peered out from behind her locked door and said she hadnβt seen them in days. Which Daniel was going to have to take as truth- Marge was agoraphobic and spent hours going between her windows and her peephole to watch the other residents as her only form of amusement. And Jason from downstairs hadnβt come to take her trash all month and it was starting to smell, Marge complained.
After Daniel had taken out her trash- which had indeed smelled foul, though the overall scent of the place was strong regardless- heβd gone to check on Jason. When Jason didnβt answer, Daniel got his set of master keys and checked. No one was there, though most of Jasonβs stuff was. Same for the twinsβ unit.
People leave, often without notice. But they donβt usually leave so much stuff.
Daniel tries to respect his residentsβ privacy. He tries not to worry.
But maybe heβs gonna keep a closer eye on things.
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Josh
God's favorite customer
celadon.
in the chapel of
the republic
# hell hounds
# dwayne johnson
β‘coded by uxieβ‘
