Project Atlas - Character Sign-Up

[Erica]

This roleplay is currently closed. Accepted characters are listed below.

​

Accepted Characters

The current team roster (in no particular order):


@Dear Inspector


@Mr. Grin


Willoughby T.(Thea) Fu, "Soapbox" - @Trignome


Vivienne Cote, "Silhouette" - @Erica

Spoiler

Project Atlas Character Sheet

Character Sheet Template with Details on How to Fill Out the Fields

Note: If you decide not to use this format, that's okay with me. (I know bbcode makes some users curl up into the fetal position.) Regardless of what layout you use, please have all the required information in your application.

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  Provide the vital information on your character here. Feel free to include what you want as vital stats; some suggested things to include are below.
  
  
  
  Real Name: The name your character was given at birth and/or is on official records about their existence.
  
  
  Codename: If applicable.
  
  
  Aliases: Are there any names your character has gone by in the past? Nicknames that your character is commonly known as other than their code name?
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: Due to the nature of the Project, I ask all characters be at least 18. I would love to see a variety of ages.
  
  
  Height & Weight:
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color:
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos:
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Describe what your character's body is like, what kinds of clothes they like to wear, accessories they may wear (glasses), etc. If you want to use a picture, please use real life (not anime, etc.) photos and include an additional written description.
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Assuming your character has a job (most adults do), what is it?
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: Give some detail on your character’s attitude and typical behaviors. What’s his/her position on “the metahuman question”? On the Guardians? How do they react under pressure? What kind of quirks do they have? Please include strengths and flaws; everyone has both.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: What does your character aspire to do or be? What drives them?
  
  
  

  Restricted Personality Types Because this group needs to function as a team to drive the story, loners and anti-social characters will not be a good fit. Can your character have some angst? Absolutely! But if your character won’t interact with others or will always be going off on his/her own, it won’t work with this story. The same goes for sociopaths and psychopaths. You don't need to be a white knight by any means, but the Project will weed out truly unstable people before putting them in the field.

  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Provide your character's background as relevant to this story. It does not need to be long, but I do want to see that you've thought about how your character will fit into the setting.
  
  
  Keep the setting in mind as you flesh out your background. Please also touch on how your character was recruited to Project Atlas. Did they volunteer? Were they coerced into joining?* Keep in mind the Project is looking for people who will play with the team. Mostly they will try a win-win argument before strong-arming people to join. (If you are unsure about how your character was/should be recruited, talk to me and we’ll figure it out.)
  
  
  Also, not everyone character should be a recent recruit to the Project. In fact, I would prefer that the characters have been around or have acted in some capacity with their powers for at least a few months. This will allow us to get into the meaty story plot points sooner. There will be team building to start - but likely through missions. If you want to have been part of the Project for a longer time, that is also allowed; just PM me to discuss so you get the appropriate background.
  
  
  *See the note in "Stats & Personality" about loner and anti-team characters.
  
  ​
  
  
  
  
• Powers & Skills
  
  Now the fun part. What can your character do that makes them a metahuman? Or is (s)he not metahuman at all, but highly skilled and useful to the Project in another way?
  
  
  Please pick one main power. It may include or have the potential to become a power set (similar abilities related to the base power). You may optionally have one secondary power, but it should be minor and, if possible, related. Examples: Electrical Control might be paired with a mind shield (using electricity to disrupt anyone attempting to access your mind); a Force Field power may include the ability to deflect mental attacks as well as physical; Enhanced Intelligence may pair with increased reflexes ; or Shadow Manipulation could be paired with a low-level form of invisibility/camouflage.
  
  
  I’m looking for balanced characters with low to mid-level powers (i.e., Black Canary would be allowed, Superman would not; an example may be someone nearly invulnerable physically, but with no super strength, no snazzy fighting powers, and maybe they're even a little slow on the uptake). Also be specific about what your character can and can’t do with their abilities. If they have enhanced strength, what are their limitations? If they can change form, describe the form and how often they can change, etc.
  
  
  

  Disallowed Powers The following powers are not allowed for player characters. They don’t fit well with the story, conflict with already devised main characters, or are simply not conducive to a group RP. I reserve the right to reject powers not on this list, but these are the ones that I currently know we cannot have: Powers that control other characters. Examples: Mind Control, Emotional Control, Possession. Telepathy, Mind Reading, and Precognition Chronokinesis (the ability to move time, backwards or forwards, or even stop it) All supernatural abilities associated with sorcery or magic. (These are not in line with the setting.) Absorbing/nullifying others' powers Speedsters Darkness/shadow control

  
  
  Weaknesses: Everybody has them. If you pick a particularly powerful super-ability for this setting, this is a great place to help balance it out. Weaknesses do not all need to be related to your powers.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable): Does your character carry or utilize a unique weapon? Don't include ordinary things like a uniform or standard issue weapons here. Those belong in appearance or under Other Noteworthy Skills. Keep in mind that Project Atlas will need to approve of any weapon for your character to keep it. (Talk to me if you’re unsure.)
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable): Does your character know kung-fu or maybe they have a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry? Can they make people weep when they play their violin? Or maybe they can knit a mean sweater in 15 minutes. If so, include it here.
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Please provide a sample of your writing in this character's voice. It can be an important moment from their past or something that simply reflects their personality. This will also give me an idea of your style of roleplaying.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  Include anything else you want to add or comment on as part of your character here. This is optional.
  
  
  

How Many Spots Are There? I will only be accepting 3-4 characters for this roleplay. The final number will depend upon the powers of the characters accepted, as the team needs a certain balance. I will not hold any spots; if you’re interested in applying, post an application. When Will the Game Start? Because character creation takes time, I will not accept anyone until April 13th. This gives those who want to take the time to write up a well thought-out character sheet a chance to apply. On 4/13, I will review the character sheets and decide on the players. We will start shortly after that, probably the week of April 20th as I may need to tweak the opening based on the final character roster. What Are You Looking For? Fleshed out characters that fit well in the world and story. I do also check users' posting history on the site (if applicable) to see how you interacted with other stories and if you post regularly. I'm looking for creative, character-development centered players who are willing to work as a group (either with or even against me as a ST) for the sake of the story. What's the Style & Pace for this Roleplay? This will be a detailed roleplay by the site's definition. Pacing-wise, my aim is 1-2 posts per player per week, but we'll adjust as needed with everyone's schedules. Other Questions? If you have other questions, drop me a PM.

Code for the Character Sheet Layout Above

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  Vital Statistics
  Real Name:
  Codename:
  Aliases:
  

  Age:
  Height & Weight:
  Hair & Eye Color:
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos:
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  Personality
  Personality:
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
• Character History
  
  
• 
  Powers & Skills
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
• Writing Sample
  
• Other
  

 

[Erica]

More Questions! See below for answers to some questions that have been asked that may be useful to everyone. Note: For more information on Project Atlas structure and some of the history your character might know, see the Organizations tab.

Where should I post my application? Should I post it here or send it via PM?

When you're ready to post your application, please post it in this thread. I won't review until 4/13, so if you need to make modifications, you can do so up until that date.

On the character sheet, you mention occupation of record aka the character's job. If our character has been working with Project Atlas, would that not be their job?

It could be, if they're part of the organizational structure with a rank. There aren't meta-human emergencies every day, so some people will have "day jobs" or even covers, then be called in when needed; they will be part of the Project but acting more like contractors.

Looking through the overview, no official year is ever provided, only references from the current year the roleplay is set in. Are we to assume that the roleplay begins in the year 2015?

Yes. It's obviously an alternate timeline, but if you need a year, please use 2015.

Assuming a character has some kind of history within Project Atlas, would it be possible to create previous missions or events that they would have been a part of?

Yes, but please run anything beyond basic reconnaissance and detainment of very low-level supers by me. For instance, if you want a mission involving a super who tried to destroy a city or a mission tracking down a super who was assassinating world leaders, I need to give it the green light. (And possibly adjust the world history if I say it's okay.)


Also please keep in mind that Project Atlas operates under the radar. They are not the Guardians; so all past missions should be as inconspicuous/lacking in public record as is possible.



Does the Project ever grant new aliases to contacts or members, as well as provide them with necessary resources (such as a fake birth certificate) to improve the believability of their stories?

Yes, depending on the need, especially for contractors/agents to be used in the field. (Which are what metahumans would generally be unless they were in the military as their job.)

Is it possible for members of the Project to lead double lives (e.g. being employed in a time consuming job, creating personal relationships, etc.) using fake aliases?

Yes. They can be like contractors, pulled in when there's a mission. The benefits provided by the Project would scale accordingly, of course: if they meta only works the occasional mission, the pay from Project Atlas and any additional support (fake identities, getting them out of hot water, etc.) would be less.

How exactly are members recruited? Does someone contact them privately, or do they have to seek a recruiter out themselves?

Since Project Atlas is not a publicly known organization, there are two primary ways for someone to join the organization:

1. Someone recruits them. The Project keeps an eye out for metas, and approach those who may be a good fit privately. Less often, a member of the agency might know the person and suggest they be approached. Either way, the initial invite will not say "we're a clandestine organization, wanna join?"
   
   It will be more subtle, about an opportunity to help - and the recruiter will feel them out. If we're talking about a borderline criminal that could be redeemed, it might be more of an ultimatum, but they won't recruit hard-core criminals that are deemed dangerous.
   
2. They volunteer. Candidates applying for the Guardians are reviewed and may be approached by The Project. Or, if the meta heard about The Project (it's clandestine, but some people have heard whispers), they might try to find a contact and offer their services.
   

Is there any sort of structural hierarchy within the organization? Which members, if any, have more power than the rest?

It's a military organization; thus a military structure. So traditional ranks will be in play. (If you need an order, use NATO's Army ranks, with a field agent added at the same level as Private.) I expect most characters will be a field agent, but if you've been in the Project for a long time, they may have climbed ranks to a Corporal (individual contributor) or possibly a Sergeant (if they're leading teams). If they are leading teams, all of the teams to date have been a mix of 1 or 2 metas with other non-meta support.



During the review process, will you ask for any revisions if a character is a good fit but needs a tweak?

Yes, I may. It will depend on the applications I receive, but if there is a character who is otherwise a good fit, but just needs a tweak (i.e., adjustment to their power set, a correction to their history based on the setting, etc.), I will work with the player to make those adjustments.

 

[Ire]

Spoiler

Work in Progress !

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Kennat Grouser
  
  
  Codename: Dagger
  
  
  Aliases: People who are too lazy to speak the full length of his first name, or just want to get his attention in a short amount of time, usually settle on calling him Kenn or Nat, though he prefers to be called Kennat.
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 31
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5' 9", 160 lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Black hair and brown eyes.
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: Kennat has dagger tattoos etched onto all of his fingers, save his thumbs.
  
  

  

  
  
  

  ​

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Kennat has a youthful face for his age, making him appear quite handsome. His black hair is almost always slicked back to match the lavish attire he commonly wears—a suit vest paired with a luxurious tie (of varying colors), a solid-colored dress shirt underneath, dress pants, a leather-bound watch on his left wrist, and a pair of solid black, wingtip dress shoes. Out of habit, he usually rolls up the sleeves of his dress shirt to be tucked at his elbows, revealing his forearms.
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Stockbroker
  
  
  Personality: Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kennat was raised to be witty and sarcastic. He is selfish and self-absorbed, arrogant, greedy, and tends to lack sympathy, though he does dabble in empathy from time to time. He is a man of common sense and street smarts, and was the maker of his own destiny, so to speak (other than him being born with extraordinary abilities, of course). As a result of this, while he may be an incredible asshole, he has respectable work ethic and boasts pride for both himself and those he does business with.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: He wants to be a billionaire. While stocks are fickle bitches and he rarely has a consistent rate of income, his annual average is a six-figure salary. He craves more though, and his avarice is not the easiest element of his personality to quench.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Under construction.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Aciukinesis—the manipulation of sharpness. To put it simply, Kennat can use his mind to sharpen or dull any object or material surface. He could make any physical object able to cut through nearly any material, or he could trap a doorknob to lacerate those who touch it. Kennat could, in theory, pick up a pebble and turn it into a bullet, though one would still need a machine to make it move, such as a gun. On the opposite side of things, he can dull knives, swords, and even bullets to become awkward bludgeoning weapons that can no longer slice or stab.
  
  
  Weaknesses: Kennat cannot use his abilities to sharpen areas of his own body, and while he can sharpen edged weapons to have a bludgeoning effect, this new damage can still hurt him by breaking his bones, causing internal bleeding, et cetera. For example, if bullets were fired at Kennat, he could dull them so they would not pierce his flesh, but the speed at which they are traveling could still cause injury and large amounts of pain. Kennat must be able to see the object he is morphing, and, above all else, he cannot alter the sharpness of living cells. But, please, make note of the 'living.' He can still affect dead cells, such as dried wood and paper.
  
  
  Special Weaponry: Under construction.
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills: Under construction.
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Under construction.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  Under construction.
  
  
  

 

[Little Lozy]

Spoiler

Work in Progress

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Hazel June Cash
  
  
  Nicknames: Haze, June, June-bug(only by her mother), Barbie, and Doe-eyes
  
  
  Codename:
  
  
  Aliases: Lucy Diamond, Barbara Roberts, June Carter, and Janie Smith.
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 27
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5'6" and 138lbs (normal form)
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Natural brunette, dyes blonde. Blue eyes.
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos:
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  "Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2"
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hazel's two most striking features may be her big diamond blue eyes, and long curly blonde hair. She has a young face and her height a build a fairly average, she has slight toned muscles. Her skin is naturally fair, but she tans in the warmer seasons. Hazel is quiet fashionable, and loves experimenting with her style, however she likes a laid back look.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Currently working as a recruiter for Project Atlas
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  Hazel hopes to rise to Guardian status one day. To be loved and adored like the other Guardians, to save people around the world, and to be honest, the idea of being famous and respected doesn't sound to bad either.
  
  
  But more than that, more than anything, Hazel wants a normal family. She wants the cooking cutter suburban home, with a perfect marriage, loyal and devoted husband, the soccer mom car, and two beautiful kids. She would give everything up for a shot at a perfect normal.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Substance mimicry. Hazel can transform her body into different matter, such as: clay, crystal, stone, and metals. Her transformed body, apart from her substance change, is anatomically identical to her normal form. She absorbs a material, like brick for example, by touch and her body takes on its physical characteristics i.e. rough, hard, heavy, solid. The change is only made to her epidermis (the three layers of her skin), her bones, muscles, and organs stay in their normal form. Essentially this ability acts as armour. However, it can also act as a weapon. Let's use the brick example; Hazel touches a brick wall with her hand, she has the ability (now that she has grown with an understand of her power) to only let it spread to her fist; her strength is normal, so the force behind the impact is not changed, however her first is made of brick, so now it will feel like you got punched in the face with a brick.
  
  
  With practice Hazel is learning to master her ability. Before she did not have control of when she would change, and if it would be her whole body, now she does. Hazel can touch any substance and material at anytime without any change, it takes her mind till will herself to change. She can also allow is to spread as she feels but it has to start at the point of contact. Example 1, Hazel's left hand touches a brick wall, the change starts in her fingers tips and grows up her arm, shoulder, chest, head, torso, legs, feet, and toes. Example 2, Hazel is barefoot on as fault road; the change starts at the soles of her feet and works its way up. The the process of covering her whole body take a little less than a minute. However, Hazel does not have control of the time period, though she is aware of it. The time that she stays in forms differs on how much of her body is cover. If her whole body is covered it could take an hour to revert back to her normal form, just her hand only 5 minutes. Though Hazel believes with more training and understanding this could possibly be controlled too.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Hazel must be in physical contact with a surface to mimic it. She can not change between substances until she reverts back to her normal state. It also takes time to spread all over her body (though only under a minute). She has no control over the time period, and if she is rendered unconscious she reverts back to normal form. Because only her skin layers are changed and the rest of Hazel's bones, organs, and muscles remain unchanged, she is susceptible to injury, if her dermis armour is cracked, penetrated, ect.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  N/A
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  -Though her power does not affect her strength and can even slow her down, Hazel has done body weight training and running while her in her dermis armour to help her. So, essentially, she has the strength of someone who works out with high weights.
  
  
  -Hazel completed her GED while in prison.
  
  
  -She's a pretty great actress and world class manipulator. Great in interrogation tactics.
  
  
  -Trained with Project Atlas in combat skills
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  
• Other
  
  - Hazel has a fear of open water. She never had this fear until her abilities appeared. When she was 15 she went 2 months without showering because she was afraid her body would try to become water. To this day she still only takes 10 minute showers.
  
  
  - Hazel is a movie buff, loves all kinds and can sometimes be found quoting them in situations.
  
  
  - Hazel has traveled a lot in her short years and if you can name the city she's probably been there.
  
  
  - She anonymously sends her mother money every month.
  
  
  

 

[Mosswine Leader]

Spoiler

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Nisa Jai Verion
  
  
  Codename: Mouse
  
  
  Aliases: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 29
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5'7" 120 lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: White / Peach
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Nisa definitely stands out in a crowd. She's albino for one, but on top of that, she's very gaunt. In contrary to her solidly built, round faced parents, Nisa has a delicate and angular facial shape. She is very forgetful when it comes to self-maintenance, and it shows. She keeps her hair in a messy bun, dresses in comfortable but unprofessional clothing, and regularly fails to eat a wholesome meal. Due to her unfortunate mix of genes, her vision is also quite abysmal, meaning she must wear thick glasses to see. This combination of factors lends a very 'mousy' appearance, which is where Nisa's nickname comes from.
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Pharmacist
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: Quiet and shy, Nisa rarely even smiles. Not because she is an unpleasant person or has a burning hatred towards all things good and cuddly, but because that's simply how her face rests. She does her best to be as efficient as possible with her work, often tidying up other people's things out of a slightly compulsive nature. She is incredibly fond of chemistry and math, claiming that it helps her 'understand the infinite complexities of the universe'. Under that mechanical and stiff surface lies a more free spirited being who desires a normal life full of social interaction and helping people. Nisa is fascinated by metahuman genetics.
  
  
  She tends to think in binary, pragmatic terms. If someone does wrong, they should be punished. Their punishment should scale in magnitude with their wrongdoing. It should also be memorable. Nisa is not a fan of jails, as she finds them a waste of time and resources. Better to execute a murderer or cut the finger off a thief than waste time locking them away.
  
  
  Nisa is also a drug 'enthusiast'. She has experimented with almost everything, but finds that psychedelics appeal to her the most. That doesn't stop her from making other types and selling them to people, though. If it is going to be on the market anyways, why not have it be as pure and 'safe' as possible? Of course, she knows that selling drugs on the side, as well as those types, is highly illegal, but she is prepared to accept the consequences. In her mind, she is doing the world favors.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: Nisa loves nothing more than chemistry, and wants to create the perfect substance, aka the 'Philosopher's Stone'. Of course, using such a thing for the archaic and backwards superstition of turning lead to gold holds no interest to her. No, she has her sights set on something higher. A universal cure to disease and sickness, which can heal wounds and reverse aging. It is most likely impossible, but that's the point of dreams. They are something to work towards, no matter how high they might seem.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Born to a normal, caring Swedish family, Nisa was quite a surprise to her parents. She was definitely unexpected, especially because her mother was in her late thirties and they'd presumed they wouldn't have any more children. At first, they simply assumed their child was a pale baby, but after she'd turned five and still had her snow white hair and peach colored eyes, they took her to the doctor. He assured the family that Nisa was fine, she just had a rare condition that wouldn't really affect her life if she took proper care of herself.
  
  
  The girl was a mediocre student in most subjects, failing writing classes pretty much consistently but excelling in math and science. Nisa began expressing an interest in the world on an atomic level once she'd been exposed to the subject and almost flat out refused to go to any classes that weren't science or math related. Hearing on the news about people that could do incredible feats due to their genes, she focused her efforts on biological chemistry. At fifteen she dropped out of school to enroll in the university and started devoting herself to her passion. She published a few papers on metahuman genetics, though due to the fact that her work was based heavily in theory, the papers went mostly unnoticed. People tended to discount the work of a seventeen year old girl, assuming that she'd simply been posturing and trying to seek attention.
  
  
  A full decade of college later, she graduated with her final degree in chemistry and joined a big pharma company that she'd been in communication with during her doctoral studies. By this time, her passion for metahuman medicine and chemical engineering had blossomed into something she was actually qualified to contribute to. She'd discovered that she was a meta-human herself midway through her Master's degree, though it was a closely guarded secret. The general attitude around her campus was negative towards metahumans, due to the news showing more of the chaos than good they did. Still, it was an opportunity she couldn't pass up.
  
  
  Nisa spent several months trying to get ahold of someone on the UN who could help her out. She wanted to work with the Guardians, to study them and support them. To her surprise, she got a letter from a nameless group, inviting her to instead help with a different program. The Guardians were very well established and had their own healthcare, after all. This equally unnamed project was not as well equipped, and therefore could use an expert. She had packed her meager belongings the very same day and set off, quitting her job and uprooting her life in pursuit of her dream.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Synthesis: Nisa can draw upon nutrients and elements in her body to synthesize chemical substances, from something as simple as pure water to dangerous and complex substances like nitroglycerin. This requires that she has the raw materials necessary to perform a particular reaction.
  
  
  Weaknesses: Better Out than In: Just because her body produces a substance doesn't mean it's immune to it. In fact, she her body doesn't build tolerance to anything due to its chemical mutability. If she produces a chemical that is toxic to the human body, she will be just as affected by it as a target. The only way she has found to circumvent poisoning herself is to change her own blood as it is drawn, which means her ability to produce toxins is limited by her own blood supply. Losing a pint of blood in someone as light as her is especially debilitating, which prevents her from doing so often.
  
  
  She is also physically frail and tires easily from physical exertion. Due to her albinism, Nisa is sensitive to sunlight, and has a condition known as Nystagmus, which impedes her ability to focus on things due to involuntary eye twitching.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable): N/A
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable): Dr. Nisa Verion, Pharm.D.: Nisa has a doctorate in chemistry, specializing in pharmaceuticals. She has an excellent memory for formulas, and has pioneered quite a few recipes of her own.
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Standing outside the door to an apartment, Jeorg Skarin checked his watch for the fourth time. Three P.M. and she still hadn't gone out. It had been almost two full days, according to the landlord, since she'd left her apartment. Jeorg knocked loudly and incessantly for almost thirty full seconds before giving up and trying the handle. To his surprise, it was unlocked.
  
  
  "Nisa? Nisa, you're going to be late to dinner again." She didn't answer. Of course she didn't. A little nagging worry started dancing around in the back of his head. What if she'd gone so long without food or water that she had died? The man stepped cautiously into the apartment, closing and locking the door behind him. It was as spotless as ever, didn't smell like death, and looked to be empty. Jeorg pushed open the door to Nisa's bedroom and sighed in relief as he saw her hunched over her writing desk with big headphones on. He smiled softly, approaching the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. There were pages and pages of cramped writing stacked on her desk, and she was halfway through another. What in the devil was she working on this time?
  
  
  Nisa finally reached a stopping point, pulling off her headphones and looking up at her colleague. "What you want, Jeorg? I'm busy, you can see dat." She frowned when he held up his watch and tapped it expectantly. Frantically pushing up her sleeve to look at the three watches on her right wrist, Nisa slapped her forehead in exasperation. "Oh dat's right! You wanted to get lunch... Sorry, I get all tangled up in dis work dat I jus' forget. Okay, gimme two minute, yeah? Need to change." Jeorg waved at her to calm down as he walked into the living room, running a hand through his bushy beard.
  
  
  Thirty minutes later, they sat outside at a cafe, enjoying warm coffee and pasta while chatting about work. Their delightful little outing was interrupted as a man four tables over collapsed suddenly, eliciting a shriek of terror from his wife. Nisa instantly had thrown her chair back and rushed to see what the matter was, while Jeorg simply wiped his mouth with a napkin before getting up casually. He wasn't worried. Nisa was a great trauma medic.
  
  
  "Move! Move, I'm a doctor! Okay what happen? What he was eating?" She listened to the panicked wife while checking her husband over. He seemed to be having an allergic reaction. "You have de EpiPen? What?! He don' have one? What de hell you doin' in public widout dat?" Jeorg quickly stepped in to move the wife away so she wouldn't interfere. Thinking quickly, Merkl grabbed a steak knife, a glass of water, and a clean handkerchief from a table nearby. She splashed the water on someone who got too close for her comfort before shivering involuntarily as she changed the contents of her stomach from food to her proprietary anti-allergen formula. Jeorg crouched next to her and reached into the choking man's pockets, pulling out his wallet to give his information to the EMT's on the way.
  
  
  As soon as she'd finished her chemical reaction, she stabbed the man in the chest and inserted the straw she'd taken from the glass into the wound, then proceeded to push the clear mixture into his chest. It wasn't as good as a classic EpiPen, but desperate times call for desperate measures. As soon as she'd pumped it all in, Nisa pulled out the knife and straw, then pressed her makeshift bandage onto the wound. Slowly, the man stopped choking and relaxed, though his stare told Nisa that he was afraid of her. As much as that hurt, she stayed with him, carefully explaining what had happened and that he would be fine. By the time the medics arrived to get the man, Nisa had already disappeared. They took down statements from everyone that was involved, looking at the patient curiously as he asked if they could find the 'angel' that had saved him so he could thank her.
  
  
  
• Other N/A
  
  
  

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Spoiler

Completed

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Evan Myers
  
  
  Codename: Charlatan
  
  
  Aliases: Call him Evie if you’re trying to tease him, but otherwise his name is Evan and he likes it. After being arrested, and his Meta-human abilities discovered, he was jokingly referred to as 'The Human Copy Machine" by the police.
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 25
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5’10’’& 150lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Brown hair & blue eyes
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: None
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Evan’s got messy, medium-length brown hair that he doesn’t usually bother comb—just brushes it to the side—and blue eyes. He’s a bit skinnier and paler than he should be due to his brief stint in prison and his face got a bit more angular. He also gained facial hair which he keeps trimmed, but can’t be bothered to shave clean. Plus he believes the bit of hair makes his weak facial features look a little less weak.
  
  
  <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_03/upload_2015-3-20_5-49-14.png.34b0210364f526c125c394f6ff8e06a9.png" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="45931" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_03/upload_2015-3-20_5-49-14.png.34b0210364f526c125c394f6ff8e06a9.png" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Freelance photographer
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: He’s generally pretty easy-going, if not a bit lazy. Responsibility is not his strong point and he generally avoids “hassles” if he can help it. Evan hates being tied down, which is why he chose a freelance job where he’s essentially his own boss. He’ll go out his way to avoid fights if he can and will tell people what they want to hear, if it will avoid confrontation. In that sense, he’s a bit of a people pleaser. It takes a lot to get him angry because he tends to view things in a positive light. Evan hates people who try to force their will on others. He believes strongly in the power of choice.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: To become a famous photographer and make lots of money so he could be lazy for the rest of his life.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Evan was born and raised in New York to two well-educated parents, both having obtained a PHD in their respective fields. His mother is an English professor in NYU and his father a Neurogentics researcher in a large biotech company. Both parents had high expectations for their son. Unfortunately, Evan didn’t quite meet their standards. Evan was lazy and avoided hard work when he could, often skipping classes and not turning in work.
  
  
  Evan’s parents thought he simply needed discipline and sent their son to military high school at the age of 14. It was there, during the hard labor, that his powers first developed—the ability to copy inanimate objects. After graduating from the military school at the age of 18, Evan’s parents hoped that Evan had matured enough to continue his education in college. However, they never realized how much of a rebel their son could be. Evan refused to do as his parents wished and instead apprenticed to a landscape photographer, Kevin Marks, learning the photography trade.
  
  
  After 2 years of working under Kevin, Evan and Kevin became partner photographers for National Geographic. However, despite 3 years of working together, an altercation, involving Kevin’s gold-digging girlfriend, caused the pair to split and Evan became a freelance photographer. It was during one of his jobs that he met a single mother who was in a huge debt and had been having problems with loan sharks. Partly out of pity, and partly because he was attracted to the single mother, Evan wanted to help the pair out. However, money certainly didn’t grow on trees and being a photographer wasn’t the most profitable career. That was the first time that Evan fell into the temptation of using his abilities to “make money”. Since his ability allowed him to make perfect copies of inanimate objects, it was impossible for him to be caught counterfeiting money.
  
  
  Evan tried not to use his abilities a lot—only when there was something he really wanted. However, such an easy method of making money was very difficult for Evan to resist. Evan was only human, after all. Unfortunately, one moment of carelessness while using his abilities caused his actions to be recorded on camera. Evan was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in jail for counterfeiting money and for abuse of meta-human abilities. His parents disowned him after learning their son had become a felon. Evan had only stayed in jail for 3 months when his old instructor and tactical officer from his previous Military High School, whom he had hated with a passion, came to visit him. The man had been assigned to Project Atlas and came to offer Evan an alternative to serving time in jail because he saw potential in Evan and didn’t want to see the young man’s life wasted. Naturally, Evan took the offer.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Evan has the ability to structurally analyze any non-living object and create perfect replicas of that object, down to the very last detail. His ability is activated by touch and requires him to remain in contact with the original object.
  
  
  Weaknesses: His ability is limited to the complexity of the object. For something simple, like a piece of paper, he could make instantly and as many copies as he wants. For something that’s complex, he could take minutes to days before successfully making a replica of it. Also, he cannot make replicas of anything that is in contact with anything that is alive. For example, he can make a replica of a building so long as there are no people, plants, or animals in the building.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  
  
  
  -Evan learned basic self-defense in Military School as well as additional martial arts including Aikido and Brazilian jujitsu. While he's no expert at it, he can handle himself in close quarter combat. Despite his weak appearance he's surprisingly fit.
  
  
  -Evan was born with abnormally good-eye sight (20/13 vision).
  
  
  -Evan is well known in his Military school for his ability to evade his teachers. Even though he claims he hated running during P.E., he was exceptionally good at it. He is also very skilled at parkour.
  
  
  -He's got a good memory when it comes to memorizing locations, structures, or things he's seen.
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Evan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calling up the patience that he often used when dealing with people who refused to listen to reason. Evan liked to think that he didn’t get angry easily. He wasn’t the type of person to give into emotional outbursts of rage. However, Kevin Marks was pushing him to his breaking point.
  
  
  Normally, Evan would have walked away from the argument by now. He didn’t dealing with anything he considered bothersome and the argument between Evan and Kevin had already long pasted the point of bothersome. However, Evan couldn’t just back off. Kevin was his mentor…his partner…his best friend. There was no way a best friend would leave his or her best friend in the clutches of a greedy femme fatal.
  
  
  “She’s lying to you, Kev,” Edwin pleaded with his friend to understand. “Natalie’s only after your money. That’s why she approached you at the pub.”
  
  
  Kevin’s expression darkened across the circular table. His blue eyes, which were normally light and carefree, hardened to blocks of ice. “You don’t know that.”
  
  
  “I know that you’ve spent more money on her than you’ve ever spent in a year. I know that you are working more hours than necessary to supply for her selfish desires. I know that you’ve been losing sleep, waiting for her calls that only sparingly come. What I don’t know is why someone as smart as you can’t see something so obvious!”
  
  
  Kevin slammed his hands against the table. His mouth twisted into a snarl. “You’re wrong, Evan! Natalie loves me! And I love her! You’re my friend! Why can’t you support us?”
  
  
  “Because I’m not deluding myself,” Evan retorted, narrowing his eyes. The only time he remembered feeling this angry was when his parents had sent him to Military School.
  
  
  “Neither am I!” Kevin fired back. “You’re just jealous because you don’t have anyone as close as Natalie and I!”
  
  
  Evan pressed his hands to his forehead. He just wanted this to end. They had been arguing for nearly an hour…and getting nowhere. “You’re making no sense, Kevin. Why should I be jealous of you and that woman? She's ruining your life! You've changed ever since you met her!"
  
  
  For a moment, silence descended upon the pair of friends. Both glaring heatedly at each other...both trying to convey their feelings. Then Kevin seemed to wilt, his shoulders slumped and his body hunched over.
  
  
  "She is my life, Evan," Kevin said, hoarsely. "If you can't accept that then maybe you shouldn't be in mine."
  
  
  Evan didn't fail to notice the trembling in his best friend's fingers, nor the glimmer of intensity in his eyes. It was then that Evan understood. Nothing he said would ever convince Kevin. That was because deep in the crevices of his heart, Kevin knew the truth about Natalie. He just didn't care. His best friend's feelings for the woman were simply too strong.
  
  
  Evan shook his head and stood up. He couldn't understand it. Was this what love did? Blind you? Drag you down like chains, forever beholden to a single person? If that was the case, Evan wanted nothing to with it. He would let nothing tie him down. Not his parents, not his best friend, and certainly not a woman.
  
  
  "Then I wish you the best of luck, Kevin" Evan said calmly. "But don't expect me to hang around and watch you screw your life over for a woman."
  
  
  Evan left Kevin's house that day...and Kevin's life. Whatever Kevin chose to do with Natalie was up to him, but Evan wanted no part of it. Evan knew he was taking the cowards way out. A true friend would have stuck by Kevin to the very end. Such courage was for people who were heroic, brave, and noble...not someone like Evan.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  -Likes horror movies and the adrenaline rush from a very fast ride.
  
  
  -He likes cats--often feeds strays--and dislikes dogs.
  
  
  -Favorite quote: “Survivors aren't always the strongest; sometimes they're the smartest, but more often simply the luckiest.”
  
  
  -He's a photographer and has quite the artistic eye when it comes to a beautiful scenery. If he sees something interesting he won't hesitate to snap a picture of it and store it away for his collection/future reference.
  
  
  

 

[Widget]

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Victor David Hume
  
  
  Codename: Erebus
  
  
  Aliases: Victor David Kant
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 43
  
  
  Sexuality: Asexual, pan-romantic
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5'7" & 120 lbs.
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Dark, greying brown hair & light brown eyes
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Spoiler

  <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_05/57a8c260529d9_VictorHume.jpg.6050161e5d016dfbaae5bac0bb725674.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="51686" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_05/57a8c260529d9_VictorHume.jpg.6050161e5d016dfbaae5bac0bb725674.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  
  Victor possesses a highly scrupulous demeanor - a deeply creased brow and an attentive, lingering gaze remaining the only features capable of restoring life to his otherwise pallid face. His predominantly weak chin and jaw are devoid of any facial hair, likening his appearance to that of a young, infantile boy. His thin nose is long and slightly hooked, accenting the relatively flat slant of his forehead and cheekbones. Victor's greying, once dark brown hair falls gently upon his forehead, never settling neatly to the side, much to its owner's dismay. His cheeks are shallow and indiscernible, lacking any abundance of pigment, as well as exemplifying the odd structure of his jaw and slight chin. With clearly illustrated stress lines highlighting the space between his eyes, Victor imposes a somber presence upon most passerby, often evoking half-hearted stares of pity and mild curiosity, which he blatantly attempts to ignore. His hands, narrow and long, could have belonged to an elegant pianist if it were not for the nearly translucent skin revealing heavy, blue-hued veins. Despite the unappealing nature of his appearance, Victor’s speckled, creamy brown eyes retain a certain unique type of beauty and warm glow laden with understanding that never fails to inflict a sense of security upon those who catch his gaze. His lips, thin and chapped, rest downwards, rarely lifting up in a small, but genuine, lopsided smile. Victor's voice is deep and saturated, contrasting his otherwise small figure and presence.
  
  
  Victor prefers to dress in rather inconspicuous attire, as he dislikes drawing the attention of people whom he knows will not hesitate to form judgments based solely on his appearance any more than he already does. His wardrobe generally consists of drab collared shirts and dark colored dress pants, which he takes care to keep impeccably clean and well looked after. He often is found wearing an ill-fitting black jacket that droops just above his knees, and has sleeves that nearly conceal his bony hands. Victor also is in careful possession of his silver, thin-wired glasses, whose lenses are often smudged due to his habit of rubbing them with his fingers during moments of contemplation. On his left hand, he has fitted the wedding ring of his deceased mother upon his ring finger, the slenderness of his fingers allowing the jewelry to masquerade as his own to ward off any unwanted questions concerning his non-existent marriage. Despite this precaution, Victor personally doubts that such thing would be needed to ensure his singledom, perhaps suggesting that he continues to wear the ring more out of sentimentality than for practical purposes.
  
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  
  Victor teaches as an anthropology professor at Columbia University, and serves as a contractor for Project Atlas.
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Always toeing the fine line between romanticism and realism, Victor possesses numerous seemingly contradictory ideals and beliefs, turning to the cold, hard truths of science, as well as the far more abstract concept of philosophy and fate. He wishes to prove that it is possible for the two to co-exist, supporting the belief by stating that "magic" is simply a form of science that the world has yet to understand. Such theory ties in closely to his experiences as a metahuman, and his fear that his abilities may suggest that there is something wrong or broken within him. In order to reassure himself of his wholeness, Victor has consciously chosen to believe that those few in his generation of people were chosen by a higher power to lead a new age of human existence and protect it from those who would use their powers for personal benefit. To relieve himself of past insecurities that haunted his youth, he seeks to restore self-worth and stableness into his life, clinging desperately to any purpose he may find.
  
  
  Victor retains a passionate disdain for make-up, costumes (which he finds utterly ridiculous and humiliating), and any other cosmetically altering method or invention, as he believes that they are a sorry attempt to conceal one's self from the rest of the world. His hatred for cosmetics is a result that pertains heavily to his childhood, in which his mother received multiple implants and liposuctions in order to fulfill society's and her husband's unrealistic standards. Victor's father often commented snidely on his mother's weight and desirableness, complaining of her lack of self-control and disgusting eating habits, which ultimately led the woman to believe she must change herself in order to be beautiful.
  
  
  Victor's views of propaganda are no different, and he looks down upon Prometheus and the Guardians (with exception to Glenn Millspaugh) with vigor, believing them to simply be mindless sheep drunk on their own desire for recognition and fame. Prometheus in particular he frowns upon, viewing the man with a certain degree of pity as he watched previous interviews in which the man would flout around foolishly, smiling at the audience with no certain lack of smugness. It must take a man with little to no security in himself as a person to thrive in such a situation, Victor had thought. It almost came as a relief when Prometheus' interviews (and public existence) ceased to continue. It was only Hercules, with his benevolent nature, and Glenn Millspaugh, with his sheepish smile and awkward humor, that Victor managed to tolerate, seeing them as two well-meaning men whose good actions were only rewarded by media's enthusiastic attempts to turn them into celebrities.
  
  
  Despite his apparent lack of adherence towards attention-seeking methods, Victor secretly craves the admiration and praise of his fellow peers, a feeling that he has been deprived from nearly his entire life. Envy of others whom society has deemed considerably more attractive and virtuous than him forever brings a bitter taste to his mouth, no matter how hard he tries to bury his jealousy. He refuses to admit that his disapproval of the Guardians and other high-level metahumans may be directly correlated to the idea that he perhaps longs to be in their position, and that he looks down upon them only to convince himself that he is a better person than them. As an effect of his desire to be viewed as a confident and capable person, Victor becomes irrationally irritated of questions regarding his personal health or state of mind, taking such inquiries as suggestions of his weaknesses. He briefly responds with a polite, yet somewhat cold assurance that he has never, in fact, felt better, often resulting in a rather bewildered acquaintance who had only meant to begin a friendly conversation.
  
  
  Although his jealousy and lust for appreciation occasionally lead him to proceed with unreasonable measures, Victor, for the most part is an affable man, disliking conflict of any sort. His aptitude for recognizing and understanding human emotions allows him to easily speak words that will temporarily encourage or persuade people to acknowledge an idea or follow through with a task, a skill which can be used to manipulate both friends and enemies. His gentle, and honest tone of voice often play a key role in his success, as well as the less than threatening nature of his small, almost sickly presence. Although Victor tends to prefer a slightly distant, yet pleasant, emotional connection with his friends and acquaintances, he retains a relatively high set of morals and loyalty if he becomes particularly attached to someone or a group of individuals. It is only when one begins to question him insistently or tells him what he can and cannot do, does he display any outward hatred, feeling that me must counter such attacks with purposeful anger. Victor rarely raises his voice, instead, his words grow quieter and calmer as his fury increases.
  
  
  Victor finds it wise to strive to achieve one's goals based on strong ideals and beliefs rather than for loved people, as concepts cannot die, but all humans do. He believes that in order to be able to fully trust someone with a mission, they must be emotionally invested in whatever they are doing. He thinks that desire drives all of human will rather than reason, which is why all orderly governments fail to perfect their efficiency and stability. It would be more rational to unify everyone under a set of universal beliefs that can apply to a vast variety of people, instead of dividing into differing class groups and political parties. Unfortunately, he knows that such utopian conclusion could never be reached due to the limitations of human behavior and variance of conflicting personalities. Although individuality and human error are what stand between the world and (in Victor's mind) the perfect society, he still values difference as a whole, as he knows that without it there would be no possible way for anything to improve and evolve.
  
  
  Prone to be overly controlling of others and their ideas, Victor is known to force his opinions upon people, all the while believing that he is doing them a in the long run. Ironically, he despises being told what and how to think... As a child, his father's beliefs were shoved aggressively upon him, and the right to form his own opinions was strictly discouraged. Now, as a free adult, he wields that right vigorously, but often forgets that he has more in common with the man that he loathes. It is only when someone whom he trusts impeccably, sits him down and explains what he is doing does Victor ever manage to reach a state of horrific realization. Needless to say he retreats into a vigil of distant existence for the next few following days, regaining himself.
  
  
  Even though Victor is adverse to forming deep connections with other people, he appreciates genuine kindness and acknowledgement of smaller details greatly, attributes which may tempt him to speak to a person more than the compulsory "get to know each other" routine that he has become especially tired of, but tolerates nonetheless. He respects honesty in co-workers, as well as a healthy share of determination and intelligence. The one principle that Victor holds most highly is the idea that having only hope is nothing short of giving up a fight, and that one must have the desire, will, and capability to follow through with what they believe in to ever have any chance in gaining what they long for. He forces this ideal upon anyone who voices that hope is the only thing they have left, leaving them wondering what possibly could have happened to the man before them to make him recoil from such a positive concept.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  Victor is driven mostly by his overwhelming desire to be acknowledged and appreciated. He longs companionship of any kind, despite having sworn that he would never marry due to past family experiences. For that reason, he wishes to locate his old, childhood friend who disappeared unexpectedly from his life, even though no trace of her has been found throughout decades. Victor aspires to be as great as the historical figures he teaches about, and often loses himself within their characters. He is a highly spiritual man, yet belongs to no particular religion. Victor believes that he must be destined for something great, as that is the only way he may achieve a sense of purpose and self-worth.
• Character History
  
  It was a simple truth that Aida Christine Vice was a woman of worldly beauty - other-worldly to some, so one would not be surprised to learn that Erik Hume, a gaunt, sickly fellow, would inevitably fall in love with her. But would they think that it was possible for his feelings to be reciprocated? No. Why? Because that was simply not the way things worked. No gorgeous woman in right mind would think twice about a man, who, for the most part, greatly resembled a skeleton. But she did. And for a while it didn't matter that his hands, no matter the circumstance, were always ice cold, or that the couple always attracted blatant stares from strangers while walking down the street. Not even Aida's parents convince her that she deserved more than Erik, and that she should leave him before the man became too attached and would never let her go. In response she asked if they believed her life was nothing short of a fairy-tale, and broke connection with them. No one enjoyed over-protective parents comparing their child's life to that of a Stockholm Syndrome patient. So, Aida and Erik lived happily ever-after, for a year. But, it was unavoidable that when another, better man entered the picture and fell in love with another unavoidably beautiful woman, that she would forget that the other, less attractive man ever existed, and run off with the new one. And, of course, eight months later a baby will be born. The new man would think that the baby was born a month early, and that it was a miracle that he survived - but really, the baby arrived just on time. They named the baby Victor David Kant.
  
  
  Even as a young child, it was clear that Victor was not going to grow up to be the perfect, football champion his "father" had always wanted, despite the boy's enthusiastic attempts to fulfill those expectations. He was a thin, pallid child, often lacking the strength to keep up with the other boys his age, which earned his father's hard won disappointment. With that disappointment, Victor tried even harder to become what his father wished him to be, but only succeeded in gaining taunts directed at him from the rest of the children. Once, when his parents thought he was asleep, he overheard his father say to his mother, "I don't know what's wrong with the kid... It's not right for boys his age to be that small. I'm telling you that it must have been the early birth." After listening to that confession, something in Victor changed. He no longer practiced football in the school fields with the occasional friend, nor did he attempt to catch a baseball thrown by himself. It was as though when his father finally admitted that Victor was not like other children, a light had been switched off; Victor no longer had to pretend to be something he wasn't. Although his young self was not happy with that fact, a burden had nonetheless been lifted from his small shoulders.
  
  
  Victor's parents' concern only grew as their child became increasingly adept mimicking the voices of others, but the true breaking point occurred when Aida caught Victor speaking to himself alone in his room. The boy, imitating the voice of his father, played out a scene in which the man congratulated his son for successfully constructing a model boat, and expressed a great abundance of pride. Aida, at first believing that her husband was actually spending time with her child, smiled to herself and silently opened the door to peek inside. She found only Victor, cradling his model boat and continuing to speak in a voice that was not his own. Aida quickly fled the room, fear that her son was developing unnatural, ungodly abilities painfully gnawing at the back of her mind. From then on, Victor was forbidden from keeping imaginary friends or adopting the voices of characters, as Aida only believed that they encouraged his strange behavior. Lonely and friendless as a child, Victor's imaginary friends had been the only company he had the liberty of possessing. When he was not allowed to "see" them any more, his loneliness only increased. Despite his inability to gain many real friends, Victor was not a loner by nature. He craved companionship and appreciation more than anything. He just did not understand how to receive it.
  
  
  When he began to attend elementary school, however, everything began to change. On the second day of school, a large, beady-eyed child who had already established herself as the alpha thug of her grade, decided that it would be amusing to knock Victor's lunch tray just so, causing the cheap, strangely rubbery lasagna he had bought to thoroughly coat his torso and face. As the rest of the children had yet to discover overly-cliché methods of torment, they found such incident to be incredibly amusing. Victor spent the rest of the lunch period huddled in the corner, covered with lackadaisically dripping red sauce. It was only at recess that a slender, gap-toothed girl of Greek descent approached him with a mars bar clutched tightly in her hand. Victor stared warily at her, his gaze dropping in surprise as she sat down next to him and gently offered him the candy bar. She introduced herself simply as Thea, and asked him if he wanted to play dinosaurs. He hesitantly agreed, smiling slightly as this new girl went on to babble incessantly about how most boys thought she was a weirdo for liking reptile beings, and that she would be his friend because he didn't say she couldn't play "boy" games. The two quickly became quite close to each other.
  
  
  As Thea and Victor grew older, they began to spend time at their city's public library, which was only a few blocks from their school. There, Victor would colorfully invent the voices of characters they would read about, enthusiastically acting out scenes with his friend. It was there that one Friday evening, Victor noticed that Thea was lacking the usual excitement she usually possessed directly before the weekend. She confessed that she thought she was ugly because of the large, chocolate colored birth mark covered the majority of her right cheek, and that the children at there school always made a point to ask if she was "black" or "white". Silently enraged, Victor saved his fury for another day. He assured Thea that the birthmark only made her more unique, and that he would not wish for her to look any other way. What he did not verbally voice, however, was that he liked the birthmark because he believed it was shaped like a star, and that he found that the dark patch of skin complemented the lightness of her face in a highly pleasing manner...
  
  
  When the two returned to school on the following Monday, Victor located the three children who had made it their favorite hobby to taunt Thea. Hidden safely within the narrow confines of his locker, Victor mimicked the voices of all the previous students whom the bullies had harassed, and shouted accusatory insults and tantalizing threats. The children, convinced they were haunted by ghosts (despite the fact that their victims were, for the most part, were very much alive), and left school in tears.
  
  
  A week and three days after seventh grade had begun, Victor arrived at school only to find that Thea was missing from all of her classes. The first few days, Victor had simply hypothesized that his friend had concocted a particularly unpleasant cold, and attempted not to worry too much about her absence. But as the days turned into a week, Victor's concern grew. Using a thin wire to pick the lock of Thea's locker, he discovered all of her school supplies simply as she had left them... Her backpack was missing, which proved that she had not returned to school to gather any materials. With no evidence to go off of, Victor was left with no choice but to contact the school authorities if there was any possible chance he could find where Thea had vanished. He was informed by the principal that his friend had simply moved away for one of her mother's job. When noticing the boy had yet to take his leave, the aging man hastily explained that the military often required that their...employees...leave their current bases with little notice, and that this case, while unfortunate, applied to the situation at hand. While Victor regarded this information questioningly, he realized that he was going to get no answers from the school. Eventually, he had no other choice but to accept that Thea was not coming back.
  
  
  When Victor entered high school, his father's mood worsened. Perhaps it was his inability to reacquire a profession he deemed worthy of himself, or his disappointment of life in general that ultimately led to his darker persona... Victor never could pin-point exactly when his father's behavior changed. He assumed more than not that it came gradually - so gradually that it never came to notice until it was too late. His comments which used to ring only with sarcastic mockery, became bitingly scathing, often drawing Aida to tears. He complained of her lack of desirableness and horrific self control, eventually leading her to her self-loathing and obsession of body image. Victor, too, often found himself the target of harsh remarks, and it took nearly all of his energy to keep him from physically lashing out at his father. Because who was he kidding? There was no possible way he could win a fight such as that one. So he took it upon himself to torment his father in far more subtle, but no less effective ways. A carefully placed Christmas card of a friend and his healthy, athletic son gleefully partaking in a game of football could have more impact than even Victor himself had imagined.
  
  
  By the time Victor was old enough to leave home for university, he had just about had enough. Using the money he had earned from a somewhat crappy, low-paying video store and a generous scholarship, Victor began his college education. Fascinated by the people and history of past cultures, he majored in history, selecting anthropology as his main topic. Lonely, yet not completely by himself, Victor acquired a few acquaintances who shared his interests, and often spent his time with them, even going so far as to room with a couple of them for his last two years. Impressed by his work and dedication to his subject, Victor's anthropology professor encouraged the young man to consider teaching as a possible career option. Victor, who had received little praise in his entire life, was unusually moved by that individual statement, and took its meaning to heart. After years of extra education, he finally received a PhD, and was fully certified to teach college level classes.
  
  
  After serving as a professor at a few, smaller colleges, Victor was invited to interview for a job at Columbia University. Taking Victor's copious amount of enthusiasm for his subject into consideration, he was granted the position. Often losing himself in his lectures, Victor's students often allowed themselves to be amused by their professor's vivacious retellings of historical events, complete with eerily realistic voices portraying those of important figures. Respected by some for his dedication, and ridiculed by others for his mad enthusiasm, Victor was both loved and privately ridiculed by his students and colleagues... He managed both feelings with a certain degree of calamity, but secretly rejoiced when his pupils took the time to discuss in detail the day's events after class. For a while, Victor's life remained fairly normal... It was only a month after his mother's death did the man experience any true excitement once more.
  
  
  Returning to his old childhood home in hopes of convincing his father to allow him to inherit some of his mother's personal belongings, Victor was met by a pretty, make-up laden young woman whom he had never once seen in his entire life. It was only when he noticed her scantily clad attire and the newly placed boxes lined up against the stairs did Victor truly realize her relationship with his father. Confronting said man with poorly concealed anger, he learned that his father had been having an affair with the other woman for over a year, and that it was only when his previous wife passed away unexpectedly was it socially acceptable for him to publicly display affection for the one person that he truly loved. He denied Victor's request of inheriting his mother's property, stating that he deserved nothing of Aida's as he had destroyed her health by breaking contact with the family. As Aida possessed no known will, Victor could not legally acquire anything as long as his supposed father was still alive. Furious, Victor left the secluded house and retired to his own apartment, his mind set.
  
  
  Using a public pay in the suburbs of New York City, Victor sent a phone call to his father. Masquerading his voice to that of his mother's, he whispered single sentence through the speaker... "I know what you have done." The phone call was untraceable; there was no possible way that Victor could be linked to the call in a reasonable fashion. A day later, Victor sought out a different public phone, and sent yet another message using the deceased's voice. "I'll never forgive you," Another day passed, and another phone used - "They don't belong to you." The messages continued, each more threatening than the last. At the end of the week, the seventh, and final call was received, "You know what you need to do." Not long after, an unsurprised Victor received a message from his father announcing that he was to take all of Aida's possessions as soon as the moment presented itself. Victor, morbidly satisfied, did just so, unaware of the fact that he had begun to attract the attention of a certain clandestine organization.
  
  
  While searching through a box of his mother's personal belongings, Victor came across a miniature, ornate chest. Picking the miniscule, silver lock with a spare piece of wire, he discovered an array of contents: scattered half-dolor coins, a broken, antique comb, and lastly, a small, dusty diamond ring. Assuming that the engagement ring was a gift from Kant, Victor angrily made to dispose of it. As the dim light of his rapidly fading lamp caught the ring's surface, however, tiny engraved words caught his eye - Erik and Aida Hume. Struck with sudden realization, Victor hastily reassessed his situation. He looked nothing like his platinum-haired, crystal-eyed father, nor did he share any of his interests. His mother had always refused to have a karyotype of him determined, and the story of his birth - he was not born a month early, but simply belonged to a different father. A wave of conflicting emotions overcame him... He felt betrayed that his mother had never informed him of this truth, relieved that he did not share blood with the man who had destroyed a large portion of his childhood, and...loss? It was as though a family member had just died, and no matter how much dislike and tension had existed within the relationship, he could not seem to help but mourn. Driven by a new sense of purpose, Victor set out to find the man whom he now referred to as "father".
  
  
  When he visited a local bar later that night, he was approached by a man who introduced himself as James Machiavelli. After an evening spent together, the man convinced Victor that it would be a good idea for him to meet Machiavelli in a park the next morning. After a few more hours spent in each other's presence, Machiavelli deemed Victor a candidate for Project Atlas. He explained that a group of very special individuals had begun to express in Victor and his unique abilities, and claimed that he could do a lot of good for people if he agreed to do exactly what they said. After a session of mild persuasion, Victor agreed to work as a contractor on one condition: the organization in which he was joining would assist him in tracking down his father. Machiavelli came to terms with the agreement, and stated that while he could not promise that anything would turn up, he would do his best. That was enough for Victor.
  
  
  For a while, Victor received no word from the Project, and his life continued on without a faze. It was a month later that he Machiavelli contacted him once more, and asked to speak with him in private. Victor suggested his apartment, but Machiavelli expressed fear that such place may be bugged. They agreed to meet in a rowdy restaurant, where there was no possibility of anyone overhearing their conversation. After arriving at said destination, Machiavelli quietly informed him of the unfortunate news regarding his father. Erik Hume had died in a subway accident... Drunk, he had fallen onto the steel tracks, only to be crushed by an upcoming train. Or that's how the media covered the story, at least. Even during the present day, Victor always questioned the purposefulness in his father's actions... Somewhat numbed by the news, Victor silently listened to Machiavelli ramble on about the training he must undergo -nothing too major, he promised - and the discussions he must keep secret. In the following weeks, Victor learned how to properly shoot a gun, as well as the morals the Project stood for. By the end of it, he was more capable of defending himself, even if he was still at a disadvantage when conflicts became significantly more physical.
  
  
  Victor participated in a few minor missions, most of which involved tracking down a few, rather harmless (in comparison) low-level metahumans. He never operated as a field agent in those incidents, but gathered information via phone call using his ventriloquism. It was only in a recent mission that Victor's abilities and mental strength were truly put to the test.
  
  
  A low-level, but particularly cunning and resourceful metahuman who went by the name of Alicia Harrow, had allegedly murdered her husband and his parents by starting a house fire, and was attempting to escape the United States with her four year-old daughter. Victor, who had originally been assigned simply to pose as Harrow's girlfriend and contact, eventually played a far greater role in the mission. When one of the field agents was injured by Harrow, Victor was called in to replace him... He, along with three other agents, traveled to the airport in which there target was attempting to leave. While rushing through the crowded mayhem of the building, Harrow's young daughter was separated from her mother, and discovered by Victor. Leaving the little girl in the care of his partners, he rushed towards the terminal in which Harrow was to leave. Once catching sight of the woman, he began to mimic the girl's panicked cries for "Mommy!". Victor successfully drew the desperate Harrow away from the crowd, and led her to a secluded area just outside the airport's vicinity, thus allowing the rest of his team to easily take her into custody. By exposing his target's weakness, he was able to gain the upper-hand. But Victor never did forget the tortured look upon the mother's face, nor the look of betrayal and loathing she directed towards him as she was separated permanently from her child.
  
  
  The success of that particular mission had begun to build Victor's reputation, and, despite that he was unaware of the fact, ensured that he was a potential candidate for a new team of metahumans...
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Ventriloquism:
  
  
  Victor possesses the ability to manipulate the shape and size of sound waves, rendering him capable of altering his voice with great ease. Unlike ventriloquism often portrayed in comedic acts and shows, he had to undergo no training to learn his skill - it was simply second nature to him. As a young child, Victor would alter his voice when quoting Disney movies, mimicking each characters' tone and unique sound with such accuracy that his disturbed mother forbade him from watching any television for quite a time. For those reasons, Victor is an excellent candidate for intercepting phone calls or any another method used for transporting information via verbal communication, as he can easily masquerade as a target's contact and receive vital information regarding the person's location and motivations. He may also select different voices for his aliases, making it increasingly more difficult to discover his true identity and link his separate personas together. This advantage gives him more leeway for mistakes.
  
  
  Despite the far reaching scope of Victor's power, there are limitations. When explaining his ability to people who cannot fully grasp what it entitles, he asks them to imagine a search and rescue dog. The dog cannot successfully locate a missing person without being familiar to that individual's scent. They must first have had the opportunity to smell a personal belonging in order to fulfill their duties. The same goes for Victor. He cannot possibly mimic someone unless he had previously listened to a recording of their voice or have personally heard them speak. With that in mind, Victor could potentially change his voice to one identical to an important political leader or meta-human if enough security and caution was provided to safely ensure that his identity remained undiscovered, and that the person being mimicked could not possibly contradict or deny his words.
  
  
  Victor's capabilities also come of use during situations involving distraction... His power also enables him to broadcast his voice from any nearby location, such as across a crowded street, up above in the sky, or even from a moving car. For example, he could trick an outnumbering enemy into believing that they were, in fact, outnumbered, instead of the other way around. In order to achieve this feat, he would create numerous voices coming from a multitude of different directions, hidden from the enemies' view. Despite Victor's ability to swiftly jump between voices, he cannot mimic their sounds all at once - each individual voice would be used one at a time. The imaginary 'snipers' would then demand that the enemies lay down their arms, threatening to shoot them with their non-existent guns if anyone failed to do as told. This action would momentarily give Victor and his team the advantage, possibly allowing them to escape to safety. Even a mere moment of distraction could turn out to be invaluably beneficial; a shriek here or a shout there to temporarily draw attention away from a dangerous situation could buy enough time to turn the tide upon the opponents.
  
  
  After extended periods of time involving the rapid change between multiple voices, Victor must rest his vocal chords in order to ensure the overall effectiveness of his power. If he has limited himself to only mimicking one voice, however, he may proceed to do so indefinitely. The total accuracy of Victor's ventriloquism also depends on his familiarity of the voice he is imitating. Voices which he has heard less of will not be nearly as accurate and convincing as a voice he has known for many years. This may increase the risk of someone who is greatly familiar with the imitated person potentially discovering that an outsider is masquerading as their friend.
  
  
  Victor is quite skilled at crafting traps (mental and otherwise). A malicious but affective method would be to mimic the voices and tortured screams of the enemy's loved ones, leading the desperate, unsuspecting target directly into an ambush. While such tactic occasionally makes Victor feel ill at ease, he attempts to justify his actions by persuading himself that in dire situations dire actions must be used as a counter-balance in effort to reach the ultimate goal.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Overall, Victor is physically weak, leaving him severely disadvantaged in conflicts requiring strength and one-on-one combat. His personal desires and attachments, if discovered, may be easily wielded against him, exposing weaknesses that could potentially be used to bait him into losing control. Victor may be prevented from using his ventriloquism if something is intervening with sound waves, such as a gag tied over his mouth, unconsciousness, or, if the ability is possessed, silencing or nullifying his power.
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Victor has earned PhD degree in history, providing him with an in-depth understanding of how the world and the people within it work. With that in mind, he can easily seek out people's weaknesses and use them against their advantage. His fairly high intelligence somewhat redeems what he lacks physically, allowing him to escape difficult situations using innovation and strategy rather than his fists. Victor is also an adequate artist, sketching simple, everyday scenes and objects with astounding simplicity while retaining a large quantity of meaning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Sometimes it was the smallest, seemingly irrelevant things that could hurt a person the most. Victor Kant knew that as well as anyone. Yet, as he carefully twisted the little, blandly engraved ring between his thumb and forefinger, he could not help but marvel at the sudden revelations the tiny artifact had brought forth. And to think he had almost tossed it in the wastebasket along with a box of molding, outdated fast food. At times, Victor wished he had. It was funny, to think of how things could have been; even insignificant moments had their lasting impact on the ultimate outcome of everything. But it was no use dwelling over what may have happened if his life had gone differently - God only knew he had done enough of that lately. So, instead of lounging in the dismal comforts of his partially mutilated, old armchair grading his students' essays concerning Ottoman and Safavid relations, Victor decided he must be content in accepting the fact that he currently resided behind the booth of an overcrowded bar teeming with drunkards. Never mind the nauseating stench of liquor; who was he to argue with the inevitable fate of free will?
  
  
  Gingerly taking a sip of his drink - now that he thought about it, he couldn't seem to remember what it was called - Victor contemplated the unexpected development of his tedious family situation. The man whom, for all his life he had believed to be his father, was not. He could not find any other way to put it more simply. Raising a slow but steady hand up to his face, Victor removed his thin-wired glasses and brought them down upon his lap, haphazardly rubbing its lenses between his fingers. He hadn't known exactly what he had expected to feel... Anger, perhaps? Directed towards his mother who had, even in death, lied about the identity of her son's father? Or maybe relief? Relief that his blood could not be associated with the man who had single-handedly made his childhood living Hell? But Victor felt none of that; only numbness and a strange feeling of loss remained present. Maybe his father...stepfather had been right all along. There was something wrong with him. He just hadn't the courage to notice it before.
  
  
  Raising his glass to his lips - more recklessly this time - Victor winced with a certain degree of satisfaction as the bitter liquid scorched his throat. He sighed contentedly as his mind lightened considerably, relieving him of his tiresome ponderings. It was ironic, Victor thought, that numbness could be chased away so easily by even more numbness. It reflected humanity in that way, always turning against itself and never stopping to think about why. It was at that moment Victor realized he was intoxicated. Inorganic fluids did not stop to contemplate the philosophical meaning of their actions.... Even on Sundays. Somehow, Victor found he didn't particularly mind.
  
  
  Gazing around the small confines of the bar with mild, distant interest, Victor barely blinked as a broad-faced, beady-eyed man slid gracefully into the booth next to him. Wishing to avoid any means of conversation, Victor directed his eyes towards the large television screen situated on the wall directly opposite of him, and reaffixed his glasses upon his face. The small, bleary smudges littering the lenses did not faze him, as his attention was already focused angrily on the pixeled face of Avery Deshner. Something about the young man's precociously gelled hair and unnaturally white glean of his perfectly aligned teeth drove Victor to become irrationally ill-tempered, and he glared at said Guardian with as much vigor he could achieve in his less than sober state of mind. The crowd surrounding Deshner greeted the man as a celebrity, with no shortage of cheers and erratic screaming. He responded by smiling charismatically at each of his admirers, laughing and conversing with them as he was led through the street. The scene so greatly resembled that of a trashy reality show that Victor remained oblivious to how anyone could believe it was anything more than staged propaganda. He snorted derisively, nearly spilling the contents of his glass as he clumsily slammed it down in drunken disgust.
  
  
  "Did he do something to you?" The question was asked with polite inquiry, mingled slightly with something that may have resembled amusement. Victor started suddenly, tearing his eyes away from Deshner's eerily symmetrical face to that of the man sitting next to him. Genuine curiosity shown in the stranger's small, wide-spaced eyes, and Victor was vaguely reminded of a shark considering a particularly unusual looking prey.
  
  
  "I'm sorry?" Victor mumbled blankly, struggling to accurately pronounce his words.
  
  
  "That man on television, Avery Deshner," The stranger clarified, indicating the screen with his finger. "Did he ever do something to offend you?" He shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "This may just be me, but I have never seen a man glare so viciously at another unless they have shared particularly...unresolved...times." There was a brief pause. "So, what happened?"
  
  
  Victor was not necessarily fond of unusually nosey people who found it socially acceptable to demand answers from every sitting man they happened to come across in a bar. It was incredibly rude to the people who came there in the first place namely to forget those questions asked. Needless to say, he was not amused. So it came as a surprise to Victor when he found himself opening his mouth to respond. Perhaps it was the liquor, or possibly the idea that someone bothered to speak to him in the first place that drove him to humor the man. "Nothing happened," Victor stated simply, clenching his fingers around the narrow spout of his liquor bottle.
  
  
  The man laughed, revealing a crooked array of oddly sharp teeth. "You could have fooled me... I am perfectly capable of identifying anger, believe it or not."
  
  
  "I'm not angry," Victor retorted sluggishly, frowning deeply at the stranger.
  
  
  "Oh, then what are you?" The man countered, resting his elbows upon the bar with a slight air of superiority.
  
  
  "I'm not anything," Victor replied quietly, ignoring his companion's twitch of the lip and narrowed eyes. "I pity him. He depends so heavily upon the adoration and appreciation of others... An addiction to fame, some may say; without it, he would go into withdrawal," He paused to take a sip of liquor. "He's gotten so used to playing the game - to living up to others' expectations - that he can't tell reality from fantasy."
  
  
  "Who says it's a game?" The man inquired smoothly, briefly turning his eyes away from Victor to check the impeccably clear face of his silver wristwatch. Recognizing the look of denial present upon the other man's face, however, he was prompted to speak once more. "What may appear be nothing but a ridiculous dream staged only for the sake of those observing to you, may seem much more real for others. Sometimes a little bit of hope, even if faulty, is the only thing people have."
  
  
  Victor laughed uncharacteristically, smiling bitterly as his eyes glassed over, perhaps reflecting upon something unseen by his acquaintance. "Why would people believe such fabricated fantasies only to maintain hope? Having hope is the equivalent of lying down and just wishing for what you desire to happen. It's giving up a fight."
  
  
  The man considered him for a moment, his beady eyes devoid of any identifiable emotion. "Is that so? You are a history professor, are you not? Tell me then, how did a mass of underprivileged, undernourished French citizens manage to overthrow Napoleon? Why did the Melians refuse to surrender to Athens, even when they knew they were outnumbered and overpowered? What is it that you know about hope that I do not, Victor? Please enlighten me."
  
  
  Victor let out a breathless laugh, pushing his glasses up to his forehead as he massaged the bridge of his nose. "I know that it will always let you down, no matter the circumstance."
  
  
  "So that's why you're here, sitting at a bar drunk off your ass while you take a go at a man just because he's made something out of his life." The man concluded, eying Victor with varying degrees of disapproval and disgusted pity.
  
  
  For a moment it seemed as though Victor had failed to comprehend anything which had just been spoken, but as the seconds grew longer he slowly - almost motionlessly - raised his glass, clinking the delicate surface against the stranger's own bottle in a silent toast. The two men fell into an uncomfortable silence, listening thoughtlessly to the drunken conversations of the bar's other inhabitants. At last, Victor felt his eyes drawn to the television once more, whereupon a solemn newswoman was hesitantly describing the deaths of a man and his three children, courtesy of a house fire. An arsonist was suspected. His throat clenched painfully as images of the deceased were shown; he had forgotten how small children really looked.
  
  
  Victor's acquaintance gently lifted his head away from his hands, twisting his neck to gain a proper view of his companion. "Tell me Victor, do you have a family?"
  
  
  Victor tilted his head, focusing his eyes intently upon the man. "No, not really. Not anymore."
  
  
  The man tore his gaze away from Victor's, opting to stare distantly at the adjacent wall. "Well, I do." He paused, his thin, unusually colored mouth twisting thoughtfully. "Do you know the funny thing about having one? It's that I know I would do or believe anything to keep them safe, even if it seems horrifically unreasonable." Victor said nothing, but instead gripped his glass with even more force. "Should I tell you why I think you are here instead of at home, Victor?" The man pursed his, finally directing his eyes back towards Victor. "It's because you've got to one to care about."
  
  
  Victor tightened his jaw, staring at the man with a mixture of anger and denial. "I- That is not true. I did care about someone once."
  
  
  "Then why aren't you with them?" The question was not antagonizing, nor was it condescending in any way. It was simple - asked out of genuine curiosity.
  
  
  Victor drew the small, cold ring closer to his hand, refusing to break eye contact with the man sitting next to him. "Because she's gone," He said bluntly, plainly; his voice was devoid of any emotion.
  
  
  The man carefully set his glass down, regarding Victor with intrigue. "People are never truly gone; they are only misplaced."
  
  
  "So that's what you call death, then? Misplacement? I can't say I've heard that theory before," Victor responded dryly, his frown only becoming more and more pronounced.
  
  
  The man shrugged dismissively, although he did not take the liberty to further explain his cryptic response, much to Victor's irritation. "Oh, I don't know about that... That is not the point. The question is, would you like to help find them?" Victor remained silent, biting down upon his cheek with more force than necessary. His companion sighed deeply, before reaching into the depths of his suit, which, Victor noticed, was designed specially to conceal a growing paunch. The man withdrew a crumpled piece of paper, and attempted in vain to smooth the creases before handing it to Victor. He turned it over, revealing a neatly written address. "If you find later that you have changed your mind, there is a lovely park just a block from here. It is beautiful; you will not miss it. You may come to the realization that it would be a nice idea to take a stroll there tomorrow - the daffodils really are quite lovely there this time of year."
  
  
  The man abruptly stood up from the booth, pushing a generous wad of money towards an unsuspecting bartender. "I am afraid I have to leave; the wife doesn't like me staying out past midnight," He told Victor apologetically. "It was interesting meeting you, Professor Kant." Before Victor could blink, the man was already turning on his heel, swiftly making his way to the exit.
  
  
  "Wait!" Victor said hastily, nearly falling over as he too stood up from his seat. "You never told me your name."
  
  
  The man smiled widely, once again revealing his abnormally pointy canines. "Machiavelli," He stated firmly. "James Machiavelli." Victor nodded, at a loss of what to say next. "Goodbye, Professor -"
  
  
  "Hume," Victor interrupted, his eyes glued indefinitely upon his mother's ring. "Call me Hume."
  
  
  Machiavelli's eyes flashed. "I suppose I am not the only one with a sense of humor," He nodded in farewell. "Mr. Hume," Machiavelli said at last, before disappearing into the rapidly darkening night. It was only in the morning, while recovering from a nasty hang-over, that Victor realized that he had never introduced himself to Machiavelli until the end of the evening. The man had known his name throughout their entire conversation.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  The name Victor David Hume is derived from that of the British Enlightenment philosopher, David Hume, who believed that humans were driven by desire rather than reason. Victor's previous surname, Kant, came from that of another philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who argued that fundamental concepts structure human experience. Victor's transition from Kant to Hume highlights his continued investment in desire rather than reason.
  
  
  

Spoiler

 

[Bone2pick]

Spoiler

• Stats & Personality

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Boe Bowers
  
  
  Codename: Spotlight
  
  
  Aliases: —
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 30
  
  
  Height & Weight: 6'3 - 193lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Dark brown, brown
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: Mole on right cheek
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Boe has an attractive blend of genetics from his mixed heritage (Native American & Western European). His playful dark hair, hawkish eyes, quiet smile, and acorn-brown skin are often summed up with the broad compliment "exotic."
  
  
  Boe's an athlete, a powerful swimmer, and it shows. His ex-girlfriend referred to his wardrobe as "adventure wear." It mostly consists of cargo shorts/pants, breathable shirts, sandals, sneakers, and an extensive collection of sun visors.
  
  
  Costume:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  *Helmet system detailed under Powers tab
  
  

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  Occupation of Record: Security Agent, former Paramedic
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: High on life. Tomorrow can provide a new hill to hike, a new trail to ride, a new shipwreck to dive, or a new woman to love. There's a gorgeous dawn each morning, and Boe doesn't hit the snooze button. He's self motivated, and he's drawn to similarly wired people.
  
  
  Boe's relationships are great, but outside of family they have a shelf-life. He enjoys them while they last. Though the friendship or romance has to end, he still celebrates ever having it.
  
  
  What ruffles Boe's feathers? Cynical people. The perpetual naysayers who would rather complain and throw in the towel than work for better results. What does he dread? Loss. Love is worth dying for, but losing it is crippling. Boe's been lucky so far, but there's a sleeping dragon waiting for him. What does he fear the most? His own power. Sure it can be used to protect and serve, but it can also burn the innocent. And if Boe ends up with the wrong blood on his hands, then whose side is he on? It's a short jump from hero to villain.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: To inspire and protect oppressed metahumans. He plans to start by cleaning up the bad examples of the superpowered and then one day, hopefully, mentor a few who need direction. Boe will need to be an example, so he's trying to work out what exactly that looks like.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  All things considered, Boe has lived a charmed life. Even the hard times had a silver lining. His parents separated for years, but eventually reunited. His family was forced to relocate, but they ended up someplace great. He was arrested at gunpoint, but that created a lucrative job opportunity. Things could have been worse.
  
  
  Let's start at Key West. That's the island of Boe's childhood. His mother owned and operated a bed and breakfast while his father repaired boat engines. He spent his falls fishing, his winters cleaning guest rooms, his springs girl-watching, and his summers swimming the surf. There was, however, a five year stretch when the tropical island didn't feel so sunny. A time when his mother's guests began to feel more like intruders. Those were the years when Boe's parents separated. Thankfully his father and mother repaired their marriage and never put Boe through that pain again.
  
  
  The cat jumped out of the bag just before his sixteenth birthday. It was a late November evening and the setting sun painted the ocean beautifully. Boe and a bunch of his buddies were out smoking cigars underneath the palm trees. They weren't suppose to smoke of course, but kids will be kids. A nearby tourist, sunburnt to a crisp and bobbing in an inner tube, was relaxing in the water. The boys dropped their cigars as soon as they heard the horrible screaming. The tourist was in a jam; his upper body was clutching the inner tube but his lower body was in the jaws of an American Crocodile. It was elven foot if it was an inch. Boe and company had sprinted up the pier to help. Boe didn't hesitate, he leveled a steady finger and cooked a basketball-sized whole into the reptile's back. It was the first public display of his mutation. The following day the local paper's headline read: "Metahuman Versus Crocodile!"
  
  
  You can't hide on an island that size. The media swarmed the place and the locals didn't appreciate it. Boe's parents paid the worst price, the bed and breakfast guests cancelled their reservations. The family got boxed in overnight, so they did the only sensible thing left, they moved. His mother had a brother in Austin Texas, and that's where they ended up. It was a great city, but it was a rough time for Boe. He left his friends, his school, and his life behind. He basically laid low for two years. By then enough other metahuman news stories had surfaced, burying the public's memory of the energy shooting teen from the Keys. Boe got a second a chance.
  
  
  Contrary to the stereotype, Boe's late teens and early twenties were productive. He enrolled at Austin Community College where he earned his EMT-B. After a couple of years of hospital work, and a couple more years back in college, Boe became a state liscenced Paramedic. That resume addition turned into a job with the Austin Fire Department. It was rewarding work, and it was a good fit.
  
  
  It was around that time when Paige came into Boe's life. She was a grad student at UT; the two met swimming laps at a fitness club. They both discovered just how happy a person could feel because of someone else. They shared all their secrets, including Boe's big one. There was only sympathy and acceptance. Paige introduced him to one of the UT Faculty members, Doctor Guzman, who had been researching metahuman endurance. Boe even agreed to do a few clinical studies (without university approval) for the doctor in exchange for a secure place to practice and hone his mutation.
  
  
  The young lovers hit a roadblock. He knew Paige wanted to be a mother, and she knew Boe wasn't willing to be a father. She didn't even fault him for it — his genes were too unpredictable. As much as it hurt, they pulled back. They allowed the romance to die. But you can't do something like that without leaving scars. Paige is with someone else now. He tries not to think about it too much.
  
  
  One evening, after a clinical study on UT's campus (yeah Boe still did Dr. Guzman favors time to time) there was a tragedy. It was a school shooter. A random thing, like Columbine. Boe intervened; he used his powers and put the killer down. No telling how many lives he might have saved. The cops couldn't have been more confused after arriving. Boe got arrested — he's lucky he didn't get shot. The police wanted to know exactly what he, an unenrolled man, was doing on university campus. After Boe came clean about the unauthorized research sessions, Dr. Guzman was immediately terminated. Similarly Boe was suspended from the Austin Fire Department for covering up his metahuman identity. He stopped a mass murderer, but he lost his job for it.
  
  
  

  We're the only ones providing security solutions for the new world. Michael Archer

  
  
  The UT shooting was ugly, but it did grab the attention of a certain entrepeneurial Billionaire. Michael Archer, CEO and founder of Archer Apparel, sits comfortably on Forbes top one hundred list. He's a busy man, but he made time to personally call Boe in for an interview. Besides being an athletic wear mogul Mr. Archer also had interests in other markets. And it just so happened that he had recently acquired an exciting new company. A private security company that dared to market metahumans as the latest and greatest protection that money could buy: Next Level Protection.
  
  
  Boe was exactly what NLP was looking for: A handsome, biracial, driven individual with a literal flashy power set. NLP's offer, a fat check per security job, was a financial dream come true. Still, Boe hesitated. Sure it was an opportunity to protect, but only the ultra-rich would benefit. It was selling out. Yet there was an alluring part, besides the money. Boe could finally be apart of a team that would accept him, all of him. No more pretending. No more lies. It ended up tipping the scale; he signed with NLP.
  
  
  Boe met others like him. He trained new skills, travelled to exotic places, took on a snazzy persona/callsign, and pushed himself to higher limits. Life was stimulating, even challenging, but it lacked heart. Fortunately fate whispered the secrets of a more fulfilling path. Project Atlas, a meta-friendly outfit that sought and snuffed out evil, was real. They never had to recruit, Spotlight came calling.
  
  
  He works with both organizations — one to honor his contract, and the other to honor his principles. Few at the Project support Spotlight's ties to Archer and NLP, but with a mere five month body of work, he's already made the right kind of impression. The truth is they haven't seen anything yet.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Energy Projection (light based), three intensity modes
  
  
  First mode, close range (20 yards)
  
  
  -can be fired rapidly from either hand
  
  
  -low damage blast
  
  
  -stuns human sized foes
  
  
  -excellent finesse, can disarm without causing injury
  
  
  -blinking/glowing lights evident at hands
  
  
  Second mode, medium range (100 yards)
  
  
  -very noticeable energy blast
  
  
  -one handed toss required
  
  
  -destroys refrigerator-sized targets
  
  
  -lethal to most humans
  
  
  -lights evident at hands
  
  
  Third mode, long range (200 yards)
  
  
  -explosive blast (light bomb)
  
  
  -destroys truck & helicopter sized vehicles
  
  
  -requires eight second charge
  
  
  -cannot charge both hands simultaneously
  
  
  *Edit for clarity* As to the modes, it's just an easy way to understand a very flexible power. Think of it like Cyclops'optic blast, (btw Scott Summers, Boe Bowers) one power with three functional degrees of intensity. Cyclops can use his energy with quick beam strikes that can disarm opponents (lowest intensity). He can drop Batman with a single shot (medium intensity). Or he can take the visor off, go raw, and level Wayne Manor (highest intensity). Same power, very different applications
  
  
  Weaknesses: Any use of power results in lingering visible evidence (blinking/flashing hands). Prolonged use of second and third projection mode can cause Photokeratitis (temporary blindness).
  
  
  Custom Helmet System, AKA Headgear
  
  
  A lot of testing, money, and love went into Spotlight's helmet. It was a signing bonus for joining the NLP "family."
  
  
  Spoiler

  
  Features include:
  
  
  -advanced communications suite
  
  
  -flare compensation
  
  
  -sound dampening
  
  
  -sound enhancing (nearby quiet disturbances)
  
  
  -night vision
  
  
  -ballistic protection (small caliber only)
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills :
  
  
  Paramedic skills
  
  
  -identifying and administering medication
  
  
  -advanced cardiac life support (acls)
  
  
  -medical equipment use and procedure
  
  
  -triage
  
  
  -fire rescue
  
  
  Security skills
  
  
  -corporate training
  
  
  -team deployment
  
  
  -mixed martial arts
  
  
  -firearm identification
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  So Long Explorer
  
  
  "Did you read through Dr. Yafeh's hand out on meta optics?"
  
  
  The sober look on the Director's face was clear, this woman was serious. Boe peeked at Muriel, the heavy-set assistant, who was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Apparently he'd given everything away.
  
  
  "Not exactly."
  
  
  Director Mcginty frowned.
  
  
  "I thought you would want to know what one of the top physicists in the world has to say about your abilities."
  
  
  Embarrassed, Boe's eyes sunk to his sneakers.
  
  
  "I do. I mean, I think it's cool that they're studying my powers. But honestly...with the graphs and equations...it's over my head."
  
  
  He was hoping for understanding but Director Mcginty just blinked back at him. Boe shrugged.
  
  
  "Besides, I don't need to be a scientist to protect the clients."
  
  
  That made two of the three smile. The Director shifted her scrutiny back and forth between her assistant and Boe.
  
  
  "I could help you go over the handout — if you want?" Asked Muriel.
  
  
  It was a sweet gesture, and Boe planned on saying so, but he wasn't given a chance.
  
  
  "How about we start your first evaluation? Mr. Bowers I assume Muriel has explained the challenges to you?"
  
  
  She motioned at the surrounding gymnasium. They were inside the state-of-the-art testing and training facility for metahuman agents of Next Level Protection. Muriel had already given Boe the tour: she pointed out the reinforced and sound proofed walls, the rows of shielded cameras, the industrial fire supressors, and the NLP logo painted on the floor. She also filled Boe in on the obstacles he would be facing today — commercial sporting clay throwers and a nineteen ninety seven Ford Explorer.
  
  
  "She did." He started to unbutton his overshirt.
  
  
  Director Mcginty finally smiled. She draped an open hand towards her assistant who promptly unscrewed and delivered her a water bottle. Boe peeled out of his long sleeve flannel, revealing an army green tank top, and discarded it before the Director could finish drinking.
  
  
  "Do you need a moment to warm up?"
  
  
  The thoughtful question came from Muriel. Boe cracked his knuckles and shook his head.
  
  
  "Alright Mr. Bowers," the Director invited; "let's see what you've got."
  
  
  
  
  The first pair of clays were turned to dust as soon as they left their trap. Boe stood like a gunfighter in middle of the gym. The only evidence that he had acted was the flickering at his hands, they blinked like loose fluorescent bulbs. The traps groaned as they cycled and then two more clays soared.
  
  
  This time Boe let the targets advance. It only took one sweep of his right arm to obliterate them both. Now he could smell charred powder. Once again the traps cycled, fired, and two zaps later Boe was batting a thousand. He stayed perfect until they fired six at once.
  
  
  His glowing hands criss-crossed and struck like cobras but one of the targets managed to get through. A scorch mark on the wall from his miss remained as an insult.
  
  
  "Son of a bitch."
  
  
  Boe shook his wrists and then squared up for the next volley. The synchronized machines rattled and then spit out another half dozen. White hot energy sizzled and popped as the blasts disintegrated each clay. The last target, a straggler, tried to escape high. Boe ended his flurry, spun one hundred and eighty degrees, and picked up the spare with a last second shot. Six of six.
  
  
  "Ok Mr. Bowers, one projection into the automobile."
  
  
  His teeth clinched. Maybe he was still bothered by the earlier miss, or maybe it was the annoying squeel of the intercom that punctuated the Director's instruction. Whatever it was he was pissed, and a Ford Explorer was going to pay for it.
  
  
  Boe stalked the empty SUV. He rolled his right shoulder loose and then squeezed his hand into a fist. Light strobed between his fingers, stoplight red, then hot pink, and finally blinding white. Raw energy pooled inside his grip. As glorious as it felt to channel, it begged for release. Boe cried out and punched it free.
  
  
  A light-bomb erupted inside the Explorer. Doors crumpled, metal twisted, window glass puffed into the air like confetti, and the force of the blast pushed the vehicle off its rear wheels and onto its nose. The sounds of the truck slowly falling back to the gym floor echoed up into the rafters. Boe plucked a piece of scrap out of the air — a ruined license plate. He smiled and backed away from the smoldering wreckage.
  
  
  "That's respectable damage output."
  
  
  Director Mcginty and Muriel had returned. The assistant was beaming like a kid at Christmas while the boss stood stone-faced in her pantsuit. The Director continued.
  
  
  "Your accuracy is satisfactory as well, however..."
  
  
  Satisfactory, thought Boe. You miss one target around here and suddenly you're a B student.
  
  
  "However what?"
  
  
  Boe was losing patience. The Director opened a hand, and once again Muriel was right there with the water bottle.
  
  
  "However, you'll need to be evaluated on how you perform when noncombatants are included. The company can't afford to have an accident."
  
  
  She tried to sip her water but took a shower instead. The bottle in her grip vaporized and its contents splashed against the Director's face. Boe proudly displayed his blinking fingers.
  
  
  "I shoot just fine into traffic."
  
  
  Mcginty launched into an expletive filled tirade that Boe ignored as he scooped up his shirt. Muriel clamped both hands over her mouth but her eyes were still laughing. The assistant composed herself just before he reached the exit.
  
  
  "Hey, do you have a name picked out yet? You know, like a callsign?"
  
  
  Boe watched his hand dim before replying.
  
  
  "Yeah, I think I do."
  
  
  
• Other
  
  Key NPCs:
  
  
  -> Michael Archer, apparel tycoon/billionaire (CEO of NLP)
  
  
  -> Penny Bowers, mother
  
  
  -> Alvin Bowers, father
  
  
  -> Titus England (AKA Breach), friend, NLP coworker, metahuman
  
  
  -> Paige Dooney, ex girlfriend
  
  
  Spotlight's Theme Song
  
  
  [media]
  
  
  
  [/media]
  

 

[Syrenrei]

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Jenna Yun-seo Kim
  
  
  Codename: Sleeping Beauty ("SB")
  
  
  Nicknames: Jenny, Yuni, SleeBoo, Jennacoptor
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 28
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5'8", ~130 lbs.
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Black (dyed brown) and brown
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: Jenna is a rather unassuming girl, with the possible exception of the fact she is a minority race in the United States. She is slightly taller than the average woman, but is considered quite tall for her ethnicity. More than one man of East Asian origin has made a remark about her 'giant stature.' Despite this idiosyncrasy, she is petite, has no real muscle mass/tone, and has does not possess a strong presence. While she is somewhat pretty, her beauty does not make her any more particularly memorable.
  
  
  As a young professional, her weekday clothing consists of pencil skirts, slacks, suit jackets, and nice blouses. She takes her job seriously and this is reflected in traditional yet modern clothing that speaks to how highly she respects her business. Weekends she indulges in jeans that should have been thrown away years ago, sneakers with freakishly bright colors, and quirky T-shirts that she almost always buys a size bigger than she intended to. The disparity between her work and home wear might be quite large, but nothing altogether uncommon.
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Occupational Safety & Health Administration ("OSHA") Investigator
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: Jenna is the eternal optimistic, full of life, and often accused of being 'insufferably perky' by some of her co-workers. Whenever she is faced with hardship she strives to see the silver lining, point it out to others, and keep emotions buoyed while they trudge towards resolution. It's not that she hasn't had to endure pain (mentally and physically), it's just that she simply sees no need to let it win a victory over her attitude. Once when dealing with a particularly different manager, a smile plastered on her face, a co-worker asked her how she endured it with such cheer. Jenna remarked she had read in a book that smiling and laughing was the best way to combat oppression and hostility; because being angry and depressed meant they won.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In addition to her apparent jubilant approach to life, she has also mastered the art of perseverance. Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting for long and hard she had always been taught. This is obviously complimented by her optimism insomuch that she can always see something to be won if she only hangs on to the good fight a little longer- but it can also spell her doom. Jenna has a hard time 'letting go' and knowing when to cut her losses. She wants so desperately to help everyone and fix everything that at times she can not properly appreciate that something truly is a lost cause. This has most extensively injured her with toxic or borderline abusive friendships that she clung to with more determination than was warranted.
  
  
  Partially due to her powers and partially due to her nature, Jenna cares quite a good deal about others. This bled into her college major and career aspirations- she has always held onto an altruistic goal to make everyone as safe and happy as possible. It has given her a slight martyr complex. She frequently takes on more than she can handle, with a bright confident smile, and then tries to avoid the inevitable disaster that accompanies. Someone's having a hard time moving their 300-lb. dresser into their house? Jenna will try to help you even though she can't really lift it while assuring you that she can... all out concern for your well-being. Some friends and family call this well-intentioned maneuvering the "Jennacoptor."
  
  
  
  Virtues:
  
  

  • Cheerful/Optimistic personality
    
  • Perseveres in adversity
    
  • Gregarious, naturally sociable
    
  • Caring/Kind
    

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Flaws:
  
  

  • Martyr complex
    
  • Difficulty "letting go"
    
  • Takes on more than she can handle
    
  • Follows rules/laws/orders to a fault
    

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: Peace between regular folks and metahumans might be out of reach, but that won't stop Jenna from trying to make it happen. She works fervently to convince everyone and anyone that will listen that everyone can get along if they will only think of their fellow man/woman. While other girls dream of the perfect man, marriage, and children, she dreams of everyone safe and happy without much in the way of selfish aspirations. What's better than virtuous work? Her parents, however, have a goal of wedding her to a nice boy so they might have some grandchildren this century instead of just a cheerful spinster.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Jenna's parents were married approximately thirty years ago by their parents (her grandparents). It was important to her grandparents, immigrants from Korea themselves, that her parents each wed someone of their same ethnicity/nationality. Since her parents were not successful in dating, they individually agreed to an arranged marriage. Their marriage is loving, but more of a partnership than something born of passion and romantic intimacy. As both had dealt with the prejudices in the United States, and considered themselves largely American, they named Jenna's eldest brother Christopher and her younger brother Derek- very 'Americanized names.' Her grandparents have always called her and her siblings by their middle names, however, which pay homage to their Korean heritage.
  
  
  Jenna had a happy childhood. Her brother Christopher was headstrong, frequently pushing boundaries, getting in trouble, and also earning praise as the 'oldest son.' He was excused frequently by the phrase, "Boys will be boys." By contrast Jenna was held to higher standards and was expected in every way to be feminine, polite, and docile. Her enthusiasm, energy, and sunny disposition weren't exactly what her family had expected or hoped for, but to their credit they nurtured it rather than quash it. Derek was a rebel in every meaning of the word, so to have a 'goody two shoes' daughter was a bit of a blessing that they tried not to spurn.
  
  
  Jenna was good at most subjects, though not exceptional. A natural social butterfly she had many friends, some of whom were genuine and some that blatantly took advantage. Christopher frequently found himself intervening into her life to try to protect her from 'pricks and jerks' because he feared Jenna was too nice to turn anyone away. She learned how to say, "No," and stand up for herself, but it wasn't until she graduated high school and applied to colleges that anyone believed she would be able to handle herself without being a complete doormat.
  
  
  But what of being a metahuman? Her parents had always suspected that something was 'off' about their daughter. She was always an active child, though not particularly athletic- so it took some time before they could appreciate just how different Jenna was. In middle school she fell off the monkey bars on the playground and was sent home with her mother, a composed and analytical lady who was trying to measure the damage before rushing to the emergency room in hysterics. Jenna insisted she 'felt okay' and wanted to go home and eat. This was a touch strange but her mother obliged. After Jenna inhaled more food than her mother thought possible, she fell fast asleep. Initially her mother thought that rest would probably aid her healing- except that Jenna slept an entire day away, waking only to use the bathroom before swiftly falling into deep slumber once more. On the second day of this zombie-like Jenna, her mother insisted that she see a doctor... which revealed that Jenna had a mending fracture. Of course the doctor had been concerned- but her mother was able to play off the injury, pretending she knew of the fracture and was seeking a second consult instead of a first.
  
  
  Clearly that was not the case.
  
  
  Her parents allowed Jenna to eat ravenously and sleep away the better part of a week as they tried to determine what to do. Her visit to the doctor had revealed Jenna was healing much more quickly than she should have if the fracture had occurred as a result of the monkey bars incident. At the end of the week her father coaxed a family friend into checking in on his daughter's injury- which was now completely healed. Jenna was back to her old self as well, as full of life as she had always been before. They swore Jenna to secrecy, as well as her older brother Christopher, and misled Derek as to what had truly transpired.
  
  
  Christopher went on to be an engineer (something her parents were particularly proud of), but in college her younger brother Derek got involved with drugs and ended up running away from home to 'discover himself.' He occasionally still calls home but refuses to really connect with his family. From what they can gleam he's an artist of some sort on the west coast barely scraping by. Jenna initially began college as a psychology major with every intention of becoming a clinical psychologist.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In her sophomore year of college, Jenna was involved in an accident. She had forgotten to wear her seat belt, something that to this day she is haunted by and quite ashamed of. It was just a rear-end collision, but at a high enough speed that without proper restraint Jenna was thrown forward and then backwards into her headrest. She suffered a minor concussion, a broken nose, and some other light injuries from the impact. As a result of the visible bleeding from her nose she was taken via ambulance to the hospital, during which she fell unconscious. When she awoke she was pleased to find that she would be perfectly fine- but the doctors had learned her 'little secret.' Her parents were called and chastised her (a nice way of saying they screamed) for her carelessness and her mother wept. "This is why safety is so important!" she had told her. The words resonated in her mind endlessly. "Just because you heal fasterdoesn't mean you should allow yourself to be in danger!"
  
  
  Jenna quickly changed schools (at no small cost) and began to pursue the field of safety. She received a bachelor's degree in Occupational Safety and Health before pursuing a master's degree in Safety Engineering. To achieve this goal she worked numerous part time jobs and discovered she was a stellar waitress if nothing else. Her social life dwindled for several years as studying and working took a toll on her, but she was absolutely determined to use her experience to help others. Because she could survive more, because she could recover more quickly, she'd put herself in a place where she help less lucky individuals avoid the risk of their health. Jenna had become a crusader in her own right.
  
  
  Upon graduation she quickly was able to land a job at OSHA; it was admittedly her dream. She has only been in the field a few years but has proven herself to be someone that would take the jobs absolutely no one else wanted- so her co-workers are quite appreciative. The more dangerous a workplace is alleged to be, the more eager she is to go so that her peers do not put themselves at risk. Many times they oblige her fanaticism if only because she is more thorough than any of them care to be. As pleasant she is, she is considered to be an "overbearing wrecking ball" of safety standards for employers that don't immediately show the utmost concern for their employee's well-being. A workplace that might receive a dozen citations from another OSHA investigator, for example, might earn a few nitpicking dozen from an unrelenting Jenna. Her philosophy maintains cutting someone a break might cause someone a break. Co-workers are slightly more accommodating and lenient with their inspections.
  
  
  A couple of years ago she was privately approached about helping in a clandestine government group to mitigate any damage metahumans might cause. She agreed very eagerly and her love of following rules and protocol makes her superiors happy. Because of the copious amount of sleep she requires after sustaining damage she has been dubbed "Sleeping Beauty" in jest, but the name has stuck. Jenna will willingly 'soak' any damage that her comrades might otherwise suffer without a singular complaint.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Accelerated Healing/Regeneration:
  
  
  Jenna has always believed her ability reflects her inner core and is a sign of her destiny, but the truth is it may have formed her rather than the other way around. She recovers from injury more quickly than the average human being, but with several requirements to do so:
  
  
  • Jenna still feels pain just like the ordinary person would from the damage sustained. Her quicker recovery may make it more short-lived, but it is felt all the same. She has higher pain tolerance than many, but it is far from superhuman.
    
  • Jenna's body needs fuel to recover more quickly. She will usually do so by consuming large quantities of food and then entering a deep, enduring sleep from which she can only be roused for basic biological functions. If she fails to meet either of these requirements, she will not only feel incredibly ill, her recovery will be stifled.
    
  • Jenna's body frequently tries to force her to rest during recovery. She started to earn her nickname "Sleeping Beauty" when it was realized how quickly and hard she fell asleep once injured, though nothing as simple as a kiss would wake her!
    
  • Jenna is learning to absorb injuries from others. When she touches another person she can take on their injury (although not everyone appreciates such a gesture). This requires skin to skin contact- which sometimes makes Jenna quite flustered as she hasn't really been intimate with anyone and even holding hands in a professional context takes some getting used to. Depending on the extent of the injuries of the other party, it can be anywhere from instant (small cuts and bruises) to several minutes (significant trauma) for to absorb.
    
  
  
  How quickly she heals is largely dependent on the circumstances. Minor injuries are obviously quick to heal, but a major wound can be 'encouraged' to regenerate more quickly as well. If a comatose state is induced purposefully with a IV or feeding tube for sustenance, the complete 'rest' is more efficient than sleeping lightly for the same amount of time and eating regularly.
  
  
  She has given her permission to Project Atlas to take extreme measures (such as inducing a coma or putting her in hospital care) should the situation rise. There are at least half a dozen legal forms that have been completed to this effect, though it's not something Jenna hopes will happen often.
  
  
  
  Rough Regeneration Guideline

  
  
  
  Recovery Time Provided Food & Light to Moderate Rest
  
  
  -> Medically induced comas with an IV and/or feeding tube will halve this time
  
  
  <5 Minutes: Bruises, shallow cuts, & other superficial damage to the skin
  
  
  10 Minutes: Knife slashes and other light damage that penetrates no more than 2" below the skin
  
  
  30 Minutes: Sprains, pulled muscles, minor nerve damage, etc.
  
  
  1 Hour: Fractured bones, torn ligaments, deep knife slashes over 2" deep, etc.
  
  
  2 Hours: Broken bones (must be properly set)
  
  
  3 Hours: Third degree burns, surgical incisions that fully penetrate the skin, acute concussions that cause brain swelling
  
  
  4 Hours: Bullet wounds (the bullet should be removed if possible) and other penetrating trauma (such as a stab wound) that damages below the skin
  
  
  5+ Hours: Significant trauma not already mentioned or large combinations thereof, such as major damage to the spine that might cripple a healthy person, near-amputation of a limb, and the like
  
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  On the exterior one might think that Jenna's power is quite amazing, especially in combat situations and endeavors... but they would be wrong. While it is true that Jenna can take quite a bit of damage and recover more quickly than anyone else might hope to, the fact she has a tendency to pass out immediately or soon after taking substantial damage means she is just as much a liability as an asset in certain situations. Without proper fuel (in the form of food and/or sleep) she is not much better than the average man or woman.
  
  
  Additionally, Jenna greatly enjoys following rules, taking orders, and following the law. She is an exceptional citizen and a good soldier- but she has little to no training in combat fields where her power might be of greater benefit. Her knowledge of guns is rudimentary, she is not particularly athletic, and her idea of self defense is kicking a man in his groin and running away if possible.
  
  
  Limitations:
  
  
  Anything that would instantly or near instantaneously kill a normal person will kill Jenna; this can be anything from an aneurysm, shot to the head, full body trauma (such as in a high speed car collision or falling from a great height), etc. While she can heal quickly, anything that would kill a normal, healthy adult in less than two minutes is guaranteed to kill her.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  Her incessant nagging of, "Safety first!"
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Jenna is an intelligent lady, given the proper time to study a subject. More impressive than her academia skills, however, is how easily she gets in the good graces of others with her sunny disposition. As a result she is easily able to build a rapport even with strangers that have little in common with her.
  
  
  
• Against Doctor's Advice
  
  Jenna had been referred to Dr. Marek Adamski by a family friend shortly after the automobile collision. Apparently Dr. Adamski was a metahuman sympathizer who took the Hippocratic Oath very seriously; the rumor was he had a metahuman relative himself. Jenna never questioned his intentions either privately or aloud- she preferred to just think of him as simply virtuous. Dr. Adamski had requested she call him "Marek" on account of how frequently they saw once another, but she had been raised to use honorifics as much as possible. To her knowledge she was the only person that called the pathologist "Dr. Marek."
  
  
  "I was doing a demonstration," Jenna explained, gesturing with her left arm. Her dominant right arm was laying in her lap freshly bandaged. She had hoped that her doctor, who had also become something of a father figure and good friend, would be a bit more understanding of how she had come to have this injury. What Jenna failed to recognize, however, was that Dr. Marek was more concerned about her well-being than whether or not she was making a difference in safety protocol and enforcement. "The owner insisted that the cabinet was free-standing and stable enough it didn't need to be properly affixed to the wall- as is required- so I simply.."
  
  
  Dr. Marek waved off her explanation with blatant exasperation and interrupted with words of his own. "You are quite lucky they did not notice how it should have affected you. If they had been less panicked they might have connected the dots. You have to reign in these impulses, Jenna." He looked at her over his bifocals and Jenna slid down in her seat a few inches. She hated to disappoint anyone, especially someone that was such an important part of her life. In the grand scheme of things she had a rather pleasant 'power' and it would almost certainly be well-received publicly compared to others- but she was still a metahuman. Her ability was a closely guarded secret that she had been warned over and over should not be broadcasted unless she was given explicit permission from her superiors and there were proper safety protocol in place. As a safety expert she knew she was exposed to danger if everyone she interacted with found out she was a freakish rejuvenator.
  
  
  "I want to help people," she told Dr. Marek emphatically. A new smile blossomed across her features; it was hard for her to suppress it for long regardless of the situation.
  
  
  He sighed and shook his head. "I know, but it was less than a month ago you came to me because you had been stabbed intervening in a domestic dispute. I'm not saying you can't help people, just that you need to be more careful. Promise me you'll not do anything impulsive until this is completely healed?" It was folly to ask for anything more. No amount of pleading, appealing to her emotions, or reasoning would stop Jenna from risking herself time and time again to save others. Still, the incident from three weeks prior and this development troubled Dr. Marek deeply. They didn't know how much trauma she could sustain before her body might simply give up.
  
  
  Almost every time she suffered a serious blow she was only in delirious pain for but a moment- and then she was overtaken with sleep. It would be comical if it was not so frightening to witness firsthand. To see her crumple like a broken doll, falling unconscious almost immediately, was not unlike watching someone suddenly dropping dead. He had seen too many patients slip off into sleep and die when he was still a young man and he had no doubt others had that same sort of experience imprinted on them as well. It didn't matter that Jenna would recover; it still took a toll on the psyche to witness.
  
  
  "Okay. I'm getting a lot better at staying awake, though," Jenna beamed with overflowing joy. She had seen Dr. Marek's face flicker to a slightly darker expression as if he was remembering something unpleasant. He had urged her many times to try to stay awake after she was hurt to assess her situation, determine the extent of the damages, fuel herself with food, and find a place to safely recover. It was hard for her to do but she was making more headway every time the opportunity arose to 'practice.' It meant she was subject to more physical pain than if she allowed herself to fall unconscious, but she was building more of a tolerance to that too.
  
  
  "That's good," he reassured her. "Come back and see me in three days. I'll e-mail your boss documentation to have you on bed rest until Thursday. We'll take another look at it then. And try not to interrupt a mugging on your way home."
  
  
  "I'll try!" Jenna exclaimed with a wide grin. She knew, however, that if she did come across a mugger that the chances of her turning away were slim to none. It was still mid-afternoon, though, so the chances of coming across one were slim. She'd try for Mr. Marek not to thrust herself into a bad situation just yet, though.
  
  
  Tomorrow was another story.
  
  
  
• Nope, nothing here.
  
  
  Yet.
  
  
  There could be in the future I guess. Probably not.
  
  
  

 

[WritingMan]

Spoiler

WIP

• General Characteristics
• Personal Characteristics
• Mental Characteristics
• Philosophical Characteristics
• Spiritual Characteristics
• Powers & Skills
• Apparel
• Social Characteristics
• Common
• Work
• Wealth
• Intrapersonal Connections
• Physical Characteristics
• Health and Fitness
• Sexual Characteristics
• Residential Characteristics
• Vocal Characteristics
• Personality
• History
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Name: Robert West
  
  
  
  
  Codename: Robert’s official codename is Magnitude, which is often shortened to Mag or M, after the James Bond movies. He is also sometimes called 007. Robert isn’t picky about being called any of those codenames and will often answer to any and all of them.
  
  
  Birth Date: 3/2/1971
  
  
  Birth Place: London, United Kingdom
  
  
  Birth Weight: 3.67 kg
  
  
  Birth Length: 49.78 cm
  
  
  Appearance: With broad shoulders, well defined jaw-line, with a gruff look about him, no one is surprised to hear that Robert works for the military. His face has begun to develop wrinkles, the only indication as to his age. His hair has yet to begin to turn to grey, although it has become a lighter shade of black than in his youth. His face is well maintained, hair kept in a sleek razor cut with a slight beard. Robert’s body is of average build. He’s more lean than muscle, although he does sport a six pack.
  
  
  
• Life Goal: Although Robert is quick to repeat the typical slogan about stopping dangerous metahumans is his life goal, underneath Robert is still uncertain of what his life goal is. While his mandated time at Project Atlas is done, he can’t think of anything else that he would want to do with his life. There’s nothing that he’s passionate about. Sure, he enjoys some of the finer things in life, but he also enjoys the work he does at Project Atlas too. He’s waiting for some kind of cosmic sign as to where his life is headed.
  
  
  Priorities: Work is Robert’s life. Ever since getting out of prison, his work is all he has had. He pours all of his energy into it, working far more than a normal day job. Robert also places importance on getting to know those at his workplace, but that is only because he believes that knowing others at his workplace enables him to do better work.
  
  
  Motivation: Robert has struggled long and hard as to what exactly keeps him going. In the end, the only real conclusion he come up with is he can’t bring himself to stop. The much stronger factor is subconsciously. Robert is motivated by the death of his daughter, although he has yet to acknowledge that himself.
  
  
  Accomplishments: Robert had a relatively successful career before his imprisonment. He was an Explorer Scout, graduated with high enough marks to go to the University of Cambridge, graduated from University of Cambridge with a degree in Business Administration, and somehow found himself working at MI5, which was something of a dream of his. Depending on his current perspective, Robert may list killing his daughter’s murder as one of his accomplishments.
  
  
  Greatest Achievement: Robert would consider his greatest achievement in life as getting a job at MI5.
  
  
  Failures: There are numerous failures Robert has been dealt over his years. Terrorists and criminals who have gotten the better of him, friendships and bridges he has burned that came back to bite him, and not covering up the evidence from when he killed his daughter’s killer.
  
  
  Biggest Failure: The biggest failure to Robert is that he failed as a father to protect his daughter from harm, the one thing which all fathers are called to do.
  
  
  Self-Confidence: Robert’s self-confidence is a fickle thing. There are times when he feels very sure of himself. Yet, there are times where he recalls back to the mistakes he has made before. When he begins to wonder about what he missed in those mistakes and failures, what things he did wrong, he begins to get himself into this circle of doubting everything he has done and currently working on. Once he gets out of that rut, his self-confidence is fine, but every time he makes an error, that self-doubting comes back into the limelight.
  
  
  Traumas: There are several past experiences that weigh heavy on Robert’s mind to this day. The first and most obvious is the death of his daughter. The second event would be when his wife left him while he was in prison. This is why he has a hard time believing others truly have his back, because the person he trusted the most left him, in his mind, while he was down. There are some smaller events that Robert tends to forget, but sometimes certain events will trigger the memories.
  
  
  Afflictions: There are few present day things which are negatively impacting Robert. One thing would be his increasing tendency to drink while off duty. Besides the usual side effects which impacts his work, Robert tends to be quick to start or pick fights, even over the most insignificant things, while drunk. Another thing that afflicts Robert currently is a level of prejudice over his criminal conviction. He keeps finding himself blocked from getting a promotion because the leaders within Project Atlas don’t think it would be politically smart to promote him to a sergeant, even though he knows he has the chops for it.
  
  
  Embarrassments: Robert is a bit embarrassed of any stories from his college days. He finds the stories others remember are often exaggerated. For example, while he did sneak another student’s car inside an auditorium, it wasn’t nearly as harrowing as the tales make it out to be. He didn’t have to take off in some mad rush from the police. No one realized the car was there until the next morning. Robert tends to find his younger self far more immature and foolhardy, which is why he winces when someone brings up his college days.
  
  
  Worries: Robert doesn’t have a lot of external worries. Since he’s a heavy worker, most of his worries have to do with his work not being accurate, missing a key detail, or something like that. There isn’t a lot Robert worries about outside of that.
  
  
  Soothers: When Robert gets worked up, there a several ways he calms himself down, depending on the emotions he’s feeling. If he’s feeling anger or frustration, he finds that one of the best ways to calm himself down is to have a conversation with his daughter in his head or look at a picture of her. His daughter brings out the caring, patient, and fatherly side of him. When the emotions are more personal, such as feeling guilt or remorse, he finds that talking to someone is the best soother, usually over drinks. In general, another go to soother for him is to listen to music, usually rock or classical.
  
  
  Instigators: Some of the things that would make Robert think of traumas or afflictions are quite obvious. For example, asking Robert about his family. Most, though, are more random. He might see a child which looks similar to another child he saw once, or see a somewhat similar sight, or even hear a song that he has tied to that memory.
  
  
  Regrets: To Robert, there is one failure which has forever changed his life. Instead of going into work on that Saturday morning, Robert should have stayed home and gone with his daughter to the movies. When his daughter went out for the day, she wound up on the receiving end of a ball of fire that incinerated her body to ashes. Robert believes to his core that had he been there that Saturday with his daughter he could have stopped the metahuman that killed her and saved her.
  
  
  Desires: Robert strongly wants to move up within Project Atlas. He has a hard time not being in control even slightly of his own destiny and fate while working within Project Atlas. His feeling is that if he is able to get a promotion, which he feels he deserves, he’d be feel that has a sufficient amount of his own fate in his hands.
  
  
  Wishes: Robert’s wishes are quite simple, things that he knows are impossible to happen. He wishes his wife hadn’t left him, his daughter wasn’t dead, and that he wasn’t caught by the police. Still, he knows such things are impossible. The one thing he does wish for strongly though is that he could have had one last conversation with his daughter, to somehow ask for her forgiveness.
  
  
  Secrets: There are some secrets Robert keeps close. Robert holds no love for MI5, and he does know some of how MI5 operates; however, he suspects that things internally have changed since the world entered the Information Era. Another secret Robert keeps close to his chest are the times that he or another agent he was working with had to step outside the law in order to deliver what they felt was justice. When you’re the top dogs in the United Kingdom, such things do happen. Annie Machon revealed that to the rest of the world when she dumped MI5 secrets to the public, something Robert didn’t discover until he was out of prison.
  
  
  Confidantes: Robert’s secrets are his secrets. He strongly feels that they are his own burden to bare. If he couldn’t keep them, he wouldn’t be any good as an operative. As mentioned before, he also has problems believing others truly have his back, which makes him already less likely to dispel secrets even before taking into consideration his MI5 training.
  
  
  Soft Spots: The only thing that really gets Robert’s soft spot going is seeing another struggling father or a teenage girl who resembles his daughter. For the first, he can’t help but relate himself to the things that another father goes through. With the former, even though he instinctively knows that the person isn’t his daughter, who is to say that in some way she isn’t a part of that other person? Robert realizes it sounds silly to others, and he recognizes that perhaps it is, but even knowing that doesn’t change the way he reacts towards a person who resembles his daughter.
  
  
  Cruel Streaks: Robert really, really hates cocky people. There’s just something about them he can’t stand. As such, Robert will go out of his way to make a cocky person’s life hell. He may not be upfront and confrontational about it, but he knows how to piss someone off subtly. Their favorite coffee might go missing. Perhaps they find their car has been vandalized. Porn emails and magazines start showing up frequently. Robert does take some satisfaction in watching a cocky person become humbled.
  
  
  Quirks: One of the quirks of Robert is that he always seems to have a quote appropriate for the situation at hand. It is like Robert is a walking encyclopedia of quotes. Another thing he hates is ice in his drinks. He’d rather have a drink warm than have ice in it, unless it is water. He abhors when soda gets watered down. It ruins all the flavor. Another thing Robert seems to have an inherent knack for is what direction he is currently traveling. This keen sense of direction is something he honed during his time as a Scout, and it never left him.
  
  
  Dominant Hand: Robert is ambidextrous. He can use either hand with same amount of efficiency.
  
  
  
• IQ: 128
  
  
  Known Languages: English, French, Arabic, some Spanish, and some German.
  
  
  Lures: Although Robert would be reluctant to admit it, there is a certain side of him that is drawn to the idea of having power. It’s one of the reasons he desires to be promoted. And, despite Robert’s thoughts that perhaps he would be better off leaving the line of work altogether, Robert craves the adrenaline rush and thrill that gets from it.
  
  
  Manias: There is nothing that Robert is particularly obsessed with.
  
  
  Memory: Robert has a selective memory. While in fact he has a great memory and can often remember minute details that seem of no importance to others, he frequently chooses to selective forget memories in order to ease his conscience. Typically, he doesn’t think consciously think of these events until he sees, hears, or does something that triggers his brain to remember the memory.
  
  
  Phobias: One of the reasons that Robert is reluctant to admit his lure to having power is that Robert fears he will be corrupted by said power. Robert is under no illusion that he is perfect, far from it. He knows that there are ways he could be tempted to become corrupt, and he doesn’t know if he would be strong enough to resist. This is why the ideal power to Robert is one that gives him some power, but not enough to make him corruptible. While not really a fear, Robert is a bit leery around computers and modern technology. Essentially missing the 2000s because of his imprisonment, Robert is still very untrusting of such technology. The oddest fear Robert has is a sense of fear whenever dealing with dentists. It’s hard for Robert to pinpoint exactly when got the fear, but it was likely when as a child he went to an older dentist, a man who always seemed to be either recovering from a cold or getting a cold. To the child Robert, the man was very intimidating, scary even. And because of the pain that he received with each visit, that in turn eventually developed into a fear and dislike of dentists in general.
  
  
  Savvies: Mentally, Robert is very good at finding the patterns behind things. In Robert’s world, everything has a pattern, the trick is finding it. Once you find the pattern, that is how you can stop the pattern from happening again. This technique served him well while he was MI5 and continued to serve him well in Project Atlas. Robert also has developed a great ability to shrug off things that are bothering him, trying to remain as stoic and statuesque as he can. He often doesn’t even realize what is really driving him to do things. He has become gifted at avoid introspection as much as possible.
  
  
  Ineptities: There is little Robert likes to think he has a problem understanding. He can understand why a person is driven to kill their spouse out a condition of the mind and the circumstances they were placed in. He can understand how a person can become sold that terrorism is the best course of action even. What he can’t understand is the more philosophical questions. Questions such as “Why did his daughter have to die?”, “What is the point or meaning of life?”, “Why do some many people do so many terrible things?” These are the questions that Robert can’t understand. While he can make half-baked guesses and inferences, he feels he can never find the right answer to them.
  
  
  Temperament: While Robert has a natural distaste for any personality test, believing you can’t stereotype personalities, Robert would best be represented by Choleric, although he does not align with everything that a Choleric is said to have.
  
  
  Hobbies: Robert has one hobby that has stuck with him throughout his life: reading. As a young child he loved to read. He was the kid who would read just about every single book he could get his hands on. The wealth of knowledge and information stored within the pages were incredible to a young mind like his. When he became older, in his teenage years and early adulthood, reading was left at the roadside. He simply didn’t have time to do the hobby anymore. But once he found himself in prison, he had all the time in the world to himself. And since the last thing he wanted to do was be introspective, he began to read again, supplied by prison library. In particular, Robert enjoys reading non fiction about historical events of the past, but he has read most of the “great” literary classics.
  
  
  Pet Peeves: Robert has quite a few pet peeves. He is annoyed by those who don’t practice proper hygiene, those who are quick to make a joke about his accent or a Revolutionary War joke or just any joke about America being better than England in general, slow people who walk in front of you, tardiness, unsolicited advice, and those who sing in public. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
  
  
  
• Morality: Robert believes that everyone is different shades of gray, some are just more grey than others. Basically, bad people do good things and good people do bad things. This, in his mind, makes it simpler for him to approach things from the mindset of the metahumans they attempt to capture. He finds that people too often try and take a “Us or Them” mentality in the line of the work, which means they can overlook things about a target.
  
  
  Attitude:
  
  
  Outlook on Life:
  
  
  Perception:
  
  
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• Power: Roland has the power of seismokinesis, that is he can generate vibrations from his body. Typically, this is done by his body passing kinetic energy into objects around him. For example, Roland can punch the air, sending forth a shockwave that will travel in the same direction his hand was going. He could also stomp the ground, sending forth vibrations along the ground that headed in every direction.
  
  
  Roland’s seismokinesis strength is dependant entirely on the speed his body part is moving when he activates his power. If he throws a fast punch, getting his whole body into the motion, he can send out a fast shockwave. However, gas is a poor medium for which vibrations can travel through so the shockwave would at most travel 15 feet before dissipating. If he throws a slower punch, it travels even less than that.
  
  
  On average, shockwaves from his punches would travel 10 feet. Given the speed of the shock wave, there would be about one second to dodge the shockwave even at 15 feet away. However, if a person took one step back to 16 feet away the shockwave wouldn’t hit. Through the ground or a liquid his vibrations travel much farther. Liquids can take the vibration roughly 30 feet away, and solids can take the vibrations up to 50 feet away.
  
  
  Currently, unless he gives a direction before applying his force he cannot control what direction the vibrations will go. So he can control the vibrations sent from a punch because it has a direction, but stomping into the ground sends directions every single way that he cannot control.
  
  
  The amount of damage done by the vibration depends on how close you are to the initial point of the shockwave. If a punch is strong and is going to travel 15 feet away then if you are within three feet of the origin, the force would be equivalent to getting hit by a large thrown metal object. Within six feet, it would feel like being hit by a metal bat. Within nine feet, it would feel like a normal punch. Anything beyond that would feel less than a punch to the point where fifteen away it would feel like a slight push or pinch.
  
  
  His ability of seismokinesis does not currently transfer to objects he is currently holding. For example, he cannot pick up a bat and send out a shockwave from swinging the bat. Nor could he send out a shockwave from firing a gun.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
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• Accessories:
  
  
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• Class: Robert would be defined as middle class in America, although the trends towards the bottom half of middle class.
  
  
  Debt: Robert has paid off all his debts, his college loans paid off with the money from him time in MI5. He had already paid off all his debts by the time he was arrested.
  
  
  Dependents: Robert no longer has any people who are dependant on him. However, he chooses to send some money to his sister and her family each month. While he knows his sister doesn’t need the money, in some way he hopes it might mend the rift between them.
  
  
  Funds: Cash is exclusively what Robert operates out of, having seen first hand what a debt or card card exposes about a person in the modern era. He keeps around $200 on himself at any one time.
  
  
  Income: Project Atlas pays Robert $32,000 a year for his work, money which goes straight to his savings. Beyond just the cash, Robert receives health care, vacation days (which he never uses), subsidized housing and subsidized food. Thus, despite his income only being $32,000/year he has little to no overhead costs while working in Project Atlas, enabling him to save the majority of his income.
  
  
  
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  Enemies: While Project Atlas has plenty of enemies, Robert has a few he adds to the list, including pretty much any intelligence service such as the CIA or MI6. He finds that those agencies are rife with cocky people who are always playing politics and pushing agendas. MI5, while Robert does not hate, he certainly isn’t fond of. He believes MI5 abandoned one of their own instead of helping him, which is why he had to take the actions that eventually culminated in his arrest.
  
  
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• Abnormalities:
  
  
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• Abode:
  
  
  Citizenship: Presently, Robert is still a citizen of England. He has not, nor does he plan to, become a citizen of the United States.
  
  
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  Hometown: Fulham, England is the place Robert calls home. It is a middle class suburb situated right next to London. It is where he lived and was raised for all of his childhood. In fact, he enjoyed the area so much that when it came time to buy a real house with a baby on the way, Robert convinced his wife to settle down in Fulham.
  
  
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• Accent/Dialect:
  
  
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• History:
  
  
  
• WIP
  
  
  
• Other:
  
  
  

 

[Ozmic]

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Geoffrey Alan Vaughn
  
  
  Codename: Protean
  
  
  Aliases: Geoff, 'G'
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 28
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5'7", 159 lbs.
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Dark brown
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: Arms and shoulders completely covered in tattoos with some 'drifting' on to chest and back areas. Eventually looks like they will all be connected.
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  
  At first glance, Geoffrey is an average looking white male of almost thirty. His shoulders are not particularly broad and he is slender, but holds a bit of built up muscle behind his slim frame. He's usually seen dressed in rather plain attire: jeans or slacks, plain shoes and a solid colored button up shirt with a half-tied tie (generally pulled at nervously).
  
  
  Despite the shock of messy brown hair, dark eyes and thick framed glasses, the man's most striking feature would be map of tattoos that splay brightly across his upper body. Monstrous creatures of all manner can be seen here, sewn together by a skillful artist on a canvas of flesh.
  
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  
  Information Security Analyst III
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Geoffrey Vaughn is the very definition of skittishness. Never staying still for long, the man's general attitude is one of semi-panic and disdain. Always one to side (at first) with the 'worst of things', the man stays many steps ahead - all the while being paranoid about the steps that have passed.
  
  
  Despite all this, he is almost neurotic about finishing a task and finishing it right. Many late night and even full days have been spent working tirelessly to solve a problem, only stopping for nourishment and rest when he's either reminded that those are important, or simply toppling over from exhaustion.
  
  
  At first glace (and even the second), G might seem like a very antisocial person. He is, in reality, deeply caring for those he trusts and calls friends, he just has a very difficult time opening up and 'showing' his emotions.
  
  
  When his powers are mentioned, he becomes even more withdrawn than usual, only working with a select few that he trusts and even keeping his notes to himself. This likely stems from the reactionary nature of his powers and his paranoia that he will cause others harm or react in a destructive manner.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  First and foremost, he aspires to one day gain greater control and understanding over the powers he's been granted. He wishes to share the understanding of his own powers and the abilities of others, with non-metahumans, in an attempt to bring an end to the fear that surrounds being different.
  
  
  Secondly, he aspires to keep learning in all things and to improve his ability to interact with those in his various relationships - working or otherwise.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Character History
  
  Born in a small town in Maine, Geoffrey's parents were nothing special. His father Kaleb was a factory worker and his mother Georgia a part-time teacher's assistant and substitute. His sister Kaitlyn, four years his junior, was very close to him. After his father's death - accidental and at work - their family became even closer to each other.
  
  
  There wasn't much for extended family and the three were all each other had.
  
  
  Their bond seemed unbreakable and, for awhile, it really was. But, everything changed when he was in high school.
  
  
  He had excelled in the field of technology, various software and coding becoming a second language to him even then. 'Gifted' they called him, he took all manner of special courses and advanced lessons to fuel this craft. When he'd been presented with a full scholarship to a fantastic university, he jumped at the chance with high hopes.
  
  
  That night, his family celebrated with him. They'd been so proud. Soon, they would only look away from him in fear.
  
  
  Not even a week after their celebration, Geoffrey and Kaitlyn had been walking home from a movie when it happened. Some junkie, drugged out on who-knows-what, had stopped them on the shortcut home and demanded all they had. They tried to get away, until he pulled out the knife and swiped it wildly at G's arm, slashing it open.
  
  
  Then the wind came and took everything away.
  
  
  - - -
  
  
  Years later, he had graduated college. The boy had turned into an eccentric man, jumping immediately into the field of Information Security and working his way from company to company.
  
  
  He moved, far away from Maine, and continued to thrive in his own way. Not only in his career, but in the study of what had happened that changed his life. As he studied it, he became less bitter toward his seeming ability, and learned more and more about his metahuman condition.
  
  
  This lead him to Project Atlas, or rather, lead Project Atlas to him.
  
  
  Despite his caution, he awoke one morning to a pair of well-dressed people at his door that had an offer for him. They knew all about his incident as a child and about what he was. Said they could use people like him, especially with his proficiency in his current field.
  
  
  Originally, he feared the offer. He had become paranoid of revealing what he was and what he could do. But, before long, curiosity took hold of him and he reached out to them to offer his services - in exchange for their help in understanding what he was and what he could do (as well as a pretty damn livable paycheck).
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Reactive Adaptation
  
  
  Geoff can either instantly develop abilities to deal with sudden threats or dynamically learn from experiences in tense or stressful situations.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Geoffrey's biggest weakness is the lack of control. Where as many metahumans can switch their powers on an off, the very nature of G's abilities prevents that. As the name suggests, his adaptive skills are reactionary and fueled by stress or extreme emotions in general.
  
  
  The 'randomness' that comes with such a seemingly 'limitless' pool of abilities is also a weakness of sorts. Even if replicated situations, there is nothing that says a certain ability will come to the surface time and time again. It is almost as if instinct grabs the first useful ability and thrusts it forward, depending on the situation at hand.
  
  
  The abilities that manifest may also be extremely taxing on the man. Not a bodybuilder of any sort, any combative or physically taxing abilities will certainly leave G very worn out and exhausted.
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Some examples of abilities displayed are as follows:
  
  
  
  Aerokinesis:
  The first recorded usage of his abilities. In response to a violent situation, a young Geoffrey blasted a potential attacker backwards as well as the sibling he was trying to protect.
  
  
  
  Enhanced Intelligence:
  Various recorded usages. Under extreme stress or deadlines, G will sometimes have a sudden boost in all intellectual properties for either a short or extended time period. Certain cases have been reported in which he's unsure of how he managed to solve something, but other times he retains the information and the processes that it took to get there.
  
  
  
  Automatic Reflexes/Enhanced Combative Reflex:
  In two separate trails, G has shown the ability to not only automatically dodge incoming physical attacks and projectiles, but counter-attack as well.
  
  
  [More added as situations are recorded and processed.]
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Writing Sample
  
  "Oh come on, Geoff," Kaitlyn joked with a sneer. "You can't tell me there's not one gal that's got your eye."
  
  
  The boy sighed and raked back his messy brown hair, rolling his eyes at his younger sister. "Damn it, K, you've got to stop jumping me about this..." he grumbled, prodding her with an elbow. "Besides, I'm going to be going off to college anyway. I have way too much other crap to deal with without any of the lovely ladies from this town managing to mess it up."
  
  
  "Hey!" she retorted, giving him a prod and a grin. "I'm one of those 'lovely ladies' you jerk!"
  
  
  They both laughed and kept walking, making small talk as they headed home from the theater. The stupid comedy had put the two into a silly mood.
  
  
  "I'll miss you, ya'know," she said suddenly and somberly, looking off at nothing for a second.
  
  
  "Hey, I can come back all the time and visit, Kaitie," he replied with a frown, going to add a retort when a yell interrupted them.
  
  
  "HEY, you fuckin' kids!"
  
  
  They froze and looked up. Over them stood a giant of a man, sneering down. He reeked of filth and the gutter, and G could smell a mix of alcohol on his breath... and something sharp and acrid. Chemical.
  
  
  Kaitlyn moved behind him and he spoke, unable to help the shudder in his voice. "S-sorry sir, we'll get outta' here. We must've t-taken a wrong turn trying t-to ge--"
  
  
  "Shup!" the giant slurred, grinning a rotted grin and leaning further over them. "Gimme' alla ya suff!"
  
  
  "W-what?" the two stuttered at once, causing the man to grab Geoff by the scruff of his shirt.
  
  
  "YER STUFF!" he spat, spittle spraying the boy's face.
  
  
  Fighting back a wretch, Geoff pulled away and pushed backward to try and move his sister out of the small alley. Blood thrummed hard in his ears and his hands had began to shake. "J-j-just lettus go, mister," he whispered weakly and softly, feeling bile rise in the back of his throat bitterly.
  
  
  When the knife gleamed forward from the man's belt and swung, biting into the boy's arm, Geoffrey Vaughn's world went silent and very cold. The man had started yelling and distorting in his vision, ranting and raving about their 'suff' and waving the bloodied knife around. Sound rushed back and the man recoiled. Another noise blanketed all others and, Geoffrey realized he was screaming against the wind that now howled around them.
  
  
  "LEAVE US ALONE!" he shrieked, voice seeming to boom in the whipping wind.
  
  
  The next thing he saw, he did not understand. The man in front of him lifted into the air. His knife clattering away, the wind pulsed and blasted him flying through the alley and into a parked car in front of the next alley. Slowly turning, Geoffrey caught a glimpse of his sister laying at the end of the alleyway in a crumpled heap.
  
  
  The ground came up to meet him, and everything turned to darkness.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Other
  
  After their mother's death, Geoffrey's sister Kaitlyn (now Kaitlyn O'Malley) formed the organization MAMM, "Mothers Against the Metahuman Menace". MAMM is a hate group against all metahuman kind, ignoring the possible good they can do for the world and only focusing on the evils.
  
  
  To his knowledge, she has never 'outed' him as a metahuman. However, given their limited contact since childhood, he cannot confirm this.
  
  
  

 

[Teh Frixz]

Spoiler

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Penelope Urbain
  
  
  Codename: Pluto
  
  
  Aliases: Penny
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 24
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5' 2" 85lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: White & Black
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: None
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: A frightfully frail figure, Penny is abnormally thin and sickly looking. Large circles around her eyes, ribs visible under the skin, small lesions in high friction areas and a sickly pallor. She gives off the impression of someone dying from a long battle with a terminal disease.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  
  A lengthy series of power plants found nationwide
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Restricted through most of her life, Penny is an explosion barely contained. Raised via intercom and computer terminal, the majority of her physical experiences with people via a lead lined suit. 95% of her life has been indoors and most of that spent watching TV or reading. In recent years, her relative freedom in the internet has given her an extremely skewed view of reality, viewing most of the world as an anonymous chanboard or a self righteous blog program. By no means is she naive, her experiences on the net making her second guess almost everything and taking nothing at face value. Only when confronted with something in reality does her inexperience with life show, anything physically done around her drawing instant attention and adoration.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  Become something other than what she currently is, a fuel rod. Penny wants a real life and one not half lived through a computer screen. If she could cure herself, she would. More than anything she wants a family.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Most of Penny's life has been spent being hidden away. Deep inside various installations disguised as Nuclear power facilities. Her life has been that of a living fuel rod with no end in sight. She's been well kept, most of her interactions with people coming from an internet connection.
  
  
  Up until a few years ago, she was quite limited to her small room. Then a gift arrived. A peculiar lead lined suit. Baggy and very heavy, it isn't some form fitting cat suit but it certainly made transport between facilities easier.
  
  
  With Atlas kicking into full swing, a more mobile version of the suit was introduced. Capable of stopping low energy kinetics, it is still bulky and hard to maneuver in but less likely to rip and irradiate any nearby towns.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Fuel Rod - Penelope is a living beacon of radioactive energy. Passively emitting radiation background levels comparable to most of the radiation emitted by her non living counterparts on a daily basis. Skin samples have been passed off as polonium. She retains limited control over this emission, mostly related to her relative emotional state. This control includes range, distance and half life. It is as of yet unknown if her emission is capable of splitting an atom and creating a chain reaction but it is best not tested. Penelope also retains immunity to other radioactive elements, showing no signs of degeneration from their presence.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Lead and various shielding - Like other radioactive elements, Penny is unable to emit through lead and water. Both diminish her levels substantially, lead nearly completely.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  A lead lined suit for transport. Extremely heavy and uncomfortable but usable for moving Penelope with little to no radiation leakage.
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Some substantial ability with electronic interfaces
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  
• Other
  
  

 

[Trignome]

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Willoughby T.(Thea) Fu
  
  
  Codename: Soapbox
  
  
  Aliases/Nicknames: Will, WTF, Miss Chan, Miss Chin, Miss Chen, THAT Asian girl
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 18
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5’2” 166 lbs (1.57 meters, 75 kg)
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Black hair, dark brown eyes
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  Birth Date: 5/16/1996
  
  
  Birth Place: Athens, Georgia
  
  
  Current Status: Alive but stressed; undergrad at Columbia U.
  
  
  Current Residence: New York, NY
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Do you like Doritos? What a coincidence, I…a cute guy is sitting at our table.
  ​
  
  
  
  Appearance
  
  If models and Adonis-reincarnates are the cream of the crop, then Will is the frog swimming around in the dregs of the barrel. And unfortunately, no amount of magical kisses will rescue her from what she describes as “aesthetic mediocrity”. With her short stature and chubby figure, she’s unrefined at her worst. But when Will is at her best, she is an absolute, jaw-dropping…well, she looks about the same actually. She’s constantly worrying about her flat nose, heavy jawline, and weird, puffy Asian lids scaring away romantic interests, though her friends all think she’s being far too critical of herself. The only feature Will claims to really like is her hair. She keeps it in its natural color and texture, but often experiments with its styling and usually carries a comb in the outer pocket of her messenger bag.
  
  
  Nestled in a pocket adjacent to her comb is an arsenal of lip balms and lip gloss. Despite religiously browsing make-up tutorials on Youtube, Will just can’t seem to get anything but her lips to “work” properly. In compensation for the inadequacy of other cosmetics products, Will wears lip gloss every day, all the time. This can be a tiring ordeal, since she has to apply a fresh layer after she’s eaten; a situation that occurs more often than she’d like to admit. But surely, her efforts will be rewarded when she can catch the attention of that cute hipster guy from Philosophy class, right? Or maybe the tennis player with the nice abs will sit next to her in the lobby, inexplicably drawn to her lip luster.
  
  
  On-campus, Will is extremely diligent in maintaining a clean, wholesome appearance. Her wardrobe contains a modest array of collared shirts, sweaters, and dark jeans, which she wears to classes on a near daily basis. The only exceptions are her art and design classes, where she is usually found gallivanting about the room in sweats and a smock-like T shirt. Coincidentally, that T shirt also serves as her pajamas, a habitual nightwear she has thanks to her tendency of dozing off in the middle of her nightly projects. Off-campus, Will dresses down in baggy, well-worn hoodies and jeans, which gives her greater anonymity in the bustling streets of New York. She is extremely self-conscious about drawing attention to herself in such a big city and the paranoia, coupled with her runaway imagination, has Will convinced that all sorts of horrible, Hollywood-esque disasters would befall her if she stands out too much. Unwarranted catcallers, kidnappings, psychopathic killers, alien abductions…
  
  
  Occupation of Record
  
  Part-time waitress/fast food worker: She passes through these jobs pretty quickly, due to her unfortunate habit of sampling customers’ orders.
  
  
  Commissioned artist: Occasionally takes requests for advertisement/conceptual designs, but she’s rather sensitive to critique and guards her sketchbooks with the ferocity of a mother bear.
  
  
  Personality
  
  From a young age, Will has always been obsessively following reports and media coverage of the metahuman population, an interest fueled by concern and macabre fascination. She herself likens the interest to continually picking at a scab, even if it hurts, just to see if it’ll bleed. Though as a child she often entertained the fantasy of waking up one day, suddenly able to change into a frilly magical girl like her favorite anime characters, Will quickly grew out of the phase as she realized more and more the stigma and prejudice real metahumans had to go through. But more than the sympathy she felt towards the ostracized people, she was scared of how dangerous and prolific they were becoming. Even when reports of crimes perpetrated by meta-activity became commonplace, such news always managed to scare Will.
  
  
  On one particularly memorable day, her parents had come home from work only to find their 7-year-old daughter had barricaded her bedroom door because there was a televised news coverage of a metahuman that’d robbed a house in the neighboring state. Will’s parents had to spend the rest of the evening trying to coax her out to eat dinner, while her brother just laughed and went about his day. The feats of the Guardians weren’t enough to sooth Will’s fears, as she imagined increasingly improbable situations where the Guardians wouldn’t be able to protect people, like a unified force of antagonistic metahumans, or nuclear warfare, or alien abductions...The discovery of her own inherent power only exacerbated her fears, as she was forced to consider the very real possibility that she herself would become mistreated and outcast by normal humans.
  
  
  Besides her bouts of extreme paranoia, Will has a rather pessimistic mindset. Or, perhaps it’d be more accurate to say she has a morbid mindset, since she isn’t cynical and depressed so much as hyper-aware of all disastrous possibilities in a given situation. She is quick to dismiss anything claimed to be “purely beneficial” or “perfect”, and angers easily around people who’d believe or make such claims. Will is extremely honest of her feelings, sometimes unintentionally so, as she is prone to wild hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions. Oftentimes, she will blurt out her thoughts, not really knowing or intentionally disregarding the fact that her opinion is unwelcome and even offensive for those around her. And if anyone were to comment on what Will says or does, she will give the unfortunate individual a rather memorable tongue-lashing.
  
  
  Will is a thinker, and has learned to process situations faster so that she isn't always preoccupied with her runaway thoughts. This allows her to serve as the "idea-man" of her friends' schemes, though her hyperbolic mentality will sometimes lead her to very impractical solutions. She is also partial to first impressions, and any attempts to change her opinions on someone is met with the stubbornness of a mule.
  
  
  Take Five Summation
  
  Strengths
  
  
  • Creative
    
  • Quick-thinking
    
  • Honest/Expressive
    
  • Sociable
    
  • Independent-minded
    
  
  
  Flaws
  
  
  • Pessimistic
    
  • Impulsive/whimsical
    
  • Quick to judge
    
  • Self-absorbed
    
  • Stubborn
    
  
  
  Goals and Aspirations
  
  Will has no set goals for the future, and is more preoccupied with paying her university’s tuition through scholarships, several part-time jobs, and frugality. She wants to avoid taking out any student loans, and absolutely does not want to ask her parents for help, especially since they already had to pay for her older brother’s medical school expenses. If she can survive the next few years, Will wants to realize her dream of being an artist entirely independent of patrons or commissioned projects. But for now, she’s happy enough experiencing city life with her friends and sketchbooks at hand.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Chapter 1: First names should have trial-periods
  ​
  
  
  
  Beneath the light of a half-baked moon, before a cup of well-cooked ramen, sat a little boy 8 years of age and already old. That is to say, he felt inadequate, abandoned to the silence of an empty house. His father had rushed his mother to the hospital, and the two had yet to return. But the little boy wasn't sure if he wanted his parents to come back; for he knew they would come back with a baby. His replacement. The boy sat in silence, slowly stirring the noodles in the cup with a single chopstick. Moonlight shone through the window and settled in translucent grooves across his face. He wiped a trail of snot on his shirt-sleeve and did his best not to cry. The tears fell silently.
  
  
  Days later, the household had gained a small, pudgy, squalling addition. There were now two children in the family; William and Thea. One son and one daughter. Now, the naming process in the family was rather strange. The husband would give a male name and the wife would give a female name. Once the child was born, they would decide which would be the first name, according to the child's gender. So it was with their son William who always denied that he had a middle name, or otherwise claimed that "D" stood for "Daniel". Not Daphnia. Never Daphnia. The 2nd child, born on a half-moon evening, was Thea, but only until her 4th birthday. She disliked the name Thea, it hissed through the teeth and came out thick, like the rice porridge her mother boiled for breakfast every morning. Thea lay on the tongue, slow and dumb. It was an ugly name. So on her birthday, seated in front of the 4-candled cake, the little girl loudly pronounced to her family that she would hence-forth be "Will".
  
  
  Her parents, thinking it was merely a phase, decided to humor their daughter's wishes and accepted the change with the thought that she'd return to her right name soon. Will's older brother was much more upset by the announcement. This brat played with his toys, read his comic books, and took up his free time because of "babysitting responsibilities"...and now she was out to steal his name? Not a week after the little girl's 4th birthday, the Fu family had adjusted to two new names: William and Thea became Liam and Will. The transition was easy enough for the son, and after a few months wrestling with the teasing calls of "WILL-iam" from his friends, Liam finally had his new name recognized. It was a bit more difficult for Will, though, especially when she began attending grade school. Her teacher, a sweet but prudish young woman, insisted that the little girl be called by her proper name, her real name. The morning attendance check became a horribly tedious ordeal. The teacher would sit, tapping her clipboard and repeatedly calling the girl's old name, to no avail. The little girl would sit in mulish silence, refusing to raise her hand as her face grew steadily redder and scrunched in frustration. She would be Will, or else she would never ever go to school again. EVER.
  
  
  Concerned with this strangely precocious child, the young lady phoned the girl's parents and scheduled for a meeting. After much apology and explanation, the parents and the teacher finally decided on a compromise. For now, the girl would be "Will" in school, until eventually this childish whimsy was forgotten and she naturally slipped back into her old name. But after several months had passed, "Will" was now Will. The phase had become a permanence, and the teacher had thrown in the towel. She was simply glad to have the little girl out of her classroom and into the next grade year.
  
  
  Chapter 2: With great power comes great misfortunes
  
  ​
  
  
  
  As a child on the cusp of double-digit maturity, Will had finally outgrown her grandiose plans of being a magical girl and fighting crime with a sparkly pink wand. What with the still constant news coverage of meta-human activity, Will became disillusioned of what she’d once thought was a glamorous life of flashy espionage and celebrity status. This cynicism was exacerbated by her new-found knowledge of being a metahuman. Her ability wasn’t discovered in a sudden, life-changing revelation; it slowly dawned on Will that her exceptional talent for blending colors in her drawings might actually be an unnatural phenomenon. Through her own experimentation with various mediums, she was able to confirm the fact that she was, indeed, a metahuman.
  
  
  Rather than telling her parents about her ability, Will chose to remain silent, for fear that she wouldn’t be able to protect herself if knowledge of her meta-human status got out. Because her ability was nothing particularly noticeable, Will gradually explored its capabilities without fear of being caught. Her bedroom closet was soon heaped with boxes and jars of art supplies, which her parents took as a sign of their daughter's creative liberties. She did her best to lead a normal life, which was not too difficult, given the nature of her metahuman ability. Deciding it would be best just to live life as she had before her discovery, Will passed through middle school and most of high school as any kid might; with friends, frivolous relationships, and a few personal secrets. Her secret just happened to be an unusual one. But Will constantly reminded herself that she was still normal, that she was still human.
  
  
  Though she frequently used her ability to improve the compositional quality of her art projects, or to create hilarious typos on public signs when no one was watching, and occasionally to cheat on a particularly difficult test, Will never felt the temptation to explore seriously criminal possibilities of her ability until her freshman year of college.
  
  
  Chapter 3: We want YOU...to join this clandestine organization
  
  ​
  
  
  
  College. It wasn't half as nice as the glossy pamphlets and clean cut websites had made it seem, with their picturesque panoramas of idyllic, flowery campuses and clusters of well-diversified students all smiling happily while reading their calculus textbooks. Will was on guard from the start; surely, it was impossible to find students so enthusiastic about math. As she feared, an Ivy-league university was expensive, very expensive. Her parents were already dipping into their savings to pay for their son's medical school tuition, so Will decided to take matters into her own hands. If she lived on campus, and cooked her own meals, she'd save a bit of money. And there was also the scholarship money from her various art submissions which, if added to commission payments and a few part-time jobs here and there, just might...just might...
  
  
  Will was at her wits end, stressing about the horrible possibility of taking out a student loan and always living with the weight of back payments on her shoulders, when another solution popped up in her thoughts. At first, she was apprehensive about doing it, but after some serious consideration weighing the pros and cons, Will decided to give it a try. Her first counterfeit bill was a mess. The finer lines blurred into a greenish smudge and the watermark didn't stay in its place. Since she was already convinced this was her only remaining option, Will stubbornly refused to stop until she'd gotten a perfect counterfeit bill. Again and again, she tried to copy the design of 1 and 5 dollar bills, tearing up the failures and flushing them down the toilet. Until finally, after weeks of near sleepless nights and covert experimentation by the dim glow of a nightlight plugged into the outlet of the dormitory bathrooms, Will walked out of the campus bookstore with a coursebook bought with her very own counterfeit cash. She was extremely nervous about getting caught, yet she also felt an exhilarating sense of pride for what she'd managed to accomplish on her own.
  
  
  She promised herself that she'd only do this if funds for tuition and art supplies ran low. And she'd make the bills as carefully as possible, so once she passed them on, they could still be used. Surely then, Will wasn't really cheating anyone out of their money; she was merely distributing newly-minted bills. No harm done, and hopefully, she wouldn't get arrested. A few months passed, and Will had already settled into a system of minting that was efficient and much less risky than her earlier method of huddling in a corner of the bathroom and frantically dashing into a stall with her bounty when the slightest sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway. All was generally peaceful and as of then, no one seemed the slightest bit suspicious of Will and her little secrets.
  
  
  It was in the winter term of her freshman year that Will was first approached by Project Atlas. They knew that she was a likely candidate for having a metahuman ability, and at first Will was scared that they knew of her counterfeiting and were going to report her to a governmental facility to be experimented on. Or, worse yet, they would convict her as a criminal and lock her in a tiny, island cell where she'd never see the light of day again. To her subsequent surprise and relief, Project Atlas was merely curious as to how her ability worked, and if she could be of any help in future missions. Thinking that the organization would maintain her anonymity as a metahuman, Will agreed to demonstrate and explain her ability for the representative at a later date. A few weeks later, Project Atlas had yet another potential contractor at its disposal, and Will had yet another source of funds.
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 4: It can only get better from here?
  ​
  
  
  
  Despite her initial contact with Project Atlas, Will has only participated a few times as forensics for minor crime scenes, or to mess with the copying and doctoring of documents for a covert case. Her involvement with Project Atlas mostly involves her use of their training facilities for her own experimentation of her abilities. So far, she hasn't worked with any extremely proactive teams, and she prefers it this way. Especially since all the other metahumans have legit abilities; that is to say, they can actually kill people. The possibility of constantly being around such dangerous people gives Will great anxiety.
  
  
  For now, she is happy enough being payed a stippling for trifling jobs, and left well alone for all other occasions.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Oh god…if people find out about this, I’ll be forced to work in a laundromat for the rest of my life.
  ​
  
  
  
  Power
  
  Depictukinesis (Art Manipulation): the ability to manipulate substances that fall under a person's specialization. A sculptor manipulates stone, a musician manipulates sound. In Will's case, her artistic investment in 2-dimensional art allows her to manipulate stains and paper/canvas materials.
  
  
  • Animation: A subset of Will's art manipulation. She can give motion, or a crude semblance of "life", to objects that she has influenced with her depictukinesis.
    
  
  
  Mechanics of Depictukinesis
  
  The precision and accuracy of art manipulation is dependent on Will's proximity with the stained surface.
  
  Direct Contact:
  
  The ability is most effective when she is in direct contact with the residual substance. If she is touching the residual substance (such as ink) it is easy for her to focus the movement to small clusters of molecules, or even individual molecules of the residual substance. She can expand or condense the spacing of the molecules of the residual substance, using her finger as a focal point. If she is attempting to move the entire mass of residual substance, or if she is attempting to space the molecules evenly, she would touch the canvas instead. (Such as paper.)
  
  
  
  Close (0-3 meters):
  
  If Will is near the stain, but not touching it, she does not have the ability to move individual molecules, though she can still create specific clusters of molecules to move (like a blob of paint). Adjusting the density of the stain is still possible at a close distance, but again, the precision and efficiency of the ability decreases as the distance to the stain increases.
  
  
  
  Moderate (3-10 meters):
  
  At a moderate distance, it is no longer possible to customize the amount of residual substance being moved. Only pre-set, or natural states of the stain, can be shifted around (such as letters in a word). The destination of a section of residual substance cannot be accurately determined. Rather, there is a radius area for which the probability of the stain's new location is greatest. The effect is similar to the cross-hairs of a machine gun; the bullets do not hit exactly where the gun is aimed, but in the general direction that the gun is pointed in. Density adjustment is practically impossible in the further reaches of a moderate radius.
  
  
  
  Far (10-??? meters):
  
  From a distance greater than 5 meters, Will can no longer adjust the density of residual substances, and has great difficulty moving stains across a base. At extremely far distances, Will can barely discern a separation between residual and stained substances, let alone move one along the surface of the other. Oftentimes, she simply cannot focus her ability enough to cleanly move a stain, which usually results in a "smear" effect where some molecules of the residual substance trails behind the bulk of the stain section that Will is attempting to move.
  
  The speed of Will's ability, as well as the focus required to manipulate the stains, is dependent on the combined effect of the residual substance and the canvas material.
  
  
  Residual Substances
  
  
  • Thin liquids: The easiest of residues, thin liquids move very predictably, allowing for less required focus when manipulating. As a thin liquid, though, residual substances tend to run very quickly, and takes quite a bit of time to set into a new position.
    
  • Viscous liquids: Depending on the viscosity/polarity of the liquid, viscous liquids can sometimes be easier to control than thin liquids. It takes little focus to maintain the manipulated stain until it naturally sets into its new position or density, but the actual moving of viscous liquids takes a long amount of time. Viscous liquids are also the most prone to smearing and having uneven density manipulations.
    
  
  
  Canvas Substances
  
  
  • Smooth: Smooth surfaces are the easiest to move stains around, but do not keep density adjustments very well. Quite a bit of focus is necessary to maintain the new form of the stain until it has set into a smooth surface. (Plastic, metal, glass)
    
  • Porous: These surfaces are personally Will's favorite. Regardless of the residual substance, a porous surface has good grip, which in turn means that manipulated stains set in very easily. If the residual substance happens to be a thin liquid, however, mobility of often compromised, and the liquid absorbs very quickly. (Computer paper, tissue paper)
    
  • Fibrous: Fibrous surfaces are much like porous surfaces, except with even less mobility and a usually more difficult to navigate surface, due to the nature of fibers. (wood, construction paper, cloth)
    
  • Moist: Any surfaces that are moist give greater mobility for residual substances. Unfortunately, liquid stains don't set well on moist surfaces, which means liquid stain/moist surface combinations require quite a bit of concentration so that the stain doesn't bleed or run onto different surfaces.
    
  • Dry: Surfaces that are dry are rather neutral. They don't offer greater mobility, nor do they actively impede stain mobility. They set most stains with moderate effort, though thin liquid stains sometimes set a little too quickly.
    
  
  
  Mechanics of Animation
  
  Animation is the combative subset of Will's ability. In lieu with her manipulation over 2-dimensional art, Will can give motion, or a crude semblance of "life", to canvas objects that she has influenced. Canvas objects can be anything that serves as a stain surface or 2-dimensional art space. For example, if Will tore up a sheet of paper and dotted each piece with a bit of ink/paint/other stain, she can use the paper as a projectile. A flurry of confetti doesn't seem particularly scary, but the lighter the material is, the faster she can move it. And the denser the material is, the more painful it'll be when it hits. Will can also indirectly use animated substances to distract/temporarily blind/or push more effective objects into an enemy's path.
  
  
  Speed (Distance dependent)
  
  
  • Moving the object with leverage from hands (max 150 km/hour)
    
  • Adjacent to objects, only a few meters away (max 100 km/hour)
    
  • Near objects, several meters away (max 70 km/hour)
    
  • Far objects, would take some time to actually walk to (max 40 km/hour)
    
  • Even further...need to run in order to get to in reasonable time (max 20 km/hour)
    
  
  
  Precision (Focus dependent)
  
  
  The better that Will can concentrate on the animation of an object, the more accurate the object's motion will be to the intended effect. For example, in a situation where Will might attempt to send a written message to someone by folding the paper into a crane, and giving its wings a rudimentary, flapping motion, the crane's imitation of flight would be more accurate if she's safely stationary than if she's running around dodging bullets.
  
  
  Complexity of Motion (Art application dependent)
  
  
  • Staining: The fastest, and most convenient method of animation. Unfortunately, this process is dependent on the fact that Will has materials that she can use to stain the objects she wishes to animate.
    Temporary/Fresh marking: Something that runs easily, or is otherwise rather thin in density, makes the fastest and most maneuverable animations. Unfortunately, fresh stains and temporary stains are more susceptible to sabotage by the environment. Rain and humid atmospheres can make very thin stains bleed or completely wash out, while temporary paints run the risk of chipping off during a collision or other assault. Will usually uses temporary stains for one-time animations of objects, as well as projectiles which only need a quick, direct path towards their target. All stains begin as temporary/fresh markings.
    
  • Permanent marking: Some fresh stains, when dried or given time to set into the animated object, become permanent stains. Permanent markings have greater precision, a significantly lower risk of failure from environmental factors, and more independence of movement from Will's focus. Unlike temporary/freshly marked objects, Will does not have to exercise a constant focus on the motion of a permanently marked object. When combined with a cut or folded object, Will can give the object a simple, mechanical motion which will run in a continuous loop until the object is destroyed. An example would be a permanently marked paper frog, which can hop about on its hind legs, independent of Will's attention, until she either takes away its animation or its hind legs are damaged.
    
  
  
  [*]Cutting: By cutting sheets/paper, Will is able to alter the natural form of the animated object, which may lead to greater maneuverability. (A strip of paper, as opposed to an entire sheet) However, cutting does not fall under her artistic specialization, being more of a sculpting process. Thus, Will must actually apply a stain, in addition to the cutting, in order for the cut object to move.
  
  
  [*]Folding: Folding canvas materials to imitate certain objects leads to an easier animation process. It keeps the animated object compact, more stable, and easier to control. If Will were to animate a sheet of paper, she'd need to apply stains evenly across the entire page, so that it can support its own weight when in motion. However, if she were to fold the paper into a simple airplane, she only has to apply a stain on each wing and a small stain on the tip of the plane for steering, because its compact form naturally gains support from its wings, as well as directional stability from its wedge shape. Folding, unlike cutting, is an alternate method to the marking process that can give animation to the object. The more complex the folded structure, the more complex the mechanics of animation. For example, a paper crane could flap its wings and glide through the air, but a boat would only work as a simple projectile.
  
  
  [*]Other: Will has briefly experimented with the possibility of creating golems out of sculpted clay. But, due to such material being outside of her artistic field, she has had little success. There is still a possibility that with time and patience, she could extend her ability to other artistic forms, such as literature and music. As of late, there has been no fruition to her experimentation.
  
  
  
  Animated Objects (Composition dependent)
  
  
  • Liquids: Inks, paints, and other aesthetic liquids are manipulable without prior alteration, as they are already materials encompassed in Will's specialization. Her control over the liquid depends on the density/% composition of the staining liquid to the base liquid. For example, a cup that is half clear water, half ink will be easier to animate than a cup that is 3/4 clear water, 1/4 ink. Also, liquids tend not to keep their shape very well, and thus make poor projectiles at slow speeds. They are the most affected by gravitational pull, and cannot travel upwards or stay airborne very well.
    
  • Paper: Papers are actually a sub-set of the greater category, sheets. However, due to the sheerness of the material, as well as its easy manipulation and light-weight, paper sheets are far more effective for quick animation. Will also folds origami as a stress-reliever and hobby, which allows for greater efficiency of creating a paper object that can be animated. The problem with papers are their delicacy, a side-affect of the material's sheerness. It is a material most difficult to move in unpredictable winds or humid/rainy weather.
    
  • Sheets: Wooden planks, canvases, cloth, and thin metal plating all fall under the category of sheets. These materials usually are unfoldable, either because they don't keep their shape, or because of the brittleness of their body. Depending on the nature of the sheet material, it is either easier to maneuver (cloth) or gives greater force of impact as a projectile (metal). They are much less susceptible to damage and keep their stains much better than common paper can. Unfortunately, because most sheets are unfoldable, Will can only animate such materials with markings, which is not always an option available to her.
    
  • Solids: Anything that Will can paint on, that does not have a 2-dimensional/malleable form, falls in this category. Due to the nature of solids, Will can only animate very small solid objects, such as pebbles, or objects that are already capable of movement, like a cart. Either way, solid objects are difficult to move, and have the slowest speeds of any animated object. But they are also the most stable animations, of all the materials that Will can use her ability on.
    
  
  
  Focus (Emotionally/Environmentally dependent)
  
  
  • Maximum Efficiency
    Unstressed, stationary position, calm environment, no obstruction of sight
    
  • Anxiety/concern, slight motion, a busy but passive environment, some objects that obstruct sight
    
  • Excitement, constant motion, an interactive environment, many objects that obstruct sight
    
  • Anger, fast motion, fighting environment, moving objects and/or attackers
    
  • Unconscious, restrained position, extremely chaotic environment, fully blinded
    
  
  
  [*]Minimum/No Efficiency
  
  
  
  Weaknesses
  
  Artistic Perfectionism: Because of her nature as an artist, Will is never satisfied with simply "making do" with her abilities. Manipulated stains must be placed exactly where she wants them, and she's easily frustrated by the lack of precision that her ability has at greater distances. When marking an object she wants to animate, Will likes to create aesthetically simplistic stains if she has the time to spare. And even if the situation is dire, she can't help but at least make the stains as even and perfectly spaced as possible on the animated object.
  
  
  Seasonal Allergies: In the Fall and Spring seasons, Will can usually be seen toting a box of tissues and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Will usually cannot focus very well because of the congestion in her sinuses, thus leading to a decrease in her ability effectiveness. The constant sneezing doesn't help matters, either.
  
  
  Time Management: Will procrastinates on everything, even more than the typical college student. Laundry day only happens when all clothing items have been worn irredeemably, term papers are started less than a week before due dates and class is usually in full swing by the time Will walks through the doors. Her internal clock is wholly inaccurate, thanks to her erratic sleeping schedule.
  
  
  Special Weaponry
  
  Various gel/ink pens
  
  
  A small pack of finger paints
  
  
  1 notebook
  
  
  1 pack of origami paper squares
  
  
  A paintbrush and bottle of india ink
  
  
  A handful of small washers, each painted with acrylics
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills
  
  Imitating stylistic elements: a skill gained through her experience with drawing fan-art, as well as forging her teachers' and parents' handwriting for permission slips and excuse notes when she was a kid.
  
  
  Craftsmanship: Any and all that has to do with visual arts, Will can handle considerably well. She's familiar with most art mediums, but her specialty lies in 2-dimensional graphics and design.
  
  
  Cooking from scratch: Because cooking from raw ingredients is cheaper than buying pre-made foods, Will often messes around in her dorm, throwing together concoctions with whatever happens to be available at the moment. Her recipes are hit-or-miss. Sometimes delicious, sometimes disgusting, but usually rather strange.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  I think that guy's watching us. I really do.
  
  
  
  ​
  
  
  
  It had been a dreadful season. The North had hovered constantly, sending continuous breath through the steel'd jungle. The sounds of metal beasts rumbled through the paved streets as people ran hither and thither trying to flee from the persistent nipping of the wintry winds. It was night, yet the brilliant lights from the lamps and boutique windows coated every surface with a yellowish glaze; a cold light that was misleadingly bright. Two figures sat at a bus-stop, a young miss and a young sir. The dapper gentleman was reciting poetry with boisterous abandon.
  
  
  "She walks in beauty, like the night.
  
  
  Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
  
  
  And all tha-"
  
  
  The young man suddenly tilted out towards the curb, and he laughed a gleaming white laugh as he returned to his seat. Will brought her hands back to her side and tucked them into her armpits.
  
  
  "You think you're so funny..."
  
  
  With a slight dip of the head, Aditiya modestly replied, "I try."
  
  
  Snorting out a wisp of fog, Will rolled her eyes and glanced around at the streams of people scurrying past the bus-stop. Judging by the weathered time table hanging limply along the side of the rusted bench divider, it was possible they could have gone back faster on foot. It was too late now; she was freezing, and wasn't about to leave her spot on the bench after the metal bars had finally warmed beneath her tightly-crossed legs. She hated winters.
  
  
  "I hate winters."
  
  
  Now it was Aditiya's turn to roll his eyes. "I know. You told me about seven-"
  
  
  "Like, I really, really hate winters." Will brought her knees in and pulled her hoodie over her legs, huddling into a small ball. Aditiya leaned forward, intentionally this time, and glanced down the street as he began unzipping his jacket. Will flapped a sleeve at him.
  
  
  "Nah, Keep your jacket on. I'm fine."
  
  
  He raised an eyebrow and slowly rubbed his chin. "But miss, thy beauteous countenance hath been hidden by such somber thread."
  
  
  The girl narrowed her eyes, till they were mere slits glinting from beneath the shadows of her bangs.
  
  
  The young man cast an arm out into the air, posing in despair. "Ah, me! Such a dainty thing, wrapped like the sushi of a day-old platter."
  
  
  With a sniff, Will shot an arm out to shove Aditiya again. He dodged this time.
  
  
  "PRAISE THE LORD FOR THIS ANGEL!"
  
  
  Will silently sat, staring right past her friend's reverently raised arms. So he tried again.
  
  
  "PRAISE THE HEAVENS FOR THIS BLESSED SAVIOR!"
  
  
  Still, the girl sat with her gaze firmly directed over the young man's shoulder. Once more, he shook his hands at the sparsely starred skies and intoned.
  
  
  "PRAISE THE-"
  
  
  With his arms out the way they were, Aditiya wasn't able to catch himself when Will leaned over and pushed him right off the bench. He let out a shout of surprise and landed hard on the pavement. After rolling into a kneeling position and dusting the seat of his pants, Aditiya finally looked up at Will. She hadn't drawn her eyes away from whatever it was she was staring at. Aditiya turned his head, squinting to find what exactly the girl was so enraptured by. But all he could see was an endless swarm of late-night shoppers and suited office workers hurrying about the streets.
  
  
  "What's wrong? You saw a ghost or something?"
  
  
  She jabbed a finger in the general direction she'd been looking at. "That guy in the red sweater. He's been standing there for a while now."
  
  
  An amused smile began twitching at the corners of Aditiya's lips. Yet again, Will was imagining that everyone was out to get her. She was so frustratingly stubborn, in that respect. "Yeah. He's waiting for the crosswalk to turn green."
  
  
  Will brought her head up from her knees and shook it, slightly. "I think that guy's watching us. I really do."
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Family
  
  Jared (Zheng Ai Lan) Fu
  
  
  Age: 45
  
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  
  2nd from the left; 1990
  
  

  

  
  
  At his son's White Coat Ceremony; 2013
  
  

  ​

  
  
  
  Lilly Chao
  
  
  Age: 47
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Her first modeling contract; 1985
  
  

  

  
  
  A columnist and photographer for a women's health magazine; 2011
  
  

  ​

  
  
  
  William D. (Daphnia) Fu
  
  
  Age: 26
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Sent from iphone; 2015
  
  

  ​

  
  
  
  Friends
  
  Allison Murray-The Eternal Optimist
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Age: 21
  
  
  Major: Humanities
  
  
  Allison, or Sonny as her friends affectionately call her, is the smiling one. She's not particularly talented in any field, and she's not the brightest in the group, but Sonny makes up for it by cheering her friends on in their wacky pursuits, even if they're clearly not succeeding. Her family is extremely wealthy, and she spent 2 years touring Europe and exploring various foreign cultures before starting college when she was 20. Though she's only a sophomore now, Sonny is fine with being a late-starter. After all, she wouldn't have the friends she does if she'd started college the "proper" way.
  Jack Richards-The Well-intentioned Doormat
  
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  
  
  Age: 18
  
  
  Major: Biology/Math
  
  
  Though Will habitually plays the victim in most situations, she and everyone else in the group know who actually got the shortest stick in the draw. Jack is a push-over; there's no other way to describe his mild-mannered, gullible disposition. And even if he's trying to express himself, his speech impediment prevents people from taking him seriously. If he didn't have such strange/violent friends, Jack would surely have many more harassers on campus. But even if he's the the least assertive person in the group, his stuttery, soft-spoken words are often the only thing keeping everyone else from flying completely off the handle.
  Linda & Johan Labuschagne-The Sports Queen & The Honest Politician
  
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  Age: 19
  
  
  Major: Undecided
  
  
  Beautiful, young, and fit: Linda is mockingly crowned the "Queen of Everything" by her court competitors. But the spunky girl doesn't mind at all and takes the title in stride, a tribute from her defeated opponents. Tennis is her prime game, though she's also heavily invested in socializing with friends and hosting Netflix marathons on the weekend. Despite her ferocious playing-style, Linda is a very lax individual off-court, and is more than willing to take part in her friends' schemes of grandeur and general pandemonium.
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  Age: 24
  
  
  Major: LL. M.
  
  
  Known as the "Big Man on Campus", Johan's popularity far surpasses that of his little sister's. While most underclassmen find his gregarious personality strangely intimidating, all who really know Johan will agree that his smiles are sincere; he's genuinely happy to socialize with any and all sorts of people. There are still people who dislike him, due to his extroverted nature and pursuit of an LL.M, especially since political majors aren't the most welcome individuals in a conversation. But Johan knows to keep his career and his personal life separate and for that, his cheery presence is appreciated all the more.
  
  
  

  
  
  
  Christi Nyu-The Proper Lady
  
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  
  
  Age: 18
  
  
  Major: Theater
  
  
  Will's dorm-mate and official best friend. But as much as the two hang out together, their interests differ vastly and their personalities often clash. As the youngest child in a family of 6, and being the only daughter, Christi learned to place herself far before anyone else. Through hard work, connections, and a few well-shed tears, she always gets what she wants, when she wants it. This is the perfect sort of mentality for an aspiring actress, as Christi is, but the less tolerant of the group often find her excessive egoism as obnoxious as Will's paranoid melodramatics.
  Aditiya Tankasala-The Don Juan
  
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  
  
  Age: 24
  
  
  Major: MBA
  
  
  It is generally agreed that Aditiya has no idea what he's doing, in any situation. Unless there's a woman involved, because if there's anything he actually knows how to do, it's to treat a woman properly. Growing up in a household with his mother, 3 older sisters, a little sister, 2 grandmothers and several aunties, Aditiya has the skills to be a professional ladykiller, though he hates the title for its misogynist undertones. He personally identifies as a feminist, and is a bit of a romanticist when it comes to relationships. Oftentimes, the women he meets misinterpret his consideration and chivalrous nature as a sign of interest and return this perceived interest with their own flirtations. Unfortunately, Aditiya is terrible at rejecting them, since he's adverse to hurting or offending women...the situation usually escalates to the point where his friends have to bust their gut helping him with his crazy escapades.
  Sketchbooks: Canson Ingres, Strathmore PT, Whatman, Hot Press
  
  
  

 

[Erica]

To all those applying and considering applying: Wow. Just ... wow.


I'm thrilled with the interest so far and can't wait to read all your applications next week. I suspect I will have an incredibly hard decision to make.


I will be on vacation starting this Wednesday until Monday. So if you have burning questions to ask about your characters, please PM me soon. I will be able to check PMs after Wednesday, but my responses will be slow, so please be patient.


Thank you all for your interest, work, and creativity.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Spoiler

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Aurora 'Rori' Hutchins
  
  
  Codename: ROAR
  
  
  Aliases: DJ R00R, Rori,
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 26
  
  
  Height & Weight: 5' 3"
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Natural hair is brown & Hazel
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: Unique hairstyle, twin Mohawks often varying in color
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: :
  
  
  Rori is a lanky 26 year old female of mutt like descent. If it is European, she probably has it in her bloodline somewhere. What is most remarkable isn't her eyes (Hazel) or her skin (acne still) but it is her hair. Twin Mohawks which she keeps the color different. verage height woman, officially 5' 3", Rori has the look of your stereotype House/Techno/Electronica/Noisestep DJ. Natural hair color is black but has currently been cut and spiked into the hair style known as 'fallen Angel' or more simply put, a pair of mohawks running parallel down her head. These are tipped orange but dye must be applied often, her hair never holding the color as long as she liked. Having a rather hectic life style, sleeping all day, working at night, has caused her skin to be pale. Not unnaturally so, but pale enough. Her eyes are normally hazel but will wear colored contacts when doing shows or out on the town. Out of shape and slightly underweight, she has developed a rather thin appearance and could do to put on some weight.
  
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  
  Student, DJ,
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality: Laid back with a curious bent. Rori can also be described as a bit lazy and disorganized. Apathetic to the plight of her fellow metas, she maintains a 'hidden' identity and has not come forward as meta. If just to remain in favor of the public and her family. There is a layer of fear hidden within her. As her powers continue to manifest and her mutation becomes more evident, she is worried about exposure to the world as a Meta. Optimistic, she attempts to live each day as positively as possible. Preferring to either go to clubs she has worked at, she spends her weekends and work nights out at clubs, lounging about. when not out, she remains at home, generally being slothful and happy go lucky. As of late, she has been more focused on political happenings and has a slight hero fantasy.
  
  
  Common Behaviors and Mannerisms: Humming, tapping, clicking, singing. She is essentially a living iPod and can play back any song she has heard sometimes using sound effects and cheesy theme songs when entering a room, much to the confusion of everyone.
  
  
  Character Flaws:
  
  
  Disadvantage 1: Lazy. Rori is quite lazy. Passing with B's and C's in her classes, she could do much better if she applied herself.
  
  
  Disadvantage 2: When excited or disoriented, she can lose concentration of her current levels of vibration, causing feedback or local area muting or simple as speaking far too loud.
  
  
  Disadvantage 3: She almost, unless concentrating, cannot sit still. Her body will involuntarily shake, though this can be vented through irritating behaviors like tapping pens, clicking her nails, or even humming and singing.
  
  
  Disadvantage 4: Due to her rough patches, these areas prove to be sensitive to physical pain and often will turn off potential suitors as mistaken symptoms for sexually transmitted disease.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  Fame & Comfort
  
  
  Where else (besides crime or school) would she want to be than in the music business. Having a special spot of clubs, she wishes to become the number one name in her current genres before progressing into every single style and note. Mastering it it all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  Keeping her abilities and mutation hidden, even today she is generally accepted into human society. She currently has yet to visit a hospital if blood must be drawn or a shot given simply out of fear of being discovered by an official institution. She lives alone to hide from anyone getting suspicious of her tics, she remains on good terms with multiple friends and her family.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Vibration.
  
  
  As she aged, Rori began to notice she had an issue sitting still. No problem concentrating but her muscles would literally shake. Concerned, her parents nearly took her in to be diagnosed, obviously that would have resulted in her outing as a metahuman but she worked at it and was able to hide the rapid contractions. As she aged into her early teens she was surprised to see she was able to augment this vibration down to a microscopic level. While sitting in physics, she was astonished to realize that sounds were also simple vibrations. Now understanding she was practically a living speaker, she continued to practice in the basement of her home. She pushed herself constantly, achieving a range of abilities associated with this vibration.
  
  
  Currently she can draw from a large variety of skills honed from her training including visibly vibrating and emitting sound waves ranging from the ambient sound absorbing and muting 0.1 db all the way to the incredibly dangerous, death inducing 227 db, potentially making her the loudest thing on the planet. She has yet to push beyond this limit but is afraid to try.
  
  
  Her body can mimic the sounds of nearly every single object on earth. If she has heard it, her body can match the frequency perfectly. This is thought to happen because of the rough patches on her body but has yet to be proven.
  
  
  Virtual immunity to noise levels and excellent hearing capabilities.
  
  
  Although not yet perfected, she can focus and via touch, induce cavitation in objects, effectively boiling and melting through substances by causing vibrations to form air pockets and with the additional friction.
  
  
  If given a few moments to concentrate, she can effectively phase short distances. Vibrating her molecules so quickly that she passes through objects. This has even been shown to work on energy based barriers, her bodies particles avoiding the focused energy but this action causes considerable pain. Currently this is severely limited due to losing a bit of her small toe, if she loses concentration and stops vibrating while inside solid objects, grievous wounds and even death can occur.
  
  
  Her progression with her abilities continues, most of them coming into play in ways she hadn't expected.
  
  
  This ability, although in someways honed, can still be extremely taxing on her. After hitting the record breaking 227 db, she fell into a light coma for around 37 hours. The comfortable level of noise level she can emit indefinitely sits around 130 db
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Vacuums completely negate her abilities. As does certain vibration dampening material.
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Skilled with modern technology, she has been using and dabbling in sound equipment during her career as a DJ.
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Rori Hutchins
  
  
  Perhaps the confines of her basement combined with the acumulated smoke of countless cigarettes had given the young mutant quite the migraine. Laying on her couch and playing a rather sad song on violin, she watched the smoke start to vanish out the covered windows of her apartment.
  
  
  The wisps were snaking out and being replaced with the warm fresh air of spring. It actually felt better on her throbbing temples. Putting the cigarette out, Roari sits up and decided it was time to end this winter slump.
  
  
  Rummaging through old stage clothes, she finds a moderately conservative long sleeve, a pair of jeans and a coat. What she did feel inspired to do was for the first time in months, get her hair up and running.
  
  
  Blowing cobwebs from the bucket of various hair products she used, her hands were soon coated in thick waxes and gels. Shorty after that, a pair of slightly dulled orange Mohawks popped up. Satisfied she'd get some looks, the parrot locked up her apartment and hit the streets.
  
  
  Four blocks down and the local park appeared. Something of a Gala was going on. Not one to pass up an adventure that promised fun and good food. The slight, garishly styled woman soon appeared in line, looking confused but eager.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  

 

[gogojojo331]

Spoiler

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Joshua Wilson
  
  
  Codename: Checkmate
  
  
  Aliases:
  
  
  Prisoner #1B793, Trash, Trickster, Inception
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 18
  
  
  Height & Weight: 6'3''
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Brown, scruffy hair and Black eyes
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos:
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  
  He is a tall man of medium weight and has a peach complexion. He walks like a prim and proper man, with a bit of swagger in his step. He has no facial hair of any kind, though he has a habit of scratching his chin as if he had one. He wears tattered blue jeans and black socks and converse shoes. His black shirt was covered by his white hoodie. with a black Rook, which he obtained from a older chess tournament. He's not too obsessive with cleanliness (has run into his share of fights) , but it helps.
  
  
  Occupation of Record:
  
  
  He'd call it being a 'Idea Man' for certain people. After a run-in with the police again, he's going clean, honest!
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  He's more of a rebel than a actual law abider. He used to love seclusion, but now loves to be social, but because of his powers, he's generally feared. He's felt a bit of guilt of his actions, he must admit, He's only human, alright?! He can only hide his feelings for so long. But if you cross him or any of his Friends, The game shall start. He will destroy you and anyone else you love.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  To just have a nice life, have some kids, and do his service to his fellow man and all that jazz. Go legit, you know?
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  As a child, he was involved in a bit of a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in Evanston, Illinois. He was always fond of beating people in games of any kind. Because of this, he was beaten up on a constant basis, and it was not until 10 when his powers truly kicked in when a bully once was convinced his hand tuned into flames when he tried to punch him. The bully resides in a mental home until today. He realized that he was now part of a bigger game. The game of the mind. Since then, was put into many detention centers, but it seemed that time and time again,he seemed to get off with parole or a lenient sentence. When not in trial, he worked for many corporations, good and bad for the thrill of manipulation and a paycheck. Eventually he found this Project to be on the more interesting side, and might challenge his mind, rather than the sadistic thrill he got as a youngster.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  He is able to use psychic powers to hurt others and cause various mental states and hallucinations. He has honed it to the point that he can implant and reinforce possible 'suggestions' that they can do.
  
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  The 'suggestions' are tiresome, and work like the force, weak against the strong minded, or at least take more time, and the pain is only mental, not physical. The powers besides suggestion are limited to a 10 foot radius, once he leaves that radius, they will snap back to normal.
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  Hell No! He hates weapons. But he's not against using them
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  Moderate fighting skills, and parkour
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  Josh smiled and looked up from his phone on the subway train home. Online relationships were so fun! No image shaming. No gift giving hassle. Just the meeting and love of two minds and souls, and other crap. He smiled, saying a 'goodbye' to his girl. Sweet woman, she is. He went to the music section, and looked, and turned on 'Weapon of Choice' by Fatboy Slim. He heard his stop get called, and stepped out.
  
  
  As soon as he got out, he saw some more unfortunate visitors. Boys from a business he may have accidentally destroyed a while ago, holding baseball bats and knives. "Easy guys..." He said to them. "No need to be medevil about this..." He said, arms raised, and walking slowly at a steady pace. "Lets be ci-"
  
  
  One of the thinner boys swung at him, and Josh dodged, hitting him in the ears to disrupt his equilibrium, then pushed him back, allowing him to find a opening to run through, and he took it. One man tried to swing at him from behind, but Josh put him in the feeling of slow motion, it would take him ages to even hit him. They weren't gonna be too far behind, but still, It's not something he couldn't handle. He had the crowd to lose himself in. Better not make a scene. He put his hood over his head, and kept moving, knowing they were on his tail, so no crazy movements. Just stealth.
  
  
  In a white hoodie...
  
  
  This was gonna be hard.
  
  
  
• Other
  
  

 

[Natevess]

Spoiler

WIP

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Real Name: Daniel Cross
  
  
  Codename: Volt
  
  
  Aliases: Roy Parker, Anthony Montana
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 32
  
  
  Height & Weight: 6 feet and 1 inch, 177 lbs
  
  
  Hair & Eye Color: Short brown hair and bright blue eyes, hidden behind glasses
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos: N/A
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance: <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/57a8c2147346b_character1.jpg.896a8519189ac79c1dcb64a07c8a8f9d.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="48272" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/57a8c2147346b_character1.jpg.896a8519189ac79c1dcb64a07c8a8f9d.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
  
  
  Occupation of Record: Daniel works as an author, albeit unsuccessfully, and works as a cook in a diner.
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: Become a SUCCESSFUL author, possibly the driving force behind him volunteering for Project Atlas.
  
  
  
• Character History
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  
• Other
  
  

 

[Kagura]

Work in Progress

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  
  
  
  Real Name: Pippin H.(Hazel) Anisette
  
  
  Codename: Frigid
  
  
  Aliases/Nicknames: Hazel, Cream, "Pippy" or "Puff" if you want to get on her nerves.
  
  
  Gender: Female
  
  
  Marital Status: Single
  
  
  Occupation on Record: Pastry Chef/ Baker
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  Age: 29
  
  
  Height: 5'5"
  
  
  Weight: 140 lbs.
  
  
  Hair: Long chocolate brown hair that warms to an auburn at the bottom.
  
  
  Eyes: Maple
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tattoos:A burn scar on her inner forearm from the oven rack.
  
  

  Spoiler

  <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/195142_483360441682366_554481422_o-630x778.jpg.2c912ca5e35f7f7fc5535bb90832691a.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="48793" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/195142_483360441682366_554481422_o-630x778.jpg.2c912ca5e35f7f7fc5535bb90832691a.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
  Spoiler

  Appearance:
  
  
  <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/chi-amanda-rockman-20130211.jpeg.f66e0bf98343098292c4df1520ead1d5.jpeg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="48774" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/chi-amanda-rockman-20130211.jpeg.f66e0bf98343098292c4df1520ead1d5.jpeg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
  
  Pippin considers herself to be plain, and rather unremarkable in terms of beauty, given her round face, dull brown eyes, thin lips, and slightly snub nose. She doesn’t push herself too hard either, leaving her nails plain and opting for a classic hair-in-a ponytail, cleaned face look. Pippin is more often covered in flour than any sort of make-up, as she doesn’t go out of her way to clean up from the profession.
  
  
  The pastry chef can usually be seen in a stripped apron tied twice around her waist, with a plain T-shirt and jeans underneath. Pippin has a straight and lean body shape, with weight settling evenly across her frame and leaving her rather average in terms of bosom and butt. If anything, her shoulders and arms are probably the most toned due to the kneading of dough and the precision of decorating.
  
  
  When she is off work hours she still has a familiarity with jeans and a T-shirt, although the jeans may be colored or designed. Pippin’s one guilty pleasure seems to be her shoes, as they range from boots, heels, sneakers, flip-flops and strappy heels depending on the day. At work she is forced to wear a regulation black sneaker, but her shoe collection makes sure that her hours off work aren’t so plain.
  
  
  Personality
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Pippin is an extrovert and likes to be involved with the world and people around her. A real people- person, she is generally friendly, jovial and meets people with a wide smile on her face. Outgoing, she enjoys activities with groups of people and is rather adventurous in terms of new things. Rather charismatic, she is usually seen working the front counter of the patisserie and is probably the most compassionate towards the customers.
  
  
  That doesn’t mean she isn’t hardworking in her own right, as she is interested to learn any new methods of the craft. This leaves her somewhat absent minded if there’s a baking show on or she is baking herself, focused wholly on the craft. Baking is also her vice when she is stressed or worried about something, making the treats her guilty pleasure.
  
  
  Pippin can also be seen as very emotional, quick to act on her feelings rather than logic and causing a larger issue. The girl sometimes gets hung up on the simplest of problems and might be over dramatic despite their relative size. Due to the close relationship she has with her mother, she can also be seen as rather weak-willed in comparison, often going with ‘mother knows best’. This complicates her relationship with her father, as her parents don't talk and his philosophy is widely different.
  
  
  When it comes to conversations about meta-humans, Pippin's personality drastically changes- often becoming guarded or quiet in regards to her own opinion. In reality, she has complicated feelings due to the drama that surrounds the question - regardless of her feelings of them as a third entity, she now has to deal with the fact she is one. Rather self- conscious already, she refuses to acknowledge the fact she is 'different' and keeps her abilities a secret.
  
  
  On the other side of that, her father proudly displays the fact she is a meta-human and is adamant about her joining Project Atlas. As much as she wants to be close to her father again, she is visibly bothered by the fact he wants to 'show her off'. What bothers her more is the threat of him revealing the secret of her powers to her mother.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations:
  
  
  Pippin wants to be accepted, first and foremost, by her family. Being of the family mindset, she often finds herself torn between her parents. Her father accepts her more for being a meta-humans and seems to support her e devours as one, while her mother has always accepted and supported her through out her life.
  
  
  Pippin herself is confused about whether she wants these powers or not. There might be some part of her that hopes for a 'cure' but there is a equally sized part of her that is interested in Project Atlas. Pippin's ultimate goal and aspiration is to resolve this internal dilemma with herself.
• 
  
  
  Character History
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Pippin is the product of a heated love affair between a warrant officer of the military and his assistant secretary. Despite the fact Edgar already had a loving wife at home, or maybe because of it - he started sleeping with the lovely Camille. It started off as an office romance, harmless flirting that soon developed into secret meet-ups, inappropriate conversations and eventually them sleeping together. The affair lasted for two years before Angela, his then wife, confronted him. By then Camille had been pregnant and the scandal fell to the hands of human resources to handle.
  
  
  The divorce was messy, and the aftermath even worse as the story of Reid Hewitt broke the same day Pippin was born. Edgar never got the chance to be her father, or even Camille's husband, caught up in the politics and the new goal to make a meta-human for the military. On the other hand, her mother never returned from maternity leave, knowing Human Resources would never get back to her on a new job placement. Even Edgar slowly forgot about them, developing a new bitterness for meta-humans in Camille.
  
  
  It was at this time that her mother finally moved on, packing up their small suburban house and leaving with the last amount of child support she received. Wanting nothing more than to never hear the word 'meta-human' again, they moved to a small, secluded community on the outskirts of the desert. Still, Pippin was born into the start of a new age - school brought stories of Hercules, Prometheus, and Morena. More and more people were surfacing with unusual abilities, and the social system was straining to adapt. Even the small community such as theirs was divided on the issue - causing school yard fights and small town politics to arise.
  
  
  It was in her preteens, that the family of two received a rare visit from the absent father of the house. Other than the annual birthday calls Pippin received, this was the first time she had talked at length with her father. It wasn’t a visit she expected, but the man was interested in coming back into their lives – Camille had turned it down but Pippin had felt the absence of her father enough.
  
  
  It was a mutual agreement between the parents that put her with her father every other holiday, including those that were non-statutory. It was everything Pippin wanted, spending time with a father she never had growing up. At first, it was hard not to blame him – but much like her mother, she found some blame to place on the meta-humans of the world.
  
  
  At seventeen, the trip up to her father's cottage was a lot more eventful than originally planned, as her own status of a meta-human became known. It was the rather dangerous drive that out her on edge, and when they had accidently went into a slide, it happened. The windows iced over suddenly, a frost immediately settled into the compartment, the thick ice covering her skin as the car froze, quite literally, to a stop. It was hard for her not to panic, to hear the crackling of the ice around the vehicle and see the frost from her breath.
  
  
  A comforting hand was placed on her shoulder, shaking to its very bone as it forced her to calm - it was her father's, despite the chill. Through a chattering mouth, he complemented her on ‘amazing’ powers he had never seen before. Pippin could only look back at him with wide eyes, shaking mildly from what she had just done. This couldn't be happening to her, there was no way she could be a meta-human... How could she be? Her mother... her stomach rolled viciously. She tried to focus on her father’s voice in her ear, telling her that it would be okay.
  
  
  However, life was never the same for Pippin; she would spend the next year with her father, trying to control the ice powers she’d been given. The more time she spent with her father, the more she became involved with the military. She was a debutant at the meta-human ball, introduced to other high ranking officers under the codename ‘Frigid’. However Pippin loathed the environment, weighted down by the secret she was forced to keep.
  
  
  The bargaining chip for spending a year with a father was to focus on her studies when she moved back with Camille. Although Edgar had been adamant about her enlisting into the forces, Pippin’s interests were in pastries. Even in her youth, Pippin had a taste for sweet things and baking – good enough at it to land her a spot in a culinary school. Her powers were still fluctuating, acting as a defence mechanism that forced her to remain calm.
  
  
  Still, mistakes happen and it was in her second year of culinary school that she accidently touched the grate of the over with her inner wrist. The interior of the over went from 400 to -5 in a split second, causing it to break, and for Pippin to sport a rather nasty burn on her arm.
  
  
  Camille's interest were on Pippin's future and although Edgar wanted her to enlist, her mother knew too well of her interest in baking. Even in her youth Pippin had enjoyed to bake, and she was rather good at it too - making it easy for her to secure a spot at a culinary school. With only a year of training she found it hard to keep her powers under control. It was in culinary school that she burned the inside of her arm, actually touching the metal grate and flash freezing the oven to an absolute zero, the sudden change on her burn had freezer burned it raw. Pippin still managed to graduate at 21, securing a job at a popular patisserie called 'The Sweet Spot'.
  
  
  It was at the age of twenty four that her problems came to fruition, as an organization by the name of 'Project Atlas' formed. Due to his expertise on the matter, her father was pulled in as one of the officials and offered her a spot. However, she kept the fact that she was meta-human a secret from everyone by now, having enough control over her powers to do so. Knowing her own mother's complicated view on the matter, she declines his offer. Edgar is still rather adamant about wanting her to join- something she has considered more than she is willing to let on.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Powers & Skills
  
  Weaknesses:
  
  
  Special Weaponry (if applicable):
  
  
  Other Noteworthy Skills (if applicable):
  
  
  
• Writing Sample
  
  
• Other
  
  

Spoiler

 

[Erica]

A friendly reminder to all that today is the deadline for submitting CS applications. I will review complete CSs staying late tonight.


 
First of all, THANK YOU ALL for your interest in the roleplay and your awesome applications. I am reviewing all of the applications, but I am also juggling work today and it's being merciless. I want to give everyone's CSs the attention they deserve, and that will take some time. Based on what I've read so far, I have a very hard choice to make. So please be patient. I may reach out to some of you over PM for some tweaks to your CSs.


My goal is to have a decision on Thursday at the latest.


In the meantime, the following incomplete applications will not considered. With one exception, these have been hidden behind a spoiler tag. This makes it easier to see who is in the running while keeping the unfinished content available for the original poster if desired.

• Kennat Grouser, "Dagger" by Ire
  
• Hazel June Cash by Little Lozy
  
• Robert West, "Magnitude" by WritingMan
  
• Penelope Urbain, "Pluto" by TehFrixz
  
• Daniel Cross, "Volt" by Natevess
  
• Pippin H. Anisette, "Frigid" by Kagura
  (@Kagura - I know we talked about a possible guest starring role, so I'm leaving the incomplete app unhidden for updates later)
  

If you see your CS in this thread (not behind a spoiler tag), then it is being reviewed and considered. Thank you again!

 

[Erica]

Drumroll please...

​

First, I want to thank you all again. I had a blast reading your CSs. I laughed; I cried; I spilled my coke. (Okay, not literally, but I did laugh and feel for your characters.) I am flattered by the quality of players applying and hope that I can write with everyone at some point. It was incredibly hard to choose.


However, there are limited spots available and the team needs a certain balance for what I have planned. I looked for well-rounded characters, balanced powers that fit well into Project Atlas and field team work, and strong writing.


Conditionally Accepted Characters

The following characters are conditionally accepted; each of you has a PM outlining the tweaks/changes to your character I would like to see in place before the acceptance is final and we can start.


@Dear Inspector


@Mr. Grin


Willoughby T.(Thea) Fu, "Soapbox" - @Trignome


I recognize some of the requested changes may take a few days to implement. I would like to aim for launching the story next week; please let me know if that will be an issue.


Boe Bowers, "Spotlight"- @Bone2pick - Originally conditionally accepted. The user politely declined to make the modifications requested (which I completely understand and respect)


Another character has been added to the roster.


Non-Accepted Characters

For those not listed above, I want to thank you all again for the time & effort you put into your CSs. I know when I am not accepted to a roleplay, it helps me to know why. The largest determination here was the limited number of spots, but the spoilers below contain more specific feedback for those who are interested.


@Mosswine Leader

Spoiler

The character concept and power is very interesting. The power requires a strong understanding of chemistry and anatomy to play out in this setting. There was some inconsistency in mentioning EMT/medical training in the sample when her history only included a doctorate in chemistry. More importantly, the Project would not accept or recruit a drug dealer. Likewise, it seems unlikely that she would seek out working with the Guardians or accept and offer from Project Atlas given her opinion on incarceration as a form of punishment.


@QuirkyAngel





Yours is a strong application. Having him coerced/persuaded to join the team to avoid jail time was a double-edged sword of introducing lovely conflict while possibly causing issues with the team dynamic; this gave me pause. Ultimately his power set was less useful to the team for the story I have in mind than some of the others.


@Teh Frixz





You created a strong character with a power that could be refined to fit in the setting, but she has no tie-in to Atlas. The character history does not need to be exceptionally long, but Rori's was thin on details. I'm looking for characters already involved in the Project, and other characters had that tie-in identified and fully rounded out. Her desire to keep her powers secret doesn't fit well with the Project and my goal to hit the ground running with a formed team.


@gogojojo331




His is a disallowed power. It falls under "Powers that control other characters. Examples: Mind Control, Emotional Control, Possession." Also, the Project would be unlikely to approach someone with a criminal past without some sign of his desire to be redeemed or at least serve the greater good.

 

[Erica]

Vivienne Côte ("Silhouette")

• Stats & Personality
• History
• Powers & Skills
• Writing Sample
• Other

• 
  
  
  Vital Statistics
  
  
  Full Name: Vivienne Côte
  
  
  Code Name/Alias: Silhouette
  
  
  Given Name: Juliette Bettencourt (no longer used, and not on file)
  
  
  Ethnicity/Nationality: French
  
  
  Gender: Female
  
  
  Marital Status: Single
  
  
  Parents: Noemi (48) and Dexter (50) Bettencourt
  
  
  Siblings: Jacques Bettencourt (28)
  
  
  

  
  
  

  Age: 36
  
  
  Apparent Age: Early Thirties
  
  
  Birthdate: August 3
  
  
  Height: 177 cm (5’10”)
  
  
  Weight: 63 kg (~140 lbs)
  
  
  Hair: Dark Brown, long with slight curl
  
  
  Eyes: Blue
  
  
  Identifying Marks/Tatoos: None
  
  
  Occupation of Public Record: Interpreter/translator for the U.N.
  
  
  Primary Skillset: Saboteur
  
  
  Current Residence: Astoria, New York
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Appearance:
  
  
  <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/Silhouette_md.jpg.ccf798f509b4a471255dc801748a4c3f.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="49491" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_04/Silhouette_md.jpg.ccf798f509b4a471255dc801748a4c3f.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p> Even at a distance, one might assume Vivienne to be French. While it’s true that anyone might dress sharply in dark colors with an occasional splash of color (fashion is not only for the French, of course), there is something about the way Vivienne carries herself that belies her heritage. Tall for a woman, she highlights her lanky build with sleek lines and a casual attitude which is typically reserved for cats and tomboys.
  
  
  Attire: Vivenne tends to dress in dark colors; often business suits with touches of high fashion. When on a job, she wears a customized skin-tight outfit that looks like leather. In both cases, she wears sunglasses during the day.
  
  
  Personality
  
  
  Vices: Puzzles, Nicotine, Control, Military and mercenary men
  
  
  Fears: Claustrophobia

  
  
  

  Likes: Wine, wit, running, and C-4
  
  
  Dislikes: Being touched, especially without permission; prideful ignorance
  
  
  Personality
  
  
  Vivienne is, in a word, a little uptight. While she adores causing chaos in her mercenary work, that chaos is controlled. Precise calculations and a wealth of knowledge about how explosions behave allow her to dictate the effect of her handiwork. The debris may fall randomly, but she knows just what will no longer be available or useful once she leaves the premises. She attempts to apply this principle to her everyday life with limited success. The rest of the world is messy and unpredictable at the best of times. She deals with this through a mixture of cigarettes, wine, and a desire to organize her space to her liking. (Not quite OCD, but the term has come up on occasion in describing her.)
  
  
  Despite this, Vivienne adores pushing limits and cherishes her freedom. Competition is a strong motivator, and she runs when she has to clear her mind. She is constantly testing herself and her abilities. Luckily, that goes hand-in-hand with her paranoia about being discovered; for when she pushes her metahuman capabilities, she will not be seen.
  
  
  In her above-board work as an interpreter and translator, she is impeccably professional, almost to the point of being distant and cold. Outside of work, she has a sharp wit and enjoys going out for a drink with her friends, but she ultimately keeps them at a distance because it’s simply safer that way. In her Silhouette persona, she has a better sense of humor, but it’s often dry and snarky. It’s an obvious defense mechanism, but she rarely works with anyone long enough for him/her to figure out how to dismantle it.
  
  
  She has a soft spot for metahumans who have been overlooked or abused by the system. Due to the nature of her first crush, she also has a weakness for mercenary and military men, but it comes coupled with a tendency to expect betrayal.
  
  
  Ultimately, though, she has one motto: do what you must to survive.
  
  
  Goals & Aspirations: Above all, Silhouette wishes to be free. She’s not idealistic, so she knows that the world will never be entirely safe for metahumans. But she will do her best to knock down anyone who is actively hunting them. Working with Atlas has her walking the line; but she intends to say on the right side of it.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  High-Level Background
  
  (For those in the TLR camp for the detailed history below)
  
  
  • Born & raised in France (Marseille) as Juliette Bettencourt.
    
  • When she accidentally “outed” herself to her brother at age 15, however, her parents sought “help” in the form of a program meant to help mutants control and maybe suppress their powers.
    
  • She spent 18 months being tested and experimented on until an activist group shut down the program where she was being held. During that time, she became extremely claustrophobic and acquired a few control issues – mostly around being touched.
    
  • A private organization called Domani offered her a chance at education and training while maintaining her freedom. They used the argument that she would be watched now and needed to have others like her to guard her back. She agreed. It didn’t hurt that she had a crush on one of the mercenaries who was leading the effort; a man named Bret Heron. They had a brief romance after a couple of years of flirtation, but it burned out quickly and left an odd dynamic behind. She still has a weak spot for military and mercenary men, though.
    
  • The program was a mix of mercenaries and mutants, performing tasks either strictly for cash or those that they personally felt worthwhile. Most of these “personal” tasks centered on taking down programs rumored to be testing on mutants. Since this was a personal sore spot for Juliette, she took them on gladly.
    
  • She spent five years with them, during which she worked on a variety of skills, including the following.
    Training on her powers (drills and general practice)
    
  • Physical training (acrobatics, combat, etc.)
    
  • Linguistics (she went to college for this)
    
  • Demolitions & some computer programming (the university taught her languages, the team taught her sabotage and disarming devices)
    
  • Design of a costume that allowed her to extend her ability to change her form to her clothing and anything she carried. (This became extremely useful in getting her in to complete a job.) It does not allow her to extend her shadow form to other people; just her clothing and personal equipment carried.
    
  
  
  [*]During this period, she took on her codename, “Silhouette”. Publicly, she took on the new name of Vivienne Côté and worked as an interpreter and translator. This became useful when the team needed information from a political figure. Meanwhile, she pulled her weight on the team by sabotaging systems and getting the team into hard-to-breach areas.
  
  
  [*]She began to get a reputation in the espionage community under her codename as well. Her years in captivity taught her to cherish and covet her freedom; she never lost her love of pushing limits and seeing how far she could go.
  
  
  [*]She had a falling out with the program after her relationship with Bret self-destructed and several members of Domani changed; she no longer trusted the group. She left, mostly on good terms, and became a free agent.
  
  
  [*]She worked as a mercenary until Project Atlas found her about 9 months ago. Since then, she has continued to work as an interpreter/translator and taken on the occasional mercenary job –only when she is fairly certain she can do so with relative anonymity - but ultimately, she answers Atlas when they call.
  
  
  
  
  Detailed History
  
  Childhood & Emerging Powers
  
  
  Born & raised in France (Marseille) as Juliette Bettencourt, Vivienne’s childhood was relatively mundane. She played, she laughed; she loved her family, especially her older brother Jacques, who she admired and emulated, as only younger siblings can do.
  
  
  Early on in life, Juliette demonstrated quick reflexes and a natural aptitude for computers, but this just led to gymnastic classes and a penchant for programming in middle school. She was also born with a weak version of one her powers: the ability to see in the dark. This she discovered early at games like hide and seek, although for a long time she believed that everyone could see as she does. (In the modern age, true darkness is rare, after all.)
  
  
  Throughout her childhood, she knew she was a little different, but generally thought everyone had secrets they hid from others. It was a game, and being better than others at one skill or another was part of the fun. As she hit puberty, her powers quickly became more evident. This was more than just acute sight or being adept at hiding. When she decided to eavesdrop on one of the boys at school, she remained in the shadow of the lockers after school. Not only was she undiscovered, even when they walked right past her, but when she looked down she caught sight of herself and realized that her flesh had turned grey and smoky.
  
  
  Initially, it terrified her. Politicians worldwide were debating the “safety” of allowing metahumans to live among them. Some wanted to establish holding facilities. Juliette saw no reason to put herself on any list for the first few examples. Realizing she had to be able to control her ability, she became began to experiment on her own. At this point, she thought she could simply hide well and see well in darkness.
  
  
  When she was fifteen, Juliette dressed as a ninja for Halloween, inspired by a movie about Samurai warriors and a dry sense of humor. It was her private joke, an assertion of her abilities without having to tell anyone. It backfired. She planned to play a prank on her brother by jumping out and scaring him. However, when she hid, she leaned up against a corner and fell through the wall, landing confused at her brother’s feet.
  
  
  Jacques was terrified. He yelled for their parents and for once Juliette could not talk or explain her way out of it. The look on her face was enough to confirm Jacques’ story. The family was unsure what to do. After much discussion and deliberation about the wisest course of action, they decided to go to one of the pharmaceutical companies that claimed to be developing a way to suppress specialized abilities. It was one of the few options announced to the public, and as much as her family wanted the best for Juliette, they feared her abilities as well. Her mother especially feared that she might become a shadow permanently.
  
  
  Juliette did not want to go. She felt this would put her on one of the lists she had hoped to avoid. So she ran away. It did not last long, however. Although she was adept at hiding and quickly discovered that the ability to move through walls could be helpful in getting shelter and food, she was still only fifteen and did not know how to survive on her own. She managed for a few days, but was eventually caught. Her parents were not informed that she was found and eventually assumed her dead. Even when she later regained her freedom, Juliette never sought them out.
  
  
  “Treatment”
  
  
  Unfortunately, Juliette was right to be suspicious. While the U.N. began deliberations over the ethical question of what to do with metahumans, she spent her days in a facility being poked and prodded.
  
  
  It started out innocently enough, with blood tests and some basic stress tests. The company seemed more interested in testing her abilities than suppressing them, though. Not that Juliette minded that so much; her powers scared her somewhat, but only because she was not sure how to control them. The “doctors” working with her asked her to stretch in new directions, though, under the pretense of testing medication that was supposed to help. As far as she could tell, all the medication did was knock her out at night.
  
  
  Suspicious to the end and curious about the other people in the facility (who she never saw), Juliette stopped taking her medication at night, flushing it down the toilet afterwards. With her consciousness now returned, she went walking – and discovered that she was the only one on the floor. She searched out an unattended computer terminal and fumbled her way into their systems. Before she was discovered, she learned that they were keeping detailed records of her “progress” and had classified her as a threat to national security.
  
  
  Unfortunately, her night excursion was caught on tape and only confirmed the idea that she could be a threat. Soon she was isolated; her weakness for light was not difficult to deduce. She spent a few months in the equivalent of a test lab, being poked and prodded, tested and - from her perspective - tortured. For her troubles, Juliette learned a great deal about what she could and couldn’t do. As a shadow, she could avoid pain from fire and electricity, for example. But the tests also made her extremely claustrophobic and guarded about her personal space.
  
  
  Only one thing that kept her from becoming a tragic example of humanity’s propensity for fear: One activist group had gone undercover in the program and stolen files, including information on Juliette. The “treatment program” was disbanded and Juliette was set free. Later her case would be used as an example for the proposed bans on experimentation on metahumans.
  
  
  Domani
  
  
  A privately funded program called Domani learned about Juliette as they were dismantling the testing lab she had been trapped in. They offered her a chance to work with people on her own terms. At first she declined their offer, leery of being trapped in a cage again.
  
  
  Domani, funded by a man who had his son taken from him for being “different”, was essentially a loose collection of mercenaries and the occasional metahuman. Although the coordinator was a wealthy benefactor who mostly stayed out of the actual work, the team leader was an ex-military man named Bret Heron. Bret had been briefed on Juliette’s abilities and knew she would be a perfect fit to address the team’s need for information. He pursued her with a steady but respectful determination.
  
  
  Bret and Juliette slowly developed a friendship, and Juliette, then just 18, developed a serious crush on him. He continued to extend the invitation to join the team – perhaps on a free-lance basis – to Juliette with a steady but respectful resolve. Eventually she conceded. Not only did she see getting involved with them as the best chance to avoid another cage, it would give her a chance to get closer to Bret.
  
  
  Domani was true to their word – they treated Juliette with kid gloves to start, and eventually the team showed her that her powers could be appreciated as well as feared. And being on call had its perks: the money they offered helped to set her up with her own place and funded her education as well. With Bret and the other team members, they ran drills and helped develop training for her special abilities.
  
  
  All totaled, she spent five years with Domani. During this time, she adopted the codename of “Silhouette” and changed her cover identity as well. She took the name Vivienne Côté in her public life and enrolled at a university in Germany. Her primary studies were in linguistics, with the intent to become a translator, but she also developed some computer skills - especially regarding security systems.
  
  
  Her skill as a saboteur grew quickly, and her reputation followed. As she proved herself for the team, the engineers developed a specialized suit for her that amplified her powers, allowing her to extend her incorporeal nature to her clothing and items she carried on her person. This became extremely useful in planting explosive devices and hacking into programs quickly. This suit became her costume, and since it was designed specifically for her, it was part of her payment for her services.
  
  
  Working with the team provided another set of skills entirely: She developed a great deal of the potential of her dexterity, learning to fight and move to use it to the greatest advantage. The university taught her computing languages and syntax, and the team helped her to understand demolitions and sabotage. Once she learned to trust the others, she learned all she could, eager for the chance to grow.
  
  
  She remained close with Bret, even socializing outside of the team with him on a fairly regular basis. They flirted regularly for years, until finally one night they indulged in more than flirtation. Their romance was brief, however, for the flirtation masked some of the personality conflicts they couldn’t avoid. They remained friendly even when the fire fizzled between them, but it became awkward to work on Domani tasks with him.
  
  
  Her failed romance with Bret, coupled with a project where she was mislead by a new team member about the nature of a mission, caused Vivienne to resign from Domani. It was not the same team she had originally joined (and bonded with), and she felt it was time she be on her own for a while.
  
  
  A Mercenary Life
  
  
  Vivienne then settled in to a modest-paying job as a translator and interpreter. She continued to study on her own, including keeping up on the latest security systems and tech. Mostly she kept her head down in public circles and although she had a few romances, they were always short-lived; she was more than up for playful interaction, but the necessity of keeping a part of her nature secret prevented her from letting anyone too close.
  
  
  Meanwhile, Silhouette’s name continued to circulate among espionage circles. Her work with Domani provided evidence of her skills. Now that she was a free agent, she received requests for her specialized skills through secured and anonymous channels. Most jobs she refused out-of-hand, either as being too dangerous or too suspicious. If the job involved hurting a company or organization that was experimenting on or with metahumans, however, she took the job more often than not.
  
  
  Through this mercenary work, she accumulated a nice nest egg but spent little of it. She did not want to raise any questions about why she had so much cash available. She had plenty to live on and, aside from the occasional shopping spree on clothes or the occasional gadget, she lived modestly.
  
  
  Then Atlas came knocking. She had heard whispers about the organization, but hoped to avoid them. Unfortunately, they had other ideas. Not wanting to be forced to hunt down her former friends and colleagues, she insisted she work in the United States. Her work in New York has been relatively mundane to start and most of the people in the Project seem to have the right intent. She remains wary, however.
  
  
  As for her family, she has wrestled off and on about whether to contact them. That particular debate always ends the same however: she decides not to deal with it. Her brother’s reaction still remains etched in her mind; he feared her, as did her parents. They were also the reason that she ended up in the equivalent of a laboratory for several years. She isn’t sure what, if anything, they have been told about her disappearance or rescue. Mostly she avoids thinking about it and has traveled extensively to prevent any chance run-ins. They are her past, and she is not the girl who was taken years ago. There would be explanations, possibly apologies, and a high risk of being reported to whoever was hunting down people like her at the moment. So she doesn’t dwell and doesn’t talk about her childhood.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Summary Ability
  
  Affinity for darkness/shadows. Can see in the dark and make herself all but invisible in shadow. Can become incorporeal when in contact with shadow.
  
  
  Shadow Form: Can become incorporeal when in contact with shadow. In this form, she can hide completely from sight within an existing shadow, assuming it is large enough to contain her. Once she assumes this form, she can move at will and through matter (such as through walls). This form leaves her impervious to most forms of attack (physical attack, fire, electricity, etc.) except for light-based attacks.
  
  
  Dark Vision: Ability to see in the dark. When subjected to sudden darkness (e.g., coming into a dark room out of bright daylight), it takes up to 60 seconds for her eyes to adjust.
  
  
  Special Weaponry/Equipment: Vivienne has an outfit designed to amplify her abilities, allowing her to extend her shadow form to her clothing and anything she is carrying, but it would take extraordinary effort to attempt to change anything larger than a 4’x 4’ cube or greater than 60 kg (~130 lbs). She has yet to allow another person to move through walls with her, although the Project wants her to work on it.
  
  
  Weaknesses: Cannot call upon her abilities without touching a shadow. Full, bright light cast so that there is no shadow leaves her powerless. Bright light bothers her, so she wears sunglasses most of the time during the day, even on overcast days.
  
  
  Other Notewothy Skills
  
  Multi-lingual (English, French, Spanish, Russian and Italian), Sabotage, Demolitions, some computer programming (focused on hacking security systems), strong but limited hand-to-hand combat skills.
  
  
  Vivienne has been trained in hand-to-hand combat, the use of handguns and knives, but doesn't typically carry any on her. She may have a taser and, depending on the job, explosives on her. If she is on a job requiring explosives, she will have the tools to implement them (including knives, wires, etc.).
  
  
  
• Recruited
  
  Silhouette waited, as she so often did, in the dark. This particular dark was the corner of a back room in a bar off Rue Mouffetard. The ambiance was pure dive, and that meant plenty of smoke and shadows; although the entire setting would help the meeting go smoothly the shadows would be all she needed.
  
  
  She spotted the soldier immediately. Although he tried to blend in as a local thug out to enjoy a drink and maybe head home with a girl, the set of his shoulders betrayed him. His eyes scanned the place, searching the corners a little too closely. Vivienne waited, leaning up against the wall and keeping herself solid. Part of her body would remain in shadow throughout the meeting, however, just in case she needed to slip away in all haste.
  
  
  The man was in his late twenties or early thirties (it was so hard to tell with military hair cuts) and possessed the sort of confidence that had several girls looking his way. He spotted Vivienne in the corner in short order and made an attempt at a disarming smile. She flashed one back. “Cozy little spot for a chat, isn’t it?” She offered as he approached.
  
  
  “Only because the air is still free,” he replied. It was the signal; this was her contact.
  
  
  Vivienne nodded, relaxing slightly as the first part of the plan had gone well. If he was military, at least there was no one descending upon the location to take her away. At least not yet. She did not offer a hand, as many would, nor did she kiss his cheeks in the traditional greeting. She remained leaning against the wall, smoking her cigarette and speaking softly. “True. But freedom is only worthwhile if we use it…” She lifted an eyebrow and waited. It was one of the first rules: make the prospective client speak the sin first.
  
  
  No one was paying attention, but if anyone did happen to see the two talking, the hum of conversation in the place would cover their words nicely. The officer (or so she thought of him due to that stiff bearing) stood a respectful distance away and spoke with a quiet smirk. The smile set her nerves on edge for some reason. “I couldn’t agree more.” He glanced down at his shoes (Definitely military – no one else actually wears those kinds of boots with khakis. Not unless they are trying to go for the militia look.), before meeting her gaze again. “I’m glad you came, but I have a confession.”
  
  
  She stood a little straighter, debating whether she should go before he said another word. Too many alarms were ringing in her head.
  
  
  “Don’t go just yet,” he said apologetically, but his contrition was corrupted by the commanding nature of the words. Her gaze narrowed. He sighed under his breath and pushed forward. “There is no lab, and I am sorry for the need to lie to you. But we knew you wouldn’t come to hear us out otherwise.”
  
  
  Vivienne wasn’t impressed. She took another step into the corner, where the shadows were greatest. “We?” Her anger shone through in her tone. Unfortunately, so did some of her fear.
  
  
  The officer nodded. He made no move toward her. Somehow that was more alarming. “I think you’ve heard whispers of Atlas. I’m here because we think you’re a good candidate.”
  
  
  “Atlas?” she echoed, playing dumb. Meanwhile, her mind screamed, The U.N.? Shit! The implications unfolded quickly in her mind. This was not good.
  
  
  The officer nodded. “Yes. Atlas. And I’m sure you’ve heard of it. We made sure you did.” He let that sink in for a moment. Then, gently, “Have you considered that you might belong as part of the team? It would pay very well, and there would be other perks.”
  
  
  Vivienne shook her head with an ironic smile. “I’m not one for teams.” That wasn’t true, though. She had enjoyed working with Domani, until the dynamic had shifted. There was a big difference here, though. “Especially government ones.”
  
  
  The last words were barely audible, but the man seemed to hear them. He nodded. “We recognize that.” He folded his arms across his chest and spoke slowly, patiently, like explaining to a teenager why curfew was not going to be adjusted for the night. “But therein lies the issue. You see… if you’re not part of the team…” His shrug declared that he regretted the rest of the unsaid sentence. She was quickly growing to dislike his shrugs.
  
  
  When it became clear he wasn’t going to continue, she finally spoke. “So I join or you put my name on a list.”
  
  
  He didn’t answer.
  
  
  Vivienne shook her head. “Anyone ever tell you about flies and honey?”
  
  
  The man smiled and shrugged again as he unfolded his arms. That cinched it: she hated his shrug. “The project isn’t designed to hunt down anyone simply for who – or what – they are. But as you know, any team reflects the attitudes of its members.” He straightened as he glanced over the bar, and then met her gaze again. “We won’t force you; or anyone, for that matter. But at some point, you have to decide what side you’re on. Personally, I think you’ve already done that – but that doesn’t mean everyone will see things as I do. Some people need that choice to be crystal clear.”
  
  
  Vivienne didn’t say anything.
  
  
  He reached for his coat pocket and pulled out a card. Taking a small step forward, he set it down on the high tabletop against the wall. “When you’re ready to let us know.” He studied her for a moment more before turning on his heel and heading out the door into the night air.
  
  
  Vivienne frowned as she stepped forward, put out her cigarette and took the card, which had only a number and a simple instruction to ask for Mr. Manning on it. They knew about her. At least about Silhouette, and possibly about her alter ego as well. The officer’s declaration that he didn’t personally think she was one of the bad guys might have been based on intel, or it could have just been conjecture. It didn’t matter. If she didn’t join, she would be on the run, continually looking over her shoulder. If she did, she would be hunting down other metahumans. It was an impossible situation.
  
  
  Over the next two days, she weighed the options. In theory, the Project was only about finding the metahumans that were dangerous to society. They did exist, of course – she’d met some of them. Hell, she’d worked with some of them, and learned which she didn’t want to work with again. He had implied that she could act as a conscience; keep innocent people from getting caught up in hysteria. Ultimately, that was what tipped the scales. If she had to go in, at least it would be willingly. It gave her a better chance of walking out the same way. Maybe she would even enjoy working with a team again. But there was one problem.
  
  
  Her decision made, Vivienne dialed the number on the card and asked for Mr. Manning. The voice at the other end of the phone was deeper than the man she had met. She was surprised at her slight disappointment.
  
  
  “Have you reached a decision?” To his credit, he sounded neutral about it.
  
  
  “I have a couple conditions.”
  
  
  He waited.
  
  
  “First, I can’t be part of a local team.” She wouldn’t run the risk of being used to target people she knew and had worked with.
  
  
  “Easy enough. We have an opening in the United States. Will New York do?”
  
  
  “Yes.” She took a breath and nodded, though he couldn’t see it. “Second, I need a cover job and a promise of the ability to move about freely.”
  
  
  There was a brief pause before he responded. “Done and done. Anything else?”
  
  
  She shook her head, trying to shake the feeling she’d just phrased her wish to the genie incorrectly. “That’s it.” She took a breath, during which the world seemed to shift a little under her feet. “Just don’t make me regret it.”
  
  
  
• Other
  
  So… How did she get her powers?
  
  
  Both her parents participated in a “study” by a pharmaceutical company during their college years. Although they were told this was a test for a vaccination, it was one of the first experiments to try to create metahumans - although at the time, they just called it genetic enhancements. The theory being tested: triggering latent human genes can create superhuman abilities. The study was unsuccessful; no metahumans were created.
  
  
  Vivienne was born with a mutation, possibly because of the study her parents participated in. (Her older brother, Jacques, however, has shown no signs of any special abilities, unless dodging work is a superpower.) She was born with excellent dexterity and a kinship with darkness that only showed itself fully once she hit puberty.