Mitheral
"Growf!"
Note: Sharlene79 has been a co-GM of mine many times and vice versa. She does have my permission to bunny my NPC's. (I share my laptop with her, so I see much of what she write even before she posts.)
Notable NPC's
NPC: GM Owned
(Note: This character is very similar to the Martial Artist or Athlete in design. However, his real purpose here is his CSI skills. He is not intended to join the group except as a possible contact. Rather he will be investigating the homicides in an official capacity.)
Full Name: Kevin Brady
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Physical Appearance
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair: Dark Brown, military buzz.
Eyes: Blue
Appearance: Clean cut, all American look. Caucasian.
Clothes: Jeans and a pullover shirt when off duty. Always has some disposable gloves on him.
Jewelry and Tattoos: None
Job / Wealth
NYPD CSI intern … plus inheritance
Contacts
Random Stranger - a mysterious informant that Kevin has never met but clearly knows who he is - which is disconcerting but useful.
Charlotte "Charlie" DuMonte - police sketch artist that Kevin has used off the record to have sketches done based on what he has seen.
Personality:
Driven to find answers about his father. Serious. Honest. In more recent times, shorter tempered, bordering on violence.
Likes: Martial arts, Kendo, Puzzles.
Dislikes: Organized crime
History:
Kevin is the son of Shawn and Maureen Brady. Kevin’s father was a distinguished cop with a promising career until the day his wife nearly died in a car accident. The medical bills piled up. The temptation to abuse his position to cover them was there. But he knew IA would always watch for it. Then funds began to trickle into his accounts – enough to ease the costs. IA opened up an investigation. Six months later Detective Brady was shot during an investigation of a money laundering scheme. A considerable portion of the evidence was reported missing. A week later Detective Brady died. The money was never recovered.
At the time Kevin was 20 years old. His sister (Sarah) was only 15, a minor. His mother was still in need of hospitalization. She only survived six more months. His sister was remanded to the custody of his father’s partner, Detective Ryan Kelly. Kevin never accepted the suspicion under which his father’s death occurred.
At a very early age, Kevin was enrolled into a martial arts program by his father. Like many cops’ sons Kevin idolized his father and wanted to become a cop himself. Kevin excelled in sports, particularly his martial arts and kendo. He was also well rounded in school. Though far from a genius, he had a natural interest in criminology. Once he entered college he chose to major in criminal forensics.
He completed High School at 16, his Bachelor’s Degree at 19 and his PhD at 21 and managed to get an internship in the CSI: NYC. (Most interns do not already have a PhD.) It was only natural that he began to ask questions about the shooting of his father.
Abilities:
Wealth – Inheritance from Life Insurance and Investments. Hardly a Bruce Wayne, but enough to live and go to college without a job.
Hypercognitive - surpassed police academy trainees in those tests where they are subjected to a sudden event like a man entering the room with a gun and making threats, then leaving. Aced small arms training.
Toughness - trained as a superb athlete, Kevin’s body can take severe punishment and recover.
Skills:
-Kickboxer (since Age 6)
-Kendo (since age 6)
-Forensics
-Athletics (used to compete in triathlons and decathalons)
Weaknesses:
-Younger sister, Sarah (Age 18)
-Pet Cat, Schroedinger (not so much a weakness, but listed here anyways
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NPC: GM Owned
Full Name: Matthew Channing
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Physical Appearance
Height 6’0”
Weight 170 (thin and wiry)
Hair long straight jet black hair
Eyes Steely blue (or pitch black)
He has a preference for dark clothing, usually black. Black T shirts, a black duster (Matrix style), black shoes, black socks. This serves two purposes: Protection from light (better something than nothing) … and it looks cool.
Job / Wealth
Post Doctoral research - Hematology and Gene therapy
Personality and interests
See his Skills and Hobbies as that says a lot right there. He’s inquisitive, extremely intelligent, a bit of a rascal, sneaky, and has an intelligent brand of humor and enjoys playing minor pranks - especially on the monks who raised him. He is starting to wonder about his own past. His notions of ethical behavior have been influenced heavily by Catholicism, but something tells him they don’t have all the answers. Fortunately he isn’t really searching for them either.
He has issues with making friends. Police do not seem to like him. (He always seems to have money - more than he ought to walk around with. Odds are he is being investigated for illegally selling drugs.)
History
Noone knew Matthew's origins, not even himself at first. He was an abused boy who had been shot and stabbed, then abandoned at a hospital, St Joseph's. There was, very simply, no record of his parents. He had two illnesses to contend with - an odd form of anemia and an eating disorder that prevented him from holding down solid food. Those records were soon lost and now exist only as rumors.
Arrangements had been made for him to be raised by a Catholic orphanage, but he escaped when the priest came for him as they tried to take him out to the bus. He screamed, broke free and ran. He escape led him to the sewers.
It was days later when the boy showed up again, now surviving on a diet of slain animals, theft from a Red Cross blood drive and orange juice from a C store closed for the night. He had found clothing and gotten ahold of an arsenal of weapons (stolen from a pawn shop). He waited from shadows watching for the bus to reappear. As painful as it was, he managed to sneak aboard the bus and covered himself with heavy blankets.
The priest recognized just how extremely different the boy was. The boy couldn't speak a word of English, nor any other language he knew ... save for a few words of Latin. Matthew didn't remember his life before this. It was a sure bet he had suppressed those memories.
While Matthew was a wild youth, more than a handful for any father, the priest saw potential in the boy. He counseled the boy to strive not to be so different. Matthew endured a life of home schooling. But as he entered his teen years, he started to seek far more.
At 16 he left St Michael’s to live on his own. He still goes back for confessions - which he is very nonchalant about. He has since completed an education, opened a free clinic and made himself a home.
Abilities
Sunlight / Strong Light - he apparently suffers from a genetic disorder similar to vampirism. He can’t go out in sunlight. He wears dark sunglasses.
Nocturnal - just like it sounds. He fares far better at night than day much like a bat.
Skills:
Already held a PhD in Genetics at 19, now in post doctoral studies. Strong interests in hematology and gene therapy. Also goes to seminars on forensic chemistry.
Streetwise, classic literature, biblical scripture, mythology, guitar, pipe organ, sings choir and moonlights with the occasional band. Owns a wicked street bike that he wiped out the first time he tried to race and hasn't been able to get it to run right since. His latest interest has been CSI and shows like NUMB3RS. Loves math puzzles, but gets highly frustrated at Rubik's cubes and has been known to take a hammer to them, and then glue them together. He has been known to pay a kid to put jigsaw puzzles together for him. But he solves even hard Sudoku puzzles at a mere glance.
Speaks English, Spanish, Latin, and bits of other languages.
Not a total geek, he has studied martial arts, preferring more flowing styles. He’s no Bruce Li though. He has a rather souped up motorcycle - which he promptly tried to take out to street race and make some new friends, but he managed to lay the bike down hard and it hasn’t been the same since.
Other
He has a pet fruit bat named Koda that he dotes on.
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Ricochet
GM NPC: Key Character
Full Name: Janice Mueller
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Physical Appearance
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 110 lbs
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Clothes: Varies widely
Jewelry and Tattoos: Varies widely
Job / Wealth
Exotic dancer at Scorelli’s (private mafia club)
She has other professions, but those aren’t legal.
Personality and interests
Her brother is her life. She has sacrificed everything: education, career, innocence all to keep her brother alive. She draws the line at harming others.
History
Her own mother was a drug addicted prostitute who now just had sex for her next fix. Her father had been a two bit thug who had raped her at 13, then turned her out to do tricks. He had even tried to get her hooked, but the needle had broken off when she flinched. He had beaten her, but she just ran away.
Her first stroke of luck had been when her angry father had chased her down the street right in front of a squad car and flashed his gun at them right in their headlights. She had returned home later to her brother. Her mother had been so stoned she couldn't even understand what had happened. When her father had made his one phone call, Janice had answered, but didn't speak. She just hung up. At that time she was 15 and terrified of losing her brother. She managed to dress up like her mother - who her father said she reminded him so much of - and tried to make bail. But he had shot at a cop. He hadn't even hit the cop. But it was enough for the judge to deny bail in light of past offenses.
She never even showed up at her father's trial. It wouldn't be the last time Janice used her mother's name. It was how she handled the landlord. She had turned tricks with the man to buy a little time. So long as the place remained under her mother's name, she had a place for her brother to live. She couldn't file for emancipation, because as herself she couldn't handle her brother's medical bills legally. Neither could she get her real mother into a courtroom.
Abilities
Extremely flexible. (She could put a yoga master to shame.) Restraints will not hold her. She could easily be a master escape artist from handcuffs, chains, and straitjackets.
Skills:
Polite cough. Hers IS one of the oldest professions.
She also has other skills, but those would be a spoiler. Let us just say that they aren’t legal.
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Arachne
NPC - GM Owned (and Sharlene79)
Full Name: Jennifer Webb
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Physical Appearance
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 150 lbs
Hair: Jet Black
Eyes: Deep blue.
Jewelry: Wedding Band
Family and Friends
Mother - Audrey Webb – SETI Astronomer much like Jody Foster’s role in the movie Contact. She gave up her permanent positions at field sites when Jennifer entered puberty.
Father - Andrew Webb – sort of Carl Sagan type, author of books, radio talk show personality, now into TV. (His TV show is sort of a In Search Of show. He is considered an expert in his field which is basically debunking those theories of alien astronauts, UFO, etc.... Claims that most such sightings are the result of mass hysteria ,, blah blah. He's a real archaeologist, paleontologist, exobiologist ... arrogant sort. He had an affair with an intern when the Jennifer was 5-6 years old. Divorced. Now he sends gifts partly out of guilt. He broke up with the intern almost immediately, but the damage was done. Regrets his mistake. No, doesn't really believe Earth is being visited by aliens ... not that he would call it impossible. The mother considers his takes on UFO's to be a slap in the face considering her career.
Mongo - a great dane that Jennifer bought in an attempt to inconvenience her father - with his own money. Her father dotes on the animal.
Job / Wealth
Post Doctoral Research at NYU. Teaches Neuromuscular biophysics as well as some freshman level courses. Serves as a consultant on Arachnology.
Personality and interests
Jennifer still considers herself different, but at least not a freak. For a long time she was angry at her mother for pushing her to become something she didn’t choose for herself. She was angry at her father for tearing the family apart.
Jennifer did go through a period of extreme depression that included considering suicide. Fortunately she was a little more pragmatic than that. This was a trait she got from her mother. Her mother was always discovering things weren’t going as planned. She’d shrug and just deal with it. It was from her mother that Jennifer learned about the Serenity Prayer. So she kept going, trying to make the best of a “bad” situation. She’s pragmatic. She wasn’t the sort to drag everyone else down with her mood. Rather, she bottled it up and acted cheerful.
Today she is much more honestly cheerful and has come to accept her abilities as a gift.
Likes: Music (string and keyboard), Dance, Shopping, Musicals (especially Phantom of the Opera). She is a definite fan of Susan McKay’s book Phantom. Loves the story of Charlotte’s Web and is known to leave messages with writing in various script styles – like Calligraphy or Gothic. Ping Pong, Yoga, Swimming, Gymnastics.
Dislikes: Spiders, anything creepy crawly, normal beds (prefers a hammock), Snobs, Being psychoanalyzed (though she may not mind one or two more personal shrinks).
Quotes: Likes making Spider puns, Humming or singing Spider songs.
“Stick around.”
“Group hug?”
“Need a hand?”
“Hot roof! Hot roof!”
“Someone tell me again. Why the hell are we jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?”
History
When Jennifer was about 6 years old, her mother caught her father cheating on her. While Andrew broke the affair off immediately, the damage was done. His visitation privileges were highly restricted. For the first few years Audrey took Jennifer with her on her trips, homeschooling her as best she could. But eventually Audrey decided the constant travel wasn’t best for her daughter. So she hired a nanny.
Hiring a nanny and “abandoning her child” was enough to give Andrew legal ammunition to make another play for custody and the fight was on again. Andrew didn’t gain custody, though he gained ground. This lasted two more years …
At age 12, puberty set in and Jennifer went through a state of depression. She had only recently transferred to a new school in Manhattan and became the subject of a cruel prank. At the time she had known noone. Her mother had been out at a field site when it happened, despite plans to be around for the entire year until puberty had set in. All she got was her mother’s voicemail. Her father had been too busy to talk. Her father’s girlfriend was less mature than she was and no help at all. Jennifer was gone two whole days before her father even noticed she was missing.
Jennifer was found by James Stevens high atop the George Washington Bridge staring down at the water, contemplating suicide, but flattened against the catwalk. She had already decided against jumping. Fact was, she was terrified of heights back then. When James located Jennifer he chose to climb up and talk her down himself rather than calling the police. The only trouble he had with getting Jennifer down was getting her to to look at him standing there. Once she managed that, Jennifer clung to him instead like some scared kitten.
James, Jennifer discovered, had a superpower of his own - getting beat up. Rarely did a week go by that James didn’t find himself in a fight with not one - but several larger, older boys. More often than not it was in defense of a fellow geek. Although it was considered popularity suicide Jennifer found herself picking James up after getting beat up and helping him home. Slowly their friendship began to grow.
It took a bit of convincing and concessions to convince her father to agree to allow Jennifer into a 'boarding prep school.' But the truth that he realized it would be better to get his daughter away from paparazzi. Travelling to see his daughter on a regular basis created problems for him in his budding TV career. But another truth holds true. He does consider his daughter more important. Despite the distance between Andrew and Audrey, Jennifer's father sent a great deal of money to care for his daughter.
Jennifer had been mostly home schooled, or sent to private schools. She was nearly two grades ahead in the areas of mathematics, astronomy, and archeology (though overly concentrated in areas involving theories of ancient astronauts) until her breakdown. She lost much of her advantage during the next two years. She is still gifted in those areas (mainly the skills learned from her mother), but she isn’t quite the prodigy either parent was. However, she was no slouch academically.
During her early teen years Jennifer went through a metamorphosis into an Olympic gymnast - literally. She took the Nationals at age 15. At 17 she took swept the Gold in the Uneven bars, Balance Beam and Floor Routine. (She did not return to defend her titles.)
At age 16, Jennifer graduated high school with honors and was picking up speed. She started up college courses with emphasis on Arachnology, Neuromuscular sciences, and Psychology. Thoughts of being a freak have all but vanished. By age 18 she completed 2 Bachelor degrees at MIT (biology and Pre-Med). And at age 23 she has her PhD in Biomedical Research.
Jennifer married James when they were 18. They moved back to Brooklyn to take over running a bookstore James inherited. James is fully aware of Jennifer’s vigilante interests. He disagrees with the Vigilante Code however. He has adopted the codename, Micronaut. (He has hobbies that involve ships in bottles, remote controlled toys, etc). When he was younger he was always the runt. Now he is 6’2” and is a lookalike for Daniel Craig.
Abilities
Speed and agility - Kali's agility, balance and reflexes are significantly higher than human average. She can stand on a tightrope with “no” fear of falling. She can also take an impact fairly well. With a running start she can clear a two lane road with turn lanes when jumping from building to building – perhaps 60 feet.
Webbing - Jennifer succeeded in developing independently an artificial form of spider silk similar to Spyber. Her husband, James, developed the web shooters. He always loved comic books anyways, so he was more than enthusiastic. Jennifer can adjust their sticky properties as well as naturally secrete a substance that dissolves them to detach. A single line will support several times her weight, about 500 lbs. The downside of the web shooters is that their range is limited by wind resistance, liquid volume. At the moment it means that her web “shooters” are really just web oozers. They work fine for an emergency rappelling down a building - or zip tieing up bad guys. Oh there are ways to create SOME of the effects of comic books, but physics still wins. James is constantly straining his brain to fix the problems.
Clinging - Basic wall crawling ability. Difficult to use on Ice or Oily surfaces as well as some polished metal finishes. Unfortunately this ability is dependent on her web fluid and doesn’t work well enough to allow her to crawl at super speeds. This is a work in progress.
Glider Webbing – The idea of being a burden and having to get carried into every hostile situation didn’t suit her. She still prefers her webbing for entrances. But she practices gliding for emergencies. She has over 2000 skydives and has trained extensively with a birdman suit (as has James).
Combat Skills – She started with none at all at age 14. For that matter the best she could do was slap. Now she has had about 9 years of martial arts training. She has taken well to kempo and using ASP batons. (She’d prefer something that could stun given a choice.) But physical combat is always a last line of defense.
Skills:
PhD’s in Arachnology and Neuromuscular biophysics
String Art, Gymnastics, Martial Arts (mainly kempo with a mix of Karate, Aikido and Judo, black belt), ASP Batons, Fencing, String and Keyboard instruments
Trivia - Ham Radio, SETI facts, Astronomy (nothing like a degree, just the result of growing up with parent in the field). Also, lot of Psychology and some Archaeology.
Languages - Modest command of Spanish. May occasionally mix Portuguese, or even a few words of some South American native tribe in due to brief exposures to those languages.
Gear
Pair of ASP batons (rigged with hand taser charges)
Costume is spyber silk treated with Liquid armor.
Other
Has a pet South American Bird Eating Spider named Charlotte. (And yes she is afraid of it.)
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Micronaut
NPC - GM Owned (and Sharlene79)
Full Name: James Kendall Stevens
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Physical Appearance
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair: Brown, a few inches in length, fairly straight. It is typically unkempt from his last flight or exploration run. He can never seem to keep it groomed for long.
Eyes: Intense steel blue.
Appearance: Nearly always dressed like he is going outdoors. Jeans, pull over shirts. He finally developed fashion sense – and not the antiquated one typically chosen from old movies that he used to have - after meeting Jennifer Webb. He patiently tolerates her “making” him go shopping.
James’ father would be a very good look alike for Daniel Craig. As James matures his appearance will move toward this image.
Jewelry: Not a chance in Hades!!! Well, except for a small silver crucifix on a leather strap and his wedding band.
Family and Friends
Father: Kenneth Stevens. Airline mechanic, He was downsized from NASA at Key West four years ago. Transferred to NYC about two years ago..
Mother: Barbara Stevens. IT Consultant (works at home) Used to be a high profile IT Engineer, but was also downsized
William Bell: Though not technically family, he was practically regarded as such. He filled the role of a grandfather. Rare and Used Bookstore owner. Friend and former “boss”, appointed as legal guardian in the event of the death of James’ parents, even though he passed away before that event could come to pass. James was listed as his sole heir.
Bell passed away when James was 16. Bell was old enough to have served in the US Navy during WWII and retired. Then he went into publishing and retired. Then he started a bookstore and ended up owning the building. (It isn’t huge, four floors.) He had several tracts of land, some small apartments – rental properties, some old cars – classics – in very good condition, some of Japanese items, like a real samurai katana. And he had a strong savings program – more than enough to cover taxes and then some. Plus there were some odd discrepancies in the estate, such as a French vineyard that Bell himself inherited shortly after WWII. James was the sole heir. In his will he referred to James as the grandson he never had. James would trade everything to have Bell back. But he is grateful that the hospice period was so short.
James has two employees who help him run the bookstore, an older man with skills on book restoration, and a young goth chick who runs the register.
James is married to Jennifer Webb aka Arachne.
Education and Career:
James picked up his love of models, remote control toys and rocketry from his father and William Bell. William Bell added an interest in ships in a bottle. As to James’ history at school, he had always been above average (A to B in the areas of interest, B to C in others). He was quite capable of straight A’s with a little effort.
At 14 James was placed into a private boarding school where he could concentrate on his studies. By 16 he completed high school and was accepted to MIT. By 18 he had his Bachelor’s degree. By 20 he completed his PhD in Applied Science.
James currently teaches Applied Physics at NYU.
Personality and interests
James was a bit of a geek, but very much an explorer at heart. He always seemed to find a way to embarrass himself, even when he thought there are no more ways to do so. But he found it easy to laugh at his own mistakes, so long as they weren’t too serious. He is hard working and studious, rarely procrastinates. Once he makes up his mind he tends to follow through.
As a kid he met more than his share of bullies. He had no fear of them at all. He stood his ground against multiple bullies … and was beaten soundly. But that never stopped him.
Likes: Literature, Remote control toys, Ships in a Bottle, Exploring, The Atom comic book (especially the Microverse storyline), Indiana Jones, Van Helsing (the movie version), Rocketeer, vehicles (faster, the better).
Dislikes: Bullies
History
James was born to fairly wealthy and successful career professional parents. His father had been an aerodynamics engineer on his way to NASA. His mother was an IT Engineer with excellent contacts. She had been born into a modestly wealthy family. They doted on their only son – perhaps a little too much.
When James was 10 his parents were both downsized. No more fancy toys. No more fancy cars. No more Everglades as his personal frontier to explore. New address in a considerably lower rent district. The loss of income actually didn’t hurt too badly, but James misread the situation and thought matters were desperate. Fact was, his parents had more than enough to retire and still live an average life. But they also wanted a better life for their son, so they found new opportunities.
At first James was bitterly disappointed at leaving behind the Everglades – his personal jungle. And the new school sucked. He was something of a runt back in those days. But his parents seemed to think they needed to move to find better opportunities. James, too, sought new opportunities. For him … it was theft. His first choice was the cash register of a rare and used book store, owned by a William Bell. But even when James got home that night, he knew he had made a mistake. His parents would have asked where the money came from. And very simply, it wasn’t right. So the next day he went back to the store and spoke to the owner to return the stolen money. Every penny was there.
William Bell was moderately impressed by the boy’s honesty. He had seen James in the store many times. Since then, William Bell became the one non family member he entrusted with his secret.
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Lady Jane
NPC - GM Owned
Full Name: Janice Rand
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Height & Weight: 5’6” 130 lbs
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
- Feet have opposable thumbs
- Prehensile tail
- lengthened canines
- lengthened arms similar to that of a chimpanzee
Clothes:
Jewelry and Tattoos:
Job / Wealth
N/A
Personality and interests
- Playful to a fault when not curled up around a book. The only thing to drag her away from the jungle, forest, or jungle gym (monkey bars) is the library. She detests reading via kindles and computers. She detests heavy metal or “noisy” music. Tends to simplify problems, even oversimplify them. Despite all the harsh treatment she has suffered, she still loves both people
History
Janice was discovered by a Catholic mission in the heart of the Congo as a child. Her unique nature was immediately obvious. One of the first thoughts were of some unnatural union between human and ape. (This has since proven to be a false assumption.) To survive Janice had turned to theft. Baffled by the disappearance of food from the church a security camera was set up. The priest could scarcely believe his eyes at what he saw. But as it was his mission to bring the word of God to all good children he decided to tempt her with better food. It only half worked. It made her a regular visitor.
The priest was patient.
The second opportunity came when he spotted Janice where she had snuck in and hidden during a service. She was singing right along with the congregation, but carefully to stay out of sight. She had a beautiful singing voice - almost angelic compared to most of his flock. He finally combined the two tactics. He prepared a nice meal on a day other than services and began playing the organ. It drew her in almost immediately.
The priest was careful not to try to block any escape. It took nearly a month, but he finally got her to sleep indoors. His first real success at getting her to try to read was teaching her a musical note and the words to a hymn. After that she was hooked.
What the priest did NOT know at the time was that Janice had been spending her time in the jungle sabotaging poacher traps. And as clever as she was, the poachers proved smarter. They set up cameras to watch their traps and caught her on video. Once they realized what they were dealing with they smelled opportunity. They waited and tried to hit her with a tranq dart. But they missed and had to track her with hounds. She led them right to the mission.
The poachers took the mission hostage in an effort to force her to surrender herself. This was a level of violence that Janice had never endured and had no idea how to fight. So she surrendered herself. This was how she learned the hard way just how cruel humans can be.
Unknown to her the priest had contacted old friends of his. He hadn’t always been a priest. It took them nearly three months to track Janice to a private collector of freaks of nature. She had completely withdrawn into herself and was on the verge of dying in captivity. It took the involvement of the priest to break her out of her state. She had thought he was dead. He almost had been. He had taken 6 bullets and still survived. He stayed long enough for her to recover. But it was no longer safe for her back in the Congo, so the Church found her a new home.
The priest went to meet the woman who had agreed to be Janice’s foster mother. The woman’s name was Moira Rand who ran a preserve for endangered species and had a personal estate with a library that Janice decided was heaven on Earth, one of those ones filled with shelves two stories high and had a ladder that moved around the room on a rail. Janice’s almost empathic senses (sense of smell) told her Moira was a decent human being.
Janice practically took over the library as “her” turf. Oh she wasn’t really possessive. But the place was a second home to her. The only other place she really enjoys is anywhere she can climb. The hardest part of integrating her was her social skills. Her manners were still those of a child when she first arrived. Fortunately she was an excellent student and Moira a patient teacher. When one of the hands commented on how she was like someone named Beast, she did some research. The X Man character Hank McCoy became a favorite. Her second favorite was Mystique.
Unfortunately it proved impossible to keep someone like Janice a secret forever. There were two separate attempts to kidnap her by poachers looking to sell her to some private collector. Janice decided she would be safer in an environment in which she was more at home. Thus she chose a life as a missionary in the southern regions of Africa, though she would make it a point to visit Moira every now and then.
Most recently she has made the journey to the USA to drum up funds for missionary work overseas. Unfortunately her work has placed her in contact with terrorists on many occasions. For example, she did a stint in Lesotho. She has also been working in regions with a very high level of disease.
Abilities and Skills
Janice is a sort of genetic throwback to Simian ancestry (Think of Beast from the X-Men - minus the blue fur, genius intellect, inhuman strength …)
- Feet have opposable thumbs
- Prehensile tail
- Discriminatory smell (not as good as some bloodhound, but able to sense emotional states), hearing up to 30 khz (cats reach 44 khz), good night vision, superhuman spatial awareness and depth perception (at shorter ranges)
- superhuman balance and agility
- lengthened canines
- heightened strength in arms and legs similar to that of a chimpanzee
Monkey Kung Fu (studying various sub styles), and some jiu jitsu. Post black belt. (She tends to learn physical skills very quickly.) She was taught be a Master Pu. Yep, that was really his name. And he did not take well to being made fun of about it.
Photographic Memory (must commit material to memory, not merely have seen something. For example she would probably forget that math reading unless she really needed to pass a test, but the opening pages of The Hobbit, no problem.)
Weaknesses:
- Poor farsightedness.
- Poor sprinting speeds
- Doesn’t swim and hates water (She has learned to swim, but she doesn’t float well, and she doesn’t little better than dog paddling - and still hates it.) Yes, this also means she avoids taking baths or showers and won't go out in the rain.
-HATES flying. She doesn’t mind the heights of being in trees. But flying? Oh she has flown many times - mostly with bush pilots. But a long flight? "Ohhh ... what are these little bottles?"
Other Noteworthy Skills:
- Jungle survival (studying toward genetics or zoology)
- Language Polyglot: French (Native language of the Congo), Swahili, Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba, Dutch, Belgian, Latin, old English, Gaelic, Greek, Norwegian, Japanese, Egyptian, Farsi, and Hebrew. She also reads and write musical notation, Sign Language, Tolkien languages (Elvish, dwarvish, etc), and Trekkie languages (Klingon, Vulcan, etc).
- Plays a pipe organ reasonably well. Superb singer.
- Typing, and various other office skills.
- Zoological park skills (feeding and care, creature habits)
She also knows a great deal more about weapons than a missionary ought to know. But then she had to work around militants in South Africa. He last mission took her to Lesotho of all places. None of this means she LIKES guns. Anything worse than a paintball gun she abhors. And she detests tasers, having been damn near killed by them.
- Baseball (she has an absolutely lethal pitching arm)
Gear
Earplug noise filters
Goggles with sports strap (to compensate for vision issues)
Wheelchair
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Random Stranger
GM - NPC
Full Name: Lori Stevens
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Physical Appearance
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
General Description: Normally a little unkempt. She virtually never goes out. She doesn’t even go out to shop for groceries. But she has all the necessities to clean herself up – save for dressier clothing. Dolled up she looks like the blonde girlfriend from the movie Lethal Weapon 2.
As Random Stranger she appears athletic in a deep purple costume with a grayish featureless mask similar to the DC character The Question or the Watchmen character Rorschach. It includes second chance Hardcore, augmented with Liquid armor.
Clothes: Normally she wears gym clothes, not bothering with street clothes.
Jewelry and Tattoos: None
Job / Wealth
N/A
Personality and interests
Lori is exceptionally shy. She has difficulties with being around crowds. She has mild agoraphobia. But most of this stems from a fear of being tracked down by the people who killed her parents and left her crippled. Some might say she is paranoid. But they really ARE out to get her.
She is very easy to read, her body language practically broadcasting her nervousness even in costume. She has a very kind and generous heart. She looks for heroes with characteristics to live up to and goes out of her way to help them.
Lori is an avid reader - absorbing everything from Sci Fi and Fantasy, to harlequin romances, to classic literature. She absolutely loves sushi and orders it daily from the small Chinese / Japanese restaurant under her apartment.
History
Lori’s parents (Christopher and Tabetha von Straad) were research engineers in South Africa working for a criminal organization known as Hydra, which began back during World War I and was believed crushed shortly after WW II. The world knows nothing of Hydra’s existence and both sides have been satisfied with that status quo. Lori’s parents tried to leave Hydra. But eventually they were hunted down.
Lori suffered a severe back injury when the Hydra Deathbirds (assault helis that resemble Blackhawks) chased them down in California. She was dragged away by what looked like a war veteran dressed oddly and suffering from post traumatic stress. He never gave his name. He flagged down a lone trucker headed south and managed to drop the girl off at a church called St Michael’s. The monks there just told her she was brought in by a random stranger. That was where she took her alias from.
St Michael’s recognized that she was in need of sanctuary and transferred her quickly to their mission in NYC as soon as she was stable enough to move. She later left the protection of the Church, fearing Hydra would discover her there and kill every monk to get to her. She became homeless at first, with nothing more than the wheelchair that the monks gave her.
Before the they tried to leave Hydra, Lori’s parents made certain to secret away slush funds. As a last resort Lori was to access these accounts to make a new life for herself. She used these funds to set herself up in an apartment above an Asian restaurant (she loves sushi). She bought herself a better wheelchair. And she left a healthy donation to the Church – along with her wheelchair.
She bought (with cash of course) a plethora of computer equipment and set up her own intranet. Her apartment looks like Houston Space Center. She began building a database on the activities of organized crime. But she isn’t out for the recognition or fame.
Abilities
Eidetic Memory
Skills:
Sketching, Calligraphy, Computer Hacking, Computer and electronics engineering, Conspiracy Theory, Economics, Disguise, Forgery, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, First Aid, Shadowing, Speed Reading, Literature (written and oral), Occultism (demonology and vampirism), Sign Language and Lip Reading, and some martial arts (limited by being in a wheelchair).
Speed Reading
Also fluent in: Afrikaans, Latin, Old English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Russian, Japanese and German.
Gear
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