# Forum > Play-by-Post Games > Finding Players (Recruitment) >  Worm: Shades of Grey

## GameOfChampions

*Worm: Shades of Grey*


_On a scale of one to ten, I asked, Just how bad is this?

Let me answer your question with another question, Tattletale said. You think we could convince the PRT to turn on the air raid sirens?

-Wildbow, Worm_

Hello!

So I have had the Worm bug bite again. A combination of having fun generating powers with some friends and reading over the newest edition of Weaverdice. I've run several Worm games on the forum before and I always enjoy them. Massive cities populated with parahumans, opposing groups with different agendas, webs of alliances and deceit, and intricate plots. Now while I love Weaverdice I find the power generation system and intricate rules to not work as well on the forum, combat slows to a crawl and fun crazy plans have to be bent into a shape that works with the rules. 

Over the course of several games, many run by me but several by some other people, I've decided that a rough free form style with a few basic rules capable of covering a wide array of situations. Some are custom designed, some cribbed from other systems like Weaverdice or Blades in the Dark. The end result is a system where players roleplaying has just as much effect as their roles, a smart in character decision is just as impactful as a good roll. The rules will be listed below so they can be reviewed by potential players.

Now I'll be looking for a group of 5-7 players for the game, I would aim more towards 5 or 6 players but sometimes there are just too many great applications and I need to squeeze in one more player. If enough players end up dropping then I may run a re-recruitment depending on the amount left and what the remaining players think.

The game itself will be set in *New Orleans*, Louisiana. A classic Worm city where there is a Protectorate presence in the form of an office as well as a Protectorate and Ward team. Rogue bounty hunters, villainous groups, vigilantes, and more. There are ongoing situations going on in the city involving various groups that the players may be involved in. The group will be brought together in the city to form a group and be let loose from there. In the Worm-verse Hurricane Katrina was replaced with a Leviathan attack in 2006, causing all of the same damage and problems. It is now 2011, 5 years after and reconstruction is ongoing as well as causing ongoing changes among the parahuman politics. 

*Spoiler: Starting Point*
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So for obvious reasons I can't have the Undersiders running around and causing world changing events because it'd be boring to have things happen the same way and I don't know if I could do the characters justice if they popped into the setting. 

The change will be that during the Undersiders rescue of Grue where they were all caught they were actually murdered or successfully turned into the insane cape monsters that Bonesaw described, Skitter becoming a walking hive and Grue having his power always on while being a cannibal with a skull face. There is a small chance that the S9 could appear, yes I know they stick around North America more but come on they're too awesome to drop completely, and if they do so then the monsters would too. 

Jack never determined that he would end the world on his way out because of this, though he did not win the bet because Armsmaster, Panacea and Hookwolf survived, and as such left the city with plans to return for screwing with Theo though maybe not to the same degree. Crawler and Mannequin died in Brockton and Shatterbird was never heard from again after she was captured. Many of the Travelers died in that fight and Coil bailed from the city taking Echidna with him.


Now on a more local scale within the city there has been several events that changed the parahuman politics on the city. Since the reconstruction started there have been occasional thefts of shipments going to the city for the rebuilding, they are full of resources and equipment that can all be resold for massive profits. Recently the situation has changed however.

Recently New Orleans is struggling to recover from a series of changes among the local Protectorate team and cape scene. The two married leaders, and local beloved celebrities, of the Protectorate broke with the PRT and their team to begin their own small sponsored team. The two have refused to elaborate on the split and a lot of faith has been lost in the Protectorate team, especially with their team changes. The disruption also caused a change in the crime within the city which interrupted the flow of Katerina rebuilding, villains started raiding the shipments much more frequently. Companies started to withdraw from the city and construction ground to a halt.  

The city grew desperate and reached out to one of the largest developers in Lousiana. Habitat For Humanity came to the city when the mayor begged for aid from them. Habitat came to the city and took over the projects but they started suffering the same attacks and thefts that the old companies had no matter the security, parahuman or otherwise, they invested in. Instead they worked with the municipal government to develop a bounty for those who disrupt the rebuilding and safety of those in the city.

The bounties and work with the municipal government has brought all sorts of mercenaries, opportunists, and bounty hunters looking for their break. With several massive arrests breaking up some of the bigger crime rings, Habitat was able to start shipping massive amounts of resources back to the city. This has in turn attracted a newer class of villain, ones able to wait and patiently plan out a major heist of a Habitat shipment. The massive bounties those villains have drawn in turn attracted mercenaries and bounty hunters to the city looking for a pay day from the money put up by the city and Habitat.

You are all recent arrivals, looking for opportunities in this dog eat dog environment, contacted from out of the city or as you traveled through



*Character Creation*
*Spoiler: Character Creation*
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Every character must apply with a properly thought out character. I would like a 3-5 paragraph backstory and the same length again in the possible trigger event. I want to know why the character you plan on playing is more than a two dimensional receptacle for whatever powers you get. Worm is a rich setting where the parahumans within it are as reliant on their own skills and mentalities as they are their powers. Powers and personality are intricately linked and often provide complications or hardships to the person. I can better match a power to a character the more information I have on them.

For trigger events they should contain the elements that may push a person to trigger, serious and life changing to the character. This does not always mean deadly, though many are, and will change depending on the character and what they are deemed to find impactful. Now I do not mind players designing trigger events focused towards certain types of powers, in fact that is welcomed, it helps narrow things down. That being said I dont want a trigger event that is constantly pushing a single specific power, not even a category, in the loudest way possible. Below is a list of triggers and the circumstances that trigger certain powers taken from Weaverdice;

*Spoiler: Trigger Circumstances*
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Classifications and Causes
Mover (Effects that move you. Flight, speed, teleportation, etc.) - Drive to escape, flee, run.
Shaker (Wide area effects) - Environmental danger, ambient danger, often nonhuman or only abstractly human.
Brute (Enhanced Strength and/or Enhanced Durability) - Experiencing physical harm or pain.
Blaster (Pewpew - You have ranged attacks built in.) - Man vs. a living/animated threat, ambulatory threat is approaching, attacking from range, or posing immediate harm but still further than arms reach.
Breaker (Physics kind of tickle. You alter yourself in such a way that rules apply differently.) - Abstract physical danger or harm, difficult to define pain or stress (not mental or physical.) Frequently arises from the hardest triggers to label.
Master (Minions, pets, affecting the thoughts and moods of others.) - Isolation, alienation, exile.
Tinker (You build the ****. All the ****.) - Issue proves difficult to resolve, unsolvable problem, typically over an extended period of time (weeks or months).
Thinker (Perception, knowledge, skills, this includes precognition and remote vision.) emotional or mental strain, reaching a crisis point in a short period of time.
Striker (Touch effects. If you touch something, something happens to that thing.) - Trigger results from immediate, in-your face threat, usually a singular object or individual (ie. knife, being strangled, mofo up in your grill)
Changer/Shifter (Shapeshifting and alteration of the selfs PHYSICAL form.) - Issue in physical state. Body image, or a crisis of self image vs. societys expectations.
Trump (Powers that affect other powers: add, remove, complicate, compound) - As other triggers, but altered further by involvement with other powers. Rare.
Stranger (Powers related to stealth, infiltration and subterfuge.) - Attention of a group/individual threatens emotional/mental security (vs. physical, which would be more blaster). Almost inverse of Master, but not opposite - very possible and common for there to be overlap (often creating a more influential sort of master/stranger cross).

Mental vs. Physical Triggers
Mental triggers = thinker, tinker, stranger, shaker, rare trump or changer.
Physical triggers = brute, breaker, changer, mover.

This is general. Can vary. Degree of one vs. the other can shape the trigger in question.



After all that is done I will generate the power taking the entire application into consideration. I will then roll on an adapted Weaverdice table for perks and flaws. This helps provide some fun bonuses or complications to a power to represent the pure chaotic mess that are the shards. Now dont be concerned, Im not going to be keeping any rolls that go strictly against any backstory or triggers or any that would make powers unfun or unplayable in this kind of game format. After all that Ill brainstorm a power and post it. 

At that point I would like some additional information on the character post trigger. A brief background of what happened after the trigger. What basic gear and costume they settled on for their character. Now obviously this needs to be within reason. I dont want one player applying to the game as a trust fund baby who has millions to throw around on whatever because that defeats the fun of the game. Same way I dont want a player saying they were working on the world stage like fighting the Triumvirate every other week or running with the S9. 

Here is a completed example character from a previous game I was in below;

*Spoiler: Natalie Reynolds*
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*Spoiler: Backstory*
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Natalie Reynolds is a twenty three year old women who had been on the verge of finishing her Yale degree, a driven women she spent her life trying to become better to help others. Natalie had her life all figured out, she did extra charity work, was a nice young women who was respectful to her peers and elders, and she had worked hard all throughout her high school career to get into a good university. She had worked her ass off to get into Yale for a double major in Parahuman studies and psychology with three quarters of her tuition being paid for by the school, she wanted to be a Parahuman psychologist when she was older and had her degree, and possibly higher degrees as well, so that she could work with Parahumans and in her own way help the fight against villainy.

She had been born in the city of Toronto and lived there until she was ten or so when her family moved to Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario. She had not only been the first of her family to go to an Ivy league University but the first to have any secondary education, a fact that had been made known to everyone within hearing distance by her parents constantly. She had been raised to believe that everyone had the possibility of good inside them, something compounded by something one of the Protectorate heroes said to her school during a visit to talk to them about crime. The hero had said All of us Capes are just people and you should just think of us as people who are stepping up to help our communities. Cape or not we need all the help we can get from everyone in our community.

That stuck with her, even Capes needed help because they were normal people at heart. Just like normal people their backgrounds and history may have effected their choices of how to use their powers. As she learned more about Parahuman studies and about trigger events she believed that villains were only becoming villains not because of their pre-trigger life circumstances or the disturbing circumstances of their trigger events, but instead because they didn't have anyone to help them with these problems. She believed that no cape was beyond redemption and made that belief the linchpin of her drive and personality, always ready to listen and help people especially any who were in a rough spot.


*Spoiler: Trigger*
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She was just starting the last year of her degree at Yale when she came home for a long weekend to see her family before things started to get to busy. Her visit had started off pretty normal, her parents wanted to hear all about what she was doing and learning while stuffing her full of good food saying she wasn't eating enough. It had been good to see them and the last day came all too soon. A couple hours before leaving she had decided to stop in Toronto on her way back to school and walk around her old neighborhood to see the sights and revisit old memories. She was going to meet her mom who was heading into the city for some errands and walk around together and maybe grab lunch. Everything was fine and she was enjoying her walk in the brisk fall weather when she felt a dampness on her hand, she was startled because the weather was nice out so when she looked around she was startled to see a large unnatural fog bank coming down on her.

Panicking she looked around and behind her she could see the large eldritch fog bank coming towards her with weird dark shapes inside it. Natalie panicked, everyone who lived in Ontario knew what this was a sign for, the Cerberus fog was renowned for its terror almost as much as the Parahuman who created it. Tearing up as she turns to run she runs to the nearest building which was a locked small store and after trying the door but failing to get inside she hides beside it, wedging herself between the outer wall and a large garbage bin. She was hiding there for what seemed like hours but was only minutes watching the fog roll through her old community and then starting to whirl around her, soaking her, but she stayed.

As the fog hit her she stayed put because of what she knew was in the middle of that storm, Cerberus and what would probably be other fearful people who lost any reason and just wanted escape, trying to escape could be even more dangerous so she stayed put. As she was there the fear started to slowly worm her way through her mind, playing on all her fears. She could hear her parents screaming in the fog, Cerberus hunting her through the fog and whispering horrifying terrible things to her as he did. Finally she snapped she started screaming and clawing her ears, she stumbled out from her hiding place trying to get away from the fog but as soon as she was up and moving she lost all sense of direction and could barely see what was around her, immediately losing her hiding place even if she had the thought to go back. She lost all sense of time, going numb as she wandered through the fog believing against all logic that she would wander through this forever while the whispers and visions constantly played on that idea. Finally the fog receded and she just collapsed not even noticing the paramedics coming in to help her just whispering the same thing over and over. 'No person could do something like this, only a monster could... a monster.'




*Mechanics/Rules*

*Spoiler: Engagement Roll*
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The first major mechanic is something called 'the Engagement Roll'. This roll will represent generally how well your team (or members of your team) do in stressful situations. In-game, it takes the place of luck/planning when it comes to implementing operations. 

How it works is that whenever any opposed or challenged action happens in-game  whether its robbing a secure location, setting up an ambush against an enemy team, escaping from somewhere dangerous, or even fighting off rivals  I will roll 3d6. An 18 or higher is usually an outstanding success, representing your team having a huge advantage and being in a position to come out of the situation with a flawless victory, whereas a 3 or lower usually threatens a catastrophic failure, usually with significant fallout and even some casualties if called for. Any number in between them runs along a spectrum of achievement, and is up to the GM to spin in whatever way works best for the narrative. 

If the group really wants it, an Engagement Roll can occasionally take the place of some of the planning, as a way of jumping into the action (with the understanding that smaller details can be worked out on the fly and assumed retroactively to have been planned).

But here's the catch (and for those of you who play Blades in the Dark, the point of divergence). Whenever you are in a position for a fight, an escape, or what have you, I will give you the opportunity to make a case for Minor and Major Advantages your team has. This is meant to be a pretty diplomatic process of parsing out the odds of success. Each Minor Advantage (such as a particular tool, some inside info, maybe familiarity with the terrain) will give a cumulative +1 to the final dice result, and each Major Advantage (a useful power, significant power synergy, a power that cancels out or is immune to an enemy power, superior battle tactics, overall strength) will grant +1 die to the die pool. For example, if your matter duplication Tinker was to fight off an enemy cape in a packed alleyway where his inventions could readily be manipulated, he might get a Minor or even a Major Advantage to his roll. However, the GM (or other players) also have the opportunity to counter with Minor and Major Disadvantages, which have the same effect but inverted. In some cases, the GM will have secret Disadvantages that the players do not know about. All of these modifiers are to be accumulated together before making the final Engagement Roll.

The Engagement Roll is not meant to take the place of roleplaying, and more than one roll may be made over the course of a longer situation such as a cape fight, to represent changing luck. The Engagement Roll will also not be present at every situation or fight. It is meant for large impactful situations not simple things or roleplaying. A cape gathering information from a shady source or tracking down a target or beating down an unpowered lieutenant would not warrant a roll.

One terrible Engagement Roll should not doom a team to automatic failure, just like another great one shouldnt be an assumed success. How the PCs work with the roll will be focal to handling crises throughout the game. It also gives me ideas on where to take the roleplaying of the opposition with some guidance rather than whatever I feel like at the time. 


*Spoiler: Downtime*
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The third rule isn't much of a rule, but rather a restructuring of a tried and true dynamic as the Worm-verse presents it. Although a lot of the story focuses on plenty of fights, there will also be plenty of time between engagements and battles, where your characters can train, rest, seek out new information, or work towards other projects. This time-frame is called Downtime in game terms, and can be separated into various actions. 

It can  and usually will  take the form of differing activities, but on average each PC will get 1 Downtime Action per full day not spent on a job or involved in a major fight. Time, like everything else, is a precious commodity, and often cape teams sink or swim depending on how well they use the time between their fights. These actions do not have to be the same across a whole team: each member might decide to do something different on each day theyre not in the field. 

Downtime is also a chance for players to roll play out arcs for their characters and show different sides to them that they may not be able to do during the climactic quick scenes of missions or fights. 

Some of the Downtime Actions listed above are not necessarily automatic in nature. In particular, the Acquire Asset and Gather Info actions are subject to chance and might run into difficulties. Sometimes the GM will call for a separate Engagement Roll in order to test the success or failure of the action. Just like any other Engagement Roll, it is up to the GM to arbitrate exactly what the results of the rolls mean, although these rolls will usually call for a bit more input from the players. Usually, a 3-6 indicates a wasted action, with the potential for extra complications, while a 15-18 is a great success, sometimes getting extra benefits. 

Furthermore, the effectiveness of most actions might be increased if more than one team member commits their time towards the same action. These actions are called Reinforced Actions. Typically, Reinforced Actions will grant a synergistic bonus towards that actions outcome, and will effectively work as a Major Advantage should any roll need to be made for that action's success.

Actions:

_[Training; Reinforced]_: Training can take several forms. Your characters might commit themselves at getting better at hand to hand combat, at fighting with firearms or other conventional weapons, or simply at practicing with their powers. Usually, training represents a long-term commitment to improvement; you dont simply get better overnight. There is no hard rule for how much training a character will need in order to markedly get better at fighting, but this action should eventually give permanent incremental benefits towards a team's Engagement Rolls. Training as a Reinforced Action is one such action that will be more effective the more people devote their time to it. Having one parahuman trained in close quarters combat is nowhere near as useful as having an entire squad of fighters who know how to back each other up.

_[Acquire Asset]_: Just because your characters are parahuman warlords to be doesnt mean they will start with massive fortunes. In fact, chances are that they'll be closer to the lower rungs of societys ladder. They will be in need of resources in order to function effectively: vehicles, weapons, specialty items, even hideouts. For the purposes of this action, people and services can also be assets, and acquiring them could take several forms. Maybe your characters need to hire a doctor to help with injury recovery, or maybe they want to recruit some muscle for a job. This action represents the acquisition of more or less any good or service that is not strictly currency-based in nature. Acquire Asset can be assisted by a team member helping out with the same job, but it is not a Reinforced action by default. After all, two PCs might decide they need to get their hands on different goods and services during their Downtime. Buying a gun or a baseball bat does not take an Acquire Asset action. However buying a whole crate of guns or a box of specially crafted bats meant for Brutes would. 

_[Gather Info]_: Keeping your ear to the ground, your hand on the pulse, your eye on the target. This action is all about getting tips on other players in the city whether that's the cape scene, the local underground, or even just current events. If you want to try to learn more about somebody or get a few ideas as to a potential job, this is the action for you to take. Much like the Acquire Asset action, looking for info is no guarantee that you will gain results, usually requiring an Engagement Roll to determine how successful it is. However, some kinds of capes  usually Thinkers  can supply their power here in order to get a Major Advantage on any kind of roll involved towards this action. Gather Info can also be taken multiple times by different team members in order to acquire knowledge about various different facts. If Gather Info is used by different players to learn about the same subject, then it too becomes a Reinforced Action. There is a limit however on information gathering. At a certain point it will stop being a downtime action and sometime that you, and possibly your team as well, are actively focusing on. Gather info to discover an area someone may be hiding but a mission to actually locate them within that are.

_[Lay Low]_: This action is considered to be the default action for any cape not in the field who is not currently engaged with any other Downtime Action, and consists of any other activity that doesnt fall into any of the other categories. Spending time in your civilian identity, visiting family members, recuperating from injuries sustained in the field, bonding with your team mates, or even just hanging around all qualify as 'laying low'. Mechanically, this action does not have much in the way of benefits right away. However, if your cape is hurt and would otherwise suffer some kind of Disadvantage when going up against their next Engagement Roll, a GM might mitigate that penalty if enough time is spent laying low to recuperate and mentally prepare for the next fight.

_[Reduce Bounty; Reinforced]_: During missions out in the field, there is a good chance that teams earn bounties, which in turn makes it harder to function within the city. However, canny teams can take actions in between missions to minimize their exposure by planting false trails, paying off law enforcement or media sources, or making covert reparations for illicit actions. The Reduce Heat action is both Reinforced and randomized, requiring a separate Engagement Roll in order to parse its effects. Roughly speaking a better engagement roll will reduce the bounty by an amount by removing or pushing focus to others. At the GM's discretion, a low enough roll might also create additional complications for the team to deal with in the future.

_[Tinker; Special]_: The final Downtime Action is exclusive to Tinkers, and represents a number of different activities. Most Tinker capes require a good deal of time to design, build, and maintain their various projects and inventions. Any of those sub-actions fall under the banner of the Tinker action. In order to properly keep up with their power, any team's Tinker will need to devote at least a few Downtime Actions towards tinkering with their gear. Exactly how much time needs to be devoted to maintaining one's inventions depends largely on the Tinkers speciality and how many projects they have currently active. However, as a general rule of thumb a Tinker should be spending about 50% of their downtime taking this action in order to effectively innovate and keep working towards new projects.


*Spoiler: Reputation*
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An important part of every group is their reputation within the general cape community, built upon their actions. A group that has been pulling off a few large high profile jobs in the last few months may have the same level of reputation as a group who has consistently done smaller to medium jobs over the last several years. However reputation is a sliding scale and that same group that pulled off a bunch of big jobs can mess up one and lose rep while the consistent group does another dozen small jobs but finishes each one.

Reputation will be represented in this game by a scale of one to ten, where the one may be the Leets and Ubers of a city, a joke no one takes seriously, while a ten would be the Undersiders after they took over the whole city, a serious nationally known organization that could do any job.

Reputation will be important for two things; it can unlock options for the player group for gear, contacts, minions, and more. Allowing the Aquire Asset action to gather rarer or limited assets. The other option is in certain scenarios players can sacrifice their Reputation to achieve certain things such as seal a deal with another group by giving face and sacrificing a point of Rep or spending Rep to gain a temporary contact or ally which mechanically will grant a major advantage for certain scenarios. 

Ways to effect Rep:
- Succeed in a high profile mission
- Capture a bounty
- Win a fight against another cape of equal Rep or more higher than you
- Gain a massive piece of gear
- Take control of an area or well off business
- Generate a bounty and not be caught for over a month
- Lose a cape fight to another of 2 over your own rep or lower
- Fail in a mission
- Get taken in for bounty


*Spoiler: Bounties*
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The local government and Habitat for Humanity has been recently working together to post large bounties for those deemed working against the rebuilding of New Orleans, more specifically those targeting the massive resource shipments, workers, and cash the company has been bringing in to fund their developments.

A person with a bounty is essentially a walking payday for any person who turns them in. Heroes, rogues, even other villains have all turned in bounties for a payday so far and every deal has been honored. The bounties do depend on the amount of damage that they have done, with massive multi million dollar shipments resulting in hundred thousand dollar bounties with additional rewards for property returned. However bounties are not only for capes, though they do have the largest, but also their crews. 

A gang member who is turned in could generate a few hundred or thousand dollars if they have been involved with actions against the rebuilding. Many people have even started grabbing gang members off the streets to turn them in for quick cash. 

Not all bounties are against those who conduct daring daylight raids making off with tens of thousands of cash or rare materials. Only a month before an independent hero was accused of damaging half a dozen build sites as they scrapped with a villain trying to make a getaway from a jewelry robbery. When asked to provide insurance or payment for the damages the illegal vigilante refused and subsequently was given a bounty and turned in. Another instance is the government placing a bounty on a slippery criminal who had not touched the Habitat but was given a bounty anyway.


*Spoiler: Random Events*
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The final mechanic is the random events of the city. After every arc or major events a random event will be rolled, which can be anything from spin off events related to the ongoing situation or unrelated events that are beginning in the city. 

The table itself will not be known to players and will change throughout the game but some staples are new capes coming or leaving, massive A or S threats arriving on scene, or political ramifications.


*Player Name*
*Character Name*
*Power*
*Application Status*

JNAProductions
Sarah Sinclair
Thinker/Master 5, Striker 3
Complete

Witherbrine26
Alfred Goodfellow
Thinker 6, Master 2
In Progress

Heavenblade
Charles Jackson
Trump 6, Brute/Breaker 1-6
In Progress

Zelphas
Stefan Schmid
Breaker/Shaker 5, Master 2
Complete

RandomWombat
Alister Crowley
Shaker 7, Breaker 5
Complete

AvatarVecna
Jackson Mitchell
Striker 5, Master 4
Complete

JbeJ275
Lewis Wells
Mover/Shaker 6
Complete

3SecondCultist
Charlotte "Charlie" Malone
Mover 7, Striker 4
In Progress

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## JNAProductions

Definitely gonna make a character for this!

But am at work right now-so I cant post more than interest.

Will work on something when I am home.

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## 3SecondCultist

Well, you know Im here. I have a few ideas for characters, will be in touch to figure it out.

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## AvatarVecna

Tentative interest.

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## JNAProductions

*Spoiler: Sarah Sinclair*
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*Spoiler: Backstory*
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Sarah Sinclair, fourth daughter and sixth kid of Natalie and David Sinclair, was not expected. All Natalie's pregnancies were unplanned after their second son, but Sarah wasn't expected to amount to much either. No one in the family really was-David was a construction worker, Natalie a barber at a rundown shop, and none in the house with a college degree, or even finished trade school. Sarah was mostly raised by David Jr., the older son at ten years older than Sarah; and the firstborn daughter, Sasha, sixteen years older. They... Well, they tried. Really hard. But hopes and dreams only go so far.

As such, Sarah had trouble in school. She wore ragged old hand-me-downs, and had trouble sleeping at home, which lead to naps in school. She didn't have time or space at home to study or do homework, so despite being a pretty intelligent person, she almost got held back one year due to not completing enough work.

She did, fortunately, have some close friends-there was Daisha Entwhile, a transfer from out of state, who was picked on for her accent. They hit it off as misfits together. There was Mark Summers, the nerdy shy boy who Sarah dated for about a month before thinking they'd be better as friends. Mark was a little hurt by it, but they stuck together. And then, surprisingly, there was Natasha Nice-the head cheerleader at her high school.

Sarah is currently 18, and with luck, about to graduate!

*Spoiler: Family Details*
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David Sinclair, Age 49, Father
Natalie Sinclair, Age 52, Mother

Sasha, First Daughter, Age 34
Emily, Second Daughter, Age 30
David Jr., First Son, Age 28
Irma, Third Daughter, Age 27
Jonathan, Second Son, Age 24
*Sarah, Fourth Daughter, Age 18*


*Spoiler: Trigger*
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About halfway through her senior year of high school, Sarah was invited by Natasha to a party. She had only recently started hanging with Natasha, the two having been friends since the start of the year, and while she loved the Nice household, she was nervous about going to a party. Natasha eventually managed to convince her by letting her take Mark and Daisha.

Daisha couldn't make it-death in the family. Sarah wanted to go to the funeral, but couldn't afford the trip, so Mark convinced her to go to the party instead. It started off... Awkwardly, to say the least. Sarah didn't really fit in-she was barely comfortable around Natasha, let alone the rest of the cheerleaders, but at least the food was nice. Mark vanished early on, so she felt... Really alone.

About three hours in, she decided to leave. She went to find Mark and let him know, when Natasha found her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Natasha accused her.

"What?" was the only thing Sarah could think to say in response. She was utterly clueless.

"You're stealing the silverware! What else did you take?" Natasha said.

Sarah hadn't done anything. But the cops were already on their way-so, to avoid looking guilty, she sat tight, crying slightly in a corner, waiting for the cops. They arrived. They searched her car. They found scads of silverware, taken from the Nice house, and a few outfits too. Sarah was taken to jail, and of course she had no way to afford bail. Still, she had hope-Mark could help her. Mark knew her-knew that she was an honest person. He was probably explaining that to the cops right now.

And, lo and behold, he showed up! He arrived to talk to her. "Hey Sarah," he said through the plexiglass screen.

"Mark, what happened?" she asked. "Who did that?"

"Look-I can get you out of here," he said. "You just gotta promise me something," he added.

Sarah nodded.

"Go on a date with me when I get you out?"

Her mind had a realization. Her heart broke. Who had a key to her car? Mark. Who had convinced her to go to the party? Mark.

There were no heroes. There was no one coming to save her. Just a cheerleader who thought it'd be fun to play a prank on the poor kid and a horny jerk who had nothing but fake friendship.

She stood up and walked away, not saying a word. The trial was tomorrow, and it was over in maybe ten minutes. Guilty, guilty, guilty.



I *may* have gone a little long on the trigger.

----------


## Zelphas

Posting interest as well; I think I have an idea, I just have to flesh it out a bit.

----------


## Witherbrine26

Here is my character, let me know if there are any issues

*Spoiler: Aldred Goodfellow*
Show


*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

Alfred Goodfellow born to Anne and Andrew Goodfellow after two miscarriages was the light of their life and pampered beyond belief. Both of his parents were moderately wealthy and could afford to support their son in whatever he wanted to do. This allowed him to dabble in dozens of separate fields as he grew older and while he never truly excelled he was good at most things he tried.

One issue that his parents had was that they smothered him and did everything they could to ensure he was happy even if it was not the best thing for him. This prevented him from growing close to people and only pushed him further into his schooling. While this slightly worried his parents he shrugged it off and counted delving into topics people years older than him struggled with.

This only pushed people further away from him as he joined classes full of people multiple years in his senior and while he slowed down slightly he was still labeled a genius and graduated a year early. For reasons unknown to others one night, he vanished from his family's home with money he had saved up and fled to New Orleans where he believed he could succeed away from his parent's smothering influence.


*Spoiler: Trigger*
Show

Unbewnost to anyone else behind the scenes Alfred felt pressure mounting. His parents were supportive in everything which meant that he felt like he had to succeed in everything. Even from a young age when he was dabbling in everything from violin to mathematics his parent's overwhelming support pushed him to try harder and harder.

This followed him into his teenage and young adult years where he pushed himself harder in everything. He mastered the violin and earned extra credit from all of his school teachers. The extra support however only made Alfred try harder, cutting sleep and his already small leisure time to study and practice more. this made him even more of a rising star allowing him to graduate a year early.

Despite his academic scores, he had neglected to forge connections with people and so he was barred from the best colleges and while his parents still supported them Aldred thought he had let them down and suffered from a nervous breakdown. He then fled home with the money he had managed to save up and fled to New Orleans were his parents had met. He then managed to set himself up somewhat successfully for a few months until the place he was working out was robbed by a Villian and the business went under. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and he was faced with the prospect that he would return head home head downcast as nothing more than a failure.

----------


## GameOfChampions

All right excited to see the interest! Can't wait to see some more applications for sure!

@JNAProductions and @Witherbrine26

Good applications. I'll start working on the powers and should have them up tomorrow!

----------


## Heavenblade

*Spoiler: Private (first class) Charles Jackson*
Show


_With every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel._
Robert Rodat, Captain John Miller, Saving Private Ryan.


Private (first class) Charles Jackson came home haunted. And who could blame him? The young, athletic, handsome man - the pride of his small neighborhood, came home a shadow of who he was. 

Charles grew up as the popular kid, but not at the expanse of the unpopular ones. A good student, good friend, great basketball player - these would be the words his friends would use to define him. 
He had three little brothers and sisters, a father with a rich military background who taught at the local college, and a mother who was a successful career woman. 
Following in the footsteps of his father, wanting to serve his country and protect the innocents, he joined the Marine corps.

After months and months of harsh training, he was sent to his first deployment. Away from his girlfriend, his family, his friends, everyone he ever knew and love - but he was proud, and knew he was doing the right thing.

But the deployment was cut short when an awful thing happened. Something so horrific, his family only know the basic details of. Charles was captured, fell at the hands of a terrorist group lead by a powerful Cape. 
They tortured him for weeks, demanding ransom and the release of their imprisoned comrades. He escaped them a week later, hurt in body, and broken in his soul. 
A shell of the person he once was, haunted by the past, his parents hired the best therapist they could find - who advised him to focus on something practical, and to get some space. 

So his parents got him a small apartment, set him up with a job, made sure he was surrounded gently with as much warmth and care as possible - but nothing broke through. They didnt know he was laying in bed every night, thinking about the night when he changed forever - in more ways than he could ever imagined.

*Spoiler: one more night under the knife*
Show


Zulfiqar, that was what the monster.called himself. The man had limited ferrokinesis powers on a specific metal he would smelt hinself, and used them with scary accuracy. 

After a week of torture, something changed. He woke up, and there where no knives floating around him.
Instead, it was a sword. Giant shimmering blade, gleaming in the pale yellow light of the room he was laying in. 
Zulfiqar looked at him, and he wasnt smiling. 
"Your friends, American. They are coming for you. Mounting a rescue operation as we speak."
He felt a glimmer of hope. The blades, as fast as they were, werent a match for a gun. Or a rocket launcher.

"Of course, a rescue mission wouldnt be necessary. As I intend to give you right back to them"
Charles struggled to sit up "give me back to them? What game are you playing?"
Zulfiqar looked insulted "Me? Games? I would never! Your friend's persistence impressed me. Ill give you back to them, along with some other gifts, to prove my appreciation. Of course" he stood up and walked towards him "I believe the best gift a man can recieve is a knife. So useful, so versatile. So...unexpected"

Charles' mouth was open to scream, but no sound came. Instead came blood, a lot of it, as shards of metal placed themselves in every joint, near every blood vessel, in his throat, on his heart.

"You will walk back to your friends, but sadly - youll be too wounded to speak. They will find no bomb strapped to you, no belt they could disarm. And then they will carry you back to your camp, and itll be...how they say it? the bomb."

Charles cocked his head to the side, every part of his body burning from pain.
"So, Im at your mercy now". Zulfiqar nodded solemnly. "You could kill me at any moment". The terrorist smiled "precisely". "And I have no chance of ever getting out of this alive, right?".

Zulfiqar looked at him quizzically "Im not sure where you are going with this."

Charles sighed "if there is nothing to live for, why hold back?". Every muscle in his body screamed as he leaped forward, only to be torn apart in a thousand places at once. Everything screamed, and he felt distant as Zulfiqar's words faded away to darkness. 
"So close, yet so far."

He coughed out blood, and mumbled with a torn apart tongue. "Just close enough". The screams suddenly ended. For a moment, everything made perfect sense. And then the world turned red.

----------


## Zelphas

Okay, I think I have something put together as well.

*Spoiler: "Adam Steinmann" (Real name Stefan Schmid)*
Show


*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

Adam Steinmann claims to be twenty-five, but is actually twenty-one. His real name is Stefan Schmid. He claims to be from Austria, but was born in Switzerland. Right now, he is an unskilled labor worker moving from place to place in the southern United States, but two years ago he was a sophomore in college pursuing a degree in psychology in Wisconsin.

Stefan was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1990, as the middle of three children; his older sister, Andrea, was born in 1988, and his younger brother Thomas came about in 1992. His father, a small shop owner, was injured in the crossfire of a superpowered battle in early 2002, which placed him in need of continual care. Unable to support the family and care for her husband, Stefans mother reached out to distant, richer family in America, who responded with open arms and offers to help. With the help of this family, the Schmids relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in early December of 2002. Stefan was twelve at the time.

Seven years later, and the Schmids are preparing for Christmas and celebrating Andreas early graduation with a pre-law degree in their new home in Milwaukee. Thomas is on winter break from high school, and Andrea hasnt moved out to the coast for law school yet; as soon as Stefan gets home, theyll all be able to share the season together. Then the reports come in: the Simurgh, landing in Madison, and hour away. Madison, Wisconsin, where Stefan is studying Psychology at Edgewood College. The Schmids never hear from Stefan again, after that; even after the capes win the day at Madison, the whole place is under quarantine, and they can only hope that Stefan is safe or dead; the other possibilities are too terrible.

Stefan was already outside of Madison, outside of the Simurghs psychic scream, when the Endbringer arrived at Madison. He had been driving home, but his Trigger event (see below) caused him to instead flee from his home of seven years, his college and future career, and his entire family.  Introducing himself as Adam Steinmann, taking whatever jobs he can find, and never staying in one place for too long, Stefan worked his way south, not even sure what hes looking for. He thought New Orleans would just be another stop along the way.


*Spoiler: Trigger*
Show

In 2002, the Schmids were on either the last or second-to-last flight out of Lausanne on the day that the Simurgh arrived; no one is quite sure. This has haunted Stefan since thenits haunted everyone on those two flights, honestly, after the scope of the Simurghs powers was realizedbut he and his family moved on from it, trusting that they had been far enough away.

Then came that night in December, 2009. Stefan was more than halfway to Milwaukee before news of the Simurghs arrival behind him broke into the songs on the radio, and all the formless fear from seven years before came rushing back. That is probably what caused him to drive recklessly on the highway during the snowstorm that night, eventually careening off the road and into the ditch. His car still workedheater, radio, lights, the workswhich meant that he couldnt help but hear the voice of the announcer trying to stay calm while warning everyone to get indoors and stay off the roads, since capes would be coming from all over and not all of them would be friendly.

Stefan never heard the Simurghs psychic scream, either in 2002 or in 2009; he was never close enough. His car was fine, barely even dented; a passing cape even pulled him out of the ditch once the storm blew over in only an hour or two. And that cape, a minor hero named Caber who died fighting the Simurgh shortly afterwards, was the only cape that Stefan saw that day; no one else passed him. Perhaps each of these events, taken separately, or one by one, wouldnt have been enough. Theyd be a story, a curious tale to recount to friends later, if taken one at a time.

When they struck all at once, they broke him. Stefan had his Trigger event in the car, right there, twenty minutes from his parents house. If he had to diagnose himself with his barely one year of Psychology classes, he could almost call it dissociative fugue, but he remembered who he was. He threw away his cell phone, ignoring the missed calls. He drove south to Chicago and sold his car as fast as he could. He told people to call him Adam Steinmann, a name he chose at random. And he started running, not sure where he was going.

He's still running.




Any comments/concerns/questions are always appreciated; thanks!

----------


## GameOfChampions

*@JNAProductions*

All right so reading Sarah it seemed like a definite mental trigger with elements of Thinker, emotional strain, and Master, with the isolation of losing friends and the distant family. So I rolled you up some luck and it was a perk and a flaw. One was a positive roll that said your main power has a supportive aspect that heals and the other was the flaw that said your power has ugly implications. So I looked at your trigger and noted the mention of 'darkness' and here's where I ended up.

*Spoiler: Thinker/Master 5, Striker 3*
Show

The ugliness of humanity revealed to Sarah. Her friends Mark and Natasha, the legal system, the lack of care from her family, and more. As Sarah walks back to her cell from talking with Mark her mind opens up, however it doesnt like what it finds. Sarah is surrounded by criminals and officers as she starts to feel the flaws and darkness inside everyone around her. She barely makes it back to her cell as her mind is overwhelmed by the new information, she finds that if she focuses on the balls of darkness she can feel around her she can see the specifics. She learns her neighbor in the cell next door is suffering from addiction to crack, a crippling fear of dogs, and is horribly envious of her sister who the neighbor thinks is their moms favorite. She reaches deeper into the ball, looking for more information and all the other balls vanish, leaving only the one she is deep inside. 

She mentally touches the fear of dogs, curious to see what would happen and is almost shocked out of her state when she hears screaming next door. The guards come running and pull the women out of her cell, as she is pulled by Sarahs cell she hears the women crying about hearing dogs coming to drag her away. Horrified Sarah goes back to looking at the women's ball and she sees it has grown, the fear has gotten bigger. Sarah tries to push the fear back down but she cant, she can only make it grow. Desperate Sarah pulls as hard at the fear as she can and it rips off of the ball but then it sticks to you, flowing up your body until it sinks in through your skin and mouth until you feel all of the fear yourself. 

When you come back you flinch at the mere thought of dogs but the women stopped screaming. Eventually she is back in her cell and you see her ball is without the fear. However over the next few days it starts to grow back, filling in the same spot slightly worse than before. However even as hers grows back yours does not disappear. Three days later your in a line for food in the cafeteria and a K9 unit is walking nearby and it barks in your general direction, you flinch back bumping into another woman. She roughly shoves you and you fall to the ground, slicing your forearm on the edge of the table as you go down. You see your forearm gushing blood and you panic trying to hold your torn skin together. In your panic you reach to your new sense to help you and you feel the fear of the dogs disappear, flow back out of you and into your arm. When the guards reach you the wound is not a massive blood gushing wound but a thin scratch bleeding no worse than a bad paper cut.

*Spoiler: Power specifics*
Show

All right so you have a Thinker Master power that can see the flaws, darkness, and deep dark problems of everyone within 100m. You have to actively use it to see the 'balls' of darkness and can determine the specifics of all those flaws and problems. When using that power you can manipulate the 'balls' when doing that you cannot see or effect the others around you. You can heighten and make the problems worse when you do that, it is not permanent and will adjust back to normal over days or weeks depending on how much they are messed with. You cannot add new fears and what every person has is randomly determined by the GM. 

Finally you rolled a positive supporting power where it heals you or others and so you can take others darkness within yourself and then use it to fuel a healing touch. It cannot do intricate healings like cure cancer or diseases but can heal broken bones and simple injuries. A single fear taken within you can lessen an injury but not totally heal it, partially heal a broken bone to the point you can move it but not anything strenuous and it can rebreak or make a cut less deep or long. 



Let me know if you have questions or concerns and you can start working on your post trigger backstory and your cape look/gear.

*@Witherbrine26*

All right so Alfred also read as a definite mental trigger, there was that villain robbery but with how it was glossed over its definitely more mental. So I rolled up some luck and you got a fairly lucky double power perk. One was that you pick up a secondary mental power, which compliments the mental power thing already. The second was that the power gets stronger during fights the longer they go. You definitely had aspects of Master, Thinker, and Tinker in there. 

*Spoiler: Thinker 6, Master 2*
Show

Always skilled but never a master at the varied amount of skills, professions, and crafts that Alfred had picked up over the years. When everything came crashing down Alfred was in a dark place, looking desperately for a job to stave off eviction. He needed something in a few days not weeks, he was skilled and knowledgeable but just not enough for an employer to hire him at first glance. Until one day he was showing off a demonstration of retail skills and was working on another level. He and several people were vying for a coveted sales position. Part of the process was to go practice a sale with customers in the store. Alfred managed to sell a five hundred dollar designer leather coat to an interested buyer, blowing the next best out of the water. 

It had been... weird. He had never been that good before at sales but now he was able to sell snow in a blizzard. The rest of the interview went great, he connected to a few of the other applicants and they made plans to grab a coffee later that week. The next day he woke up and went on an interview at a tech company, it was a basic position but they required everyone to have a certain level of skill at programming. He had been able to do basic programming before but now was able to program well enough they wanted to offer him a mid level programming job. Alfred made friends with one of the programmers that had been looking at his work and thought they had similar approaches to programming, and the programmer asked him to go to a board game bar later that week. 

Alfred tried to go and meet up with his new potential friends and while they had a good time on their hang outs there were some... awkward moments when the conversation petered out and they struggled to find anything to talk about. It worked out though, Alfred got both jobs but the 'skills' that Alfred had managed to acquire during the interviews were gone until he talked to his new friends again and managed to find the skill again. 

A few weeks after getting a job Alfred was mugged on the way home from work. Some guy in a ski mask with a knife demanding all Alfred's money. In a panic Alfred reached out mentally and pulled. All of a sudden knife fighting knowledge filled your mind and with a reach and a twist you manage to disarm your mugger, moving beyond the limitations you can feel of the skill you pulled. That's when you can't deny it anymore, you have powers.

*Spoiler: Power*
Show

You are a skill thief, when you are within 20m of someone you can steal a skill you see them exhibiting. It could be martial arts, programing, archery, or carpentry. The person you stole it from loses it until you give it up or it is the next day when you give up the skill. When fighting the person you stole skill from you can perfect and transcend the level of skill that they, and now you, have. You can steal any number of skills a day but only hold one at a time, when a skill is given up it is gone and you can't copy that skill any more that day even from other people. When you steal the skill you gain an innate knowledge of the limitations and the benefits of the new skill you have. 

The secondary part of the skill is something you don't notice until later. You can make connections with people who share the same skill you do, it is a subtle glamor that just makes people who share skills more likely to talk to you and make friends. People you stole the skill from count as sharing a skill and the effect is slightly more effective on them. Even when you lose the skill and don't share a skill with someone they don't realize they were under any glamor. Any friendship or connection made still exists but they would be harder to upkeep and maintain. However the glamor people feel towards you does not mean hold up to any aggressive action, if you take a skill from someone you are fighting it does not make the person stop fighting you. 



Let me know if you have questions or concerns and you can start working on your post trigger backstory and your cape look/gear.

*@Heavenblade and Zelphas*

Your applications look great! I'm excited to work on them, hopefully I'll get a post up tonight with powers or tomorrow depending on productivity!  :Small Big Grin:

----------


## JNAProductions

> *@JNAProductions*
> 
> All right so reading Sarah it seemed like a definite mental trigger with elements of Thinker, emotional strain, and Master, with the isolation of losing friends and the distant family. So I rolled you up some luck and it was a perk and a flaw. One was a positive roll that said your main power has a supportive aspect that heals and the other was the flaw that said your power has ugly implications. So I looked at your trigger and noted the mention of 'darkness' and here's where I ended up.
> 
> *Spoiler: Thinker/Master 5, Striker 3*
> Show
> 
> The ugliness of humanity revealed to Sarah. Her friends Mark and Natasha, the legal system, the lack of care from her family, and more. As Sarah walks back to her cell from talking with Mark her mind opens up, however it doesnt like what it finds. Sarah is surrounded by criminals and officers as she starts to feel the flaws and darkness inside everyone around her. She barely makes it back to her cell as her mind is overwhelmed by the new information, she finds that if she focuses on the balls of darkness she can feel around her she can see the specifics. She learns her neighbor in the cell next door is suffering from addiction to crack, a crippling fear of dogs, and is horribly envious of her sister who the neighbor thinks is their moms favorite. She reaches deeper into the ball, looking for more information and all the other balls vanish, leaving only the one she is deep inside. 
> 
> ...


Ooh... Spooky.

*Spoiler: Post-Trigger Story*
Show

When Daisha came back, the first thing she did was find Sarah. She tried calling after the funeral, of course, but prisons aren't the best at letting people communicate with their friends. She was the first friendly face Sarah had seen in close to a week-probably longer, if she really thought about it. Sarah could tell that Daisha had fears-she felt those balls of darkness in her. Everyone was scared of something... And Sarah had to know. She had to know what made Daisha afraid.

She looked in, and the first fear she found... Well, it was for herself. Daisha's main fear, when she was talking to Sarah, was if *Sarah* was okay. She broke down crying, seeing that-a genuinely good person. Daisha didn't really know what triggered Sarah's tears, but considering what had happened, she didn't press. But Daisha did learn that sentencing hadn't occurred yet, and demanded to be there with anyone who would listen. With some help from her true friend, Sarah was able to avoid any prison time-community service and probation only.

Sarah went back to school. She had only a month left to go. But she barely made it out-Natasha made sure to spread the story of what happened. It was all Sarah could do to not... To not hurt people. To not find Natasha and make her go insane with fear. Her family had always expected her to help pick up the slack around the house, after she graduated. But she couldn't stay. She just couldn't go-she didn't have any money to move cross-country. Until Daisha, her knight in shining armor, came through for her. She was moving back to Louisiana, going to college a little closer to home. New Orleans was where it was-and Sarah qualified for various poverty scholarships, if she would apply for them. Daisha's family had volunteered to cover the costs of moving-it'd just be an extra ticket, basically, since Sarah didn't have enough to need extra stowage.

In Louisiana, Sarah stayed in the dorm she'd be living in come the start of the school year. She was mostly alone-which served her well. She'd acquired social anxiety since her powers had awakened, so some time to herself was a lot better than a crowded campus. She got a job, at a barber shop, using some of the skills her mother had taught her, and saved up to order the most expensive things she had ever owned-a specially tailored costume, made of some kind of exotic memory fabric. The outfit isn't complicated-it's just a black body suit, covering her from head to toe. But the fabric it's made from is capable of taking some blows like armor, while still being light enough to wear under normal clothes without issue.

She has not really gotten started doing cape work yet-she doesn't know where to start. How to start. And she's scared.

*Spoiler: Gear*
Show

Suit
Pepper spray
Taser

----------


## Witherbrine26

A few questions so I understand the power properly

-The person you stole it from loses it until you give it up or it is the next day when you give up the skill.
 -Does this mean I keep the skill until I give it up or after a day?

- You can steal any number of skills a day but only hold one at a time
  -So he could steal multiple skills but can only have one active correct? Also if he loses the skills after a day does he loose only his active skills or all of them

-When a skill is given up it is gone and you can't copy that skill any more that day even from other people
  -So he could steal programming but when he gives it up he can't steal programming again until 24 hours have passed is that right?

-When fighting the person you stole skill from you can perfect and transcend the level of skill
  -Does this go into superhuman levels of skill or simply improve to the human maximum 

Sorry for so many questions I just wanted to make sure I understood what it did

----------


## AvatarVecna

*Spoiler: Jackson Mitchell*
Show

Jackson Mitchell (24) was born and raised in Chicago. He was always a quiet kid who kept to himself - your stereotypical gifted youngster who hid himself away in fantasy books and homework because that was where the world felt more comfortable. His parents weren't too concerned - he was getting everything he could out of his education, so what if he wasn't the most social? Despite all that, he wasn't really bullied as much as ignored. His life was fairly uneventful until after he graduated high school.

He went to a state college pursuing a career as a CPA, and that's when he met her: Danielle Smith, a small slip of a girl with an infectious smile who seemed to make friends everywhere she went. Jackson didn't make many friends at college, but Dani was one of them. The two didn't have many classes together after the first year, but by then they were well and truly stuck with each other.

Dani had actually lived most of her life in Kenner, a city mostly subsumed into the outskirts of New Orleans. Her family had moved to Illinois after Leviathan damn near drowned the whole state, but Dani missed it dearly. She was studying to be an architectural engineer, with the intent to head back down south and help with rebuilding efforts once she finished her degree. When the time came, that's exactly what she did...and Jackson went with her. Within a year, the two were married, with a quaint little downtown apartment and a burgeoning career each.


*Spoiler: Trigger Event*
Show

Late afternoon, early evening. The Mitchells are walking home with some groceries. Up ahead, an unassuming brownstone building, loud sounds from within...probably nothing to be concerned about. As the pass by, though, the wall explodes outwards. It seems a cape fight has broken out at just the wrong moment. Jackson was "only" dealt a glancing blow to his right shoulder, as well as getting a nice goose egg when the shock brought the concrete up to say hi to his face. Dani was not nearly so lucky.

Dazed, Jackson tried to drag her elsewhere, somewhere safe, but everything was fuzzy and not making sense. Then he saw someone he recognized - a cape, a local cape, one of the Protectorate? They were saying...something. Waving him forward, loud. He followed their lead. They took Dani from him - he was happy to help, they'd get her to an ambulance, a hospital, a doctor. They loaded her into an ambulance, but they didn't put on the sirens. Something was wrong, terribly terribly wrong. Then the cape lead him over to a police car and helped him into the back. A bit too fast, but it was an emergency, they were just trying to help get him to the station to give his testimony. He watched the ambulance until it was out of sight.

They were not. Jackson spent about a two hours being very loudly interrogated by the cops, but he could barely understand them, let alone think about what to say. It was only about an hour in that the fog in his head was finally starting to clear a bit, and he was able to piece together what was happening. Apparently, he was - and I cannot stress this enough - a _dead ringer_ for Chris "Topher" Richardson, a man recently identified as the wheelman in a front-page heist a month back. He'd been brought in so that hero could collect the bounty on "him", and so the cops could weasel out any info on "his" accomplices.

----------


## RandomWombat

*Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
Show

*Spoiler: Character Portrait*
Show




*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

As a member of the Crowleys, one of the main branch families of the villainous Fallen organization, Alister had a rough go at life right from the start. The boy wasn't in the double digits before he was involved in misdemeanors and felonies, his family's reputation for being nuisances and jackasses well-earned. Some of his better role models were members of the biker gangs that his family often dealt with, for whom young Alister would smuggle and sell drugs regularly.

The kid of two parahumans, Alister was expected to come into his powers early like his siblings, but that was never the case, even when he faced 'well-meaning' torment at the hands of his older kin who wanted to 'awaken' him to his destined powers. Though the traumatic experiences did not lead to super powers, they did lead to frequent nightmares. Alister suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis growing up, experiencing terrifying visions while unable to move.

When he was 11, Alister ran away from home and stowed away on several bus routes in an attempt to flee his awful family. He washed up in New Orleans, Louisiana late in the year 2005. And that was far from the end of Alister's woes. He went to the local Protectorate and confessed his identity, wanting protection from his family. They could not admit him to the Wards because he had no powers, but the New Orleans Protectorate and PRT provided him with a new identity and a bed at a youth shelter in the city, with promises to eventually get him better accommodations in exchange for information on his family's businesses.

The youth shelter was anything but safe. Another boy, Freddie Knox, a fourteen year old who was given up by his parents because they could not care for him. Everyone just called him Knox. Knox tormented the other, younger children, in ways that exceeded the cruelty of Alister's siblings - at least in his personal opinion. He still believed somewhere in the pit of denial that they were trying to help him, in a twisted way. Knox used cigarettes to burn Alister on the arm, making fun of his new name, Jack Burns. If Alister cried, Knox would put cigarette ash in his food. The shelter workers were too understaffed and overworked to deal with it, or even to notice.


*Spoiler: Trigger Event*
Show

One night in 2006, an alarm was raised alerting the city to an incoming Endbringer attack. Knox plugged Alister's ears with wax and dragged the sleeping boy into a closet, shutting him inside. When the shelter evacuated soon after, everyone was in too much of a rush to notice one missing boy.

The water flooding in from under the door woke Alister from sleep, but he did not wake fully. His limbs would not obey. All he could do was turn his eyes and look on in horror at the pitch darkness quickly filling with water. He could feel hallucinatory hands grabbing at him from under the surface of the water, trying to drag him down into the floor. Things escaping from his nightmares into the half-waking world.

Then, a force tore through the door and sent a flood of water surging inside, which soon carried Alister out. In the midst of a fight with several defending capes, one of Leviathan's water echoes had torn through the building. All that saved Alister from being reduced to paste was that he was lying on the floor. Now he was adrift in flood waters among rubble from the building, and the only thing he saw moving was a massive, dark shape moving away in the water.

Dark shapes took hold of Alister from the water below, the same ones from his earlier night terror. That was when he triggered - and alerted rescue teams to his presence in Leviathan's wake, when several of them experienced accompanying trigger visions from his nearby event. Alister was dragged from below by a Tinker's machine and administered first aid, resuscitating him from near drowning.


*Spoiler: Post-Trigger Backstory*
Show

It is now 2011, and Alister is 17 years old and a senior member of the New Orleans Wards. He is deeply suspicious that his family, or another branch of the Fallen, is responsible for the interference in the city's recovery. His scant free time is spent investigating personally, and he has begun neglecting school and other pursuits, paranoid that the Crowleys have or will find him and that he must take them down first.

More TBA pending power evaluation.

----------


## GameOfChampions

> *Spoiler: Private (first class) Charles Jackson*
> Show
> 
> 
> _With every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel._
> Robert Rodat, Captain John Miller, Saving Private Ryan.
> 
> 
> Private (first class) Charles Jackson came home haunted. And who could blame him? The young, athletic, handsome man - the pride of his small neighborhood, came home a shadow of who he was. 
> ...


All right! Very interesting backstory, super dark I dig it. Reading it over it is a very physical trigger with aspects of Brute, Striker, Breaker, Trump, maybe some Mover or Stranger but there isn't much focus on the desire to run or ridding himself of the attention so I mostly discarded those. I rolled and there was an wide ranging effect roll and its hard on the environment. Then I rolled a Trump power luckily! So i ended up going with a Trump/Brute main

*Spoiler: Trump 6, Brute/Breaker 1-6*
Show

Charles lunged forward and grabbed Zulfiqar by the throat even as his body bled out and the metal started to sever the joints. Slowly his body starts to give up on him. Charles started to blackout from the pain, scrabbling at the other mans face as black spots started to appear in his vision. 

As he falls over and Zulfiqar starts to stand over him "So close, yet so far."

He leans over Charles body as Charles coughs up blood whispering, "Close enough." 

Suddenly Charles feels relief as the shards of metal stop digging into him. The black spots receded and Charles opens his eyes with a ragged gasp. Zulfiqar is not looking at him any more but instead across the room at a table with some computer screens reading something over. Charles slowly pulls himself up, crawling over to the parahuman silently over the ground feeling a little better every second. The young soldier manages to find one of the parahumans knives on the ground trembling and sliding towards him slightly as he crawls, picking it up as he staggers to his feet.

When he staggers up Zulfiqar turns around, hearing the noise as Charles staggers to his feet. He sneers at Charles as he sees the knife and even as the wounded soldier staggers closer, raising the knife, Zulfiqar flicks his fingers lazily in the direction of the knife. However nothing happens.

There is no resuming pain as shards of metal imbedded in Charles joints start ripping the man apart from inside and the knife remains firmly in Charles grip without even a twitch. The parahuman shouts as he realizes that his power isn't working and desperately starts moving but its too late. The young soldier rams the rough shod knife deep into the parahumans chest, ripping it to the side and then up as he destroys the lungs and heart. 

However as soon as he does that Charles loses what little strength he had, slumping back to the ground as all the pain and black spots return with a vengeance unhappy for the the movement and standing. 

Charles wakes up several days later in a military hospital. They tell him that the team went in and rescued him from hostiles, eliminating the enemy on base until they found him unconscious and in severe medical distress. The madman must have been torturing him and letting him heal before torturing him again. Charles had no idea what had happened to give him that burst of strength but he couldn't access it again. That is until he got released several weeks later and passed by one of the local capes working with American forces. Suddenly he felt strength, his mostly healed injuries seemed to be doing a little better even. 

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

You generate a power nullification aura around you, you can control the radius of the aura around you from around your skin to 30m out from you in a sphere. For every power suppressed by the aura you gain a brute and breaker power that grows in strength. The brute power is a fairly general strength, durability, and regeneration package. At one power suppressed it is strong enough to stop wounds from worsening and slightly start healing while the strength could let a regular strength person break a brick with their fist or lift an extra 50lbs. At the upper levels you can walk through a hail of military grade rifle rounds, grenades, throw a car half a block, or regenerate from a missing limb. 

The Breaker part of the power has the same range as your power aura, 30m and can be adjusted by you. The breaker power treats you as a black hole with everything being pulled towards you from objects to people or anything not tied down. At a single power suppressed the pull is not much with small objects being pulled towards you and people feeling the push of a strong fan. With 4 suppressed a person not paying attention can be pulled in a few steps as if standing in a heavy hurricane while a full 6 powers suppressed would cause a regular person to go flying towards you.

You can suppress as many powers as you can fit in your aura but the upper limit for the brute and breaker is 6. The effects of powers go away while within the aura but if they would still be in effect when the aura is gone they take effect once more. 



Got any questions/concerns/thoughts?





> A few questions so I understand the power properly
> 
> -The person you stole it from loses it until you give it up or it is the next day when you give up the skill.
>  -Does this mean I keep the skill until I give it up or after a day?
> 
> - You can steal any number of skills a day but only hold one at a time
>   -So he could steal multiple skills but can only have one active correct? Also if he loses the skills after a day does he loose only his active skills or all of them
> 
> -When a skill is given up it is gone and you can't copy that skill any more that day even from other people
> ...


No problem at all. I always assume players will have power questions after they're designed.  :Small Big Grin: 

So lets start in order:
1) It is whichever comes first. If you keep a single skill all day then it is still lost at sunrise. If you steal another skill then the one you had is gone and back with the original person. 
2) No. You don't have a limit on how many times you steal skills a day. If you steal a skill the one you had is automatically replaced, you can't hold it until you want to switch it out or anything. 
3) That is right though it is sunrise when it switches back. Theoretically you could steal programming 2 hours before sunrise use it for an hour give it up then after sunrise steal programming again. 
4) You can go into superhuman levels of skill if you find someone who is pretty much at the human maximum. Steal a 10th degree blackbelts karate skills and fight him then you could improve on that, normally break bricks? No you can break cinderblocks or thin walls. 

Hit me up if you have more questions. 




> *Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
> Show
> 
> *Spoiler: Character Portrait*
> Show
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks good for the most part! A few minor issues I just want to clarify. So reading the trigger Alister is fairly young but the year was back during the Leviathen attack. So game start he would be roughly 17-18 right? That is fine but given how dark Worm tends to be I would not want characters that are 15 or younger.  

Second is that your backstory says he is part of the Crowley Branch of the Fallen. Is he a child one of the main Crowleys that is running it or is he a child of a parahuman 'adopted' into the family as it were. I don't mind second gen capes when the parents power is left ambiguous but where the power is defined, like the main Crowleys, it limits the powers I can give you and is a roundabout way of just requesting certain powers.

@ *Everyone*

Sorry I didn't quite get to everyone applications but they are looking good and I will be getting to those the next few days. No one worry recruitment will be up until the 14th.

----------


## Heavenblade

The power looks rad! A couple of questions about it 
1. If a Cape has multiple different powers, does this nullify each one separately or are they affected as a whole?
2. Does this power grant my character any sort of way to discern what Im shutting off, or is that completely blind? If so, do I have any choice when shutting down multiple powers or is that always the first 6 I come into contact with?
3. Does the power create any visual effect/something that the affected cape can feel or avoid?

----------


## RandomWombat

> Looks good for the most part! A few minor issues I just want to clarify. So reading the trigger Alister is fairly young but the year was back during the Leviathen attack. So game start he would be roughly 17-18 right? That is fine but given how dark Worm tends to be I would not want characters that are 15 or younger.  
> 
> Second is that your backstory says he is part of the Crowley Branch of the Fallen. Is he a child one of the main Crowleys that is running it or is he a child of a parahuman 'adopted' into the family as it were. I don't mind second gen capes when the parents power is left ambiguous but where the power is defined, like the main Crowleys, it limits the powers I can give you and is a roundabout way of just requesting certain powers.


Correct, he triggered when he was much younger during the Leviathan attack, but since then has grown up to be 17, potentially almost 18 depending what time of the year we start. I was thinking his birthday is in autumn sometime.

He was originally planned to be part of the main branch, mostly cause a connection to the Leviathan Fallen in a post-Leviathan New Orleans felt like a great plot hook/connection. But he could just as easily be adopted in and raised as one of the main branch for some reason or another, maybe a baby died so they kidnapped one and never told the siblings, or maybe he was a child of a Crowley and an abducted cape with a different power giving more room to have something different pop up. Or maybe one of their abductees was his nanny and he budded off of her passenger instead.

I'm flexible with whatever makes for a better story and gives more freedom in power creation.

----------


## flat_footed

Definite interest, love Worm. Will brainstorm on a concept and post soon.

----------


## JbeJ275

Definitly interested here let me think about something fitting

*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show


Lewis Wells was given a pretty regular upbriniging, the second son (out of three children, the youngest a daughter) of a pilot and a stay at home mom in Baton Rouge, he did okay in school, never really falling too far behind in anything but not at the top of the class either, sporty and so invited into the popular crowd but never really too talkative when he was there. All around quite an average childhood, with him often missing his father, but only becoming more attatched when he was at home.

When school was done, he'd found what he hoped to do next, to follow his father as a pilot and so with his father's work buddies as a connection he found it relitively easy to his way into pilot school, when he was there though his struggles began, while initially he progressed as expected at a certain point he hit a stumbling block in his training, and found the routine of learning and exams and simulators weighing heavier and heavier on him, after some months of denying the problem until it couldn't really be fixed he ended up dropping out of the program.

After coming clean about that all to his family he found some support there, with them willing to help him look elsewhere, with his father mistaken in the belief that Lewis still wanted to be involved in the aviation industry he found Lewis a connection to enter training as an air traffic controller, and having resummoned all his stubborness Lewis went for the role, managing to push through and just about make it through, landing a job at Baton Rouge airport.



*Spoiler: Trigger*
Show


One night in 2006 was like no other, with only a little warning from Dragon's sensors Leviathan began to build an immense storm above the gulf of Mexico, and while many aircraft could reroute enough to avoid the issue entirely, the local infrastructure was neglected and the parahuman in situation in south america meant landing their even for a short spell was runnign the risk of hostage takers, thus Lewis was on an extnded shift, the attack having began when he was almost due to leave, worse his father was in the air and still awaiting direction.

After a few manic hours, Lewis was relieved by new controllers, and bone tired tried to sleep it off in a nearby office room only to be woken by the blaring of distant alarms only a few minutes in, one of the aircraft had been too damaged by the storm, impossibly forceful rain breaking something in its fuel system and rendering it incapable of dealing with the stress of landing. Present, but not cleared to return to the controller room Lewis rad down to the tarmac to try and help rescue efforts. He saw that the plane was the same model as the one his father had in the air, but could not catch any identification details in the night, so ran in uncertain.

Usually, specialised rescue teams would have prevented him reacting in panic like this, but they were delayed by the storm or were currently making ready to perform search and ready down in New Orleans, so he ran in on his own, he'd checked that most people were in the process of evacuating and helped a few of the old and the young out but couldn't figure out what was happening in the cockpit, the blaze still seemed confined though, then something in the plane shifted, and a wall of fire appeared in front of him. the smoke began to surround him, and before he could make it out he saw some impossible scene he could never remember.

----------


## GameOfChampions

> Okay, I think I have something put together as well.
> 
> *Spoiler: "Adam Steinmann" (Real name Stefan Schmid)*
> Show
> 
> 
> *Spoiler: Backstory*
> Show
> 
> ...


All right so reading over the trigger it seems like there are aspects of thinker and maybe master but I think I got a lot more of a breaker vibe for sure. So doing some rolls I got a perk and a flaw, one of which was accuracy suffering and the other which was a supporting mental power. Then I had a super fun, maybe kind of dark, idea for an aspect of the power and went from there!  :Small Wink: 

*Spoiler: Breaker/Shaker 5, Master 2*
Show

Stefen feels his heartbeat thundering in his ears as his mind just drifts away going over and over every single problem that has hit him over the years. No matter how his mind struggles to overcome it he just cannot and it gets worse. 

What could be hours or minutes Stefen stays in that state until he finally feels something with his mind. He sees someone flying overhead, feels something strong within it and desperate for anything to help him he just pulls at it... it does not go well.

A power wells up in him but he doesn't know how to use it yet, in his fugue state he just lashes out with it and everything gets worse. Every moment already stretched out to its maximum before he used it. Then everything gets worse. The impossibly long moments extend to an eternity of Stefen just suffering in his worst state. 

It feels like years go by in this state before he can manage to pull himself slightly out of it. Running with the horror of the eternity of fugue behind him. 

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

You can draw power from anyone within 50m that grants an amount of power to use depending on their mental anguish at the time. That power can then be molded into invisible panels that are 5ft high and 10ft wide. The panels can be infused with different physics effects, one can cause gravity to reverse on the person who walks through it, another that causes the body of the person to slow down to a tenth of the speed for 5 seconds, and the last that can reverse the effect of light on the person going through. Finally a power is born that can allow you to read the amount of mental anguish someone is roughly experiencing.








> Ooh... Spooky.
> 
> *Spoiler: Post-Trigger Story*
> Show
> 
> When Daisha came back, the first thing she did was find Sarah. She tried calling after the funeral, of course, but prisons aren't the best at letting people communicate with their friends. She was the first friendly face Sarah had seen in close to a week-probably longer, if she really thought about it. Sarah could tell that Daisha had fears-she felt those balls of darkness in her. Everyone was scared of something... And Sarah had to know. She had to know what made Daisha afraid.
> 
> She looked in, and the first fear she found... Well, it was for herself. Daisha's main fear, when she was talking to Sarah, was if *Sarah* was okay. She broke down crying, seeing that-a genuinely good person. Daisha didn't really know what triggered Sarah's tears, but considering what had happened, she didn't press. But Daisha did learn that sentencing hadn't occurred yet, and demanded to be there with anyone who would listen. With some help from her true friend, Sarah was able to avoid any prison time-community service and probation only.
> 
> ...


Nice post story. Maybe just throw a spoiler in there with a more specific list of any gear other then the suit and your done!





> *Spoiler: Jackson Mitchell*
> Show
> 
> Jackson Mitchell (24) was born and raised in Chicago. He was always a quiet kid who kept to himself - your stereotypical gifted youngster who hid himself away in fantasy books and homework because that was where the world felt more comfortable. His parents weren't too concerned - he was getting everything he could out of his education, so what if he wasn't the most social? Despite all that, he wasn't really bullied as much as ignored. His life was fairly uneventful until after he graduated high school.
> 
> He went to a state college pursuing a career as a CPA, and that's when he met her: Danielle Smith, a small slip of a girl with an infectious smile who seemed to make friends everywhere she went. Jackson didn't make many friends at college, but Dani was one of them. The two didn't have many classes together after the first year, but by then they were well and truly stuck with each other.
> 
> Dani had actually lived most of her life in Kenner, a city mostly subsumed into the outskirts of New Orleans. Her family had moved to Illinois after Leviathan damn near drowned the whole state, but Dani missed it dearly. She was studying to be an architectural engineer, with the intent to head back down south and help with rebuilding efforts once she finished her degree. When the time came, that's exactly what she did...and Jackson went with her. Within a year, the two were married, with a quaint little downtown apartment and a burgeoning career each.
> 
> ...


So there were a bunch of options here for the power. The fight itself causing injury and the loss of the wife, the realization of the pettiness later on, watching the ambulance go away as your taken. So many honestly I did a few of the main ones from each, Striker and Brute from the fight with the wall pieces attacking you and the damage, then the realization with Thinker and Breaker, and finally Master and Breaker from watching the wife go away. I rolled some luck and the perk ended up being a power good at dispatching the unpowered and the flaw was your senses are effected while using an aspect of them. 

*Spoiler: Striker 5, Master 4*
Show

Jackson is in a blur as he is being processed, concussed head causing the entire process to take three times as long, making everyone involved even more irritated when it turns out that the concussed man is not the big score they thought. Guiding hands become firmer and then strongly grabbing as that still works. 

During the fingerprints and photos though Jackson slumps over when a wave of exhaustion hits him. The officer trying to handle him just grabs Jackson and hauls him up even as Jackson softly scrabbles at the hand holding him up. The officer manhandles Jackson through the rest of the incident and when he walks Jackson out the front he just glares at the injured man even as EHS is preparing to come and leans in. "Next time don't waste our time, just be clear with who you are and show your damn ID."

Anger pierces through the fog and Jackson grabs the hand holding his shoulder and feels a pulse within before the energy enters into the body. The fog starts to clear slightly as the officer staggers back holding his wrist. The officer glares for a moments but the paramedics have gotten close enough that the officer just huffs and goes inside, leaving Jackson to the paramedics.

On the way to the hospital and then in the room Jackson is treated for his concussion, several hours later the fog is well enough to think and more importantly grieve. Its the middle of the night and Jackson is finally conscious and healthy enough to think. He closes his eyes and imagines his wife but this time he lets go of the energy he almost forgot was within him. 

He feels the brush of lips against his cheek and snaps his eyes open. In front of him is a glowing green light version of his dead wife sadly looking at him.

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

So you have a striker power that lets you absorb the lifeforce from those you touch, the longer the touch the more life force taken to the point where you can knock people unconscious or even kill them if held long enough. The life fore can't be used to heal others and the only side benefit of holding it is it stops existing conditions from getting worse. The life force can be used to form it into green light beings that look like his dead wife. When making the minions the capes head grows slightly fuzzy as if growing concussed. 1 is practically nothing, five is capable of function but not complex thought or actions while 10 is practically a slightly conscious vegetable able to talk.







> The power looks rad! A couple of questions about it 
> 1. If a Cape has multiple different powers, does this nullify each one separately or are they affected as a whole?
> 2. Does this power grant my character any sort of way to discern what Im shutting off, or is that completely blind? If so, do I have any choice when shutting down multiple powers or is that always the first 6 I come into contact with?
> 3. Does the power create any visual effect/something that the affected cape can feel or avoid?


All right glad you like it! On to questions.
1) Powers are shut off as a whole and only count as 1 power nullified, it would be more accurate to say you gain in power per shard you nullify.
2) You are completely blind to the powers you are shutting off, you don't know what powers you are shutting down only that you are getting stronger and have more 'pull'. Every power in the aura is shut down. You are also not limited to six powers nullified it goes higher its just that you only benefit from 6 powers being shut off, after the first 6 the nullify aura still kicks in you just stop growing stronger. 
3) So not a visual effect but the 'pull' from your breaker power is only in effect within your aura and not beyond so that could be used to determine how far they need to go to escape but that also depends on how strong the pull is, perceptive the cape is, knowledge of your power, etc.

Don't forget your post trigger backstory and costume/gear!





> Correct, he triggered when he was much younger during the Leviathan attack, but since then has grown up to be 17, potentially almost 18 depending what time of the year we start. I was thinking his birthday is in autumn sometime.
> 
> He was originally planned to be part of the main branch, mostly cause a connection to the Leviathan Fallen in a post-Leviathan New Orleans felt like a great plot hook/connection. But he could just as easily be adopted in and raised as one of the main branch for some reason or another, maybe a baby died so they kidnapped one and never told the siblings, or maybe he was a child of a Crowley and an abducted cape with a different power giving more room to have something different pop up. Or maybe one of their abductees was his nanny and he budded off of her passenger instead.
> 
> I'm flexible with whatever makes for a better story and gives more freedom in power creation.


Perfect that all works for me. I'll go with just a power that works and leave the rest in your hands!





> Definite interest, love Worm. Will brainstorm on a concept and post soon.


Can't wait.  :Small Big Grin: 




> Definitly interested here let me think about something fitting
> 
> *Spoiler: Backstory*
> Show
> 
> 
> Lewis Wells was given a pretty regular upbriniging, the second son (out of three children, the youngest a daughter) of a pilot and a stay at home mom in Baton Rouge, he did okay in school, never really falling too far behind in anything but not at the top of the class either, sporty and so invited into the popular crowd but never really too talkative when he was there. All around quite an average childhood, with him often missing his father, but only becoming more attatched when he was at home.
> 
> When school was done, he'd found what he hoped to do next, to follow his father as a pilot and so with his father's work buddies as a connection he found it relitively easy to his way into pilot school, when he was there though his struggles began, while initially he progressed as expected at a certain point he hit a stumbling block in his training, and found the routine of learning and exams and simulators weighing heavier and heavier on him, after some months of denying the problem until it couldn't really be fixed he ended up dropping out of the program.
> ...


Looking good and you'll be in the que for power generation!

----------


## JNAProductions

Did a quick edit, adding a taser and pepper spray. She's on a tight budget, for now at least.

----------


## Zelphas

> All right so reading over the trigger it seems like there are aspects of thinker and maybe master but I think I got a lot more of a breaker vibe for sure. So doing some rolls I got a perk and a flaw, one of which was accuracy suffering and the other which was a supporting mental power. Then I had a super fun, maybe kind of dark, idea for an aspect of the power and went from there! 
> 
> *Spoiler: Breaker/Shaker 5, Master 2*
> Show
> 
> Stefen feels his heartbeat thundering in his ears as his mind just drifts away going over and over every single problem that has hit him over the years. No matter how his mind struggles to overcome it he just cannot and it gets worse. 
> 
> What could be hours or minutes Stefen stays in that state until he finally feels something with his mind. He sees someone flying overhead, feels something strong within it and desperate for anything to help him he just pulls at it... it does not go well.
> 
> ...


Interesting! I was definitely thinking Shaker and Breaker, so this makes sense to me. I was trying to think of what the power reminded me of and how to play with the "mental anguish" aspect and then I remembered funhouse mirrors, and people's fear of clowns, and, well...

*Spoiler: Post-Trigger*
Show

The ability to sense others' anguish is a strange sort of comfort to Stefan, especially in the first few months. Outside anguish centered him, separated him from his own pain; the fact that others were hurting made him feel less alone, more able to cope with his own fear and confusion. The other powers he found himself with took a little bit longer to understand and control. Steadily, he learned what he could do, mastered the mental will to choose each effect with intention, and trained himself to instinctively avoid his own "mirrors"--besides the first, horrible moment in his car, a bad sprain from the side effect of altered gravity was a quick teacher. Stefan--going by Adam--even began experimenting as the moment of panic and flight grew farther distant. The "mirror of darkness" was his most-used trick; becoming a ball of shadow was an obvious problem in a well-lit room, but extremely useful for leaving town on foot in the dead of night or moving undisturbed in rougher neighborhoods. The "mirror of weight" was helpful for heavy loads, or even for travel if he was very, very careful. Finally, the "mirror of movement" was his best self-defense tool, though it was only used as an absolute last resort.

Stefan didn't even think about actively using his powers in public until he saw the old clown mask, though.

"Adam" had been in St. Louis for nearly two months, working as a bricklayer, ditch-digger, or whatever would pay him. He was with a group of people on a job clearing out some rubble when one of the workers unearthed the creepy old mask, covered in dust with a few prominent burn marks, but otherwise perfectly intact. Stefan felt the anguish pricking at him immediately; barely anything, but it came from almost everyone, and it only got worse when one of the workers drew the mask over his head and let out his best cackle. While the people around him laughed, Stefan could feel their distress at the simple bit of rubber and char. He had already begun calling his power panels "mirrors", though he hadn't been sure why; mirrors that reflected a warped, twisted bit of reality, powered by confusion and distress. Seeing that mask, feeling the fear it brought out in those around him, suddenly it all _clicked_. The workers soon tired of the mask and threw it into the rubbish pile; "Adam" came back in the night and, shrouded by his mirror of darkness, took it before it could be destroyed. He cleaned the mask and even disinfected it, but the burn marks and general air of abandonment couldn't quite be washed away.

The rest of Stefan's costume was less inspired, though it took more work to put together. Heavy padding, covered over by layers of ripped, streamer-like fabric that obscured his outline and made him look bigger than he was, all in dull shades of grey, brown, and black worked for the body of his suit. Black work boots, with the steel toes spray-painted a chipped reddish-brown, added a heavy tread to his steps and could be a reference to clown shoes if you didn't think too hard about it. patchwork gloves in a multitude of faded colors completed the general look almost by accident--he had simply not had the money for new gloves when his old ones wore out and had had to patch them again and again. The biggest problem was fighting; Stefan had learned the rudiments of boxing from his father at some point, and hard labor strengthened his muscles, but he was barely what anyone could consider a competent fighter, and his powers didn't allow much for non-lethal methods on their own. This problem was solved first by a taser, and then by a pair of tasers once he had the funds--one for each hand. It was about the best he could do.

By the time "Adam" came to New Orleans, stories about the odd clown calling himself "Funhouse" had been circulating, though not with the same amount of clout as the real heavy hitters. Most people thought he was a villain; his costume did most of the work on that front. Stefan did his best not to worry about appearances. He could use his power to seek out anguish, offer help when possible, and the fact that people were afraid of him gave him a handy power source. Besides... he was still running. The more people stayed away from him, the better.


*Spoiler: Costume and Gear*
Show

Worn, dirty clown mask
Cloth padding (can stop knife slashes/small knife stabs, but not much else)
Ripped fabric overcoat (obscures outline, making it harder to predict movement/aim shots at limbs)
Steel-toed boots
Multicolored, faded patchwork gloves
2 Tasers (highest voltage he could legally buy)


Hopefully that works! I will admit, when I first began thinking of this character I was not imagining him as a large, terrifying clown with tasers wearing a makeshift ghillie suit, but I'm kind of enjoying the end result, I think!

----------


## RandomWombat

These are some great powers. The biggest fun of seeing Worm games going through the planning stages is all the creative powers taking form. The dead wife power is especially great, and very on brand for Worm's tendency for powers to 'solve' your problem in the worst possible way to create more problems.

----------


## AvatarVecna

> So there were a bunch of options here for the power. The fight itself causing injury and the loss of the wife, the realization of the pettiness later on, watching the ambulance go away as your taken. So many honestly I did a few of the main ones from each, Striker and Brute from the fight with the wall pieces attacking you and the damage, then the realization with Thinker and Breaker, and finally Master and Breaker from watching the wife go away. I rolled some luck and the perk ended up being a power good at dispatching the unpowered and the flaw was your senses are effected while using an aspect of them.
> 
> ...
> 
> So you have a striker power that lets you absorb the lifeforce from those you touch, the longer the touch the more life force taken to the point where you can knock people unconscious or even kill them if held long enough. The life fore can't be used to heal others and the only side benefit of holding it is it stops existing conditions from getting worse. The life force can be used to form it into green light beings that look like his dead wife. When making the minions the capes head grows slightly fuzzy as if growing concussed. 1 is practically nothing, five is capable of function but not complex thought or actions while 10 is practically a slightly conscious vegetable able to talk.


Alright so I've got a bunch of questions.

*Spoiler: Taking Energy*
Show

1) Does the Life Drain require skin-to-skin contact or does it work through slight barriers like clothes? If so, does it work through thicker barriers like armor as long as it counts as touching "the person"?

2) How long does it take to knock out/kill an unpowered person? Does it take any longer to knock out a tough cape, or the same amount of time?

3) A single touch sent the officer staggering back, but that could've just been from the surprise. How does it feel to be on the receiving end of just a momentary touch? How about a long touch that leaves you conscious?

4) If I'm holding the energy without spending it, is the target capable of recovering, or is their health stuck there until I release the energy? If they can recover while I'm holding the energy, how long does it take to recover from, say, unconsciousness?

5) Are there long-term health issues with knocking someone unconscious in this way?


*Spoiler: Holding Energy*
Show

6) "The life force can't be used to heal others and the only side benefit of holding it is it stops existing conditions from getting worse." My initial reading of this is "you can't spend the life force to heal others, and holding onto it doesn't heal you, but it does prevent you from getting worse". Can you clarify what you mean by that? Is this a defensive Breaker power, where my condition can't get worse until the energy is depleted? Depending on your answer I'll probably have more questions about this, but for now I just need clarification.

7) Is there a maximum on how much energy I can store without having spent it?


*Spoiler: Spending Energy*
Show



7) I touched one guy for a moment and was able to spend the energy to summon a shade of my wife. How long does the shade last off that one touch? Do longer touches make the shade last even longer?

8) Are the shades physical (interacting with the world normally), ghosts (not interacting with the world), or super-ghosts (affecting the world without being affected back)?

9) How dangerous are they to unpowered enemies and capes with low/no defense? How dangerous are they to capes with defensive powers (e.g. brutes, changers, breakers)?

10) How vulnerable are they to unpowered enemies? How vulnerable are they to capes with offensive powers (brute/striker/blaster/shaker)?

11) Can he make the shades look like anybody else? I'm assuming no.

12) How are the shades controlled? Are they uncontrolled, but act like my wife and are inclined to help me? Are they merely twisted mockeries, empty shells obeying verbal commands? Are they controlled mentally? Do I experience the world through their senses and mine simultaneously, and that's what's making everything seem fuzzy?

----------


## Blorcyn

I love Worm, have written 100k fanfic for it even, and would love to play for this. Coming up with a wormy power can take a little bit of thought however. How long is there left on the applications phase? 

I might not be able to read through thoroughly and begin planning until tomorrow, and this looks complex, so Id want to read it thoroughly when Im not on night shifts.

----------


## 3SecondCultist

Right, time to make an application instead of sitting around thinking of doing it. Here is the application for Charlotte "Charlie" Malone.

*Spoiler: Description (Pre-Trigger)*
Show

Charlie is pretty much what one would expect when thinking of a dancer: athletic and toned, she stands just shy of 5'8, with barely an inch of body fat on her. Her curly black hair is either styled in cornrows or tied back behind her in a ponytail, depending on the kind of day she's expecting. When not in a dance uniform or cheer outfit, she often wears eye-catching sneakers and baggy pants paired with a bright tank top. Unlike some of her friends, Charlie doesn't wear much in the way of jewelry other than large gold hoop earrings which she never takes off outside of competitions.

*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

The youngest daughter of a prominent family in the historic district of Tremé, New Orleans, Charlie - born Charlotte after her late grandfather, famous civil rights lawyer Charles Lewis - grew up surrounded by art, music, and culture. The Malones owned and operated Louisiana Red Hot Records, which had released over 200 albums of blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, and many other types of music. You name it, they backed it. It was never as big as some of the largest American record houses, but it was a leader among Southern independent labels in both marketing and worldwide distribution. Both of Charlie's parents were on LHRP's board, and her eldest brother Jackson was the heir presumptive, going to Yale to get his business major with a minor in jazz before going for his MBA. Charlie's other two siblings were also pressured into the business, some of them sacrificing their own dreams to make Ma and Pa happy.

Not Charlie, though. As the baby of the bunch, she was allowed to pursue her passion. Funnily enough, her love was music, but she didn't want to be a producer - she wanted to perform, and her medium was not an instrument, but dance. Inspired by the many shows she saw growing up, young Charlie always dreamed of dancing on a stadium stage, touring with big hip-hop artists and rappers. She threw herself into the life of dance with aplomb: school competitions, talent shows, and neighborhood programs were her proving ground, and she quickly found acclaim and awards, even earning scholarships to a number of prestigious dance programs. She spent hours in the gym or in training, always focusing on the next piece, the next Although her family was lukewarm about her pursuits, Charlie was always too strong-willed for even her Ma and Pa to put up too much of a fuss. 'A firecracker', that's what her Grammy called her, 'who'll light just about anyone up if they get too close'.

Before too long, Charlie found herself on a dance scholarship to Butler U in Indiana, one of the top programs in the state. Although its specialty was the classical style with concert dances, it also had one of the leading cheer squads and a number of other classes one could take. Charlie devoured it all. There was no style she didn't take to: R&B was her favorite, but she loved salsa, reggae, and even some of the old white stuff like ballet, concertina, and the waltz she could do in her sleep. As a freshman, she still had a ways to go, but her teachers had already started to notice the Louisiana girl as a budding prodigy. When she made back spot on the starting Butler cheer team, she called home in tears of joy. Her roommate and new best friend Anya was also on the squad, though she wasn't a starter. To say that Charlie's whole life at school was dance would not be an understatement. She was in heaven, and she never wanted it to end... but end it did.

The men who took them had a plan. They had connections at the university, and pressured a student to tell them about the cheer girls; who their friends were, where they liked to party. They had a copy of Charlie's schedule. So when she and Anya were headed back to their dorm after going out one night, they were grabbed off the street, thrown into a van, and disappeared. They weren't seen for nearly a month.

*Spoiler: Trigger Event*
Show

Escape. It was all Charlie could think of, locked up in a rain cellar with her best friend. One of them told them that they were being held for ransom, that their parents would pay good money for them. They seemed to know who they were, so at first Charlie was relieved. But days passed, then weeks, and nothing changed. Something must have gone wrong - maybe some of these kidnappers, whoever they were, had been captured or killed. Maybe there had been a change of plan.

The daily routine was similar, but never quite the same. At some point in the morning, a man would come in to feed them breakfast. They would get sandwiches for dinner, with the crusts cut off. The two of them were only allowed to be up and moving for an hour, and even then only under direct supervision from two thugs. They never learned their names; the only conversations they exchanged with their captors took the form of bruises and other pains. For all that they were visited frequently, their 'punishments' occurred at seemingly random intervals. It could be anything; look at one of them the wrong way, say something in their presence, or say nothing at all. 

But, for all that the two girls endured, it was worse when they were alone. Between Anya's sobs, Charlie lived in a perfect, terrible silence. For she knew that each time the men left, they would eventually return. It was just a question of when. It was the not knowing that crawled under her skin, the uncertainty that suffused each breath in a world without light or sound. She had only the beat of her own heart to pass the time, as each muscle in her body screamed to move. She wanted to run, to feel the sunlight on her skin. She had to escape this. She had to escape this.

Then, suddenly, she got her chance. One of the men got sloppy, and it was at that moment that the two girls moved. But it all went terribly wrong so quickly: another one of them grabbed Anya, and in that single, fateful heartbeat, Charlie blacked out.

----------


## GameOfChampions

> *Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
> Show
> 
> *Spoiler: Character Portrait*
> Show
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...


All right got around to this! So reading it over there is obviously a huge shaker component along with some mover and breaker. Maybe some stranger/master what with the bullying and isolation. So I rolled the luck first and got a flaw and perk. The flaw was that the power tended to be large and flashy, drawing attention when used. The perk was that the power just has more raw power then it normally would. Rolled for some power categories and ended up with a Breaker Shaker.

*Spoiler: Shaker 7, Breaker 5*
Show

Alister struggles to breath even as he is finally left alone deep under the water. Capes might be coming but the burning need for oxygen was making itself known now. 

Even as the oxygen itself threatens to overwhelm the body the very pressure of all the running water is beginning to push the rest of the oxygen out of the young teens lungs, slowly but surely crushing him with the strength behind the storming waters that follow in leviathans wake.  

The pressure is all around Alister, any thrashing just makes it worse and every second of oxygen less existence exacerbates it further. A few more seconds and the blackness starts to roll in, the last thing the young teen see is the murky water surrounding him and the last he feels pressure of the water forcing its way quickly into your lungs and Alister loses consciousness. 

An unknown amount of time later he wakes up in a rescue boat with someone doing CPR on him as a tinker machine attempted to check and fix vitals. He sits up with a gasp but other then heavy breathing brought on by the panic there is no coughing up water or choking. After a few preliminary checks the paramedic quickly moves on to the next patient, not caring about Alisters wet body or lack of continuing symptoms.

The boat is crashing through the waves along the Pontchartrain as it rushes back to shore to drop of the gathered survivors who had been pulled out into the lake by the Leviathen waves. The young teen can't see any part of the fight still happening, just rescue attempts at this point. The waters are rough and choppy, as the boat hits a slightly larger wave some dark and murky water crashes over and onto Alister. With a flinch the newly powered teen slides a bit in the water and _pushes_. The water crashing up as the boat hits another wave, joining the lingering storm. 

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

You have two main abilities. The first is the ability to change into a separate physical state that encompasses your whole body, your body functions as if it's entire state was made up of a solid water. The body doesn't need to breath, eat, have a heart beat. Small objects will pass through you and the water will flow back into place as if nothing happened. Water pressure and freezing or hot water no longer effects the body in that state. However any effect that would disembowel you or separate your body will instead knock you out of your breaker state and into your normal form unconscious and possibly injured or dead, so will large quantities of electricity or enough heat to disintegrate large amounts of water. So you can survive walking through a hail or rifle fire or being stabbed by a sword but if someone drops a shipping container on top of you you will still die and if you get hit with a live wire or ramped up taser it will knock you out. 

The second part is the shaker power, as you could probably guess it has to do with water. You can create a maelstrom centered around you with the water in the area, the area is dependent on how much water there is but the max area no matter how much water is 50m and you can condense it closer to you if you wish. There is always enough water in your range of 50m to pull it into a storm around you within 5m after that large amounts of water will be needed. You are also capable of finely manipulating the temperature of the water in the area around you, including yourself which is the one exception to your general immunity to temperature. You can create a storm of boiling water around you or full of golf ball sized pieces of hail.






> Did a quick edit, adding a taser and pepper spray. She's on a tight budget, for now at least.


Looks good! Costume on a budget!  :Small Big Grin: 




> Interesting! I was definitely thinking Shaker and Breaker, so this makes sense to me. I was trying to think of what the power reminded me of and how to play with the "mental anguish" aspect and then I remembered funhouse mirrors, and people's fear of clowns, and, well...
> 
> *Spoiler: Post-Trigger*
> Show
> 
> The ability to sense others' anguish is a strange sort of comfort to Stefan, especially in the first few months. Outside anguish centered him, separated him from his own pain; the fact that others were hurting made him feel less alone, more able to cope with his own fear and confusion. The other powers he found himself with took a little bit longer to understand and control. Steadily, he learned what he could do, mastered the mental will to choose each effect with intention, and trained himself to instinctively avoid his own "mirrors"--besides the first, horrible moment in his car, a bad sprain from the side effect of altered gravity was a quick teacher. Stefan--going by Adam--even began experimenting as the moment of panic and flight grew farther distant. The "mirror oof darkness" was his most-used trick; becoming a ball of shadow was an obvious problem in a well-lit room, but extremely useful for leaving town on foot in the dead of night or moving undisturbed in rougher neighborhoods. The "mirror of weight" was helpful for heavy loads, or even for travel if he was very, very careful. Finally, the "mirror of movement" was his best self-defense tool, though it was only used as an absolute last resort.
> 
> Stefan didn't even think about actively using his powers in public until he saw the old clown mask, though.
> 
> ...


Well I was not expecting terrifying clown cape but I kind of love where you went with it!  :Small Big Grin: 

Don't forget a brief bit about costume and gear specifics. I think a chunk of that is answered in you post trigger but just throw it into its own spoiler for easy access.




> Alright so I've got a bunch of questions.
> 
> *Spoiler: Taking Energy*
> Show
> 
> 1) Does the Life Drain require skin-to-skin contact or does it work through slight barriers like clothes? If so, does it work through thicker barriers like armor as long as it counts as touching "the person"?
> 
> 2) How long does it take to knock out/kill an unpowered person? Does it take any longer to knock out a tough cape, or the same amount of time?
> 
> ...


Oh god the questions. All right for length I'll throw them all in a spoiler below.

*Spoiler: Answers*
Show

1) Slight barriers like clothes or thin gloves is fine but anything thicker then an inch of more solid material, like armor, some costumes, or thick winter style jackets stops it from effecting the person underneath. 

2) So an unpowered person or cape without any durability or other power that may mess with it takes about 20 seconds of contact, this does not need to be in a single touch. You can do four separate grabs of 5 seconds and it would work as long as its within a pretty close time frame, around an hour. Some capes that have powers that grant, regen or toughness or other durability aspects would take longer depending on the power. 

3) The minor 1 or 2 second touch on the officer would have felt like a bad head rush or caffeine crash but nothing that makes the target think "my life force is being sucked away". Anything longer starts to become more noticeable, progressing to feeling like you did a good work out to feeling like a bad flu is making your body ache, to having been smashed in the head and having a bad concussion, to passing out. 

4) The targets can recover normally the second your hand is off of them. You holding their life force doesn't stop them from recovering. A normal person can recover in an hour though they can be woken up before that and functioning while suffering some side effects. 

5) Depends on the frequency. There have been none that you have been able to notice from people being knocked out maybe once or twice a week but more frequency starts to cause concussion side effects. They can be recovered from but it takes time. 

6) So it would be a minor breaker power technically much in the same way as many blaster powers come with immunities to their own blasts. Specifically it means that conditions don't worsen such as concussions, bleeding, diseases, and infections. It won't stop you from being stabbed or even bleeding but it will stop the bleeding worsening if you move around or even have something like a blood thinner. The second the life force in you is gone though those things will all start to worsen if they are still in effect.

7) So the shade in that write up was only around for a few minutes when you summoned it. You can equate seconds touched to minutes for shades. Get ten seconds of touching and you can summon ten shades each for a minute or two for five minutes each. 

8) Combination of one and three. They are semi physical beings that can interact with the world with the same sort of strength as a regular person but are semi resistant to damage. There are no organs or vitals to damage so really they're just a well of life force. Any damage will just slightly damage the amount left. So a shot from a pistol to the head would be the same to them as a shot to the leg and maybe take 10 seconds or so from the time left to the shade.

9) The danger is that of a regular person in terms of strength and skill. So one on one with a trained soldier the only difficulty would probably be the fact that its hard to put a shade down. To a regular person though that could cause a lot of trouble. 

10) So as mentioned above any damage they take just sucks up some life force to heal essentially and takes a bit of time away. Other then that not any more vulnerable then a regular person would be, just able to shrug off punishment better. Offensive capes would be more capable at dispersing them because they can deal out more damage but damage that would take out an unpowered person would just slow a shade. 

11) Nope. Just the wife. 

12) Empty twisted husks imprinted with some hints of your wife taken from your concussion addled mind that are controlled verbally. You can't experience their senses but when they return you can touch them and get an idea of everything they have experienced. 






> I love Worm, have written 100k fanfic for it even, and would love to play for this. Coming up with a wormy power can take a little bit of thought however. How long is there left on the applications phase? 
> 
> I might not be able to read through thoroughly and begin planning until tomorrow, and this looks complex, so Id want to read it thoroughly when Im not on night shifts.


Always happy to have more applicants. Just give the character creation a read over to get an idea. You design a character and trigger event then I do some rolls and design a power.  :Small Smile: 




> Right, time to make an application instead of sitting around thinking of doing it. Here is the application for Charlotte "Charlie" Malone.
> 
> *Spoiler: Description (Pre-Trigger)*
> Show
> 
> Charlie is pretty much what one would expect when thinking of a dancer: athletic and toned, she stands just shy of 5'8, with barely an inch of body fat on her. Her curly black hair is either styled in cornrows or tied back behind her in a ponytail, depending on the kind of day she's expecting. When not in a dance uniform or cheer outfit, she often wears eye-catching sneakers and baggy pants paired with a bright tank top. Unlike some of her friends, Charlie doesn't wear much in the way of jewelry other than large gold hoop earrings which she never takes off outside of competitions.
> 
> *Spoiler: Backstory*
> Show
> ...


Looks great! Very dark I like it. You will be joining the que.

----------


## AvatarVecna

A few more questions before I figure out what he needs. Should've thought of these before, sorry.

1) How far can the shades get from him before disappearing?

2) The shades don't appear naked I'm assuming. Can they be summoned with other items if I'm concentrating? Things like wearing masks or armor, or wielding tasers and Firearms? Or would I need to provide those things?

3) IF I need to provide those things, do they drop to the ground when the shade demanifests?

4) If the shades are trained in something (squad tactics, lockpicking, etc) will they retain it on later manifestations?

----------


## Zelphas

> Well I was not expecting terrifying clown cape but I kind of love where you went with it! 
> 
> Don't forget a brief bit about costume and gear specifics. I think a chunk of that is answered in you post trigger but just throw it into its own spoiler for easy access.


All right; I added the costume and gear in the post-trigger post, just to keep all of that together.

Two questions that I should've asked earlier:

1) How far away can Stefan make his "mirrors" from himself, when he makes them? I was assuming that they were in arm's reach of him when he made them, but if he can make them at range that opens up a _lot_ of useful combat options.

2) All of these "mirrors" specifically affect _people_ in their description. Am I correct in thinking that they will not affect objects (for example, bullets) that pass through them? Again, being able to slow bullets/thrown weapons/etc. to one-tenth of their speed would open up some solid self-defense ideas, but it's not completely necessary.

----------


## RandomWombat

> All right got around to this! So reading it over there is obviously a huge shaker component along with some mover and breaker. Maybe some stranger/master what with the bullying and isolation. So I rolled the luck first and got a flaw and perk. The flaw was that the power tended to be large and flashy, drawing attention when used. The perk was that the power just has more raw power then it normally would. Rolled for some power categories and ended up with a Breaker Shaker.
> 
> *Spoiler: Shaker 7, Breaker 5*
> Show
> 
> Alister struggles to breath even as he is finally left alone deep under the water. Capes might be coming but the burning need for oxygen was making itself known now. 
> 
> Even as the oxygen itself threatens to overwhelm the body the very pressure of all the running water is beginning to push the rest of the oxygen out of the young teens lungs, slowly but surely crushing him with the strength behind the storming waters that follow in leviathans wake.  
> 
> ...


I am the storm that is approaching!

Very metal power, and it lets him cover the team's Brute role too. Just a couple questions about it.

1) He is not immune to his own temperature control. Will going too hot boil him and knock him out of the Breaker state, or going too cold freeze him solid? Can he go hot or cold when his storm isn't up, or only while that power is also active?

2) Since the flashiness is a flaw, I'm assuming he can't see through his own maelstrom any better than other people can? No secondary sensory stuff like Skitter feeling through her bugs.

*Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
Show

*Spoiler: Character Portrait, Civilian*
Show




*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

As a member of the Crowleys, one of the main branch families of the villainous Fallen organization, Alister had a rough go at life right from the start. He was raised by the central Crowley family, but his true ancestry has often been held in question by all but the patriarch and matriarch, who solely know the truth. Rumors between his siblings and cousins say that he was abducted as a baby to replace one that died in childbirth. 

The boy wasn't in the double digits before he was involved in misdemeanors and felonies, his family's reputation for being nuisances and jackasses well-earned. Some of his better role models were members of the biker gangs that his family often dealt with, for whom young Alister would smuggle and sell drugs regularly.

The kid of two parahumans, Alister was expected to come into his powers early like his siblings, but that was never the case, even when he faced 'well-meaning' torment at the hands of his older kin who wanted to 'awaken' him to his destined powers. Though the traumatic experiences did not lead to super powers, they did lead to frequent nightmares. Alister suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis growing up, experiencing terrifying visions while unable to move.

When he was 11, Alister ran away from home and stowed away on several bus routes in an attempt to flee his awful family. He washed up in New Orleans, Louisiana late in the year 2005. And that was far from the end of Alister's woes. He went to the local Protectorate and confessed his identity, wanting protection from his family. They could not admit him to the Wards because he had no powers, but the New Orleans Protectorate and PRT provided him with a new identity and a bed at a youth shelter in the city, with promises to eventually get him better accommodations in exchange for information on his family's businesses.

The youth shelter was anything but safe. Another boy, Freddie Knox, a fourteen year old who was given up by his parents because they could not care for him. Everyone just called him Knox. Knox tormented the other, younger children, in ways that exceeded the cruelty of Alister's siblings - at least in his personal opinion. He still believed somewhere in the pit of denial that they were trying to help him, in a twisted way. Knox used cigarettes to burn Alister on the arm, making fun of his new name, Jack Burns. If Alister cried, Knox would put cigarette ash in his food. The shelter workers were too understaffed and overworked to deal with it, or even to notice.



*Spoiler: Trigger Event*
Show

One night in 2006, an alarm was raised alerting the city to an incoming Endbringer attack. Knox plugged Alister's ears with wax and dragged the sleeping boy into a closet, shutting him inside. When the shelter evacuated soon after, everyone was in too much of a rush to notice one missing boy.

The water flooding in from under the door woke Alister from sleep, but he did not wake fully. His limbs would not obey. All he could do was turn his eyes and look on in horror at the pitch darkness quickly filling with water. He could feel hallucinatory hands grabbing at him from under the surface of the water, trying to drag him down into the floor. Things escaping from his nightmares into the half-waking world.

Then, a force tore through the door and sent a flood of water surging inside, which soon carried Alister out. In the midst of a fight with several defending capes, one of Leviathan's water echoes had torn through the building. All that saved Alister from being reduced to paste was that he was lying on the floor. Now he was adrift in flood waters among rubble from the building, and the only thing he saw moving was a massive, dark shape moving away in the water.

Dark shapes took hold of Alister from the water below, the same ones from his earlier night terror. That was when he triggered - and alerted rescue teams to his presence in Leviathan's wake, when several of them experienced accompanying trigger visions from his nearby event. Alister was dragged from below by a Tinker's machine and administered first aid, resuscitating him from near drowning.

*Spoiler: Trigger Evaluation*
Show

Alister struggles to breath even as he is finally left alone deep under the water. Capes might be coming but the burning need for oxygen was making itself known now.

Even as the oxygen itself threatens to overwhelm the body the very pressure of all the running water is beginning to push the rest of the oxygen out of the young teens lungs, slowly but surely crushing him with the strength behind the storming waters that follow in leviathans wake.

The pressure is all around Alister, any thrashing just makes it worse and every second of oxygen less existence exacerbates it further. A few more seconds and the blackness starts to roll in, the last thing the young teen see is the murky water surrounding him and the last he feels pressure of the water forcing its way quickly into your lungs and Alister loses consciousness.

An unknown amount of time later he wakes up in a rescue boat with someone doing CPR on him as a tinker machine attempted to check and fix vitals. He sits up with a gasp but other then heavy breathing brought on by the panic there is no coughing up water or choking. After a few preliminary checks the paramedic quickly moves on to the next patient, not caring about Alisters wet body or lack of continuing symptoms.

The boat is crashing through the waves along the Pontchartrain as it rushes back to shore to drop of the gathered survivors who had been pulled out into the lake by the Leviathen waves. The young teen can't see any part of the fight still happening, just rescue attempts at this point. The waters are rough and choppy, as the boat hits a slightly larger wave some dark and murky water crashes over and onto Alister. With a flinch the newly powered teen slides a bit in the water and pushes. The water crashing up as the boat hits another wave, joining the lingering storm.



*Spoiler: Power*
Show

You have two main abilities. The first is the ability to change into a separate physical state that encompasses your whole body, your body functions as if it's entire state was made up of a solid water. The body doesn't need to breath, eat, have a heart beat. Small objects will pass through you and the water will flow back into place as if nothing happened. Water pressure and freezing or hot water no longer effects the body in that state. However any effect that would disembowel you or separate your body will instead knock you out of your breaker state and into your normal form unconscious and possibly injured or dead, so will large quantities of electricity or enough heat to disintegrate large amounts of water. So you can survive walking through a hail or rifle fire or being stabbed by a sword but if someone drops a shipping container on top of you you will still die and if you get hit with a live wire or ramped up taser it will knock you out.

The second part is the shaker power, as you could probably guess it has to do with water. You can create a maelstrom centered around you with the water in the area, the area is dependent on how much water there is but the max area no matter how much water is 50m and you can condense it closer to you if you wish. There is always enough water in your range of 50m to pull it into a storm around you within 5m after that large amounts of water will be needed. You are also capable of finely manipulating the temperature of the water in the area around you, including yourself which is the one exception to your general immunity to temperature. You can create a storm of boiling water around you or full of golf ball sized pieces of hail.


*Spoiler: Post-Trigger, cape name Little Monsoon*
Show

*Spoiler: Ward Costume and Equipment*
Show

A swimmer's suit with a hood and goggles (to keep his own storm waters out of his eyes). It's white with a gaudy golden crest on the forehead, and blue and red stripes along the sides of the arms and legs; Glenn Chambers wanted it to resemble the New Orleans flag, to inspire a sense of patriotism in the downtrodden survivors.

Little Monsoon doesn't carry any close quarters weapons, since his compressed form lets him mix it up hand to hand without fear of most conventional weapons, but he was given the standard self-defense training by the Wards. He carries a can of pepper spray, which he's experimented mixing in with his storm to minimal success given how watered down it is and how unpredictable contact is.


In the aftermath of the Endbringer attack, Alister was eventually tracked down by the Protectorate members who survived the event. When he excitedly showed them his powers, they at last brought him in for training to join the Wards. His power proved surprisingly useful in the recovery efforts when coordinated, able to collect huge spheres of water in his storm and 'carry' it away to help bail out flooded areas.

The 'little' part of the name he proposed was added by the PRT's PR department, since he was a kid at the time and they felt it would give him a better perception in post-Leviathan New Orleans by making the potentially negative associations dampened by a diminutive preface. Even though he's nearly 18, the name has stuck and often gets shortened to Lil' Monsoon by his teammates in the Wards. Alister hates it and looks forward to 'graduating' from the Wards and shaving it off to just be Monsoon.

His night terrors didn't stop. If anything, they became more frequent after his trigger event. This leaves him looking tired and frazzled much of the time, which he hides to the best of his ability behind his hood and goggles when he's on patrol. When schools finally reopened he was required to attend, which he did with sluggish compliance, never excelling much after his family's subpar homeschooling.

Alister is rough around the edges had brings with him many bad habits from the Crowleys, including a mouth like a sailor. He's not exactly fond of his family though, and he's been doing his best to break out of them and distance himself from that toxic influence. He took up cooking as a hobby and an attempt to be self-sufficient, and he can make a mean seafood gumbo.

It is now 2011, and Alister is 17 years old and a senior member of the New Orleans Wards. He is deeply suspicious that his family, or another branch of the Fallen, is responsible for the interference in the city's recovery. His scant free time is spent investigating personally, and he has begun neglecting school and other pursuits, paranoid that the Crowleys have or will find him and that he must take them down first.

When investigating as a solo vigilante, which he is not supposed to do, Alister has to assume yet another false identity. Thankfully the Brute-adjacent Breaker elements of his power are not as flashy and don't immediately give him away, so he focuses on using them.

*Spoiler: Vigilante Costume, Black Ice*
Show

As the vigilante Black Ice, Alister wears a mardi gras mask spraypainted black, a black scarf, and a set of black pants and jacket. Not exactly the most creative, but he doesn't have the PRT funding this one for him.

He wears a pair of brass knuckles to give his punches a little more oomph, since he can't rely on storms to throw bad guys around.

----------


## GameOfChampions

> Definitly interested here let me think about something fitting
> 
> *Spoiler: Backstory*
> Show
> 
> 
> Lewis Wells was given a pretty regular upbriniging, the second son (out of three children, the youngest a daughter) of a pilot and a stay at home mom in Baton Rouge, he did okay in school, never really falling too far behind in anything but not at the top of the class either, sporty and so invited into the popular crowd but never really too talkative when he was there. All around quite an average childhood, with him often missing his father, but only becoming more attatched when he was at home.
> 
> When school was done, he'd found what he hoped to do next, to follow his father as a pilot and so with his father's work buddies as a connection he found it relitively easy to his way into pilot school, when he was there though his struggles began, while initially he progressed as expected at a certain point he hit a stumbling block in his training, and found the routine of learning and exams and simulators weighing heavier and heavier on him, after some months of denying the problem until it couldn't really be fixed he ended up dropping out of the program.
> ...


I am working on the power right now but I got called to work mid power gen! I'll get it up later and just edit it in here! 

Edit: All right lets go! So reading it over I'm seeing a lot of fun with the pilot background. Reading it I got a lot of mover and shaker, maybe a bit of Thinker from the trigger. I started with some rolls and got the flaw was that the power is damaging to the environment and the power is versatile. So i just scrapped the roll for categories and went right with Mover and Shaker.

*Spoiler: Mover/Shaker 6*
Show

The smoke rages around Lewis as the fire spreads, trapping him inside. The heat is overwhelming and Lewis can barely see around as he stumbles further into the fire desperately looking for a way out. 

Lewis hits the seat of a chair and stumbles, burning himself on the heated metal when he falls against it. He pushes off and looks around, desperately coughing as his lungs fill off with smoke. Heat licking him from the outside as burns start to form and smoke slowly cooking him from the inside out, slowly being burned to death.

Desperately Lewis tries to scramble back to the vague area he recalls where he entered. However it has been too long and the fire has spread, slowly cooking Lewis in the plane he had desperately trying to save. He reaches out, trying to get through the flames but unable to do so. Lewis reaches for something more in that moment, channeling the power he felt in his grasp. Suddenly he is at the entrance of the plane again, laying in the middle of a burst of flame that starts raging around him. 

At the outer parts of the plane the burned man watches as fire rips through the plane and crashes around him.

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

You are a teleporter who uses an elemental medium, you meld your body with either earth, air, water or air and can travel along it to your destination where you rematerialize into your own body. The travel is not instantaneous, taking 4 seconds to reach 100 metres which is the max range.

Through experimenting with your power you also learned that when you come back out of the element you cause a localized disaster linked to that element and centered on you. The severity of which is directly linked to the distance you travel. Short distances, less then 25m, causes barely anything while 25-60m causes a good sized disaster of some power. Finally travelling 60-100m can cause powerful localized disasters. 






> A few more questions before I figure out what he needs. Should've thought of these before, sorry.
> 
> 1) How far can the shades get from him before disappearing?
> 
> 2) The shades don't appear naked I'm assuming. Can they be summoned with other items if I'm concentrating? Things like wearing masks or armor, or wielding tasers and Firearms? Or would I need to provide those things?
> 
> 3) IF I need to provide those things, do they drop to the ground when the shade demanifests?
> 
> 4) If the shades are trained in something (squad tactics, lockpicking, etc) will they retain it on later manifestations?


OK round 2 of questions!

1) The Shades have a 1km radius from you. 

2) They do not appear naked, they appear in your wife's favorite outfit. You can change the cosmetic clothes they are wearing and masks are fine but no armor or weaponry. Those need to be provided

3) The items provided would be dropped once the shade vanishes. 

4) Hmmmm. I will say that they can learn but it is spread among all ten of the shades. So teach a shade lockpicking for the day and they will only retain a tenth of the knowledge and practice. Teach one for ten days and all ten will have the knowledge of a day of lessons. 




> All right; I added the costume and gear in the post-trigger post, just to keep all of that together.
> 
> Two questions that I should've asked earlier:
> 
> 1) How far away can Stefan make his "mirrors" from himself, when he makes them? I was assuming that they were in arm's reach of him when he made them, but if he can make them at range that opens up a _lot_ of useful combat options.
> 
> 2) All of these "mirrors" specifically affect _people_ in their description. Am I correct in thinking that they will not affect objects (for example, bullets) that pass through them? Again, being able to slow bullets/thrown weapons/etc. to one-tenth of their speed would open up some solid self-defense ideas, but it's not completely necessary.


All right. Here we go!

1) So the range is the same as your sensing range, 50m. 

2) So they do only effect people otherwise a pebble or a fly going through could accidentally trigger it. However you can activate the mirrors on your own as long as they are within sight. So you could theoretically time it to catch an object going through but trying to activate it on your own as a bullet or something that fast goes through would be almost impossible to time. 





> I am the storm that is approaching!
> 
> Very metal power, and it lets him cover the team's Brute role too. Just a couple questions about it.
> 
> 1) He is not immune to his own temperature control. Will going too hot boil him and knock him out of the Breaker state, or going too cold freeze him solid? Can he go hot or cold when his storm isn't up, or only while that power is also active?
> 
> 2) Since the flashiness is a flaw, I'm assuming he can't see through his own maelstrom any better than other people can? No secondary sensory stuff like Skitter feeling through her bugs.
> 
> *Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
> ...


So for the most part the post trigger stuff looks good but you can't be a member of the Wards. If you are a member of a pre existing group already you can't exactly be pulled into a group with all of the players at game start. Also then you will have an unfair amount of connections, resources, and knowledge of the city. As I mention in the starting point part of the OP players will be either recent arrivals on the cape scene or new to New Orleans. 

If you want to go do some vigilante stuff with a group in Louisiana and you get contacted when on your way through or back New Orleans that is fine if you want to be an experienced cape. So for the questions now:

1) So you cannot make your body so hot or cold it would knock yourself out of your breaker state, just a built in safety net. You can do hot enough to be a few degrees before boiling or so cold your a few degrees before freezing. You can manipulate the temperature of your body whenever you are in your breaker state, storm not required.

2) You can't see through your own storm no, no extra senses.

----------


## AvatarVecna

*Spoiler: Post Trigger*
Show



For the next few weeks, Jackson walked through life more or less numb to the world. He contacted the bank and some relevant lawyers to make sure that all the paperwork got updated, to prevent any potential issues down the line. He contacted relatives to inform them of what had happened, brushing off most attempts to console him. He contacted a mortuary and managed to get a time and place that would work for everybody. He contacted the morgue and informed them of when things would be ready. Easily said, but the whole process took nearly a week, during which little else got done. Given that many would-be capes tend to go out shortly after they trigger, and subsequently get tracked down and recruited by looking at potential trigger events shortly before that, it was just as well he was taking time off to deal with all of this first - assuming that was a reasonable thing to worry about, anyway. Gotta find a silver lining somehow.

With the necessary steps out of the way, he began taking some time to properly mourn. He'd never been great at handling his emotions, though - they tended to get stuck on anger, and he tended to shove that down because it wasn't palatable to most people, and so he tended to seem very closed off most of the time. He especially hated when Dani saw him angry, even if she was the best at dealing with it, because she was the person who least deserved to be around him when he was like that. But now he was all alone, in their - his apartment. He summoned another shade, and began talking to her in a quiet murmur. His tone grew sharp at times, but not at her. She sat, and listened. He could feel the rage and sadness at the edge of consciousness, but it was held at bay by her presence.

Evening came, and he began to cook for the first time since it had happened. It used to be something they enjoyed together - he'd always been a picky eater, and learned how to cook what he liked as soon as he was able, while she loved trying new dishes or twists on old recipes, and always had a story to tell while she worked. Jackson cooked, and she - the shade cooked right along with him. But it wasn't right. It was quiet, and it didn't know the recipes. He had to tell it what to do, every step of the way. When it came time to fetch their dish in the oven, he focused on the veggies for the side while the shade got the main dish out. But he had forgotten to tell the shade to get oven mitts first. By the time food hit the table, it hit hard - the burns in its hands had been bad enough to cause the shade to demanifest with the tray still several inches up.

All the pain came flooding back in, having only been held at bay rather than dealt with, and he sunk to his knees. These shades, they weren't her, he knew that now. He had wanted to pretend - that maybe just in private they could still be together, that enough of her remained that he would still have his partner - but all he had was this mockery. An empty shell stealing her face to torment him even as it hardened his heart against her loss. He'd have to deal with his inner demons without the shades - they weren't going to be any real help, not that way at least.

...

Throwing an outfit together wasn't difficult. He had a balaclava that would serve to hide his face well enough, although he'd have to use his contacts to see normally. He had a nice solid pair of work jeans and a dark gray hoodie he could appropriate. He got out some old boots, since shoes are an identifier most people don't think too much about, and he even threw in some gloves thin enough he could still work his magic while still not leaving fingerprints behind. Jackson made for a very...amateurish figure, but he figured that once he had a bit of money from a few bounties, he could buy a better costume while wearing this one, and upgrade. He'd heard that biker outfits were surprisingly good functional as armor - that is, the ones designed with safety in mind, not the "jeans and bandanas" grungy look your stereotypical biker had. And maybe he could get a proper mask too...

That reminded Jackson of one last thing to deal with. He used the last of his stored energy to summon another shade - but this time, they were wearing a Halloween mask, and an outfit similar to his own. He did a short circle around, making sure there wasn't a way for the shade to be easily identified. When he was satisfied, he dismissed it, and prepared to go out into the night. Not that he was leaving his apartment looking like this, but he's stuff some of this into a bag and find somewhere more clandestine to start his cape career.


*Spoiler: Gear*
Show

Worn Hoodie
Balaclava
Work Jeans
Work Boots
Burner Phone
Packet of zipties
Pocketknife

----------


## Zelphas

> All right. Here we go!
> 
> 1) So the range is the same as your sensing range, 50m. 
> 
> 2) So they do only effect people otherwise a pebble or a fly going through could accidentally trigger it. However you can activate the mirrors on your own as long as they are within sight. So you could theoretically time it to catch an object going through but trying to activate it on your own as a bullet or something that fast goes through would be almost impossible to time.


That all makes sense, and gives Stefan plenty of utility to play around with! This actually answers another question I didn't even think to ask: his "mirrors" are single-activation, creating their effects the instant that someone passes through them or Stefan activates them and then disappearing, from what I'm reading. I can definitely see some useful combinations in place, and I'm betting that most people who've fought Funhouse think that he has some sort of telekinesis power or something. I think he's fully good to go, then!

----------


## RandomWombat

> So for the most part the post trigger stuff looks good but you can't be a member of the Wards. If you are a member of a pre existing group already you can't exactly be pulled into a group with all of the players at game start. Also then you will have an unfair amount of connections, resources, and knowledge of the city. As I mention in the starting point part of the OP players will be either recent arrivals on the cape scene or new to New Orleans. 
> 
> If you want to go do some vigilante stuff with a group in Louisiana and you get contacted when on your way through or back New Orleans that is fine if you want to be an experienced cape. So for the questions now:
> 
> 1) So you cannot make your body so hot or cold it would knock yourself out of your breaker state, just a built in safety net. You can do hot enough to be a few degrees before boiling or so cold your a few degrees before freezing. You can manipulate the temperature of your body whenever you are in your breaker state, storm not required.
> 
> 2) You can't see through your own storm no, no extra senses.


Hm, I might have to adjust his backstory then to not have contacted the Protectorate at all if that's the case. I figured it would be more of a hindrance being a Ward and trying to juggle that with moonlighting on the players' team in his other identity, leading to issues to work through later. I'll think over some adjustments.

----------


## JbeJ275

> I am working on the power right now but I got called to work mid power gen! I'll get it up later and just edit it in here! 
> 
> Edit: All right lets go! So reading it over I'm seeing a lot of fun with the pilot background. Reading it I got a lot of mover and shaker, maybe a bit of Thinker from the trigger. I started with some rolls and got the flaw was that the power is damaging to the environment and the power is versatile. So i just scrapped the roll for categories and went right with Mover and Shaker.
> 
> *Spoiler: Mover/Shaker 6*
> Show
> 
> The smoke rages around Lewis as the fire spreads, trapping him inside. The heat is overwhelming and Lewis can barely see around as he stumbles further into the fire desperately looking for a way out. 
> 
> ...



Thank you, I really love this, with the immediate problem of the fire and the slightly longer term issue of the whole area being covered in an immense storm both covered. Plus being a terminus mover, which is usually caused by "Involves combative, known relations to the source", in this case combative relationships with the concept of airplanes. It's like a more general version of Butcher VIs whole deal. As is tradition I have a few questions.
*Spoiler: Questions*
Show


1) I'm going to assume it was a typo and you meant to type "earth, fire, water or air" not "earth, air, water or air". That correct right?

2) What level of control do I have over these disasters, what form do they normally take and how long do they last? Will it just be a blast of fire or wind, or a brief wave of shattering earth or more of a temporary tornado/firestorm that I can control?

3) I'm assuming normal shaker immunity to the effects of your own powers, but does this cover the pre-existing medium I'm moving through as well? Can I for example walk through fire unharmed as long as I do small teleports every few seconds?

4) Does the medium need to be continuous for me to travel through it, or can I jump from one fire/body of water to another?

5) The teleportation clearly isn't line of sight from the trigger, but is it anywhere in range I can clearly visualise or just any space I identify? 

6) Do I have to choose which medium of teleportation I plan to use for each jump and then I'll go as far as it takes me? Or do I envision a spot within range and then the power selects which element if any has the most direct route? 

7) Do I have access to any senses while in transit? Whether sight or just being able to feel the shape of the medium I'm traveling through?

8) To run the risk of starting a trend what exactly counts as earth? Probably not refined metal but what about Asphalt, Brick or Stone Slab pathways?

9) Is kinetic energy preserved through the elemental walks? What about momentum? Can I for example airwalk upwards, then land near water and water walk beneath the surface for a safe landing?



And also:

*Spoiler: Post Trigger Backstory*
Show


In the panic, of both a trigger and still being close at hand to an ongoing jet fuel fire Lewis initially fled the scene and made his own way to the hospital in the aftermath of the incident. There he was treated for smoke inhalation and a number of minor burns, being kept overnight for observation. By the time he woke up and contacted his family and workplace he found a few things out, first his father never had been on the plane and both pilots had already left through the frontmost doors before the fire reached them. Secondly, the incident of his arrival was captured on camera, and while the footage was impeded by heavy rain and smoke and so couldn't catch his face, combined with blast residue analysis it suggested a new cape, which led the media to report theories of a Dynakinetic Fallen Fanatic attacking in concert with the endbringer strike.

Between him being injured in the fire when he should never have gotten near it, and a number of mistakes on the night originating from his console he was suspended from work pending an investigation, and he agreed to leave without a fuss, and lose his air traffic control credentials, quietly taking the fall for others in exchange for some severance, guaranteed medical cover and preventing things from going any further. Then a few days later, while New Orleans was still reportedly heavily flooded, and with him having recently discovered how he could move through earth and water he headed to the Leviathan ravaged New Orleans in the hope of helping the situation here.

This was shortly followed by him discovering just how destructive his power could be, and while he did save some lives he also demolished many of the waterlogged buildings in a rather uncontrolled manner, looking for something more engaging and with the search and rescue being finished he then began to pretty quickly actively start fighting crime. Volunteering at the relief efforts eventually made him some friends who landed him an administrative position at a depot outside of town, which provided the money and cover to begin life as a costumed vigilante. In part in reference, to the old fighter plane soe of his father's friends had flown, in part to go with his plans of striking at drug smugglers when they travelled through the forests or seas out of town, and the overwhelming ambushes he hoped would end up associated with him he took the name Tigershark, and began taking vigilante actions.

In the years since he's not really been a full time cape, but has been active enough that some would know about him. His powers and methods of attack have led to more than one idie hero or undebriefed protectorate member mistaking him for a member of the fallen, and the destructive nature of his fights have made him a controversial figure in came circles, and caused him to only occasionally go hunting. Now though, with the nature of the aid being rendered to the city changing, there's no longer really a need for the depot to have such a full staff, and so he's spending more and more time in the cape scene, starting to consider the bounty system.



Any questions or corrections?

----------


## RandomWombat

Alright, think I'm getting some new ideas for narrative direction. Some new questions:

1) Can he keep his form up while asleep in order to sleep underwater without needing to breathe?

2) How does it interact with contact? I'm guessing punches and kicks would be like getting hit with a something full of water, would it clonk them like a bottle or is it floppy like a bag?

----------


## GameOfChampions

> Right, time to make an application instead of sitting around thinking of doing it. Here is the application for Charlotte "Charlie" Malone.
> 
> *Spoiler: Description (Pre-Trigger)*
> Show
> 
> Charlie is pretty much what one would expect when thinking of a dancer: athletic and toned, she stands just shy of 5'8, with barely an inch of body fat on her. Her curly black hair is either styled in cornrows or tied back behind her in a ponytail, depending on the kind of day she's expecting. When not in a dance uniform or cheer outfit, she often wears eye-catching sneakers and baggy pants paired with a bright tank top. Unlike some of her friends, Charlie doesn't wear much in the way of jewelry other than large gold hoop earrings which she never takes off outside of competitions.
> 
> *Spoiler: Backstory*
> Show
> ...


All right! So definite breaker, mover, and striker vibes here for sure. So for the rolls again a perk and flaw bit they were fun! the flaw is that a sense suffers during the use of the power and the perk is that the power can be dialed up to 11 at a cost to you. So reading it I'm feeling more Mover and Striker in a more breakery sense if that makes sense? I think it does.  :Small Tongue: 

*Spoiler: Mover 7, Striker 4*
Show

Charlie stuttered to a stop, the horror of the situation paralyzing her. She could finally escape, get away from the beatings, abuse, and day to day horror. But she would have to leave Anya with the captors, the frustrated angry captors who would now be worried that they may be found out and thrown in jail for decades. 

The thought though of returning to that silence, nothing being said and nothing cutting through it except the sobs of her friend. It broke her. An impossible choice to make and the paralyzing impossibility stopped her. Charlie just... froze. Everything stopping in her mind until one of the thugs approached and grabbed her wrist, all she could do was stand there still frozen. The thug frozen there with her for a moment and as he goes to pull her he freezes too... everything does.

Charlie looked around, everyone was frozen. The thugs, Anya, even trash in the doorway drifting in the breeze from opening the door. All of it frozen. She tried to scream but nothing came out, the silence back again. Panic started to well up in her as she screamed and screamed but nothing came out. Everything started to tint blue and she looked down to find the nails and veins under her skin starting to turn blue. So she screamed louder and louder but still heard nothing. No heartbeat, no breath, no scream, no scrying. Nothing... for what felt like months.

*Spoiler: Specifics*
Show

So! Breaker Striker power. The striker power is required for the breaker so we will start there. When you touch someone you can freeze them in time, they become immutable, like people touched by Clockblocker. However you have to keep your hand on them, if you take your hand off then they are immediately unfrozen. While touching and freezing them in time you gather time from the target you can use at a later date. The max amount you can have stored is  10 minutes. 

The next part is the breaker part. You activate the effect and freeze time for yourself in a 50m radius using the time you have banked. Everything frozen in the radius is immutable and unable to be harmed and you cannot leave the radius without ending the effect, you can't draw time from frozen people. You can travel within the radius as much as you want with the only limiter being the time your spending from the bank. You can only bring what you have on you inside the effect with you, no large gear or heavy armor. The other effect is that when in the effect you completely lose your sense of hearing, you cannot hear anything whatsoever. However you can also dial the ability up to 11 but it makes the downsides worse. You can dial up the power as well, you can increase the range of the ability up to 100m and the ratio of time spent from 1:1 to 1 second of stored time equaling 4 seconds in the breaker effect. While that's happening your eyes, nails, and veins all start to glow blue. The downside is that time feels extended for you too while in the effect. If you are going all the way to 100m and using the better ratio then traveling 100m in it would feel like months of soundless existence. 









> *Spoiler: Post Trigger*
> Show
> 
> 
> 
> For the next few weeks, Jackson walked through life more or less numb to the world. He contacted the bank and some relevant lawyers to make sure that all the paperwork got updated, to prevent any potential issues down the line. He contacted relatives to inform them of what had happened, brushing off most attempts to console him. He contacted a mortuary and managed to get a time and place that would work for everybody. He contacted the morgue and informed them of when things would be ready. Easily said, but the whole process took nearly a week, during which little else got done. Given that many would-be capes tend to go out shortly after they trigger, and subsequently get tracked down and recruited by looking at potential trigger events shortly before that, it was just as well he was taking time off to deal with all of this first - assuming that was a reasonable thing to worry about, anyway. Gotta find a silver lining somehow.
> 
> With the necessary steps out of the way, he began taking some time to properly mourn. He'd never been great at handling his emotions, though - they tended to get stuck on anger, and he tended to shove that down because it wasn't palatable to most people, and so he tended to seem very closed off most of the time. He especially hated when Dani saw him angry, even if she was the best at dealing with it, because she was the person who least deserved to be around him when he was like that. But now he was all alone, in their - his apartment. He summoned another shade, and began talking to her in a quiet murmur. His tone grew sharp at times, but not at her. She sat, and listened. He could feel the rage and sadness at the edge of consciousness, but it was held at bay by her presence.
> 
> ...


Looks good! Classic starting cape gear I like it and the backstory is appropriately brutal emotionally. 




> Hm, I might have to adjust his backstory then to not have contacted the Protectorate at all if that's the case. I figured it would be more of a hindrance being a Ward and trying to juggle that with moonlighting on the players' team in his other identity, leading to issues to work through later. I'll think over some adjustments.


You can have been a part of the Wards if you want its just at game start its an issue. If you want to have him have graduated the Wards and just not have joined the Protectorate then its fine. Also once the game starts feel free to start a whooooole bunch of entangling relations with heroes or villains or whoever!




> Thank you, I really love this, with the immediate problem of the fire and the slightly longer term issue of the whole area being covered in an immense storm both covered. Plus being a terminus mover, which is usually caused by "Involves combative, known relations to the source", in this case combative relationships with the concept of airplanes. It's like a more general version of Butcher VIs whole deal. As is tradition I have a few questions.
> *Spoiler: Questions*
> Show
> 
> 
> 1) I'm going to assume it was a typo and you meant to type "earth, fire, water or air" not "earth, air, water or air". That correct right?
> 
> 2) What level of control do I have over these disasters, what form do they normally take and how long do they last? Will it just be a blast of fire or wind, or a brief wave of shattering earth or more of a temporary tornado/firestorm that I can control?
> 
> ...


Glad you like it and no worries about the questions! Tried and true response to getting the power.  :Small Tongue:  The backstory looks great and game ready!

*Spoiler: Answers*
Show

1) Yes that is a typo. My bad.  :Small Eek: 
2) So you don't control the exact maner of the disaster, I'll pick from a few options that make sense in the moment. There is always some standards like bursts of flame, fissures or erupting earth, windstorms/tornadoes, or water spouts/hurricanes.
3) So ya you are immune to your own disasters but not the initial element so you can't walk through fire and if you come out in the middle of a fire and the disaster does not cause a disruption to let you safety be in the middle you will be burned. You also can't teleport into solid earth.
4) It does need to be continuous, you can't go from earth to air to fire during a single jump. 
5) So it needs to be either within sight or somewhere you can clearly visualize like around the corner of where you just walked. 
6) So you pick an element to travel through and the spot within range of that element. One of the most common I'm guessing will be air so you choose air and then you pick where ever you can see or visualize within 100m and you will go there. 
7)No senses while in transit just a comfortable elemental themed all encompassing feeling.  
8) Fair enough. Brick and stone slabs, like marble or granite, are fine but no asphalt. 
9) So both are maintained when you jump. So jumping off a building you would need to do some angle playing to land on the ground safety. 







> Alright, think I'm getting some new ideas for narrative direction. Some new questions:
> 
> 1) Can he keep his form up while asleep in order to sleep underwater without needing to breathe?
> 
> 2) How does it interact with contact? I'm guessing punches and kicks would be like getting hit with a something full of water, would it clonk them like a bottle or is it floppy like a bag?


1) You can't keep the form while asleep to sleep underwater.
2) Anyone touching your body feels no difference between yours and a regular body. So a punch wouldn't hurt you but you would still suffer any momentum the punch transfers to the body and react like a regular person.

----------


## JNAProductions

Man, I so want to read all these other powers and backstories. But I know I shouldn't-I want to learn them in-game.

----------


## 3SecondCultist

Hey, just looking at the spoiler but its empty!

Sad Cultist is sad.  :Small Frown:

----------


## JbeJ275

> Glad you like it and no worries about the questions! Tried and true response to getting the power.  The backstory looks great and game ready!
> 
> *Spoiler: Answers*
> Show
> 
> 1) Yes that is a typo. My bad. 
> 2) So you don't control the exact maner of the disaster, I'll pick from a few options that make sense in the moment. There is always some standards like bursts of flame, fissures or erupting earth, windstorms/tornadoes, or water spouts/hurricanes.
> 3) So ya you are immune to your own disasters but not the initial element so you can't walk through fire and if you come out in the middle of a fire and the disaster does not cause a disruption to let you safety be in the middle you will be burned. You also can't teleport into solid earth.
> 4) It does need to be continuous, you can't go from earth to air to fire during a single jump. 
> ...


Thanks this was really helpful, gonna do startign supplies now then unless any questions come up I should be done.

*Spoiler: Supplies*
Show


Mask: Toughened Swim Mask over eyes and nose to aid in water walking, coloured brown around the eyes to semi-resemble aviator goggles plus lower face mask with fanged mouth image printed on it.
Clothing: Thetmally insulted wetuit on base layer for coverage in case of tertiary blast damage from his disasters as well as water and fire walking. Decals of black and blue stripes on side. Jacket, loose shirt and jeans worn over it for modesty and being able to blend in slightly quicker. As well as though steel capped boots.
Equipment: Zip Ties, Burner Phone, Rugged Rucksack, Set of Three Airsoft Smoke Grenades, Lighter, Binoculars, Taser

----------


## RandomWombat

> You can have been a part of the Wards if you want its just at game start its an issue. If you want to have him have graduated the Wards and just not have joined the Protectorate then its fine. Also once the game starts feel free to start a whooooole bunch of entangling relations with heroes or villains or whoever!


Oh, I thought Wards were off the table entirely (assumed you already had planned lore for them). Bumping him up a year to graduate and go freshly on his own might be the better way to go then, doesn't require too much change.

Edit: Modified to be 18 probably with an earlier birthday, still in school but considering dropping out.

*Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
Show

*Spoiler: Character Portrait, Civilian*
Show




*Spoiler: Backstory*
Show

As a member of the Crowleys, one of the main branch families of the villainous Fallen organization, Alister had a rough go at life right from the start. He was raised by the central Crowley family, but his true ancestry has often been held in question by all but the patriarch and matriarch, who solely know the truth. Rumors between his siblings and cousins say that he was abducted as a baby to replace one that died in childbirth. 

The boy wasn't in the double digits before he was involved in misdemeanors and felonies, his family's reputation for being nuisances and jackasses well-earned. Some of his better role models were members of the biker gangs that his family often dealt with, for whom young Alister would smuggle and sell drugs regularly.

The kid of two parahumans, Alister was expected to come into his powers early like his siblings, but that was never the case, even when he faced 'well-meaning' torment at the hands of his older kin who wanted to 'awaken' him to his destined powers. Though the traumatic experiences did not lead to super powers, they did lead to frequent nightmares. Alister suffered from episodes of sleep paralysis growing up, experiencing terrifying visions while unable to move.

When he was 11, Alister ran away from home and stowed away on several bus routes in an attempt to flee his awful family. He washed up in New Orleans, Louisiana late in the year 2005. And that was far from the end of Alister's woes. He went to the local Protectorate and confessed his identity, wanting protection from his family. They could not admit him to the Wards because he had no powers, but the New Orleans Protectorate and PRT provided him with a new identity and a bed at a youth shelter in the city, with promises to eventually get him better accommodations in exchange for information on his family's businesses.

The youth shelter was anything but safe. Another boy, Freddie Knox, a fourteen year old who was given up by his parents because they could not care for him. Everyone just called him Knox. Knox tormented the other, younger children, in ways that exceeded the cruelty of Alister's siblings - at least in his personal opinion. He still believed somewhere in the pit of denial that they were trying to help him, in a twisted way. Knox used cigarettes to burn Alister on the arm, making fun of his new name, Jack Burns. If Alister cried, Knox would put cigarette ash in his food. The shelter workers were too understaffed and overworked to deal with it, or even to notice.



*Spoiler: Trigger Event*
Show

One night in 2006, an alarm was raised alerting the city to an incoming Endbringer attack. Knox plugged Alister's ears with wax and dragged the sleeping boy into a closet, shutting him inside. When the shelter evacuated soon after, everyone was in too much of a rush to notice one missing boy.

The water flooding in from under the door woke Alister from sleep, but he did not wake fully. His limbs would not obey. All he could do was turn his eyes and look on in horror at the pitch darkness quickly filling with water. He could feel hallucinatory hands grabbing at him from under the surface of the water, trying to drag him down into the floor. Things escaping from his nightmares into the half-waking world.

Then, a force tore through the door and sent a flood of water surging inside, which soon carried Alister out. In the midst of a fight with several defending capes, one of Leviathan's water echoes had torn through the building. All that saved Alister from being reduced to paste was that he was lying on the floor. Now he was adrift in flood waters among rubble from the building, and the only thing he saw moving was a massive, dark shape moving away in the water.

Dark shapes took hold of Alister from the water below, the same ones from his earlier night terror. That was when he triggered - and alerted rescue teams to his presence in Leviathan's wake, when several of them experienced accompanying trigger visions from his nearby event. Alister was dragged from below by a Tinker's machine and administered first aid, resuscitating him from near drowning.

*Spoiler: Trigger Evaluation*
Show

Alister struggles to breath even as he is finally left alone deep under the water. Capes might be coming but the burning need for oxygen was making itself known now.

Even as the oxygen itself threatens to overwhelm the body the very pressure of all the running water is beginning to push the rest of the oxygen out of the young teens lungs, slowly but surely crushing him with the strength behind the storming waters that follow in leviathans wake.

The pressure is all around Alister, any thrashing just makes it worse and every second of oxygen less existence exacerbates it further. A few more seconds and the blackness starts to roll in, the last thing the young teen see is the murky water surrounding him and the last he feels pressure of the water forcing its way quickly into your lungs and Alister loses consciousness.

An unknown amount of time later he wakes up in a rescue boat with someone doing CPR on him as a tinker machine attempted to check and fix vitals. He sits up with a gasp but other then heavy breathing brought on by the panic there is no coughing up water or choking. After a few preliminary checks the paramedic quickly moves on to the next patient, not caring about Alisters wet body or lack of continuing symptoms.

The boat is crashing through the waves along the Pontchartrain as it rushes back to shore to drop of the gathered survivors who had been pulled out into the lake by the Leviathen waves. The young teen can't see any part of the fight still happening, just rescue attempts at this point. The waters are rough and choppy, as the boat hits a slightly larger wave some dark and murky water crashes over and onto Alister. With a flinch the newly powered teen slides a bit in the water and pushes. The water crashing up as the boat hits another wave, joining the lingering storm.



*Spoiler: Power*
Show

You have two main abilities. The first is the ability to change into a separate physical state that encompasses your whole body, your body functions as if it's entire state was made up of a solid water. The body doesn't need to breath, eat, have a heart beat. Small objects will pass through you and the water will flow back into place as if nothing happened. Water pressure and freezing or hot water no longer effects the body in that state. However any effect that would disembowel you or separate your body will instead knock you out of your breaker state and into your normal form unconscious and possibly injured or dead, so will large quantities of electricity or enough heat to disintegrate large amounts of water. So you can survive walking through a hail or rifle fire or being stabbed by a sword but if someone drops a shipping container on top of you you will still die and if you get hit with a live wire or ramped up taser it will knock you out.

The second part is the shaker power, as you could probably guess it has to do with water. You can create a maelstrom centered around you with the water in the area, the area is dependent on how much water there is but the max area no matter how much water is 50m and you can condense it closer to you if you wish. There is always enough water in your range of 50m to pull it into a storm around you within 5m after that large amounts of water will be needed. You are also capable of finely manipulating the temperature of the water in the area around you, including yourself which is the one exception to your general immunity to temperature. You can create a storm of boiling water around you or full of golf ball sized pieces of hail.


*Spoiler: Post-Trigger, cape name Monsoon*
Show

*Spoiler: Ward Costume and Equipment*
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A swimmer's suit with a hood and goggles (to keep his own storm waters out of his eyes). It's white with a gaudy golden crest on the forehead, and blue and red stripes along the sides of the arms and legs; Glenn Chambers wanted it to resemble the New Orleans flag, to inspire a sense of patriotism in the downtrodden survivors.

Monsoon doesn't carry any close quarters weapons, since his compressed form lets him mix it up hand to hand without fear of most conventional weapons, but he was given the standard self-defense training by the Wards. He carries a can of pepper spray, which he's experimented mixing in with his storm to minimal success given how watered down it is and how unpredictable contact is.


In the aftermath of the Endbringer attack, Alister was eventually tracked down by the Protectorate members who survived the event. When he excitedly showed them his powers, they at last brought him in for training to join the Wards. His power proved surprisingly useful in the recovery efforts when coordinated, able to collect huge spheres of water in his storm and 'carry' it away to help bail out flooded areas.

Originally, he was called Little Monsoon. The 'little' part of the name he proposed was added by the PRT's PR department, since he was a kid at the time and they felt it would give him a better perception in post-Leviathan New Orleans by making the potentially negative associations dampened by a diminutive preface. Even when he was one of the older Wards, the name stuck and often gets shortened to Lil' Monsoon by his teammates. Alister hated it and looked forward to 'graduating' from the Wards and shaving it off to just be Monsoon.

His night terrors didn't stop. If anything, they became more frequent after his trigger event. This leaves him looking tired and frazzled much of the time, which he hides to the best of his ability behind his hood and goggles when he's on patrol. When schools finally reopened he was required to attend, which he did with sluggish compliance, never excelling much after his family's subpar homeschooling.

Alister is rough around the edges had brings with him many bad habits from the Crowleys, including a mouth like a sailor. He's not exactly fond of his family though, and he's been doing his best to break out of them and distance himself from that toxic influence. He took up cooking as a hobby and an attempt to be self-sufficient, and he can make a mean seafood gumbo.

It is now 2011, and Alister is 18 years old and has graduated from the New Orleans Wards. He is deeply suspicious that his family, or another branch of the Fallen, is responsible for the interference in the city's recovery. His scant free time is spent investigating personally, and he has begun neglecting school and other pursuits, paranoid that the Crowleys have or will find him and that he must take them down first. For that reason, he chose not to join the local Protectorate immediately and instead throw his lot in with a new hero team forming in the city. Alister does not want to be bogged down by excessive oversight, which he came to feel was standard practice during his time in the Wards.

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## GameOfChampions

> Hey, just looking at the spoiler but its empty!
> 
> Sad Cultist is sad.


Whoops! Didn't see that  :Small Eek:  Its all in there now!




> Thanks this was really helpful, gonna do startign supplies now then unless any questions come up I should be done.
> 
> *Spoiler: Supplies*
> Show
> 
> 
> Mask: Toughened Swim Mask over eyes and nose to aid in water walking, coloured brown around the eyes to semi-resemble aviator goggles plus lower face mask with fanged mouth image printed on it.
> Clothing: Thetmally insulted wetuit on base layer for coverage in case of tertiary blast damage from his disasters as well as water and fire walking. Decals of black and blue stripes on side. Jacket, loose shirt and jeans worn over it for modesty and being able to blend in slightly quicker. As well as though steel capped boots.
> Equipment: Zip Ties, Burner Phone, Rugged Rucksack, Set of Three Airsoft Smoke Grenades, Lighter, Binoculars, Taser


Looks good!




> Oh, I thought Wards were off the table entirely (assumed you already had planned lore for them). Bumping him up a year to graduate and go freshly on his own might be the better way to go then, doesn't require too much change.
> 
> Edit: Modified to be 18 probably with an earlier birthday, still in school but considering dropping out.
> 
> *Spoiler: Jack Burns, real name Alister Crowley*
> Show
> 
> *Spoiler: Character Portrait, Civilian*
> Show
> ...


Great! everything looks good!

*@Everyone*

All right I think I'm caught up on power generations and people are getting the last bits of character generation done. I'll keep it open another 2 days or so for any new interest then close it and wrap up any of the admissions. 

Anyone have any questions?

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## JNAProductions

> *@Everyone*
> 
> All right I think I'm caught up on power generations and people are getting the last bits of character generation done. I'll keep it open another 2 days or so for any new interest then close it and wrap up any of the admissions. 
> 
> Anyone have any questions?


Nah, I think I'm good for the moment.

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## Zelphas

> *@Everyone*
> 
> All right I think I'm caught up on power generations and people are getting the last bits of character generation done. I'll keep it open another 2 days or so for any new interest then close it and wrap up any of the admissions. 
> 
> Anyone have any questions?


I'm good to go as well; whatever the group ends up being, it'll definitely be interesting!

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## GameOfChampions

I believe the only people that aren't finished their applications are *@Heavenblade @Witherbrine and @3SecondCultist*.

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## JbeJ275

I wanted to posit that to go with the theme of often hiding their powers and Lewis mostly going out to rural locations to fight crime wherever possible his main tactic is identifying a hiding place then air or water walking in and out of it, allowing him to present publicly as a shaker/stranger rather than a shaker/mover. Not sure how relevant it would be but I like the misdirection element of it.

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## GameOfChampions

> I wanted to posit that to go with the theme of often hiding their powers and Lewis mostly going out to rural locations to fight crime wherever possible his main tactic is identifying a hiding place then air or water walking in and out of it, allowing him to present publicly as a shaker/stranger rather than a shaker/mover. Not sure how relevant it would be but I like the misdirection element of it.


Ya thats totally fine! Very sneaky I approve. There won't be a lot of info about any of you among the capes in the city, unless your backstory specifies otherwise like Crowlys. So sneaky stuff like that is a thing you can do to confuse the capes in the city when everyone starts getting known.

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## RandomWombat

> *@Everyone*
> 
> All right I think I'm caught up on power generations and people are getting the last bits of character generation done. I'll keep it open another 2 days or so for any new interest then close it and wrap up any of the admissions. 
> 
> Anyone have any questions?


No more questions here! Excited to see what the team looks like.

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## 3SecondCultist

*Spoiler: Post-Trigger Backstory*
Show

After the escape, Charlie made it to the police. Somehow, she was okay. Still in denial over what happened, she told the Indianapolis cops what had happened - that she and her friend had been kidnapped, held for weeks on end - and before too long people identified her as one of the two missing girls. Her Ma and Pa, who had flown out to try and make sense of the initial disappearance, were overjoyed to hear that she was okay. They sent word that they were on their way to pick her up, that it was all going to be alright. But in the police station, in the hotel, everywhere she went, all Charlie could see was that hole in that basement, and hear the ringing of that blue void.

On the information she gave, the cops stormed the house within a day of her escape. They found Anya inside, a bullet hole straight between the eyes. Evidently, whoever had taken them had cut their losses and run.

The nightmares started not long afterward, around the same time Charlie returned to New Orleans. Her classes were deferred for the year as she settled back in at home; the place she had wanted to get away from, to figure out who she could be had become a cocoon of comfort, a place for her to bury her head between her pillows. Her parents and siblings gave her all the space she needed - probably too much. She was alone, the only people around her treating her like glass and she could shatter any instant. Silence reigned over the Malone household. The only times Charlie felt like a semblance of herself were when she snuck out of the house after dark to the city's clubs to dance by herself.

Before long, Charlie came to face to face with her powers. That void was already there, coiled up beneath her skin while she slept. It wouldn't go away until she recognized the truth: she had triggered. First, she touched her younger sister and stole a minute, living in that quiet. Then more and more over the weeks that followed, until she had a better grasp on her limits. She wore a stopwatch now, kept time of every minute. She took to jogging and lifting weights during the day - not for any reason at first, mostly to stay in shape and for her mental health, but somewhere at the back of her mind, Charlie was coming to terms with what she was and what she'd left behind.

She was a cape now. She would never dance again.

*Spoiler: Equipment*
Show

Other than a vial of pepper spray and some baggy clothes with a homemade cloth mask, Charlie won't start the game with any equipment. She has good shoes for running too, I guess. But that's it.

Basically, Charlie is a teenager with no real resources to speak of (she either can't or won't steal her parents' money to pay for better gear or do anything illegal).

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