Character Thread

Shameless · January 24

post approved characters and pictures here. Please include human identity, and one for you Superhero identity.

Exile_Jeane · January 25

Carol “Big Time” Hess

Megamorph Model

Appearance: Possessing a striking, athletic 5'7 frame at her default stature, Carol Hess moves with the graceful confidence you'd expect of a model. As such, her civilian garb reflects the latest trends. Her heroic persona, “Big Time”, employs a black-and-gold padded body glove with an artistic domino mask to aid the passive effect of The Veil, an amazonian juggernaut healing from any damage in seconds. A super suit of unstable molecules gifted to her by an old ally she keeps in touch with for tools allows her to switch between both and any other ensemble on a whim.

Personality: If success breeds confidence, then knowing she's been rendered well-nigh unkillable and unaging by The Event has bred a lot of confidence in Carol Hess, both in her heroic and 'mundane' personas. She likes being liked, and the very bad PR of villainy keeps her firmly on the side of the angels along with a few harsh, early lessons that other people get hurt, emotionally and physically, when she treats it all too much like a game.

History: Born 28 years ago, Carol Hess is a San Francisco native born to upper middle-class parents who indulged her love of fashion, and when good genes and good habits saw her bloom into good looks, supported her transition into a career in the modeling industry. It was stressful in all the right ways and she thrived, carving out a sustainable, even growing, niche for herself. Made friends, had lovers, worked the game winning and losing against industry arrivals. She maintained her stress relieving hobbies of athletics and motorcycle riding.

Then the Event happened.

Carol Hess, for one unforgettable instant found herself the focus of something much much bigger than herself and, almost as an afterthought, if the thing that brushed her mind thought in human terms, found herself linked to a mass of interdimensional vitality that, in the span of a few months, granted her increasingly impressive strength and vitality as well as the ability to, as she put it, 'Go Big Time'.

She started small, with an impromptu disguise when disaster struck her city from the sea, rallying with the motley collection of enhanced and paranormal humans. Well, that worked. So she put more time into it and teamed up with a super genius tinker going by the nom-de-jure 'The Engineer'. A useful relationship she treasured as pouring more and more time into her secret heroic career took it's tool on her professional and personal relationships. Carol still got work in her old passion career, but being unreliable during multipart shoots poisoned her prospects and fueled gossip in a way that did not sit well with her.

Cue yet another invasion by a group of dangerous alien refugees, and the stressed megamorph ended up making the wrong call, causing more than her share of collateral damage taking down one of the alien behemoths. Not quite enough to put her on the DSA's naughty list, but it did warrant a change of scenery, and seeing the hero ARC active in a rescue in Houston prompted a gut reaction akin to that first connection with the thing that gave Carol her powers. The fact that this was the first hint of a reaction from the thing sold the city in her mind and within a few months she was moved and settled in the new city. The local heroes were fairly welcoming to a transplant, too, not the least the target of her interest, helping each other a few times on problems too big for even Big Time to handle.

Stats

Spoiler

Abilities: Agility 4, Intellect 3, Might 8, Perception 4, Toughness 8, Willpower 4 (31)

Talents: Academics 4, Charm 6, Command 4, Covert 3, Investigate 4, Medicine 3, Professional 5, Science 4, Streetwise 4, Survival 3, Technology 3, Vehicles 6 (39)

Powers:

*A Model's Stature (Growth 10, Source: Super, pg. 33) (10)

*Biological Tesserect (Regeneration with PRO Instant, Source: Super, pg. 38) (24)

*Restorative Hyphae (Immortality with CON Vulnerable: Destroy her 'heartstone') (2)

*Extremophilic Inclination (Immunity: Environmental) (3)

*Unstable Molecule Wardrobe (Quick Change, Source: Technology, pg. 38) (3)

*Tron Lines (Light, Source: Technology, pg. 33) (3)

*Track and Field (Expertise 6, Agility:Athletics, Source: Training, pg. 28) (3)

Perks: Fame (Civilian Identity) (3), Contacts (Fashion Industry, DSA) (2), Resources (1), Custom Vehicle ('Her Beloved', Motorcycle with Body 5d, Speed 8d, Control +5d, Open Cockpit, Running, Small, Com system, Personal) (1)

Flaws: Secret Identity, Vulnerability (Extradimensional Attacks)

Edge: 8 Health: 8 Resolve: 4 Banked Points: 2

Edited January 26 by Exile_Jeane
Rule Change

Nina · January 26

ARC

Arc/Tess Merrill

Appearance: Arc stands about six feet tall, Humanoid in shape with two legs and two arms, but neither male nor female. Its features are unclear and could be the face of either. It glows and gives off cloudy tendrils of purplish light. There is a power or energy of some kind which pulses deep inside the being and sometimes its form appears translucent. It seems to be made of some sort of Alien energy plasma. Independent of the body, there are three small teardrop shaped blobs of plasma, 3 or 4 inches long, which rapidly orbit its torso on three separate and ever-changing tracks, even passing completely through its body sometimes. Out of its head stare, unblinking, two completely white glowing eyes. All in all quite a frightening sight.

Tess on the other hand is an average young woman who stands about 5’ 4” and weighs about 120 pounds, wet. She wears her ginger hair short and tries to keep it combed but it often has other ideas. When not working Tess dresses casually in jeans and T-shirts but dresses up when she goes out and for special occasions. If she puts in the effort, she can be very attractive. At work she wears whatever uniform of the day the chef calls for.

Personality: Arc is cold and aloof, showing little or no emotion. It is logical and is rarely swayed by arguments. It knows right from wrong and always acts accordingly. It has a strict and very strong moral code that it will not break.

Tess is stubborn. She is bright, quick witted and sarcastic. She does not make friends easily nor trust just anyone but when she does that person is from that point on considered family. Tess realizes that she cannot have a normal life now but there hasn’t been enough time for that reality to sink in and so she tries desperately to hang on to who she was before. She does realize that she would be dead if it were not for ARC. She knows that she owes it/they/them a deep debt of gratitude and she feels sorry for their loss of memory and everything, but still there is a deep resentment for how her life has been turned inside out. Plus there is the whole risk of going insane if she stays in crazy town too long.

History Tess, born Theresa Sinclair Merrill, is the scion of the huge Merrill Empire, and the presumptive heir to that fortune. Or she was. Her Grandfather whom was named after, was Sinclair Merrill, a roustabout who made it big in first the ranching business then in oil and then in damn near everything else he set his mind to. Sinclair was the quintessential self-made man. His son, Garald, Tess’s father, was born into wealth and became the educated one and he wanted his daughter Thresa to follow his footsteps and pushed her to becoming a lawyer. She went to school to please her parents when all she wanted to do was be like her grandfather, a man she only knew through stories.

Tess didn’t graduate, she didn’t want to be a lawyer and she and her father constantly argued about it. Over the holidays several years ago their arguing grew heated they said things and Tess stormed out and her father disowned her.

She stayed in Houston where she had been going to school, bummed around skipping from low-income job to low income job and eventual started to work her way up as a chef. She claimed she wanted to become a real chef but she kept on sabotaging herself and then …

Then the Event happened.

The being now known as Arc was an Extra Dimensional Law enforcement agent, think Green Lantern Corp, but Dimensional in scope. The event occurred and a creature it was pursuing took advantage of the event and invaded ARC’s mind and stripped away most of its memories leaving the being a shadow of its former self. At the same time, it ripped a hole in space and time and dumped the law enforcement agent into another universe and onto a small ball of mud called earth.

The Arc’s entry into earth was during a terrible storm and its path and that of Tess Merrill collided. That collision would have resulted in Tess’s death had the Arc not bonded its matrix to her physical form connecting the two as an inseparable entity… two intellects which shared, one at a time, the same corporeal form.

Through the Potentiality Matrix the two can switch places with one occupying the corporal body on earth while the other is placed in the Chaos Zone an antimatter universe which exist close to our universe but not a part of it.

While in the chaos zone that intellect is unable to see or experience what the other is experience but the two intellects can communicate.

Tess formally named It/they /them Arc after hearing the being referred to as “looking like a plasma arc form a Tesla Coil”

Arc has no memory of its past. It doesn’t even know its name, but its strong moral code and sense of right and wrong as well as Tess’s own luck at being in the wrong place at the right time has led them to become a righter of wrongs and defender of the defenseless in Houston.

Sheets

Spoiler

ARC

Abilities: Agility 3, Intellect 5, Might 7, Perception 6, Toughness 5, Willpower 5 (31)

Talents: Academics 3, Charm 1, Command 3, Covert 1, Investigate 6, Medicine 1, Professional 1, Science 3, Streetwise 1, Survival 1, Technology 3, Vehicles 1 (18)

Powers: ALL POWERS ARE INNATE (76)

Adaptation, Source: pg. 21) (12)

Strike, CON- Subdual, pg. 41) (3 -1)

Phasing w/PRO Intangible, pg. 36 (9+3)

Blink (Combat Phasing), pg. 24 (8)

Elemental Control (Plasma Energy) R:10, pg. 27 (30)

Super Senses (X-ray Vision, Analytic Vision, Microscopic Vision, Telescopic Vision), pg. 43 (9)

Languages PRO: Hyper-Translation, pg. 32 (1 +2)

Perks: none

Flaws: Alter Ego, Amnesia, Outsider

Edge: 11 Health: 6 Resolve: 4

Tess – Thresa Sinclair Merrill

Civilian Package Base 2 in all Abilities and Talents (35)

Abilities: Agility 2, Intellect 3, Might 2, Perception 3, Toughness 2, Willpower 3 (+3)

Talents: Academics 3, Charm 4, Command 2, Covert 2, Investigate 3, Medicine 2, Professional 3, Science 2, Streetwise 2, Survival 2, Technology 2, Vehicles 2 (+5)

Powers:

Martial Arts, Trained, R:3, pg.34 (1)

Luck (Unbelievable) R: 2, pg.33 (6)

Perks: none

Flaws: Alter Ego, Obligation (Job), Crazy Train (Tess can only spend an hour or so in the Chaos zone before her sanity begins to be effected)

Edge: 6 Health: 3 Resolve: 9

ORIGIN STORY

Spoiler

A few years ago...

The rain pounded on the roof of the car, the wipers swished back and forth but really didn’t help, the storm was that bad. Tess squinted and leand forward barely able to see more than a couple of feet beyond the hood of her car.

It was black out at 4:30 am and she was dead tired after pulling double shift at the restaurant and then working the Jaspers after hours party. She should have said no to the party, but she needed the money. And she should have taken Jenny up on her offer for her to sleep over because of the storm, instead of driving the 20 miles out of the city to her crappy cheap apartment. But she hadn’t felt comfortable with the idea of staying with Jenny and her boyfriend. Ray was a nice guy but Tess had caught him more than once giving her a look that was decidedly not in line with being a faithful boyfriend.

Bright lights in her eyes and a blaring horn yanked Tess back to the driver’s seat as she jerked the wheel sending her car back into her lane, her heart pounding. The rain was so bad she couldn’t even see the dividing line and here she was woolgathering.

Theresa Sinclair Merrill, called Tess by her coworkers and friends, was 28 years old, a collage dropout and a struggling line cook who claimed she wanted to be a chef but hadn’t done much in the way of attaining that goal.

She had been living in Houston since dropping out of college six years ago. She had entered college pressured by her father to go into the legal profession. After four years of Pre Law, she had had enough and then, after a huge fight with her dad, she left school and set out on her own. Estranged from her (very) wealthy parents Tess bummed around in Houston working as a waitress or bartender until landing a job as a cook, which sparked a semi-interest in maybe becoming a chef.

She checked out several culinary schools but couldn’t really afford them and was adamant that she would not go to her folks for the money. Instead, she drifted from one kitchen to the next learning but never fitting in. She was too hotheaded and stubborn and usually either got PO’d and walked or caused her boos to get PO’d and thus fired.

She currently holds down a job on the line at the Corduroy Canyon, a new and very pretentious restaurant run by Chef Wes Gallery an east coast celebrity chef cashing in on the southern grill craze.

Today had been a terrible day, Chef Gallery had been at the restaurant for his once-a-month residency, and he had been in a mood which of course rolled down hill, so everyone was grumpy. Then the second shift dinner crew had been short, and Tess was asked to fill in. She needed the money and couldn’t refuse without getting fired anyway. And then as the restaurant was closing Cindy at Jaspers had called her and told her there was an after-hours gig and that if Tess wanted it, it paid 300 dollars up front.

Again, she couldn’t turn the money down.

So here she was at 4:30 Am in a raging thunderstorm driving home, totally unaware that her life as she had known it was about to come to an end.

Awareness.

The being looked around its vision was obscured by an unknown medium. It was fluid, they focused in and analyzed the molecular structure. Unknow atomic structure, 2 of one atom and 1 of a different atom. A symbol formed in its intellect.

<h2o> a voice/thought ‘spoke’.

‘what’?

Ah the voice/thought was the other intellect it had been forced to bond with. This new intellect started to project panic. “Calm down. Our encounter was in the process of ending your function. That is contrary to my code. I did the only thing possible to keep your intellect intact. I bonded my matrix to your corporeal form, we now share the same physical space in this dimension, but only one intellect may occupy the dimensional space at one time. I perceived that your form could not survive in this medium, so I took your place. Your intellect is currently in the extradimensional space my matrix interacts with…

Tess was freaking out. She remembered the storm and a huge gust of wind making the car shake and then right in front of the car a weird purplish light seemed to rip across the sky and a thing that pulsed and twisted and didn’t seem like it belonged flew out of the rip and struck the car.

The impact tossed the car sideways and Tess had lost control. She instinctively slammed on the brake but all that accomplished was to put it into a spin. There was a crunch as the car hit a guard rail and smashed through it plunging into the bayou below sinking immediately in the raging stormy waters.

The car filled with water as it sunk, Tess screamed she couldn’t get her seatbelt undone. She was going to drown. She was going to Die!

As the waater covered her head and she could no longer hold her breath she gasped and water began to fill her lungs. Then the purple lit thing came out of the dash it was surrel it looked like a star in human form but like a cloud and meringue frosting… Tess was dying her brain was shooting unreal images and she briefly

wondered when the life playback would start.

Suddenly a word shouted in her mind. “No!”

The star/cloud/frosting thing slammed into her chest and…

She was in a bubble, she could breathe. She wasn’t even wet. She blinked. She screwed her eyes shut and rubbed them, then opened them again. The bubble wasn’t in the water.

The bubble Tess was in was bobbing up and down slowly spinning about on an etherial wind. She was floating in the bubble not standing on anything but not falling either. Outside the bubble was chaos.

Worlds and planets spun and zoomed across a multicolored sky which was above and below. They were of all sizes, and some collided. Those collisions might spawn a dozen new worlds spinning off in every direction or one body might simply swallow the other.

There were asteroids and flat worlds. Floating cities and mountains alone in space… but there was nothing alive.

It was too much, Tess felt her mind begin to bend….then a thought came to her, not her own, a symbol

A question.

“H2O,” she said outloud.

<what?>

A sound that wasn’t a sound a voice not a voice, Tess ‘heard’ it as plain as day.

“It is water.” She looked all around twisting in a circle trying to find the origin of the voice, seeing no one. Her heart thumped in her chest. “ Two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. Where am I? Where are you? WHO are you?” She screamed the last as panic took hold.

“You’re in my head! How? What the Fhu.”

<No. It just seems that way. Our intellects are connected now. And anyway, at the moment you are in my head.>

Tess opened her mouth to say something, but her train of thought disintegrated. Instead, she just repeated her earlier question. “Who are you?”

They stopped. It had adjusted its vision and could see clearly now the water, as the other intellect had called it, was not deep and the vehicle they had occupied was visible below them. Who am I. the question hung there in its mind, who am I. “I do not know.”

“I do not know who I am. My memory of self is… incomplete.”

It rose on a plasma stream, its form rising out of the water into the storm which was lessening. It floated in the air above the bayou. It looked at itself. It had taken on a new form when it entered this dimension. It was as unfamiliar to it as who it was unknown. Where it had come from was unknown, too much was unknown.

The being drifted over to the road where the car had broken through the railing and touched down.

It was about six feet tall, Humanoid in shape with two legs and two arms, but neither male nor female. Its features were unclear and could have been the face of either. It glowed and gave off cloudy tendrils of purplish light. There was a power or energy of some kind which pulsed deep inside and sometimes it appeared translucent. Its body looked like it was made of energy plasma, the kind produced by a Tesla Coil. Independent of the body, there were three small teardrop shaped blobs of plasma, 3 or 4 inches long, which rapidly orbited its torso on three separate and ever-changing tracks, even passing completely through its body sometimes. Out of its head stared, unblinking, two completely white glowing eyes.

It/they/them stood on the road the rain pouring and hissing where it fell on the figure. In the limbo of the chaos dimension Tess began to panic the thing was silent she didn’t know what was going on she was alone tendrils of madness lurked.

It/they/them looked both ways along the road there was nothing except the pavement and the rain. It needs to think to examine its own mind. It needed to process what had happened to it.

The three Potentiality Nacelles increased their orbital speed until the three tracks looked like solid neon rings zooming around the being then suddenly they expanded into a sphere of light and immediately collapsed into the being and the beings body seemed to follow the sphere of light collapsing into itself with a purple flash and a thrumming note as if a loud bass string had been plucked.

In the glowing beings place stood a soaking wet Tess. She fell to her hands and knees and began coughing up the water she had taken into her lungs, then she vomited as the fear and panic rushed to the front of her mind. After several moments of spasms and coughing she quieted and knelt there on the road, on all fours trembling.

She was alone. She was confused. She remembered the wreck. Sort of. Maybe she had fallen asleep at the wheel and the rest was just a dream. She glanced over the side of the road into the bayou where her car must be but could not see anything in the dark water. She remembered drowning and that crazy hallucination. How did she get up here from down there? Tess shook her head but that just made it hurt more.

Wet and cold she struggled to her feet her phone was in her purse which was in her car at the bottom of the bayou who knows where. It was probably ruined anyway. She needed help, she must have hit her head and might be concussed. She looked around at the area in the dim light of morning. She thought knew where she was, there would be a convenience store not far maybe half a mile she could make it there and call 911. Get help.

It took her over a half hour to walk the half mile to the store. She had to stop and rest ever few yards. She saw zero traffic during that time. The rain was just a slow drizzle now, but she had no way of knowing that the storm had caused flash floods across the region and that many roads were closed.

Thank God the lights were on and she could see two cars parked at the store. One was off to the side, probably the morning clerk, the other right in front of the door. There was also a pickup truck at the gas pumps.

No outside phone, not surprising so Tess limped to the front door barely noticing that the car parked there had its motor idling but no one in it.

Inside was bright and the led glare caused her to squint. The cashier was a tall thin guy who could have been 20 or 40 he had that kind of face. He was standing right up against the counter and staring at her wide eyed.

I must look a fright, Tess thought, as she spoke and at the same time looked up at the mirror behind the counter which showed the store. “I was in an accident and need to call 911.” She was right. Her image showed her standing there soaked through and through her red hair straggly and dirt and blood on her face. It also showed a pair of legs lying in a pool of blood in the back aile and the back of the cashier and the guy with a gun kneeling behind the counter right beside him.

“Can’t the phones are out. From the storm.” The cashier said his Adams apple bobbing. Tess could see the fear in his eyes now and that same fear gripped her heart.

I am but I know not who I am, nor what I am. I cannot even say where.

It/they/them struggled with not knowing it had a vague sense of threat and something had wounded it. It remembered being ejected from the extra-dimensional space where it… did whatever it was that it did.

It/they/them occupied the same place that the other intellect had been earlier but it was not secured in the bubble, It/they/them were free to move about the chaos zone had they so chosen but it was stationary while its mind contemplated the problem. While it did so a small part of its mind monitored the other intellect it was now bonded too.

The woman, how she referred to herself was not really hurt, even though she believed that she was. She was simply in shock and It/they/them was keeping a though monitor on her incase it was wrong. The human, how she referred to her species, sudden became agitated and this brought It/they/them to full alert.

“What is wrong Tess?” It/they/them had gleaned that Tess was the nomenclature that identified the intellect as an individual. She also seemed to have other names, but this was the preferred.

<what? Oh my god, are you real did all of that happen oh my god am I going mad?>

“Tess I am real what happened was real we will discuss this later. I detect hat your system as entered a heightened state of anxiety and are indicating a flight or flight scenario. What is going on?”

<Robber, dead guy gunshot killer in front> Tess’s panic was back full throttle

“Tess you need to bring me back to where you are so I can protect you.” <How?>

“On your left wrist is a bracelet with a violet stone. Touch the stone with the intent of releasing me.”

<oh my God.

The whole conversation happened at the speed of thought and only a microscopic sliver of time passed from the moment Tess had looked up into the mirror and saw what she saw and she had touched the stone on the bracelet she hadn’t even noticed.

The purple light flashed inside of Tess and shined through her like an x-ray. And the process of the being transforming into Tess repeated itself in reverse.

The cashiers’ eyes got wider still as It/they/them suddenly blossomed out of the scraggly woman who vanished in purple light.

It/they/them did not hesitate nor waste time. The Potentiality Nacelles pulsed and the luminous being phased through the counter in a blink and before it even registered on the criminals mind It/they/them and energized its fist and punched the miscreant in the back between the shoulder blades. It/they/them pulled its punch which could have reduced the human to a pulp instead the force was carried through the plasma energized fist which acted much like a taser.

The crook convulsed violently and collapsed unconscious. But the criminal was not alone. A second man had been hidden in the back out of sight of the mirror thus Tess hadn’t seen him therefore It/they them/ had not known about him.

The young drug addict stepped around the shelves he had been hiding behind and raised and fired the shotgun he had used to take out the cowboy earlier. It hadn’t even registered in his drug addled brain that what he was shooting at wasn’t human.

A shotgun an indiscriminate weapon. It/they/them was not familiar with this exact weapon, but it must have encountered them before, fore it knew what it was capable of even as the weapon boomed and sent it’s lethal pellets toward both they and the cashier. It/they/them swung its arm in an arc to its left and a Nacelle pulse and a translucent purple shield shimmered in front of the cashier just as the pellets struck. The quickly erected shield did not protect it/they/them but his new body was more than up to the task of standing up to the projectiles.

<my god you’re a superhero> Tess interjected. She had not been able to see what happened or here but It/they/them have allowed its thought process to keep Tess informed via thought.

The term Superhero was unfamiliar, but Its language ability deciphered and defined the word adequately “I don’t think so but I do not know for sure. Perhaps.”

Sensing urgency in Tess, It launched itself into the air and nacelles spinning phased through the ceiling and roof of the store and into the sky!

Our heroes will Return!

SalmonMax · February 14

Background: Aspen Thicket grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Her education had as much to do with hours in libraries and hard knocks as it did with school; maybe more. From an early age she weaponized her curiosity, using her small stature to creep unseen and overhear things no one was meant to hear. Armed with this knowledge, she made a safe 'space' for herself and her family in the social order of a gang ridden neighborhood.

She stumbled into her abilities when investigating what she assumed was a drug factory or maybe stolen goods trafficking at what had been an old warehouse at the edge of her turf. Lately there'd been strange activity there. Tough looking guys hanging around, scaring people away by day. Cars arriving by night. But what she found was some kind of weird high tech manufacturing facility. High tech, but also kind of slapped together...and what they were making seemed dangerous. Like, really dangerous.

Aspen was discovered snooping though, and after a chase was cornered on catwalks over some open tanks of some kind of churning silvery goop. She surrendered, choosing some small chance at survival. Then a voice came from a speaker above. Male. A bit raspy, like a smoker. Cold.

"Dispose of her."

And before Aspen could protest, she was tossed into the silver fluid below.

She died; her body torn apart by a swarm microscopic scale robots in a suspension. It was quick, but not painless. It was also...oddly temporary?

Aspen 'woke up' then, feeling oddly relaxed in that quicksilver goop. She concentrated on trying to move. Move her arms. Move her legs. Her body was sluggish, but it started to respond. Maybe it had only paralyzed her? Laboriously she dragged herself out of the vat and fell to the floor. It took a few seconds to move again, but oddly it didn't really hurt.

It took several minutes after she pulled herself into a corner to regroup for Aspen to realize something was wrong. Very wrong. Her body was...unstable. When she paid attention to her hands, they were fine. When her mind wandered, her hands started to...to...well, melt. In fact, her whole body seemed to be similarly unstable. Holding its shape, but just barely. Sometimes she had the clothes on that she'd been wearing when she fell in, other times she seemed to just have skin.

Stuffing the panic down deep, Aspen focused on escaping, and managed to do so. It didn't escape her attention that the place had been cleared of personnel and equipment as well. Were they moving? What had happened?

Her phone was gone, but she didn't go home right away. Rather, Aspen worked on trying to hold herself together. It took a few hours and a lot of alternating determination and freaking out, but finally she got to the point that she could hold her shape even while paying attention to other things. So she went home.

It had been days; her parents had been worried, but were relieved to see her. Aspen told them...a version of the truth; that she'd been checking out the new factory, got chased off by their security and had to lay low for awhile. She left a lot out too, and could tell that they could tell she'd done that. They didn't pry though, except to admonish her to be careful, and leave things like that alone. When Aspen checked on the building a couple of days later, it had been evacuated entirely.

Since then she's been focused on trying to figure out what happened to her, and who did it, and what they were trying to do. Aspen has a very bad feeling about this kind of tech being loose in the world. Despite having powers now, she's going to need help to deal with this.

Description: Aspen is a young human-appearing female in her early twenties with a somewhat lean, skinny build and short scruffy blonde hair. She tends to dress lazily, in simple jeans or sweats and light t-shirts or tanktops, with or without a hoodie. She likes necklaces and will often wear more than one at a time out of her large and eclectic collection. As Alecto she is taller and fuller-figured, appearing as a feminine-shaped metal humanoid with features distinctly different from her own.

Spoiler

Name: Aspen Thicket

Gender: Female-presenting

Age: 20

Abilities: Agility 3, Intellect 5, Might 3, Perception 5, Toughness 4, Willpower 5 (25)

Talents: (29)
- Academics 2
- Charm 4
- Covert 5
- Investigation 5
- Science 2
- Streetwise 4
- Technology 4
- Vehicles 3

Powers (all Tech source): (71)
Blending (+3d Covert or 1/2 rank after the +3 if still to avoid being seen in plain view) 3
Communications (tap into/use communication networks) 3
Form (Liquid Form) 12
Immortality (digital consciousness) 3
Inanimate (Tech - nanoswarm) 9
- Does not eat, breathe, drink; immune to toxins
Machine Control 10 (Interface: Computers only, Touch range) 4
Regeneration (Fast; 1 dmg/minute) 12
Super Senses
- Analytic Touch 1
- Circular Vision 1
- Thermal Vision 2
Transformation
- Shapeshifting 9, 18
- Variant: Doppelganger 3

Perks: none

Flaws:
- Secret Identity - Aspen is trying her best to keep her human identity from being connected to Alecto's activities, to protect her family from retaliation.
- Enemy - As Alecto, Aspen has been terrorizing several local gangs...but in particular has been hounding the shadowy and mysterious organization that accidentally gave her powers in the first place, in their attempt to murder her.
- Heavy - Aspen is the size and shape of a human, but her body is significantly denser than human flesh.

Edge: 10 Health: 7 Resolve: 4

Shameless · March 27

SCB Character
Name-Marcus Liam Holt
Hero name- Silver Spider
Age-21
height- 6'3
Weight- 220
Hair- brown
eyes- Green

Life is never easy, sometimes things just happen, and you have to deal with it. That's the sort of life Marc's had. Born to Sonny and Lisa Holt, he's the younger of their two sons, with two younger sisters who are a set of twins.   Sonny is a Captain with the Chicago Police department, with over twenty five years experience.  Lisa, his mother,  worked at The Field Museum until her disappearance.  Sean, Marc's elder brother by eight years, also served as a police officer, though he was killed in the line of duty. His younger sisters, Siobhan and Shauna, are sixteen, and have their mother's rich red hair.

Growing up in Chicago's South Side, He was a fairly model student, excelling in Math and the sciences more than other areas. His brother was all about following in his father's footsteps, but Marc wasn't. While he'd run track and played baseball, that was always more for exercise. His love was for books, for learning.   Possessed of a keen mind, he loved to get lost in books, it allowed him to forget about just how bad things could be in Chicago.

He'd kept mostly to himself back in highschool, though he did have several good friends, his circle wasn't a wide one.

It was just after his Freshman year of College when his life was turned upside down, in more ways than he could imagine.   Sean was killed the day after Finals, and not a month after the funeral, His mother, Lisa, didn’t come home from work. She simply vanished. Life became chaos. His dad “THE CAPTAIN” was distraught then angry. He grew sterner and he had already been pretty stern to begin with. They didn’t know if Lisa had been abducted, had simply deserted them or, god forbid, taken her own life from the grief of losing her first born. Marc had to be the responsible one he stepped up and took care of his sisters.

The next year was a jumble of things trying to keep ahead with school, making sure the girls had what they needed and trying to get his dad to pull his head out of his butt. It wasn’t until the next summer that things sort of found a semblance of normal. His mom wasn’t coming back and the girls had pretty much come to accept that. Dad did too. Most folks thought that Lisa had jumped into the river not willing to accept the grief of losing Sean. Life went on. They finally packed up her belongings and gave most of it to charity. But not everything.

While packing it all up Marc had found an envelope with his name on it. In the envelope he found a short cryptic note and a ring that he had last seen on his moms hand, a ring she had always worn. He read the note, it was very short.

Marc, my dearest son, I’m leaving you this.
I am sorry for what I was unable to do.
Take care of your sisters and your father.
Don’t tell anyone.
You will understand.
I love you.
Mom.

For some reason, not the least of which was because his mom had asked him, he didn’t tell anyone. But it was an emotional burden he carried. The ring he also carried on a chain around his neck. Soon after he found the ring he started having nightmares about his brother being killed. They were never the same and didn’t match what Sean’s partner had told them or what the reports had said. They were often disjointed and surreal. And he was often in them as well. The dreams slacked off when he went back to school but over the holidays they had returned and just before Christmas he had a bad one.

In it he watched his brother die, seeing him being gunned down. And there he was a powerless bystander, just a witness to crime, a victim at the whims of those with the drive to take from others. Just as the gun turned on him, he felt immense pain in his hand, enough that it roused him from the dream, and he instinctively grabbed his stinging clenched hand. As the pain subsided her pried his fingers loose and found his mother’s ring in has hurting hand and then he was right there again watching his brother being murdered, Sean's female partner gunned down but this time when the gun turned on him he did not become a victim. He could only feel anger burning inside him, not despair. He held out his hand something shot out, striking the crook and binding him to the wall. His brother was still dead, but this time he didn't follow him. He didn't let the criminal win. He could feel himself smile, and then he woke as the sun came up.

He looked at his hand which no longer hurt, he wasn’t holding the ring, it was where it always was on the chain around his neck, there wasn't any indication of what had happened, but something was different. He felt different. Looking at himself in the mirror, he noted he looked a little leaner than he had before.

That was when he first heard the voice. "It seems we are more compatible than expected."

Marc was sure he heard the voice, but inside his head, and he was alone. "What, Who.."

"I am Arachne, The Weaver, I have chosen you to be my Avatar." The feminine voice spoke again.

"Um, the Grecian Goddess of Spiders?" he ventured.

"Such a basic tale.   I am much much older than that, and responsible for so much more."   The voice sounded miffed by his question.

"Okay. Well, It's a Saturday, and I am mostly free. I'd love to hear the tale." he found that he did want to know. If this was a dream it was the most real he'd ever had, and if not, he could just finally be cracking under the pressure of everything in life. Of course the Third option was that it was real, in which case he knew things were going to be even more complicated.   Still, his curiosity was piqued.

The voice spoke again, less imperious, to the effect he could almost see a woman smirking in his mind.   "So you would, would you? Far be it from me to not answer my Chosen's questions, at least here at the beginning."

Marc made himself comfortable in his chair, and closed his eyes, and focused only on the voice. "I am Arachne, the Great Weaver. I govern creativity and the weaving of reality, both physical, and of the tales of the world. I have other names, but I like this one best, it's also easiest.   My chosen have always walked the earth since mankind first learned to use tools, and have helped the world move forward. So it is now as well. You are on your way to greatness, even without my help. Normally my Chosen are scholars and scientists, those who pursue knowledge for the betterment of all. Now, though, I am forced to do something else, something more.   You are impressive by human standards Marcus Holt, and I have made you moreso. I have heard your wish, which is in harmony with mine, and given you power to protect those who can't protect themselves. In time, I can share more of my power with you, but only as you continue to grow."

"What of your broad wealth of knowledge?" He asked. Power was good, but Knowledge and wisdom were just as important.

"When you have helped those around you, and earned it, I shall answer questions as I can."   It put a price on knowledge, which there always was, Helping others wasn't a bad price really.   Marc was fine with that, and he kept his eyes closed.

"What sort of power have you bestowed on me?"   he asked quietly.

"As you associated my name with Spiders, I simply built upon that, and gave you powers in line with that association. You'll be better at jumping, and moving as a spider does, sensing danger, and able to see better than you can now."

"And weave webs?" Marc smiled

"Of course, that is inherent to most spiders is it not. I will give you some of my techniques, but it will be for you to learn others, or earn them from me." With those words, Images and words filled his mind, explaining, demonstrating the abilities he'd been given.

He once again got the idea that Arachne was smiling. "Is there anything else you wish to ask?"

Marc thought for a moment "a costume. I cannot endanger my family and friends by just openly showing my face."

"Of course, say the following "Asimi""

Marc did, and instantly knew it was the greek word for Silver. He felt strange, as if something was enveloping him, and opened his eyes. He calmly moved to the mirror and saw the silver and dark blue costume that covered his entire frame. "If it becomes damaged, weave your webs over it, and they will replace the damage." Arachne instructed.

Confronted with the startling reality of this, Marc could only nod. "Wow."

"Now a final question, Marcus. Do you accept this?" Arachne asked.

Oddly enough, Marc's mind was very clear. He instinctively knew as well that while she had indeed chosen him, He had to agree as well, or there could be no partnership.

"I agree and Accept, Arachne. I will aspire to use what you've given me to protect others, and to Weave a tale of Hope for those who have none." Marc's answer must have pleased Arachne, as he got the actual mental image of a woman with long Black hair, and red eyes, the palest skin, and a brilliant smile. "I know you will Marcus." There was a ring his mother had given him something he wore on a chain just as others would wear a crucifix. It was the only keepsake he'd been given directly by his mother, and she'd told to keep it with him, always. It felt warm against his skin. It never tarnished, and while before it had been smooth, he could feel the etching in it now.

"This ring will be a symbol of our choices, mine of you, and your acceptance. Give it away and I will release you from this bond. I will also make it so you cannot be forced to relinquish it. Only through your own choice will you cease to be my Avatar."

Marc removed the ring from his necklace, placing it on the middle finger of his right hand, surprised that it fit, as he'd never done this before. He could feel a momentary pulse through it, and himself, and nodded. This was only the beginning.

Spoiler

Sheet

Health 6
Edge 12
Resolve 3

abilities 29
Agility 7
Intellect 6
Might 7
Perception 5
Toughness 5
Willpower 5

Talents 10
Academics 3
Charm 2
Command 1
Covert 2
Investigation 2
Medicine 1
Professional 1
Streetwise 2
Survival 1
Vehicles 1
Technology 3
Science 3

powers 36

(magic)(5) Danger sense 4
(magic) (3) Leaping 3(1/rank)
(magic) (24) omni power (web) 8 3/rank swing line, ensnare, forcefield, blast, Stun, Dazzle Pro- Line
Swing-line (weblsinging)
Ensnare (Web it up)
Forcefield (Webshield)
Blast (web ball impact)
Stun (Paralytic web)
Dazzle (Go for the eyes)
(magic)(2) wall-crawling 4
(magic)(2) Quick Change con-costume

Flaws- Obligation (Student)

specialties
Acrobat-+1 to movement and active defense
Scientist- +1 to science and investigation

Edited March 27 by Shameless

Asarasa · March 27

SECOND CITY BLUES

Personal Information
Real Name: Riley Jay Verges

Nicknames: RJ, Riles

Street Name: Juggernaut, Relentless

Marital Status: Divorced

Citizenship: United States

Home Region: Chicago

Occupation: Private Investigator, Vigilante

Physical Traits

Gender: Female

Ethnic Background: Caucasian (Irish, Polish)

Age: 33

Apparent Age: 21-22

Height: 5'7''

Weight: 321 lbs

Eyes: Electric Blue

Hair: Mahogany Brown

Handedness: Left

Appearance
Riley is an incredibly attractive woman who looks a decade younger than she really is, who radiates a predatory animal magnetism that is both captivating and intimidating. A little taller than average, her taut body is physically perfect, blending sleek, hard muscle with lush curves, her complexion and tanned skin tone flawless, but anyone who touches her can tell she’s considerably more solid than she looks. Moves with a fluid, powerful, almost mechanical, grace.

Origin
Riley Jay Verges was born and raised in middle-class Chicago, growing up in Bucktown. Her father Peter Verges was a bus driver and her mother Donata Verges a school teacher. While RJ had a decent enough childhood, her parents worked long hours, so she was helping look after her six-year younger sister Sabrina since she was eleven.

Enthralled by her grandfather Ricky’s stories of being a Chicago Patrolman for decades, RJ wanted to join Chicago PD ever since she was a kid, to stop bad guys and keep Chicago safe. Got into athletics - mostly track & field - and boxing and various martial arts as a teen to get fit and prepare. When she graduated high school, she enrolled at Olive-Harvey on the South Side and earned her Associate’s degree in Criminal Justice while working various bars in Wrigleyville. After getting her degree, she immediately entered the Pathway to Policing program. At 21, well prepared, driven, stubborn, and with some advice and insight from her grandfather, RJ flew through the Police Academy easily and with top marks.

Being cute and young, RJ started on the Vice Squad. It wasn’t glamorous, but she got to write reports early and it would help her advance later in her career. It didn’t take RJ long to get jaded from the people and situations she had to deal with, but that only made her try harder. At 24, she met her future husband, a tall, handsome, charming, and ambitious biochemist at Dynamic Equilibrium Pharmaceuticals a decade her senior. She pulled him over for speeding, and he flirted with her out of a ticket.

Three years later, RJ and Frederick were married and moved into a luxury apartment in Lincoln Park. Frederick was now head of his own research project and was making more than enough to support them both and believed RJ would now settle down to start their family. But RJ had just made Detective in Homicide and wasn’t ready to give up on her career and duty.

At 31, RJ’s life irrevocably changed. She thought she was on top of the world. She had ten years in CPD, which came with a nice pay bump and if jaded with both the people she served and the people she apprehended, she wasn’t burnt out yet and had a new detective working with her, Sean Holt, who despite some nepotism, seemed competent. Her husband was now Head of Research at DEP, and they had a very comfortable lifestyle. Their sex-life was very active and engaging, and even better, Frederick had stopped pressuring her to retire and start having kids.

RJ and Sean were following a lead on an investigation when she caught sight of someone she had helped but away as a patrolman and who should have still been in prison, Kevin Zaluski. She suggested to Sean that they should follow him, and the convict lead them to a large warehouse or converted manufactory. Citing exigent circumstances, RJ and Sean followed the convict in.

It looked like a drug lab, but not a kind RJ had ever seen before. They had only been inside for a few minutes before they were being shot at, beakers and other lab equipment shattering, various gasses being released in the air, the detectives being splashed with unknown chemicals.

RJ and Sean fired back as they made an orderly retreat. RJ tried to call the encounter in, but something was interfering with communications. Before they could escape, they were caught from being, and both were shot multiple times.

By the time police and emergency responders made it on scene, no one was still on site. They had to wait for hazmat to show up, due to the unknown substances splashed about and in the air. When the responders finally went inside, Sean was pronounced dead on scene.

Miraculously, RJ still had a pulse, however faint, despite thirteen gunshot wounds. She was taken to the hospital… but was pronounced dead after seven hours of surgery. Over half an hour later, when she was about to be unhooked from the medical equipment and wheeled down to the morgue, her heart beat. Once. Then again.

RJ was in a coma for a week, but survived. Got called the Cop who died. Severely injured, it would take a long time before she could start recovering and she would never be a hundred percent.

She was angry that she and her partner were led into that situation by someone who should still have been in prison. When she tried to inquire why he was out and the state of the investigation into her and Sean’s shooting, she was stonewalled, and her anger grew. She was even more incensed when it was quietly suggested she was at fault for the shooting, having not followed proper procedure.

Between that, seemingly life-long crippling injuries, her therapist’s recommendation, and not having played much in office politics, RJ was maneuvered into early retirement and a partial pension. RJ was furious and hurt, having only ever wanted to be a police officer.

Six months after her shooting, RJ was well enough to start physiotherapy, if barely. Bitter and angry, she threw herself into it, harder than she should have. Ever since her near death, her hunger had been tremendous. Now it went into overdrive and it seemed she couldn’t get enough calories.

Progress was slow at first, but then it began to increase exponentially. Six months after she began physical therapy, RJ was in better shape then she’d ever been. She looked better, looked younger, than she had before the shooting. It was clear something strange was happening. Her physical therapist took measurements of her progress and found she was meeting or exceeding Olympian records.

RJ was making love to her husband again, her sex drive as strong as it had ever been, now more often the initiator than him, and definitely more aggressive. Though it wasn’t quite as satisfying as it had been, and was growing less so. Frederick seemed happy though, and without a job, began pressuring her to have a child again.

Over a year after her shooting, RJ was in their home gym, working out. She was privately bemused that she was doing one arm curls with weight her husband could barely bench, when she overheard him talking with someone on the phone… from the other side of the apartment.

Frederick admitted to being glad RJ had lost her job, how fucking her felt like he was putting himself into a heavy duty vise, and how he couldn’t understand how she wasn’t pregnant yet after he’d been altering her birth-control pills for over two years.

RJ saw red, and kicked the door off its hinges when she burst into Frederick’s office. She beat her husband bloody, Frederick hardly able to defend himself as well as a child might. Frederick admitted everything to her face when RJ threatened, and seemed entirely capable of throwing him off the terrace of their penthouse apartment.

A week later, they were divorced, RJ taking only a small payout, the cat, and her personal items, when Frederick threatened to show photo evidence of his beating. RJ believed her husband was too proud to ever show anyone he’d been so manhandled by a woman, but she didn’t want anything from her, nor ever wanted to see him again.

RJ got a small bungalow on the edge of the Dan Ryan Woods in Ashburn, a far step down from Lincoln Park. Her physical enhancement continued for several months after her divorce, until it seemed to reach a plateau or the transformation she was undergoing finished. Her appetite lessened to what a man twice her size would eat.

She felt amazing. She looked amazing, she looked as young as she’d been as a rookie cop. She wasn’t a cop anymore, but she couldn’t just keep sitting on her ass, collecting her pension. Six months ago, RJ got a small office space, opened Beyond the Verge Investigations, and began working as a private investigator.

And when she could without being caught or obvious, she made those escaping justice - or those evading her blind eyes - pay.

Connections
Sabrina Verges - RJ’s younger sister, 27 years old, works as a PR rep for Dynamic Equilibrium Pharmaceuticals. Doesn’t know about RJ’s changes, but suspects something. Sabrina had been the ‘pretty one’ but after recovering from her injuries, RJ looks much prettier, and younger as well, and Sabrina is feeling some jealousy.

Richard ‘Ricky’ Jay Verges - RJ’s grandfather, he was a police officer until he retired and is the reason RJ wanted to be an officer ever since she was a child. They talk about RJ leaving the force and what she can still do to serve the city.

Liam Weylan - A former Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician for the Chicago Cubs, and now a physical therapist running his own facility and business, Liam is RJ’s physical therapist, and has seen the changes she has gone through. He helps find out her limits and capabilities, and keeps it secret, and while he isn’t a biologist or geneticist, he’s doing what he can to find out why she’s changed. RJ is grateful for Liam being there at her lowest, and still being there at what might be her highest.

Michael Weatherly - Friends with benefits deal, since sex with a normal man is difficult and unsatisfying for RJ, as she has to be so careful not to hurt them. Micheal gets to a bang a super hot superwoman. Purely a physical thing on both parts. RJ is in some views a disgraced Police Officer, so isn’t a good fit for Mr. Invincible’s image, while RJ finds Michael kind of a douchebag. But the sex is amazing.

Bastard - RJ’s Maine Coon/Norwegian Forest Cat mix, a huge cat at thirty or so pounds, and one of the only things RJ got in the divorce. Bastard is mean, ornery, doesn’t give a shit if you are a cat, dog, or person, but he’s her cat. And at least he can’t scratch or bite her anymore, even though he still tries.

Dr. Frederick Schwartz (Enemy)- RJ’s ex-husband, tall, handsome, strong, intelligent, ambitious. Father may have been a Nazi doctor. He’s the head of research at DEP. Wanted to start a family with RJ, while RJ wanted to continue her career. He altered her contraception pills to increase her sexdrive and fertility, but then she was shot. Then she changed. They divorced after she recovered when she grew strong enough to easily overpower him, and sleeping with her grew painful.

But she’s so beautiful now, and with her enhanced physiology, she would make the perfect mother to his children. He knows more about her condition than she does, if not the details of her actual changes. Her DNA is now a quadruple helix, and she has 20 more chromosomes than a human does, and her cellular structure is twice as dense. Schwartz doubts RJ can even breed with humans anymore. DEP wants to study her to replicate the super soldier serum. Schwartz still wants to breed with her, and if he has to change as she has, so be it. He just needs to figure it out.

Details
-RJ is still adjusting to her changes. More than merely gorgeous, seems like she gets every dudebro hitting on her. So strong, she easily forgets she’s more than twice as heavy as she used to be. Has to use a Dremel tool to trim her nails and something stronger than scissors to cut her hair. And eats more than twice as much as she used to, and holy crap dog whistles suck and she can hear what people two apartments away are doing and she can smell the pheromones people emit and can even be triggered by them, and… is she even human anymore?

-RJ partnered with Sean Holt on the police force for a year as his senior detective. She’s met his family, and Sean’s father was her Captain when she was still in blues. Feels guilt that she survived and he didn’t.

-RJ isn’t actually human anymore. The drug lab wasn’t making meth or crack, but was trying to make a super soldier serum using alien genetic material. They hadn’t been successful, but the interaction with the altered birth control pills did cause a metamorphosis on RJ. The aliens are actually exiles from pre-history Earth, and they may have actually seeded their genetic material purposefully, to have soldiers already on Earth, with loyalty and control protocols programmed into their DNA.

-RJ may have lost her Shield, but that doesn’t mean she can just sit back and do nothing. She worries about meeting out Justice not necessarily, or even rarely, being Lawful. She hates dirty cops, but wonders if she essentially is one, now.

Spoiler

Hero
Edge: 16
Health: 9
Resolve: 1
Hero Points: 75/75

Abilities (34HP)
Agility 8d
Intellect 2d
Might 9d
Perception 8d
Toughness 9d
Willpower 6d

Talents (17)
Academics 1d
Charm 4d
Command 4d
Covert 5d
Investigation 5d
Medicine 1d
Professional 1d
Science 1d
Streetwise 5d
Survival 1d
Technology 1d
Vehicles 1d

Powers (23HP)
-Innate
Armor 9d
Density (Constant) 1d
Hard to Kill
Leaping 5d (Base)
Regeneration
Running 6d
Super Senses (Enhanced Hearing, Telescopic Vision, Tracking Scent, Ultravision)
Swimming (Lungs) 4d

-Trained
Expertise (Vehicles: Cars & Motorcycles) 3d
Expertise (Professional: Police Officer) 5d
Specialty
-Tank (You get a +1d bonus to Toughness rolls, Willpower rolls, and passive defense rolls. Additionally, you can spend 1 Resolve to have your 6s explode when making these rolls.)

-Detective (You get a +1d bonus to Investigation rolls and Streetwise rolls. Additionally, you can spend 1 Resolve to have your 6s explode when making these rolls.

Perks (1HP)
Contacts (Police)

Equipment
Pistol (Sig Sauer P320)
Extendable Baton
Car, Sedan (an old Camry)
Motorcycle (Triumph Street Twin)

Surveillance Equipment
Smartphone
Lockpicks/Lockpick gun
Handcuffs
Zip Ties
Crowbar

Police Scanner
Tracer Bugs
Wiretap

Flaws
Creepy (Inherently predatory)
Enemy (Doctor Fredrick Schwartz/DEP)
Unusual Looks (Incredibly attractive, physical perfection and potent animal magnetism)
Probably some others to a lesser degree that don’t quite qualify.

Motivation
Justice

Edited March 30 by Asarasa

Exile_Jeane · March 27

Second City Blues

“Yeah, don't be fooled by their colorful feathers. Birds are basically still dinosaurs who would eat you given the chance. Kind of like this city.”

Cassandra “Odette” Chandler

Fluff

Spoiler

Appearance: Red-haired and brown-eyed, Cassandra has a 5'8 dancer's toned physique earned through countless hours of practice. Outside of a dance studio or a stage, she dresses down to cope with the ravages of Chicago weather, oft lost in the music pumping through a much-loved set of headphones. In her newly-minted super suit, she's a white-armored wraith moving through combat like a graceful, airborne battering ram.

Personality: Very much a theater kid at hard, Cassandra has big dreams that she very much intends to make real through hard work and relentless self-criticism. She tries not to take over outside her specific spheres of expertise, and despite the healthy helping of power she's been gifted by a fluke of fate, super heroing is not one those, not yet anyway, the fact she can bench press a car still working through her head. Also, birds are evil little murderers.

History: Born and raised to an upper-middle class family, Cassandra is the eldest of two children. She's been hip deep in the ballet world nearly since she could walk, in love with the art and rush of performing before an audience, the sheer crazy bustle of theater culture that others see only the very tip of on opening night. It was very much her niche, her way of competing for attention with her brother Christopher's academic excellence and survive the pressure cooker of middle and high school.

Cassandra, Cassie to her friends, almost managed use to insulate herself from the malaise of post-Event Chicago training and preparing for her Julliard audition, missing the cut by a hair to great frustration despite glowing recommendations from her dance instructors.

At least her back up school, University of Chicago, accepted her into the Theatre and Performance Studies major, a way to build up her resume for acceptance into one of the more famous dance companies she had her eyes on, the big stages she wanted a slice of. Little did she know that a family hairloom in the form of an ivory swan necklace was a ticking bomb of otherworldliness around her neck, the old relic rebuilding aetheric charge ever since the Event.

In her 3rd year of college at 21 years of age, that bomb went off after she took a late night tumble over a railing. Instead of landing on her head and possibly breaking her neck, the necklace burst with light and infused it's magical gifts into her. Enhanced physicality. Communion with birds. Flight. The spectral wings of that last gift blooming from her back held her inches from the cold concrete in stark realization of what happened. Another stage to excel on and, perhaps perhaps, make her native city a little brighter for the next year and half before she moved out into wider pastures.

It took only one late night flight to also realize her gifts did not include an immunity to the side effects of pollution or thinning air or Michigan winters. No, solving that problem required a visit to a sometime tutor, Gwen Jenner, and revealing her gifts and her plans for heroism to the STEM student. To Cassandra's surprise, the other student agreed to help for no more than the cost of materials. Protective suit in hand, she started going out at night, becoming the South Side's angelic cryptid hero.

When Gwen had her own empowering accident, Cassandra was happy to have her Edna Mode become a super-powered partner, the realities of solo fighting, avian support not-withstanding, wearing down on her.

Finding someone with a lead into her swan necklace would be the next project then, everything else allowing...

Crunch

Spoiler

Abilities: Agility 6, Intellect 3, Might 7, Perception 5, Toughness 6, Willpower 4 (25)

Talents: Academics 3, Charm 5, Command 3, Covert 3, Investigate 3, Medicine 2, Professional 3, Science 3, Streetwise 2, Survival 3, Technology 2, Vehicles 2 (20)

Powers (29)

*Little Miss Perfect (Evasion (Magic) (4)

*Bird on a Wire (Flight (Magic) (8)

*Cue the Chorus (Animal Control 5, Birds Only) (Magic) (3)

*Quoth the Raven (Animal Empathy, Speech, Limited: Birds Only) (Magic) (2)

*Dressed for the Part (Immunity 2, Item, Environmental/Life Support) (Tech) (5)

*Waiting in the Wings (Lightning Reflexes) (Trained) (3)

*Song in your Heart (Expertise 4, Intellect: Musicals) (Trained) (2)

*Grace Through the Ages (Expertise 4, Intellect: History of Dance) (Trained) (2)

*Beware the Pretty Ones (Specialties: Face/Striker) (Trained) (0)

Perks: Contacts (Theater Community) (1)

Flaws: Secret Identity, Obligation (Student)

Edge: 16 Health: 5 Resolve: 2 Banked Points: 0

Supersuit by Gwen Jenner

Spoiler

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