Spoiler
This is the basic layout I'll use for NPC character files. You don't need to include all this information for your NPCs if you don't want to. I'll be filling in any blanks with stuff that makes sense, though, so include as much as you can.
Name:
DOB:
Place of Birth:
Place of Residence:
Height:
Build:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Description: This will include the information not outlined above. That information is there for quick reference if need be, while this will be the more detailed stuff. Like a facial description, scars, tattoos, and other distinguishing characteristics.
Skills, Powers, and/or Resources:
Personality:
Biography:

SpoilerBorn to a single mother in upstate New York after an unremarkable night spent with a mysterious stranger, Fionola was raised on the outskirts of a world that was falling apart. As the MegaCorps grew, the idyllic forested horizons of her childhood were replaced by a distant landscape of of concrete and steel. The small township of Minerva grew more and more reclusive as the banks of the Hudson to the south grew more and more dominated by clashes between pirates and MegaCorp police patrol boats. Soon enough, the township found itself voting to move further into the forest to avoid trouble all together.

Were children allowed a vote, Fionola would have been terribly against such a course of action. Ignoring the world doesn't make it go away, she would have said, and if there are people out there who need help, it's everyone's duty to help them. Unfortunately, she was only eight, and the vote was near unanimous anyhow.

Fionola and her mother fought over the matter for years, until finally, after a heated argument, the younger MacEachthighearna managed to remind her mother of why she'd come to the States in the first place. It didn't matter if it was dangerous; living itself was dangerous, and a little more danger was necessary to live a life worth living. Her mother dusted off her old contact list, and managed to get Fionola a room with an old friend. The two would separate - Minerva still needed a doctor, after all - but fifteen year old Fionola would go off to the big city and see what work life would give her.

What surprised her most about city life wasn't the totalitarian nature of it, or the disgustingly wide class divide - she'd expected all of that, and she knew it was far out of her power to fix that sort of thing. No, what struck her was the absolutely unnecessary nature of some of the suffering. The corps had absolute power, but people would never get answers about what had happened to their loved ones who were stolen into the night. They would be left hurting over those questions for all their lives, unless someone helped them out.

Fionola had found her calling. She would be a detective. She'd find answers where no one else could. She might not be able to take down the corps, but she could lessen the pain their inhuman system perpetuated upon others - even if it was just a little bit.

Spoiler
Name: Slaine MacEachthighearna
DOB: 05/17/1997
Place of Birth: Mordun, Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, United Kingdom
Place of Residence: Minerva, New York, USA.
Height: 6'3".
Build: Somewhat pear-shaped.
Hair Color: Redheaded.
Eye Color: Blue
Description: Warm voice; somewhat round faced compared to her daughter, and with gentler eyes, but otherwise looks similar. Cool, calm (sounding) voice with a thick Scots Gaelic accent.
Skills, Powers, and/or Resources: Doctor; knows her way around a fight.
Personality: Hotheaded, more than happy to throw fists in a fight. Still generally sweet, and ultimately a caring and kind person.
Biography: Born to a small township of Highlander Scots living out in the Hebrides islands, Slaine's people never stopped resisting the English. The town itself, with a population of about 300, is deeply nestled in the heights of the mountains, and is unincorporated into the United Kingdom itself. In spite of this, they've managed to stay up to date on technology by pirating television and wifi from other settlements on the island and nearby islands.

Slaine's early life was happy. She lived peacefully with her parents and her grandmother. Her father was the town's local doctor/healer, and he trained her in his craft. Her grandmother told her tall tales from her youth on, tales about how she was once a wizard, tales of their ancestors fighting supernatural creatures, tales of the creatures that waited in the dark. She only ever thought of these stories of faerie tales, and put them behind her as she she grew. After the Angelic Crisis of 2020, Slaine could ignore the suffering in the world no longer. After much blustering, she left her family behind, headed to America, and started putting her doctoring skills to use in the thoroughly devastated Great Bay City. All went well for a few years, but when she got pregnant after a brief, unexciting encounter with a mysterious man named Nick Urias, she was forced to reevaluate her priorities. Things were getting increasingly worrisome within the city, and even with the efforts of the city's heroes - most notably Watchwoman and Archon (AKA Isidora Cruz) - things were still getting progressively worse. To provide a better life for her daughter, she left the cities and moved to the community of Minerva, New York. She still lives there today, even though her daughter has returned to the city.

Spoiler
Name: Amalia Giugovaz
DOB: 3/28/2022
Place of Birth: Great Bay City, RI, USA.
Place of Residence: Great Bay City, RI, USA.
Height: 5'6".
Build: Athletic.
Hair Color: Black.
Eye Color: Brown.
Description: Hard features. Olive skin. Eyebrows on fuckin' point.
Skills, Powers, and/or Resources: She's a detective, and a damn good one. Good with a gun, intelligent, and has whatever resources the department affords her.
Personality: A real hardass with a strong sense of justice. Has a rigid sense of right and wrong. Usually falls on the side of the law, but isn't heartless, and has a soft spot for kids.
Biography: Born after the many crises that devastated Great Bay City, Amalia's formative years were spent in the ruined shell of the district once known as the Sirloin. Already the poorest district of the city, the Sirloin found itself destroyed by super-phenomena more than almost any other region in the USA, surpassed only by the flooded ruins of West Texas. It was immolated by a daemonic terrorist known as the Burning Butcher three times, the center of conflicts between local heroes and the fascist terrorist group STORM, blown up by the Aliens who invaded in 2016, torn apart by robots during the AI invasion of 2018, and shredded to bits by the Angelic Incident of 2020.

Growing up in this environment taught Amalia that there was a thin line between peace and conflict. The whole of the world rested on the head of a pin, and the only way to preserve it was through order. She bought in whole-sale to the MegaCorps line that they were doing what was necessary. She saw the benefits. She was one of the lucky few whose family got to stay in their apartment when the government had it rebuilt. Unlike so many of the children of Great Bay, she got to go to school, got to have dreams. She wanted to become a detective - someone who would make sure no one got away the way the butcher did, someone who kept the city safe, someone who stopped chaos from spilling over once again and destroying the city she so dearly loved.

Rarest of all, she got her dreams. Now she's a detective, and she often finds herself assigned to the same cases Finn is hired onto. Amalia's not (openly) fond of the PI, and very much would like to get her off her ass. Still, there's some warmth there - much as she wants Finn off her cases, she can't deny the scot's effectiveness, nor can she help but find her quest for truth utterly unrelatable.

Spoiler
Taking liberties because it’s the cyberpunk future and also I don’t wanna map out that entire river. :p

Much of West Virginia outside the capital is overgrown, and in fact it’s suspicious to find a perfectly clear and somewhat maintained road because that leads one to believe they’re in road bandit country. It’s a bit Mad Maxish over there, but in forests and mountains instead of unending outback.

The roads may be a consistent danger, but the rivers are a more mixed bag, seeing the traffic of both bandit types and the folk who have either been there or found it a good spot to escape the cities. The Bluestone and Summersville lakes in particular are hubs of off-grid activity in the southern watersheds. Places to meet, get outside news, trade goods, get mail and send it out in an age without infrastructure outside of the capital of most landlocked states. Small settlements are built onto the docks, but most business gets done boat-to-boat. Lawless, but people don’t tend to have a tolerance for Bullshit Pulled, so bandit activity is at a minimum. After all, anyone with a lick of sense in Bluestone is packing.

Most of these people don’t live primarily in the lakes however, and live in settlements built in some proximity to the feeder rivers. The Fort is no exception, and it should be noted that banditry has had a rough time on the Greenbriar (due to them), and that the river is fairly peaceful these days.



The fort itself is built around an artificial lake pulled away from the river. Black hatched boxes on the entrance and exit turn the force from the water flow into energy, which powers the place. Red boxes and line between them is water purification/sewage exit, and there is an underground cistern to keep the clean water in. Green boxes are watchtowers, usually only the front two and one of the back ones are manned, but the rest are ready when times are uncertain. Red striped sections are where people do work which requires a proper shop, and where things for the community may be stored, that sort of thing. There’s also a library somewhere in there because book collecting’s been pretty popular. Black lines along the waterways are foot bridges, tall, the sides plated in sheet metal. Tall enough so that someone on a small raft could crouch and pass under, but a hindrance for a sailboat or anything large. Purple boxes are houses, most of which have a regular floor and a cellar. Each section has a common area in the center. Maria, Claire, Adrasteia, and Smith (used to be the Doctor lived there, until he moved in with Claire) live in the inhabited section up beside the lake, as that’s where they started this place. Everything else has just sort of been built up. The one in the middle left section is a barn with a fenced off area where chickens are kept. East of that is farmland, and then wilderness. There’s also a one lane road toward the south where they can get vehicles out onto a... not exactly a main road, but into the road system in general. Not something they do much anymore. Tall lights in the center of every section which can be individually turned on/off or remotely via a switch in Claire's home. There's also a graveyard to the north, where several pets, a couple old folk, and a couple courageous young folk are buried.

One can expect to find some dogs running around, often along with kiddos, people out and about, doing repairs, tending the farmland, teaching kids or gabbing out by the library, cleaning out the guns... It’s a lot less severe than the name makes it sound. Work gets done and gets done pretty well, but the air's pleasant. Everyone knows everyone, and only the youngest were born there, so there's an understanding for weary travelers.

As for leadership. Claire is the defacto leader of the place, and for most things practical is the person to look to. If you're concerned about distressing news about bandits you heard at the Bluestone Bazaar, or you think you've spotted some weird tracks at the edge of the farm, you bring it to her. Maria and John do a lot of organizing though, and join command whenever needed, and are looked to for a more delicate approach or community organization. If you're having a dispute with your neighbor or you want to hold a gathering or even just want to set a date to get everyone to finish harvesting the tomatoes, they're the ones to go to. A tag team of community upkeep.

Spoiler
Powers:
Water control - She can’t control it to the fine degree Catalina can, but she can make it rain, as long as water is actually present or in the air anyway, feel its presence in range, and she can move around a whole lot of the stuff. Height of her power: the signature 50 foot water ghoul.
Immortality - She just doesn’t age. No old people brittle bones here. Possibly the only reason the stress hasn’t killed her.
Dream communication - When she sleeps, she can enter the dreams of anyone else who’s sleeping. On earth anyway. Can only reach so far, even with 32 years of stretching that. That’s still a lot of people to sift through though, so she kind of needs to have an idea of where to search, and who the search is for. People she’s most familiar with seem easier to find.
God Voice - Last of the Basic Earth God Perks. They can talk like this which, for them, means it’s just a far louder, kind of weird ethereal voice. If you’re not a big stupid poser, it’s mostly just pretty sweet for yelling real far and getting people’s attention. Sometimes just for being dramatic. :3c

Skills:
Weapon training - Basic weapons training (sword/shield/spear/hammer/bow/atlatl) And PHD in knife fights (daggers), of some rust.
Hand to hand training - Kickboxing, weird old Aztec shit, Krav Maga, wrestling moves, not a ton from any of them but enough bits and pieces that she can usually hold her own. Rustier.
Could possibly keep an already flying hovercraft from nosediving, probably.

Resources:
Armor - Forged by dwarves at Ragnarok. Collecting dust (which she is very happy about tbh.)
Home - In the middle of a settlement containing a couple of the most competent women she knows, which is off the grid, so suck on that, government, corporations, anti-supernatural groups, and bandits, just try and take that from her. ((I’m excited for the part where they do))
Weapons - A ridiculous amount of outdated ones (mostly knives) including an 8 foot long sword she CANNOT wield.
A surfboard - You know what the fuck is going on.

Spoiler
Intro/Biker Intrigue:
Maria- she had an aight childhood. She didn’t have any friends because she was like Fucking Weird but that didn’t bother her, she discovered an interest in community organizing and decided to go to school for politics, and whilst finishing up her degree abroad, picked up a hobby. Homicide. You know, just girl stuff, and she found herself spoiled for choice as to targets, generally going with ‘people who think jumping little ladies in alleys at night is ok’. It was kinda rad! Back in those days she had a strong sense of home and family and a complex theory on morality as it applied to human lives which justified her actions and made living and stuff kinda awesome for her. Took the hobby home, and for a couple years just lived it up as a poorly paid intern at City Hall, living with her sister, killing dudes sometimes, life was great! Until Spring of 2017 anyway.

She came home one day, WOAH, there was a big blue dude in the room. He was like “Haha hey kid, I’m your dad!” And she was like “You’re not my dad get out of my apartment!” But he was totally her dad, the god Tlaloc, and he drowned her a little gave her the potential to have magic powers and a booklet that explained the rest. The gist? Specific sacrifice gives specific gods souls, which will give you specifc powers.

Cue: Maria doing that a bunch. To throw a lot of things together not necessarily in order: She killed the most annoying person on earth! Blackmailed her jackass boss and got to be city planner which honestly she did baller work with! Obtained the unofficial world record for ‘amount of times drowned’! Wrestled for fun and dough on Saturdays! Started learning how to actually fight and stuff! Which was all pretty excellent, uuuuuuntil her boyfriend got targeted by??? Someone??? And put in the hospital. And then there was like a fake doc who tried to poison the IV? It was a mess, she had to team up with the Skulls (the gang he was a part of) to try and keep him from dying, turned out it was an inside job, there was some light torture and cannibalism, and at the end of the day everybody cheered and was alive (John even got to lead his Boys after that) and everything was great- except that she got home and of COURSE she had to tell her sister, stuff was ramping up!! ... Rosa was a lot more upset than she thought she’d be. It was even more of a mess, Rosa left her, what was she going to do?!

My Big Fat Greek Assassination/The Trouble with Demigods:
She was going to become a superhero, that was what. She was going to take these terrible powers and do something GOOD with them, so that Rosa could ever stand to look at her again (and yeah maybe a LITTLE bit just... just because... ehh... maybe she wasn’t exactly doing great stuff before...). She was going to GO TO MOUNT OLYMPUS, SEEK OUT THE GODDESS OF WISDOM, AND OBTAIN INFORMATION TO SLAY A GREAT BEAST THAT PLAGUED HER PEOPLE. (Which was Florida Man, spoiler, they never actually got dealt with so have fun with that Floridian players ;p)

Dad was supportive. Athena was cool. Sent her on a quest that introduced her to a bunch of jerks, gave her her new best friend (Adrasteia, her daughter), and put her at odds with Ares whoops who knew. In return for the end of a vicious warlord in Aleppo, Athena gave her the wisdom she sought, and also fighting lessons for a long time. She was a patron of heroes after all. (That was all very exciting for a young Demigod trying to pull herself out of Pretty Explicit Evil.)

Upon arriving back home, Maria was greeted by KNIGHT. They’d been watching her for a while, and had sort of been on the fence about her for obvious reasons but it was a good time to introduce themselves because hey your sister’s been kidnapped by your semi-divine cousin you met at the beginning of this. Thanks for the tip, Knight. She killed a lot of people, ate a dude, had a really cool fight for Rosa’s life, John came in the clutch by completely ignoring her plea for him to not come help, she almost Freaking Died but he DOUBLE killed it by bringing a dude for her to sacrifice for health, everyone goes home and cries and talks about how they’re committing to this not being so Fucked Up thing anymore, Rosa moves back in, everything’s actually looking pretty great for once.

The Punisher Part Two/Dad's Depression and Other Things to Fight For:
Not long afterward, on an unassuming workday, Maria saw an interesting headline. Gangland Massacre, Six Skulls Found Dead or someshit, anyway she freaks out, and finds out John is fine but someone’s going around absolutely DESTROYING the criminal underworld of Miami. Which... Honestly Maria kinda murdered.... All of the mafia... and all the rival biker gang... so it’s not like she was the MOST upset but it wasn’t the BEST idea and also her boyfriend was one of those goons so like, SOMEONE had to put a stop to that. Since she was doing her whole ‘I’m not gonna kill people who don’t deserve it’ thing and she didn’t really have time to prepare, she got her ass beat, and you can read about the rest of that in the “Claire Lawson” part of the friends section. Dropped her back off and let her hobble back to John and Adrasteia, and shit was... Kinda tense for a while? Maria was certain she couldn’t stop Claire in a fight, and Claire had wronged her and people she loved, but she was also sympathetic, and wanted her to be able to just... stop living like that. Being caught in the middle of two people who wanna kill each other kinda sucks though. Anyway, rough shit aside, in a way it was useful. John had been wanting to turn the Skulls into a more legitimate thing for a while now, and this was a good time to do it.

On another side of things- hey! We haven’t talked about Tlaloc in a hot minute. He’s been in the background being weird and lazy and callous. As Maria re-evaluated herself and what she was willing to do and put up with, she came to a point of “Hey, if we’re gonna be family and you’re not just gonna be some weird guy I do soul business with, I take that very seriously, and you’ve gotta act like it.” Which set them developing a better relationship, learning about each other, Tlaloc doing his part to guide and help her, Maria doing hers to watch out for his emotional health and get him to go out more. This kind of culminated later, Maria bringing him out on the raid of a ganglord’s hideout with Claire. There Maria very nearly died, her father going into a completely unlike-him display of competency and anger, calling upon a colleague to accept an unorthodox sacrifice and save his daughter’s life. Later they have a talk, because that had been some emotional, serious stuff. Through him and a later conversation with Quetzalcoatl, Maria learned the political landscape of the Aztec pantheon. The summary of the summary: Tezcatlipoca was and continued to be a Huge Bastard that most folk took issue with but didn’t feel they could take down, had started and continued upholding the practice of sacrifice in the first place, and he’d personally wronged Tlaloc and his late first wife to such a degree that he’d fallen into the depression Maria’d found him in. Rough shit. And this all gets the cogs turning in her head. They made themselves a pact. Maria was going to kill Tezcatlipoca. She would end his reign of terror, get revenge for the wrongs he’d done, take his divinity, and give Tlaloc his soul. In return, Tlaloc was to help her prepare, and train himself that he could finish the job if she failed. And when she has ascended, the practice of sacrifice in the pantheon would be abolished. No more unnecessary blood, no more demigods like her shoved into situations that meant one life or another. Grand plans forged in top tier drama, dudes.

Maria Hates Playing Scion:
So that all happened and was good- remember the Ares thing? From two arcs ago? Yeah, that was still an issue apparently. Ares’ daughter’s soul was still in Tlalocan, and he very much wanted it back. What better way to take it than to have someone take the assailant herself to Tartarus to host a soul ransom and trade? Ugh. Turns out it was the..... cousin/boyfriend of the Aleppo warlord had signed up for the task, and... Have I said ‘it was a mess’ enough yet? Well it was still a mess. She had to kill a guy cuz she couldn’t trust him to be alive, delivered his body to his dang dad Hermes HERSELF befause the situation was so lame and it felt like the nice thing to do, and basically had a grumpy conversation with Ares, on Olympus because she had balls of steel, that went roughly like: “Hey, I had to kill your lackey and it was really lame, clearly I’m not gonna die like that, are you fucking done? Are you good yet?” And him grumbling and saying the extended equivalent of “fine whatever asshole.” And that was that.

Except it wasn’t but just read the “Hector” part of the acquaintances section it was fine.

Also around this time is when KNIGHT contacted her and offered her a contract-worker sort of thing, and she went out on a mission with them. They discovered a Hive (aliens, symbiotic bugs that take on hosts) scout ship and investigated, finding some interesting information on it... Looked like the Hive and Confederacy out in space were concerned about the other violating the DMZ around the solar system... Which led them right into:

BUG WAAAAAAAAAAAAR:
This wasn’t actually bugs it’s just what we called it OOC. The One Day War, See the codex and/or the first section of crisis in the original Masks thread for literally everything that went down. Her dad died while she was out. That sucked and was great drama for the whole family.

STORM SUCKS:
From here it gets a little fuzzy because I wasn’t documenting as well but hey less also happened. There was a one year timeskip of rebuilding, getting things in order, getting TOUGHER. Jackass boss was replaced by better boss, Rosa started going to college, John had managed to get the Skulls into semi-legitimacy, stuff was good. And then. STORM happened, and you can read about that in the codex. Attacked her and Rosa, and after a rescue by Agent Chen (her local KNIGHT contact) and Claire, everyone kinda scattered to the winds. Looked like STORM wasn’t interested in chasing her and losing men so long as she kept her head down. So for the time being, she did. Had people to keep safe, needed time to figure out how to take them down.

Biker Intrigue Two: Electric Boogaloo/No We Weren’t Done With STORM:
God- John- THE DAMSEL, he runs into issues AGAIN when for the SECOND TIME, he gets targeted and put in the hospital. There’s crying, there’s snipers firing into hospital windows, there’s Claire dressed up as a nurse having a rad hospital fight with an assassin (because she likes Maria THAT MUCH for some reason), the detective on the hunt for the Aztec Killer finally got her in a room for all of three seconds (kudos to you, Detective Frank Miller, you were on a doozy), this one had it all. End of the day, John rigged the guy’s bike to explode on him, and once again, it was a fucking inside job. Fool me twice, you know? John spent some time off screen, and quit the gang life for good. Aaaaaafter taking care of the punks that wanted him done in.

STORM wasn’t done yet though. And neither was Claire, which didn’t turn out well for her. Maria opened the door one night to find Claire’s perfect wonderful beautiful loyal smart Good Boy (Duke) pawing at her door, in distress! He led her back to a bloodied cave a bit out from Claire’s (destroyed) home, containing her near-dead body. With some help from her sister, she brought her back home to hide from STORM and heal up. Lots of “No Maria...... you and Rosa will only be in danger if I stay here.... let me go be a stupid loner.........” and “Claire Jesus Christ just let me take the bullets out of you. Have some fucking lasagna. Don’t do surgery on yourself.” (Spoiler: She did surgery on herself. :/) During the healing process, it appeared that STORM had figured out Claire was hiding there, and had surrounded the place, intending to end it there. Maria, with the biggest balls and the most unreasonably high Charisma score... opened the door, and invited a couple of them inside. To talk. Which they were kind of weirded out by, but hey- it worked! They made a deal. If neither party took shots at the other, they’d be alright, but things would escalate significantly if they did, and the ladies both lied out their asses and said that was done. Cool... PSYCHE.

Apotheosis, The Best Bad Decision:
Yeah no Athena came up to her a while later and was like “hey wanna help us destroy a STORM base” and Maria thought ‘oh if she’s asking then she must be confident I can keep my identity hidden and do this safely’ which was very stupid, but she was down. She, Petra, Hector, and Athena teamed up to just decimate the STORM base in Orlando, and Maria realized... She hadn’t been so full of power since the war. She’d spent the past year preparing for a goal so important to her, she was getting older and wouldn’t be at her peak forever, and due to her refusal to kill most folk and the lack of organized criminal activity in Miami... She never had the magic to even think about it. But with enough STORM souls under her belt, it seemed like time. Athena went to get Adrasteia ready (turned out she was also planning on taking a god down, and they’d made a pact to do it at the same time so as to not hurt the other’s chances). And while she did, Maria (with help from John), took out another STORM base. Partly because “more power good,” partly because driving STORM as far away from her home as possible seemed like a good idea. The past year or so had her doing a lot of prep work, and the night looked a little something like such. A pact with her father and the appropriate souls brought the tide to her call. Her trip to the second STORM base and the deal with Tez’s rival brought flame to command. And after a plane ride, on the hike to his cave, she razed the ground, tribute to Quetzalcoatl, a man with whom she had an understanding. Winds now at her back, she finished the climb, and look I’m not gonna write about the fight but it was cool as shit, dudes. Lord of Smoke, darkness n wind shit, versus the goddamn Avatar, it was rad. In the end, Maria barely managed to best him, but she did, and her claim on his soul renewed her.

So like, she was a goddess now, and there was a whole lot of hoo haw about what that meant in a pantheon without strict roles and what that meant in the modern world, but for then? It was super cool. She drove STORM out of Sourhern Florida! She got revenge for her father and so many old loved people lost, and sacrifice was just over. Lots of work to do sorting out all the dead in her realm, seeing who needed and wanted to go where. She told her family, she played around with new powers (gods used to be... too much.) and stuff was great!

If you actually read this far, you know damn well stuff doesn’t ever STAY great.

Ready for the next big mess? Cool, of course you didn’t actually drive STORM out, Maria. Not too long afterward she found a letter addressed to her basically saying “haha you fuckin THOUGHT you could pull that on us, you’re a liar and our deal is off, if you bring us the heads of all these people then we’ll give you your sister back you’ll NEVER find her.” List of heads included a lot of player characters, a lot of top tier fuckers she wouldn’t have a chance with, and unbeknownst to them an avatar of ATHENA, so like, that wasn’t happening. A panic attack later, it’s plan time. Rough events: lots of interrogating STORM souls in her afterlife (death god PERKS), gathering pals who also hated STORM (easy work), lots of shape shifting in order to sneak into a STORM prison out in the Rockies (gods used to be able to shape shift to a degree they used to be WAY TOO MUCH DUDES), having her family covertly get to safe places to hide cuz shit was gonna be real for a while, and then basically a REAL shapeshifter who got brought on for it killed most of the dudes inside and there was a big battle to get everyone OUT. Lots of hugs and tears. They found Beville in there, chained up to a ridiculous degree, I’m still afraid of him. But whatever, only minor injuries, they get out and find a place to figure out how to get everyone back to a safe place, aaaaaaaand turns out her mom (who was a secret assassin back in the day, so she trusted her, say it with me kids, it was a mess) died. Her leaving town with the two youngest Maldonado’s was intercepted, she was killed, Martín was paralyzed, Patricia’s legs got plasma’d off, and they were in a Miami hospital. Maria was given a choice, to bring herself out freely for execution, or get to watch the newscast about their death. It was a rough decision, and ultimately, she went. Let them video the damn thing, she didn’t care. She let them put a bullet in her head, so her sister could go home freely, and her family could be together.

It was a fucking ruse, and STORM fell for her shit AGAIN. Rough decision indeed, between attempting to dupe them or not. In the end, she knew her family wasn’t going to be safer if she was dead, just poorer defended. So, she sent an avatar to die, praying they wouldn’t be able to tell her soul wasn’t in that body. Worked out. Rosa got to take the kids home, get custody, Athena landed her a decent job that let her kind of deal with everything. For a month on earth, there was no sign of Maria. But for 7 months in her realm, she hid. Not good for mental health, very good for letting STORM’s hackles settle. But, eventually, it was time to start preparing again. She found her friends who had gone into hiding, had a chat with her family (disguised as her father, complicated plotting ok), and started going, disguised, around the country basically setting up divine teleportation pads (another god perk that got taken out jfc they used to be so much).

On the way, she had a nice run-in with a time traveler/timeline cop on vacation. They had a nice chat. She saw some shit that made her cry and also some other stuff that made her think about her feelings and relationships. I won’t get into it but that experience really stuck with her and made her think about shit and anyway Journeyin’ Joe is the best short-lived NPC dudes. A hero. A spot of something NICE amid the MESS that is this long-ass summary.

While on this trip she also discovered something alarming. Gabriel Matrose, a colleague she’d deeply respected and had wanted to collaborate with more before she. Uhh. Well before he REASONABLY stopped wanting to hang out, he’d been murdered. That didn’t sit well, especially in light of the circumstances, and she teleported to his secret base to find it was being raided. Teaming up with Her Favorite Greeks, they helped the scientists fight their way out and escape. Shortly after, she teleported to Max Volts’ place. A while back, she Adrasteia and Gabe busted him out of prison for STORM related horsepoop, and he was working for Gabe and thus may have had his location leaked. They packed up shop and started moving on out, when the police arrived. In an attempt to keep a dangerous portal machine out of STORM hands, they decided to blow it up in their escape, and uhh. That uhh. That made for.

The AI Invasion:
Which was totally their fucking fault. Yikes. Everyone teamed up, and like, fought robots at the pentagon, and then fought eldrich abominations in a sunken city under Rainwalk, YEESH. Final battle with the AI was kind of spooky and Maria’s not convinced it’s Actually Gone but whatever. Aftermath was more death, but not for her personally, and also new friends made. Doctor Emily Hartmann was the best friend ever and fixed her siblings. Thanks doc. You’re the best doc. I owe you a life debt doc.

Aftermath:
Sooooo there was an issue sitting around for a while that went unaddressed. At one point Maria attempted to get information on Tezcatlipoca’s current activated kids to see if any of them were trustworthy in case of a disaster, and to see if any needed to be dealt with. The answer was no to the former, but as for the latter, well. One of them. Was ten. Ten years old. Through more poking around we find out he’s been orphaned for some time, he was activated at five, and was both a tiny assassin and Tez’s contingency plan. Basically got a ‘hey if I die here’s who killed me, do something about it.’ Which is obviously a huge issue. She eventually cuts a deal with this kid. Hey. If you promise to stay away from my loved ones in the attempt, and don’t pull bullshit on me, then I don’t have to try and murder you right now. In turn, I’ll take care of you, make sure no harm comes to you, and get you ready so that when you’re old enough you can have a fair shot. We good?

It was good. So, with a new identity ol President Bald Eagle afforded her, she adopted this kid and just lived. For two years. Taught him how to read. Made sure he was eating and tried to get him into kid stuff and sports and like, good constructive shit, to only marginal success. One night he went missing, her door broken down, neighbors informing her some dudes in robes came and took the kid. They’d left a note telling her to come to some dockhouse in the night, lest the kid get it. And. She. Did. Armed, armored, ready for whatever. Of course it was a huge setup. An old Maya god seeking revenge for wrongs done to his by the Aztecs found an interesting, exploitable situation. Mateo, the kid, was ordered to take her life, and for her to allow it. One or both of them could die there. Maria attempted to get the kid closer to shield him so they could get out, but. She. Promised. She swore to him she’d let no harm come to him. And when he didn’t, or wouldn’t, take the hint, she got tranqued. When she was aware of anything again, her soul was in the afterlife she spent so long making... nice. She’d wait. This was fine. She could guide this kid from death, she was ready, damn it she’d make a good person of this boy yet... only she didn’t have the chance, because some time later, she was in Tlalocan.

Her father plopped her soul down in a nice little spot, and she needed a little time to process, so he left. And never came back. She only got second hand information at this point, from Chalchi, the true hero. Tlaloc hadn’t taken this well. He’d tricked Mateo into his own death at the hands of her sister, the people who orchestrated it had been dealt with, and he was now on a quest to flush out and kill all remaining children of Tez. Wasn’t himself, wouldn’t listen to reason, wouldn’t listen to Chalchi, and after all this, she was done, and leaving him. Maria wished her well. And couldn’t wait for him to stop being a coward and see her, to get the chewing out he surely knew was coming. Three weeks passed in this way, and then the skies above Tlalocan started to crack and open.

Ragnarok, Armageddon, The Visitation.
Suddenly she, along with everyone else in the realm and whatever had been real, were dumped onto a plateau in central Mexico. The magic holding the realms together had come undone. She watched as Tezcatlipoca died a second time, and watched Mateo killed in turn. And then she got to her father, and split his lip. A monster that wouldn’t listen then, either. Wasn’t time for the hell she wanted to give him though, the dead trapped in godly realms would only be up again until this was over. She grabbed some shit and started making her way out, eventually making her way to Mt Kilimanjaro with the Bald Eagles and her siblings. There, Lex instigated a wrestling match, and a lot of good heys and hugs were had, and then it was up to everyone to fight the onslaught of undead armies and figures from Ragnarok and also Angels while the old gods attempted to undo the wild broken spell that put the realms in place. It sucked, dudes.

Maria found herself teaming up with The Raven, fighting off fire giants. Surtr, the biggest bastard of them all, nearly toasted their asses, when her father rode in on one gnarly wave. Cool as hell, did some damage, until he was swatted out of the air like a fly and went crashing (crunch) into the ground. She ran to her father as Lex joined the fight. He was. Oof. He was fucked up, my guys. On death’s door, he apologized, told her he loved her and their family, and told her to kill him. Something she hadn’t considered. In one of the nastier tear-jerkers we got to write, Maria swore vengeance on Surtr, to fulfill what he’d asked of her, and that someday, she would find him again. And then, of course, took his life, and his divinity, which, as divinity had before, renewed her. New body. New life. Power enough to make good on her promises. She rejoined the heroes, and combined, they defeated Surtr. As he hit the ground, the Visitation began.

It was sad and it was sweet. This bitch had a lot of baggage relating to dead people. She cried. I cried. Fuck. She came out of that one feeling... not great, but a little more prepared to handle the future, a little less willing to die at the drop of a hat. This god dude was... sketch, but they came off to her as kind of alright. See you in a million years, dude.

It ended, and everything was weird and rough and all, but honestly? Kinda hopeful. Particularly for the gaggle of fresh new gods with which she was familiar. A lot of the past felt resolved, the dead could stay in their graves and not in cycles of vengeance, it was kinda... their turn, to make good with the world. Cool shit. Everyone went to a Denny’s and got tipsy and Maria won 20 grand off a blasted Raven in a DDR competition. Good last crossover.

Eventually, everyone got to go home. Maria searched out Claire, who seemed... a little better, after all this. Her poor sister who really deserved a break from this crap. And John, about whom she’d made an important decision during the Visitation. She proposed.

Lots to think about. Where could they even live, both of them being who they were? What were they going to do with their lives, now that they finally found themselves out of the clutches of fear and revenge? It was going to be a lot of work ahead of them, but for once, it seemed like things would actually turn out alright.


To be continued in..... Masks 2....... Flight to Eagletime.............

Spoiler
Aight no need to buckle up, this one won’t be so bad as the other.

First off like, literally every Masks 1 character that was alive that she knew got a text a while after the Visitation with a picture of a wedding invite on it. No brawls unless in good fun and approved by bride/groom, masks optional but encouraged for non shape shifters. It was wild, thanks for paying for it Desmond, if anyone has Shenanigans they want to have happened with their character, throw ‘em at me dude I wanna know.

After the party of the century and a lot of sappy bullshit though, the Maldonado-Moritz’s needed to figure out what the hell they were going to be up to, because there was no way they could stay in Miami, there was probably going to be difficulty getting Maria to be a legal entity if they wanted to stay in a city, it wasn’t just sort of a crazy time. They decided they were going to travel for a bit, maybe check out some backwoods areas and find a place to settle for a while. She went to tell Claire and like, Claire... wanted to come too... Which was strange and a hard sell for John but she did! They found their way to West Virginia, and ended up finding a decent area to set up.

Bla until I stop feeling like ass
-they set up living area, work on making it habitable
-make the lake
-doc joins
-get a couple kayaks, few more people join
-stressful dual pregnancy
-more people join, start building Shit up
-wv starts going to shit, bandit problems
-kid two
-more buildup
-scary people show up when tino is 10, find Adrian in ruins of fleeing Menace
-Heightened clearing of river
-more people come to them
-shit, they’re here now.

Spoiler
Rosa Maldonado Mach - 55. The eldest of Maria’s younger siblings, and the closest (bond-wise) family she’s got. This woman’s been through a lot of crap, and deserves a break. Hard to be anything but hardworking and tired and scared and angry when your sister is kind of destroying your family and life and stuff, but Rosa’s often managed to be kind despite it. They don’t get to see each other much due to the unsafe nature of the roads and sheer distance between Oakland and the Fort, but they catch up in dreams. Married to. To. To. Chris Mach. Have fun with that.
Chris Mach - Solar Flare. Maria’s brother in law now, the best decision Cid and I ever made. The only possible way to make Lex HATE the extended Maldonado family any more than she did. They met at Maria’s wedding, and recognized Rosa later when she moved out west to be closer to Martín, and all subsequent hangouts were apparently pretty excellent. A super nice dude. Took the traditional sibling death threats (all three sets) in stride. As such, they don’t exactly talk much, but they’re on good terms.
Elena Alejandra Mach - Rosa/Chris's kid, 18, a little fireball. Quazi-homeschooled, a bright little shit with enthusiasm and drive unbefitting the gritty cyberpunk future. Rosa's mentioned she's been a bit weird lately, and they have to wonder if it's a weird hereditary thing from the old man.
Patricia Maldonado Bezos - Youngest sister, 50. Anti corporate mercenary turned caller-of-shots for spryer things. Works out of Miami. Somehow the last one there. Those Maldonado’s are crazy sons of guns.
Martín Maldonado Bezos - Youngest sibling and only brother. 48, out in Los Angeles living the dream, fighting the man via illegal street art. Which, actually, is a lot crazier than it used to be. Always higher stakes and greater works with that one. And getting it done in a world of security drones, increased city populations (and thus, eyes to see) and with fresh new mediums makes it all the more interesting.
And we all thought the Maldonado boys were the lame ones. He still doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with her, so they don’t talk much, but that’s... fine. Always exciting to catch up. He’s had an on and off thing with a partner in crime, apparently? For like 20 years? That’s cool. All Maria’s gotten out of him on that front is that their name is Sam, they write some baller poetry, and they kinda suck, apparently. He has a terrible uncle mustache.
Other Maldonado’s/Bezos’s - There’s also a small gaggle of her extended family living in Mexico City, but she also hasn’t spoken to them really since... Well, shortly after the Visitation. Checked to make sure they were ok, and then checked right out of their lives.
Catalina & Rafael - Aztec goddess of Mist and god of the Sun. Children of Tlaloc, Slayers of Mateo (via Maria via Tezcatlipoca) and Kinich Ahau. Twins, Maria’s half siblings, also fresh baby gods. Basically attained godhood by avenging her death. They’d heard of each other, but only finally got to meet on the way to Ragnarok, and hit it off pretty well. Like most of the other young gods, they’re often off adventuring, but visit from time to time to catch up, sip some moonshine, and see their niece and nephews.
Chalchiuhtlicue - Aztec goddess of water. Ex wife/sister of Tlaloc. A real sweet lady. They kept fair distance (mostly because Maria was worried about being some weird bastard of her husband’s just... running around her home...) until Maria’s mother died and she had to go into hiding. Then she earned her not-mom of the year award, and went on to win it again two years later when Maria died and Tlaloc was being a Huge Monster about things. Anyway, the kindness hasn’t been forgotten, and Chalchi is one of the more Welcome In Her Life people Maria knows.
John Moritz - Maria’s Big Dumb Biker Boyfriend Husband. 63. Once went by Phantom for a little heroics stint, but is mostly just a regular human guy who’s into Bikes and Books and can be very community oriented. Was once a member and then leader of a local chapter of a nationwide biker gang, the Skulls, but that really didn’t turn out well as you may have read.
He’s gotten heavier in his age, and now sports a bushy, grey beard. Wears a plain wedding band with a coyote head engraved in the inside.
And also he’s not the worst and he made that dang crazy journey out of vicious blood cycles with her and she loves him, I’m so tired of all the John roasts, I’m gay too you philistines I’m just as upset about that as you- BUT I’ll fight you all on it still.
Kate Moritz - John’s mom. OLD. A monster hunter. Monster hunting. That’s the family business, and she gives John a bunch of shit for not being into that. (Thus, why he moved so VERY FAR AWAY.) She’s a gruff grizzled old lady from Arizona who wouldn’t quit until her daughter (with chiming in from the son and the in-law) told her to “Knock it off mom, you’re 70, you aren’t going to come back with that werewolf, just let someone else do it.” Which she has finally obliged. Lives in some commune out in AZ with Caroline.
Caroline Moritz - John’s younger sister, ex-assassin. A very fun gal who, to her mother’s disappointment, was also disinterested in the family business. She’s got a lovely wife and a gaggle of Moritz-Foster’s out in a commune in AZ.
Valentín “Tino” Moritz Maldonado - 23, Maria and John's first son who she thinks is weird because she was VERY anxious during the pregnancy. Looks more like his dad, and just as tall. Definitely more docile than the others, and more inclined to quiet textile work than, erm, the pushback of bandits. Good thing mama keeps the river clear. He now lives in settlement up north with his wife and their family. He has a baby, their first grandson, Lucas, who is precious. For now. Time will only tell if he'll end up less Ugly than his predecessors.
Ramona Moritz Maldonado - 20, Their first daughter, 5'6" (thank God), Doc Lawson's apprentice. Easily frustrated, but with determination in spades and her parents' sense of high octane duty. Loves getting to travel, Westerns, and does the bow thing pretty well in particular. She's the more water-inclined of the two bio kids, and learned how to ACTUALLY sail with Adrian and their mother. Looks more like her mom.
Adrian Piran (Moritz Maldonado) - 21, adopted, a lanky ginger. The most adventurous (but barely,) of the three kiddos, a little closer to Ramona than Tino. He was a quiet kid who blossomed in his teens, taking interest in everything to do with the water. Currently doing lessons with Smith to get good at carpentry, and is working on the construction of a small watercraft of his own. Not as good at asskicking as the Lawson kids or Ramona, but he's certainly gung-ho about it. A terrible chef and an excellent sculptor.

Spoiler
Adrasteia - Greek goddess of War. Daughter of Athena, Slayer of Ares. Maria’s best friend in the whole world. Lives in the same fort once or twice a year (she leaves her shit here basically) but often leaves to go adventuring and tend to Business because that’s kind of her thing. Godmother (haha) to her children, who are aware of what she is. She’s huge and hot and can cut whole vans apart if she’s in the mood to, so she’s a perfect woman and everyone ooc wonders why Maria settled down with John of all people instead of her.
Ulrika - Norse goddess of Death. Daughter of Thor and slayer of Hel. An old friend from the Demigod Days. Maria met her (and coincidentally almost died at her hand) discovering her powers in a ‘fight club’- cage match situation. She was very excited to find a whole second Demigod who was nice, and showed her some ropes, and then she just sort of disappeared after the One Day War. Turns out she’d finally decided to try and get to Asgard, and after Maria’s first apotheosis she returned with adventure stories, and prophecies from Odin, predicting the rise of STORM and Tezcatlipoca’s death at her hand. Radical. She’s a sweet cinnamon roll who didn’t deserve Maria the Goblin or her dad (who was SOOOOOO excited to die by her in Ragnarok, but didn’t.) or the dead family or like- anything, she’s perfect. These days she kicks it with her Norse family, goes adventuring, and once in a while comes over to say hi. And see the little ugly goblin kids. Who don’t know what she is.
Claire Lawson - The Seaside Slayer. Ex CIA, settled down in Miami with her husband, got all kinds of knocked up, and then had a brutal run in with the absolutely abysmal gang activity in the city, leaving her a widow, without child, and a very... cold sort of Punisher. She burst onto the scene a couple years after, killing six of John’s bros, kind of decimating the local gang population in a single night, it was a huge mess, Maria went after her to try and end it to avoid another instance of manpain, but Claire was way better than her (Dumb, underprepared) ass, shot her, knocked her out, and then uhhhhh Maria woke up chained up in her basement. They had a big talk about the futility of just killing people, the sources and ethics of gangs, Claire revealed her backstory and Maria discovered that she was basically a copycat killer of her own creation. It ended with a list of demands for continued activity and Claire leaving a number in her phone. Cool. Maria had ever since been a really persistent pain in the ass friend. I know you can’t go to therapy because you’re a wanted criminal, Claire, but why don’t you get out of your hideout and come over. Oh, you found a dog while we were out razing a mob fortress? Guess you’re just gonna have to keep him, Claire. You gotta keep the dog Claire. Claire. Adoption rates are really low for fighting dogs of aggressive breeds. He’ll die, Claire. You gotta. This isn’t just because it would be good for you. (Side note? RIP Duke, you were the goodest fictional boy but no dog survives a 30 year timeskip.)
Claire has been an equally difficult and helpful friend. And also good reinforcement for Maria, who enjoys having a collection of friends who would 100% kill her if she started being Evil Again.
Anyway, the Visitation did her a lot of good. She’s lived a hard life, and at that point she was finally ready to... really try and get back into something healthy. So she ran off with her pal to West Virginia, which is detailed better above. At some point in there, she remarried (the Doc, who took her name) and had a couple brats of her own. They’re around the same age as the Moritz brood, and more hardcore, but less so than their mom.
Alexandria Escher - Lux. The Starbright Prince. The shitkid to end all shitkids only like she’s 50 now??? Gosh does the time fly. Their relationship in Masks is best described as a series of incidents comprised mostly of Lex being mad and Maria crying like a dumb baby, sprinkled with fights and well intentioned heroes and KNIGHT agents. Fools that they were. Her well of patience for Lex ran out during the Pregnancy Arc, in which Lex was distressed that having a child was in fact a long-con suicide attempt, and encouraged her to not go through with such a thing, which ended in a 4 year period in which she would not speak to her, and a shotgun mounted above the Moritz hearth upon which is engraved, ”For Auntie” Later after things had cooled down, Lex came over to finally see her and meet the gremlins, offering a boon, and erm. Discouraging them from violence with a cheerfully-spoken threat, which ended in her being chased out and nearly shot. Another 5 years would pass before Maria was willing to speak again, but after that Lex didn’t really seem to want to hang or talk much. That was. Uhh. It was fine, totally, she still kept hearing about her through Adrasteia so at least... she was well...? Little bit of a downer, but that’s the relationship limbo as of 2050.

Spoiler
Hector - Greek god of Thunder. Son and slayer of Zeus. Back when they were demigods he broke into her house and threatened to kill her in front of her dad, before learning (through an angry, mortified Maria) that her capture had been called off. Not his fault Ares was a dick though, and through a series of letters, some battles fought together, and his support of Adrasteia during the Olympian Civil War, they’re cool now. He’s a big jockish kinda guy, but he’s kind of a goober.
Petra - Greek goddess of Wisdom/strategy. Daughter and slayer of Athena. Slayer isn’t quite accurate, she just took Athena’s soul when Zeus had nearly killed her during the war, it’s fine. A very serious-looking older sister of Adrasteia’s, one of few gods who actually looks kinda old. Maybe 50sish. Maria hasn’t actually interacted much with her but you know. A friend of a friend and an enemy of an enemy are both friends.
Xipe Totec, Huitzilopochtli, and Quetzalcoatl - Her three OG (old god) weird uncles. Aztec pantheon in Masks was less Role Oriented (it was less a structure full of jobs to complete and more a congregation of several equally important dudes with different specialties) than the Greeks so they don’t get fun titles for the most part. But! They do still keep vaguely in touch. Quetzalcoatl in particular (best weird uncle, with the more agreeable moral code and the most audacious fashion sense.)
Norse assholes - I dunno, she knows Thor and Odin, the good OG Norse guy kinda died in the war.
Greek assholes - She knows most of the remaining Greeks but doesn't exactly hang with them. Hermes she's still uncomfortable with because of his loyalties in the Olympian civil war but she can deal with him being around, Hestia's been by for tea, rest, and a couple quilting bees, Hephaestus and Aphrodite she hasn't seen in a bit but they're.... They're fine... As long as Aphrodite chills around her peeps it's fine... Yeah.
Matt - She actually hasn’t spoken to this dude in like 32 years, I just wanted him to be on the list cuz he’s PROBABLY still alive. He’s a hobo in the woods north of Orlando who can talk to animals.
Marcus Loxley - Vigil. The Underaged Drinking Wraith. Some old hobo with a bow she met during the One Day War. Is part of the group of adults that were concerned about but terrible with Lux, which included Gabriel Matrose, himself, Maria, Isidora Cruz, and so so many foolish KNIGHT agents. After the Visitation they visited each other once in a blue moon, being not too terribly far from each other. Oversaw the individual commune-amassing of the other, you know, fun stuff. Vigil did a nice 'scared straight' stunt with the kids once when they were younger and getting into the moonshine, and is thus in the Pantheon Of Weird Aunties And Uncles. He's stopped coming by for a bit, and knowing he likes his privacy, Maria hasn't checked up. He knows where she is if something's wrong. He's the reason she has so many bomb jars of pickled onions in her cellar.
Isidora Cruz - Another friend from previous world-threatening crises. Not one she's comfortable working with in many cases, but it seems she's sort of... Expanded her worldview in the past few decades, so they're on pretty decent terms. She was there when Adrian was found. They used to talk fairly frequently, about life, the changing world, existential shit... Honestly they were weirdly good pals for an ex-nun and a god. Lately Isidora's been away from where she normally sleeps, and Maria's been unable to find her. Not sure what's up with that, and can only hope she's alright.
Desmond - The Raven. Maria's best, most infuriating frienemy. They're... very good at being pissed at each other, but keep in loose contact. May have gone on an adventure over the timeskip? Consider each other good allies, and like, shoot, they're still war buddies. And like, furry-fanart survivors. Still, they haven't talked in a good while.
Max Volts, Casey Kane, Emily Hartmann, - and many other people who've gone off and disappeared. :(
Journeyin' Joe - A time cop. Has a jacket covered in paint handprints, of people he hangs with on his vacations. Weird, kind little gremlin man.

Spoiler
Residents of Ft Diligence - Situation where everyone knows everyone, only about 35 homes worth.
Robert Smith - Referred to exclusively by his surname. 40, a bachelor who is an excellent carpenter despite his name, and the new head of such things after Old Greg passed ten years back. Pretty jolly dude, with hands so calloused you have to tell him he's all splintered.
'Doc' Clement Lawson - Previously Doc Clem Davis. An older, pleasant gentleman with an infectious chill attitude. First guy to join them in their settling that section of the Greenbriar, and a good pal for it. Half a year after Duke passed, he came back from the Bazaar with two young hounds, and a request that Claire help him train them since he didn't know how. Definitely wasn't REALLY for her or anything. Anyway, well respected, greyed old sweetheart. Mentors Ramona, and glad someone's got the interest.
Bluestone Postal Service - Mail's the only way to get anything, physical or information, in or out of the place. These dudes? They have the southern West Virginia watersheds covered. Safer than anybody else in the state, they take their jobs very seriously, and nobody messes with them. There's a whole system of off-grid mail delivery across the nation that's been highly successful. The local branch is headed by Hayden, Kayden, and Zayden McEntire, brothers native to the area. Nice dudes, they do the weird 'talk in unison' thing to fuck with people.
The Bluestone Bazaar - What parts of the Bluestone lake aren't for residence are taken up by the biggest market in West Virginia. Some shops crammed into buildings on the docks, some on wide barges where one can hitch their own boats, some small canoes peddling vegetables, floating down the whole thing, calling out their wares. Some take money, some take goods, most'll take either. Some folk in particular:
Simone Walker - Makes just about any drink you can think of in a stand on the North Main dock, along with a cousin, an in-law, and her kid. Known gossip, and so long as you're a paying customer, she's the best place to get the feel of the bazaar at the moment.
Randolph DuPont - The oldest son of a gun, keeps a book shop on land. Not once since they started visiting the lake have they not come into the shop, if not to make a purchase (and SO often to make a purchase), than to stop in and see how he is. He's got a couple great grandkids, and he's a stubborn old goat who doesn't let the family help as much as they'd like.
Crossbush - Settlement farther north along the Greenbriar, further in the mountains. Where Tino lives.
Settlements of the Greenbriar - Love them or hate them, most larger settlements along the river know that the Fort is the reason their river's as clear as it is.

Spoiler
Bandit groups - There are still many. Most have lessened activity in the Greenbriar due to the persistent and deadly efforts of the Fort, but many still linger in the state, most sticking to roads. One stands a cut above the rest, however. A group that as of yet has no known name, no presence detected, no camp to be certain of their presence. Whoever they are, they're good at what they do, and what they do is make people disappear. Men, women, children, never the elderly. Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's a whole family, sometimes entire camps go missing. Neither Maria nor Claire have skill naming things, and have taken to referring to them as the Menace until... someone thinks up something better to shorthand them with. It's infrequent that bodies are found, and it's suspected that people taken are being taken... far away.
The Cyberpunk Government/omnicorp - Obvious reasons. Twice dead, and no longer a legal entity, but also an immortal criminal? Not fantastic stuff.
V’rek Amirth - FLORIDA MAN. A monster that lives in a cave in Florida, some eldritch being that causes people to go NUTS. Athena revealed that he's not the only of his kind on earth, just one so ancient and insane that he is unable to be spoken to, reasoned with, or really do much else than he does. Highly dangerous. Gods are known to have a resistance to his specific sort of mind control, and Athena (losing several demigods along the way) was able to kill one in Europe said to have been the cause of the first world war.

Spoiler
Scarlet Johansen played her in the earliest film and she doesn’t know about that yet but she’ll be pissed when she finds out.

Spoiler
Aliases: None, presently.

Date of Birth: November 6th, 2026.

Place of Birth: Somewhere? Shit, Zil's not sure. She was adopted. Now she knows she wasn't born on Earth, but that opens up the rest of the universe. Could be anywhere, really. (Ventroyavosar. A cold, giant planet rich in resources.)

Place of Residence: Oakland, Bay Area, California. A pretty decent apartment, supplied to her by paying stupid amounts of rent and also recommendation from the hospital. The city has been, y'know, crazy gentrified. In the past thirty years many businesses and startups have cropped up, believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're making things better for the residents. In some ways, they are! In other ways, they definitely aren't. The corporations basically have the residents under their thumbs, only offering to better the city for their own benefit. Sure, they cover up their intentions and claim it's for everyone, but the dollars they use are tax dollars or dollars skimped and cut from workers wages. There's not much else that can be done though, as a lot of mega corporations drive out any smaller businesses attempting to establish themselves and carve out a small part of the city they can have control over. Nothing really gets done without funding, and the corporations are definitely willing to fund things if they benefit in some way. Because of this, the city is overrun with advertisements, and many people stay with their company so they dont get run out and end up homeless. Even the college and hospital falls prey, and considering Zil's time frequently spent at both in the past few years, she's grown pretty damn tired of it. Even the historic parts of the city aren't fully safe, and are on their way to being touched up and treated. Can't have old, ugly shit in this bright, shining city, right?

Appearance: Zil is a dark skinned woman standing at about 5'1" in her human form. Her eyes are a warm brown, and her hair- perhaps the most striking feature about her- is white. She kinda just tells everyone she greyed early, and will jokingly say college debt was a large contributing factor to that...even though her hair's been this way since she was a baby. Zil just doesn't mention that part.
It's clear, based on how cut and fucking shredded she is, that Zil deals with her stress through exercise. She's a regular at the local gym, and even excercises during her breaks in her residency. It's left her with a fairly impressive physique, though more functional muscle than bodybuilder-esque. Not to say she's a total health nut, of course. She still enjoys drinking and pizza? Who doesn't? Zil ALSO likes to knit and sew to decompress! It's therapeutic. Writing helps as well, and she keeps a diary. Shit helps. She wears primarily dark clothing, and fancies black lipstick. There's a scar that runs through her lips on the right side, and shes got a number on her hands, knuckles, knees, and back.

In her alien form, Zil stands at approximately 6'9", her skin black and the fur along her legs and shoulders a contrasting white. Her eyes, mouth, the palms of her hands and feet, and a number of vents along her body are a bright, luminous gold, and radiate heat and warmth. She's got thumbs, at least, which is super cool! Also, retractable claws so she can climb really good with her hands, or do delicate work like typing awkwardly on a phone or gingerly picking up a child! She's also got horns, and a number of other features that don't really make her look quite human, but that's fine. Big claw feet suit her climbing well enough, and even if she looks kinda scary and glows in the dark, she can still help people! When she's embarrassed, or surprised, or a number of other things in this form, she'll glow brighter. Whoops. As a furnace, essentially, the Zhilians just fucking eat whatever. A rock? Yum. Cronch.

Personality: Zilvala is a woman with a fairly dry sense of humour, and usually keeps an even-keel sort of tone. Or she tries to. It's not particularly difficult to fluster her, and her temper can be pretty damn quick to ignite as well. She's passionate! She's pretty good at expressing anger! Still, at her core, Zil does her best to aid others and wants more than anything to devote her time to helping people and saving lives. She's just not great at relating to people emotionally or connecting to them, but she tried. Compliments fluster her, and while she's a shameless flirt with cute girls, it's easier to be realistic and practical when tears come into play. She can't make someone calm down, but she can remove whatever is upsetting them from the equation so they calm themselves. Zil's just a woman out here doin' her best...despite stress, anxiety, and a ton of insomnia. Damn.

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources:
Zil has different powers she can access based on what form she takes-- or if she has her handy dandy sword friend present. He's a pendant sometimes, too. It's complicated.

HUMAN FORM:
Shapeshifting: Unbeknownst to her, Zil has always been able to switch between her alien form and a form more suited to those around her at will. It's likely her parents forced this in her prior to leaving her at the orphanage, as she only really knows her Human form. It's also the only other form she can change into! She's only got two!

Healing Hands: While Zil has yet to use this ability, she is able to heal the wounds of an individual via touch by sacrificing her own energy and using it to accelerate the target's own bodily processes. This can leave her quite exhausted, depending on the extent of the wound. It allows her to heal wounds more serious than medigel might, but at quite the price to herself. It's all equivalent exchange, baby! Wanna heal an injury to someone's liver? Might shut her own down in the process if she doesn't beg her companion for some sort of energy source! There's probably math involved but she's not the best at that shit!

Medical knowledge/training: The bitch is going to school to be a surgeon! Maybe a field medic! Originally, she studied to be a general practitioner! Choices are hard! She knows about anatomy! She knows about health shit! She's pretty smart in this field and not smart in a whole lot of others!

Motorcycle: Zil has a motorcycle. She's good at driving it. She has a car, too, but who cares.

Strong: Zil works out. Her alien form is definitely stronger, but she's no slouch as a human.

Fire manipulation/generation: It's tremendously limited in her human form, but she can use her alien powers to conjure and wield limited amounts of fire.

ALIEN FRIEND TIMILTY: Who knows what the hell this pendant does. Though he's a sword sometimes. They glow? They talk? They're smart? If she asks real nicely and offers them energy for sustenance, they'll lend her their powers for bit. That can be nice...if they decide they want to be helpful and not snarky or unreasonable. Which is rare.

ALIEN FORM: Zil is from a race of aliens known as Zhilians! How nice of her parents to name her Zil!

Height: Zil gets tall! At least for her. 6'8" isn't enormous, but it's over a foot difference.

Strength: Super strong! Those muscles aren't just for show, and the Zhilians are a worker class so they're damn good at lifting and moving things!

Stamina: As great workers, the Zhilians don't tire too easily!

Fire manipulation: The Zhilians breathe fire! They can melt shit with their hands! They're very warm and hate summer and heat! Wow!

Healing hands: Yep. They can heal by touching shit. Works a little better in this form but will catch up with her when she switches back.

Agility: While not particularly agile and admittedly kinda clumsy, the Zhilians can run quickly on all fours or two legs if they want! They're great climbers.

Last resort: The Zhilians fucking blow up if they die in a violent manner. Zil gets stabbed and dies? Big ass explosion of fire. Huge bomb. Must be all that internal heat and pressure.

Biography: Zil was originally born on the planet Ventroyavosar. It's a planet that was just beginning a revolution when she arrived into the world, and her parents sparked something even bigger with a particularly potent protest. Intending only to make a statement and maybe cause some chaos, they broke and snuck into the dwelling of a Kel'Dorizi- or the ruling class of their planet. Stealing into his chambers, they snatched his glowing sword, a status symbol of those in power.

This proved to be a much bigger deal than they figured, and within hours the place was in chaos. Voices could be heard across the planet broadcasting the theft, and calling for the criminals to be turned in.

They had no choice. Zil's parents bundled her and a few of their belongings up- as well as the sword, which constantly chided them and spoke of their impending punishment- and made their way off-planet in a Kel spacecraft. While the Kel fancy themselves conquerors and boast of off-planet colonies, they don't seem to be the fastest in their takeovers. They take their time moving methodically, and have toyed with the Zhilians for a very, very long time. Because of this, her parent's goal was to travel as far away as they could, hoping distance would keep them safe from any kind of scanning the Kel could do for their missing alien artifact.

Their panicked escape led them to Earth, where their ship nearly broke down coming into the atmosphere. Their vocal sword companion was injured in the touchdown, and retreated into a simple pendant form. Any attempts to speak to them were failures. Tired, lonely, and terrified, they worked to quickly disguise themselves among the other humans, and did the same with their young child. Wanting her to grow up on this planet safe and happy, they gave her up to an orphanage after only a week of staying, leaving her only with a pendant and a piece of paper with her name: Zilvala. Barely able to speak the language, her parents disappeared, and 23 years later Zil still hasn't heard from them.

Being a young baby, Zil was adopted fairly quickly. She was only at the orphanage for a year before a couple scooped her up and didn't want to put her down. Kainui and Odile Ndubueze adopted her in California, keeping her name and quickly adapting her to their family life. Fully capable of having children themselves, they always wanted to adopt only one, and devote their time to raising them when they both had steady jobs, stable income, and a bit of savings. This time happened to come in their 30's, and happened to perfectly overlap with a little alien girl needing a home. Of course, they had no way of knowing Zil was an alien. She was just a little girl with a genetic abnormality that made her hair white, and a pendant so long it had to be twisted thrice around her neck so she could wear it. They decided to keep it safe, and gave it to her when she hit 11 after telling her of its importance.

Zil's childhood was fairly uneventful. She never really got sick or tremendously injured, and did well in her studies with effort. Sure, she was picked on and teased by her peers for a number of reasons, but who wasn't? She had a few friends and acquaintences she could spend time with during classes and work with on group projects, and that was all her parents wanted. Still, she didn't get along well with most of her teachers, and her father knew the Principal and Counselor by name due to teacher complaints about his daughter's sharp tongue. The history teacher in particular seemed to dislike her. Still, his practices were dumb and his opinions in general were stupid and wrong. His fault, according to Zil. Not hers.

Despite all this, she was able to get a few recommendation letters from her high school teachers to the medical school she had her sights set on. Every day, she wore that pendant, and when her parents told her she had it the day they adopted her, she considered it a good luck charm. It was with her when she applied to the school, there with her when she was accepted, and there for every test she took.

College was not easy for Zil. She needed to study constantly to keep up, which left little time to relax. Working out was the easiest way for her to maintain some semblance of control over her life, and while she did so in highschool she really leaned into the routine in college. Still, it helped her through, and she managed to graduate towards the top, easily securing a decent residency at a local Oakland hospital.

Only recently did Zil realize there was something odd about her, and had to consider a different path in her life. She grew up loving heroes and keeping up with a lot of their news, finding them exciting and interesting but feeling like that life definitely wasn't for her. Most kids liked heroes. That's just the way kids are. Adults are supposed to be realistic, though. She thought she had no powers, but she still wanted to save people, so a doctor was her next best bet. Now she finds out she's an alien and accidentally wakes up a dormant sentient artifact posing as a pendant when she's pacing around her room and everything turns upside down!

Zil's an alien. She's got a damn necklace that can talk and turn into a sword. She's got super powers. Considering these new factors, she's at a bit of loss. She's still in residency and trying to finish that out, but she can't very well sit around with powers like this and not do something. On the treadmill, she plans a costume. Drinking a smoothie, she considers a way to get info. Laying in bed, she thinks of an alias. This was a part of her, and definitely changed what she could realistically attain.

Maybe it's time for a change of pace.

Friends, Family, Acquiantances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:
Adoptive Father: Kainui (Kai) Ndubueze. Works as an insurance agent. White collar without being a bastard. A large, Somoan man who likes to meet with his daughter to work out on the weekends. Loves his family to bits, and just wants what is best for them. He is human and has no powers of his own, finding a lot of heroism to be nice, but rather misguided. Also, very destructive? Jesus Christ, are heroes and villains destructive. Likes to golf. Likes bad jokes. Has an apron that says 'Kiss the Cook' that he only wears when he grills. Owns a fanny pack. A very traditional, doting father.

Adoptive Mother: Odile Ndubueze. Social Worker. Cares for kids more than anything besides her family. Upon marrying Kai, decided she didn't want her own kids before changing her mind and choosing to adopt. Odile is human, with no powers of her own. She loathes villains, and thinks anyone who would ever put children in harm's way is the scum of the Earth. Lower, even. She is not a violent woman, until the safety of kids is involved. Enjoys bad soap operas and action movies. Wore black lipstick during her daughter's teenage years to teach her how to apply it properly. Not great at making anything but fish stew. A standard, career driven, loving mother.

Alien Friend Timilty: Zil practically just met Tim officially. Even though she's technically known them since she was a child? They were dormant at the time, and only woke recently due to her own completely accidental interference. At this point, they seem sassy and generally unhelpful. Kinda just needy. Still, they're currently the only connection she has to this newfound heritage, and she's eager to learn more.
Biological mother: Unknown Zhilians.
Biological father: Unknown Zhilians.
Anyone else:Whoever Zil meets after we start. She was never particularly close with her professors or classmates, and considers her internship and residential relationships to be professional. She's not great at reaching out to and talking to people, and has never really wanted to prior to this enormous personal revelation of finding out she's a fucking alien.

Time to turn over a new leaf!

Spoiler

Species: Zhilians


Homeworld: Ventroyavosar

Abilities: The most notable ability of the Zhilians is their ability to heal. One must be able to physically touch another individual to do so, but by transferring energy between the two targets and naturally speeding up the target's system, they have the ability to heal beyond surface level wounds. The only issue is that it exhausts the individual healing, but it has kept them well enough to work for eons. The Zhilians are also quite strong, are known for their fairly impressive stamina, and seem to have a sort-of internal heat. This is what causes the warm glow through the vents in their skin, and what allows them to, eventually, breathe fire. Some of the metal on their planet has a low enough melting point to be melted and sculpted by the Zhilians themselves. They also detest hot weather and don't favour daytime.

Oh. Yeah. And they fucking blow up if the manner in which they die is violent. Something with that internal heat and pressure bursting out of their punctured skin. Very messy.

Physical Description: Mostly humanoid, the Zhilians are bipedal and stand around 6 and a half feet tall. While their feet can best be described as clawed and paw-like, their legs support their wider upper bodies well enough, and they can run on 2 or 4 legs efficiently. Their skin is black while the soft, down-like fur that covers their legs and shoulders is white. Their hands (equipped with opposable thumbs like a humans, nice) as well as a number of vent-like slits about their bodies show off bright, nearly-molten gold. Their eyes and mouth also display this bright contrast, and the Zhilians are warm to the touch. Despite this, they still could easily be mistaken for a human with a fluffy jacket on, were they viewed from behind and silhoutted by the dim light of evening. Of course, their horns might give them away. Or the yellow glow.


History: Unfortunately, much of the Zhilians history has been lost to the ages. Also, probably lost due to Kel'Dorizi interference.



Species: Kel'Dorizi

Homeworld: Unknown.

Abilities: Hyper-intelligent, the Kel'Dorizi are masters of their own life-energy. To them, everything is energy, or a potential energy-source. They can take this energy and drain it to accomplish a number of things. Fueling themselves, they can achieve great feats of strength, energy constructs, energy blasts, energy propulsion, energy transferal, and so on. It is limited only by their individual life energy, and the will they have to dominate and steal from those around them.
It is unknown whether these powers are their own, or if they come from the large, shining blue weapons they carry at all times. A status symbol, the Kel'Dorizi are rarely seen without these tools, using them almost as extensions of themselves. One might see them lift up the chin of Zhilians with one, close doors with them, walk with them like a cane, or even speak with them. The tools, it seems, even speak back. The extent of the weapon's intelligence is unknown, but they appear to be wholly sentient.

Physical Description: Large, multi-limbed, and imposing. Something that looks like torn, wet fabric hangs off of their bodies, concealing many of their facial details save for four long, sharp eyes and a large, fanged mouth that stretches across their head. A lot of their physical traits seem to differ by individual, but many have multiple thick, trunk-like arms that warn of typically undisplayed strength. Many of them have extra skin that hangs around their limbs, likely acting as extra cushion. Bipedal, the smallest ones easily reach upwards of 10 feet tall, and their voices are deep, rumbling, and imposing.


History: The Kel'Dorizi did not evolve on their current Homeworld, but simply took it over from the Zhilians. The coordinates of their originating planetary system are unknown, and they do not seem keen to share these details. It is assumed they arrived from a distant star-system. They boast of several off-world colonies, and numerous war victories to dominate and conquer the smaller races inhabiting those places.

Shared History: The Kel'Dorizi have effectively enslaved the Zhilians for thousands of years. While the Kel seem to live for a very long time, most Zhilians don't live for longer than 200 years. This could be due to physiology, or due to the grueling work conditions the Kel put them through. The planet is massive, and the Kel entertain themselves by having their workers build and tear down things for them rather endlessly, constantly bartering among themselves for land and monuments. Prior to the attempted revolution, any Zhilians that resisted or spoke out were swiftly dealt with and then disposed of. The most powerful Zhilians was no match for even a young Kel'Dorizi, and it's that violence that kept them in line for centuries.
However, about three days before Zil's own departure from the planet, her parents were the first to act. Fed up with the treatment and finally coming into their own wills and personalities, they took a chance. While a Kel slumbered, they took his shining blue longsword and fled. Hours later, the bellowing and alerts filled the air, sirens telling of a massive infraction in the colony. People were looking for them, which meant hiding was not enough. Especially not with doors being torn down.
Once Zil's parents fled the planet, sword still in hand...well. They found their way to Earth, taking refuge where they hoped was far enough away from the Kel influence.



Species: ????

Homeworld: ????

Abilities: While their name is unknown, the tangible nature of these creatures is something that's been previously observed. They appear to favour the form of objects and tools, particularly weaponry and strange, curved blades. They also provide their hosts with a slew of energy related abilities in exchange for some energy. A parasite needs to eat, and they're at least making it worth their owner's while by letting them fly, read auras, create constructs, fire off energy blasts...or even transfer energy. There's a lot of power at someone's fignertips, so long as they promise compensation and don't mind donating the necessary amount. Gotta have a little over for them to snack on, after all. The creatures are intelligent, capable of audible speech as well as telepathic communication with a linked host. They also appear to have individual personalities, despite their dependent existences.

Physical Description: No matter what form they take, they always remain a beryl sort of blue. They also seem to favour the guise of items made of metal, for reasons not entirely known.

Spoiler
Name: Desmond Micheal John McDonagel

Aliases: The Raven, Innumerable false aliases

Date of Birth: Sometime in the 1990s

Place of Birth: Podunk, North Dakota

Place of Residence: New York Megacity, Solomon City District.

Solomon City was once a city of old world styles, high architecture and European charm, the New Orleans of the North. Once the busiest fishing industry in the North East coast, Solomon city was built primarily on reclaimed marshland with the 'old' city eventually sinking beneath its own weight with new buildings built atop the graves of the old until the zoning reforms of the 20th century made more permenant dwelling possible. As such, Solomon city was once famed for its 'undercity', a vast network of disconnected caverns, caves, cellars and tunnels full of the ruins of the old city and lived in by vagrants, homesless and even independent communes, criminal or otherwise.

After the one day war, much of the city was devastated and rebuilt to suit modern fashions, though much of its old world charm had remained, the undercity was finally dug out, refurbished and properly constructed as new entire districts to the city. As such, Solomon city proved a testing ground, and a prototype for the undercities that typify so many of the megacities of modern America, and 'Undersolomon' is renowned as an especially gentrified district of the North East underMegalopolis today. Today sky scrapers choke the sky and skyways cast long shadows over the city beneath, and much of its old world charm is lost beneath the darkness of the all encompassing megatowers that dooms the middle and working class, however few they are in number, to a life in the shadow of the corporate elites to say nothing of the poor multitudes dependent on welfare to survive in the vast undercity.

Districts:
Undersolomon - A vast hive of scum and villainy... is what it says on the tourism boards. Undersolomon plays up its shady beginnings for tourism revenue for the few tourists who care to see the 'first' proper American undercity and the district is known for its service industries and rather 'pleasant' living conditions (by the standards of undercities) but still has out of control crime and as such is more patrolled by corporate police than other areas of the city as a whole.
Old Town - Also known as Little Ireland, Old Town was renowned for its heavy Irish diaspora, although little of this remains today, the names stuck. Once poor residential district it is now a poor residential district overshadowed by several megatowers that make up the city's parking bays for flying vehicles with its streets perpetually shadowed by the skyways for pedestrian and public transport. The once famous L Line of Solomon city now repurposed as a cross city grav-tram service. As such Old Town is known for its colourful street lighting to make up for the near perpetual darkness. Desmond has an apartment here.
Chinatown - Heavily changed from the days of yore, while still consisting of intolerably narrow streets, Chinatown has developed a distinct cultural difference from the rest of the city and serves as the technological hub of the city with many Tech services located there.
The Mall - Once known as uptown and the economic heart of the city, it has since been refurbished in a corporate attempt at making a megamall - a mall the size of an entire city district. It is a somewhat partial success with different areas consisting of outstanding wealth and opulence as well as new and flagrant technologies and showpieces to draw crowds. Large sections of the Great Mall are run down where sketchier merchants ply their trade. The corporate police mostly overlook these activities in return for bribes by the criminal Underlords.
The Arch - The Arch of Solomon city is less a district and more a poorly thought out display of engineering arrogance. Founded on either side of the artifical piers into the Harbour of the city, the great Arch is supported by two megatower superstructures supporting the aforementioned archway, upon which are piled glittering towers and streets were the casinos, tourist resorts and houses of many well to do families call their home.

Appearance: Desmond is tall and of medium build, with an atheletic body structure from decades of rigorous exercise and training to maintain high degree of endurance and stamina for intensive spellcasting. His facial features are sharp and striking with piercing, bright, blue eyes with a well groomed, close shaved beard with permanent salt and pepper stubble on his cheeks. His black hair has maintained most of his colour into his fifties but has started to grey around the sides.

Ordinarily, when in his outfit, Desmond wears a practical suit of light, enchanted armour with various tactical webbing and catches to hang weapons and tools from. Covered with an enchanted cloak designed to help deflect light attacks away with angular protection rather than block them head on. He possesses various Plague Doctor masks fashioned from everything from simple leather and plastics to full on tactical helmets with specialised runic enchantments, all black to match his namesake. Occasionally he will often be seen wearing a wide brimmed crushed velvet hat when he feels like putting on a show, but will more often than not where a cowl over his head and shoulders consisting of tiny metallic 'blades' fashioned like raven feathers that can be detached when telekinetic-ally pulled and magnetically fold back into place when reconnected. This coupled with many small, but long tungstun nails and flat handled knives attached about his person make up for a tiny armoury of sharp but lethal stealth killing weaponry. Desmond is not so proud a wizard he does not consent to practicality though and will often load out with mundane weaponry for whatever enterprise he is embarking unless it necessitates the foregoing the use of mundane technology.

He carries a valuable enchanted staff of rare woods and precious metals and crystals, gathered and created with care from both mundane and mystical sources over a lifetime of adventuring which magnifies the power and precision of his spell casting but is sometimes unwieldy and impractical if stealth is the order of the day.

Personality: Cynical and rude in his person as the Raven, but having spent much of his youth bluffing his way through college and working as a shyster, Desmond is an accomplished actor and as is capable of putting on new airs and demeanours as and when the situation suits, which is very useful when a situation calls for illusions and disguises.

In his own right, however, Desmond is introverted and reclusive, preferring his studies and experiments to social interaction. However, his obsession with immortality, and the strenuous lifestyle of a Wizard have served to warp his personality into a form of Egotistical overconfidence and ruthlessness. He still claims to be motivated by good intentions but due to his sketchy background and career, even people who know him well would sincerely doubt that.

Has taken to alcoholism and gambling to relieve stress. It goes about as well as you would think.

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources: Even with physical evidence of his existence the Raven is still an elusive figure, reported many times to have died and many times has been seen to have risen again.

Far removed from the idealistic, bumbling mage of his youth, Desmond McDonegal is a grizzled and experienced wizard, a master of the arcane, who has honed his body to perfection in his youth and has done everything alchemically and magically possible to maintain and augment as much of his fighting vigor as possible into his old age, augmenting his abilities with skillfully enchanted plates in his clothing to make him faster, stronger, to make his gear weigh less and his armour tougher.

He has mastered the art of the rune and the ward, and can make arcane circles to make magical traps, invisible walls, ward areas from specific evils and make quick and dirty improvisations. With time he can infuse runes he makes in objects, circles or places to cast specific but temporary enhancements, traps, alarms (not unlike Liz's quick and dirty temporary runes she scratched onto Desmond's masks to give it nightvision, I imagine runes work like that, temporary enchantments)

Having adopted various spells of illusion, he can create vast and complicated illusions and false sounds through his study of light magic and specific illussary schools of magic. His combat magic extendeed greatly, to manipulating his fire magic to create explosions at a distance, his lightning to create localized storms, his telekinesis to choke entire squads of soldiers and use his light manipulation to create refraction fields to make him more or less invisible.

Having become more adept at portal finding and experimentation he has become more accustomed to potion crafting and alchemical crafting of both magical concoctions, arcane constructions and metallurgy while searching alien realms for reagents and materials, and as such has grown accustomed to smithing and creating his own gear beyond useful mundane weapons such as, say, shotguns.

One of the tricks he likes to use is carrying hundreds of tiny razor edged, handleless knives and tungsten nails about his person distributed for weight, which he then uses his telekinesis to lift and throw them at an enemy, slicing them to pieces in a ball of levitating knives and silently pierce the necks of his enemies with pinpoint blows from a distance. If his missions require a lot of stealth kills or instilling the fear of God into a vampire he usually loads out with it.

He is also a fair hand at permenant enchantment. Two of his best achievments was a 1960 Black Cadillic which he gutted of its engine and all of its interior mechanics. Making it a floating frame with a reinforced skeleton and armoured plates with plenty of storage. He changed the undercarriage to look like the regular underside of a regular mundane flying car, keeping the wheels for ornamentation, with a fake muscle car engine poking from its hood, with an enchantment to make it roar with American Muscle Power. He uses it as his primary means of transportation, both in the mundane world and pocket universes. His other means of transportation is just a Harley Davidson, which is functionally just a magical hoverbike he uses when navigating tighter streets, canyons and airways.

Biography: Desmond is a piece of work.

Having been enthralled by the idea of magic and the arcane from a young age, he began his long journey into wizardhood with a penchant for old languages, particularly latin, based on a strange tome he had found when he was a young boy. However, life being what it was, nothing he tried paid off, and his success at life reflected his commitment to it, or lack thereof. Having flunked out of college he took up being a shyster pretending to be a real wizard detective in Solomon City to make his way in life, using showy tricks, impressions and convincing circle magic to ease peoples' fears and find lost things.

This all changed the day he snapped his fingers and a dancing green flame lit up on the end of his thumb.

Magic, being what it was, manifested in a wizard whenever it damn well wanted to, whether it be at five years or at fifty. Desmond went through 'magical puberty' at the ripe old age of Twenty five and his life has been downhill ever since.

Starting off his career fighting the Irish mob and stealing from criminals to make his way in life, he was slowly, painfully, introduced to the wider supernatural world he was doomed to inhabit, because once a wizard manifests, the supernatural comes to them wether they want it to or not. In quick succession the Raven gained a reputation for coming back from the dead more than once, not that this was ever seen or confirmed, but he has been presumed dead numerous times and just as often returned, often out of nowhere, to aid when the call came, such as when Crises emerged like the One Day War and Ragnorok.

Having adventured across many dimensions and places of the world, coming across wealth is no longer a problem for him, although money is not nearly as important to wizards as magical reagents and items, everything else can be sold for spare credits. That said however, Corporate policing makes fencing things on the black market marginally more difficult these days. Primarily he is more concerned with finding more wizards to trade with these days, there seems to be less and less of them around that aren't the young whippersnappers the corporations recruit for Dimension hopping.

When not saving the world and working besides demigods, mutants, murderers and heroes, he is often researching the ways of magic, studying new spells, strengthening others and adventuring around the world in the search for immortality and more powers. Making many enemies along the way from gangsters to vampires to magelords. He has lost his famous magic sword and has sworn to retrieve it, he has seen the country of his birth slide into a dystopic nightmare and swears to rectify it... Just once he has finished everything else he needs to do. He will get around to it, he's not obsessed. Really.

Now in his fifties, Desmond is not the sprightly young man he once was, but he is no slouch, having trained over the decades and weathered the many storms of experience to maintain an atheltic build and enchanting specialised armour placed about his body to augment his abilities, The Raven is more than terrifying in any one on one encounter with most foes.

That is, if you manage to see him coming at all.

IMMORTALITY QUESTLOG:
Desmond's Immortality Quest log

-Possible ancient druid in North East Scotland, alive for 2500 years, claims to be first druid and started the entire celtic priesthood for all celtic tribes./Failure. Ancient Druid over time somehow turned into underground tree monster, an entire cave system in the Scottish Highlands is now perpetually lit afire in attempts to escape

-Fountain of Youth, Yucatan Peninsula/False lead. Ancient Mayan death trap gaurding a trinket that makes wrinkles disappear but nothing else, Traded to Julia for [Artefact].

-Sleeping Beauty legend actually dates back to bronze age and has parallels in many cultures across the millenia, prospective real Sleeping Beauty location in the border region of Iraq, Iran, very dangerous, kiss said to awaken the princess and grant immortality/Ancient buried succubus incarnate in a mortal's body, heavily dessicated and disfigured, slain but left a curse wherein Desmond could not write in anything but ancient Cuniform which he then could not read for a period of six weeks.

-Fountain of Youth, Poland. Ancient spring water site at Poland's highest peak next to its lowest plain. Given Poland is mostly flat this wasn't easy/False lead, battled three Winged Hussar revenants guarding King Sobieskie's treasure. No fountain of youth but plenty of gold and silver. Mostly cursed.

-Native American Hopi spirit trance said to reveal the path to immortality/Failure. Got possessed by a native American malevolent spirit, fought wendigos near the Canadian border. Woke up back in chieftain's home with no time having passed. Note never to smoke that pipe again.

-City of Atlantis located off the coast of Brittany, France, filled with immortals with access to Ambrosia./False lead, city is actually the sunken city of Ys, populated by tribal fish people who HATE the mention of the word Atlantis. Got a neat marble statuette of some female figure, kept for aesthetic purposes.

-Philosopher's stone supposedly located in remote Uralic village, owned by a mystical blacksmith said to have forged the swords of the Cossacks that sacked the Ottoman empire/Stone is actually the Philanderer's stone, village populated by inbred descendants of the legendary blacksmith who attracted numerous women away from their families and founded a cult of personality around himself, fought cultist descendants, stone acquired and escaped, but resulted in forcing every married man Desmond met to violently attack him for unknown reasons. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]

-Fountain of Youth, North Korea, rumours from South Korean legends and through the grapevine at wizard bars/Complete fraud used by the North Korean regime to lure in Wizards, incredibly violent fight to escape, waste of time and resources.

-Rumours of a great wolf, supposedly the father of the entire Wolf species, roaming Siberia, gained immortality from eating all the unicorns native to Earth, can be lured by making a ritual circle with unicorn horn dust, a single drop of its blood grants immortality/Ritual circle instead collapsed the ground around it leading to an archway of solid iron at the end of a natural cave under the surface. Tunnel led to to a city network spread out across various ice caves, filled with an unknown human society ruled by witches, extremely hostile and violent, escaped and collapsed the cave behind him. Undiscovered human society discovered and promptly sealed away. Its now Russia's problem.

-Chinese sage apparently discovered the alchemical formulae for immortality and resides at a lost Buddhist Temple in the very heart of China/Temple found but unihabited, sage nowhere to be found, however various relics and scrolls of ancient philosophies and lost lore were recovered, dating back to before the Qin dynasty, some immaculately preserved. Sold to Chinese Authorities through black market means for profit after recording the information for later decoding and possible use. None of it was magic related but interesting nonetheless.

-Myth of ancient Mayan prophecy regarding the finding of the Wooden Temple holding the mystery of the gods/Temple found on the tip of the Yucatan, found several Mayan gods playing an ancient moveable tile board game. Spent evening getting drunk and playing ancient game. Left significently power than when arrived.

-Recent rumours of a drug lord in Northern Mexico who had an amulet granting him immortality/Fought a golem summoned by a former Jewish Rabbi in the middle of a Stripclub. Drug lord escaped, but acquired amulet. Turns out all it does is magnetically repel any and all metal away from you, allowing the drug lord to 'dodg'e bullets. Traded with Julia for [Artefact]

-Searched Solomon city's undercity for a rumoured Ghost who can grant wishes/Found a Shadowcat, same adult one he had encountered years previously in an alleyway. Attempted to adopt, got three cat claw marks for his trouble.

-Traveled to Egypt to find the Secret of the Nile/Found a baby Sphinx trapped in a net by the side of the great river, freed it, asked it for Wisdom, it meowed, attempted to adopt it, got three additional claw marks and an insight into the nature of life and death. Bought a cheap souvenir pyramid in Giza.

-Desmond follows a trail in an alternate dimension that has alternating gravity and a nonsensicle planetary geogrpahy that climbs upwards to the sky and around again. Natives spoke of a coin that granted agelessness at its end/Hopelessly lost and endlessly crossing over the same crossroads at different directions, met a catwoman who meowed in the manner of a person mimicing a cat, asked for directions, got clawed in the face. Gave up and went home.

-Rumours of the Holy Grail located in Ethiopia/False lead, weird Heretical Islamic cult with Zoroastrain and Egyptian influences in their faith guarded an artifact of unknown power, barely escaped with life.

-Rumours of West Coast Mystic who discovered a herb that can restore your youth, traveled with the Demon/Portland Wizard had been experimenting with extra dimensional drugs, entire apartment block turned into a den full of crazed drugged out magical mutants. Set the block on fire, went home empty handed.

Friends, Family, Acquiantances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:

Name: Marcella McDonagel
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: North Daokta
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 5'7''
Build: Light
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Brown
Description: Ageing, but has otherwised aged well in her golden years.
Personality: kind, friendly, oppurtunistic (will not hesitate to teleport into a bank if she's running low on funds)
Biography: Marcella comes from a strong magical bloodline from which Desmond himself appears to have gained his wizardly inheritance. While her own powers manifested late in her life, Marcella had an innate talent for an especially rare and powerful spell: Teleportation, a kind of magic even archwizards rarely achieve journeyman status in.

Having lost her husband in the one day war she has grown increasingly close to her living son and often worries about him.

Name: The Demon of Angel City
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: ???
Place of Residence: ???
Height: Varies
Build: Medium
Hair Color: ???
Eye Color: ???
Description: The Demon's connection to the Raven is unknown and much speculated upon, occasionally seen alongside his supposed appearances around the world and known to have associated with him in several of the world ending crises around 2016.

Name: Nick Urias
DOB: ???
Place of Birth: Australia (Presumed)
Place of Residence: ???
Height: 6'
Build: Medium
Hair Color: Dirty Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Description: Nick Urias seems to have known everyone of some import during the cataclysmic years following 2016. That he has a connection to the Raven is unknown and speculated upon but absolutely nobody is surprised by it.

Frenemy list:
Civilizations -
The CIty of Ys, Brittany, fishpeople civ
Uralic Cultist village
North Korea
Siberian underground steampunk Ice cave dwelling human civilization
Magic Muslim Cult in Ethiopia

Wizards -
Lucius Sabo
Elizabeth/Demon of LA
Nick Urias
Julia
Séamus
That one guy in Morrocco

Supernatural Personages -
Ancient Treemonster druid in Scotland perpetually on fire
Solomon City wild Shadowcat
Baby Sphinx
Transdimensional Catgirl

Mortals -
Stripclub Rabbi
Unnamed Mexican Druglord (probably dead because Mexico)

SpoilerA Midwestern megacity, Glashrike is big in the transportation industry. A major portion of the Megacorp's standard modes of transportation are produced in Glashrike's factories. The city is laid out in such a way to separate the poor rich folk from the stench and noise of the automotive factories. To do this, there is a buffer area consisting of those who are too low-class to be housed anywhere else, ie everybody else.

Glashrike is heavily vertical, consisting of massive skyscrapers packed closely together, with walkways and roadways criss-crossing between buildings and winding around them. Elevators connect areas within the respective levels, but do not offer inter-level travel. The upper levels consist of those who work directly for the Megacorp, while directly underneath are those who serve them, mainly security/defense forces, maintenance workers who work on vital (necessary for the rich) projects, and messengers. These upper levels are known as the 'Skyrises'. Beneath the Skyrises are storage garages, called the Glashrike Garages, where assembled vehicles are stashed until they are to be shipped off elsewhere. The Glashrike Garages are under a state of constant and intense surveillance, since they're the city's livelihood. Beneath them is the area known as the "Smokeways". The Smokeways are where much of the general population of Glashrike live. They take up about the same amount of space as the storage garages, and as such are pretty tightly packed. Beneath the Smokeways are the actual factories. The factories produce thousands of vehicles every day, from cars and shuttles to airships and skybikes to vehicles of war. Because of the speed of production, the factories produce an indescribable amount of air pollution, which needs to go up. And so it is run through air filters and then vented up into the Smokeways.

Because the corporate air filters (the large ones, anyway) are not very good at their jobs, the streets of the Smokeways are filled with copious amounts of ash and smoke, which are constantly being belched into the streets via vents . The outdoor areas are extremely unsafe to travel unprotected. Luckily, for those who own businesses, corporate approved ventilation systems and rebreathers are widely sold and relatively available. For an exuberant price, of course. As such, almost all activities conducted within the Smokeways are done indoors, with airtight buses offering transportation between buildings and building air insulation being a top priority.

The only legal jobs are working in the factories, either manning a workstation or maintaining the machines, working 'maintenance' on the Factories' air filters and ventilation system, or working as a merchant selling ventilation or insulation materials or services. As such, many have taken to a life of crime. The Smokeways feature many mafia families, both major and minor, that are at constant odds with both each other and the Corporations up top. Notable families include the "Moyazo", a mob group that supports cybernetic augmentation as a way to increase their power; the "Od-Daino", a smaller, strange family that has discovered a secret method that lets them survive in the streets with no breathing protection. They serve as a group of assassins, and will even take on jobs from other mafia families as long as their jobs do not target any of the Od-Daino; the "Bronze Dragons", a group of regular humans with no powers or cybernetics, whose power comes from sheer numbers. They make frequent assaults on the Glashrike Garages for some reason; and the "Horizon Watchers", a group who claims to be able to see into the future, and always seems to be a few steps ahead of everyone else.

SpoilerSiren Song - Deirdre is a young Siren, and as such, has the power of song. When she sings a special song, her voice takes on an ethereal, otherworldly quality, and any man who listens to it becomes supernaturally attracted to her. Those men under her spell feel an irresistible urge to be near her, and will follow any commands that she gives them, even those that would go against their normal beliefs and desires. She is also capable of singing a different version of the song, which instead puts men to sleep. Thankfully, due to her young age and lack of focus on training it, Deirdre's song is relatively weak. To put a man under her spell, she must focus and target him specifically. She can sing to multiple people, but the more that hear her song, the less powerful and influential it is. Still, once somebody is fully under the effects of her song, they are under her influence.

Another aspect of Deirdre's song, one that is much harder to control, is that the lack of it drives many mad. Those who have been the full target of Deirdre's song now require it, as though it was an addiction. Those who go for too long without hearing her song lose their sense of self, eventually becoming mindless figures who exist solely to seek out the sound of Deirdre's voice.

Lady of the Depths - From her heritage, Deirdre gets an affinity with water. When she is in contact with a body of water (such as an ocean/lake/river. human made bodies of water, such as pools and sewers work as well), in heavy rain, or in areas with large amounts of steam or water vapor, her song increases in strength. In addition, she gains increased physical prowess, becoming both stronger and more resilient.

Stock Standard - Due to her line of work, Deirdre has moderate training in both hand-to-hand combat and small firearms, mostly for self defense.

SpoilerDown at the end of a grimy, seldom used corridor in one of the Smokeway's many crowded buildings is a slightly rusted metal door, unmarked with any sort of label. Behind that door lay a small, one floor living space. This living space is known as the "Burning Oak Orphanage". Burning Oak was founded by two of the Heroes of DC, Akira and the Plantgirl of Paraselle Falls, back when Glashrike was a regular sized city. The orphanage was made to deal with children with powers that had the potential to be difficult to safely control, and it accumulated and assisted quite a few children.

And then the United States began getting worse, falling to corporate greed and neglect, and Burning Oak began suffering. Still, with Akira and Plantgirl to assist, it persisted. As things began falling apart, Akira and Plantgirl began showing up less and less for reasons unknown, and Burning Oak began becoming buried under thousands of pounds of concrete and steel.

Deirdre was brought into Burning Oak Orphanage at very young age, and lived there for about as long as she could remember. It was never really the most hospitable place, now that Glashrike City was the corporate, smoke filled mess that everybody knew and loved, but it was about as home as home could get. And then, after dropping off a final group of kids when Deirdre was 8, Akira and Plantgirl disappeared for the final time, promising that they would be back. She never got to ask them where they got her.

As the years went by, Burning Oak fell more and more into disrepair. Deirdre, quickly becoming one of the more capable kids around the orphanage, was forced to do what she could in order to keep the place afloat. She took on a 'big sister' role for many of the kids, and served to care for the other kids there while the adult staff were out, looking for kids to help and money to earn. Deirdre learned to cook and clean and sew and anything else that would help her take care of her 'siblings'.

And then, when Deirdre was 16, there was a knock at the door of Burning Oak Orphanage. Deirdre, with one of her siblings on her hip and another clinging to her hand, answered the door, and found a group of mobsters standing outside of the door. The mob, who introduced themselves as the Jyako Family, told Deirdre that they had done some reconnaissance on the orphanage, and knew that they were in some serious financial troubles. They also said that they were going to help Burning Oak, because Burning Oak had something in common with the Jyako Family. Deirdre, unsure of what else to do, stammered out a excuse and scurried off to get the head of the orphanage.

It wasn’t long after that Deirdre was whisked away into a room by herself, with a variety of Jyako members coming in, testing her and seeing what she had to offer. Deirdre didn't like showcasing her powers, they made her uncomfortable and she didn't want to use them. In fact, she had rarely used them before the Jyako showed up. Still, she did it to get them to leave her alone. And the Jyako members were impressed, far more than Deirdre was comfortable with. They liked what they saw, and what they saw was some amazing potential. Deirdre's powers offered them some incredible utility, and so they gave her an offer that was almost impossible to refuse. Deirdre would come with them and work fully as one of the Jyako, doing whatever it was that was needed of her. In return, the Jyako would support Burning Oak, give them money and offer them protection, taking the orphanage into the Jyako territory. In addition, only Deirdre would be required to join, anybody else at Burning Oak would only work under the Jyako would do so if and only if they volunteered. And how could Deirdre say no?

It was then, at age 16, that Deirdre became a gang member. It was strange and scary, the things they trained her for, but Deirdre tried to remain strong. This was for her siblings after all.

To start out with, they trained Deirdre to use weapons, things like laser guns and knives and tasers. They told her she would need them to protect not only herself and her new Jyako 'friends', but also those who would threaten Burning Oak. In addition, these weapons would supplement her powers, allowing her to get things done that her song could not.

And speaking of her song, Deirdre found herself working as an interrogator for the Jyako. Her song allowed her unparalleled skill in extracting information from male victims. It was a simple matter for her to sing, and then her target would simply give up any information that she wanted. Deirdre didn't like interrogating, it made her feel gross and slimy inside, but it was something she had to do if she wanted to help Burning Oak. And so, Deirdre became the Jyako family's prime interrogator, able to get them any information they could have possibly wanted with a few correct kidnappings.

Still, Deirdre never completely settled into a life of crime. It didn't suit somebody of her disposition. Still, she hardened herself as best she could, and tried to make herself appear more 'scary'. And to her, that meant adjusting her posture, getting a bunch of piercings, and trying to speak less.

Working in the mob as 19 isn't easy.

Spoiler
Burning Oak Orphanage - The orphanage that Deirdre lived at for as long as she can remember. The Burning Oak Orphanage was founded by Akira and the Plantgirl of Paraselle Falls before their second disappearance. Unlike other orphanages, however, Burning Oak takes in children who don't fit in anywhere else. Specifically, Burning Oak was made to take in kids with powers that were hard to control, potentially dangerous, or both. As of recent, Burning Oak fell into heavy debt once Akira and Plantgirl disappeared, causing it to come into a difficult agreement with an up and coming gang known as the "Jyako" family. The Jyako family helps keep Burning Oak afloat and safe, and in return... Burning Oak offers manpower that isn't found anywhere else.

---Notable Burning Oak Staff and Wards:

Jyako Family - An up and coming mafia family in the Smokeways. They have met with the Burning Oak Orphanage and formed an agreement with them, in which one of the wards from the orphanage would join them in exchange for money and protection. The Jyako family is small, but is full of powered individuals, which helps them hold their own against the other gangs in the Smokeways.

---Notable Jyako Family Members:

Akira and the Plantgirl of Paraselle Falls - Many people know of both of these individuals separately, and of their exploits from times past, but Deirdre knows them together. Akira and Sharie (a name the Plantgirl insisted everybody call her. 'Please', she would say over and over again, 'Plantgirl is so weird and awkward I just want people to call me by my name') were not only the ones that found her, but were also the founders of the "Burning Oak Orphanage" itself. Despite caring quite a bit about all of the children they'd brought in, neither seemed particularly apt at caring for kids, though they most definitely tried their best, and the kids loved them. When Deirdre was 8, they left the orphanage to 'rescue more kids', and promptly disappeared. Deirdre is unaware of their status.

Rival Gangs - There are many rival gangs fighting for control of the Smokeways, and there is no shortage of dangers for anybody who is even remotely involved in such gang related activities. Notable major groups include the Moyazo (a mob group focused around cybernetic augmentation), the Od-Daino (a strange group of mercenary assassins that can breathe easily in the Smokeways' streets), the Bronze Dragons (a group of regular ass humans who have huge numbers), and the Horizon Watchers (another family of weirdos who seem to have some sort of future sight). There are also numerous smaller gangs and mafia families that are vying for power.

---Notable Members of Rival Gangs

SpoilerRapid, extreme, nigh-unstoppable regeneration and supernatural strength. To whit, the ability to heal wounds, regrow limbs, and come back from any damage, but without any ability to actually withstand the damage. So, like, if she gets say, hit by a car, it will be just as awful and gruesome as that would be, she'll just get up afterwards. The regeneration is also, clearly, horrifically, supernatural and is best pictured as similar to the growth and mutating potential of John Carpenter's The Thing. Even for minor wounds it's not like wolverine's nice low-graphics-budget-cost-healing, it's gross. Also, it all still really hurts. Even the little stuff.

As for the supernatural strength, it's both an extreme form of a body using it's entire potential, and at max, her body suddenly morphing and growing extra muscles that then proceed to shatter under the force exerted by the limbs, and then heal over the next couple of seconds. She can exert a more mundane full strength which is just like "using 100% of a bodies potential" and only doing minor internal damage, but normally, it's the horrific sudden mutation and then shattering of limbs and and gore and such. Since 100% of a sickly kids body ain't that much different.

Beyond that...Um...No, not really any skills or resources. 16 year old girl who spent a lot of her life in and out of hospital so...Fairly normal. She can play the violin pretty well and likes to boogie too. And a real good head for numbers. Like, damn.

SpoilerOrla was born in a GeneTech private hospital in Salem, Massachusetts. She was born a few weeks early, and kept in care for a while. When she didn't seem to be coping very well, after some days had passed, a check revealed a prenatal cardiac tumour that had been missed by earlier scans. Surgery for a month later was prepared, and went well enough seemingly, but there were side-effects. Orla was a pretty sickly little kid, prone to shortness of breath, weak immune system, thinness and short of stature, exhaustion and chest pains. So, lots of being bundled up warm and careful diets and so on, almost as exhausting as getting sick at times. Still, Orla had a large family willing to help out, and restrained from doing any of the really crazy shit most kids end up doing at least once. Well, was stopped from doing anyway.

But yeah, by sheer probability, the worse scrapes were the ones in home thankfully, nothing ever serious bar a few bad flues and such, a handful of broken bones and fractures, she went to the same school as all her siblings did, Cinoskamit High School. Never left Boston except on a family trip to New York, and a seperate trip to Salem where the grandparent's on dad's side still lived, and a few of several uncles. Apparently boys ran strong on dad's side weirdly enough. Orla was 8 when they visited New York, briefly visited a couple of dad's brothers, then 10 when visiting Salem, which was weird. A town that was balancing between self-sufficient and balancing corporate interests, some kind of Gene-tech plant that hasn't spread out much obvious influence over the area. Still, different than Boston, in people and atmosphere. Seeing the stars semi-properly, etc. It was nice. Orla still has a wand thing her grandma bought her along with a witch's hat, look hand crafted than off factory lines.

Anyway, a little after beginning high school, Orla's chest pains began to ramp up alongside fatigue, she assumed it was mostly due to high school stress, right up until she fell over coughing up blood during P:E, which did get her out of future P:E sessions, so, that was a plus. A hospital stint later revealed that her heart had regrown a tumour and only now had it reached the point that part of the tumour had been breaking off and blocking arteries, and one of them had just lodged in a lung artery. Thankfully, that clot was able to be removed as well as a few others in the process, but after discovering the tumour and giving Orla a proper look over, it was seen that other knock off effects had been happening, and that even if Orla was in a state to be able to survive a heart replacement surgery, it wouldn't fix the cascade that had begun.

Over the next couple of years, Orla was given regular medical checks, and procedures to keep blood clots down and drugs to help the symptoms and slow the tumours growth. At 16, it took another turn for the worse, no drastic events happened except for a little more blood coughing out, nothing like the original event but enough to get to the hospital and see that Orla's body was giving out, her heart was running ragged, blood pulse slow and cell count low, other bad medical stuff I don't know. Frankly the doctors considered her lucky for not having a stroke or something much earlier.

There was... some grimness, and angst, and misery, as could be expected. It wasn't a very happy time obviously. It wasn't a question of if she'd made it, but when, which was in a matter of days, maybe a couple of weeks. Speaking of, during one of the hospital nights, Orla was struggling to pass out in her room, morphine fighting against pain, staring at the ceiling, listening to the noises outside her room over the medical devices hooked up to her. Slowly, the outside sound began to bleed away, until there was just the constant beep, beep, beep beating of her heart, slowing slowly away. Blinking, she noticed blearily through the drug-haze that the outside lights had also faded, and with effort of turning her head, saw that the window showed nothing. Looking around, no light shone from the cracks of the door either. It took a long while for her brain to reach the conclusion that something weird was happening.

A feeling of pressure began to grow, like that feeling where one's ears begin to pop. A static feeling over her skin, a buzzing sensation on her tongue and an itch in her nostrils, accompanied falling lights outside. Like shooting stars against a pitch black sky, white lights tinted with wild colours were falling like rare flakes of snow caught in a silent wild wind past her window. One stood out, twirling around and around spiralling in the circumference of the window's frame, tracing out smaller and smaller circles until it stayed static under Orla's barely lucid gaze, a small part of her mind assumed she was hallucinating and was just enjoying the show.

The light began to slowly grow in intensity, blocking out the movement of the other lights, it's shine encompassing and seemingly consuming the others until the window was just a pale white. The pressure began to grow again, until all Orla could hear was her own heart-beat in her ears. And then the light and sensation blinked out, and her stomach tumbled violently as her ears finally popped and a feeling of normalcy returned. Her heart continued beating sporadically, violently in her chest, each beat painful as she tried to calm down and steady herself and recover from whatever that was. This was stymied by the lurching shadow from the side of her bed, crawling or slinking or something, out from underneath and rising up, towering impossibly over her, far taller and larger than the room should allow, and impossible to understand for Orla's frantic thoughts, shadows and depths in the form that couldn't exist or seemed to change as she stared.

It burbled something, a sound nothing organic could make, not with one mouth anyway. It sounded like words, but her mind couldn't parse meaning. After a long time, it spoke again, and this time comprehension was found, like dis-ciphering a second language. "I, want, to live." It croaked, a long, angled limb reaching slowly across a vast distance towards Orla. "Live, with I. I will, grant, bounty. Tribute, to host. Be, of I Flesh. Live."

Remotely, beneath the screaming of her conscious mind, Orla understood this was a chance, to survive her dying body. In a moment of lucid will. "I accept." She whispered, speaking her words with blood and bile rising in her throat as her heart spasmed, the heart monitor's light flashing rapidly, the sound of it muted in this scene. Eventually, the presence's limb crossed the plane of the room, and slowly, like the hand of an ancient, wizened crone, shakily touched her chest. And then in a sudden, violent and bloody rush, penetrated through her flesh, the body of the creature rapidly crossing the room, pulled by the invading limb, the impossible distance of the room closing in behind it. The core of the Thing rose above her and slammed into her screeching body, blood and fleshy gore carved out of her torso as it forced itself desperately in, ignoring It's host's cries, stray tendrils flailing about, grabbing wantingly at physicality, thrashing manically around as they were sucked in with It.

Orla's body twitched, her eyes wide as she soundlessly gasped, clawing at the bloodly bedsheets as her guest made itself comfortable. Her body slowly rised into the air, as if like a hook in her heart. Then, with a dismissive spurt, stray flecks of flesh were expunged from her gaping chest wound, small unneeded shreds of tumours and internal aberrations being torn callously out of her. Orla felt her heart being ripped open and studied, then, information gathered, consumed and replaced. Her body fell back onto her bed with a thump, still shaking violently, but calmed eventually, as it began to be stitched back together by the foreign force inhabiting it, and blackness, merciful darkness swept in.

Spoiler Esen was born in one of the poorer neighborhoods of the Big Apple - they'd made a comeback after, well, all of the shit that went down plus the corporate monopoly squeezing everyone for what they're worth. She barely knew her dad, though she remembers he smelled like coffee and had the most wonderful belly laugh. He'd left Turkey to look for new opportunities, but things didn't seem to work out. He insisted on giving her a "Good Turkish name", something to remember home by. Funny how things went.

He and Mom were always different, she said. Dissidents. Free-thinkers. Maybe that's why when the rent-a-cops raided their tiny apartment Mom shoved little Esen out the fire escape and dived out after. Dad didn't make it. The gunshots made it obvious. That was the first time Esen remembered running. Taking the routes nobody else would think of, seeing ways around obstacles. Of course, she had a little help from an invisible friend, but she never thought to tell anyone. Mom always said that some things were better kept secret. Fewer ways the bastards up top could screw you that way.

They were safe for a while after that. Didn't make big waves. Tried to recover and live a normal-ish life. Esen even went to school, which bored her out of her mind. But Mom never could keep away from fighting against the system. Probably the menial work she was doing didn't help. She started hanging out at one of the few places that wasn't under corporate influence - the public library. The trouble is, she found love there, a firebrand of a redhead named Selene. Esen didn't mind the new person hanging around home, even though it took a little getting used to. Selene was a journalist tired of lying to people, and her plan was to unveil the truth and get the people to rise up against the system. She convinced Mom to start going out, helping her collect information.

It was a routine break-in gone bad, she later heard. Mom got nabbed and sent off to some prison somewhere with barely a trial. She was a repeat offender, in their databases. They already had all the evidence they needed. Selene escaped, but didn't stick around for long. She needed to disappear, and once she was sure Esen could take care of herself, she did. Esen barely finished school and found work in a Turkish restaurant - though that wasn't really how she made the rent. On the side, she'd do jobs for people, get packages to where they needed to be, break into hard-to-reach places, that sort of thing. She learned how to fool and avoid the cameras and make ends meet. She started hanging out with other people like her, other runners, who gave her the nickname "Aura" because there seemed to be something around her that let her move better than the rest of them.

Two months ago, Selene made contact again. She'd been getting a group together, she said. A loose contact network of like-minded people. No names, just aliases. She was Madam Red, and she suggested Miss Green for Esen because she liked the color. Esen tentatively agreed, so long as there was no commitment. After that she didn't hear from them until last week. A simple job - deliver a package to a certain Violet on a certain date - tomorrow.

Spoiler

Name: Alexandria P. Escher
Aliases: Lex, Lux, the Starbright Prince, the Dark Knight, Alexandria Escher Parker, various one offs.
Date of Birth: July 14, 2001
Place of Birth: Oakland, California
Place of Residence: "The Good Ship Glitterbomb" (The GSG) is VTOL rotor-plane, converted from an armored corporate transport into a cozy mobile home! The usable living space, at a rough estimate, is about four tiny-homes worth of room. Even with storage above and below, the back half of that is a dedicated workshop. The rest is a fairly small, but tasteful, tiny home--with everything that's not very soft more or less bolted down. Sleeping space in the loft, mostly continuous living area in between the workshop and cockpit. They've painted the walls, put up paintings--it's nice. Lex probably wouldn't be happy with it if she didn't have extra living space in another galaxy, but she does, so it works! The plane has minimal weapons, relying mostly on its stealth capabilities (and Lex's) to avoid trouble. It's not a combat ship, it's a house!

She also has an apartment on the other side of the universe. Well, more of a tower? At the time it was built her specifications were "I don't want to be near any of these mind controlling bastards," but her allies argued that administration would be VASTLY easier if she didn't situate herself halfway across the goddamn planet, especially since she didn't live on the planet full time anyway. So the compromise was an apartment still in the administrative complex, but high enough off the ground that no one could reach it with their powers! And that she could have a dog.

Appearance: She looks rich. That's the first thing people tend to note, when she's not wearing an illusion. At six feet, she's quite tall, and she sports the sort of easy perfection very rarely seen in anyone without a team devoted to that person's beauty routine, or some level of gene modding. She's very athletic, and while her natural capacities have been enhanced by gene modding, she also works diligently to build and maintain her strength and skill.

She can never age past 25. Which is nice, but increasingly makes her feel strange and occasionally disconnected, especially when around people her own age (approx 49).

Lex is on the darker side of tan, with curly black hair (currently cut extremely short), and dark eyes with golden, starry flecks--a minor mod that she's incredibly happy with. Her Lux mask glows fairly brightly, so it's not exactly a give-away, either, she hopes--Lex otherwise tries to avoid easily distinguished marks. She's forgone tattoos, and has her constantly accumulating scars removed on a regular basis--which makes her a bit sad, at times. It makes things seem... impermanent.

She wishes her lifestyle didn't mean she always had to consider whether an outfit could instantly become easy to fight in before wearing it out, or how it worked with her body armor--she wants some impractical beauty, too! But at the very least, she can pretend to be wearing whatever she pleases.

And she wants to be wearing the cool and gorgeous bleeding edge of fashion.

Personality:
Incredibly brave, driven, and ready to singlehandedly fight anyone and everything that so much as glances at Earth funny. She could have turned out so much worse if she hadn't had so much love, understanding, and support from her family, friends old and new, loyal servants, and yes, even starstruck fans.

She's still who she's always been, but hopefully improved by time and effort.

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources:

-Shroud - Light + Dark
...+Hardlight wings/limbs
-Ring---Retrievable, with sufficient time and concentration
...+Sword
...+Scepter
...+Crown
.......+Teleport to/from Throne Stone
.......+Improved 'detached' illusions
...+Manifest/consume objects

-standard 'god' powers
...+Dream Appearances
...+Speedier recoveries
...+Immortality
...+Incentive to be killed by Demigods

-fame
...+Friendly with many 'robin-hood'-esque pirate groups
...+Popular with many in the public

-some savings/investments (Most confiscated, still has a few in her Alexandria accounts and a few surviving fakes)
...+Houseship (see above)
...+Skybikes (modded by Emma, combat and 'civilian' models)
...+Motorcycles
...+Various armor suits
......+Most used: A tech suit and magic platemail
.........+She also had a "Dark Knight" plain suit remade in the Garden for emergency or aesthetic.
...+Some 'necessity' survival kits hidden around frequently visited areas, in weatherproof containers. Done more as a fun activity than a serious fall-back plan. She aspires to one day hide a megaweapon inside an elaborately trapped cave, but alas, is not quite there yet.
......+Though she did do that with several vital pieces of Hermien Kohne's device! That was fun.

-skilled combatant
...+Extensive Gardenstyle training in hand to hand, swords. Earth training in shooting a gun.
...+Has a Scepter stabilizer in the Garden that gives her greater accuracy, modifying it to fire like a gun.
......+Made one on Earth as well but it keeps breaking. Ugh! Must be the materials. Couldn't find the right crystals.
...+Aerial combat specialist
......+Loves skybike battles
.........+Still cannot ride a horse/pegasus well, despite attempts to learn

-1/15th of a planet
...+It's in another galaxy but it's doin' alright

Biography:

The first time Lex killed someone was in the One Day War. KNIGHT tried to convince her to lie low, go into hiding with her parents, but she wasn't having any of it. She took a bulletproof vest, her recently acquired magical powers, and the loyal servant temporarily trapped in a doll's body who had helped her unlock said magical powers and informed her of a distant kingdom that she had inherited, and took to the battlefield.

She took down a destroyer. Then she went to DC, and helped take down the mothership.

She was a teenager.

The many successive crises, the high stakes and higher pressures both personal and global, weighed upon her and left her a very scarred young woman.

But she kept learning, and training, and fighting. Hopefully, that's enough to keep the Earth safe.

After Ragnarok, she spent a lot of time trying to make sure everyone on Tyrasia in the Garden of Light survived and grew into a society she'd actually want to put on her resume this time. The last one was just... Not one to brag about.

To this end, she went to college. First majoring in politics, then switching to industrial engineering...then, after some intense discussions with Becky, graduated with a degree in photography!


During this time, she was frequently in a relationship with Emma Parker, AKA Devana, though they were prone to breaking up (Mostly Lex's fault), then getting back together after some wild nights of drinking and property damage.

She kept up her Viewcube channel, but her entries were far less frequent than they used to be. Just extremely busy with everything! Argh!

Maria got pregnant, which was a disaster. She tried desperately to talk her out of it, but Maria wasn't having any of it. They parted on poor terms, and Lex fled to Europe decided it was a good time to study abroad.

She headed over to Europe to study with the dwarves, and catch up with Freya. She did learn a little bit...and they did have materials she could use, even if they wouldn't part with the nice ones...But she feels like Everan got more out of it than she did. She resolved to practice more of the basics in the Garden of Light, and come back later. (It wound up being about a decade, and she was engaged to Emma by then. She did indeed get more out of it that time, managing to make some semi-useful minor artifacts for her friends and family!) She probably learned more by watching how Freya managed her kingdom. It was a good time!

But then the entertainment arm of the the emerging megacorp seized the rights to 'Lux', and she cut her trip short to go express her displeasure. She wasn't able to stop them, but she did make enough of a fuss that thermal sensors became far more common in places such as broadcast stations and mega-corp held server farms!

She also raised the profile of certain pirate organizations who assisted her, to their mixed benefit.

She went on a long trip to train with various master swordsmen, at the end of which her motorcycle was on its last legs. She brought it back to Emma, who had modified it in the first place, in the hopes it could be repaired. It couldn't...but they hit it off again. And after getting drunk and stealing a ship from the megacorp, they decided to try dating again.

All in all...her life became a blend of wandering hero, frantic scholar, and dabbling artist, in both galaxies.

Friends, Family, Acquiantances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:

Hoo boy. Ok.

EARTHLINGS:

-Emma E. Parker: AKA Devana. AKA Emma Parker Escher. Lex's wife of seven years. A former child soldier trained by Father Orwell and rescued by Vigil, who had no choice but to mentor her after she blew up an alien spaceship and refused to stop fighting. Lex and Devana first met during the robot invasion, where they did not hit it off. Things went better after Ragnarok, where they got drunk and Lex kidnapped her for what turned out to be a date, complete with vigilantism and blowing up a bar. They dated off and on and off and on, then took a break, then got back together, and it seems to be working now that they've gotten a bit older? She's a master with the bow, mechanically brilliant, though she and Lex both stress at times over the fact that she's not immortal. Her wedding band is made of wood, to match Lex's (precious metals don't teleport well), and Lex spent a lot of effort and a lot of crystalwork to give it a special property: With a specific pattern of quick taps, Devana can activate it to cloak the area in shadow. Lex intended to pair this with something to give her sight that wouldn't be affected by it, but she never managed to figure that one out. So. Just use night vision glasses?

-Charlotte Escher: AKA Flux. Lex's older sister. After being hit by a meteorite, she became a functionally immortal shapeshifter, but has continued her life much on the same trajectory she had before that--becoming a blockbusting superstar actress. Admittedly, she did quite a bit of training with Jasper in the art of spycraft, and is now using her fame, powers, and anything else she can bring to bear to build an intelligence network with its fingers on the pulse of the world.

She's too 'old' to play action stars anymore, according to Hollywood, but some of her earliest action star roles were playing Lux, as she and her sister always joked about. She has some light and dark grenades from Lex, and a promise that she'll make something good for her once she gets some more materials, and they both think of something that would be useful. She did try a more ambitious project, but...Yeah, no. It's a lamp now.

-Sydney Escher: AKA Dragonfly II. Lex's eldest sister. She doesn't have to work a day job, having made quite a chunk of change as an e-sports champion, videos, and smart investments.

Two years after the visitation, she called up her sister after another epic clash with her archnemesis (DOCTOOORRR MAAAANTWIST), asking for her help rather than a high five. While her powers were still operating as well as ever, the bug in her body that provided them had gone completely unresponsive. Tro'Valekr had always struck her as kind of a lethargic jerk, despite claiming that his species didn't need nearly as much sleep as humans, but this was new. Lex contacted the bug in dreams, and he seemed pretty damn freaked out by this turn of events--this was not at all normal. He had been feeling a bit drifty and unfocused for years, (and in retrospect, that seemed fairly worrisome, he acknowledged) and now he could not seem to wake himself up.

Lex conveyed this to Sydney, who then took herself straight to Doctor Emily (local superpowered doctor). After a number of tests, her diagnosis was that Sydney had some kind of latent ability: some kind of bizarre reverse parasitism. The bug was cocooned in some Sydney-spawned growths, and being kind of...digested? Sort of?

Despite the risks of surgery so close to her goddamn brainstem, Sydney opted to have the bug removed to save his life--and with Doctor Emily's power, he made a full recovery. Weirdly, Sydney kept some of the powers.

Lex suggested that she could take on a new superhero name: REFLUX. This was shot down. As were her more serious suggestions of "Conflux" or "Redux", and that Sydney should try swallowing a bunch more magic space bugs to see if she could get more powers. Sydney was very happy to continue being Dragonfly II, and NOT swallow a bunch of bugs for science. Val found a new host.

Dragonfly II (under a new hero name) and III are still currently active in Boston...and married with so many dang kids, at that. Lex gave her a charm that can make her look like Old Style Dragonfly, if she wants to fool someone about where Dragonfly III is, for some reason?--this one actually turned out well! It does not cast a proper shadow, though, unfortunately.

Which brings us to...

-William K. Williams: AKA Dragonfly III. A public defense attorney, he wound up in the hospital early in his career after being roughed up, whereupon a certain bug decided 'whatever, this guy works'. And so he became the third Dragonfly. He kept up his day job for a while, and still does some paperwork, but...to be honest? The legal system's gone from bad to inexcusable. There's not much he feels he can do from within anymore.

-Chelsea Williams: Seventeen, and still no sign of powers. But she has a strong grounding in martial arts, some sword skills, and marksmanship, so she'll probably be good for whatever life throws at her. Hopefully.

-Melody Williams: Fifteen, and has a fixation with the idea of camping in the woods and living off the land. She's never actually been outside of the city, and would probably hate it. Book smart, but not the most coordinated, despite everyone's efforts.

-David and Matthew Williams: Both fourteen. They're going to become pirates some day, it's almost guaranteed. Lex said she was going to teach them magic and then taught them a stupid magician's illusion. They got a box that can conceal a person out of it!

-Alice Williams: Nine. She pushes herself to prove that she can keep up with her older siblings, but she's still just a kid. One that's ready to throw down with anyone.

-Her parents: Saengdao and Hayden Escher. Two of the lucky few who found places in middle management, and perhaps the last generation to actually have a retirement to enjoy. They are supportive of their daughters, and Lex drops them a line through dreams from time to time. They still live in Florida. Lex gave them a magic lamp. It was supposed to be something else, but...Yeah. It's a lamp now. Sigh.

She has a few other scattered relatives who have survived, but she hasn't really kept in touch.

-George Mason: Former KNIGHT agent. He really just wants to live his life at this point, and Lex thinks he more than deserves it. She checks up on him from time to time, mostly in dreams.

-Rebecca Walden Bruce: Becky, Becks; Best friend. Confidante. Normal mortal human being who pushes Lex to actually take care of herself and be happy. She's also an investigative reporter for various organizations, anonymous columnist to several resistance papers, and occasionally a run-of-the-mill detective for hire. She has kids, but they're grown and have gone their own ways. Mostly to work for their dad, who has a far safer job as an accountant.

-Emily Volts. An A.I. created by Max Volts. They used to go sight seeing together, but she doesn't go out so much any more. Especially not to America. She doesn't sleep, as far as Lex can tell, so secure communications with her are hard to come by, which is sad. Lex misses being in easy contact with her, she's a great friend.

-Maria Maldonado: AKA Coyote. Lex's earliest god-friend, and one she still wishes well, despite Maria's current ongoing suicide attempt in the form of having children. Lex tried to step in a few times to keep her safe, but Maria wasn't having any of it. So there's really nothing to do but try and steel her heart against the inevitable end to this tragic decision.

-Vigil AKA Marcus: They've known each other since the One Day War. A good dude, if a bit (reasonably) concerned about the whole 'child soldier' thing, to Lex's initial frustration. Received invitations to the wedding from both Lex and Emma, the latter of whom was his sidekick for many years.

-Desmond AKA The Raven: She nearly killed this fellow hero after Ragnarok over a combination of misunderstanding something he said and not recognizing him. She eventually sent an apology by way of his mother, but it didn't sound super penitent.

-Adrasteia:

-Ulrika:

-Rafael and Catalina:

-Freya:

-Etrana:

-Jasper: Former KNIGHT agent and Lex's first instructor. She's still fond of him, and she and her sisters pay for him to have a nurse he doesn't really need, but they worry. He's old, man!

-Michael Fontaine: Lex saved his life during an assassination attempt, but was unable to save his parents. She encouraged him on the path of vigilantism, protected him from further assassination attempts, and helped him gain control of his company. He was a good kid, and a good friend. She gave him some light and dark grenades, and, potentially more usefully? A pendant that keeps him from casting a shadow while worn. She was trying for a pendant of invisibility, but, again, real difficult to get right.

-Candy Fontaine: Michael's kid!!! She managed to drop in and see Candy a few times. She's certain the kid's going to make waves, somehow. How exciting!

-The Chillwind Prince: AKA ??? Ok. Where the **** is this dude? He hasn't died again, that's as near to certain as it can be, but it's been thirty two years since he was reincarnated, and there's absolutely no sign of him anywhere. Not even in dreams. It's a source of great stress to Lex, as so many things are.

MISC. VILLAINS: I'm tired.

ALIENS:

The whole...Space Pantheon:

-Hermien Kohne: A brilliant scientist who invented the bomb they used to blow up the hostile dimension, and the power dampener that severely lessened their losses in that battle. He has tenure, and is allowed to pursue most any line of study that catches his interest--though Lex has requested that he set aside some time to teach, as well. He is biologically about fifty-five at the moment.

-Dame Ivette: Grandmaster of the Starguard.

-Sir Ernaut: Second-In-Command of the Starguard.

-High General Gotfyre Strouken

-Grand Admiral Rowlend. Former Admiral of the First Fleet, a genius tactician.

-Spymaster Krea Kuhn.

-Penrose: A crystal elemental loyal to the Starbright Prince since long before Lex was born, though his employment conditions have improved significantly under her rule--once he got out of the doll body, anyway. An advisor, a servant, and a friend; her go-to guy when she needs something.

-Some other...staff.... Cid I'm tired, this section is very long, we'll figure it out as they become relevant! She likely has many domestic advisors, but probably hasn't filled the 'Steward' position due to the joint rule situation that's currently in place with the Princely Council. Besides, that position likely needed to be several positions in the first place.

-Tybare: Terrorist/Freedom Fighter/Former enslaved soldier of the Starbright Prince. Years ago, he freed her from her enslavement under mind control (by killing her) and helped her escape, which provided her with all the information she needed to liberate the galaxy, eventually. She's still grateful but also thinks he hates her, so she isn't always sure how to act around him. Lex actually quite likes him when he isn't crawling through her ship's air ducts, being all suspicious, but their dynamic tends towards her trying to stun him into silence with how impressive she is, and him trying to argue that she's not all that special, actually.

He's a politician, making sure the Princes stick to their promises.

SpoilerDestiny was pink-coloured from birth, and for a while they took pride in this. She was proud to be unique for a few years. Nothing eventful happened over those few years, but they were happy anyway. Or at least, until they came of age and had to join a pack. All of them worried she may be cursed, due to her pink-ness. She was left out of everything, day after day, week after week. Until one day, she didn’t even show up. Everyone was confused. Meanwhile, she was running away, at full speed. She didn’t care where she was going, and eventually she winded up deep in a large cavern, where the rocks shifted around. She was lost. She walked around, trying to find the exit, but she eventually just gave up hope and sat down. Minutes passed. Then hours. She was beginning to lose track of time, until suddenly she was empaled by one of the shifting rocks. She died. Her spirit wandered around, eventually finding a small phantom bunny. This bunny had a heart of gold, and the ability to revive Destiny. So it did. Destiny and the small bunny eventually found England, and learned the culture, language, etc. Eventually she moved to Miami.

SpoilerThe former Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue area is a major centre of employment and home to a megadiverse population of locals and migrants, including a small wave of Islander refugees. It is also somewhat better-policed thanks to the local power of the Corps, but there are major tensions and cultural clashes behind the scenes. The city is a major port and transport hub with rare connections to the rest of the world and widespread exploitation of alien tech. It is also one of the cities suspected to still harbour more powerful AIs, with a huge scandal over sentient androids used to justify a wave of mergers and acquisitions.

After the 'Emerald City' re-branding, much of the architecture was stylised accordingly into a soaring and shiny hi-tech landscape of green and white. As the city ascended, so did the cost of living and the streets themselves; with historical buildings overwhelmed by high-rise and skyways. Old studio apartments like the Lowman have become secret gateways into the increasingly-populated (and comparatively lawless) Seattle Underground, fuelled by smuggling and cyber-crime.

SpoilerPowers:
Skills:
Resources:

SpoilerBorn to a mixed Samoan-Maori family, Tamarangi was one of those fortunate to escape the desolation of New Zealand as a child, as both aliens and AI ravaged the country. Like many younger refugees, he was packed into cheap cryo-storage on a freighter from Christchurch bound for the relative safety of the United States. He spent almsot ten years in storage among the many cryogenic containers that were eventually hauled ashore in Washington State. Frozen during the visitation, he used it more to answer questions about the world as it had changed around him than more theological matters. He was still a kid, after all but the idea of Gods being real (even as a byproduct of some sleeping mega-god) was something of a shock.

While the local corps happily exploited their new-found source of captive labour (with the guise of charity, of course!) many were accidentally defrosted by a combination of deity machinations and a major cyberattack on the port. Tamarangi was one of the survivors, escaping the facility to reunite with his grandmother, who had mysteriously managed to follow him there, waiting for him to awaken. The rest of the family never surfaced after the incident. Perhaps they were lost due to malfunctions triggered by the hackers, were captured or ended up elsewhere. He hasn't given up hope just yet.

Tamarangi grew up mostly among fellow evacuees, living in and amongst the Docks and Industry District before encountering a college scout and playing American Football until corporate turmoil (and a major citizenship crisis) rendered the sport a dead end. He dropped-out of college and took to odd jobs under various pseudonyms to keep him and his dear tupuna out of poverty.

What jobs were they? Bodyguarding. Debt collecting. Enforcing. Club bouncer. And at his lowest point, a mercenary. He also trained at a local gym, eventually ending up as one of its main instructors. While he found gym work fun, the rents rising every month have kept him from leaving the lucrative 'dirty work' behind altogether. It was during one of his more… regrettable lines of work that he ended up gaining custody over an orphaned infant – Sophie. She is the main anchor in his life, albeit one that requires ludicrous tuition fees thanks to the state of education after the privatisation of the last high schools in Emerald – a luxury he largely missed out on before his first scholarship.

It wasn’t until his grandmother’s dying days that he was first visited by the Gods, which revealed her true identity and purpose as a chosen hero of Hinetītama, Goddess of the Dead. Looking upon him with mixed disdain and intent, he was commanded to follow her example and has been pushed and prodded to defend his compatriots in a largely hostile environment. With this new-found mission (albeit one he has yet to embrace and probably won't pay the bills!), life is sure to change. And fast.

SpoilerName: Sophie [REDACTED]
DOB: 13-Jul-2038
Place of Birth: [REDACTED]
Place of Residence: Norwest Student Complex, Emerald Megacity, WA
Height: 5’0”
Build: Slender & waifish
Hair Color: Strawberry blonde, curly
Eye Color: Amber
Description: Unusually pale, but eerily pleasant face, bordering on overt bioengineering. Minor surgery scars on chest, due to [REDACTED]. Clearly unrelated to her adopted father.
Skills, Powers, and/or Resources: [REDACTED], musician (Viola), lying, stealth, Illicitly cute
Personality: Looks are deceiving. Sophie can flip from sweetest little dumpling to precocious loudmouth with unerring speed. Few see her true emotions, tempered as they are by the necessities of life in Emerald. Her tomboyish attitude towards others contrasts heavily with her physical condition, partially as a result of [REDACTED]. Loves playing with cybertech and soccer, hates being left alone.
Biography: [REDACTED]. After Tamarangi took her in, life changed dramatically. It has been hard at times, but for all the anarchy and uncertainty in his life, hers has been far less stressful, something she is grateful for (even when she refuses to show it). Is a boarding student at a prestigous school, but has something of a bad reputation, despite her talents and intellect.

SpoilerAliases: Sergeant Hawk, Maddy, fucking borgo

Date of Birth: November 17th, 2009

Place of Birth: Columbus, Ohio

Place of Residence: Travelling across America, wherever the job takes her.

Appearance: Hoo boy, Madeline is a sight to behold. A good two thirds of her face is reshaped metal - stretching from the bridge of her nose, wrapping across her right orbit and the entire right, back and top sides of her head all the way round to her left ear, to be precise. (Though she wears a wig attached to her armoured scalp when going out in public, choosing one which covers most of this aside from her obviously artificial right eye.) This leaves only the upper left and lower parts of her face. What human parts of her face are left are sharp and drawn - even before she was maimed, her face was more predisposed to expressions of cruelty than kindness, though her personality didn't yet match.

Her arms and legs are obviously artificial cybernetics through and through. Much of her torso has been encased in armour-plated metal with deep-reaching panels where her internal organs have been augmented. She tends to wear grey and black corporate combat gear when working, and usually wears her combat jacket even when not on duty. She stands at 5'10 - three inches taller than she was before she was a cyborg - and looks pretty intimidating, with her blue-lit robot eye and half-plated face.

Personality: Grim, sarcastic and hard as nails. Her personal philosophy is that she'll do whatever it takes to survive. Though she doesn't have anything against the exceptional individuals she pursues, that doesn't mean she hunts them with any less determination. She is capable of showing affection, but is hesitant to trust and seeks retribution for even the smallest betrayal.

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources:

Biography:

Ancillary Characters:

Spoiler
Aliases: Cadence, Songbird, Candy

Date of Birth: February 14 2026

Place of Birth: Marseille, France

Place of Residence: As a child she lived in New York. Now she is currently resides in L.A.

Appearance: She's a pretty tall gal! She stands at 6'2" But she's also pretty lanky and slim so she doesn't give any instance of intimidation at all really! She's pretty acrobatic though and has some lean muscle. She has gotten her hair and eyebrows implanted with the latest tech FolliCOLORS™ Where she basically can change the color of her hair at will. She usually wears her hair blond (her natural color) though when she's in civilian get up. She also had her eyes dyed purple! Also new tech! (They were originally blue.) She has a fairly traditional beautiful face. She keeps up on most fashion trends and almost always has a new outfit on each day.

Personality: She's Pretty bubbly!!! She loves being optimistic and cheering people up! She can be a bit vain at times and ditzy. Is a bit airheadish and oblivious at times. She can also be pretty sassy!/ She's scared of... like death but isn't everyone scared of that?? And scared of big evil villains!! She's pretty scared of a lot of things! She's not that sturdy! She's a charitable soul and does her best to lift up the common folk. She's also very quick to cry, being very in touch with her feelings

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources:

Powers: Sound wave manipulation: If it comes from her mouth she can control it! She can create sonic blasts, Mimic people's voices and sounds! + Whatever she can think of probably!

Skills: She's well versed in acrobatics and dancing and singing (of course). She took dancing and singing lessons for her hobbies. She's a trained martial artist and a jack of all trades. She's well versed in stealth as well. She's also fluent in a bunch of different languages! A few of them are English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and ASL.
She also knows a few instruments! Such as Violin, Harp, Piano, Saxophone, and the Flute. Has a degree in Law and Business.

Resources: She was born into a very wealthy family owning Fontaine Industries.

Biography: Born to Michael Fontaine and Jeanette Lemieux (her being widely known as La Chat Cambrioleur). She was just placed in front of Michaels door one day with a note a year after a certain run in with La Chat (looks like she tried to take care of the girl by herself and it didn't work out). He was very shocked at this new development as one would expect a person to be after finding out they have a kid. He still took care of her and loved her but he was pretty young for a parent and it was during his vigilante days so he was pretty awkward around her but the fact that he still cared for her shown through the weirdness.

Her childhood was quite happy and privileged but she learned soon on from her dad that her place of privilege meant that they should do everything possible for the underprivileged. Michael was very adamant with her in learning from him in Martial arts, stealth, swordplay and anything else he deemed essential she should know like helping her integrate her powers into certain things. She didn't enjoy the sword practice much not liking such a scary weapon. She opted for using a strong blunt training sword or staff against him. A mysterious woman named Lux showed up rarely too to train with Michael. Lux would also help train her too with a very unique take down style and sword play style. She was school taught by her butler Philippe, who was an excellent educator. She had the option of going to a private school, and she did try it out! But she very quickly knew she didn't like it. The students there were awful and prejudiced and so were the teachers. After a failed attempt at her life she just decided to keep getting taught by Philippe, whom she loved a lot! Her mom also stopped by pretty often to visit her and bond a little bit and train her in some thievery techniques she's mastered over her time.

When she was in her teens she went with Michael on vigilante missions as support and to get her feet wet when she told her dad she wanted to also become a Vigilante/Hero. She was a sidekick for quite a while until the end of her college studies where she branched out into her own identity of Cadence and moved to L.A. to be out on her own and help people with her own merits.

During College level education she wanted a to help people in a different way and lift spirits, so with her resources she became an online only musician called Songbird. She couldn't have actual ties to the singer, she wanted to do live concerts and everything, but she needed the anominimity. She is pretty popular though! Her songs are free and they seem to make people happy! So she continues to make songs for them!

Her civilian identities job is working in her Father's company Fontaine Industries.

Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:

Michael Fontaine -Her Father! CEO of Fontaine industries. Despite the current state of the world he still endeavors to pay his workers well and gives good benefits. His leadership of the company has been nothing short of excellent. In person, he’s not very charismatic though, and usually seems distant if friendly. In his vigilante career he fought hard against the growing omnicorp while resisting them as CEO, surviving numerous assassination attempts and skillfully resisting hostile takeovers. Him and Jeanette have had an on and off relationship for a while until finally pretty recently they finally got married.

Jeanette Lemieux - A famous cat burglar called La Chat Cambrioleur! She is a master thief and has yet to actually be caught permanently! She has mutant abilities with her vision and it looks like her daughter got vocal mutant abilities! C'est la vie! Her primary area of activity is in Marseille, France but she heads over to New York for stretches of time to do her thievery there and dance with the mysterious vigilante residing there! She's a very sly and free spirited and playful and bubbly! She's in and out like the wind, not liking to stay in places for long until very recently. She cares for her daughter but she really is unfamiliar on how TO care for a child which led her to handing her off to Michael.

Philippe- A pillar of the Fontaine household! He is very smart and well loved throughout the family!! Candy feels tremendously close to Philippe. He's in retirement as of recently (5 years), but everyone feels that is well deserved for him.

Lux- A fleeting presence in Candice's life. Candice looked up her superhero feats and is very grateful for her presence in her life!

Spoiler
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Resources:

SpoilerElena’s story begins in 2016 - well, she was born in 1993, but nothing really happened for those first 23 years. She grew up in Texas, went to MIT, and got a degree in computer science that she’d end up barely even using. A chance encounter with a knife-wielding butterfly man left her bleeding in an alleyway, at which point her life was saved by an alien bug symbiote. The Dragonfly was born at that moment, after which she joined a group that was basically the Men in Black, fought some villains, got trapped underwater for a full month, got her girlfriend Katherine (Kat for short) in on the bug superhero action, and fought a whole bunch of alien invaders. Things were pretty alright until the group of total bastards known as STORM attacked her and blew up KNIGHT. She and her girlfriend fled the city and tried to figure out what to do next.

As luck would have it, they stumbled upon a bank robbery being conducted by some sort of alien. With the help of a space detective, they chased him down, beat the crap out of him, and stole his ship. From there they headed to the Hive, the territory of the bug-symbiotes, received upgraded superpowers… and almost immediately realized that they’d basically signed up for an eternal space war with little say in the matter. So, they left their symbiotes behind, stole their ship back after the hive tried to confiscate it, and left their lives behind.

I should clarify at this point that neither of them meant to be away from Earth for over 30 years. It really just happened that way. After fleeing the hive, Elena and Kat (and of course, their pet ferret Puck) had a series of adventures, each more dangerous than the last.

Elena and Kat’s first major adventure involved a group known as the Redshifters, a group of space pirates who hired them to fight some other, nastier space pirates. You know, the difference between the lovable rogue type of pirate and the “pillage, plunder, and do a lot of murder” type of pirate. To be honest, getting involved was a terrible idea, but at the same time… having allies in space was a good idea? And they were generally pretty likable and willing to pay. So. Elena and Kat, backed up by some piratey types, got in a big fight in deep space and blew up the ship of the dreaded pirate Roberts. Yes, she really calls herself that.

The second adventure was significantly longer, as Elena and Kat were hired by some shady types to move some cargo. Which, like. Obviously it’s some kind of mob bullshit, but Elena and Kat were hurting for Space Cash and it’s a bit hard to come by when you’re a couple of humans in a stolen ship out in the big scary galaxy. Unfortunately, after a few deliveries they screwed one up in a major way when the product somehow got blasted out an airlock (a complete accident and not intentional at all). Thus, Elena and Kat had to spend the better part of a year hiding out from the Space Mob, before teaming up with a Space P.I. named Lari Trill to dismantle them entirely.

Having had quite enough of getting involved in beating up criminals, both organized and unorganized, Elena and Kat decided to go for some different contracts. And because they’re a couple dumbasses who will apparently try whatever shit, they went with a monster-hunting contract. They tracked the elusive Striated Voidflenser across a whole sector of space, where it’d been terrorizing (and eating) merchant ships for months, and in a huge, climactic battle, slew the beast after cornering it on an inhospitable, sulfurous world. They kept one of the beast’s titanic teeth as a trophy, but that doesn’t matter much now.

Between notable adventures, they also generally traveled and explored, becoming accustomed to life in space, taking on minor jobs, and just having a good time in space. They always meant to return to Earth, but they were delaying it as much as possible - who knows what Earth might be like with STORM around? (Don’t tell them that STORM lasted about six months, that’d just make them sad).

With a couple years of space exploration, adventuring, and general alien-beating-up under their belts, Elena and Kat decided to take on something a little bigger. Supposedly, shipments of medical supplies to a small frontier station had gone missing, and nobody who had gone to investigate had come back. Which, you know, major red flags there, but the pay was good and they kinda wanted to help people, so they went for it!

Perhaps predictably, the whole thing was a setup. Upon reaching the region of the supposed disappearances, their ship was grabbed in a tractor beam, their weapons systems were disabled, and they were dragged away into a hidden alien research station! From there, Elena and Kat were drugged and experimented on for an indeterminate amount of time, being stuck in cryostasis between experiments.

Unfortunately, God showed up. Elena had a short, bewildered conversation with him and figured out very little about her present state except that she’d be asleep for a while, and also, hey, there’s a real afterlife? That’s neat. The alien researchers, perhaps, didn’t take God’s visit the best, as they quickly descended into an escalating conflict that resulted in the station ultimately being ruled by a fanatical mutant cult. Its inhabitants’ mental states deteriorated over the years, they destroyed most of their records, and many of the subjects left in cryostasis were forgotten entirely.

30 years later… Elena woke up. She’s got some work to do.

SpoilerThe Two Most Relevant Ones:
Katherine Li - Elena’s girlfriend and companion on her space adventures. Skilled biologist and tailor, better at talking than Elena but not as much of a fighter. She was captured and experimented on just like Elena was, but by a different department of the research station - a department focused more on bioaugmentation than cybernetics. Currently still alive and held in a still-functioning cryostasis block on the other side of the station - though she should be waking up around the same time as Elena. They’re both gonna have to fight their way to each other.

Said experimentation resulted in the development of two distinct and largely unrelated powers. One of those is largely out of her control, as she’s apparently contracted some sort of bizarre alien lycanthropy that makes her occasionally take on the form of some kind of giant, super-strong pangolin-lizard monster. Said form is not mindlessly hostile, and, in fact, retains her intelligence - albeit with some alien instincts that magnify her emotions to excessive levels while making her fiercely protective of her friends and quick to start fights if warranted. She’ll cut a bitch, is what I’m saying. This power was not intended by the lab staff, and was instead cross-contamination from an adjacent cryotube.

The second - and perhaps more interesting - of these powers is some kind of mitosis-esque ability to split into two (or maybe more) perfect copies of herself. How this works, it’s hard to say, but both Kats retain some kind of mental link that lets them perfectly coordinate their actions as though they still had a single mind. This power tends to involuntarily activate whenever she shifts into Big Monster Form, which is less than convenient.

Puck - Elena’s pet ferret. Remarkably, he’s still alive, having also been experimented on and summarily frozen in cryostasis.

Family/Friends from Masks 1:
Julia Herrera Martinez - Mother. Died of old age a few years back.
Ismael Amador Parades - Father. Died when angels descended on the Earth in 2020.
Sancho Amador Herrera - Older brother. Used to be a travelling writer, but has since had to flee to Europe after his writing proved too anti-corporate for the megacorp’s tastes.
Roberta Amador Herrera - Eldest sister. Died in a construction accident while rebuilding after the AI invasion back in 2018.
Ysabel Amador Herrera - Older sister. Unemployed and living in poverty in Boston after her previous employer was bought out and downsized into oblivion. The only member of Elena’s family that she was really that close with.
Naveen Agrawala - Elena’s ever-sleepless computer engineer friend from Boston. Died under suspicious corporate-related circumstances in 2038, a death that was naturally never investigated in any detail.
Anya Ng - An internet friend from Great Bay City, Rhode Island, used to be a writer and street artist back in the day. Now leads a group of anarchist freedom fighters, fighting a mostly-hopeless battle to bring down the megacorp that rules the United States.

Space Contacts:
Lineilssk-Eniris - Former member of the now-disbanded Redshifters. Looks like some kind of large, gray-scaled theropod sort of creature with two heads and a pair of cybernetic arms. She was the ship’s chief engineer, and an expert at patching together machinery that really should have quit working decades ago. Today, she works at a dingy bar on a space station in the lawless frontiers of the galaxy, though she’s not too thrilled about that.
Hedran, aka “Heddy” - Former member of the now-disbanded Redshifters. Looks like a humanoid figure made entirely of purple crystal. He was the Redshifters’ ace pilot, able to pull off all kinds of dangerous maneuvers that really should never have been physically possible. He’s since joined up with a band of unscrupulous mercenaries, probably to escape his crippling gambling debts.
Lari Trill - A space P.I. who teamed up with Elena and Kat to fight the mob. Looks like a four-foot-tall, brightly colored alien bird with a tan trenchcoat, a hat, a scarf, and a lot of guns. Committed to making the galaxy a slightly less shitty place; has some significant psychic powers that they mostly use to make up for the lack of hands.
Kalana Vaiatea - An experienced monster hunter that joined Elena and Kat on their hunt of the Striated Voidflenser. Resembles an eleven-foot-tall, purple-scaled lizard person with four arms and a single eye. She’s big and strong and prefers fistfighting to using weapons in absolutely any circumstance where she can get away with it. Very loud, very friendly, likes to tell stories of her exploits. Disappeared a few years ago while hunting a beast known as the Incendiary Mechworm in some distant corner of the galaxy, but is almost definitely still alive out there.
Vedd the Mighty - An enigmatic figure Elena encountered no less than four times in the course of her travels. Looks like some sort of giant hovering jellyfish with a glowing green mass inside, wearing a wizard robe and hat. The clothing is apparently not for show, considering them showing actual displays of magic. Not particularly pleased about Elena calling them a “space wizard”, but can you really blame her? Their motivations and goals remain a mystery, but they’ve got a habit of showing up about whenever and wherever trouble is about to start.

Acquaintances:
Maria Maldonado Bezos - Just look up a few posts. She and Elena used to send each other animal pictures, so like… they’re basically best friends.
Val - An alien bug symbiote, from space. Elena was his host from 2016-2018, which allowed her to turn into a big dragonfly monster and fight crime. He’s still around, with a new host on Earth.
Crazy Joe - A less-than-popular newscaster from Boston, known for his news program, “CRAZY JOE’S CRAZY SHOW”, in which he would mostly yell over footage of superheroes. Elena was a fan of the show and called in once as the Dragonfly. Today, he continues to run his show underground to an even smaller viewership than ever before. Oddly enough, he doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since last time Elena was around.

Enemies:
Michael Rodriguez (aka Dr. Mantwist) - Elena was the first hero to fight Dr. Mantwist, and she’s… not really a fan, honestly. He’s kind of a dick.
“Steel-Toe” Stabson - The daughter of the infamous mob boss “Stabs” Knifely, who took over the shattered remains of her mother’s criminal empire after Elena and Kat killed her. Looks like of like an alien rat person, wears nice suits and gets her name from the deadly metallic footclaw augments she wears. Scheming and vengeful, she’s had 30 years to rebuild and scheme up revenge against the ones who wronged her. She’s never even considered the possibility that they’re dead, and has been biding her time very patiently.
Flez’k Gruk-Oor - An infamous bounty hunter, known both for his ruthlessness and his unwillingness to ever put on a shirt. Looks like a big humanoid stag beetle, almost as wide as he is tall. He clashed with Elena and Kat on numerous occasions, growing increasingly furious that these hairy bipeds from an uncultured, primitive world were taking on jobs that he’s sure he could have done himself. Favors the use of big, dumb, inconvenient weapons, like laser chainsaws or entire space artillery cannons. Handheld space artillery cannons.
Captain “Riptide” Roberts - Once captain of an infamous pirate ship, before Elena and Kat destroyed it. She got away on an escape pod, but lost everything in the process. A shapeshifter of some sort, who tends to shift shapes frequently enough to make a more detailed description pointless.. She conspired with the Ripcara researchers to have those meddling humans brought in for experimentation, and is pretty much directly at fault for all the experimentation and cryo-freezing that ensued. Today, she’s gotten a new, even bigger pirate ship, and has used it to become the terror of a large sector of the galaxy. Incidentally, her name fromes from a particular piece of Earth fiction that she enjoyed (humans always make fun pirate fiction). Some suspect the title of “Captain Roberts” has been passed between different pirates over the years, but really, that’s just her using different forms.

SpoilerPlace of Residence: Albatross City, Connecticut.


Appearance: A scrawny, shorter than average (5’5’’) teenager. He has prematurely grey hair (which he obscures in black hair dye) and sunken brown eyes indicating constant sleep deprivation. He is terrible at positive expression but amazing at evil ones. Suffers constant nosebleeds.

Ken dresses different degrees of functional and/or bland. He is never seen without eyewear or some sort of eye-obscuring accessory. He favors aviator shades, purposely dulled to remove shine.

Personality: Ken does not know how to properly socialize outside a paramilitary environment. Ken is friendly but keeps a large divide between his emotions and his actions. His sense of humor is often at the expense of others. Ken uses humor to cope with his lifestyle because jokes are free, therapy is not. Sometimes it is a bit too dark, too much.

Ken wants to be a good person. He needs to work on it.

While he has a long career of corporate espionage, he ironically despises dishonesty and secrecy.

Powers, Skills, and/or Resources:


Biography:

Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Rivals, Enemies, and anybody else:

SpoilerWhile most of the apocalypse was fraught with angels, several demons popped out of the woodworks, to torment the populace, but they deemed to be generally harmless compared to the current main threats, and the threats of the previous two world ending scenarious.

Soon finding out that actually they feared humans, and not the other way around, most of them fled to their home dimensions, but some joined up with local demons. For example, in Michigan, they joined the fabled goblin of Detroit... the Nain Rouge, bringer of curses. He helped them create a shanty town deep below the city of Detroit, built from trash, junk, and unsold car wreckage. And not a few years later, he handed them allover to the Mayor of the city. Maybe the Nain Rouge decided he works alone, or maybe it was just a step in the grandest prank against Detroit, that will pay off somewhere in the distant future.

While the existence of the demons was a common knowledge, the mayor decided to keep this a secret. In exchange, they asked the demons to provide the city with much needed electricity, or rather... hellectricity. This is provided by terrible rituals, which mainly involve chanting, running in very large and uncomfortable hamster wheels, and rolling rocks up very high, to let them roll down. It is all tiresome.

Demons were also forced to build a large paternoster (paternosters were all the rage in this distant dystopian future) leading to the surface. Its aboveground exit is inside a fake power plant.

One of these demons was Disfortunato, a demon of both sloth and greed. Originally spending his time on earth, he was tasked with break various appliances just for fun. Once the apocalypse was over, he became more subtle. He broke things, and then posed as an itinerant repairman, who charged a high 'convenience fee', for his repairs. Eventually, after being busted, and chased out of a town at gunpoint (covered in garlick, that is good against demons, right?) he realized that maybe, a solo gig was not worth it. He joined up with several demonic travelers, and tried to be nice to them. Sure, he pretended to be nice to humans while in his repairman persona, but being genuinely nice felt so wrong. So slowly, he adopted a sarcastic tone to cope with this. The demons didn't mind, I mean, when after saying "Suuure, I will fix your hellcar, I hope this time you won't break it in a day", he really did fix the car, and when they crashed the next day, he fixed it again!

Eventually, they joined up with the Nain Rouge, who very nicely provided them with a natural cave under Detroit, which they soon transformed into an unnatural cave. Committees formed (mostly talking about things like 'Do we make a skyscraper out of these car wrecks, or a mall'), and Dis' tried to claw his way into them. After all, the city was called Dis, and his nickname was Dis', it was like, an infernal sign.

Surprisingly soon, he managed to struggle up to become the personal yesman of the Nain Rouge... But then the Nain Rouge gave up the undercity to the mayor of the above town, appointing Dis' as the operator of the soon to be built paternoster. The true power was in the hand of an EPA agent, who forced the demons into producing something he called... Hellectricity.

Dis' is now at a choice. Either become the yesman of the new head honcho, stay as a handyman in a menial position, or revert back to breaking things...

Spoiler

The original band of demons Dis' travelled with. Drifted away when he tried to rise in power, but still amiable.

Asmodidactyl: Originally a demon of sloth, but decided to become the demon of anteater, which he heard is in the same order anyways. Obviously, not very bright, he will tell you useful information without realizing it was useful.

Σario: (pronounced Sigmario) A demon of lust and envy. Has a terrifying mustache. Can shapeshift, but the mustache always stays.

Hyeronima Bosch: A demoness of wrath with a bird head, smoking a horrifying cigar. The most powerful demoness in the Hellectricity plant, the best at using the hamster wheels.

Trapped Princes: A collection of tiny demons, representing the sin of spam mail. There are several dozens of them. Usually work as tiny informants, but it is hard to stop them from talking.

Desdemonica Evil Totally a real demon and not a human girl with fake horns, I mean with this name, what else could she be? There is no other explanation!

Humans, enemies

Mayor Cadillac: The first mayor to successfully best the Nain Rouge of Detroit in a game of chance, he now owns the Corrugated Iron City Of Dis. Descendant of the original mayor whose life was ruined after he was disrespectful to the Nain Rouge. He is really smug about the entire thing, and decided to exploit the realm for free """thermal energy""".

William Puck: An environment protection agent official, who claims hellectricity is much safer than say, solar power. He is either in the pocket of the mayor, or the mayor is in his pocket.

Human, ????

Jacarta Quest: Reporter in Detroit. Tries to reveal the truth behind the """Thermal energy plant""". Doesn't know yet that the Corrugated Iron City Of Dis exists, but has inklings of something supernatural going on. Met Dis' once when she tried to sneak into the plant, and triggered an alarm. Dis' helped to escape in a strange fit of altruism. He was in a sloppy human disguise.

The Big Man, friend or enemy? Its complicated:

The Nain Rouge: The famous goblin of Detroit. Gave the Corrugated Iron City Of Dis to the current mayor, which many suspect was actually a scam, with a long, horrible payoff. Hasn't been seen for a while.

Spoiler
SUPER ARCHERY - Marcus can shoot three arrows at once, he's so good. Can you do that? Yeah, didn't think so.

SUPER ENGINEERING - Marcus has gotten pretty good at prototyping and building equipment. That said, he's no Max Volts, but given time, he can design incredible inventions from scrap. Most of the time, he employs his engineering to make due with recycled components. A junkyard is his quiver, a janitorial closet is his chemical cabinet.

C. Q. C. - Marcus was trained as a child in a brutal and efficient mix of physical combat styles. Throughout the years, he's augmented this with his own training- he also knows muay thai kickboxing and escrima stick fighting. The former learned for his role as Protector, the latter for his role as The Robin, where he tried to employ less maim-y techniques and weaponry to be a good influence on Casey. It didn't work the way he wanted, but he now has a great respect for the amount of ways you can destroy the human body with a stick.

STEALTH - Marcus was trained in guerrilla warfare and the art of moving silently, skills he's refined during his years working on his own.

DEXTERITY - Marcus' physical training has always emphasized movement and dexterity. He might be old, a little sore, and sporting a metal appendage, but that hasn't slowed him down too much.

SCIENCE - Marcus is just BARELY not a "super" scientist, but he IS highly skilled as a chemist, still. He is capable of producing painkillers, hallucinogens, high-grade acids, and foams of various nature, just to name a few of his formulas. He's learned to make antidepressants but the many, many ways those can go wrong scare him. The antidepressant arrow might never come to be.

SURVIVAL - All of Orwell's child soldiers were trained to survive in the brutal theoretical wasteland of the post-apocalypse. Marcus knows three different ways to skin and butcher a raccoon. He knows how to identify poisonous and edible plants in the American West, and could make good guesses elsewhere. He can make a rain-proof shelter out of cardboard boxes, trashbags, chewing gum, and rubberbands. Orwell didn't teach him that one. That one he learned as a hobby.

Spoiler
MONEY HIDDEN DEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS, IN AN OLD CONDEMNED COAL MINE: Not too deep in, but deep enough to elude all but the most bold of searchers. The safe is wired to many boxes labeled EXPLOSIVES to ward off those. They're not actually attached to explosives, but a series of flashbangs, which go off in sequence, spaced out enough to cause thieves to run off. The cash is all that is left over from Marcus' day as a legitimate inventor and businessman. It's not a fortune, but it's enough to fall back on in case of emergency.

THE QUIVER - A room of the Hollow where Marcus stores his gear. He has developed many arrows over the years, some of them very situational. Some, understandable, like his firefoam and explosive arrows. Some, you can think of uses from, such as the Strikeback Arrow (with shoots another arrow out of the end after either a set time limit or impact) are a little ridiculous but functional. Others, like the Inflatable Raft Arrow, The Christmas Lights Arrow, and the Pocket Sand Arrow, suggest that Marcus needs more hobbies.
He also has his Supercomputer and personal lab here, and against a far wall are secure display cases displaying some of his older costumes, including his costume as The Robin. He covers that one up when new visitors come in, because no one else seemed to understand the merits of tactical shorts.

THE HOLLOW: The Hollow is acting as a refuge for various academics and intellectuals, including a trained doctor, a bionic prostheticist, and even America's True Superhero (and Villain) Museum!
Marcus doesn't allow the last one to advertise, understandably.

AMERICA'S TRUE SUPERHERO (AND VILLAIN) MUSEUM - A museum operated by an eccentric who Marcus is tolerating, he uses it as a way to store old superhero and villain gear that he's managed to gather. The most recent addition is a very charred, somewhat bloody armor worn by the last Protector, along with what was left of his gadgetry. They've got pamphlets (sans an address), t-shirts, ballcaps, 3D printed mugs, and even a newsletter describing the Exhibit of the Month! Marcus does not let them ship any of this. As a trade off for their... Service... He has tended to drop off the newsletters throughout the cities he infiltrates, and occasionally leaves hats, shirts, and mugs in Megacorp offices that he raids.

VIGIL SUIT - A light-armored suit made with alien and highly advanced scientific materials. It is, as follows: a light hooded jacket, black, with a light xeno-metal armored vest. The chestpiece has a symbol consisting of a dark-gold "V" with a candle in the middle, the flame on which conceals a powerful LED light capable of blinding or spotlighting his enemies. The long pants are lightly armored as well, having hidden pockets on the side for concealing small objects, and his belt is a utility belt, with various pouches for grenades and gadgets. His boots have armored toes and spiked soles towards the front to assist with climbing.

TOOLBELT - Vigil's belt holds a bunch of gadgets, most custom made. He has firefoam, concrete foam, and flashbang grenades of his own design, a few sets of collapsible handcuffs, a few healing gel syringes, a pair of stun batons, a microflashlight, a micro-cutting torch, a collapsible grappling hook and reinforced wire, a multitool, and light, alien-alloy prybar. The buckle of the belt can hook onto wire from his grappling hook and grappling arrows, allowing him to use gas-canisters to zip up vertical surfaces more quickly.

ARMORED QUIVER - a quiver of Marcus' own design. He's worked it over the last ten or so years, and it now holds 40 arrows. It's rectangular and straps to his back, with a light cushion between the back and the case. A small compartment on the bottom holds special arrowheads that for magnetic, goo, blunt, serrated, fishhook (?), and timed or impact ignition for explosive arrow types.

FAILSAFE - Marcus' robotic arm. It looks fairly normal, and has all the functionality of a regular human arm, plus, you know, being metallic, and the outer casing is made from a hardened alloy, with light alien alloy plating. However, the arm hides another function- when two buttons are activated simultaneously on his upper arm, the lower arm expands with a pneumatic hiss into a powerful compound bow. Now, Marcus will never be unarmed. The upper arm has an arrow divided into two sections hidden in a ridge of the design, just in case.

PROVIDENCE MK 3: A cyber-eye designed in secret by a megacorp for use by their own private enforcers. It allows its user infra-red, x-ray, electronic detection (for spotting electrical activity in, say, wires), night vision, and zooming on will. It also allows its user to see a "Heads Up Display" and a variety of light augmented reality functions, though the user will always be able to tell what is a product of the eye and what isn't. One of Marcus' support team broke the megacorp coding and tracking, and it now runs a cracked OS popular amongst transhumanist hackers. There is a port that allows the user to "jack" into computers and interface with them mentally, but Marcus tried this exactly once during his training with it, promptly unplugged it, and grumbled over having a headache for the rest of the day. He's not using that again anytime soon.

THE GOD-KILLING ARROW: An arrow Marcus had been developing on-and-off with the help of wizards he knew, particularly The Raven and Nick Urias. He called off development five years ago, and the arrow as it is probably can't kill God, but it DOES have immense anti-magic properties. Marcus doesn't want to use it since, at the last time Nick looked at it, he told Marcus that it "Probably could destroy any soul it consumes, don't know how many." Kept locked in an enchanted silver case.

THE NUKE ARROW - Very much not an arrow but very much an outdated nuclear warhead attached to a ramshackle missile Marcus has been prototyping. He didn't plan on having a nuclear deterrent, but he found one deep in the silo's storage when he established his base there, and decided he didn't want to get rid of it. His roboticist wants to attach it to a bipedal tank, but Marcus thinks that's dumb.

Spoiler When Marcus was eight, he was kidnapped by a madman named Father Orwell. Father Orwell was convinced the world would end and that humanity would need a new breed of super soldier to save them from extinction, one capable of operating with limited resources and in any condition. Thus, he kidnapped eight children total, brutally trained them to become child soldiers, and had them all learn the bow, as he believed it to be the most versatile and practical of any weapon. For graduation, they were divided into pairs and set against each other in a lethal contest. Marcus won his Graduation bout, albeit unwillingly, sending a friend over a cliff with an arrow to the leg. Orwell came to congratulate Marcus personally, but young Marcus didn't hesitate to put an arrow in Orwell's throat. Marcus escaped, but all his friends were either dead or missing, and Orwell's body was never found.

Over a decade later, Marcus was a haunted man trying to live some semblance of what he perceived to be a "normal" life for sake of his friends and family. He didn't consider himself human, he considered himself a living weapon. And when his best friend, Sam, was kicked to death by bigots in an alley, Marcus decided that he should use his abilities to prevent things like that from happening again. He became Vigil, The Man Who Remembers Those Society Forgets, and he murdered the three men as they celebrated getting off from the Sam's murder in a trailer park party. However, he murdered a fourth. The man was a white supremacist, no one to mourn, but Marcus had intended to wound him. He realized that, even if this person was irredeemable, he was no perfect weapon.

Shortly after, his friend Emily Lexington, a journalist, found out his identity while both were pursuing a criminal known as Tank Man. She threatened to out him to the feds if he continued a lethal approach, and Marcus agreed. Having given in to using non-lethal approaches to crime-fighting (barring understandable exceptions), the pair worked together to fight crime in Shermingham.

Following a brief team-up with the hero Watchman to stop the Burning Butcher ransacking Great Bay City (and triggering international nuclear war), Vigil saved a group of children from Father Orwell (who had survived his supposed death), turning them over to an institution known as KNIGHT for deprogramming. Afterwards, he was called to D.C. to fight the alien invasion. Despite his exploits during that, he was declined a pardon from the president. Dejected, he returned to Shermingham.

In Shermingham, he found that one of the children he had saved refused KNIGHT's offer to lose the memories of her Orwell training and had fought off an alien ship over Shermingham on her own. Vigil, seeing a reflection of himself, convinced her to train under him in trade for not forsaking her family and utilizing non-lethal tactics. Her name was Emma, and she'd go on to adopt the moniker Devana, operating as a hero on her own.

Marcus would go on to keep operating as Vigil, but started to grow as a person. He recognized his 'weapon' mindset as toxic, seeing the active harm of it in Emma, and he tried to keep better touch with his family. However, the bloody roots of his vigilante identity remained, and he felt that the people, especially children, needed a better example to follow. Thus, with the help of billionaire Burt Burson, he started building a new superheroic identity. Protector, a gadget-based hero who fought crime with hand-to-hand combat and science. In the process, he patented a few inventions and built a clean source of income himself. Somewhere in there, some robots were fought.

Then, Orwell returned.

He had a child assassin impersonate Vigil as a trap. Protector responded, and with his new skills, nearly got the upper hand, but Marcus was caught all the same. At a remote facility, Orwell revealed his plan: hired by corporate backers, he was going to destabilize all world governments. However, he was also going to double cross the corporations as well, creating a new world, in which man had to struggle, be creative, and grow strong to survive. Marcus managed to escape, destroying Orwell's cloning facility, and, with the help of U.S. military hero Bald Eagle 2, he took down Orwell and put a permanent end to him and his plans.

Marcus spent time afterwards with fellow survivor Marianne hunting down the corporate backers of Orwell's plot (with different means, Marianne was an assassin, a lifestyle Marcus never judged her for), and then God Woke Up.

Marcus spoke with God (tersely, he doesn't like the guy) and, after, spoke with his friend, Sam. Sam was more disappointed in Marcus than upset with him, asking Marcus to invest more effort in taking care of himself. Marcus realized his subconscious identification as a weapon was more persuasive than he initially thought.

Following the apocalypse, Marcus spent more time trying to awkwardly bond with his fellow heroes. Maria often didn't have time for his nonsense ('Marcus, I don't have time to start a fire-fighting superteam, for the last time'), Marianne wanted to charge him for any superheroic outing, and he formed a three year long superteam with Casey Kane that went by various names (the most popular being, to Marcus' chagrin, Rock 'n' Robin), and he tried his best to get his own company, Loxley Incorporated, off the ground.

By 2030, Marcus' life wasn't going so well. His teamup with Casey ended along with Loxley Incorporated, who was crushed by a megacorp who Marcus managed to slight. Without financial resources, he couldn't support more than one superheroic career. He let Casey keep the Rockmobile (specially made for him to drive) and the special combat suit he'd built him. (Mostly a lightly armored jumpsuit with goggles.) His friend and confidant, old Man Jenkins, had died and left him his ranch around 2025, but the megacorps had pressured the state to claim it as imminent domain. Marcus became heavily reliant upon his friend and patron, Burt Burson.

Then, in 2036, Burson Industries was bought out, and Burson himself was killed in an incident the news media covered as a tragic accident. In reality, it was very obviously a hired killing by the megacorps. Without a home, Marcus became desperate.

For a couple years he lived in the old tunnel system beneath Shermingham, having established a base there over the last ten years. However, the megacorps were more persistent than the police were, and Marcus grew to fear that operating in the shadow of them might be unwise. He took to the wilds of West Virginia, roaming about until he happened upon an abandoned underground missile silo in late 2038. He started squatting there, setting up gear and facilities to live off the grid, but was quickly met with a crisis when others fleeing the megacorps found his hideout. Though he wanted to send them on their way, he knew his friend Sam would want him to give them shelter, and so he did. Over the next few years he built up quite the motley crew, establishing his own small, functional commune.

And then Protector showed up.

Within the fall of Burson Industries, Marcus had lost his Protector equipment. Unfortunately, the megacorps found it. They used it to establish a solidly pro-corporate hero, betraying the working class of Shermingham at his leisure, cracking down on protests, illegally entering the apartments of anti-corporation individuals to beat them into submission. Marcus tried to ignore it, focusing on targeting the operations of the Megacorps with his vigilante actions, until Protector beat a few of an old friend's close associates into a coma. Then, then Marcus was angry.

Vigil waged a war on Protector that lasted a few years, quickly once again becoming a branded public enemy. Finally, in 2045, Marcus engaged Protector in a chemical refinery, following a brutal protest crackdown. Protector revealed that he had stuck a few of the protesting workers next to a heavy machine, rigged to blow, whose deaths he'd blame on the other pro-union employees neglecting their jobs. Marcus pinned Protector to a wall and set upon saving the civilians, however, at cutting the last one free, Protector charged him, engaging in melee. He'd freed himself by stripping his armor, and Marcus could now see that the man was no mere man, he was cybernetically enhanced. He held Marcus in a wrestling pin, and snarled into his ear, "We all go together, Commie."

Marcus doesn't remember surviving the explosion. He doesn't remember his support team pulling him out. He just remembers waking up, months later, in a bed at the Hollow, missing an arm and an eye. He considered killing himself, but stopped at the thought of the children suffering who, unlike him, didn't know there was an afterlife utopia waiting for the innocent following the cruel joke of life. With the help of one of his commune, a cyberneticist specializing in prosthetics, he made an arm to replace the one he lost, one capable of expanding into a powerful, sleek compound bow in the lower arm. He salvaged an eye from the remains of Protector, which his team had brought home with him. He spent the following years training in his new prosthetics, getting used to them, and working on his plans to take down the megacorps.

They'd taken so much from him, and even worse, from the children who would be forced to inherit tomorrow. Vigil was going to take it all back.

Spoiler

LEON AND CAMILLA LOXLEY: Marcus's parents. Not too notable, they're under the belief that Marcus is dead. Officially, anyway. They actually know (thanks to a code set up by Marcus ten years ago in a fit of paranoia) that he's alive out there somewhere, and while they worry, they also, by this point, know he can take care of himself. They just wish he would call SOMEHOW.

DR. LILLIANNE "LILLY" LOXLEY: Marcus' younger sister. She's become a Megacorp doctor. Also knows Marcus is alive, though she outwardly pretends otherwise. Marcus keeps track of her to make sure she doesn't get into danger through the Megacorp she works for. She likes to volunteer at a dog shelter, as well as clinics for the homeless, though more and more of the latter are running out of funding these days.

MARIANNE WINTERS: A fellow child-soldier and childhood friend of Marcus'. She's an assassin, a profession that Marcus always tried not to judge her too harshly for. While he knew she took some sketchy jobs, he eventually found out she took a particularly unsavory job from a Megacorp (that paid LOADS) and the two had a falling out. She's largely inactive now, due to being filthy rich and the Megacorps interest in using their own in-house black-ops wetworks teams, but she hasn't put away her bow quite yet. May or may not have a moral compass.

PAUL ROBERTS: A fellow survivor of the George Program, one who Marcus thought he killed. He had a certain Dr. Emily visit him, anonymously, so he should be healed of the old injuries he sustained from his childhood, but the man has a family, so he probably never touched a bow again. At least, Marcus hopes so. To this day, he refuses to contact Paul, to keep Paul safe.

FATHER ORWELL - Thoroughly dead, Marcus' childhood captor still terrorizes the dark corner of his mind. While Marcus KNOWS the man is dead for good, there will always be a paranoia that somewhere, a malevolent clone escaped.

EMMA "DEVANA" - Marcus' former sidekick, a child soldier he rescued from an Orwell camp as an adult. He mentored her in the ways of non-lethality and convinced her not to become the weapon Orwell had trained them both to be. She's still active, though Marcus and her parted ways over ten years ago, mostly due to her desire to make her own way and differentiate herself from his skillset.

JOHN "ALDOUS" FREEMAN - An aberrant clone of Orwell who Marcus spared, despite his paranoia. Aldous never caused Marcus regret, however, serving as a lonesome protector of the wilderness outside Shermingham, and at some point selling the rights to his brand of pickled onions to a Megacorp for a very sizable sum of money. As John got older, he donated most of his money to charities to help homeless youth and disappeared into the woods. He left Marcus a letter lining out his desire to live the last of his days in the serenity of nature, dying in a manner that he will not burden anyone, not even with funeral costs. Marcus decided to honor his subsequent request to not be tracked down, despite wanting confirmation that the Last Orwell was dead. In the letter, John left a coded message to Marcus: "Not in trouble, message genuine, thanks for everything."

EMILY "GUARDIAN ANGEL" LEXINGTON - An old friend and former sidekick of Marcus. A former agent of KNIGHT, Agent Lexington stayed active around Shermingham before running afoul of a Megacorp in the last ten years. She had to go dark, but Marcus has good reason to believe she's doing fine. She's resourceful.

SAM HUNTER - A friend of Marcus' whose brutal murder caused him to go on a revenge killing spree as Vigil decades past. During the Visitation, Marcus got to speak to him, and he tried to be more mindful of what Sam would want afterwards. That's gone out the window in the last five years, though. Marcus has decided he'll answer to Sam once the world is safer for the children of tomorrow.

OLD MAN JOE JENKINS - An old hermit who had a ranch outside Shermingham, he became like family to Marcus, who he let stay on his land in a shack. Marcus still remembers him fondly, and keeps a plaque in The Hollow to his honor. Passed decades ago.

ABSALOM AVERY - The civilian identity of the hero Watchman, Marcus and Absalom had an odd chemistry. Despite looking very much up to Absalom (on the verge of affection), Marcus could never let him get too close, and avoided the man on multiple occasions in the last twenty years, believing that Absalom was probably better off. Sure would be a shame if he tragically died, murdered by the Megacorps, wouldn't it, Marcus?

NICK URIAS - A close friend of Marcus', despite what Marcus would pretend in public when the two were together. Marcus always felt at ease around Nick, who was one of the few people he felt understood being a weird eccentric hobo survivalist. He visited The Hollow semi-regularly during Marcus' recovery, until he disappeared abruptly a year ago. That has Marcus very concerned. Sure, Nick would disappear off the grid for months on end, but a full year? Hopefully he was just sleeping off the hangover of the century... Hopefully.

#HERO - A hacker who Marcus worked with prior to Armageddon, and even a little while after. They never quite forgave him for becoming a millionaire, since they hate them (almost) unconditionally, but that was remedied by how short-lived his "fortune" was. They mailed him a "My Condolences" card when his finances sank low, which gave Marcus one of his five Hearty Chuckles of the year. They were on good terms, but Marcus hasn't heard from her in a while. Last he knew, she was being tracked by a Megacorp hacking team formed specifically to take her out. Marcus helped by waterboarding one of them in a toilet until they gave up some info on their teammates. After he delivered that info, she's been dark.

MARIA "COYOTE" BEZOS - Maria's kids know him as Uncle Vigil. One Halloween he ambushed them mid-prank with a carton of eggs. When they started trying to smoke as teens he'd consistently steal their packs of cigarettes. Then there was the time they were drinking moonshine and he broke out the good ol' Voice Modulator + Hologram and Smoke Arrow combo, becoming THE UNDERAGED DRINKING WRAITH. One time when they were six he showed up wearing trashbags and jumped out of a dumpster. Fun times.

Marcus would sometimes coordinate with Maria to help her commune get resources, as well as to sometimes trade for resources for The Hollow. She knows he has one but hasn't visited unless she ever would have needed to. He hasn't visited in the last five years, and but he's let her know she's still alive, despite the news stating otherwise. She's faked her death before, she shouldn't judge.

CASEY "THE ROCK" CANE: They were part of the superhero team Rock 'n' Robin for three years. They stopped a Mega Tank Drone of Tank-Man's once (the only of its kind seen since Tank-Man's disappearance), Cobra King six and a half times (he gave up early on the third one due to a stomach flu), the Slammoth once (that was a fun one), a small-scale war against the Red Reaper for four months (Marcus really hated bullet wounds by the end of that), Balloon Man once ("We don't talk about Balloon Man"), one barfight with Lonestar, three confrontations with Jackhammer, and a dozen minor one time villains. Despite the productivity of their career, Marcus called it off when he ran out of funds to support it. He let Casey keep the supercar, which was modified so that he could drive it. The second year of their team-up, Marcus gave him the most valuable gift of all; a modified, reinforced toilet that Casey could never break.

THE COBRA KING: Marcus has tried to get Cobra King on the straight and narrow about five different times, but they always ended up back out in public, waving snakes at innocent people. Their last encounter, Marcus stole the Cobra King's armored suit, which is still on display in The Hollow's museum.

LUX - She may or may not have married Marcus' old sidekick. Marcus views her like an rambunctious niece. He tries to keep track of her to make sure she's not in over her head with the Megacorps, despite her being more physically capable in a fight than him at this point.

DONNA DIAMANTE - Don Diamante's daughter, a 25 year old former manager of a Megacorps construction team. When she found out the Megacorp was cutting corners and jeopardizing the quality (and safety, but whatever) of her work, she demanded her bosses commit resources to fix the faults in the projects they built. When they tried to fire her instead, she tried to make off with construction drones and resources. When they sent a strike team to "reclaim" their property, she shot diamond shards from her fists and killed them. Prior to then, it was unknown to the megacorp that she had any type of superpower similar to her father. Don Diamante called in a favor, tracked down Vigil, and gave him a choice; help hide his daughter or FACE THE WRATH OF THE DON. After a pause, Marcus chuckled at the joke (a cool guy like the Don would NEVER actually threaten someone with blackmail) and assured the Don he had nothing to worry about. She's been at the Hollow for Six years, and her expertise has been invaluable in constructing new underground rooms for the complex. She can shoot diamond shards from her wrists, has diamond bones, and slightly-above human strength. Her dad helped her hide her superhuman abilities for most her life. She's shrewd, cold, but loyal to Vigil for giving her a place to stay and resources to practice her passion, construction. She also respects his commitment to developing quality concretes.

TRIVIA TREVOR - A man in a flashy besequined suit adorned with red exclamation marks, sporting gelled spiky red hair, pointy goattee, and a pair of LED lined shutter shades. Trevor is an odd look into what qualifies as a "dangerous supervillain" in the eyes of the Megacorps. Denied funding for his gameshow ideas, Trevor established an off-the-grid studio, seized control of several cable channels, and put on a ritzy call-in trivia show, showing at 7 PM (in central time), three times a week, for three weeks. Then the Megacorps finally tracked him down. The raid team destroyed his studio, equipment, and shot off his right leg with a combat shotgun. On air. All info about his show and the broadcasts were subsequently suppressed on social media. That would have been the end of Trevor, if the armored vehicle transporting him and several other 'super' individuals hadn't been stopped by a certain Vigil. He joined Marcus' commune in 2040, and established himself as a curator of the various gear and weapons of supervillains and superheroes that Marcus had seized from the Megacorps, deeming it "America's True Superhero (And Villain) Museum!" Marcus tolerates the museum as long as Trevor continues to maintain the gear and agrees to NEVER advertise its location. Trevor, nervous of being shotgunned by the Megacorp again, agreed. Trevor is actually a "super" individual, but, strangely, his powers seem to be super-exact memory, super-graphic design, and a strange type of super-engineering - he can prototype and produce gameshow equipment and tacky museum displays at an astonishing speed. He is extremely loyal to Vigil, but also really liked his stint as The Robin. He is the only defender of the The Robin's Tactical Combat Shorts.

THE STEEL ARM- Jessica Coles was a scientist specializing in bionic prosthetics under megacorp control. She grew increasingly unsatisfied with her work only helping the wealthy, until pictures of former child laborers in the Megacorp's factories abroad drove her over the edge. The children were filthy, suffering, and many of them missing limbs from working with dangerous equipment. Those who were unable to work were left to die. She stole a bunch of fabrication equipment, designed an armored combat suit with an intimidating left arm capable of generating energy shields and crushing metal, and set about establishing a lab off the grid to help the children. She was ready when the corporate strike team came, evacuating the children, and being ready to die standing for what she believed in. What she wasn't ready for was to be taken alive, informed she'd be brainchipped and forced to use her skills for the company again, and that they'd make her watch as the children she wanted to help were tracked down and apprehended for "stealing company property." She was flown back to the States and put on an armored transport to a secure facility, until Vigil stopped it. She joined with the requirement that Vigil helps her continue her work developing bionics. Marcus couldn't go too far abroad at this point, but he did also offer to save any of the children she helped that made it stateside.
Jessica is a super-engineer, but is much more skilled than Marcus. She lost her left arm in the raid, but she just laughed at that as she prototyped a temporary replacement, to Marcus' deep concern. By now, she has a prosthetic that matches the capabilities of her armored exo-suit, and is smaller, to boot. She has general training in handling pistols. Tall, African American, with long braids, green eyes, and generally wears some semblance of an armored suit. She appreciates when newcomers wonder if she's human or machine, always getting a good laugh out of it.

JAN "THE ROGUE DOCTOR" VARRA - a 23 year old 'supervillain' who was busted by the megacorps for practicing medicine without a license. Jan was trying to help the poor and those without health insurance, in direct opposition to the Megacorps. As such, she was rewarded by being brutally apprehended by the Megacorps, losing her ability to walk. Marcus saved her from the same transport as Jessica and Trevor. He's helped build her a spider-mech wheelchair, into which Jessica has helped integrate a bunch of medical equipment. Jan is highly skilled in medicine, having a specialty of improvising solutions with limited supplies, but she also possesses the ability to, slowly, mend muscle tissue by touching and focusing upon it. She can't regenerate grievous wounds and is no Dr. Emily, but it also soothes pain, which is an effect she relies upon more than anything. Her "supervillain" costume was a doctor coat and a bandana across her face. She's not the most creative.

BARKFACE 3: SON OF BARKFACE - A furtive looking man, who appears to be the fusion of a tree and a human, who claims to have grown from a seed of the original Barkface. No, he insisted, not like a sperm seed, a plant seed. All he wants to do is be left alone, but unfortunately, upon emerging from a plant cocoon, he ran afoul of a megacorp, which wanted to dissect and study him. After a destructive encounter, they captured him and tried to ship him to a blacksite, but Vigil stopped the truck. He has the ability to amplify and control plant growth. In trade for Vigil providing him with a greenhouse and leaving him alone, he helps grow food for the Hollow. He doesn't really talk to anyone, but sometimes shows up for community events.

MEKK - A non-binary individual who prefers to wear hooded jackets. They haven't shared much of their past, only that they were a supervillain who believed that robotics could topple the megacorporations, and they tried to do so with an army of scorpion-robots, attacking a Megacorps headquarters. The attack lasted ten minutes, and didn't even make the news. It wasn't for lack of capability, the scorpion-bots did mass property damage, but the Megacorp-funded robots had both superior funding and numbers on their side. Mekk was taken in and sent to a blacksite to be brain-chipped and forced to work in a corp robotics division. Fortunately, Vigil saved them. Mekk is jaded now, no longer believes one robot army alone can topple the megacorps. However, they are grateful to Marcus for saving them and allowing them to retain their sense of self, something they HIGHLY value. Mekk works with Marcus and the other scientists on various projects, but generally focuses on producing sleek, subtle drones to patrol the surrounding countryside for Megacorps presence, as well as working on a suite of mechanical guards to defend the Hollow from a possible attack.

NEON - Leader of a group of refugees, mostly orphaned children, sick, and disabled, who were seeking a place to live safe from the Megacorps. Marcus agreed to take them in. Neon herself is Korean-American, deaf, and proudly gay. Marcus has been learning sign to communicate with her. She's a super, her ability is to amplify light from light sources. This doesn't sound too useful, but it means she can use a small flashlight to blind her enemies. She is adept with assault rifles and 3D printing guns, but dreams of a day when guns will no longer be needed. She's also been learning the bow, from Marcus, in order to hunt more quietly, though she has no intention to be a combat archer.

KIT "MELLOW" LYN - A physical therapist who went on the run when a megacorp learned she's a super. Her only ability is to dampen the emotions of those around her, granting them a relaxed calm, but she's worried of what would happen if this power was abused. She showed up three years ago, and, upon learning of Marcus' situation, dedicated most of her time to helping him rehabilitate, despite his insistence that he didn't need it. She only has a "super" name because Neon gave it to her and she thinks it's cute, but isn't really interested in any superheroics. It went poorly when Trevor suggested a tie-dye cape.

SHORTWAVE - Not a part of the Hollow, rather, part of the Rainbow Network, an anti-corp underground coalition. Marcus knows him from when he used to be a greasy, anti-government libertarian. Marcus is pretty sure he only fights the corps to become a sovereign citizen, but whatever, you need all the resources you can get nowadays. Not a super, but a former information broker with plenty of connections. Likes crypto-currencies, and is an avid vaper, despite having to have gotten a synthetic lung installed after the onset of 'popcorn lung.' His pop culture tastes are very much stuck in the mid 00's and early 10's.

SIR ROBIN, THE GENTLEMAN THIEF - AKA "Dog!" One of the first instances of a superpowered animal Marcus knows of, Sir Robin is a somewhat portly Boston Terrier with the super power of selective intangibility, being capable of passing through obstacles and people at will. He uses this ability mostly to go where ever he pleases. Marcus would find this fascinating if not for the fact that the dog has used this ability to make himself at home in The Hollow. He just... Showed up one day. He seems to have some sort of enhanced intelligence, as well, because he doesn't eat things poisonous to dogs and has deftly avoided any and all traps Marcus set for it. At this point, Marcus has given up and mostly accepted that the dog will stick around, he just wishes that Jan didn't name him after Robin Hood. And that the dog would stop phasing into the Quiver at night to fart.
"Stop feeding Robin hardboiled eggs, Trevor."
"But he loves them SO MUCH!"
"HE ALSO LOVES FARTING IN MY ROOM"

SpoilerWeavers: Weavers are an enigmatic species from a space beyond the traditional confines of the universe - the chaotic Abyss that lies between countless realities. They’re unique among the species of the Abyss for their ability to perceive the infinite possible timelines and dimensions of the universe like the threads of a great tapestry - except the weaver was drunk, the loom was misshapen, and no one involved in the process understood color theory at all. That doesn’t make them masters of time and space, exactly - the ability to perceive something alone does not an expert make - but their tendency to pluck at and re-ravel the threads of reality is what earned them their name.

The Weavers largely inhabit massive citadels drifting through the Abyss - self-sustaining communities that dedicate themselves to a variety of philosophies around their involvement with the various threads of reality. These range anywhere from strict non-interference or mere observation, to more extreme philosophies of meddling with realities or trying to weave them into some ideal of Multiversal Perfection (with quite limited success, of course).

The Abyss: The Abyss is a possibly-infinite void that lies between the countless universes and dimensions that make up reality - the Nothing between all the Somethings. In its pure form, the Abyss is simply a vast nothing, where light, matter, and even time have little meaning. Thankfully, that’s not all there is to it - that would be dreadfully boring. The Abyss is populated by countless bits and pieces of dead and shattered realities, timelines that weren’t meant to last, beings that popped into existence without rhyme or reason… and so on. It’s a surprisingly lively place, in the pockets of the Abyss that can support life, at least.

Alongside countless ruins, the Abyss is host to numerous intelligent species. Most obvious are the Weavers on their vast citadel-ships, but there are many others - most of whom are far more malevolent.

Physics remains largely undefined in the Abyss, making it incredibly hostile to life. Laws of physics largely leak in from nearby dimensions, and break down the further into the Abyss you go. Inhabitants of the deeper parts of the Abyss tend to be incredibly alien, adapted to the distinct lack of physics. Those not adapted, meanwhile, make use of physics-stabilizing technologies and the like to remain alive.

SpoilerWeaver’s Sight - Theraea has the inherent ability to perceive alternate realities. All realities have some inherent property to them that Weavers can perceive - a sort of invisible “color” omnipresent in a given universe that clings to things even after they leave. In this way, Theraea can determine with a glance whether a given creature or object has come from - or merely visited - another dimension of any sort. This also lets her perceive dimensional portals or places where the boundaries between worlds are thin, by the “color” of another universe leaking into our own in that location.

Weaver’s Magic - As with all Weavers, Theraea has some inherent ability with the magic of the Abyss. Theraea is by no means an expert, but is capable of a few feats of reality-alteration. Short-range teleportation, limited telekinesis, localized temporal effects, that sort of thing. Certainly nothing world-shattering, that’s why we have technology.

Flight - Those wings aren’t just for show, you know. Surprisingly quick and stable considering how moths are usually known for running into things and electrocuting themselves when they fly.

Technology:

Physiology Obfuscator: A key part of any Weaver’s arsenal in the field, this device allows the user to take on the physical form of various lifeforms for the purpose of blending in. Tends to work less well for non-humanoid shapes, and cannot typically mimic specific individuals. Most Weavers leave them set to a single disguise until another one is absolutely necessary, because they’re a bitch to calibrate. Only functions while worn, and effects are completely non-permanent.

Nullspace Dwelling Unit: A device shaped like a box covered in complex runes. When activated, projects a portal into a pocket dimension the size of a small apartment, and typically furnished as such. This functions as Theraea’s home, and is thus outfitted with various comfortable furniture, books, and mostly-worthless artifacts collected during her travels. It even has wi-fi.

Computational Device: I can’t give all these things fancy names. It’s basically a computer, built into some mysterious and intricately-designed bracer thing made of some charcoal-gray stone-and-metal-ish substance. Can project a screen in the air (because it doesn’t have one on it), has significant computational power, interfaces with other technologies, and so on. It even does translations! That’s useful.

Abyssal Amplifier: Standard-issue amongst those Weavers with magical talents, this device (also a weird convoluted magic bracer - gotta have symmetry with your dangerous magical accessories, after all) augments the abilities of the wearer, usually for combat purposes.

Nullspace Storage Unit: Similar to the dwelling, but on a smaller scale, this device is basically a bag of holding, built into a stylish and totally incognito messenger bag. Actual incognito-ness of the device is up to interpretation.

Trans-Reality Gate Generator: A fairly large and complicated device - looks something like an incredibly complicated gun made of stone and metal, with a big fold-out tripod and stuff. When properly set up and calibrated, it generates a stable rift between dimensions approximately 3 meters across. Said rift remains indefinitely as long as the generator is active, but destabilizes and collapses within minutes after deactivation.

Weaver Multitool: A quasi-magical device with a number of different functions, from mundane utilities like knives and screwdrivers to tools of a more magical nature. Nothing particularly exciting, but very useful to have.

Portable Reality Anchor: This indispensable device, worn as a backpack with a relatively slim profile, asserts reality in a bubble around the wearer. In short, in areas where the laws of physics themselves might be hostile or reality has broken down enough to be dangerous, this device warps reality to make a liveable area in the wearer’s vicinity. More powerful variants exist that can create a permanent habitable zone or even nullify the powers of those who can warp reality, but Theraea does not have nearly enough prestige to get her hands on one of those.

Skills:

Generally athletic: Theraea is pretty athletic, with some decent endurance and running ability and stuff like that.

Strong as hell: Well, at least strong as hell by human standards. She can lift heavy things, and has twice the arms for lifting things as humans do! She’s not really any sturdier than an average human, though, so she needs to watch out for, like… bullets.

Linguistic training: Theraea is pretty adept with languages - she can speak English reasonably well even without translational help, just in case she’s left without her translator at a bad time.

”Engineering”: Really more like MacGyvering, but Theraea is pretty good at cobbling stuff together out of whatever she finds. As long as she has a good multitool on hand, at least.

Esoteric knowledge: Theraea knows a lot about many topics related to the Abyss and alternate realities and such! She doesn’t know nearly as much about mundane things here on Earth, though.

Spoiler
Theraea began life some 55 years ago (at least, by the timescales of our Earth), one of a clutch of 8 weavers that all hatched that day. She, along with her siblings, led relatively uneventful childhoods, enjoying the various amenities of the Seventeenth Spire as afforded to them by the relatively influential Ibuarska clan. She had a fairly standard education from a young age, learning about basics such as math, reading and writing, and multiverse theory. Nothing too fancy.

In fact, it was all very boring. Theraea’s adolescence was marked by a constant negligence for the studies she found uninteresting, along with sneaking out of the Spire and getting lost in the Citadel on a regular basis. Sometimes to get into general mischief with her developing magical abilities, sometimes to hang out with delinquents from other Spires, but most often, to visit the Observation Levels and marvel at passing threads of Reality snaking through the Abyss. The fact that her clan was known for their involvement in Citadel politics more than anything else only led her to seek out Anything Else all the more.

And so, at the age of 22, she and a couple of her friends from the Eighth Spire stole a small ship and went on an ill-advised journey into a passing bubble of quasi-reality, a pocket that had long since broken off from its parent universe, still real enough to be explored. As it happened, the bubble contained ruins of some unknown civilization, a broken-down and deserted city that had the misfortune of being skimmed right off the face of the universe and left to rot. The remains of an unsustainable timeline, probably - thankfully only infested with some relatively minor Abyssal creatures. At the center of it all, the three mostly-unharmed Dumbass Kids happened upon an oddity - an ancient device of apparently Weaver make, in the middle of a decaying research lab. Being, as mentioned, a Dumbass Kid, Theraea decided to take the device back to the Citadel for research purposes - and in the process, managed to deactivate it and destabilize the entire pocket dimension. Fortunately for her and her hapless friends, they’d been followed by a team of weavers, bearing the insignia of the First Spire, who were actually qualified to be here - they confiscated the device and sent the three home with barely a word.

Back on the Citadel, Theraea and her friends were reprimanded fairly sharply, and then promptly offered training under the Menders - one of the Citadel of Nineteen’s major organizations, dedicated to the repair of fraying timelines as well as the exploration of pocket dimensions such as the one they’d discovered. Given that this was an infinitely more interesting pursuit than politics, Theraea was super okay with this, and thus learned absolutely nothing from the experience.

Through the years, Theraea trained, becoming more proficient in her own magic as well as in the various advanced technologies employed by the Menders, among other topics. She often inquired as to what happened to the device she’d recovered years before, but every single time, she only hit a dead end. Eventually, she stopped asking.

God visited everyone in the multiverse a few years into Theraea’s training, but ultimately his visit didn’t do much to change Weaver society as a whole. Sure, some new schools of philosophy emerged, but ultimately the fact that there’s some particularly lazy creator being out there didn’t do much except explain a little better why everything is such a mess. He didn’t really give many satisfactory explanations for the Abyss, except that it was just “leftovers” from when creating the multiverse was finished.

Fast forward to the present. Theraea finally completed her training with the Menders recently, and requested as her first assignment a section of reality she knew perfectly damn well that most people were hesitant to poke at. A collection of many different threads of reality, knotted together in frankly bizarre and headache-inducing ways, all centered on a particular universe containing a planet that may be known to us as “Earth”. For reasons not quite clear, this universe and Earth in particular seem to have become something of a nexus for strange dimensional activity, with innumerable pocket dimensions and alternate realities and the like connecting together - maybe a natural process, but it’s become more and more chaotic lately, to the point where rifts between realities have started forming on their own, allowing things to leak through. So, that’s where Theraea decided to go, to get to the bottom of this phenomenon!

Theraea’d always been one to get distracted easily by new experiences, and so she very quickly became enamored with Earth and its people, eagerly immersing herself in this alien culture and forgetting everything her training said about not getting attached to Dimensions In Peril. She’s been here about six months now, and in that time has stopped a couple of minor dimensional incursions already - nothing major, but it would’ve been highly hazardous to the local humans if left unchecked, and she happens to like those local humans! The oddest part is that the incursions almost seemed planned - a rift to a universe where the Revolutionary War never ended opening right in the catacombs under the Old North Church Museum & Restaurant? Random chance isn’t usually so specific. Almost as though someone or something is doing this on purpose…

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Theraea, a group of Weavers from the First Spire works steadily to push this reality further and further toward catastrophe - but for what purpose? That has yet to be seen.

Spoiler

The Ibuarska Clan - A clan of a couple hundred Weavers living mostly in the Seventeenth Spire, best known for their work in Citadel politics. Among them are Theraea’s seven siblings, a full five of which have pursued political careers instead of more fun things. Of the other two, one is a museum curator and the other is an engineer. Theraea hasn’t seen any of them in a while, but they’re pretty alright.

The Menders - An inter-Spire organization dedicated to exploring and repairing broken and fraying realities, as well as exploring the remnants of long-destroyed realities. They’re fairly loosely-organized, and full members have a lot of autonomy. Theraea’s in good standing with the group, so she can get their support when she needs it - and other members occasionally drop by the Earth Anomaly to check in on things.

Observation Post One - A “space” station lying just aside from reality, established for the purpose of observing the anomaly surrounding Earth and its numerous alternate realities. Understaffed and generally lacking in exciting resources, but they are the closest weaver outpost.

Cydia Atta-Draikit-Amgarsk - A weaver living on Observation Post One. A real casual type, usually blows off work to hang out with Theraea when she’s around. Big nerd, especially about human technology. They collect pretty much any tech they can and tinker with it in their spare time.

Chrysiri Dezan-Safnask-Begeska - A weaver also operating on Earth (and occasionally, other parts of the universe). One of the Curators, they seek out interesting and novel artifacts to send back to the Citadel. A close friend of Theraea’s, they used to get into Various Mischief on the Citadel. Now they settle for getting into Various Mischief on Earth instead, when they meet up. Basically, the cool Crimes friend.

Actias Atta-Reikata - A weaver not particularly associated with any organizations. He’s lived on Earth for a while now, taking in the sights and exploring alternate Earths for artistic inspiration more than anything else. He’s a writer, whose works are published both on Earth itself and (sometimes) back on the Citadel.

Theraea has a few assorted friends back on the Citadel, but they’re unlikely to matter in the course of this game and have thus been omitted.

Rosalyn Angelov - A grad student in xenobiology (a very specific field, but it’s grown in prominence ever since the alien invasion 30-odd years ago). The only human thus far aware of Theraea’s true nature as a non-human. She’s cool enough to keep it a secret, and understanding of non-standard biology enough to serve as Theraea’s only real source of medical aid should the need arrive. They also get coffee sometimes. They’re friends!

Dragonflies II and III - A couple of local, bug-themed superheroes. Theraea was actually the one to make contact with them, under the highly mistaken belief that the talk about “big superpowered bugs” meant there were more Weavers active in the city. Instead she found… giant bug superheroes, completely unrelated. She still befriended them, and got their help against the Revolutionary War Incursion. She’s completely oblivious to the fact that they’re kind-of-sort-of humans.

Sanya Karim - Something of a rival of Theraea’s. She’s a PI with psychic powers who is very convinced that something is up with this “Vesna Lakatos” and is trying to figure out what, exactly. Why does she keep showing up when weird shit happens in town? Why can’t she get a clear read on her with her powers? Something’s suspicious. She’s not a bad person by any means, and is one of the few investigators around not influenced by corporate interests. She’s just persistent, and (perhaps rightfully) suspicious.

??? - A group unknown to Theraea currently, making use of ancient Weaver devices and various pocket dimensions around Earth to accomplish some insidious, but as-yet-unclear goal. Associated with the First Spire of the Citadel of Nineteen.