Character descriptions for "In The Soup"
Most of these characters were created by ysabetwordsmith, who has graciously shared them with me for inclusion in the reference material. Characters wholly or partially created by others have been identified.
Featured Characters:
Mr. Pernicious -- Alonzo Donati is an Italian of mixed Moorish descent from Lucera. He has brown skin, blue eyes, and straight black hair. He wears a long black moustache.
Origin: Growing up in the foster care system, he experienced much discrimination because of his ancestry. Due to the constant recriminations and abuse, he came to view himself as the personification of evil, developing superpowers in the process.
Uniform: Classic villain garb consisting of a black top hat and cape with an impeccable Italian suit in black fabric and a white dress shirt.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Intelligence, Good [+2] Dramatic Personality, Good [+2] Fighting, Good [+2] Gizmology, Good [+2] Wealth
Poor [-2] Internalized Racism
Powers: Expert [+4] Evil Eye, Good [+2] Temptation
Limitation: Evil Eye can be blocked by traditional methods such as cornetti or nazars.
Good [+2] Minions: There are nine lieutenants and many faceless drones. Mr. Pernicious pays little attention to telling them apart.
Motivation: To be the physical embodiment of evil.
(ng_moonmoth, tweaked by ysabetwordsmith) The Preacherman (Ezekiel [Zeke] Harmon) -- Tall (190cm), gaunt (60-65 kg), pale. Stringy black hair, except for a small clump which turned silver from the event in which he gained his powers. Piercing gray eyes. He is his parents' only son, and the youngest of four children. Zeke is currently 25. Sisters one (35) and three (28) are married, live in town, and are raising families. Sister two (32) is Rhoda, who hitched a ride and got out of town in her mid-teens, and hasn't been seen since. As the eldest son, Zeke was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps and become a preacher. Home-schooled; tenth-grade equivalent level. He supported Dad in church leadership, and prepared and distributed marketing materials (tracts) for the church. Currently romantically unattached and uninvolved -- "dedicated to the Lord's work." Hopes to eventually find a woman who is a "pure and holy vessel" which he can "fill with the Lord's blessing" to "quicken a new life."
Dad started out as a street-corner preacher, who later opened a storefront church in the "bad part of town." Mom was a community organizer who gave it up to stay home with the kids and help out when Dad was preaching. She was killed when Zeke was two, attempting to intervene to stop gang members from catching and beating a kid who was about the age where kids get recruited into the local gangs and had wandered into the wrong neighborhood. Incident convinced Dad to leave "Sodom and Gomorrah" (IRL: Kansas City MO/KS) for a more peaceful place.
They headed west, stopping one day for lunch in Gilead, a town of several hundred inhabitants in a historically "dry" county in south central Kansas. Finding that the town had no active church and a mobile home for rent cheap, Dad decided to check whether the town would support a church. They did.
Zeke travels around thumping Bibles, raising Cain, and generally making a nuisance of himself. He has a strong following among forks and other zealots, with many contacts in those subcultures. Despite his high opinion of himself, his moral compass points somewhat off True North.
Origin: Last summer, with a tornado bearing down on the trailer park where the family lived and the church was located, Dad and Zeke went up to a nearby high point to "pray to the Lord" to divert the tornado. A bolt of lightning struck the hilltop, killing Dad; but the tornado changed direction and spared the town and the trailer park. Zeke survived what amounted to a grand mal seizure triggered by the bolt, and upon recovering consciousness, discovered that he was Filled with the Power of the Lord. He can now Call Down the Lightning, and Gather the Winds to Smite the Wicked.
Uniform: Having been a voracious consumer of the western stories that hold the equivalent place to comic books in T-America (at least the morally straight ones that Dad let him have), he adopted a media-stereotypical Western preacher's outfit: black frock coat/pants/oxfords, white shirt, black string tie.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Moral Compass, Good [+2] Motivator, Good [+2] Orator, Good [+2] Zealot Contacts
Poor [-2] Fundamentalist Rabies
In short, an archetypical D&D low-level Lawful Stupid Paladin.
Powers: Good [+2] Summon Lightning: can open electrical circuits between sufficiently charged clouds and the ground.
Average [0] Energy Projection: able to extract energy from local weather systems and direct it at what he's looking at (normal beam width approximately equal to foveal field of vision, about 2 degrees).
Average [0] Hypnotic Speech: can cause one or more people who hear him directly and believe the truth of what he is saying to become entranced (no initiative, but can be awakened by others) for roughly five minutes to an hour.
Average [0] Weather Control: able to redirect air masses to trigger weather phenonomenon (Spin-Off Stunts: Trigger Rainfall, Plague of Hail, Sow the Wind/Reap the Whirlwind, Dispel Clouds).
Average [0] Minions: Half a dozen of the local teens/twenties, who were already attending his church, were inspired by his hypnotic speech to pledge their faith and support. They now sport exclusively Western duds and weapons, and style themselves the "Posse." One of them is a gizmologist who has built a Chariot of the Lord for Zeke to ride in, and modified a Duck to serve as an armored assault vehicle for the Posse. Although Ducks began as open vehicles, these are enclosed for safety during air travel. These are lifting bodies, which allows Zeke to use his Weather Control powers to make them fly.
Signature Stunt: Smite the Wicked. Can target Energy Projection to those who are currently entranced by his Hypnotic Speech by Calling on the Lord to Smite The Wicked.
Limitations: signature stunt is currently only ability to combine powers. Use of powers constrained by his (limited) imagination and ability to fit them into his worldview. Weather Control and Summon Lightning are physical inputs to local weather, which might propagate side effects well beyond the immediate area, or adversely affect his plans.
Vulnerability: Smiting the Wicked triggers a pseudoepileptic seizure ("Speaking in Tongues") of duration and severity proportional to the amount of energy released, during which he is incapacitated. The same would probably be true for other combined power uses. He typically compensates for this by "rounding up the Posse" to defend him until he has recovered.
Motivation: Rid The World Of Evil.
He thinks he's hot stuff, but more astute soups will be horrified at the thought of someone with rudimentary telekinesis and mind control powers running around loose and untrained.
(ng_moonmoth) Mark Crowe -- Started out in marketing for a midwestern manufacturing firm. Came out to LA on a business trip back when going out to a strip club after the business day was more common than now. Got an idea of the economics of the situation, decided he was in the wrong business, and moved west. Became a strip-club turnaround specialist, cutting deals with owners of struggling clubs to spruce them up and get better talent, in exchange for a piece of the action (both financial and personal). Wound up taking over the ones where the proprietors weren't up to the challenge, and built a network. Tempted some of the talent into servicing outcalls. Mark was able to track some of his talent back to human traffickers who supplied them, and worked out deals to get early access to recent imports in exchange for money and trade. The girls who clean up nice go to outcalls and get gigs at the better clubs. Ones who don't make the cut get dumped on minor-league pimps in the appropriate part of the Westbord metroplex. Also recruits pretty boys from lower-income neighborhoods.
Works his outcalls hard: "make the money while the making's good, use 'em up, and throw 'em away". The ones who bring in the money get the best jobs; as production falls off, the jobs get meaner and nastier.
Qualities: Master [+6] Eye For Profit, Master [+6] Business Negotiator, Expert [+4] Accountant (follow the money!), Expert [+4] Supervillain Connections, Poor [-2] Ethical Bankruptcy, Poor [-2] Treats Workers as Disposable.
Uniform: High-end business attire at work. At home, "timeless" very high-end casual outfits.
(ng_moonmoth) Señor Gaucho [Joaquín Gómez Sánchez]: Argentinian supernary bounty hunter. Born in late 1960s, and raised on an large estancia on the Argentine pampas. Men of his family have been gauchos on this estancia since it was established in the eighteenth century. Joaquín was training to follow in their footsteps when an battle between an organization of Nazi supergizmologists and an attack team of Israeli soups spilled out onto the estancia. In the course of the battle, much of the estancia was devastated, and clouds of unknown chemicals were released, poisoning much of the land and forcing the owners into bankruptcy. Deprived of the opportunity to remain on the land his family had worked on almost since its settling, and filled with righteous anger against the foes who had destroyed it, Joaquín found that his gaucho training was useful in bounty hunting, and began a career of bringing supervillains to justice.
Joaquín spends his off-duty time exercising his (dubious) romantic skills on any woman who responds to his overtures. Has yet to meet with more than temporary success, due to his treatment of the women he romances not aligning well with their twenty-first century expectations.
Qualities: Master [+6] Gaucho Skills. Covers horsemanship and weapons. Expert [+4] Living Rough, Expert [+4] Tango Skills, Good [+2] Romantic Idealism, Good [+2] Folk Guitar, Poor [-2] Relationships With Women, Poor [-2] Impulsive.
Uniform: Traditional gaucho attire, consisting of a black hat, a black shirt with a white scarf, a red-and-black poncho, brown leather chaps, and puffy black pants tucked into high-heeled black boots.
Weapons: Bola, riata, facón.
Also Appearing:
Captain Left (Marko Agüero) -- He has tinted skin and brown eyes. His hair was blond but is now mostly white and receding. His body is still trim and fit. Marko speaks Argentinian Spanish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, German, Hindi, and Italian. He enjoys Kraken's exercise facilities even though he's not much of a fighter or an athlete.
Marko often finds face-to-face interaction confusing and stressful, but he does great with online interactions. He keeps an eye on BlackSheep for young soups in trouble and follows world politics through the nets. He takes an especially dim view of mad scientists, but he likes ethical zeteticists just fine. His personal assistant is a cyborg Super-Gizmologist.
Origin: Marko came out of a secret lab. Genetic engineering gave him Super-Intellect from birth. Further modifications from neurosurgery and super-gizmology made him a Telepath and Technopath. Much of his scalp is netted with tiny scars, and thicker ones trail down his spine.
Uniform: Sometimes Marko wears street clothes to blend in with local populations. On field duty, he wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in his titular role, he wears his uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master [+6] Kraken Captain, Expert [+4] Stealth, Expert [+4] Friends in Cyberspace, Good [+2] Computer Games, Good [+2] Dexterity, Good [+2] Strategy, Poor [-2] Reading Emotion.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Intellect, Good [+2] Technopath, Good [+2] Telepathy.
Limitation: His telepathy comes from super-gizmology, so it lacks the hint of emotion that often comes with organic telepathy even for someone not counted as a telempath. It's the equivalent of talking on a telephone. Because Marko was raised in artificial conditions, he didn't get a lot of human contact early on, and he's used to thinking of people as flat mechanical voices. Combined, these factors make it hard for him to identify other people's emotions.
Motivation: To spark connections.
Captain Right / Sapphirina (Sandra Jaye Blain) -- She has fair skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair starting to go gray. She is tall and sturdy. She exercises regularly, most of it in combat training Her heritage is American, British, and Russian. Sandra speaks Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Turkish.
Sandra learned Asian games from her mentor including Chinese checkers, mah jongg, and go. That's also where she learned kenpo, which makes her potent in a fight even without using superpowers. Sapphirina can be demanding and perfectionist with her subordinates, implacable and ruthless in pursuing enemies. Sometimes this causes problems.
Origin: Sandra stowed away on a Kraken ship as a teenager, not knowing who it belonged to. They decided that if she was desperate enough to do that, obviously she needed them. So she became a supervillain henchwoman. A few years later, a supervillain with Water Powers tried to drown her by filling her lungs with water. Sandra shapeshifted for the first time. Then her Energy Blast manifested as a UV field, giving everyone a serious sunburn. And then it turned into a laser beam and sliced a big hole in the enemy vessel, which started sinking. And then she turned invisible and her crewmates almost didn't find her in time to scoop her into water so she could breathe in crustacean form. It took a couple of years for Sandra to gain control of her powers because they tended to go haywire when she was frightened, and she had to spend several months on a secluded island with only her mentor for company. However, eventually she learned to use the Energy Blast and Shimmering effects even in human form, so she can become invisible to human sight by reflecting only UV light, or create a dazzling display of refracted colors.
Uniform: Sometimes Sandra wears street clothes to blend in with local populations. On duty as a Kraken executive, she wears standard business attire. On field duty, she wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in her titular role, she wears her uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master [+6] Kraken Captain, Expert [+4] Kenpo, Expert [+4] Patience, Good [+2] Anticipation, Good [+2] Asian Games, Good [+2] Cooperation, Good [+2] Tactics, Poor [-2] Relentless.
Powers: Good [+2] Energy Blast, Good [+2] Shapeshifting: Sapphirina, Good [+2] Shimmering
Her Energy Blast can manifest either as a field effect, a beam, or a bolt.
Brittany Cuthbert -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and light brown hair. She is Australian. She was disqualified from the 1956 Summer Olympics for having Super-Speed. After that, she was recruited by Kraken and invited to the first Anything Goes Games in winter of 1956.
Origin: Her superpower grew in gradually.
Uniform: Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery. The jumpsuits are sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. They provide Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turn garish neon colors.
Qualities: Master [+6] Determination, Good [+2] Athlete, Good [+2] Spy, Good [+2] Teamwork.
Powers: Average [0] Super-Speed.
Motivation: To go faster.
Redeye (Cillian MacDowell) -- He has fair skin and short wavy brown hair with a single eyebrow stretching across his forehead. His eyes are ordinarily gray, but fire up red when he uses Laser Eyes. He wears glasses. He is tall and wiry.
As a supervillain, Cillian secretly blinds people, then later is caught by another supervillain and blinded himself, then eventually gets super-gizmotronic eyes and laser guns. More sophisticated than an assassin or a thug, he doesn't always kill. He can cripple someone's threat by blinding them, causing other injuries, destroying crucial equipment, and so forth.
Origin: Childhood surgery to correct vision problems left Cillian with superpowers. His parents sued the eye doctor and the case dragged out for years while they used their son as a pawn. When he turned eightteen, he left home and turned from casual pranking to more malicious use of his abilities. This attracted the attention of other supervillains, who began offering him jobs.
Qualities: Master [+6] Aim, Expert [+4] Sneaky, Good [+2] Hitman, Good [+2] Profiling, Good [+2] Sabotage, Good [+2] Supervillain Contacts, Poor [-2] Cruel.
Powers: Good [+2] Flight, Good [+2] Laser Eyes.
Motivation: If they're too blind to see what's right in front of them, they should just be blind.
(ng_moonmoth) Kaleidosculptor [“Candy House”] -- She describes herself as "mongrel Asian"; her parents' families emigrated from Singapore to Rain City. She is in her mid-30s, 165 centimeters tall and 58 kilograms. She has short hair, invariably dyed in one or more neon color(s); the dye job changes every month or so.
Laser light show artist who creates and performs shows at raves and festivals in and around Westbord. A techno/dance/house music lover and electronics geek who defected to rave culture after being hassled out of her high school's science and computer clubs for having "girl cooties" by male students she describes as "horny little boys with their heads stuck up their ******* asses". Was intrigued enough by the equipment being used for shows that she started hanging out with, and learning from, the folks who were running them. Eventually started getting some gigs herself, and got better quickly. Became successful and in demand enough to start touring. Currently she travels the rave and festival circuit in an aging Class C RV, packed with lighting equipment and some custom gizmoelectronics, and decorated on the outside with artwork depicting giant-sized sweets of the sorts used to decorate a gingerbread house. Kaleidosculptor hasn't ever used her deadname on the rave circuit; she's only known by her handle.
She uses her superpower to create custom light show equipment, and disable surveillance cameras monitoring impromptu rave locations. Also picks up additional money and gizmotronics as a specialist and rave community talent scout/observer for Kraken. When she's not traveling or working a hush job for Kraken, she parks with friends wherever she is, or goes up to Rain City for a while to hang out with friends she met there while growing up. Kaleidosculptor also participates in art MOOCs when she has the chance, and is trying to make some contacts in the art department at the University of Washington so she can get some studio access and make some progress toward an art degree. She's feeling like she's ageing out of the rave circuit, and is working on establishing her next career.
Origin: She was running the light show board at a Rain City rave (roughly 2000) when someone who was near the board took a hit of what they expected to be Ecstacy, but was actually a zetetic gas. The gas concentration was high enough that the original user died when struck by a laser beam. Nearby ravers had not received enough gas to be affected, but the cloud of exhaled gas was the right concentration to cause her powers to manifest. She can now alter the refractive index of any transparent substance, and can use Microscopic Vision to observe the effects. She's working on improving the precision with which she can use her power; right now, the edges of the affected regions are often fuzzy, and improvement is difficult.
Recruited into Kraken a couple of years later, when she foxed a surveillance camera in a closed factory that Kraken was using to monitor a safety hideout they had set up there. An impromptu intake interview led to a couple of trial jobs; success at those jobs, and demonstrating discretion and secrecy, resulted in an invitation to become a Kraken "associate".
Qualities: Expert [+4] Light Show Artist, Good [+2] 3D modeling (includes sculpture and computer), Good [+2] Electronics, Good [+2] Raver Culture, Poor [-2] Interrogate Authority.
Powers: Good [+2] Alter Materials Properties, Good [+2] Microscopic Vision.
Limitation: Alter Materials Properties only works on non-opaque materials, and can only change index of refraction.
Uniform: Colorful tank top, clashing neon board shorts, Doc Martens.
Motivation: Succeed outside the mundane world.
The Charioteer (Hiram Cooper) -- He has pale skin, watery blue eyes, and limp dishwater hair receding from his forehead. Because his migraines include visual effects and bright light is a major trigger for him, he usually wears dark-tinted glasses. He excels at following instructions whether spoken or written; given a suitable manual, he can figure out almost anything, to the extent that the manual covers or up to Good level.
Origin: Obsessed with the idea of Jesus as divine carpenter, he threw himself into learning how to make and repair things during his teens. An accident in his church youth group's garage turned his budding gizmology into Super-Gizmology.
Uniform: Usually a dark suit or shop jumpsuit.
Qualities: Master [+6] Dexterity, Good [+2] Bible Studies, Good [+2] Following Instructions, Poor [-2] Migraines.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Gizmology.
Motivation: "Every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.
Gargantua (Bertha Brunswick) -- Originally Bertha had light brown skin, brown eyes, and long nappy brown hair. Now Gargantua has skin of granite streaked in lighter and darker shades of brown, and her hair is a tough, spongy material in tufts of brown. Although she still has a feminine shape, she has lost the fine details of toes, vulva, nipples, and so forth. Her hands are mitten-shaped. Her face still looks relatively normal, though. Due to her size, weight, strength, and low dexterity Gargantua tends to break things a lot. She also sinks in soft ground. She is immune to most environmental hazards.
She has long enjoyed traveling, and has crossed much of Europe with some forays into Asia and Africa. She speaks Arabic, English, Esperanto, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and Yoruba. She also likes African and Middle Eastern drumming, primarily hand drums such as a djembe or doumbek. Her dancing is only average, though. She readily absorbs new ideas and gets along well with new people, crossing many cultures. In college Bertha was studying a variety of interdisciplinary classes in geography, world politics, tourism, and outdoor activities. She had not yet decided whether she wanted to be a diplomat, a travel agent, or a wilderness guide.
Then Gargantua became a stone giant and all of those opportunities dried up abruptly, which has left her sad and lonely. As a supervillain, she helps plan and guide trips for a variety of other supervillains. A drawback is that people often mistake her for a frontline fighter or bodyguard due to her appearance and powers. She really isn't. Her size and strength do come in very handy for wilderness challenges, though.
Origin: Caught in a landslide while hiking in the mountains, Gargantua emerged as a stone giant. People were terrified of her for no good reason and constantly tried to drive her away. So she became a supervillain because at least in that community there are people who aren't afraid of her.
Uniform: Sometimes Gargantua wears a simple kimono, mumu, or sarong of capery. But often she just goes nude, since environmental factors have little impact on her anymore -- and also she doesn't have much left in the way of sexual characteristics.
Qualities: Master [+6] Cosmopolitan, Expert [+4] Traveler, Good [+2] Drummer, Good [+2] Languages, Good [+2] Social Studies, Good [+2] Wilderness Activities, Poor [-2] Fragile World
Powers: Good [+2] Stone Giant, Average [0] Invulnerability, Average [0] Super-Strength
Motivation: To belong to a community
Nanette Abraham -- Nanette is tall and lanky, with fair skin and brown eyes. She has long straight brown hair, which she usually puts up in a ponytail or French roll. Her face is plain, even horsey. Nanette is one of the Guardians in service to Dr. Infanta.
Nanette was born a telepath. It made her life awkward growing up, especially before she learned to hide it.
Uniform:She usually dresses in nice but reserved women's clothing.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Patience, Good [+2] Conversationalist, Good [+2] Endurance, Good [+2] Nanny, Good [+2] Smart, Poor [-2] Fanatically Devoted to Dr. Infanta.
Powers: Expert [+4] Telepath
Motivation: Keep Dr. Infanta safe and happy.
Facanapa (Fausta Buffone) -- She has olive skin, brown eyes, and long wavy brown hair. Her body is curvy, with more bust than bottom. She comes from the Calabria region of Italy. Her favorite martial art is Bastone Calabrese, the Calabrian stick fighting, and she has an assortment of gizmological or super-gizmological sticks in addition to plain wooden ones. She also loves strategy games, especially Dama (Italian checkers). Facanapa uses her trickster skills to gather information, deceive people, and manipulate them. Facanapa handles a lot of the espionage for the Marionettes.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Trickster, Expert [+4] Mob Boss, Good [+2] Agility, Good [+2] Bastone Calabrese, Good [+2] Daring, Good [+2] Strategy Games, Poor [-2] Playing It Straight.
Powers: Good (+2) Illusion.
Dvorak (Imogen Kron) -- She has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and short wild white hair like milkweed fluff. Her hair used to be a slighter darker platinum blonde, a little thicker and more manageable. When she developed superpowers, it moulted over the course of a few weeks and came in much finer, a pure silver-white. Imogen has a heart-shaped face and a tall slender body, but generous cleavage for her size. She is an only child.
Imogen lives in Rain City. She has a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in nanotechnology from North Seattle College. For a foreign language, she took Esperanto. She loves movies, especially science fiction ones, and collects movie posters. One of her favorites is The Little Ninja. Dvorak wants to be rich and powerful. Also she just kind of loves playing with people. Beautiful and sexy, she doesn't hesitate to use seduction to get what she wants. However, she can just as well take it by subterfuge or force. Her nemesis is Qwerty, and Dvorak usually runs rings around her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty she wears a hip-length cape of white capery, a utility belt, and a catsuit of platinum dexflan with a round boob window. A glowing blue ring around the rim of the boob window makes the "Power" symbol:
. Her white boots have heels high enough to look sexy, but low enough to run and fight in effectively. Off-duty she enjoys wearing fashionable clothes, and her favorite pair of earrings resemble paperclips. However, she dresses for locale, so often that means business chic. In the workshop she changes to a slim jumpsuit with many pockets and a tool belt.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Computer Wizard, Expert [+4] Corporate Espionage, Expert [+4] Sexy, Good [+2] City Girl, Good [+2] Concentration, Good [+2] Geek, Good [+2] Logical, Good [+2] Movie Fan, Good [+2] Ninjutsu, Poor (-2) Dealing with Nature.
Powers: Average [0] Super-Gizmology, Average [0] Super-Immunity, Average [0] Super-Intellect
Motivation: Money and power.
Joystick (John Homer) -- He has floppy brown hair, hazel eyes, and very pale skin. He is short and scrawny. He wears large clunky glasses. He is enthusiastic and hyper. What social skills he has are primarily centered in nerd culture. John joined the Dweeb Team because he had the relevant skills and needed a place to stay.
Joystick excels in manipulating hardware. He can build things and also control them with his superpower. He can also sense and influence the weather. His current interest lies in merging these things to create super-gizmos for weather control. Being young and inexperienced, he has not altogether figured out the difference between weather and climate.
Origin: When he was five, John's kindergarten class went on a carefully supervised tour of a super-gizmology lab. John slipped away, somehow got into the active parts of the lab, and accidentally blew it up. His new superpowers manifested while he was still in the hospital recovering from his injuries. He drove his parents and teachers nuts for years, building things and making trouble, until he finally ran away and/or was kicked out of home (he tells the story both ways) at fourteen.
Uniform: Gang t-shirt printed with motherboard lines, jeans, and tennis shoes.
Qualities: Master [+6] Nerd Culture, Good [+2] Dexterity, Good [+2] Meteorology
Poor [-2] Wisdom.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Gizmology, Good [+2] Technokinesis, Good [+2] Weather Control
SunBrella: Good [+2] Localized Weather Control. Creates a traveling dry area within a rainstorm, with about a three-foot diameter.
Motivation: Because I can, that's why.
(ng_moonmoth) The Quartermaster (Richmond [Rich] Longstreet) -- He has mocha skin with a shaved head; he had nappy hair which was a pain to keep in good shape between the pitch and the pool, and now he's nearly bald. He is 195 centimeters tall and weighs 105 kilograms. He keeps in good shape.
Rich is the third of five children; he was born and grew up in Atlanta. Dad was a dining car cook for the Southern Line until passenger service was curtailed in the late 1950s. When Dad was let go, he opened a soul food restaurant ("I done got tired of fixin' white folks' food for white folks"). Mom stayed at home and raised the kids. Family was active in the local (AME) church.
Joined the Army out of high school in 1976; wanted to get away from the South (the Army still had its own problems, though) and get GI Bill money for college. Assigned to Quartermaster Corps, and found he liked the work. After his hitch, decided to try and set up in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of his mates when Rich was stationed at the Oakland Army Base mentioned he could put in a good word with the Longshoremen. Rich got a job at the Port of Oakland and worked through two years of community college before transferring to UC Berkeley as a junior. After graduating, one of his frat buddies (Alpha Phi Alpha) pointed him at a warehouse supervisory job in San Francisco. He's still there.
Bisexual; Rich first experienced attraction to males while in the Army, and stayed closeted through his hitch and college. Came out and became active in the LGBT community a couple of years out of school. Not in any long-term relationship; he hasn't had one that's lasted more than about a year.
Rich makes a point of participating in as many public and outreach events as he can. He'd much rather play sports than watch them -- intercollegiate water polo (center back) and club rugby (flanker) at Cal. Played a fair amount of pickup rugby after college, and is helping coach a women's rugby team right now.
The warehouse where Rich works is part of the Kraken logistics division, operated by a Kraken-controlled shipping company, hidden by the usual layers of ownership. His frat buddy was a Kraken talent scout who thought that Rich could work out well. The warehouse mostly handles items from legitimate Kraken operations, but occasional items that need to be moved quietly also pass through. Rich is currently the warehouse manager there. He has also held various offices in the ILWU Warehouse Division, and is currently representing the ILWU in their joint negotiation of the Northern California Warehouse Master Contract with the Teamsters.
Origin: Rich was a shipping manager in the fall of 1989. He was in his office, taking care of some extra items because a good chunk of his crew had left early to go to World Series Game 3 or meet up with friends to watch, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake collapsed one of the unreinforced masonry walls of the warehouse on him before he could take cover. This activated his latent Telekinesis, and Rich unknowingly diverted almost all of the falling brick from burying him completely. Crawling out of the rubble, mostly unhurt but badly scraped and with a knock or two, he started digging through the fallen walls to try and quickly uncover any of his crew who had gotten buried. Soon understanding his newly manifested powers, he unpacked much of the debris without success. Reporting his new powers to his boss at the warehouse got him opportunities to be part of logistics teams for Kraken operations, where his telekinetic abilities can substitute silently for many things that would otherwise require noisy machinery.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Discipline, Good [+2] Teamwork, Good [+2] Contact Sports, Good [+2] Athlete, Poor [-2] Erasure Target (race and sexuality)
Powers: Good [+2] Telekinesis.
Motivation: To be an inevitably visible part of his community.
The Marionettes: Minions of the Puppeteer. The Marionettes have 3 named captains: Giuditta (trickster), Pulcinella (trickster), and Pinocchio (counterintelligence). They have at least an Expert superpower, an Expert profession, and three Good qualities, but some are Poor [-2] Trusting Each Other. There are 10 named lieutenants: Gigio (sneak), Facanapa (trickster), Gerolamo (trickster), Orlando (Russian fighter), Rinaldo (fighter), Alcina (sorceress), Tancredi (fighter), Agricane (Japanese businessman), Ruggiero (fighter), and Argante (warrior). They have at least a Good superpower, two other Good qualities, but some are Poor [-2] Fanatically Devoted to Leader. Other minions typically have at least a Good profession, one other Good quality, and may be Poor [-2] Thinking for Themselves. The strings go everywhere; the Puppetmaster has thousands of people working for him who don't even know he exists. Agricane was a gift to the Puppetmaster from Shigeru Fukui at Lucky Frog. Orlando was a gift from Koroleva.
Officer Pink (Ansel Nicholson) -- He has ruddy skin and hazel eyes. His hair starts out light brown but he has it changed to pink by Paintrix, after which it also tends to stand straight up. He discovers that the pink color just feels right for him, and decides to keep it. Ansel is tall and athletic, with a rectangular face, wide shoulders, and trim hips. He is heterosexual and has a girlfriend. He sleeps so deeply that he's easy to sneak up on after he's asleep.
Ansel works on the Bluehill police force. He often volunteers for youth outreach and other public speaking. His pink hair helps other soups identify him, breaks the ice at presentations, and encourages people to ask him for help. On the downside, it also makes forks and other bigots hate him.
Origin: Upset by the increase in bullying, Ansel starts doing presentations at schools in Bluehill. The kids give him the idea of coloring his hair pink so he can see firsthand how people treat someone who is visibly different.
Uniform: On duty, Ansel wears the Bluehill police uniform. Off duty, he likes casual, sporty clothes.
Qualities: Master [+6] Compassion, Expert [+4] Citizen, Expert [+4] Cop, Expert [+4] People Skills, Good [+2] Athletic, Good [+2] Cheerful, Good [+2] Jigsaw Puzzles, Good [+2] Kindness, Good [+2] Listener, Good [+2] Problem-Solving Skills, Poor [-2] Deep Sleeper
Powers: Average (0) Wild Pink Hair
Motivation: To make the world a kinder place.
The Spectrum: A superhero team that specializes in raiding supervillain lairs, including labs. Two of their original six members, Rayblaze and Thunderfist, were killed in action by the Undertaker. They're good at cracking open establishments, but poor at minimizing the collateral damage. This is beginning to attract more negative attention. Standard uniform is a monochrome dexflan jumpsuit with monochrome capery.
Featured Characters:
Mr. Pernicious -- Alonzo Donati is an Italian of mixed Moorish descent from Lucera. He has brown skin, blue eyes, and straight black hair. He wears a long black moustache.
Origin: Growing up in the foster care system, he experienced much discrimination because of his ancestry. Due to the constant recriminations and abuse, he came to view himself as the personification of evil, developing superpowers in the process.
Uniform: Classic villain garb consisting of a black top hat and cape with an impeccable Italian suit in black fabric and a white dress shirt.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Intelligence, Good [+2] Dramatic Personality, Good [+2] Fighting, Good [+2] Gizmology, Good [+2] Wealth
Poor [-2] Internalized Racism
Powers: Expert [+4] Evil Eye, Good [+2] Temptation
Limitation: Evil Eye can be blocked by traditional methods such as cornetti or nazars.
Good [+2] Minions: There are nine lieutenants and many faceless drones. Mr. Pernicious pays little attention to telling them apart.
Motivation: To be the physical embodiment of evil.
(ng_moonmoth, tweaked by ysabetwordsmith) The Preacherman (Ezekiel [Zeke] Harmon) -- Tall (190cm), gaunt (60-65 kg), pale. Stringy black hair, except for a small clump which turned silver from the event in which he gained his powers. Piercing gray eyes. He is his parents' only son, and the youngest of four children. Zeke is currently 25. Sisters one (35) and three (28) are married, live in town, and are raising families. Sister two (32) is Rhoda, who hitched a ride and got out of town in her mid-teens, and hasn't been seen since. As the eldest son, Zeke was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps and become a preacher. Home-schooled; tenth-grade equivalent level. He supported Dad in church leadership, and prepared and distributed marketing materials (tracts) for the church. Currently romantically unattached and uninvolved -- "dedicated to the Lord's work." Hopes to eventually find a woman who is a "pure and holy vessel" which he can "fill with the Lord's blessing" to "quicken a new life."
Dad started out as a street-corner preacher, who later opened a storefront church in the "bad part of town." Mom was a community organizer who gave it up to stay home with the kids and help out when Dad was preaching. She was killed when Zeke was two, attempting to intervene to stop gang members from catching and beating a kid who was about the age where kids get recruited into the local gangs and had wandered into the wrong neighborhood. Incident convinced Dad to leave "Sodom and Gomorrah" (IRL: Kansas City MO/KS) for a more peaceful place.
They headed west, stopping one day for lunch in Gilead, a town of several hundred inhabitants in a historically "dry" county in south central Kansas. Finding that the town had no active church and a mobile home for rent cheap, Dad decided to check whether the town would support a church. They did.
Zeke travels around thumping Bibles, raising Cain, and generally making a nuisance of himself. He has a strong following among forks and other zealots, with many contacts in those subcultures. Despite his high opinion of himself, his moral compass points somewhat off True North.
Origin: Last summer, with a tornado bearing down on the trailer park where the family lived and the church was located, Dad and Zeke went up to a nearby high point to "pray to the Lord" to divert the tornado. A bolt of lightning struck the hilltop, killing Dad; but the tornado changed direction and spared the town and the trailer park. Zeke survived what amounted to a grand mal seizure triggered by the bolt, and upon recovering consciousness, discovered that he was Filled with the Power of the Lord. He can now Call Down the Lightning, and Gather the Winds to Smite the Wicked.
Uniform: Having been a voracious consumer of the western stories that hold the equivalent place to comic books in T-America (at least the morally straight ones that Dad let him have), he adopted a media-stereotypical Western preacher's outfit: black frock coat/pants/oxfords, white shirt, black string tie.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Moral Compass, Good [+2] Motivator, Good [+2] Orator, Good [+2] Zealot Contacts
Poor [-2] Fundamentalist Rabies
In short, an archetypical D&D low-level Lawful Stupid Paladin.
Powers: Good [+2] Summon Lightning: can open electrical circuits between sufficiently charged clouds and the ground.
Average [0] Energy Projection: able to extract energy from local weather systems and direct it at what he's looking at (normal beam width approximately equal to foveal field of vision, about 2 degrees).
Average [0] Hypnotic Speech: can cause one or more people who hear him directly and believe the truth of what he is saying to become entranced (no initiative, but can be awakened by others) for roughly five minutes to an hour.
Average [0] Weather Control: able to redirect air masses to trigger weather phenonomenon (Spin-Off Stunts: Trigger Rainfall, Plague of Hail, Sow the Wind/Reap the Whirlwind, Dispel Clouds).
Average [0] Minions: Half a dozen of the local teens/twenties, who were already attending his church, were inspired by his hypnotic speech to pledge their faith and support. They now sport exclusively Western duds and weapons, and style themselves the "Posse." One of them is a gizmologist who has built a Chariot of the Lord for Zeke to ride in, and modified a Duck to serve as an armored assault vehicle for the Posse. Although Ducks began as open vehicles, these are enclosed for safety during air travel. These are lifting bodies, which allows Zeke to use his Weather Control powers to make them fly.
Signature Stunt: Smite the Wicked. Can target Energy Projection to those who are currently entranced by his Hypnotic Speech by Calling on the Lord to Smite The Wicked.
Limitations: signature stunt is currently only ability to combine powers. Use of powers constrained by his (limited) imagination and ability to fit them into his worldview. Weather Control and Summon Lightning are physical inputs to local weather, which might propagate side effects well beyond the immediate area, or adversely affect his plans.
Vulnerability: Smiting the Wicked triggers a pseudoepileptic seizure ("Speaking in Tongues") of duration and severity proportional to the amount of energy released, during which he is incapacitated. The same would probably be true for other combined power uses. He typically compensates for this by "rounding up the Posse" to defend him until he has recovered.
Motivation: Rid The World Of Evil.
He thinks he's hot stuff, but more astute soups will be horrified at the thought of someone with rudimentary telekinesis and mind control powers running around loose and untrained.
(ng_moonmoth) Mark Crowe -- Started out in marketing for a midwestern manufacturing firm. Came out to LA on a business trip back when going out to a strip club after the business day was more common than now. Got an idea of the economics of the situation, decided he was in the wrong business, and moved west. Became a strip-club turnaround specialist, cutting deals with owners of struggling clubs to spruce them up and get better talent, in exchange for a piece of the action (both financial and personal). Wound up taking over the ones where the proprietors weren't up to the challenge, and built a network. Tempted some of the talent into servicing outcalls. Mark was able to track some of his talent back to human traffickers who supplied them, and worked out deals to get early access to recent imports in exchange for money and trade. The girls who clean up nice go to outcalls and get gigs at the better clubs. Ones who don't make the cut get dumped on minor-league pimps in the appropriate part of the Westbord metroplex. Also recruits pretty boys from lower-income neighborhoods.
Works his outcalls hard: "make the money while the making's good, use 'em up, and throw 'em away". The ones who bring in the money get the best jobs; as production falls off, the jobs get meaner and nastier.
Qualities: Master [+6] Eye For Profit, Master [+6] Business Negotiator, Expert [+4] Accountant (follow the money!), Expert [+4] Supervillain Connections, Poor [-2] Ethical Bankruptcy, Poor [-2] Treats Workers as Disposable.
Uniform: High-end business attire at work. At home, "timeless" very high-end casual outfits.
(ng_moonmoth) Señor Gaucho [Joaquín Gómez Sánchez]: Argentinian supernary bounty hunter. Born in late 1960s, and raised on an large estancia on the Argentine pampas. Men of his family have been gauchos on this estancia since it was established in the eighteenth century. Joaquín was training to follow in their footsteps when an battle between an organization of Nazi supergizmologists and an attack team of Israeli soups spilled out onto the estancia. In the course of the battle, much of the estancia was devastated, and clouds of unknown chemicals were released, poisoning much of the land and forcing the owners into bankruptcy. Deprived of the opportunity to remain on the land his family had worked on almost since its settling, and filled with righteous anger against the foes who had destroyed it, Joaquín found that his gaucho training was useful in bounty hunting, and began a career of bringing supervillains to justice.
Joaquín spends his off-duty time exercising his (dubious) romantic skills on any woman who responds to his overtures. Has yet to meet with more than temporary success, due to his treatment of the women he romances not aligning well with their twenty-first century expectations.
Qualities: Master [+6] Gaucho Skills. Covers horsemanship and weapons. Expert [+4] Living Rough, Expert [+4] Tango Skills, Good [+2] Romantic Idealism, Good [+2] Folk Guitar, Poor [-2] Relationships With Women, Poor [-2] Impulsive.
Uniform: Traditional gaucho attire, consisting of a black hat, a black shirt with a white scarf, a red-and-black poncho, brown leather chaps, and puffy black pants tucked into high-heeled black boots.
Weapons: Bola, riata, facón.
Also Appearing:
Captain Left (Marko Agüero) -- He has tinted skin and brown eyes. His hair was blond but is now mostly white and receding. His body is still trim and fit. Marko speaks Argentinian Spanish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, German, Hindi, and Italian. He enjoys Kraken's exercise facilities even though he's not much of a fighter or an athlete.
Marko often finds face-to-face interaction confusing and stressful, but he does great with online interactions. He keeps an eye on BlackSheep for young soups in trouble and follows world politics through the nets. He takes an especially dim view of mad scientists, but he likes ethical zeteticists just fine. His personal assistant is a cyborg Super-Gizmologist.
Origin: Marko came out of a secret lab. Genetic engineering gave him Super-Intellect from birth. Further modifications from neurosurgery and super-gizmology made him a Telepath and Technopath. Much of his scalp is netted with tiny scars, and thicker ones trail down his spine.
Uniform: Sometimes Marko wears street clothes to blend in with local populations. On field duty, he wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in his titular role, he wears his uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master [+6] Kraken Captain, Expert [+4] Stealth, Expert [+4] Friends in Cyberspace, Good [+2] Computer Games, Good [+2] Dexterity, Good [+2] Strategy, Poor [-2] Reading Emotion.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Intellect, Good [+2] Technopath, Good [+2] Telepathy.
Limitation: His telepathy comes from super-gizmology, so it lacks the hint of emotion that often comes with organic telepathy even for someone not counted as a telempath. It's the equivalent of talking on a telephone. Because Marko was raised in artificial conditions, he didn't get a lot of human contact early on, and he's used to thinking of people as flat mechanical voices. Combined, these factors make it hard for him to identify other people's emotions.
Motivation: To spark connections.
Captain Right / Sapphirina (Sandra Jaye Blain) -- She has fair skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair starting to go gray. She is tall and sturdy. She exercises regularly, most of it in combat training Her heritage is American, British, and Russian. Sandra speaks Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Turkish.
Sandra learned Asian games from her mentor including Chinese checkers, mah jongg, and go. That's also where she learned kenpo, which makes her potent in a fight even without using superpowers. Sapphirina can be demanding and perfectionist with her subordinates, implacable and ruthless in pursuing enemies. Sometimes this causes problems.
Origin: Sandra stowed away on a Kraken ship as a teenager, not knowing who it belonged to. They decided that if she was desperate enough to do that, obviously she needed them. So she became a supervillain henchwoman. A few years later, a supervillain with Water Powers tried to drown her by filling her lungs with water. Sandra shapeshifted for the first time. Then her Energy Blast manifested as a UV field, giving everyone a serious sunburn. And then it turned into a laser beam and sliced a big hole in the enemy vessel, which started sinking. And then she turned invisible and her crewmates almost didn't find her in time to scoop her into water so she could breathe in crustacean form. It took a couple of years for Sandra to gain control of her powers because they tended to go haywire when she was frightened, and she had to spend several months on a secluded island with only her mentor for company. However, eventually she learned to use the Energy Blast and Shimmering effects even in human form, so she can become invisible to human sight by reflecting only UV light, or create a dazzling display of refracted colors.
Uniform: Sometimes Sandra wears street clothes to blend in with local populations. On duty as a Kraken executive, she wears standard business attire. On field duty, she wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in her titular role, she wears her uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master [+6] Kraken Captain, Expert [+4] Kenpo, Expert [+4] Patience, Good [+2] Anticipation, Good [+2] Asian Games, Good [+2] Cooperation, Good [+2] Tactics, Poor [-2] Relentless.
Powers: Good [+2] Energy Blast, Good [+2] Shapeshifting: Sapphirina, Good [+2] Shimmering
Her Energy Blast can manifest either as a field effect, a beam, or a bolt.
Brittany Cuthbert -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and light brown hair. She is Australian. She was disqualified from the 1956 Summer Olympics for having Super-Speed. After that, she was recruited by Kraken and invited to the first Anything Goes Games in winter of 1956.
Origin: Her superpower grew in gradually.
Uniform: Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery. The jumpsuits are sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. They provide Expert [+4] Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turn garish neon colors.
Qualities: Master [+6] Determination, Good [+2] Athlete, Good [+2] Spy, Good [+2] Teamwork.
Powers: Average [0] Super-Speed.
Motivation: To go faster.
Redeye (Cillian MacDowell) -- He has fair skin and short wavy brown hair with a single eyebrow stretching across his forehead. His eyes are ordinarily gray, but fire up red when he uses Laser Eyes. He wears glasses. He is tall and wiry.
As a supervillain, Cillian secretly blinds people, then later is caught by another supervillain and blinded himself, then eventually gets super-gizmotronic eyes and laser guns. More sophisticated than an assassin or a thug, he doesn't always kill. He can cripple someone's threat by blinding them, causing other injuries, destroying crucial equipment, and so forth.
Origin: Childhood surgery to correct vision problems left Cillian with superpowers. His parents sued the eye doctor and the case dragged out for years while they used their son as a pawn. When he turned eightteen, he left home and turned from casual pranking to more malicious use of his abilities. This attracted the attention of other supervillains, who began offering him jobs.
Qualities: Master [+6] Aim, Expert [+4] Sneaky, Good [+2] Hitman, Good [+2] Profiling, Good [+2] Sabotage, Good [+2] Supervillain Contacts, Poor [-2] Cruel.
Powers: Good [+2] Flight, Good [+2] Laser Eyes.
Motivation: If they're too blind to see what's right in front of them, they should just be blind.
(ng_moonmoth) Kaleidosculptor [“Candy House”] -- She describes herself as "mongrel Asian"; her parents' families emigrated from Singapore to Rain City. She is in her mid-30s, 165 centimeters tall and 58 kilograms. She has short hair, invariably dyed in one or more neon color(s); the dye job changes every month or so.
Laser light show artist who creates and performs shows at raves and festivals in and around Westbord. A techno/dance/house music lover and electronics geek who defected to rave culture after being hassled out of her high school's science and computer clubs for having "girl cooties" by male students she describes as "horny little boys with their heads stuck up their ******* asses". Was intrigued enough by the equipment being used for shows that she started hanging out with, and learning from, the folks who were running them. Eventually started getting some gigs herself, and got better quickly. Became successful and in demand enough to start touring. Currently she travels the rave and festival circuit in an aging Class C RV, packed with lighting equipment and some custom gizmoelectronics, and decorated on the outside with artwork depicting giant-sized sweets of the sorts used to decorate a gingerbread house. Kaleidosculptor hasn't ever used her deadname on the rave circuit; she's only known by her handle.
She uses her superpower to create custom light show equipment, and disable surveillance cameras monitoring impromptu rave locations. Also picks up additional money and gizmotronics as a specialist and rave community talent scout/observer for Kraken. When she's not traveling or working a hush job for Kraken, she parks with friends wherever she is, or goes up to Rain City for a while to hang out with friends she met there while growing up. Kaleidosculptor also participates in art MOOCs when she has the chance, and is trying to make some contacts in the art department at the University of Washington so she can get some studio access and make some progress toward an art degree. She's feeling like she's ageing out of the rave circuit, and is working on establishing her next career.
Origin: She was running the light show board at a Rain City rave (roughly 2000) when someone who was near the board took a hit of what they expected to be Ecstacy, but was actually a zetetic gas. The gas concentration was high enough that the original user died when struck by a laser beam. Nearby ravers had not received enough gas to be affected, but the cloud of exhaled gas was the right concentration to cause her powers to manifest. She can now alter the refractive index of any transparent substance, and can use Microscopic Vision to observe the effects. She's working on improving the precision with which she can use her power; right now, the edges of the affected regions are often fuzzy, and improvement is difficult.
Recruited into Kraken a couple of years later, when she foxed a surveillance camera in a closed factory that Kraken was using to monitor a safety hideout they had set up there. An impromptu intake interview led to a couple of trial jobs; success at those jobs, and demonstrating discretion and secrecy, resulted in an invitation to become a Kraken "associate".
Qualities: Expert [+4] Light Show Artist, Good [+2] 3D modeling (includes sculpture and computer), Good [+2] Electronics, Good [+2] Raver Culture, Poor [-2] Interrogate Authority.
Powers: Good [+2] Alter Materials Properties, Good [+2] Microscopic Vision.
Limitation: Alter Materials Properties only works on non-opaque materials, and can only change index of refraction.
Uniform: Colorful tank top, clashing neon board shorts, Doc Martens.
Motivation: Succeed outside the mundane world.
The Charioteer (Hiram Cooper) -- He has pale skin, watery blue eyes, and limp dishwater hair receding from his forehead. Because his migraines include visual effects and bright light is a major trigger for him, he usually wears dark-tinted glasses. He excels at following instructions whether spoken or written; given a suitable manual, he can figure out almost anything, to the extent that the manual covers or up to Good level.
Origin: Obsessed with the idea of Jesus as divine carpenter, he threw himself into learning how to make and repair things during his teens. An accident in his church youth group's garage turned his budding gizmology into Super-Gizmology.
Uniform: Usually a dark suit or shop jumpsuit.
Qualities: Master [+6] Dexterity, Good [+2] Bible Studies, Good [+2] Following Instructions, Poor [-2] Migraines.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Gizmology.
Motivation: "Every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.
Gargantua (Bertha Brunswick) -- Originally Bertha had light brown skin, brown eyes, and long nappy brown hair. Now Gargantua has skin of granite streaked in lighter and darker shades of brown, and her hair is a tough, spongy material in tufts of brown. Although she still has a feminine shape, she has lost the fine details of toes, vulva, nipples, and so forth. Her hands are mitten-shaped. Her face still looks relatively normal, though. Due to her size, weight, strength, and low dexterity Gargantua tends to break things a lot. She also sinks in soft ground. She is immune to most environmental hazards.
She has long enjoyed traveling, and has crossed much of Europe with some forays into Asia and Africa. She speaks Arabic, English, Esperanto, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and Yoruba. She also likes African and Middle Eastern drumming, primarily hand drums such as a djembe or doumbek. Her dancing is only average, though. She readily absorbs new ideas and gets along well with new people, crossing many cultures. In college Bertha was studying a variety of interdisciplinary classes in geography, world politics, tourism, and outdoor activities. She had not yet decided whether she wanted to be a diplomat, a travel agent, or a wilderness guide.
Then Gargantua became a stone giant and all of those opportunities dried up abruptly, which has left her sad and lonely. As a supervillain, she helps plan and guide trips for a variety of other supervillains. A drawback is that people often mistake her for a frontline fighter or bodyguard due to her appearance and powers. She really isn't. Her size and strength do come in very handy for wilderness challenges, though.
Origin: Caught in a landslide while hiking in the mountains, Gargantua emerged as a stone giant. People were terrified of her for no good reason and constantly tried to drive her away. So she became a supervillain because at least in that community there are people who aren't afraid of her.
Uniform: Sometimes Gargantua wears a simple kimono, mumu, or sarong of capery. But often she just goes nude, since environmental factors have little impact on her anymore -- and also she doesn't have much left in the way of sexual characteristics.
Qualities: Master [+6] Cosmopolitan, Expert [+4] Traveler, Good [+2] Drummer, Good [+2] Languages, Good [+2] Social Studies, Good [+2] Wilderness Activities, Poor [-2] Fragile World
Powers: Good [+2] Stone Giant, Average [0] Invulnerability, Average [0] Super-Strength
Motivation: To belong to a community
Nanette Abraham -- Nanette is tall and lanky, with fair skin and brown eyes. She has long straight brown hair, which she usually puts up in a ponytail or French roll. Her face is plain, even horsey. Nanette is one of the Guardians in service to Dr. Infanta.
Nanette was born a telepath. It made her life awkward growing up, especially before she learned to hide it.
Uniform:She usually dresses in nice but reserved women's clothing.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Patience, Good [+2] Conversationalist, Good [+2] Endurance, Good [+2] Nanny, Good [+2] Smart, Poor [-2] Fanatically Devoted to Dr. Infanta.
Powers: Expert [+4] Telepath
Motivation: Keep Dr. Infanta safe and happy.
Facanapa (Fausta Buffone) -- She has olive skin, brown eyes, and long wavy brown hair. Her body is curvy, with more bust than bottom. She comes from the Calabria region of Italy. Her favorite martial art is Bastone Calabrese, the Calabrian stick fighting, and she has an assortment of gizmological or super-gizmological sticks in addition to plain wooden ones. She also loves strategy games, especially Dama (Italian checkers). Facanapa uses her trickster skills to gather information, deceive people, and manipulate them. Facanapa handles a lot of the espionage for the Marionettes.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Trickster, Expert [+4] Mob Boss, Good [+2] Agility, Good [+2] Bastone Calabrese, Good [+2] Daring, Good [+2] Strategy Games, Poor [-2] Playing It Straight.
Powers: Good (+2) Illusion.
Dvorak (Imogen Kron) -- She has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and short wild white hair like milkweed fluff. Her hair used to be a slighter darker platinum blonde, a little thicker and more manageable. When she developed superpowers, it moulted over the course of a few weeks and came in much finer, a pure silver-white. Imogen has a heart-shaped face and a tall slender body, but generous cleavage for her size. She is an only child.
Imogen lives in Rain City. She has a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in nanotechnology from North Seattle College. For a foreign language, she took Esperanto. She loves movies, especially science fiction ones, and collects movie posters. One of her favorites is The Little Ninja. Dvorak wants to be rich and powerful. Also she just kind of loves playing with people. Beautiful and sexy, she doesn't hesitate to use seduction to get what she wants. However, she can just as well take it by subterfuge or force. Her nemesis is Qwerty, and Dvorak usually runs rings around her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty she wears a hip-length cape of white capery, a utility belt, and a catsuit of platinum dexflan with a round boob window. A glowing blue ring around the rim of the boob window makes the "Power" symbol:
. Her white boots have heels high enough to look sexy, but low enough to run and fight in effectively. Off-duty she enjoys wearing fashionable clothes, and her favorite pair of earrings resemble paperclips. However, she dresses for locale, so often that means business chic. In the workshop she changes to a slim jumpsuit with many pockets and a tool belt.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Computer Wizard, Expert [+4] Corporate Espionage, Expert [+4] Sexy, Good [+2] City Girl, Good [+2] Concentration, Good [+2] Geek, Good [+2] Logical, Good [+2] Movie Fan, Good [+2] Ninjutsu, Poor (-2) Dealing with Nature.
Powers: Average [0] Super-Gizmology, Average [0] Super-Immunity, Average [0] Super-Intellect
Motivation: Money and power.
Joystick (John Homer) -- He has floppy brown hair, hazel eyes, and very pale skin. He is short and scrawny. He wears large clunky glasses. He is enthusiastic and hyper. What social skills he has are primarily centered in nerd culture. John joined the Dweeb Team because he had the relevant skills and needed a place to stay.
Joystick excels in manipulating hardware. He can build things and also control them with his superpower. He can also sense and influence the weather. His current interest lies in merging these things to create super-gizmos for weather control. Being young and inexperienced, he has not altogether figured out the difference between weather and climate.
Origin: When he was five, John's kindergarten class went on a carefully supervised tour of a super-gizmology lab. John slipped away, somehow got into the active parts of the lab, and accidentally blew it up. His new superpowers manifested while he was still in the hospital recovering from his injuries. He drove his parents and teachers nuts for years, building things and making trouble, until he finally ran away and/or was kicked out of home (he tells the story both ways) at fourteen.
Uniform: Gang t-shirt printed with motherboard lines, jeans, and tennis shoes.
Qualities: Master [+6] Nerd Culture, Good [+2] Dexterity, Good [+2] Meteorology
Poor [-2] Wisdom.
Powers: Good [+2] Super-Gizmology, Good [+2] Technokinesis, Good [+2] Weather Control
SunBrella: Good [+2] Localized Weather Control. Creates a traveling dry area within a rainstorm, with about a three-foot diameter.
Motivation: Because I can, that's why.
(ng_moonmoth) The Quartermaster (Richmond [Rich] Longstreet) -- He has mocha skin with a shaved head; he had nappy hair which was a pain to keep in good shape between the pitch and the pool, and now he's nearly bald. He is 195 centimeters tall and weighs 105 kilograms. He keeps in good shape.
Rich is the third of five children; he was born and grew up in Atlanta. Dad was a dining car cook for the Southern Line until passenger service was curtailed in the late 1950s. When Dad was let go, he opened a soul food restaurant ("I done got tired of fixin' white folks' food for white folks"). Mom stayed at home and raised the kids. Family was active in the local (AME) church.
Joined the Army out of high school in 1976; wanted to get away from the South (the Army still had its own problems, though) and get GI Bill money for college. Assigned to Quartermaster Corps, and found he liked the work. After his hitch, decided to try and set up in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of his mates when Rich was stationed at the Oakland Army Base mentioned he could put in a good word with the Longshoremen. Rich got a job at the Port of Oakland and worked through two years of community college before transferring to UC Berkeley as a junior. After graduating, one of his frat buddies (Alpha Phi Alpha) pointed him at a warehouse supervisory job in San Francisco. He's still there.
Bisexual; Rich first experienced attraction to males while in the Army, and stayed closeted through his hitch and college. Came out and became active in the LGBT community a couple of years out of school. Not in any long-term relationship; he hasn't had one that's lasted more than about a year.
Rich makes a point of participating in as many public and outreach events as he can. He'd much rather play sports than watch them -- intercollegiate water polo (center back) and club rugby (flanker) at Cal. Played a fair amount of pickup rugby after college, and is helping coach a women's rugby team right now.
The warehouse where Rich works is part of the Kraken logistics division, operated by a Kraken-controlled shipping company, hidden by the usual layers of ownership. His frat buddy was a Kraken talent scout who thought that Rich could work out well. The warehouse mostly handles items from legitimate Kraken operations, but occasional items that need to be moved quietly also pass through. Rich is currently the warehouse manager there. He has also held various offices in the ILWU Warehouse Division, and is currently representing the ILWU in their joint negotiation of the Northern California Warehouse Master Contract with the Teamsters.
Origin: Rich was a shipping manager in the fall of 1989. He was in his office, taking care of some extra items because a good chunk of his crew had left early to go to World Series Game 3 or meet up with friends to watch, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake collapsed one of the unreinforced masonry walls of the warehouse on him before he could take cover. This activated his latent Telekinesis, and Rich unknowingly diverted almost all of the falling brick from burying him completely. Crawling out of the rubble, mostly unhurt but badly scraped and with a knock or two, he started digging through the fallen walls to try and quickly uncover any of his crew who had gotten buried. Soon understanding his newly manifested powers, he unpacked much of the debris without success. Reporting his new powers to his boss at the warehouse got him opportunities to be part of logistics teams for Kraken operations, where his telekinetic abilities can substitute silently for many things that would otherwise require noisy machinery.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Discipline, Good [+2] Teamwork, Good [+2] Contact Sports, Good [+2] Athlete, Poor [-2] Erasure Target (race and sexuality)
Powers: Good [+2] Telekinesis.
Motivation: To be an inevitably visible part of his community.
The Marionettes: Minions of the Puppeteer. The Marionettes have 3 named captains: Giuditta (trickster), Pulcinella (trickster), and Pinocchio (counterintelligence). They have at least an Expert superpower, an Expert profession, and three Good qualities, but some are Poor [-2] Trusting Each Other. There are 10 named lieutenants: Gigio (sneak), Facanapa (trickster), Gerolamo (trickster), Orlando (Russian fighter), Rinaldo (fighter), Alcina (sorceress), Tancredi (fighter), Agricane (Japanese businessman), Ruggiero (fighter), and Argante (warrior). They have at least a Good superpower, two other Good qualities, but some are Poor [-2] Fanatically Devoted to Leader. Other minions typically have at least a Good profession, one other Good quality, and may be Poor [-2] Thinking for Themselves. The strings go everywhere; the Puppetmaster has thousands of people working for him who don't even know he exists. Agricane was a gift to the Puppetmaster from Shigeru Fukui at Lucky Frog. Orlando was a gift from Koroleva.
Officer Pink (Ansel Nicholson) -- He has ruddy skin and hazel eyes. His hair starts out light brown but he has it changed to pink by Paintrix, after which it also tends to stand straight up. He discovers that the pink color just feels right for him, and decides to keep it. Ansel is tall and athletic, with a rectangular face, wide shoulders, and trim hips. He is heterosexual and has a girlfriend. He sleeps so deeply that he's easy to sneak up on after he's asleep.
Ansel works on the Bluehill police force. He often volunteers for youth outreach and other public speaking. His pink hair helps other soups identify him, breaks the ice at presentations, and encourages people to ask him for help. On the downside, it also makes forks and other bigots hate him.
Origin: Upset by the increase in bullying, Ansel starts doing presentations at schools in Bluehill. The kids give him the idea of coloring his hair pink so he can see firsthand how people treat someone who is visibly different.
Uniform: On duty, Ansel wears the Bluehill police uniform. Off duty, he likes casual, sporty clothes.
Qualities: Master [+6] Compassion, Expert [+4] Citizen, Expert [+4] Cop, Expert [+4] People Skills, Good [+2] Athletic, Good [+2] Cheerful, Good [+2] Jigsaw Puzzles, Good [+2] Kindness, Good [+2] Listener, Good [+2] Problem-Solving Skills, Poor [-2] Deep Sleeper
Powers: Average (0) Wild Pink Hair
Motivation: To make the world a kinder place.
The Spectrum: A superhero team that specializes in raiding supervillain lairs, including labs. Two of their original six members, Rayblaze and Thunderfist, were killed in action by the Undertaker. They're good at cracking open establishments, but poor at minimizing the collateral damage. This is beginning to attract more negative attention. Standard uniform is a monochrome dexflan jumpsuit with monochrome capery.