aka: Between The Trees [OOC | Superpowers/Paranormal | Open]

[Okayanos]

Mathias

The power is too close to an instant kill for my liking, going to be a no on this one.

Camille

Accepted.

Christine

Love the attention to detail in this one. Accepted.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Christine

Love the attention to detail in this one. Accepted.

Hey thanks tried to come up with an interesting powerset for a civvie to have. You know, to add some variety to the party.

[Skyggeheim]

Enjoying the fact that the majority of these folks aren't ARGUS-sanctioned.

Adds a little credence to the notion that they'd be stuck here for a bit, as opposed to ARGUS immediately deploying Cypher^TM to locate them.

[Oppermenia]

I have a few character ideas for this, but unsure which one to go with

[Skyggeheim]

I have a few character ideas for this, but unsure which one to go with

List 'em out, and we can discuss them.

[Oppermenia]

I have a few character ideas for this, but unsure which one to go with

List 'em out, and we can discuss them.

Two of these are like "typical" superheroes, and another is more of a person with a power that fits the paranormal setting. Some people I asked said to go with the second idea, but I don't know if I want a "typical" superhero character or one that fits the setting. Anyway, this is the list:

1. A person who’s a vigilante type hero like Batman with the martial arts, detective skills, and intellect, but he would also have a single superpower of invulnerability. NOT Argus sanctioned, so he's considered a vigilante and likely a criminal.

2. A shapeshifter who can turn into a wolf who has slightly enhanced strength and speed in human form but extremely enhanced strength and speed in wolf form. Basically a werewolf. NOT Argus sanctioned, just a normal person with weird werewolf abilities that they struggle to control and come to terms with.

3. A guy with unbreakable skin, super strength, slightly enhanced speed, and static/plasma blasts. Kinda like a proto-Superman, like how he was in the 30s when he couldn’t fly. Argus sanctioned, but not quite a Superman-level hero yet, as he's just started out and dreams of getting to that level.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

I like the second idea, the internal struggle that it carries seems interesting and I'm all for non soldier types

[Skyggeheim]

I like the second idea, the internal struggle that it carries seems interesting and I'm all for non soldier types

I'll second that. #2 seems cool, the internal struggle adds depth.

#2 also seems to be most balanced. I would struggle to balance out invulnerability.

[Argonopolis]

WIP

Cabin Dweller

Name: Fred Kelton
Alias: None
Age: 26
Gender: Male

(place appearance description or image link here)

Powers:
[*] Transformation: Fred can transform into a dark purple eye the size of his head. The eye is very thin and instead of eyelashes it has multiple black arms that help provide locomotion. While transformed he can move at the pace of an olympic sprinter for a few minutes. He retains all items currently on his person while transforming.
[*] Enhanced vision: Fred can see the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves while transformed, and he can see infrared and ultraviolet while not.
[*] Blinding flash: Fred can absorb light while transformed and release it from his pupil in a large cone. He cannot store enough to kill someone, but he can cause temporary blindness.

Drawbacks & Limitations:
[*] Fred can only stay transformed for an hour at most, and afterwords he loses vision in one eye for the time spent transformed.
[*] His transformation provides no defense against physical harm, only against light based attacks.
Weaknesses:
Same as a normal human.

Equipment and weapons:
[*] Large winter coat
[*] Pepper spray
[*] Swiss army knife

---

BACKGROUND

Nationality: American.
Hometown: Baltimore.

Personality: Paranoid and full of fear. Fred trusts no one and is always prepared for trouble. He only feels safe when nobody can see him and enjoys secretly watching people.

Bio:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Fears/Phobias: People. Crowds. Large dogs.
Skills: Stealth.
Theme Song:

[Gudmund]

Mathias

The power is too close to an instant kill for my liking, going to be a no on this one.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how I should scale him. No more one-hit super punches. Just average superstrength, healing factor, and life drain.
Also, question, does everyone wake up in different cabins?

Cabin Dweller

Name: Mathias North
Alias: Envigor
Age: 32
Gender: Male

Left: Mathias' normal appearance / Right: Mathias' full-power form.

Powers:

• Life-Force Manipulation -
  
  • Mathias can see the life-force of other beings, with brightness correlating to the amount;
  • Mathias can absorb the life-force of other beings by touch, be they trees or humans. Doing so lowers the targets lifespan at a rate of one (1) year per second, and adds it to his own. This in turn increases Mathias' own stockpiled life-force, extending lifespan and raising both his mind and body to peak human physique. This boost effects flexibility, stamina, senses, speed, strength, reflexes and so on. It also largely removes the need for food and sleep;
  • Mathias can also expel his stockpiled life-force into others or further boost himself. Should he transfer life-force into another person, it can heal their wounds/illnesses via boosting natural bodily systems, or even extend their lifespans. By releasing bursts into himself, Mathias can momentarily go above peak human;
  • Full-Power - To truly go all-out, Mathias begins absorbing the life-force of everything he touches whilst expelling it as fast as possible. The air around him grows stale, and both fauna and flora rapidly wither away. Mathias' lifespan in turn decreases by years at time, doubling his strength temporarily. Flesh wounds heal within seconds, dismembered limbs reattach if quickly recovered, and new ones can be regrown after a few hours. Even with a full stockpile of life-force, this form only lasts 30 minutes.

Drawbacks & Limitations:

• Mathias cannot see the life-force of non-living beings or through walls;
• Mathias must be in physical contact to drain life-force, and cannot drain through clothing or from non-living beings (i.e. no shoes or gloves, fears robots);
• Mathias likely attracts other beings who can sense/drain life-force, which may be stronger than him;
• It's possible Mathias may heal himself improperly, leaving crooked bones or fused skin.
• To dish out superhuman blows, Mathias' body must be resilient enough to counteract them. If this balance is wrong, he'll end up hurting himself.
• Mathias can only store up to 5X his base life-force.

Weaknesses:

• Like anyone else, Mathias will die without life-force. Without enough to maintain his superhuman physique or heal himself, Mathias is powerless;
• Mathias, lacks ranged attacks, counters to mental or illusory powers, and may not be as strong as typical super-strength users;
• Mathias is no martial artist, and has grown used to winning fights through brute strength.

Equipment and weapons:

• Generic clothing (pants, shirt, jacket, shoes, gloves);
• 1911 pistol w/ extended magazine.

---

BACKGROUND

Nationality: Australia
Hometown: McGuffinville

Personality: Mathias is a simple if paranoid man who enjoys a good book. He prefers being a quiet observer, rather than an outgoing leader. He has a general dislike of the short lived and super rich people, believing they'll ultimately betray him for his power. Having become addicted to the sensation of draining life-force, he'll devolve into a twitchy mess when deprived of it for too long. Above all else, he hates supers who bully non-powered people.

Bio: Born on June 5th 1998, Mathias grew up in a 'Miracle Town' whose inhabitants almost all manifested powers. His parents, colleagues, schoolmates... he was among the select few to be normal. To make things worse, the town became a haven for supers, and living there became extraordinarily difficult without powers of his own. All through education, there was always someone incomprehensibly better than him, a super openly abusing their powers to the cheer of others. In the eyes of his community, Mathias was worthless.

Then it happened, his powers finally emerged, much to the surprise of the bullies around him. In one swift move, Mathias instinctively drained the life-force of his foes. While their stamina waned, Mathias grew in strength, invigorated by their stolen energy. As the years went on, Mathias gradually improved in using his power. After graduating and simmering down, Mathias became addicted to the invigorating rush brought on by stealing life-force, going so far as to sell his life extending powers for financial gain and to bribe officials to ignore his crimes.

A million dollars for 10 years, his services quickly spread and endless trouble came his way. Unable to take the heat, Mathias fled the country. For this he was labelled a criminal and his past activity upturned, government officials and other crazy supers were intent on monopolizing him. In several close encounters, Mathias went on to developed his full-power mode. Hateful of those who'd wronged him, Mathias now seeks to live in peace by mastering his power to eventually transcend humanity.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Fears/Phobias: Immortals, psychics/mind readers, being deprived of life-force.
Skills: Bilingual (English & Mandarin), very high pain-resistance.
Theme Song: https://youtu.be/Jpo-Mt6vSrE

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Cabin Dweller

Name: Madeline Ashley Destrow
Alias: Duelemma
Age: 25
Gender: Female

Powers:

• Psychic Linguistics:
  
  • Can communicate in whatever language the person she is communicating with knows, in addition to knowing the cultural context of their accent, sayings and mannerisms. Often uses it to fake being able to read minds.

• Psychic Tagging:
  
  
  • Allows her to know the current location of a person she consciously tags after looking at them, be it directly or through a screen. If she tags one person, she can ping their location every 10 minutes, however her tag fades away after 24 hours after the first ping if she he hasn't seem them in person (which resets the time limit] and every additional person she keeps psychically tags doubles length of time before pings.
  .

• Psychic Duel Bonding:
  
  
  • Has the ability to upon seeing someone within 20 feet of her, to form a duel bond, teleporting her to them and keeping her in close combat range, gifting her the physical attributes, such strength, size, durability and mobility necessary to engage in even fight with her foe, while protecting both of them from being harmed by external forces for the duration of the duel bonding. Duel bonds can end in a , but she can not kill or be killed in a duel bonding.

• Two Day Physical Turnover:
  
  
  • Over a 48 hour period, her body is capable of completely replacing it's self, injuries are repaired in a time frame proportionate the the percentage of body weight of the given injured part, for example, a full hand takes about 15 minutes to fully replace, a leg takes 9 hours.

Drawbacks & Limitations:

The Duel Bond is won by:

• Accepting a surrender.
• Rendering combatant unconscious.
• Mortally wounding enemy combatant.

The Winner of a Duel:

• Has their injuries instantly healed.
• Any enhanced attributes remain, but gradually fade away.

The Loser of a Duel:

• Is randomly teleported a quarter of a mile to a 'safe" (as of the teleportation) location in their current state.
• Any wounds inflicted during a duel remain, but will gradually heal over the course of 24 hours in the absence of faster healing capacities.
• Any mortal wounds are repaired enough to prevent succumbing.

A Duel Bond ends in a draw when:

• A time limit set by Madeline passes.
• An individual designed by Madeline as a "referee" before the start of a duel calling off the duel.
• Both duelists agreeing to the duel concluding as a draw.
  
  • Both duelists receive the benefits of winning a duel during a draw

Weaknesses:

• Psychic Tell:
  
  
  • Any psychically competent individual she has pinged or tagged will be aware that they've been pinged or tagged. Advanced psychics will know where she pinged them and know if a person that they are near has been pinged and where they were when they pinged/tagged them.

• (Mostly) Only Human:
  
  
  • Despite her psychic abilities and peak human fitness, she doesn't have pre-cognition, special mental fortitude against mental attacks or superhuman reaction times.

Equipment and weapons:

• A pair of SIG Sauer P226 with a two sparr magazines and two suppressors
• A utility knife.
• A grappling hook.
• A backpack of assorted survival/heroing supplies and.

---

BACKGROUND

Nationality: Canadian-American
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario/Austin, Texas

Personality: Madeline is decidedly extroverted, humorous, open to meeting new people, trying new things and is incredibly understanding and patient. While she doesn't let herself be pushed around, she generally looks to deescalate conflict. However as much as she hides it, any frustration and disrespect she feels does not disappear into nothingness. It is from there where the roots of her personality as "Duelemma" stems. As Duelemma, she becomes far more mocking and violent, the extended hand of her extroversion becoming a closed fist. Her humour moves from being bubbly to being cutting and vicious. Her drive to understand new things and people is turned toward the task of breaking people and things down. Madeline shows an immense care for the underprivileged, along with a patient skepticism of the privileged, upheld by a moral belief in the natural goodness of people, while Duelemma shows a frustration with the complacency of the underprivileged and a desire to crush the privileged, without regard for whatever their intent may be, held back only by logical practicality. Madeline uses 'Duelemma' as essentially a dumping ground for her vices and anger. A turned cheek by Madeline tends to corollate with cheek caved in by Duelemma.


Bio: Madeline was born to an American mother and a Canadian father, who had met each other during a business trip by her mother to an automobile factory in Oakville, Ontario. Her father had been on track for a career in engineering, before he had to put his studies on hold and work in an automobile plant, as both of his parents ended up with early onset dementia and he wanted pitch in to take care of them while his older siblings pitched in monetarily. When he married, he was finally able to afford bringing his parents to Toronto and starting part time studies as Madeline's mother was able to pitch in.

By the time Madeline was born, money was tight. Despite both of Madeline's parents being busy, they were very loving, and took all the time they could with her, though she often found herself in daycares after school. All in all, it was not a bad upbringing for Madeline, however things were about to change drastically, in some ways for the better and others for the worse. By middle school, in the same year her father completed his studies, the grandparents she was used to living with passed away and her grandparents on her mother's side also grew sick. Her parents, realizing both that her father's new qualifications opened him up to more opportunities in the American job market, in addition to her father wanting to return the favour that his wife and done for him, decided to move to Austin, Texas to be closer to Madeline's mother's parents.

There, Madeline was enrolled in a private school, where she found herself generally despising her classmates, but she maintained a chipper attitude in school and remained a smart worker determined to make it seem as though she was adjusting well, so as not to disappoint her parents. However Madeline's hobbies and interests were shifting. In Canada her main interests were acrobatics, track and field, but in America, she ended up picking up martial arts and going on hunting trips with her cousins.

Her parents, now with the means to afford and a concern about the future health of their daughter, given the very clear family history of metal illness had their daughter genetically tested. When the analysis came back, it was included a note calling for a follow up meeting. As it turned out, there was good news, bad news and mixed news. The bad news was, that Madeline was, indeed if there was no intervention, liable to develop mental issues in her late middle age. The good news was there was treatment to prevent it from happening to her. The mixed news is that this susceptibility was due to unrealized metahuman genetic markers and that if she got treatment, there was a very high likelihood that it'd bring metahuman powers to the surface.

Her parents, without hesitation, agreed to the treatment, not informing Madeline of the "mixed" news until it was about the reach it's conclusion. To their surprise, Madeline's primary frustration was that her parents didn't trust to tell her that she was likely to develop powers early than they did, but she got over it quickly due to the excitement for the power she'd develop. The summer afer she finished her treatment, she went to an Argus sponsored summer camp in the hope of finding out and developing her powers. Up until then, she was only aware of her increased memory, dexterity and ability recover from training, but apart from r and realizing that overnight she became incredibly fluent in Spanish and was suddenly able to understand every tourist she overheard regardless of the language they spoke, there was nothing super human.

However, one day at camp, she had already been having a bad day. She'd just lost a sparing match to someone who had far more interesting powers than she seemed to have, as far as she believed, she was just a omnitranslator, which was something, but not exactly exciting. While watching the others, she overheard some other camp goer making a lewd pun about her based on "babel fish'. Without realizing what she was doing, she looked at him and instantly teleported in front of him and began wailing on him. It wasn't long before she knocked him out cold, and he ended up teleported over a mile away to another part of the grounds. What was of additional importance was the teen Madeline had just knocked out was known for being far more durable than Madeline's existing striking force should have allowed to knock out.

After additional exploration and mentoring, Madeline learned the boundaries and limitations of her powers. By the time the camp concluded, Madeline had far more confidence in the significance and utility of her powers. She'd spend free time her high school years training. She'd grow from 5'4 in her first year to 6'2 by her fourth, addition to putting on lean muscle. Physically, she was still not superhuman outside of her "duel bonding", but nonetheless extremely dangerous for nearly all non-metahumans. After graduating high school, she made sure to sign up for a university that allowed her flexibility in hero work.

Madeline then created alias, and a new persona Duelemma, who operates as a hero-for-hire. As long as it was a legal, Argus sanctioned firm and/or operation, she'd work for whoever paid her the most. Though she has sometimes made exceptions to her 'highest bidder' rule if the target were 'old money' villains. While Duelemma has earned a reputation as being very through and competent, many of the more 'principled' heroes she's work alongside with have felt her untrustworthy, selfish and arrogant. She also has absolutely zero qualms about (in fact often enjoys) working at cross purposes with other heroes and has more than once, 'unofficially', thrown a punch at other heroes that have gotten in her way.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Fears/Phobias: Either persona leaking into the other.
Skills:

• Peak Human mantracking
• Peak Human athleticism
• Peak Human reaction time
• Competent with a wide variety of weapons.
• Elite Martial Artist.
• Quick Learner
• Eidetic memory

Theme Song: Storytime - Nightwish

[The Cyberiad Council]

Alfred Ferguson
Magnekai

---

Alfred felt for metal within the walls; he could feel it. There was something in there. Stretching out a hand, a little camera was ripped right out of the wooden wall as Alfred's magnetic powers tugged on the circuitry inside the thing.

"Bloody hell." was all that he could say as he quickly moved out of the room, though he stopped moving across the hallway outside when he heard voices talking. His eyes darting back and forth as he did not trust anything at this point.

Most electronics use copper, not iron for their circuitry, so between he nails, water pipes, and power cables most likely running all through the walls, I'm not sure how your magnetic powers could really sense, much less pull the camera from the wall, seeing as how copper is diamagnetic, not ferromagnetic and probably wouldn't meaningfully interact with your generated magnetic fields.

[Europa Undivided]

Well thanks for the reminder. Lol

That shouldn't be a problem now

[Okayanos]

Mathias North, ver. 2

Looks good, accepted.

Madeline Destrow

What is the range of the teleportation for the loser of a duel?

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

Mathias North, ver. 2

Looks good, accepted.

Madeline Destrow

What is the range of the teleportation for the loser of a duel?

I was thinking about a mile and a half, but I'm fine with a different range.

[Eurekium]

i know it says "magic" is just a term, but does that mean my powers can seem like magic? like summoning, etc etc?

[Skyggeheim]

i know it says "magic" is just a term, but does that mean my powers can seem like magic? like summoning, etc etc?

It depends on what you’re looking to summon, and how we might be able to offer an explanation to it.

[The Cyberiad Council]

i know it says "magic" is just a term, but does that mean my powers can seem like magic? like summoning, etc etc?

You can explain your powers as being magic, but the in-lore explaination would be something else.

So you can have powers that create entities.

[Skyggeheim]

i know it says "magic" is just a term, but does that mean my powers can seem like magic? like summoning, etc etc?

You can explain your powers as being magic, but the in-lore explaination would be something else.

So you can have powers that create entities.

He explained it better than I.

As an example, we had a character in a previous thread that could use fire, water, air, and earth like a bender. He was “ripping” the energy from other dimensions, as opposed to it being magic.

[Eurekium]

You can explain your powers as being magic, but the in-lore explaination would be something else.

So you can have powers that create entities.

He explained it better than I.

As an example, we had a character in a previous thread that could use fire, water, air, and earth like a bender. He was “ripping” the energy from other dimensions, as opposed to it being magic.

okay cool, i get it now

[Europa Undivided]

Will just wait for another to postie before I reply to Futrellia

[Okayanos]

What is the range of the teleportation for the loser of a duel?

I was thinking about a mile and a half, but I'm fine with a different range.

Give her something a little shorter, and she’ll be good to go.

[Skyggeheim]

I was thinking about a mile and a half, but I'm fine with a different range.

Give her something a little shorter, and she’ll be good to go.

I’ll get a post up here soon, I’m done traveling.

[Cybernetic Socialist Republics]

I was thinking about a mile and a half, but I'm fine with a different range.

Give her something a little shorter, and she’ll be good to go.

Cut down to quarter of a mile.

Adding a second pistol + a grappling hook is fine right?

[Okayanos]

Give her something a little shorter, and she’ll be good to go.

Cut down to quarter of a mile.

Adding a second pistol + a grappling hook is fine right?

Certainly, what with her being a professional hero-for-hire and all. I’ll give you the ol’ accept.