Aberrant: New PBeM game...N-Day!

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

And yes please I would appreciate it if I could keep my dibs on the mega tough/strong flying brick type...Ive been waiting a looong time to play this p[articular PC...

I think there's enough room for two - overlap is inevitable with this many players. I certainly wouldn't be stopping you from creating yours. But if you think it'll be a problem, I'll go with Nate.

[SalmonMax]

Changed concepts again!

Pitching a telepath with Mirage, and the regenning shapeshifter.

But I'm feeling the telepath more.

[NoFate_Void]

I heard from him today and sent him my write up. I didnt know if any of us should work on mutually knowing each other. But if you are interested here is my background.

I have one dot in Mega-Perception with Quantum Awareness

I have one dot in Molecular Manipulation

I have two dots in Magnetic Mastery

===

Nova Name: Loadstone

Real Name: Gabriel Wilson

Background Story:

Gabe was born into a middle income family in the steel mill counties of Pennsylvania. His father worked in the smelting factory creating steel that feed the automotive industry. As things got worse for the American steel factory workers, his father became abusive and a drunk. This drove the family apart and when Gabe was 8, his mother packed him up and drove off intending to divorce her husband. His mother was at a stop light. She was talking to him and confiding in him about how abusive his father was and that she was sorry for not getting him out of there. She said that she would make every better and make everything up to him. He saw the car coming and was paralyzed by fear. He saw it and didn’t say anything. That haunts him till this day. As the car impacted the driver side door, his mother was killed. He was trapped in the car with his mothers mangled body for hours while the police and fire department desperately cut away the metal to get to him. Unfortunately for him, his father was granted custody by the state as there was no written intention of his wife wanting to leave. His mothers parents fought for years to try and get visitation rights and out right guardianship but was always denied. His father being the cruel drunk that he was, never allowed him to visit his grand parents and made sure that they stayed away from him.

Physically, Gabe was a weak child and had no interest in physically exerting himself. This was a fact that his father despised in him, if he was lucky it would stop at just ridicule but more often than not it always ended violently. There was also no reprieve while he was in school. The jocks always made it a point to pick on Gabe. However, books is where he found his solace. He would often not go home from school and spend hours in the school or city library. He was a prodigy in school because he could remember everything that he ever read. This made most things very easy for him and was granted many scholarships to many different colleges.

He choose to go to the University of Baltimore and concentrated his studies on theoretical physics and historical warfare. He quickly earned his degrees in a short time frame of 3 years. But it was his love of books and the thirst for knowledge that kept him at the school. He took a fellowship at the school and remained on in a research position working with manipulating magnetic fields. It was during this time that the Galatia station came crashing down.

Eruption:

[Trauma] Gabe had been working on a creating a magneto drive for space travel. This device basically would create a dense magnetic field in the front of the ship and pull it along. This would allow long term space travel at exponential speeds. This work was considered very important by the school and the government. They had many influential grants and he was just a member of the team working out the numbers and helping with the engineering aspect.

Gabe and two other of his associates were working late on the project, mostly because they thought that they had figured out a major hurdle. However, their work was being closely watched not only by the university or governments, but other governments as well. A team of covert soldiers were sent to retrieve the information that the team had developed and to set the project behind, which meant to kill members of the team. When the soldiers entered the lab, Gabe was in the lab room with the experimental engine and the control modules. He did not hear the gun fire and the screams of his friends or coworkers. However, when the door opened and they came into the room and took aim at him, he was petrified with fear. They took care to aim before opening fire with their assault rifles. The bullets did not go where they were intended to go because of the nature of the magnetic fields in the room. However, the machinery did not react well to the bullets being fired. Massive amounts of radiation and uncontrollable magnetic fields rampaged throughout the room penetrating everything. It is at this point that Gabe let out a soul retching cry and blacked out as white light encompassed the whole room.

Days had passed before he woke up. When he woke up he knew things were different. He felt things differently now. Instead of just being aware of someone, he felt the push and pull of everything. He felt the energy that connected everyone and if he concentrated enough he could even see it start to take shape around people. It was explained to him that all that was left of the lab was a crater and that they had found him in what could be best describe as an egg. It looked like somehow the way the magnetic fields must have pulled concrete around him in a fluke accident.

Personal Information

Personality: Trys to think of things logically and can often times seem like his is emotionaless or even cold. But once he sets a goal towards an idea he will keep to it.

Quirks: Insomnia. He has trouble sleeping as he is always thinking about stuff. Tends to be a little obsessive compulsive.

Likes: Loves to read and drink wine, prefers red over whites.

Hates: Has almost no tolerance for people who hit children or drinkers.

[Ulric Reikspar]

I like it Savar. I also think that posting character sheets is a good idea. When I hear back from him, I will do the same.

[Charlotte]

TRANSCRIPT REQUESTED

SEARCHING...

CONNECTED.

TRANSFERRING...

OPENING...

DATE: MARCH 24TH, 1998

TIME: 0842 HOURS

CIA INTERVIEW ROOM #41

PRESENT: ADMINISTRATOR SMITH, AGENT NATHAN DAYES

Smith: You seem hungry.

Dayes: I am. You look tired, sir.

Smith: I am. Haven't slept in forty-two hours. So pardon me if I get a little cranky today.

Dayes: What's the purpose of this interview, sir?

Smith: We're trying to ascertain what exactly happened to you yesterday.

Dayes: (groaning softly)

Smith: What was that?

Dayes: Just a headache.

Smith: I thought that Doctor [REDACTED] gave you some painkillers.

Dayes: [REDACTED] did. They haven't kicked in yet.

Smith: Hmmm. Well, tough it out then, Dayes. We'll keep this relatively short. Tell us about your day yesterday.

Dayes: Came in to work at 0700 hours, sir. I resumed analysis of the situation on Somalia. My findings were reported to the Somalia desk around 1130 hours. We talked for a bit. Then around quarter to twelve I went for lunch.

Smith: What did you have for lunch?

Dayes: Uh, a burger, sir, at Wendy's.

Smith: Hmmm. Notice anything unusual in the food?

Dayes: No, sir. Do you think it's a mass poisoning or something?

Smith: At this stage, Agent, every theory is a viable one. The building shows you returning at 1231 hours, is this correct?

Dayes: Yes, sir.

Smith: And what did you work on?

Dayes: Something [REDACTED] wanted for the planning of Operation Frozen Lake. Adding to the psychological profile for [REDACTED].

Smith: Where were you when the Galatea went down?

Dayes: In the Pit, sir.

Smith: I'm sorry?

Dayes: Uh, the Operations Room. I find it's better to work in there when helping with a pending operation. We got the phone call, sir, from a rep who was telling all the agencies. A few minutes later CNN had the story.

Smith: Good ol' CNN.

Dayes: Good ol' CNN.

Smith: So then what?

Dayes: Well, uh, I remember the Challenger, sir, when I was a teenager. It was very – I'm sorry, but getting work done was difficult at the time. (at this point Dayes begins rubbing his temple as if in pain)

Smith: [REDACTED] said that you got the profiling done before the reports came in. Do you typically work that fast?

Dayes: Modestly, sir, yes. I'm good with profiling.

Smith: And then along came...

Dayes: Yeah.

Smith: What was the first report you heard?

Dayes: The explosions in New York. We immediately thought the worst.

Smith: After the WTC in 1993.

Dayes: Yes.

Smith: Keep going.

Dayes: Uh, the earthquake in Denver came next. Then suddenly every television station switched feeds. And we saw a young man, African descent, on his bed, thrashing around, going... I'm paraphrasing here, "God, it hurts, it effing hurts, oh Jesus my effing head oh God." Then back to CNN.

Smith: And then?

Dayes: Then the order came down to go to Defcon 3.

Smith: How did you react to that?

Dayes: Speaking freely, sir?

Smith: Go ahead.

Dayes: It was a mess. An absolute mess. There was no prioretization sequence. We had no idea what was happening. We were getting reports from all over North America, and... well, [REDACTED] had an acquaintance at MI6 over the pond, sir, and they were hearing it all over Europe. I got one order from [REDACTED] to concentrate on New York and another from [REDACTED] to analyze patterns all over the Midwest. It was a nightmare.

Smith: But you still did your job.

Dayes: As best as i could sir.

Smith: And do you think that was good enough?

Dayes: I... no.

Smith: Hmm. Describe to me what happened before you collapsed.

Dayes: I'm not sure what the video file was called. It was the amateur video from New York. The one with the schoolbus fire.

Smith: Ah yes.

Dayes: I saw the fire being... there is no rational way to put this, sir. I saw the fire being vaccumed out of the schoolbus. It got sucked into a fireman's body who'd collapsed nearby. It swirled around him like something you'd see in a Steven Spielberg movie. I just couldn't understand it.

Smith: According to [REDACTED]'s witness account that's when you grabbed your head.

Dayes: It's foggy, sir.

Smith: Try to think back.

Dayes: I remember thinking... how do I put this. I wanted to understand it. How it was possible. It wasn't a fake, we're very good at spotting faked video. We knew it was real. I wanted to know how. And then, nothing.

Smith: [REDACTED] reports you collapsed.

Dayes: I must have.

Smith: You were asleep for twelve and a half hours.

Dayes: It feels like it. I woke up ravenous. And sick. Half of what I ate I threw up.

Smith: Notice anything unusual?

Dayes: No, sir.

Smith: Dayes, just curious here. Have you looking in a mirror today?

(silence for ten seconds)

Dayes: Have I... sorry, sir?

Smith: Looked in a mirror.

Dayes: Uh... no. Haven't shaved.

Smith: Dayes, we're not sure how to tell you this, so here.

(Smith, at this point, hands Dayes a mirror. Dayes looks in it. He drops it on the table in shock. It does not shatter.)

Dayes: Jesus.

Smith: Care to comment?

Dayes: Jesus – shit – let me see that – oh God.

(eight seconds silence)

Dayes: How the hell?

Smith: You tell us. To us it looks like you've dropped ten years, about forty pounds, and your thinning hairline is gone. And your hair is red now. Your eyes are blue. You have an explanation for any of this?

Dayes: I – I can't -

Smith: Dayes, if you are caught lying to us you will be finished in the intelligence community.

Dayes: I don't know, sir! I'd tell you if I did!

Smith: There is pressure from above to detain anyone – ANYONE – who shows physical anomalies after what happened yesterday, Dayes. Do you understand? We're trying to help you. The order gives us leeway. We can chalk this up to you joining a health spa if you play ball.

Dayes: A health spa that makes my hair grow back?

Smith: A very good health spa.

Dayes: I don't know, sir! This is a shock to me too! Dammit -

(at this point Agent Dayes clutches his head again, as if in pain)

Dayes: (groaning)

Smith: Get Doctor [REDACTED] in here! Right now. He's having another migraine.

TRANSCRIPT ENDS

Name: Nathan Dayes

Series: N-Day

Nature: Analyst

ATTRIBUTES

Physical (Secondary)

Str oo

Dex ooo

Sta ooo

Mental (Primary)

Perception ooo

Intelligence oooo (Discerning)

wits ooo

Social (Tertiary)

App oo

Man oo

Cha oo

Abilities:

Athletics o, Drive o, Firearms oo, Martial Arts o

Awareness o, Investigation ooo, Academic o, Analysis ooo (Psychological Profiles) *, Bureaucracy o, Computer oo, Intrusion o, Tradecraft ooo *

Subterfuge ooo

* found in the Directive book. Analysis covers spotting trends or indicators in reams of data. Tradecraft is a catch-all for specialized spy skills such as sweeping for and planting bugs, searching a room without disturbing it, using codes, planting and retrieving packages from dead drops, and so forth.

Backgrounds:

Attunement oo

Contacts oo (FBI, MI6)

Resources ooo

Quantum: 4

Taint: 0

Willpower: 5

Mega-Attributes: None

Quantum Powers:

- Quantum Imprint ooooo

Bonus Points (25)

Quantum +2: 14

Merit - Iron Will: 6 (may spend a Willpower point to shake off mental or social manipulation)

Will +2: 4

Specialty +1: 1

Nova Points (30)

Quantum +1: 5

Quantum Imprint 5: 25

Background: Age 29. Father is unknown; mother was committed when Nathan was age 16, is currently in extreme state of psychological withdrawal. Became a ward of the state until a legal adult, and entered college. Was recruited by the CIA while in college. Positioned in intelligence analysis where he remained until N-Day, despite a stated desire to go into field work and operations. Knee surgery when he was 25 put an end to his hopes of active field work. The side effects of his eruption made him apparently younger and healthier, but at this early stage no one knows what that means. Nathan himself is unaware of what his extranormal abilities are, having never met another nova face to face - he does, however, suspect that something is going on.

Personality Profile: Thoughtful and careful. Dedicated to his work. A bit socially dry and awkward. Doesn't drink due to being worried about making dangerous decisions while inebriated. Hobbies include collecting comedy albums, cooking and swimming (where his knee doesn't bother him as much.)

[Mr Fox]

Luke Cotthingham the Thrid.

Luke had the major disadvantage of having very rich and neglective parents. He was raised by servants and learned early on that with money came power. If a servant or tutor didn't allow him to do what he wanted he got that servant fired. This did not bode for his furture social life, and proved to be all too true. He was a spoiled brat and never had any real friends. Because of his money there were always at least one or two people that would spend time with him in hopes of getting something out of it, or because their parents made them because of his own parent's influence. These relationships never worked out or lasted long. In highschool he developed severe achne that left scars and never seemed to clear up no matter how much money his parents spent on treatment. Being an only child he was destined to follow his father in business, but although he learned how to keep the company making a profit, his personality was such that no one wanted to deal with him and his father kept him away from the people aspects of dealing with the board of directors. During his college years his father died of a heart attack after a very stressful board meeting. This came as no shock to anyone since he was in his early 70s and ignored his doctor's constant advice to slow down and avoid stress. Luke inherited his father's positon as Chairman of the Board since they owned a majority stock in the business, but lacking his fathers people skills, allowed the board to direct the daily running of the company only checking the books and making decrees to them over the phone. Luckily he was intelligent and business savvy enough to keep the company profitable despite his personal deficiencies.

Growing up his one true pleasure was Star Wars. He saw the movie when he was 7 years old and spent the rest of his life daydreaming about it. Everytime a new movie came out he would see it in the theatre at least 20 times. His suite of rooms in the family manor were full of memorobilia. He even had his own lightsaber replica that took pride of place in his collection, signed by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) and Sir Alec Guiness. In the early days of computers he would spend hours on the forums chatting about the series and what was done right or wrong with the movies. Once Episode I was announce it created great excitement for him and the group of fellow Star Wars geeks that he often met with.

N-day 2:30 CST Houston, Tx.

Luke had flown to America for a Comic convention at which Mark Hamil and Timothy Zhan were scheduled to speak. He was of course dressed like a Jedi and wearing his replica lightsaber on his belt like any good fan would do. After the Q&A which had been a bit of a disappointment as he was not given the chance to ask his questions, he got into an argument with a group of other geek fans. The debat became quite heated as such things are want to do, with one side declaring that Luke was the greatest jedi ever and that he surpassed Yoda, and the other side saying that Yoda would kick Luke's ass if it came to a fight. Both sides had their own replica light sabers in hand and were using them to gesture and swing at each other as they made their points, none of them having the fake light bar blades attached of course. Luke's opponent in the argument seemed to be swaying the group of listeners mostly because he was far more eloquent and personable than Luke. Finally, the other man, having won the arguement smirked and said to Luke, "Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Darkside young Jedi!" With a final growl in his throat and hate in his heart Luke raised his left hand and let the lightnings flow instantly electrocuting the other man. Shock held everyone for a moment even Luke, until the man's charred body hit the floor. Luke stared at the body in horror his anger evaporated in realization of what he'd just done. Looking at the rest of the people who were just now inhaling to scream, he waved a hand in front of them, "You don't remember me being here," and walked away as fast as he could. Somehow the screams only materialized after several seconds, at which point he had already rounded several sets of display tables where merchandise was being displayed. Once out of the convention hall he got into the rented car and went back to his hotel room and sank onto the bed putting his head in his hands. 'Great, I get the powers of a jedi and the first thing I do is become a sith!" He wasn't sure who to call or what to do, but right then it didn't matter because the worst headace he'd ever had in his life was making coherent thought impossible. Before he blacked out he did try to do the right thing and picked up the phone to called 911, but wasn't able to make his fingers hit the numbers.

Waking up several days later he barely remembered what happened until he looked in the mirror. His face and appearance was completely changed. He was no longer pockmarked, in fact his face had alerterd so much that his own mother wouldn't recognize him, he was not merely handsome, he was very handsome, nearly as much so a Hollywood star. It wasn't just his face either, he was slim and toned and felt better than he had in his entire life. He had gone from a potbellied young man to well built athelete, and the oddest thing of all was that his clothes had changed along with his body. They weren't haning lose, they fit like they had been tailored for him. That was when he noticed that despite his great looks he certainly didn't smell accordingly. He was pretty sure he'd sweated out all that fat over the last few days and it was in his cloths. He wanted a shower and fast. Thinking of how annoying it would be to take the costume off he was surprised when it started moving on it's own unwrapping and untying itself. He wasted little time getting in the shower and cleaning up. Afterwards he picked up the costume again and wished it was clean so that he could wear it, since he was a jedi now, it seemed only appropriate. To his surprise as he held it, it seemed to shed the smell and soil, coming as clean as if it had been freshly laundered. Smiling he put it back on and went to phone room service to bring up a 7 course meal as quick as they could. While he waited he sat down to watch the news and was amazed by the reports of people spontaneously developing super powers. Now that he was a Jedi, he just hoped that he had dreamed what happened at the convention, or if he did do it that he could attone for the one evil act, it would be a tough road in the real world not becoming a Sith. Especially, keeping what he had done as a secret.

[NoFate_Void]

I did an export of my character. I keep track of them via a excel sheet I had found on rpgsheets.com since I dont know when. But without further adieu .. my character.

Loadstone

Be gentle with the critique.

Savare

[Centimane]

Hey guys, I know my handle's Soma over here, but I'm the "Cottus" that *Overload*'s mentioned a few times (the one with the dragon). Since everyone's putting up character info here, I thought it only fair to post my own PC's info.

This my finalized character eruption info, submitted and fully approved by Du0. So here you go:

Looking over the railing of the Outdoor Observatory on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, Samuel Erickson had never missed his parents so much since their death nearly two years ago.

They'd died in '96 leaving him an orphan at 17 years of age. After several months as an official Ward of the State, he'd turned 18 and had enrolled in a Computer Networking course at TCI University in NYC as soon as he could.

Samuel had never been cool, or talented, or even attractive really, and for much of his young life he had retreated into books and his own fantasy world for solace. The death of his parents had only compounded this problem and he'd become all but a recluse by the time he turned eighteen. But once he'd become "an adult" and had started attending college he'd felt a powerful desire to socialize, make friends, and do what college kids (even ones taking a Computer Networking course) are supposed to do: party. So for the past several months he'd been making a real attempt to be at least likeable and sociable enough to be tolerated at social functions. And it had actually seemed to be working for the most part. Until last night.

He'd been invited by one of his (much cooler) techy friends, Jerry, to a party out in Brooklyn, and it had turned out to be a real hoot. After about two and half hours and way too much alcohol Sam had actually started to feel loose enough to chat it up with a few of the female party attendees - something he rarely did - ever. At first, his attempts seemed to be meeting with no small amount of success, by his standards. This meant, of course, that the girls he talked to didn't immediately blow him off or walk away or insult him. It did not mean that they showed any real interest in him. But Samuel didn't have real high standards in this regard so he was feeling pretty good about himself, and it was at this point that he made his mistake.

He walked (with a slightly drunken wobble in his step) right up to one of the prettiest girls at the party, got about halfway through his initial introductions, and puked all over the floor at her feet. Big time Party Foul. Needless to say, the girl (who's name he never learned) became more than a little upset at this belligerent display and roundly (and very loudly) berated him in front of all those gathered around. This in turn attracted the attention of her boyfriend (and Sam never learned his name either) who had immediately gotten right in Sam's face.

Samuel was completely humiliated by the rapid deterioration of events as it was, but to have the girl's much bigger, better looking, and obviously more confident, boyfriend suddenly pushing and shoving him only made things worse. The boyfriend actually dragged him bodily out of the party and kicked Sam out the door. Then he proceeded to beat him for a good half a minute before leaving him to pick himself off of the ground and find his own way home.

Sam got all the way back home to his dingy apartment and all the way into his bathroom before he finally broke down. A more rational Samuel probably would have realised that his life had been looking up for some time, but Sam had a bad habit of letting his emotions decide his course. And in the wee hours of the morning, badly drunk and freshly beaten, all Samuel could think about was that he was alone and unloved in a hostile world, with no family and nothing really going for him. If he'd retreated into the black depression that hit him and had succumbed to his fatigue he probably would have woken up many hours later with a bad hangover and, like the rest of the world, would have been caught up in awe of the events that would soon overtake everyone. But the anxiety that overcame him and the pain of his injuries (which were really only minor) kept him awake all through those bleak, gray hours of the night when a person's hope is particularly succeptable and Sam finally came to a decision.

So here he was on top of the Empire State Building on the morning of March the 23rd, 8:25 EST, thinking about how long it would take him to fall all the way down and trying to screw up the courage to find out. He'd seen the contrail in the sky, and was vaguely aware of what had caused it, but in his present state of mind the destruction it represented seemed only to reinforce the pointlessness of his existence. He'd proceeded undeterred to his destination, paid the fare and ridden the elevator up, and now here he was at the top of the world.

Samuel took a breath and looked around. It was now or never. The Observatory would be crowded soon enough, and he didn't want to cause a scene (and was oblivious to the impossibility of this even as he thought it). He gripped the railing for an instant and hesitated.

Then he pulled his flabby body over the fence as quickly as he could, moved quickly to the edge of the building, and leaped. In the instant he went over the edge all of his senses crystalized in fear as he hovered in the air over the streets far, far below. Behind him someone screamed, time started again, he began to plummet downward, and his head exploded. Samuel Erickson had erupted.

The pain in Samuel's head rapidly grew until it overshadowed all other concerns, including his imminent impact with the ground, and in an instant his body reacted. His entire body, but most importantly his head and thus his pain-wracked brain, grew and expanded and made room for the unbearable pressure in his head until it dropped to more bearable levels. To Sam it looked more like everything suddenly shrunk by more than half, and he was still trying to wrap his mind around this phenominon when he realized that he was no longer falling, he was flying. Actually flying! As he floated down through the air he caught his reflection in a pain of glass and nearly jumped right out of his own, scaly skin.

As has already been mentioned, Sam liked fantasy stories and the characters he liked the best were dragons. He liked the good dragons most of all, but any dragon was good enough for him. He found himself identifying with the way that dragons were often hunted or persecuted in stories, but wishing that he had at least some of the strength of those dragons. But it didn't look like he needed to wish any more because the reflection he saw staring back at him was that of an honest-to-god dragon. Samuel didn't feel so depressed anymore, or all that afraid either, but he was really starting to question his sanity.

Samuel wouldn't know the exact specifics of his measurements, or even of his form, for some time yet, but his body had morphed into a quadrupedal, winged dragon more than fifty feet in length and a full twelve feet at the shoulder, with a long serpentine neck that could raise itself another sixteen and a half feet above that. He didn't know it at the time but his "wings" were actually a pair of fully functional extra limbs that he could use as an extra pair of hands (or weapons) when not using them to fly, and his long dragon tail was nearly as useful and much more dangerous as a weapon. His massive head was longer than most people's entire upper bodies, with saucer-sized serpent's eyes gleaming a bright golden in the morning sun, and a maw that was filled with long, dagger-sharp fangs.

In a nearly dream-like state Samuel glided for a few hundred yards down 5th Avenue, causing no small amount of panic in the streets below, and finally came to a surprisingly graceful landing near the corner on West 30th Street. All around him terrified pedestrians were scattering in all directions, with cars squealing, swirving, and even stopping to unload their equally terrified occupants so that they too could flee on foot. Within the space of moments several accidents had taken place and the entire area was in chaos.

Perhaps it was the emotional stress caused by witnessing a giant dragon alighting on the street corner ahead of him just as he was in the middle of snatching an unsuspecting New Yorker's purse and interposing itself between him and his planned escape route (probably it was), but within moments of Samuel's first successful landing a man later identified as one Jonas Huddleston (who later took the moniker "Snowman") - a petty criminal and general troublemaker - erupted. The pain and trauma caused by his own eruption, combined with the overall sense of fear of the giant dragon in front of him and the fear that he was going to be caught and arrested for theft, caused Jonas to instictively lash out. It was later determined that the freezing wind that Jonas summoned started up a good half kilometer up 5th Ave, but at the time all anyone knew was that the entire street was suddenly struck with hurricane force winds and that the tempurature had suddenly dropped to something more appropriate to the middle of winter than the middle of spring. Then the snow started to fall....

Samuel turned out to be the primary focus of Jonas's quantum-powered rampage, but the hurricane force winds caused no small amount of property damage in the surrounding area, and dozens of injuries to bystanders ranging from minor to serious. Before Samuel had time to fully understand what was happening or why, he was hit with the force of a train by a blast of wind and ice that knocked even his massive form into the nearest building and partway through its wall. Struggling to his feet, Samuel was immediately struck by another of Jonas's blasts and sailed several meters through the air before crashing into the ground (and not a few cars). Though his outstretched body did strike a number of bystanders, most had already fled by this point and the severe winds had cleared out most of the rest, so Samuel only struck a few pedestrians as he fell, and he didn't land directly on any of them. So while his fall injured several innocent bystanders, a fact that bothered him greatly almost immediately, no one was killed.

Jonas was screaming his lungs out in pain and adrenaline-charged fear during all this, so it was not difficult for Samuel to pinpoint the source of the next blast and successfully dodge it. By this time NYPD had managed to track down the "flying lizard" that had been sighted by hundreds of alarmed New Yorkers, and several squad cars came to a squealing halt just in time to witness Jonas Huddleston obviously firing a blast of ice and wind from his fingertips at a real life, and bus-sized, dragon. Stepping out of their cars, the officers aimed their firearms at the two fictional-characters-come-to-life and demanded they Freeze! One of the officers panicked immediately after this and fired off a round at Samuel, which bounced harmlessly off his impenetrable hide, but which further aggravated the already pain-enraged and moderately delusional Huddleston. Jonas immediately fired off another of his ice-blasts at the NYPD officers, hitting on of their squad cars full on, and sending it and the two officers taking cover behind it sailing through the air for dozens of meters, only to crash horribly to the into other vehicles along the street in a mass of twisting metal and broken flesh. Later investigation determined that both officers were probably dead before they hit the pavement.

By this point Samuel had had time to come to some sort of temporary grips with his own situation and to realize that someone needed to end this entire mess as quickly as possible. He had completely and utterly forgotten his intention to kill himself only moments before. Leaping on the petty thief with amazing speed and grace for something so large and out of proportion to his surroundings, the gigantic dragon swatted Jonas with one powerful forepaw. In the instant of impact Jonas Huddleston summoned up some sort of "wind shield" that blunted most of the force of Sam's attack, but that didn't stop it. Jonas crumpled to the ground and instantly the winds died out and the temperature rose rapidly, almost alarmingly, back to its previous levels.

The remaining of the original NYPD officers were back on their feet and pointing their sidearms at the two new-born novas, and an increasingly large number of backup units were arriving each second, so that Sam found himself at the wrong end of a small army's worth of firearms. Somehow he knew that he wasn't really in any danger from the bullets, but the thought of being in trouble with the law was more than he wanted to deal with after everything that had happened to him in the last several minutes. Suddenly, Samuel wasn't quite so keen his new form and wanted very badly to go back to being a harmless, normal human being. And once again his body reacted in an instant, and the world suddenly seemed to expand and grow while he shrank.

Sam had just time to realize that he was standing in broad daylight in the middle of Manhattan without a stitch of clothing on before the pain in his head came screaming back to the fore and he blacked out....

As the in-story descrip states (very briefly), Samuel is basically a massive dragon and his main abilities are nigh-invulnerability and incredible strength. He's also extremely fast, extremely intelligent and perceptive, and possesses some very minor protean characteristics. So now you guys know, and I hope you had fun reading.

[SkyLion]

I am keeping the details of my character close to my chest for the time being and will reveal more in game. As a teaser however here is my character waking up the next day after an incredibly surreal "dream" and turning on the TV...

Tossing some leftovers in the microwave, he flicked on the TV and sat down to put his socks on. Before the first one had made it fully onto his foot he was paralyzed, heart pounding with shock and disbelief.

"That...that's impossible..."

It was all over the news. Switching to every channel held a different piece of the story.

"...fought with monstrous creature in downtown Hong Kong. Death toll reaching..."

*click*

"..what can only be described as something out of a comic book..."

*click*

"...grabbed the entire central section of the collapsing bridge...*

*click*

"...saved my dog from the flames..."

*click*

"...disarmed militant forces crossing into Jeruselum..."

*click*

"...guided plane to the ground after the loss of 3 engines..."

*click*

"...truck woulda hit me for sure if the flying man hadn't...

*click*

"...confirmed sightings in Hong Kong, New York, Jeruselum, Sydney, Madrid, Mexico City..."

*CLICK*

[NoFate_Void]

I like it Overload. So with us all being independants in the story .. im kind of excited to see how this is going to play out.

[SkyLion]

yeah me too! As the first few Novas though we are going to be pretty visible to each other, like tall people noticing each other across a crowded dancefloor of bobbing heads we will stand out!

Also while I scrapped my plan to replace Randal Portman as the first public Nova I have the ditinction of being the first one to appear as an honest to god superhero in full costume zipping across the world to help with diasaters.

[Joani]

I just wrapped up my charsheet and will post here as soon as I got it formated to fit the board. As far as concept goes she'll be a firedevil with Bodymorph Fire and Elemental Anima Fire. I hope to have a little backgroundstory written (just a rough sketch right now)for your pleasure

[NoFate_Void]

I finally read the story Soma. I liked it. I think it will be an interesting character to see develope. So when are you going to start breathing fire? Now for clarification you are a western style dragon right?

I also just wonder how many people made the 24 hour deadline that Matt had issued in his email. I actually spent a bit more time at work than I should have working on my character. LOL. It was fun though.

[Mr Fox]

I believe I made it. My eruption story and sheet were turned into him, but he sent back some suggestions on the sheet that got finished this morning, so hopefully I was 'in'.

Btw, Luke really does think he is a Jedi, he's obsessed(flaw) with the idea. He figures that quantum energy is really the force. He is surprised at all the forms the force is taking in other people though, and will be appalled by what some do with the power. Oh, and just so you know, he's not going to be a boring one dimensional character. He has serious anger management issues, and of course murdered someone during his eruption, so hopefully you guys won't be bored with 'another person playing a jedi'.

[Ulric Reikspar]

My e-mail ate my information!

[Centimane]

Quote:

I finally read the story Soma. I liked it. I think it will be an interesting character to see develope. So when are you going to start breathing fire? Now for clarification you are a western style dragon right?

Yeah, he's a Western style fantasy dragon. I based his image heavily off of this set of images of a model created by Mcfarlane toys (to give credit where it's due). For reference as to scale, I checked, and if you were to stand the largest full-grown African Savannah Elephant on record next to Sam the elephant's shoulder (the highest point on a quadrupedal animal) would be about a foot higher than the shoulder of the dragon in the pics. The elephant's entire body length (not including the trunk which adds several feet) would be about equal to the dragon's torso. A person would need to duck down a bit to walk underneath his body. ((I have no idea how large the dragon in those pics is supposed to be, I'm just talking about how large Sam is))
So that should give an idea of what Sam looks like and how large he is in comparison to real-world objects. Although, to note, the patterning on his scales, and the particular arrangement of the spines along his body is mutable and he can change them at will. His "wings" also can be altered in overall shape and form quite a lot as well, and can even take on the form of deadly, mantis-like weapons that can tear an opponent to shreds.
As to fire, I'm not sure he'll ever start doing that, but we'll see. Another interesting bit of trivia: (although Sam doesn't know this yet) he's now a full-blown True Carnivore, and can only survive off of meat. Whether he's comfortable with the idea or not, he's now the largest, deadliest predator on the planet.

Quote:

I also just wonder how many people made the 24 hour deadline that Matt had issued in his email. I actually spent a bit more time at work than I should have working on my character. LOL. It was fun though.

Yeah, I was up into the wee hours of the morning trying to finish my piece so I could get it in on time. Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of job where I can work on this kind of stuff while on the clock.

[SkyLion]

I made it in to the deadline by 15 minutes...eek!

[Ulric Reikspar]

Damn. Looks like a computer error will deny me a Weather Controller.

[Centimane]

You should still be able to join, but not as a nova who erupted on N-Day. At least, that was my understanding of the deadline. Hitting the deadline meant you could have your character erupt on N-Day itself, at whatever time you chose (such as my own character, who erupted a full 5 hours before the Fireman), while missing the deadline meant that the game-world moves forward into the next day.

I'm pretty sure you can still join, you just won't be an N-Day nova (not really a big deal, I wasn't even planning on having Sam erupt on N-Day at all until Du0 put the pressure on me as the first player to get their PC approved).

[NoFate_Void]

After much consideration I think I will look like this . I know I am probably grabbing something very typical but it works for me. I dont think my character will see costumes as the way to go. I like how in Heroes they actually still try to be normal humans and I think that is what Gabe is going to be more like. Cautious of his powers. There is a quote from Fist of North Star that I believe will be more of my characters driving creed, "Power without perception is useless"power without perception is virtually useless and therefore of no true value" Which may or may not lead my character down the path of Teragen. Who knows.

[Centimane]

Yeah, I've been wondering if my character won't go down the Teragen path as well. He certainly has the taint for it (taint 7), and the difficulty in associating with "baselines" to go along with it. And, for obvious reasons, Samuel isn't going to be running around in a superhero outfit either.

[SkyLion]

He doesn't need an outfit! Seriously...who in their right minds is going to tell a dragon he is "under-dressed."??? A suit of custom plate armor might be pretty cool though. Anyways Im hoping that Du0 will provide us with plots that let us form an actual group...I play to be with PCs, just interacting with the ST gets boring...

[Joani]

looks like its going to stay PbeM-Style? I see how I can handle that. Besides that, I second you, Sky.

[SkyLion]

regarding becomming a group? yeah..

how do you others feel about this? I mean y'all can be seperate of you want but Im playing for PC interaction not a one on one game, though the group doesnt have to be altogether all at once. Our teragen game got so big the ST would split us in to 2 or 3 pathways depending on the items in the plot that needed adressing but they werent fixed. If they were happening at the same time it was possible to move between pathways if you could get there.

[Mr Fox]

I'm up for being part of a group.

[SalmonMax]

My character is kind of squishy, so I could see her seeking out some protection...especially in these early days when superbeings are running rampant and she hasn't established any power centers...

Right now I'm looking at:

Str *

Dex **

Sta ***

Per ****

Int ***

Wit ***

Cha **

Man *****/*

App ****/*

Qua ***

Will ******

Telepathy ****

Mirage *

Mega Manip * (Voice)

Mega Appear * (Nobody)

Attributes +3 (already included)

I may take some Taint on Telepathy and get moar stuff...this is all just off the top of my head, since my Aberrant book is at home.

[NoFate_Void]

I have an 8 gig thumb drive that I the books for the games i am involved with on. It comes in handy around lunch time.

I would consider tainting your telepathy and also picking up mental blast or telekenisis. I had a player a while ago take a elemental anima telekenisis to simulate a lot of what you see telepaths do in Marvel comics. Just a thought to present. Although it looks like the game has started so it might be to late to alter your character too much.

[SalmonMax]

Alter? Hee. I'm in the process of making the character. I can't really alter it before it's finished.

Mental blast is possible, though I may save that for exp spendy. Telekinesis is probably not gonna happen. The concept is pretty much focused on mind to mind stuff.

I'm also considering Invisibility, with the notion that it's a specialized application of Mirage...editing herself out of people's senses. She could do that with Mirage too, but it's harder, it only affects one person at a time, and she'd need a good amount of successes to overcome people's will.

[Centimane]

If I may be so bold; your Telepathy will work better if you move 3 of those dots into Mega-Perception. You'll end up with about 1.5 more successes on average, plus you'll get a nifty enhancement with your purchase (free of charge)! Also, you might want to bump your base Perception up to 5. It's AttCurrentRatingx4 for increasing it, so that last dot of Per will cost you 16xp to up, as opposed to going with Per5, M.Per3, and spending 5xp to up to your TP to 2.

Just a thought.

[Zack OOC]

I like the idea of independent but intertwining stories myself, but I don't see anything stopping anyone fro going a group.

I'll be like wolverine- I've got my own thing going on but pop in regularly, you know, to keep your ratings up.

In the interest of sharing I'ld like to introduce the eruption story I submitted:

Julian Paladino had no reason for breaking into a closed down printery in Downtown Brooklyn. He had a good job at a warehouse, and was more than smart enough to know the dangers of trespassing. Unfortunately, of the downsides of being smart is that one can become bored easily.

To put it another way, Julian is a thrill seeker. Certainly not so dumb as to enjoy risk his own life and health with foolhardy ventures like skydiving, Julian discovered a different rush: urban exploration. You could call it “criminal trespass”, Julian preferred the term “reality hacking”. He loved to find his way into the unseen underbelly or ‘off-limits’ parts of civilization and became familiar with all the best ways of accessing buildings.

Julian had pushed his limits further in the past. He found he was quite capable of the occasional lift or even a con job, but the truth was, in his heart he was a decent guy, and couldn’t stomach the thought of actually acting against another person. Exploring was so much more satisfying, and certainly never took anything. Nothing of real value anyways, just the occasional souvenir.

Now, when a man makes it a habit of being where he ought not, it’s only a matter of time before he sees what ought not as well. For example one may happen upon two corrupt police officials meeting with two enforcers for the Russian mafia meeting for a lively discussion of payoff arrangements. Or in poor Julian’s case they may happen upon you while entering the room, turning on the lights to see some young fool with his head in a ventilation shaft.

Julian gathered his wits first and bolted for the door. He had turned in the hall and ran for the street-level exit just as the first bullet whizzed past him, terrifyingly close. As he ran, there was no Hollywood style hailstorm of gunfire, just the occasional crack, every shot close enough that he could feel it. He burst out of and ran around the building to the darker alley, thinking maybe he could lose them there. His pursuers were too close, and more experienced at this than him.

He knew he was going to die tonight. His mind seemed to resign to it, but not his body. He kept running, and made a desperate leap for a fire escape. He caught it easily, and with such good momentum in his favor he elected not to grab and climb on, but instead used it to swing himself up one, no two more floors. Before he knew it was on the roof, six floors up.

The next building was still a good two stories taller. That just seemed to suit him better, so he casually jumped across to it, to the bare wall. He connected and somehow gripped the brick wall, and made an easy climb to the top. Only then did it dawn on him what he had just done. Looking down from the building, (the one he had just scaled in twelve seconds) he heard nothing but the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. There was another sound as well; he couldn’t hear it so much as feel it. A faint crying was in perfect sync with calypso beat being pounded on his chest. He realized what it was, he was laughing. This only made him laugh harder, so hard that he couldn’t stand any longer. He slumped down on the rooftop and just kept laughing.

It can’t be said for sure how long Julian was on that roof, rolling around with laughter. It was however exactly as long at takes to furious enforcers to climb eight floors, kick open the door and level two rifles at Julian.

Julian just grinned at the two men, and disappeared.

------------------

To properly introduce you:

Julian is 22 years old at eruption. He is fairly tall, has coal black hair and deep blue eyes. Before eruption there was very little special about him, besides being very smart. He could have been a lot further along in life if had not been rather lazy in his youth.

Before eruption, Julian had been very shy and introverted, a self-imposed social outsider. If asked he would say he was ‘socially lazy’. He would rather read, explore, or practice his painting than interact with most people. His favorite reads were fantasy and cyberpunk style sci-fi.

He found in his reading that he always related to the thieves and rogues, outsiders who thrived using their wits. This, along an inner resentment for the people he felt alienated from, are probably what seeded his later behavior.

He lives in DUMBO with two roommates, his cousin Leo and Leo’s friend Chance. His family consists of Frank Paladino, an American citizen of Italian descent who works in middle management, his mother, Diane, a second generation Greek immigrant, as well as three younger sisters and two younger brothers. The rest of his family lives in Brooklyn Heights.

In addition to his newfound powers eruption has improved him almost every area. He is healthier, no longer requires glasses, and has a newfound confidence around people. Never good at sports, he is thrilled to find that he is now supernaturally athletic.

Once rather plain, Julian now has a very striking Mediterranean appearance. In addition to his improved stature and build, his blue eyes are more vivid, and his course unruly hair is now always perfect.

Under any other circumstances, Julian would seek out fame and fortune, but as things are he forced to lay low and keep his abilities secret.

[SalmonMax]

Originally Posted By: Soma

If I may be so bold; your Telepathy will work better if you move 3 of those dots into Mega-Perception. You'll end up with about 1.5 more successes on average, plus you'll get a nifty enhancement with your purchase (free of charge)! Also, you might want to bump your base Perception up to 5. It's AttCurrentRatingx4 for increasing it, so that last dot of Per will cost you 16xp to up, as opposed to going with Per5, M.Per3, and spending 5xp to up to your TP to 2.

Arr, tis not the case though. This GM has a very different kind of Telepathy than exists in the book. His version is a Tier 3 power with subpowers built in, like a lot of the "manipulation" powers do. So if I want to start with 4 Telepathy disciplines, I need 4 Telepathy dots (well, actually 4 dots in this case buys 5 disciplines, but the same principle).

I considered doing megaperception too, in addition to the others, but ultimately, I'd like a certain breadth of ability rather than one attribute with vast, bloated die pools. To start with, at least.

Raising Perception to 5 may happen, especially if I get more novapoints from taint, or spend some bonus points on stats.

[Centimane]

Ah. Well in that case then I second your build as being probably the best possible. Far better to start out with 4 dots in an L3 power than have to raise the sucker with xp.

[StormCross]

Not on N-Day, but close:

StormCross

Name: John Doe (Israel Blake)

Allegiance: Independent

Nature: Martyr

Handle: StormCross

Strength ooooo, Dexterity ooooo, Stamina ooooo

Athletics ooo, Drive o, Martial Arts ooo, Endurance ooo, Resistance ooo

Perception ooooo, Intelligence ooooo, Wits ooooo

Awareness ooo, Investigation o, Academics o, Computer o, Linguistics o, Medicine o, Science o, Survival o

Appearance ooooo, Manipulation ooooo, Charisma ooooo

Style ooo, Perform ooo

Backgrounds:

Attunement ooooo, Eufiber ooooo, Followers oo, Resources ooooo

Merits: Iron Will (6), Taint Resistant (5), Eufiber Attunement (3), Sexy (1)

Flaws: Amnesia (3), Debt (Jessy Cutter) (2)

Quantum: ooooo Taint: 0 Willpower: ooooo o

Powers:

Weather Manipulation 1 (Weather Alteration)

Mega-Intelligence 1 (Self Analysis)

Jared Puckney would never forget the sight as long as he lived. He was running down to his storm cellar with a tornado hot on his heels. He knew he was a dead man and in his last act of defiance, he turned to face down the storm. The air felt like it was going to explode out of his lungs. He screamed with as much fear as anger, ready to die.

He was utterly surprised that someone was hovering in the middle of that tornado, staring back at him. The figures normal clothes were torn, and his … its eyes glowed with a holy light. With the storm ripping all around, the figure just hung there.

“What do you want?” Jared yelled up at the figure. The figure tipped his head toward one shoulder, questioningly.

“I don’t want to die!”

Still there was no answer.

“Save me!” he screamed once more and that the figure seemed to understand. The figure reached out with his arms half like Jesus on the Cross, half like he was trying to hug the storm to his chest. The storm reached up to a crescendo and then abruptly ceased all together. The sudden silence was deafening then the figure moaned. His eyes dimmed from a blazing light, to embers then closed all together. With that, the man fell to the ground.

Jared brought the man to his now spared home and called the Sheriff. The family gathered around the stranger, not sure what to make of his ‘costume’, blue with a white swirl and a red cross over his torso. His features were angelic, with light brown hair, clear complexion, and an athletic build. They couldn’t find any identifying material on him, though and he seemed blissfully unable to tell anyone who he was.

The Sheriff took John Doe back to small town, Oklahoma when the stranger woke up. He had no idea who he was, were he was, or how he had ended up in the Puckney’s front room. The Sheriff had not been hiding in a hole. He had seen the events that were happening all over the world. Things like this only happened in places like New York and Hong Kong, not ‘100 miles from Nowhere, Middle America’, so he called the closest news affiliate and waited for a whole different kind of storm to descend.

………………………………………………………………

The whole first day was a blur for John. At the end of it, he still had no clearer an idea of who he was. He did know that he wasn’t from around this small Oklahoma town. No one knew him and they all talked a bit different. When asked to show off, he had summoned a storm with a gesture and then made it go away. The crowd was suitably impressed, but it seemed like a totally normal action for him. A few of the people wanted to treat him as something divine, there being a cross on his chest and all. That didn’t feel natural. It left him feeling wary and embarrassed.

Jessy had showed up and rescued him from the crowd of news people trying to interview him, re-interview him, or make him show off some more. By sheer bluster she had separated him away from the mob and got him to a room alone. Suddenly someone was talking to him about his future, what he wanted to do with this new found power and what other people would want to do with it.

She made a lot of sense. They shook hands and they made a bargain. She would help him take care of himself, stand between him and the hoards of others who would want to take advantage of him, and all she needed was ten percent. Somehow that seemed fair, or as fair a deal as he was likely to get. Night found them on the long road to Chicago.

[SkyLion]

Sounds very interesting Stormcrow! Do you have another name round these parts?

Glad to see Im not the only one who is going to be running around in tights!

[NoFate_Void]

Merry Men: [singing] We're men

We're men in tights

We roam around the forest looking for fights

We're men

We're men in tights

We rob from the rich and give to the poor

That's right!

We may look like sissies

But watch what you say

Or else we'll put out your lights

We're men

We're men in tights

Always on guard

Defending the people's rights

We're men

Manly men!

We're men in tights

Yes!

We roam around the forest looking for fights

We're men

We're men in tights

We rob from the rich and give to the poor

That's right!

We may look like pansies

But don't get us wrong

Or else we'll put out your lights

We're men

We're men in tights

*Tight tights*

Always on guard

Defending the people's rights

When you're in a fix

Just call for the men in tights

We're butch!

[NoFate_Void]

Sorry I couldnt resist the movie reference when you mentioned the tights Overload. LOL.

[Mr Fox]

Good thing Luke only wears Jedi robes, no one will make fun of that right?

[StormCross]

Originally Posted By: *Overload*

Sounds very interesting Stormcrow! Do you have another name round these parts?

Glad to see Im not the only one who is going to be running around in tights!

Yes, he wears tights and the name is Storm-CROSS, not crow.

[StormCross]

Actually, Overload has got me to thinking more about the name. What do you think of the name StormRaven instead of StormCross? Has Storm Raven been used before?

[SkyLion]

Whoops! Sorry bout that SC...I have a character named Stormcrow...it was late and I was tired. Anyways I if I have a name I really like I dont worry if someone else is using it. And since this is NDay you could beat out Shelby for the Caestus Pax for example if you want too. Stormraven is cool, but does it fit? My Stormcrow had very specific reasons for that name.