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Zeitgeist Blue

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Posts posted by Zeitgeist Blue

  1. Spending a Fate point to Jury-Rig a Ritual.

     

    Device 2 (10DP; Extra Effort [Device]) [6PP]

    • Snare 10 (Extras: Area [Targeted, Attached], Range [Perception]; Flaws: Action [Full Action], Distracting, Medium [Steel]] [10DP]
  2. Nicole started muttering curses as Alex finished detailing his idea. If there were worse ideas in all the dimensions of magic and secrets, she hasn't read it yet.

     

    "This is stupid. I'm not James Bond in a dress."

     

    Just great to be caught in the middle of nowhere just as she was getting somewhere. She had no intention of letting them wrap chains around her wrists to be escorted to their boss, but neither was a fight a situation she wanted to get in. Maybe Alex could beat them, maybe that smug smirk might help him hit harder, but without Bellios she was deadweight in a straight-up brawl.

     

    She snatched her phone from Alex's grip in frustration, uncertainty mixing as she paced around the smaller and smaller room.

     

    Finally, she stopped in front of Alex. "What're you putting this on me for? You're the senior! What do we do?"

  3. "I read," she said blankly as if he was an idiot for asking that. Genius wasn't all sunshine and rainbows no matter what they say - news was one thing she kept up to date in, atypically enough, but then anything was fair game for her, from car magazines, movie reviews to fashion blogs and Hollywood controversies. She sighed after a moment and began to tick off her fingers. "Youtube videos, movies, tv shows, and social media too. That's about it."

     

    There was of course, the local animal shelter over by the South Side which needed a competent assistant vet occasionally but that was another matter entirely and not worth disclosing.

     

    She crossed her legs - still a weird feeling - and waited as he charged up. There were a few more things she needed to start any ritual. Scissors for one and chalk for the basics. Then a ritual circle, gouges on wood, sheep blood, an instrument to act as a conductor around her. She'd probably have to cannibalize something of hers and the thought made her nose itch.

     

    Electricity-- energy was perhaps only the start to make the things needed to make the things for the big ritual to get out of here while keeping a dimensional marker in place so she could get back in fully suited to face this Sorcerer guy.

  4. "You could say that."

    She freed her phone from its cage of wires and offered it to Alex, the anticipation running through her system. Just her luck to have not only another hero run into her and one with his powers. She'd been stuck here for a week and already she was going stir crazy from a lack of things to fiddle with or info to gobble up, and another week might see her break down from the stress. How these people ever managed without the wonders of modern life, she wouldn't want to know first hand.

     

    She turned on her smartphone and beautifully it began its start up sequence.

     

    "Well, do your thing."

  5. "You don't look like him," Nicole crossed her arms, scrutinizing the person standing before her. He was more chiseled, straighter and more broad in the shoulders like a knight in shining armor... Did that make her the princess? Whatever the characters they were playing, there was no denying the physical changes. Alex here looked nothing like Alex in Claremont and so did Nicole now look nothing like herself in her world.

     

    "That's good," she said at last, nodding her head, a smile forming on her face just as a plan was. "Then if it really is you, I need some electricity from your energy form. Give me some magic to work with."

     

    She put the branch on a nearby table, rubbing her hands in thought.

     

    "Pen and paper games aren't my thing but I get your point. It's our lives and I don't like playing it like a game."

     

    She started up the stairs then stopped midway, turning to Alex. "Nicole Whitfield-Hall. I'm a sophomore from Claremont by the way."

  6. The book. It's been a week since she'd been sucked in, counting the sun rise and set, and it all that time she hadn't mentioned it to anyone. If he knew about it then he was involved somehow. A fellow trapped inside the realm like she was or someone with more malicious intent? She didn't know but without her armor or working electricity she did not fancy her chances against a person made of steel.

     

    Her grip tightened. Eyes narrowed.

     

    "I'm not going to believe a movie voice-over when I can find out what's going on here. You do if you want to, but this is magic and I'm getting to the bottom of this."

     

    She paused for a second and then shook her head, opening the door a little wider.

     

    "You can stay if you want. Help out."

  7. This was odd but Nicole was used to odd. From the very existence of this world, to the cliches written under every fairy-tale tree branch and prancing knight, to that disembodied voice in her head narrating her every step. Well, it wasn't just nothing, she wanted to say while preening from the capital 'H' title bestowed on her. The proper functioning of her phone was very important to her well-being. Thank you very much.

     

    She wanted to say, or think, but there was little indication it reached the voice.

     

    It was nothing like conversing with her dad inside her armor.

     

    She stood up, now used to the feeling of her legs after a few days, pulling at the hem of her dress-shirt and climbed down the wooden stairs to the ground floor almost daintily. She was turning into a princess. That was a thing apparently. Light makeup and fingers manicured. Turning shorter and slimmer. Her eyes regaining perfect vision, she did not need her glasses to see well anymore. Her shirt turned into a blouse then lengthening to just above her knees like a summer dress.

     

    There was a branch sitting by the door and she took it, holding it behind her back as she turned the doorknob.

     

    She didn't need the distraction. Not know.

     

    "What is it?"

  8. Nicole raised her arms and stepped in between Mr. Murk and whatever was coming their way, cannons primed to fire, sweeping back and forth across an empty room. She could spot no movement among the furniture except for their own shadows cast by the hospital light. To think that meant nothing was there was just asking to be proved wrong in a place like this, following its own rules. Through the hole she punched through the wall, her own armor gleamed red, cape hanging limp over her shoulders.

     

    She knew it was really her and if she just reached out, she could imagine touching the armor on her back.

     

    "Where is it?" she asked the Neanderthal behind her. Without the use of her sensory suite, she was effectively blind.

  9. It took a moment for Nicole to take in her bearings. Inside, the hospital air ran cold through her armor, traces of magic from whatever forcibly relocated them. She raised her arms as her optics adjusted to the darkness and her eyes fell on the bodies on the floor.

     

    She felt her stomach turn in reflex and turned from the grisly sight, grimacing under her helmet.

     

    "Bodies," she half-whispered to Mr. Murk under the lone fluorescent lamp, its flickering light adding an eeriness to the already heavy scene. "On the floor, dead bodies."

     

    She looked at the bodies again and bracing herself approached them, holding down her vomit as she bent down and turned one over. Her hands are steady more through her armor's balance system than anything.

     

    Dead bodies-- dead people was not something she wished to see under any circumstances. She'd seen a few during police cordons but multiple out before the officials got to them, fresh and unknown to the all-revealing light of day, was new to her. Flying among the clouds did not lead to these circumstances, but somewhere in a hidden part of her psyche she wondered curiously what she could find. What mysteries did the newly deceased bring? What could she apply?

     

    The cold, pale finger stiff from rigor mortis. Puncture wounds, entry points. Cause of death, time of death and a dozen other questions that needed asking.

     

    Another part of her rebelled. It would be easier if she viewed them clinically, like lab frogs or stuffed cats instead of people but...

    "We are inside a room. No windows or doors," she began both for Mr. Murk and her own sake. "Altered. No smell either. Furniture to the right. Documents and a computer. Coaches, chairs and other things - books and certificates."

  10. Nicole blinked in confusion as Emerald Spider appeared. Her chipper voice clashing abruptly with the mood of the scene and it took a few moments to compose herself.

     

    "I like this girl already!" Nicole ignored the voice inside her head.

     

    "There is that thing." She waved an armored gauntlet at the rather obvious chains wrapping around the hospital. That wasn't just some punks with too much time in their hands and a score to settle. "And people missing too. So serious as serious can be," she finished with an apologetic shrug and she turned back to the edge of the police cordon and Officer Wrath, counting down the facts with her fingers.

     

    "Officer Wrath doesn't know what's happening. I don't want to make wrong guesses. Twenty people went in at 5 this morning, none came back Any attempted scans inside only blow up the equipment, so I'm not in a hurry to try it out with my suit. It's a black zone in there." She looked at Wrath to affirm her assumptions then faced Spider.

     

    "Salvo by the way."

  11. Little green men. Government cover-ups of mind control test runs. Occultists partaking of fresh human blood in dark rituals to gain eternal life. Conspiracy theories one and all, and Nicole had not forgotten how she had quickly become entangled in their threads on her flight to Emerald City via American Airlines. There was little to do in the several hour journey and what seemed like a flight of fancy then consumed her free time.

     

    She had come as an intern of ArcheTech, to help on a new initiative rerouting rarefied fields through artificial crystals in one the basement's of the ArcheTech West complex. It was a more 'press the button and see what happens' type of work, less demanding and so very suited for the holidays. Yet her personal readings have gone from the outlandish to the disturbing. She could imagine how to execute most of them if she put half a mind to it.

     

    It was magic, paranormal rumors and there was some truth to them. Her time as Salvo and as a practicing magician allowed her to be privy to the machinations of hidden secrets and the half-lidded world under mundane existence. She knew better than to share these insights with Mr. Tulink, the closest person one might call her mentor in ArcheTech, but for all his self-wrought blindness Nicole's theories have been confirmed when she landed beside the police cordon in a rain of sparks and fire.

     

    She shut down her jets and thudded on the thin snow, an officer coming to greet her soon after. She was the first costumed hero on the scene it seemed.

     

    "Salvo," she said in way of greeting, leaning slightly forward as her occular senses zoomed in on the old hospital, now grotesque in the setting sun. "Honestly Officer Wrath, I can't tell right now, but I've heard stories about this building, ghost stories and things to make your skin crawl."

     

    She had her suspicions of course, but she would not be caught dead in a half-baked guess. Not if this truly was paranormal. She did not know the how of this landscape gone wrong or, more importantly, the why.

  12. 1 hour ago, Ari said:

    @Zeitgeist BlueThanks for your interest, Geist! Which you have ti work with depends on you, but I do recall you saying several times you wish you had more chances to actually USE Nicole's suit, and since this is a thinly-veiled Silent Hill/Resident Evil riff, would be entirely fitting for horrible monsters in need of annihilation.

    Shooty it is!

  13. Called for Fire by Thevshi

    Salvo

    • Transferred Living Metal 5 (5DP). 5DP goes to Alternate Form 24.6.
    • Transferred 4DP from Sensory Suite Array 5.5 to Enhanced Saves 20 (Fortitude +3, Reflex -1, Will +2)
    • Created an Tech Container 23.4 to show Nicole with and without a Battlesuit. PP is split between Normal Identity 1.8 and Bellios 27.75 respectively.
    • Removed Matter Manipulation 12 and Living Metal 5.
    • Added Drives Like a Rock complication.
    • Some editing via Thevshi.

     

    Spoiler

     

    SalvoSuperhero.png.7ec21b89d5f64cadede52b24e5373ca9.png

     

    Player Name: Zeitgeist Blue


    Character Name: Salvo
    Power Level: 10 (157/157PP)
    Trade-Offs: -5 Attack / +5 Damage, -5 Defense / +5 Toughness
    Unspent Power Points: 0


    In Brief: Last member of a fallen house who refuses her family's legacy and seeks to make amends. 

     

    Residence: Apartment at Riverside, Downtown Freedom City/Dorm at Claremont Academy
    Base of Operations: Claremont Academy
    Catchphrase: "Locked on... And firing."

     

    Alternate Identity: Nicole Whitfield-Hall
    Identity: Secret
    Birthplace: CA, USA
    Occupation: Student
    Affiliations: Claremont Academy, Whitfields, Halls
    Family: Arthur Whitfield (Father), Amelie Hall (Mother), James Whitfield-Hall (Brother), Lauren Whitfield-Hall (Sister), Gregory Whitfield-Hall (Brother), Belle Whitfield-Hall (Sister)

     

    Description:
    Age: 17 (August 13, 2000)Spiderman.jpg.26dc057ba6d18774e71a930db652473b.jpg.7c1e1fbfa1b8c738687622b4600cbcba.jpg
    Gender: Female
    Ethnicity: Mixed (African-Canadian, Caucasian) 
    Height: 5'8" (without armor); 6'1" (with armor)
    Weight: 125 lbs
    Eyes: Brown
    Hair: Black

     

    Power Descriptions:

    While Nicole is innately attuned to magical energies, it is her battle armor, Bellios, which allows her to focus those energies into the powers she uses as a superhero. Once an old and storied magical heirloom, her work on the armor has made it something more, creating within its essence a platform that applies both centuries of tradition and cutting-edge methodologies integrated in a dialectic unity. Bellios usually manifests her powers in set systems with a technological bent, as befitting her leanings.

     

    Yet it is a thing as much of magic as the material world. Intersecting rune arrays tun electrical currents through chiseled patterns in the armor plates. Targeting spirits line up her Gatling guns and missile batteries as a handcrafted dimension, metaphysically tuned and coupled to Bellios, feeds alchemically-imbued ammunition to sate its voracious appetite for firepower.

     

    History:

    Seek Knowledge. Wield Power.

     

    Those were the words Nicole lived by most of her life. It was the words the Whitfield family has lived by and died for for hundreds of years, since the first Whitfields arrived in the Americas to gamble their fortune as plantation owners, since even before then as they lived like nobles in the Old World. These words were writ in gold-plated letters above every door and fireplace in the Whitfield grounds, so that each member of the family may remember the reason for their existence. The Whitfields were many and spread across the world, as befitting a venerable and wealthy family, but those Whitfields who called California their home were those who could trace their ancestry straight and true. The purest and oldest. The heirs of a legacy that was yet to come.

     

    It was this life and lineage, which Nicole was birthed to, third eldest among five siblings. As a younger sibling, she was not expected to inherit much and neither was much expected from her. She was left to her own devices, made busy with everything old money could buy. Servants in livery, the most expensive toys and gadgets, the richest food served in multiple course meals, yet she felt little, if any, parental love as a young child. She wandered the halls of the mansion alone, a small child who barely reached the waist of any adult, under the paintings of her ancestors, their eyes watchful and austere in the low light. Her parents were much too busy to take time off for her, always managing their holdings and grooming James, her eldest sibling when they were not travelling or locked inside their individual studies.

     

    Lauren, her older sister was sent to study in boarding school before Nicole could remember, and at the times the two met, they were even more distant to each other than she and James.  Perhaps then, this would have been a sad life, a childhood with little friends and love, but her personal caretaker took a liking for the young Whitfield, and it was from there that Nicole had experienced a semblance of warmth from another. Elizabeth Leon, her caretaker, took her under her wing, and began to go above and beyond the duties of a servant of Whitfield in attending to her charge’s needs. She was there whenever Nicole needed her - as her only playmate in games of tea or house, or as a shoulder to cry on when either Father or Mother scolded her childish antics.

     

    It was the first time someone truly saw Nicole as more than just a valuable asset to the family. Elizabeth listened to her, and she in turn listened. She learned of her caretaker's family, of Elizabeth's three daughters, the youngest who was her age, and of her husband who was struggling with depression. Elizabeth's bedtime stories were not fairy tales, or fanciful adventure stories. They were of the ordinary, the mundane somehow made wonderful, for it was another world for Nicole.

     

    Years passed and Nicole would grow to adolescence, soon sharing the mansion with two younger siblings, Gregory and Belle, yet like her older siblings spent less and less time with them as she grew older and was sent to an English boarding school. It was also during this time that she drew her parents’ interest. She was a genius among a family which prided itself on producing geniuses, and her intelligence was obvious for anyone with eyes to see. She soaked up information like a sponge and understood lectures meant for students a decade her senior, the many lonely hours she spent pouring over her family library now had paid off, and she had not stopped. Time and time again a servant or janitor would spy the library doors ajar, faint lights open in hours that ghosts roamed awake. They were how she spent her idle time when not with Elizabeth or playing with Gregory and Belle, and neither did she feel a recluse in boarding school, not as much as she did within the Whitfield grounds.

     

    There she had other girls to gossip with, cute boys to sneak glances to, teachers to mock behind their backs. She just tended to develop a fixation for a problem she couldn't solve, or a theory that had caught her interest, and either would occupy the back of her mind, maddening and lingering, until she'd spend hours or days searching and solving, and trying and asking, until she could confidently say she knew all there was worth knowing about that topic. Only then could she dismiss those thoughts that gripped her. It was there that she came to love the wonders of the modern world, how intricate and detailed and interconnected everything was, if only people could see it. Physics led to engineering led to technology led to mathematics led to-- ad infinitum.

     

    She was fifteen when she was summoned to the Whitfield mansion. She remembers, like all things, it was the middle of autumn and school was in full swing, yet she received a phone call. She was to drop all that she was doing and arrive at a earliest date, and she acqueised. A private jet was already waiting for her the same day she had received the call and she flew half the world to California. She was not the only one to be called. Her older brother and sister had already arrived, as had a dozen of her blood relations. The next few days saw a few dozen more arrive - cousins, and Aunts and Uncles - if she was to be technical. Almost every Whitfield of any worth gathered for the first time within a 20-acre estate.

     

    It was unprecedented, and a little daunting for Nicole, even as Elizabeth and Belle greeted her home. Gregory had stayed in his boarding school in France. 

     

    All of the Whitfields gathered within a vast chamber buried in the underground vaults of the mansion, and all the servants and retinues barred from entry. They were in the center of the estate, ley lines tracing energies where beats its magical heart, and patterns upon patterns of arcane sigils and stones dotted the walls, lights tracing paths safe to tread, the family's scrolls and tomes arranged orderly rows. Clearly, this ritual had anticipated for some time, and prepared for with a meticulous patience Nicole knew her parents possessed in abundance.

     

    She read what she knew, for she was not yet a full-blooded mage, could make only guesswork as to the reasons for trappings older than her grandparents, but what she saw indicated a technique that would converge every type of magic and energy present into the one point of chamber. A melding of sorts made larger than life for all those attending now as while they were all of the name Whitfield, and all knew the alchemical arts that so defined the family, decades and centuries had diversified their skills to the point of a sensory jumble. Like crossing a street in Los Angeles and picking out people of different ethnicities. Too many that it gets confusing, yet still holding many underlying characteristics in common.

     

    They began. The lights were shut off, a candle in the center of the congregation. Nicole could just make out her father, mother, then James and Lauren standing at intervals apart. Young Belle then, was not to be a part of their destiny. First, there was chanting, occult languages in different tongues reverberating through the walls and melding into one sonorous note. She does not know how long they had stayed there. She does not remember, she would admit uneasily, what had transpired in the darkness, amid hooded figures, and whispering fell things. The candle had guttered into a cold flicker, and a cackling, wet and heavy and inside.

     

    Her arms burned, and her throat cracked with smoke. She hurt all over but her legs, and when she awoke, barely aware, the chamber was on fire and Elizabeth was carrying Nicole in her arms, a bag stuffed with scrolls strapped on her shoulders. They ran from the chamber, out the basement and the mansion as everything burned. Nicole watched the mansion crumble in flames. Her legs refuse and Elizabeth carried her to the waiting paramedics, and she decided she was dreaming.

     

    The authorities would say it was a stray spark that started the fire. An unfortunate series of events led to this tragedy, the official statement would read, leading to 43 deaths, mostly from suffocation and localized within the chamber, except for one teenager that was rescued by a heroic maid. They applauded Elizabeth and shifted through the rubble, looking for survivors. They did not find Belle.

     

    Gregory would go missing shortly thereafter.

     

    She worried about Gregory and went into mourning, for Belle most of all. She was released from the hospital, a certified paraplegic, to Elizabeth and her family in the meantime, who were her legal guardians now. She saved what she could from the remains of her family's capital. The vultures had picked at everything long before she left the hospital. Through means legal and not so legal,  her family's once vast fortune had dwindled, taken by rivals, and those seeking revenge or restitution. And perhaps it was for the best.

     

    She had canceled her boarding school. There was an itch her brain could not scratch, and a hunch told her she would find her answers by staying. She soon discovered a side of her family that sickened her. They were corrupt, and perhaps that was not a revelation with how rich they were, but in their dealings lives were lost and ruined with the act of a single handshake, and people killed from one spoken word of her parents. She dug into the books, into the diaries and records saved from the fire. She talked to the lawyers and phoned business partners overseas. The Californian Whitfields had its hand in every pie in the city, state, and a significant number in the country and beyond.

     

    Oil spill cover ups, land siezures from the poor, money laundering, arms trafficking, financing the local Mafia, and shaking hands with Mexican cartels. The Whitfields were far worse among the magical community, yet just as insidious, where an overarching authority non-existent. It was a headache to have it all revealed and heaped upon her in a short time, and she cut every connection she could and gave all she could to the authorities. As the only Whitfield left, she had that right, even if many of her family's erstwhile partners did not see it her way. She walked -- rolled rather -- the streets now, instead of the halls of a mansion or an elite boarding school in a far-off country. They were concrete and now, and she couldn't ignore what was in front of her, even as her magic began to die a slow death for no discernible reason.

     

    Seek Knowledge. Wield Power.

     

    Her family had its reasons for everything they've done, excuses more like. But it was something to say to let them sleep at night, and she couldn't say they were deluded. Not when those reasons almost felt right, like this was just the natural state of the world. The strong prey on the weak. Predators eat. Prey flee. Humans fought wars and died and gave birth. And Whitfields learned and gathered.

     

    She woke up one night as she felt eyes watching her. Bellios stood at the foot of her bed, unscathed. Her powers were all but dead by then, and when she had attempted to wear the armor, the recurring psychic backlash left her sick and vomiting food for a week.

     

    By the coaxing of Elizabeth, she decided to fly to Freedom City and resume her schooling. She was frustrated and without hope, disgusted by her family's activities - a useless feeling, lugging an armor that did nothing but make her ill. Still, perhaps she could find a solution in the city of heroes and start anew, far away from the death of her family and the toxic they left. So she transferred half the money she had inherited with Elizabeth and her family, as much as it was a pittance compared to what her family once held, it was a large sum for them and it felt like the right thing to do to thank them for everything.

     

    She flew out the next day.

     

    She was eligible for Claremont, if just barely, and wasn't that cute.

     

    For two years she was the most useless student to grace its halls. Stuck in a wheelchair and magic that fizzled pathetically, if she could even get it to work, she would have been kicked out if it weren't for her intelligence and ability to create tech and mystical devices. She brought with her the family scrolls, even if she could recall their contents easily enough, and could call on mystical energies that did not originate from within. Magic rituals and petty concoctions, she knew how to make them. Electronic riff-raff that would not have been out of place in a gadgeteer's arsenal.

     

    All the while the familiar presence lay heavy upon her mind. It was the strongest pull she had ever, and it was directed in its entriety to Bellios. She let herself fall into that obsession, working for a year upon that construct of ancient arcana. She learned so much more than she would within the confines of a classroom, or the laughable practicums the teachers would give to her. She dreamed of bolts and runes, and incantations and coding. And when she was not buried within Bellios, within the confines of her work, she was formulating ways to improve it, to create more energy, more power, because it hungered.

     

    For two years, barely anyone outside her scheduled classes saw her. During class, her presence was almost non-existent, her output just enough to pass.

     

    But just before the end of the school year she rose from her fugue, as if she had fallen asleep or into a coma and had only woke up, though she remembered everything as clear as day. Groggy, head aching, her insides feeling like jelly, she looked up to take in her work.

     

    And it was beautiful.

     

    Personality & Motivations

    Nicole is, if anything, inclined to extremes. When something deemed important should done, then it should be done to the fullest of one's abilities or not at all. She is analytical, perhaps a bit too cerebral at times, but mostly means well, especially regarding the well-being of those she meets. She tries to be friendly, taking the time to engage in small talk and get to know people before making judgments about them. In a similar manner, she prefers to have all the facts before committing on a plan of action. This does mean she is prone to taking too much time when presented with an abundance of information, perhaps even contradictory reports, until someone pushes her to act.

     

    Perhaps as a way to atone for her family's wrongdoing, she has chosen to bear the mantle of a superhero, opposing those her parents would have gladly drink wine with. They were failures, she'd be quick to admit, but she won't be like them. And like everything worth doing, she has taken no half-measures.

     

    Powers & Tactics:

    Though not trained or experienced in fighting, Nicole's common sense lets her understand to fight where she is strong and her foes are not. She prefers to keep her distance, flying and invisible as she overwhelms her opponents through judicious use of firepower. When hemmed in or grounded, she will attempt to cut her way free from the fighting, blasting her way out.  Her arsenal also heightens her senses, encompassing machines and magic, which she can use to observe her opponents and perform reconnaissance undetected until she wishes to reveal her presence, usually through an opening salvo.

     

    Complications:
    A Parallel Path: Aside from her studies in Claremont Academy, the looming graduation and all that entails, and her nighttime superheroing as Salvo, Nicole still needs to find time as an intern in Archetech, providing quality yet affordable technology and energy to the less affluent locals of Freedom City. It's given her another purpose to work towards, and she takes this as a personal task, small a help as it is. She's met several people because of this, both from Archetech and Freedom City, but it does mean she's starting to see that part of the city as her turf, in addition to the magical hotspots. Sense of responsibility included. She will go out of her way for these people and places, more so than usual, even if she will not admit so. (Responsibility)

     

    Collateral Damage: Like it says on the tin: collateral damage. Turns out, holding the trigger of two fusion autocannons spinning at 3,000 rounds per minute each and firing super-heated metals in the city, or anywhere with infrastructure, isn't the smartest idea. Who knew? Nicole does, intellectually, but in the heat of battle there isn't time to think; only the surge of adrenaline and energy blasts flying. It's unfortunate, but damage does happen, especially when she pushes the suit to its full potential. Needless to say, there are consequences when this happens, even if she wins the fight. (Accident).

     

    Drives Like a Rock: Nicole's modifications on Salvo's lateral movements and fine handling have not panned out as well as she had first envisioned. Her armor's joints act up, it steps like something twice its weight, and her grip could crush bones if she weren't careful. Some more fine-tuning is required, field tests must be conducted for her to fully utilize the link between her and Bellios. Not to mention the physical deficiencies which have cropped up in transition.

     

    Father Dearest: Her father isn't the nicest of people and just when Nicole had thought she had gotten rid of him, his ghost, or at least a very convincing simulacrum of it, has inhabited Bellios as its machine spirit. She has tried to get rid of it, but he unfortunately seems to be staying as an unwanted but essential component. Thankfully, he does seem more agreeable, seeing as she is his only heir. And while he wishes to see her alive and well, he cares not one whit for anyone not a Whitfield. This has sometimes resulted in a struggle between parent and child when their objectives conflict with each other, usually pitting risk anfthe acquisition of artifacts against her responsibility as a superhero (one other thing he cares little about). But his long term goals, if he even has one, are still a mystery.

     

    Of course, in a contest between man and spirit, more often than not, it is not often clear who will win.

     

    It Hungers for War: Bellios is first and foremost a machine of war. Its pistons hum in anticipation of battle, and the monistic links blur the line between wearer and suit. When Nicole rages, it responds with greater power. When Bellios rages, she responds by pushing it to its limits. Additionally, it is very susceptible to the appearance of the Fae. A whiff of emission from those foul beings causes in it a single-minded bloodlust. Luckily, these episodes have been rare, but less extreme emotions do sometimes bleed off, turning the well-thought out into just plain compulsive.

     

    Man and Machine: When Nicole enters Bellios she becomes more than human, and more than just an amalgam of steel and flesh. They become one, in all definitions of the word. The world outside sees one being and acts accordingly; any power that would have effected either her, as a mere human sorcerer, or the techno-magics enmeshed into Bellios would affect the whole that Salvo has become. To be able to process this, Nicole's mind translates the changes into a reality she could comprehend, creating a HUD and "eyes" to see from her helmet. Anything that would blind her, or interfer with the magic and electronics in the armor, would scramble that visual interface and all essential information arrayed within it .

     

    Something in the Dark: Many small things go Nicole's way at just the right time, and just the right way, to make her life easier. In much the same way, she finds herself in situations that would seem contrived in any book or movie, yet leading to additional difficulties she must overcome. While these minor coincidences are merely irritating or helpful during her everyday, they are more disastrous during a serious superhero mission. There is a crawling, nagging feeling of being watched whenever they happen, though even her armor's sensors can find no trace, magical or otherwise, to confirm her suspicions.

     

    The Gift of Blood: Family legend traces their line stretches back to the age of Christian Rome, during the first centuries of the first millennium. During that time, the pope decreed the library destroyed. Unable to bear such wanton waste of knowledge, her ancestor had made a pact with an agent of a powerful being from another world. He would be given the ability to save the contents of the library, but he and his offspring must bear a price (or a blessing as the official version states), and a destiny to be fulfilled long after his death. Whatever the truth is, Nicole and those of her blood possess, without fail, a compulsion.

     

    Knowledge, especially forbidden knowledge, is the sweetest water, and she occasionally finds herself using her powers to fulfill her family's quest. While non of her episodes have reached the two years working on Bellios, many smaller episodes are still smaller occurences, particularly during her heightened magical state while using her armor. Nicole's obsession has her pursue information above all else, usually by absent-mindedly hacking into databases when she is in the suit, though there are many other ways she may go about this. These seem like good ideas at the time, but done at the wrong time, and with the wrong systems, and a slip-up may land her in serious trouble. (Obsession)

     

    The Sins of Family: Ever since finding out about her family's unsavory secrets, Nicole has endeavored to do good where they would do wrong. Still, there are those who see her as nothing more than the last Whitfield or a foolish girl. Most see her as no better than those bearing the same name. Yet some would go out of their way to rid her for revenge or opportunity. While there are enough in the mundane world, it is the magical community who has suffered the most from her family's excesses. As few and isolated as they are, they have long memories. And many ways to trace magic signatures.

     

    Whitfields and Halls, they say, are particularly distinct. (Enemy and Reputation)

     

    This Magic of Mine: Her magic isn't so hot when outside Bellios, understatement of the year, but her armor does act as a focus for her magic, heightening it into a weapon of mass destruction. While most of her inner energy transfers seamlessly into its various systems, a leak is unavoidable sometimes, and a once controllable yet feeble magic turns uncontrollable and potent; a combination that's often bad news. Though she may choose to hold it inside for a time, risking her magic's side-effects, she must eventually discharge the surge of power. A badly-timed spike, or an unwanted manifestation of that magic, could turn the tables very quickly. Not always for the better.

     

    Abilities: 0 - 2 + 0 + 14 + 0 + 0 = 12PP

    Strength: 18/10 (+4/0)
    Dexterity: 8 (-1)
    Constitution: 20/10 (+5/0)
    Intelligence: 24 (+7)
    Wisdom: 10 (+0)
    Charisma: 10 (+0)

    Combat: 6 + 5 = 11PP
    Initiative: -1
    Attack: +3 Base, +3 Melee, +3 Ranged, +5 Weapons Suite Array [+9 Containment Foam, +10 Missile Batteries]

    Grapple: +18/4/0
    Defense: +5/3 (+3/2 Base, +2/1 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed
    Knockback: -7/2

    Saving Throws: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP
    Toughness: +15/5 (+5/0 Con, +10/5 Protection)
    Fortitude: +10/0 (+5/0 Con, +5)
    Reflex: +6/-1 (-1 Dex, +7)
    Will: +8/0 (+0 Wis, +8)

     

    Skills: 68R = 17PP
    Computers 10 (+17)

    Craft (Chemical) 5 (+12)
    Craft (Electronic) 8 (+15)
    Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+12)
    Disable Device 6 (+13)
    Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 8 (+15)

    Knowledge (History) 3 (+10)
    Knowledge (Physical Science) 5 (+12)
    Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+15)

    Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 3 (+10)

    Language 2 (English, French, Spanish)

    Notice 3 (+3)

    Search 2 (+9)


    Feats: 5PP
    Artificer

    Benefit (Wealth)
    Eidetic Memory
    Inventor

    Ritualist

     

    Powers: 3 + 2 + 113 + 1 = 119PP

     

    Device 1 (Wheelchair, Tech; 5DP; Extra Effort [Device]; Drawbacks: Power Loss

    [Cannot use in Bellios armor]) [3PP]

    Descriptors: All (Hermetic) Magic and Technology combined. Magitech.

           Protection 5 (Extras: Force Field [+0]) [5DP]

     

    Device 1 (Eyeglasses, Magical, Tech; 5DP; Extra Effort [Device]; Drawbacks: Power Loss

    [Cannot use in Bellios armor]) [2PP]

    Descriptors: All (Hermetic) Magic and Technology combined. Magitech.

           Sensory Suite Array 2 (4PP Array; Feats: Alternate Powers 1) [5DP]  

                  BESuper-Senses 4 (Radar [+3]; Radar [Enhancements: Accurate (+0), Acute (+0), Ranged (+1)]) {4/4}

                  APSuper-Senses 4 (Mental [Magic] Awareness [+3]; Awareness [Enhancement: Ranged (+1)]) {4/4}

     

    Bellios 28 (Battlesuit, Magical, Tech; 140DP Alternate Form/Device; Extra Effort [Device];

    Feats: Restricted [Beings with Magic]) [113PP]

           Descriptors: All (Hermetic) Magic and Technology combined. Magitech.

     

               Protocol Sy 8.4 (42PP Container) [42DP]

                           Enhanced Strength 8 [8DP]

                           Enhanced Constitution 10 [10DP]

                           Enhanced Combat 1 (Defence 1) [2DP]

                           Enhanced Saves 20 (Fortitude 5, Reflex 7, Will 8) [20DP]

                           Enhanced Feats 2 (Attack Specialization (Weapons Suite), Dodge Focus) [2DP]

     

               Communications 4 (Radio, 1 mile; Extras: Area; Flaws: Action [Move]; Feats: Selective, Subtle) [6DP]

     

               Hexagrammic Paneling 3.8 (19PP Container) [19DP]

                           Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9DP]

                           Protection 10 [10DP]

     

               Sensory Suite Array 5.5 (11PP Array; Feats: Alternate Powers 2) [13DP]

                          BESuper-Senses 9 (Direction Sense [+1], Distance Sense [+1], Radio [+1], Radar [+3]; Radar [Enhancements:

                          Accurate (+0), Acute (+0), Analytical (+1), Extended 2 [1,000 ft] (+2),

                          Radius (+1), Ranged (+1)]) {11/11}

                          APSuper-Senses 9 (Mental [Magic] Awareness [+3]; Awareness [Enhancement: Accurate (+2), Acute (+1), Analytical (+1),

                          Extended [1,000 ft] (+2), Radius (+1), Ranged (+1)]) {11/11}

                          AP: Data Link 4 (Radio, 1 mile; Extras: Area, Linked [Enhanced Feats]; Flaws: Check Required [Computers]; Feats: Machine Control,

                          Online Research, Selective, Subtle, Well-Informed) {9/11}

     

               Servo-Dynamos 6.5 (13DP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 2, Dynamic 2) [17DP]

                          DBE: Flight 0-6 (500 mph / 5,000 per Move Action; Feats: Subtle) {0-13}

                          DAPSuper-Strength 0-6 (Effective Strength 16-46, Heavy Load ~200 lbs-~6 tons) {0-12}

                          AP: Invisibility Matrix 0-4 (Invisibility; All Visual Senses; Feats: Close Range) {8/8}

     

               Weapons Suite Array 19.5 (39PP Array; Feats: Alternate Powers 4) [43DP]

                          BEKinetic Beam 10 (Blast; Extras: Linked [Dazzle], Range [Perception]; Flaws: Action [Full]; Feats: Knockback 3 [13 Total],

                          Variable [Energy/Tungsten]) {25} + Dazzle 7 (Visual; Extras: Linked [Blast], Range [Perception]; Flaws: Action [Full]) {14}

                          = {39/39}

                         AP: Containment Foam 11 (Snare; Extras: Regenerating; Feats: Accurate 2, Affects Insubstantial 2,

                         Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) {39/39}

                         AP: Flamethrowers 10 (Hellfire; Extras: Area [General, Cone], Vampiric; Flaws: Range [Touch]; Feats:

                         Affects Insubstantial 2, Dimensional 2 [Magical], Incurable, Split Attack 2, Variable Descriptor 2 [Electricity/Fire/Water]) {39/39}

                         AP: Fusion Autocannons 15 (Blast; Extras: Autofire; Flaws: Distracting; Feats: All-out Attack, Improved Critical 2 [18-20],

                         Precise Shot 2, Power Attack, Split Attack, Variable Descriptor 2 [Any Metal]) {39/39}

                         AP: Missile Batteries 10 (Blast; Extras: Area [Targeted, Burst]Feats: Accurate 2, All-out Attack,

                         Attack Focus [Ranged], Homing, Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Indirect, Power Attack) {39/39}                    

                

    Magic 1 (2PP Array; Flaws: Unreliable) [1PP]

               Dazzle 1 (Visual + Auditory) [2PP]

     

    Drawbacks: -2 + -1 + -4  = -7PP

    Disability (Paraplegic) -2PP (Frequency: Uncommon; Intensity: Moderate)

    Nearsighted -1PP (Frequency: Uncommon; Intensity: Minor)

    Normal Identity -4PP (Frequency: Very Common; Intensity: Moderate)

     

    DC Block

    ATTACK                         RANGE         SAVE                                                 EFFECT
    Unarmed                       Touch            DC 19/15 Toughness                     Damage (Physical, Bludgeoning)
    Kinetic Beam                Perception   DC 25 Toughness (Penetrating)   Damage (Energy/Bludgeoning)

    Dazzle                            Perception   DC 20 Reflex/Fortitude                  Dazzle (Staged)

    Containment Foam      Ranged        DC 21 Reflex                                    Snare (Staged)

    Flamethrowers             Ranged         DC 25 Toughness                           Damage (Electricity/Fire/Water)

    Fusion Autocannons   Ranged         DC 30 Toughness (Autofire)         Damage (Physical)

    Matter Manipulation   Touch            DC 23 Fortitude                              Transmutation

    Missile Batteries          Ranged         DC 25 Toughness                           Damage (Missiles)

    Dazzle                            Perception   DC 11 Reflex/Fortitude                  Dazzle (Staged)

     

    Totals: Abilities (12) + Combat (11) + Saving Throws (0) + Skills (17) + Feats (5) + Powers (119) - Drawbacks (7) = 157/157 Power Points

    Totals: Device 1 (5) + Device 1 (5) + Device 28 (140) = 148/148 Device Points

     

     

     

     

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