Ari

"Eech vill letz du all go, eech hat no intention offf keeping du here gegen yuuuur willen. Eech shallt firssst take du all su de Grosse Whisste Gate, the only vay to yuuur Licht-Welt eech kann take du. Der du shallt meet mine fatter, who guards de Grosse Whisste Gate mitt hisss coilsss." Marceau he seemed to ignore, focusing his now slate-blue eyes on Zap and Maelstrom "Eech shallt now get furrr zum dtings for du to esse und trinken, you are suffering ins dis heat". With a shrug of his shoulders, he headed for the front door "Do nickt step out into de Schattow, it vill drag du under und drown you" he called behind himself, "Andt pay no heed to de zinging!" he added as the door slid open and he turned to leave. The 'zinging' could briefly be heard; a cold, quiet chanting in a language that sounded like Latin.

Alright chums, I'd be very appreciative of it if you would now make a Notice check, DC 14, to see if you character notices that the bus is still moving after its landing.

Okay, I believe I've managed to solve the majority of the problems, if not all, in the math, formatting and set-up. Any other issues you see?

QUESTIONNAIRE Introduction Who are you? Sum yourself up in one sentence. Frenchman with the mantle of a European guild of heroes. Do you have any nicknames, street names, titles, or nom de plume? I am called 'Marcy' by some, most often I just go by my full first name. No street names or anything of special note. What is your full birth name? Marceau Suvou. Where do you live? Freedom City, a small apartment complex called Monkey Towers in the Fens district. How old are you? What year were you born (if applicable)? I am twenty-three last birthday, born 1987 in October. Physical Traits What is your gender? If not applicable, please explain. Male. How would you describe your heritage? I'm Moroccan/Kenyan. How tall are you? A bit taller than six feet, by the Imperial measure. What is your body type? Rather thinner than is really healthy, pretty good shape though. Do you have any particular weaknesses, such as allergies or physical disabilities? Not any I am aware of. How do you carry yourself? Are you graceful, or heavy on your feet? Can you be stealthy, do you walk with confidence? I walk with very long strides, rather stiffly. Though I'm told I move gracefully enough besides that. Describe your skin, eye, and hair color. Dark brown, bluey-gray and black. How do you wear your hair, if applicable? Do you have facial hair? I keep it short, my hair would get in the way if I let it, so I don't. Do you consider yourself attractive? Do others? No, I would say not on both counts. Do you have any scars, tattoos, piercings, or birthmarks? I have four tattoos, each of a card suit, one on each shoulder and one on each outer thigh. Do you resemble anyone famous? Not any more than I can help. Do you have a dominant hand? I'm left-handed. What kind of clothing do you wear? I wear a suit of coveralls over top my armor(with shirts, pants and undergarments beneath that, of course), I wear light boots. Do you wear makeup? No. What is your vocal range? Is your voice distinctive in some way? I have an extreme baritone, which reverberates much more than it should. Do you have any distinctive habits, nervous tics, or mannerisms? Where did they come from, and what causes them? Do other people notice and remark on these habits? Do they annoy you or other people? I often ramble about how much I like certain things, but I'm getting better at keeping it inside my own head. History Where do you come from? Aude, France. Small southern coast department. Have you made any major moves, or do you live in your hometown? I have traveled for years all over Europe. Do you feel loyal to your country of citizenship? Do you consider yourself patriotic? How do you feel about the government of your country? I feel an appropriate amount of national loyalty. I am patriotic enough to be especially happy when France does well. I have had some troubled dealings with the governing body. How do you feel about the place you come from? I love it, and hope to return some day. Where is your home town? What was/is it like? France and on the banks of the Aude river. Small place with without more than a few hundred people I think. Growing up, were most of the people you knew similar to you, or were you somehow a minority? How did that affect you? I was markedly different from most of the other people that live there, but I was never treated with anything other than respect and charity. Is there something you've always been really good at or really bad at? How has that affected your life? Well, I can throw things pretty well. Born ona riverbank, I learned to skip stone before I could talk. Were there any traumatic experiences in your early years (death of a family member, abandonment, orphaned at an early age)? Yes, the childhood accident that rendered me permanently impotent has left a rather deep impression on me. Briefly describe a defining moment in your childhood and how it influenced your life. Beholding the Bowman and Raven defeat a flying giant in Rheims. If they could do it, I thought, why not me? What stupid things did you do when you were younger? Decide to hare off and try to help people with their problems. Where did you go to school? How much school did you have, and did you enjoy it? I underwent most of my secondary education in Rheims. It was quite engrossing! Schoolwork was always of great interest to me, and still is. Do you have any mementos of your childhood? What are they, and why did you keep them? If you have none, why not? I have a door, and some small statues from the house of a French supervillain from the 20's I found in Romania. Selling them bit by bit, though. Soon all of it will have to go. Nice mementos, however, and they've kept me from starving most of the time. When did you decide to become a hero? Why? Did anyone influence you one way or another in the decision? After seeing the Raven and Bowman manage to defeat that flying giant, without powers to rely on. Is the reason you give people for becoming a hero different than your real reason? If so, why? No, it is not. I have nothing to conceal, really. Do you have any deep, dark secrets in the past that may come back to haunt you? None. Do you represent yourself as being different from who you really are? Why? I act a bit more suave and self-assured when in costume, the mask and cape seem to insulate me slightly from the world around me, anonymity you know. If you do have these secrets, what do you fear would happen if the truth became known? How far would you go to protect those secrets? If someone finds out my past, they are welcome to whatever they find. Do you have any sort of criminal record? If so, is it public knowledge? I have had no run-ins with the law, no. Family What are your biological parents' names? Kioni and Masud Suvou. Were you raised by them? If not, please explain and describe who raised you. I was raised by my parents, thankfully. What was their standing in the community? What did/do they do for a living? They were(and as far as I know still are) quite respected members. My father is a university professor of chemistry, my mother is a professional electrician. Where are your parents now? Still in Rheims, just south of the Chooze nuclear power plant. Did your family stay in one area or move around a lot? They stayed at their home in Aude until they got jobs in Rheims, where we then moved. How did you get along with their parents? How do you get along with them now (if applicable). I loved them, and they me. This has never changed. I have been lucky in that I've never disappointed them as deeply as I feared I might. How do your parents view you now, or how would they? They have concerns for my safety in this line of work, but they take comfort that I always have a day job to keep me grounded in reality. Do you have any siblings? If so how many and what are their names? Describe your relationship with them. I have no siblings. What was your birth order in the family? First and only. Where are your siblings now (if applicable)? Do they have families of their own? What do they do? N/A Do you stay in touch with them or have you become estranged? N/A Do you love or hate one member of the family in particular? No. Is any member of the family special to you in any way (perhaps, as a confidant, mentor, or arch-rival)? No. Are there any black (or white) sheep in the family (including you)? If so, please explain. I guess I'd be a black sheep, not many powers from my family. Lost mine, but still applies. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? If so, please explain, including how it has affected your life. None remembered today. Do you have a partner and children currently? If so, please describe them. No. If you do not have a partner or children, do you want them someday? How firm are you in your opinion on this, and what might change your mind? I would like to learn to love someone and marry them, yes. It would be all too easy to change my mind on this, however. I've been without romantic feelings almost all my life. What type of person would be your ideal mate? Enthusiastic, warm, open with their thoughts, somebody with a grasp of the big picture. Relationships Do you have any close friends? If so, please describe them, and how you came to be close to them. I have a confidant in a harmless crazy named Jackie Evans, she's a middle-aged New Englander, used to be one of those people who walks down the street talking to themselves. Do you have a best friend? If so, how did they become your best friend? How close are you to your best friend? I have no actual friends, just acquaintances of various degrees of closeness, I wonder if that's how it's supposed to be? If you were to go missing, who would worry about you? Eh, the people who share my apartment, the few in the Fens who know I exist. My parents have seen me vanish too often to get too worried. Have you lost any loves? If so, how did it happen, and what did you do? No, my life wasn't THAT exciting. Do you have any bitter enemies? If so, please describe them and their history with you. I have no settled arch-nemeses. Most of the people I fight haven't had the resources, power or luck to try again. If you have enemies, how do you think they might attempt to work against you in the future? Not applicable. What is the worst thing someone has done to you? To me? Not very important, but I have been betrayed by someone I respected and honoured. Where do your loyalties lie? In what order? To the purpose God made me for, to my posse of displaced and homeless, to this city's populace, to this country's populace, to this world's populace. Who or what do you trust the most? Why? God. He's infallible, so all I have to do is figure out what he wants me to do in a given situation and all will be well. Who or what do you despise? Why? Greed. It leads to many evils that wouldn't exist without it. What qualities do you admire most in other people? Are these qualities you possess? Honesty, the courage to do the moral thing above the convenient thing and a knowledge of what's going on in the world and how it came to pass. I don't think I'm an exemplar of those qualities. What qualities do you hate most in other people? Do you have any of those qualities? Greed, as mentioned above. An 'ends justifies the means' philosophy. Constant lying and other deceptive habits. I fear I do. Do you have a secret identity? If so, who knows it? Do you hide it from people who are close to you? Why? Yes. The House of Suits in Eastern Europe. I try not to hide it, if someone asks me about my real name, I see no reason not to tell them. Do you work well on teams and in groups? Are you a leader or a follower? I hope I work well with others. I like being around people, so I tend to be a follower. Are you on a super team? If so, how do you get along with your comrades? Do you trust them, or do you have secrets from them? Not currently. I'm a member of the House of Suits mentioned above, but for now I'm considered by them to be an 'independent agent'. We got on great, trusted each other implicitly, and kept no secrets with each other. Currently working on a little something called the Vanguard, alongside some noble people. Are you a member of any church, fraternal organization, club, committee, political party, or other group? How much time do you spend on that? I attend the Church of St. Sebastian in West End Sundays. I try to help out there as much as I can, they're pretty short-staffed it seems. Personality & Beliefs Who are your heroes? The Ravens, the Ace of Suits and the Saints beautified. Did you ever become disillusioned with former heroes or idols? If so, why and what were the circumstances? No, never have and I don't think I ever shall. Do you like being a hero? If so, what is the most rewarding part? If not, what makes you keep doing it? It is an incredible thing to be able to help those people oftentimes left defenseless. Is there anything that would make you give up hero work, or even switch sides? Crippling injury or possession by an evil power, but that's it. What are your short term goals (what would you like to be doing within a year)? I want to get a better hold on what is going on in the Fens, expand my contacts and make some friends. What are your long term goals (what would you like to be doing twenty years from now)? Become a hero like the Ace, start up a branch of House of Suits in Freedom. What is your greatest fear? Why? What do you do when something triggers this fear? Being responsible for something horrible. Is there anything you would give you life for? A friend, the world, I'd give my life at the drop of a hat, really. How do you feel about money and material wealth? Do you desire it or disdain it? Are you miserly with what you have, or do you like to share? Is it a mark of success, or a means to an end? It is a means to an end, and thus is often mistaken for the end itself. I read recently in a magazine that many American youths my age want to 'get rich', and that that is their sole goal in life. I am utterly unlike that. I give away what money I can afford, and use the rest for essentials. How do you generally treat others? Like I want to be treated, for the most part. Are you a trusting person? Has your trust ever been abused? I am incredibly trusting, considering what I've been through. It has been abused a few times, but mostly people seem to keep their word. Are you introverted (shy and withdrawn) or extroverted (outgoing)? Do you have a lot of self-confidence? I am an extrovert. Can't imagine why anyone would want to stick around all day in stuffy rooms when the world's just outside. I have a great deal of self-confidence, but I know my limits. How do you act around attractive, available members of your preferred sex? With deference and grace. I don't act 'interested' or anything like that. What are your most annoying habits? Talking without stopping for long periods of time. When you've been alone for as long as I have, you do that to keep focus. Do you feel contempt for any general category of people? Who are they, and why? I have no contempt for anyone except utopians. It's like they think the world isn't good enough for them, and only they know how it should be. What is your favorite food? Do you prefer any particular type of food? Do you take the time to enjoy your food, or do you eat as fast as you can? I LOVE lettuce! Leafy greens in general I could eat all day every day. No hurried eating for me. Food is delicious, and ought to be treated as such. What is your favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)? Water. Nothing is better than it, it doesn't hurt you if you take care to carry a purifier around, and it's free nearly everywhere. What is your favorite treat (dessert)? Bread with dried fruit inside. Are there any specific foodstuffs that you find disgusting or refuse to eat? Anything touched by another animal isn't going down my throat if I can help it. What is your favorite color? Are there any colors you dislike? I love the color purple, especially in flowers and ribbons. I don't hate any colors. What sort of music do you like? Is there any that you hate? Light, aimless music. I hate 'hard' music like rock or metal. Earsores. If you have a favorite scent, what is it? Honey, clover. Do you have a favorite animal? The camel, those things are incredible. Them or the Black Antelope. What is your most treasured possession? Why? The costume that I wear, it was given to me by the Ace in the ceremony where I joined the House of Suits. Do you enjoy "roughing it", or do you prefer your creature comforts? I like roughing it. Almost used to going without. Is there a job or a task you would absolutely refuse to do? Prostitution, murder, kidnapping, enslaving another sapient being. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so, how do your beliefs affect your life?How important is it to you? I am not 'spiritual'. I am a committed super-naturalist who believes totally in the existence of Heaven and Hell, not to mention a member of the Eastern Orthodox church, which I believe I mentioned a bit earlier. My beliefs form what I consider right and wrong, good and evil. I cannot think of any sound basis for morals beyond religious teachings. Was your faith influenced or molded by anyone special? Yes, my friends as I grew up. With them I learned how to put into practice what I was instructed in church. If you belong to a religious organization, how often do you attend? Do you have a specific place of worship, or friends within the organization? How much do you agree with the beliefs of your organization? I am a member of the Eastern Orthodox church, and I believe their teachings utterly. I go to the Church of St. Sebastian. Could you kill? Have you killed? Yes, I have killed animals for food. Never any humans, though. What circumstances led to you forming that conviction, or taking that action? "Do as ye would be done by" is I think the appropriate English saying. Are there circumstances under which you believe it is permissible to kill? What are they? Yes. To kill for food, or for the state to kill if their laws dictate that as acceptable punishment. How would you react to watching someone kill another person? Would your reaction be different if the killer was a friend or an enemy of yours? I would be horrified. It would make no difference who they were the ally of, an early death by violence is always horrible. How would you react if something important was stolen from you? Angry, I would track down the thief and demand they return the item they stole. How would you react to public humiliation? I would most likely thank my humiliator for keeping me humble. How would you react if a good friend or relative were purposely or accidentally killed? Has it happened to you? I would be filled with grief. It has never happened to me, thank God. What do you consider to be the worst crime someone could commit and why? Getting someone else to do evil so you don't. If it is so pressing to do something, do it yourself, and if you feel unsure as to its being a good act, don't do it. If your life were to end in 24 hours, what five things would you do in those remaining hours? 1. Sell everything I owned. 2. Give half of the money to my posse, and half to the the Church of St. Sebastian. 3. Go to the church and ask for forgiveness of my sins committed, and good deeds omitted. 4. Search out every hero in town I've met and thank them for their help, and apologize I wasn't more help to them. 5. Call my father and mother. Career & Training Do you have any special training in your hero skills? If so, where and how did you get it? I was trained by the House of Suits to fight in general terms. I had a good idea of how to fight by then, but I needed a proper education. Who taught you the most about your heroing abilities? What was your relationship with that person? I would be unable to name any one teacher above them all, but Aloysius and I often sparred in the early days to try and figure out good tactics. Do you have any particularly unusual skills? How did you acquire them? I am very good at throwing things. Skipping stones across the Aude, throwing water bottles to knock guns out of people's hands, throwing razor-sharp cards to pin people against brick walls... Do you do something besides hero work for a living? Have you ever done anything else, or do you plan to? I work as a janitor at an office building that houses a chapter of the accounting division of the Grant Conglomerate. I'm preparing to take classes in becoming an electrician like my parents would want. A useful thing to be. What is your preferred combat style? I like to strike from a distance at any outliers in a group, use a smoke-card, then dive into the cloud and perform a beatdown on the others. Have you ever received any awards or honours? I am one of the founders of the House of Suits, and second in command of that group. What skill areas would you like most to improve in? Is there anything you can't do that you wish desperately you could? My cards seem to me to be my best bet for fighting, but I seem to be relying more and more on hand-to-hand combat and the like. I wish I had powers, they would be quite helpful. I am never as strong or enduring or fast as I need to be. How do you act around people who are more skilled than you in areas you'd like to improve? Are you jealous, or do you try and learn? I try to let them know I'd like to train under them. I don't get jealous easily. Lifestyle & Hobbies What is a normal day for you? How do you feel when something interrupts this routine? I wake up at 6 A.M., gently remove whichever posse-member has fallen asleep on my bed on top of me, do my ablutions, eat breakfast, go to work, come home in time for lunch, sort out the fight of the day, practice my card-throwing, clean and repair my armor and cape, check my supply of chemicals, make up some supper, go out into the night on patrol, come home at 12 A.M., go to sleep. If something interrupts my routine, I often feel irritated. Do you have any hobbies, or interests outside hero work? What are they, and where did you pick them up? Board games, reading historical fiction and trying my hand at brewing chemicals. What do you do for fun? Play card and board games with my posse and co-workers. They're really good at Scrabble. Do you have a costume? What does it look like? It is a typical cape-and-cowl affair, the cape is black on the outside, dark red on the inside and has a high collar. The cowl is black and covers my upper face, it has black sleeves and black pants, with a red breastplate with the insignia of one or other of the card suits on it in white. I have brownish armored boots with these yellowy leg-sleeve things to keep my feet from turning into agonized masses. Quite nice I think. How do you normally dress when not in costume? A pair of coveralls overtop my armor, with a pair of pants and a t-shirt with undergarments under the armor. What do you wear to bed most nights? Undergarments. Do you wear any special jewelry? What is it, and what does it look like? I wear six steel rings, one on each middle-finger, one on each ring finger and one on each thumb. They have no insignia or ornament. Do you have a special place where you keep your valuables? A treasure chest I found in Spain, squarish and with bronze rims. Embossed on the top is a large 'E'. What's your preferred means of local travel? How about long distance? I like to take the bus for short distances, and the train for longer ones. Across the seas? I go by boat. Miscellaneous Have you ever made a will, or tried to make arrangements for your death? What provisions did you make? I have a verbal agreement with my posse that they can have my stuff once I'm dead, providing they bury what remains they can gather in coffin on Lantern Hill. If your features were to be destroyed beyond recognition, is there any other way of identifying your body? Four tattoos, one on each shoulder and one on each outer thigh. Each is the symbol of one of the four card suits. What would you like to be remembered for after your death? Being a force for good in places often forgotten. Do you believe you pose a threat to the public? Why or why not? I am a threat to hardly anyone. I have no deep-seated rage that might spill over into my efforts as a crime-fighter, and my(lack of)powers are such that I could be beaten by a random Joe with a pistol. What do you perceive as your greatest strength? I can survive the harshest climates with little discomfort. What do you perceive as your greatest weakness? I have a nasty habit of automatically assuming that everyone wants the same good things I do. As a player, if you could, what advice would you give your character? Speak as if he/she were sitting right here in front of you. Use proper tone so they might heed your advice... Marceau, don't think your weakness means you have less to say. Power isn't the end of life, and the strong aren't always right any more than the weak are always wrong. That said, always recall that you haven't the strength to take on every fight that comes your way, and that while surrender and losing may seem anathema to you, that's pride talking. Combat is almost never inevitable, always seek peace instead of adding to the violence in the world.

Introduction Alright, this is going to be the News Thread for the King of Suits. It will mostly be focused on describing people Marceau meets in his adventures, and the adventures he has on-and-off-panel. Nothing above street-level for the most part, to keep things sort of believable for someone like him, someone very devoted to the smaller things in life.

DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN Sorry to be a bother, but I just realized a few things that need amending: first, the price for the Cosmic Energy Control Array is 16PP and not 14, so I'll remove a rank of Throwing Mastery and the Fearsome Presence feat to pay for it. Second, the modifier for my Dex is +2 and not +4 as I erroneously set down. The Alternate Power feat for the Fool's Deck Array is 3 and not 4, and the Dazzle AP is out of step with the others. Finally, to save others from pain, I'd like the History Section put in a . Here's the fixed sheet(if it could be called that). Players Name: Arichamus Characters Name: The King of Suits Power Level: 7 (110/112PP) Trade-Offs: -2 Attack / +2 Damage, -3 Defense / +3 Toughness Unspent PP: 2 Progress to Bronze Status: 7/30 In Brief: French janitor with the power of the stars at his fingertips, taking up the mantle of an unpowered Balkan hero group. Alternate Identities: Marceau An-Sallah/Suvou Identity: Secret, as nobody believes him when he tells them who he is. Birthplace: Aude, France Occupation: Janitor for an office building owned and operated by the only clean section of Grant Conglomerate, The accounting staff. Affiliations: Super-Teams on every continent, as well as Grant Conglomerate, his employer. Family: Kioni Suvou(mother, deceased), Masud(father, deceased). Morran An-Sallah(Uncle), Erran An-Sallah(Aunt) and their four children. Age: 23 Apparent Age: 35 Gender: Male Ethnicity: African (Moroccan) Height: 6'7'' Weight: 138 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Black Description: An-Sallah has a thin, lean chest and long limbs with wiry muscles, his skin lined with scars and small divots. He has four tattoos, the sign of the suit of Clubs on his right shoulder blade, the sign of Diamonds on his left, the sign of Spades on right thigh, and the sign of Hearts on his left. His hair is thick and wiry, and very difficult to maintain, so he keeps it short while in civilian work. His eyes are broadly spaced, and high on his face, giving him an open, honest look. His nose is broad and slightly flat and blunt, with an aquiline hook to the end of it. His mouth, that can be seen from behind his enormous beard, is oddly thin-lipped and angular, and has a slight overbite. His out-door voice can be heard several blocks away, his in-door voice one. At work and on most days, he wears a variety of earth-toned coveralls he bought by the suitcase-load in Moldavia, due to the fact that he can wear his body armor all day and not raise eyebrows. As the King of Suits, he wears long,hooded poncho-like capes, each embroidered with one of the symbols of the four classic suits. To disguise himself, a metal face mask carved to resemble a grinning bearded figure. Power Descriptions: A power to add to his natural mental and physical attributes stemming from the influence of the constellation-based eugenics program he was the result of. A life spent wandering the desolate places of the world hiding from his enemies has also inured him to extremes of heat and cold. To assist in his quest to become a hero worthy of being a leader of humanity, he uses various salvaged, re-purposed or legally bought tools of offensive or auxillary nature, including a deck of cards sharpened to a razor edge, and some of which were filled with a vastly weaker and diluted form of nitroglycerine.. History: [code]The Suvou family tree stretches southwards all the way to the southern-most coast of Morocco, where in ages past they were called the Swaarao. They served as diplomats to foreign lands, including embryonic Dakana. In 204, however, economic self-destruction seemed inevitable, and the family left for the (comparatively) stable lands of Europe, buying a village a few dozen miles west of the Alps in what is today France. There, they settled and became, if not prosperous, stable and financially secure. They were good at dealing with people, and passing barbarians were treated kindly enough and given enough in gifts that the Eurasian emigrants felt it unnecessary to burn the place or ravage the inhabitants. Thus, and by the steady fortification of their village, plus their careful method of keeping on the good side of anyone strong enough to harm them, left their region of land untouched by war for several centuries. They even managed to survive the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, sheltering travelers and refugees in their relatively peaceful abode. They held onto rule of the town for around 400 years, until 866, when their power was undermined by a cabal of merchants, who foresaw(with perfect accuracy) an upcoming struggle that the then-Savoro family's machinations couldn't stave off. The family smarted from this loss, as they had in the centuries beforehand enjoyed almost unbounded success in their efforts. By one of those fatal accidents that crop up in history with appalling regularity, the matriarch of the the line happened to be passing the house of a family friend, Janus Amblaeth, a reclusive astrologer who had an unparalleled knowledge of the medium, when she commented angrily that she wished "All the princes were [their] kin! We would have true power then". By itself this incident wouldn't have caused any harm, but Janus heard it in the midst of checking over his star-chart for inaccuracies, and he happened to glance at the sign that heralded the birth of a king's child. It should be noted here that there are other stellar marks which signify the birth of a woodsman's child, a pirate queen's child, and even a shepherdesses child. These ones however, aren't much noted, as the birth of a woodsman's child wasn't exactly a matter of political importance. What he saw that gave him such impetus to follow the wish of the matriarch (Plautia Savoro) was that he had an epiphany, and saw that those with(magical) powers often were born under this-or-that star. Thinking fast, he saw that if he could get the right people to have the right children at the right times, he could make one of the most powerful beings in existence! Janus realized that this also was a way to get the matriarch(and the rest of the family, if they were as honest as she)'s wish. He was a magician of some power, able to influence the fates and actions of others by introducing elements that would encourage them down one path and render another forbidding and potentially even dangerous. So he set out at once to figure out, from as many vantage points as he could, when and where the children of the monarchs of the next two thousand years would be born(taking into account stellar drift), so he could get them to intermarry(or just breed, he didn't care) in more frequency and with greater...variety among houses. He managed to convince the majority of the non-isolationist royals within 30 years, laying spells on the houses of far-off lands that he couldn't get to himself to safely. Ironically, the matriarch's anger over the matter of her and her family being dethroned proved short-lived, as she found the business of guarding the river and trading with passing boats(the job the family took up after their fall from power) was both helpful to the community around the Aude river and let them take the active role in the area's well-being she had wished all along. The family lived in peace for many years, weathering the perils of the Early Medieval Era under the attacks by the Turks and repeated invasions by the Vikings, not mention the manifold Continental powers that frequently attacked the city of Carcassonne. In 1793, however, the year the French Revolution broke out, twelve aristocrats, fleeing the violence of the country, found themselves in Janus's ancient villa. In the catacombs of the place, they found the perfectly (and magically) preserved map of the relationship between the royal lines of the world. Their lessons in Latin payed off handsomely for them, as they managed to decode the map and unravel exactly what Janus (who signed his name in the map's lower left corner) had planned on doing. Unfortunately for our hero's family, they failed to notice that Janus had explicitly done his work by magic, rather than physical action. As they had no idea that everything was in fact proceeding quite smoothly for Janus's plan, and that they would do more harm than help to it if they intervened, they stuck their oar in and began traveling the countryside of Europe digging up as much dirt as they could on all the royals they could find. What they did with said dirt need not be explicated. Their aim was to create the world's strongest super, like Janus. But their reasons for doing so boiled down more or less to snobbery and a proto-eugenic idea that such a being would be invaluable as a source of other supers. Christening themselves 'The Januii", they spun their webs and meddled as far as the thrones of China in things they had no understanding of, passing the job onto their children as they died. Anyway, in 1987, on the same bank of the same river that his family had lived on for more than a millennium, Marceau was born to two people of very different backgrounds. His mother, Kioni, was of the ancient Sahelian Kingdom line, and a recent immigrant from Kenya. His father, Masud, on the other hand was of the same branch that the family patriarch Abelo had led, and had lived in France all his life. The joy that his parents felt at his successful birth was short-lived, however, as the agents of the Januii arrived only hours later, and demanded to Masud (who had answered their knocking) that he surrender his child. When he refused, they shot him unceremoniously, the Januii having forgotten to tell them they wanted no deaths if it could be avoided. Kioni, hearing the gunfire, grabbed whatever valuables she could along with Marceau, and escaped out a window and down a hill-side, taking the small sailboat she and Masud owned, she sailed across the sea to the coast of modern Algeria. Thinking it would be best to travel incognito, Kioni used some of her and Masud's assets to buy a camel and some random goods, which she carried along with Marceau across the Sahara in the direction of Timbuktu, where she had relatives with rumored supernatural powers. She managed to get within about twelve miles from the city, dodging the raiders and desert bandits the Januii hired to chase them up until October 31st, 1987. Kioni and Marceau were finally caught while gathering water at a temporary oasis by thirteen desert bandits, all of whom had been hired by the previous assassins to finish the job. After a half-hour-long gun battle(Mrs. Suvou had also bought a rifle and several dozen rounds) around the oasis, Kioni had killed all but the scout who had discovered them and led the bandits to their location, but was herself mortally injured twice over. As the scout was beginning to aim his pistol at the lamed and slowly dying mother, he was stabbed in the back of his neck by a long knife. As the scout fell, killed instantly due to the damage to his brain stem, newlyweds Mossar and Erran An-Sallah, who had been drawn along with the small crowd of outskirt-dwellers by the gunfire, bent over Kioni. They saw that she was wounded almost to death by then, and in her last minutes she told them with agonized slowness of what had happened. Pledging to care for the child, the newlyweds buried Kioni in their family grave site. They raised the child as best as they could, and did a commendable job of it, raising him to be responsible for his actions from the age of 7, which was when his latent powers manifested, and to keep a tight rein on his powers until they grew beyond what the two were capable of keeping in check. However, they never told him he wasn't their son, though they gently discouraged him from making that assumption by the subtlest of distances. When Marceau turned 9, the local super-team, the 'Cercle de la Fratrie'(4 shape-shifters and 2 air-controllers)., who policed the city of Timbuktu and most of North-Western Africa, agreed to train him in the finer usage of his powers. By the age of ten, he could incapacitate(with some effort) a fully grown adult human without outside help, so long as the other guy didn't have any aid himself. As he was returning to his home after a training session, he saw two armed men holding his adopters at gunpoint. A quick sneak attack laid them both out on the ground, stunned, and he destroyed their guns before their eyes. It turned out that the Januii had found out about their assassins' slacking, and had sent two of the original twelve to kill the child(the current leader was the son of the previous, and hadn't known Marceau was wanted alive). Realizing that if the Januii could send assassins to their door, the An-Sallah's s asked Marceau to leave, and keep danger from their door, telling him at last the event that led him to their hearth and home, and begging him to ask the Cercle for help, as they were themselves only low-ranking electrical technicians, and unable to defend him against hired killers. The Cercle couldn't take him either, as they were often required to travel vast distances, and thus couldn't count on always being there to protect him. After much consideration, they decided to send Marceau to a super team in Guangzhou called the "Zanghonghua Weidui', or 'Saffron Guard(2 flying bricks, an amphibious water-controller and 3 speedsters), by boat. Thinking he would be safer going the long way around, they got him a job on a freighter, the Sangerkrieg, bound for the city and carrying a couple hundred thousand tons of coal. His job was the simple, thankless yet necessary job of cleaning the sides of the tanker of barnacles and the occasional limpet. The sea voyage passed uneventfully, practically the only part of Marceau's Eurasian odyssey that did. He lived only a few years in Guangzhou, as the Saffron Guard was swamped by calls for aid from all over the province of Guangdong. They decided(after the eighth time a wanna-be Dr. Sin tried to blow up their headquarters with Marceau in peril as a distraction) to send him south to the Laotion team Fifty Trumpets(fifty members, none with powers greater than slight emotion control). However, when he got to the rendezvous point in northern Cambodia, he joined for a time(or so he thought) the counter-revolutionary soldiers called the Tiger's Claw. They were(as he learned later) actually the Fifty Trumpets in disguise, to lend deniability to this operation. Their aim was to break the power of a warlord named Teng Zsi, and free the peasants under the rule of him and his minions. There, in the dense jungles filled with hungry tigers( he had the dubious pleasure of seeing a banteng cow get torn open by one), he developed a terror of forests that haunts him still, with him seeing to this day a luminous pair of green, hungry eyes in every bush. Not helping with his mental health was the fact that the Tiger's Claws used distinctly martial avenues of ousting Teng, The resultant hails of gunfire, impromptu introduction to the horrors of war, and the fact that he was barely a teenager, all conspired against him ever leaving the murderous jungle. The saving grace that kept him safe from Teng's minions for most of the sixteen-month conflict was his rapidly-developed tactical mind, not to mention his carrying capacity began to increase exponentially during his time in Cambodia, leaving him far more useful as a tactical consultant and courier of soldiers and gear than as a sniper. During a break in the gunfire, Marceau and three others chanced upon the mansion of one of Ace Danger's old foes from the 20's, whose house had become haunted by the spirit of a disgruntled servant. After exorcising it, a great trove of treasures( to Marceau's eyes) found, including his first-ever exposure to silent film and fine statuary. He still has around a dozen small statuettes, and an entire door from the mansion. His wanderings after the Fifty Trumpets melted back into Laos upon completion were much less focused after that. The 'Trumpets passed him off to the super-groups in the 'Stan's, where Marceau learned he had a good throwing arm through games of pick-up baseball. He lived in India for half a year with the super-team "Eyara Janakarom", or 'Air-Watchers'(flyers all) who then passed him off to a super-team in Russia, where he learned endurance against the cold equal to that he had acquired against the heat of the desert. He arrived(after passing through Greece) in Kosovo in 2005, in which year he met and became the apprentice of the Ace of Suits. The Ace of Suits was a protege of the second Raven, a martial-artist who had assisted in the cleanup of a slavery ring in 2001, and had at the encouragement of the Raven taken up the cape and cowl to defend the Balkans against all evil-doers. He met Marceau when the latter was being threatened by a group of ten gun-wielding hooligans, and the young man had been running from them for around fifteen minutes. Exhausted, Marceau was gathering himself for a surge of power that likely would have killed him as well as his enemies when the Ace of Suits sprang onto the scene. The Ace knocked eight of the ten unconscious in around four seconds, leaving the last two blasted into a wall by the surprised but grateful Frenchman. The Ace revealed his assumed title, and offered the younger man a place in his gang of crime-fighters. Eager to repay the Ace's kindness, Marceau readily agreed, and spent until the June of 2007 working under the intrepid crime-buster. at long last he took his leave of the super-team House o' Suits, arriving back at his birthplace in Aude a month later. The first thing that happened upon his arrival, annoyingly enough, was that a small squad of mercenaries tried to kill him in the half-abandoned hotel he was staying at. The placed a number of explosive charges around his door, and called on him to show himself when they heard him stirring within. Our hero had, fortunately enough, heard one of the conduttori when he tripped over a fold in the hall carpet, and had observed the setting of the charges through the spy hole in the door. When called upon, he told them that he knew who they were(not actually a lie, they had called each other by name several times), that he knew who sent them, and that the charges they had set were not nearly enough to kill him. He then, having affixed his bed sheets to the door, pulled it open and jumped out the window, grabbing onto another line of bedsheets hanging out of said window. He had landed lightly and watched in amusement as the sell-swords ran in a blind panic. He was less amused when he had to stay at the hotel and work off the damage to the hotel. While still in Auden, he happened to find the ancient villa owned by Janus, and found the star map still within, the Januii having made rough copies of it. They had also left behind a small book that translated the various symbols Janus had used to sort out who had what child with whom, and through it, Marceau abruptly found his place in the puzzle: the second-to-last. As it turned out, the Januii had badly mucked up the plan. They had gone with the idea that the time of conception didn't matter, and that all that was needed was to have two astrologically-compatible people have a child together and that was all. As a result, Marceau, who had been scheduled to be the father of the strongest creature the world had ever seen, was not only impotent(childhood accident easily foreseeable through his stars), but bound to a much slower process of attaining his powers, meaning the timescale was utterly broken beyond all repair. He also found, in a crevice overlooked by centuries of visitors, a metal mask in the shape of a grinning face eerily like his, nearly unbreakable, which he wears to this day as a disguise, with no idea of its true power to strike fear into the hearts of others, though that day approaches. Taking the map with him, as a curio, Marceau then set himself to work finding gainful employment. It wasn't hard, but due to his lack of official education, it was greatly limited in what he could do. One thing he did do, however, learn English, hearing that the land of America was a place brimming with wealth, and eager to employ anyone with the right education(it should be noted that his source wasn't exactly infallible). Thinking it would be a good idea to start fresh, Marceau set sail for America in 2008, and spent most of that year near starvation. He wandered south from Maine, slowly picking up an increasing 'posse' of homeless, harmless crazies and the generally unlucky in life. Today, he works as a janitor at an office building, a humble job that just barely pays enough for the needs of him and his gang. He is not nearly satisfied with this state of affairs, however, and knows that many others suffer as much if not more than he, and thus takes to the streets of Downtown Freedom City bearing the cloak of the House of Suits, and the death-mask of his family, a hunter of those who prey upon the unfortunate, the King of Suits! Personality & Motivation: Marceau is by upbringing and nature deeply religious, and by attendance a believer in Greek Orthodoxy. Despite that, he sees himself as a practical man(all evidence to the contrary aside), with a hard-headed and skeptical outlook on life, which has led him to undertake a study of chemistry, so as to better understand the reason for the physical phenomena he would otherwise spend sleepless nights fretting about, such as how poison is dangerous. Living up to the example of his monarchical forebears is a driving pursuit of his, as he feels that as the only uncrowned king, he must be of unimpeachable character, to make himself worthy of someday ascending to the throne, not to mention making up for the monstrous autocrats that many crowned heads made of themselves. Also unrestrained is his quest for the meaning behind things, and new acquaintances often find themselves in the unenviable position of tour guide to the human mind. Marceau's desire to be a worthy ruler, not to mention his travels through some of the poorest and most ill-managed regions in the world has born in him a passionate devotion to protecting the 'lower-class' first and foremost. He will actively speak on their behalf or challenge any real or imagined insults against them. Of a similar origin is a deep suspicion of conspiracies of any kind, seeing high-handed assumptions of "the ends justify the means" as insufferable. Powers & Tactics: Due to his lack of bulk, the King of Suits prefers to hide and wait for a law-breaking victim, then jump out while laughing like a bull being tickled and bash them senseless. If surrounded or otherwise unable to attack from concealment, he'll attempt to charge his way out, or use loose objects against his enemy. As a general rule, he prefers to attack from above his enemies by first hitting them with a flash-bang card, then a smoke card to conceal his movements. He'll then enter into the cloud and subdue his presumably dazed and blinded opponents. Complications: Phobia: Terrified of forests, as he lived most of his life in them throughout Southeast Asia. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: His nerve-wracking months in Cambodia have not failed to leave their mark on Marceau's psyche, sharp clashs of metal, gunfire, and just being near a forest can cause him to suffer flashbacks to those days, often causing him to act in an outwardly irrational manner. Responsibility: Caring for the needy, especially his 'posse' of sundry homeless, harmless lunatics and underemployed vagrants who have latched onto him as their protector against street-gangs and minor organized criminals. If any threat comes against them, Marceau feels honor-bound to aid them. Responsibility: Making up for the misdeeds of rulers, especially monarchs. Secret Identity: He's a quiet janitor in civilian life, not very high-profile. Struggling: Maintenance work doesn't pay much. Abilities: 4+ 4 + 4 + 0 + 4 + 2 = 18PP Strength: 14 (+2) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 14/ (+2) Charisma: 12 (+3) Combat: 10 + 8 = 18PP Initiative: +2 Attack: +5 Grapple: +7 Defense: +4 (+4 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -1 Saving Throws: 3 + 0 + 1 = 4PP Toughness: +4 (+1 Con, +3) Fortitude: +5 (+2 Con, +3) Reflex: +4 (+4 Dex, +0) Will: +3 (+2 Wis, +1) Skills: 72R = 18PP Acrobatics 4 (+6) Bluff 4 (+5) Craft (Chemical) 4 (+4) Drive 4 (+6) Diplomacy 4 (+5) Handle Animal 4 (+5) Intimidate 4 (+5) Knowledge (History) 8 (+8) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+4) Knowledge (Streetwise) 4 (+4) Knowledge (Tactics) 4 (+4) Language 8 (Arabic, English, French [Native], Greek, Hindi, Malay, Mandarin, Russian, Serbian) Notice 4 (+11) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 4 (+6) Feats: 116PP Attack Focus; Ranged Beginner's Luck Blind-Fight Endurance Equipment 3 (15EP) Quick Change Ranged Pin Set-Up Sneak Attack Startle Stun Attack Takedown Attack Throwing Mastery 1 Well-Informed Equipment wrote: Armored Jumpsuit (Protection 3) [3EP] Bolos (Snare 4) [8EP] Gas Mask [1EP] Concealable Microphone [1EP] Handcuffs[1EP] Multitool [1EP] Powers: 16 + 24 + 2 = 42PP Absolute Sundered Empowerment 7 (14PP Array, PFs: Alternate Power, Subtle) (Inherent, Magic) [16PP] Base Power: Cosmic Energy Control 7 [14PP] Alternate Power: Super-Strength 7 [14PP] Device 4 (20PP Container, Flaws: Easy-To-Lose 2) (Fool's Deck) [12PP] Fool's Deck 9 (18PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 3) [24PP] Base Power: Blast 6 (10 60ft Range Increments, 600ft Max Range, Extras: Penetrating) [18PP] Alternate Power: Blast 6 (600ft Max Range, Extras: Area [General, Burst, 30ft radius]) [18PP] Alternate Power: Obscure 9 (Visual Senses, 2,500ft radius Area, 900ft Range) [18PP] Alternate Power: Dazzle 9(Auditory and Visual Senses, 90 ft. Range Increment, 900 ft. Range)[18 pp] Immunity 2 (Cold, Heat) (Inherent, Natural) [2PP] DC Block: CODE: SELECT ALL ATTACK   RANGE      SAVE              EFFECT   Unarmed   Touch      DC15/22 Toughness (Staged)   Damage   Blast    Ranged     DC21 Toughness (Staged)    Damage   Blast    Ranged/Area   DC21 Reflex          1/2 Effect                 DC21/18 Toughness (Staged)   Damage Abilities (18) + Combat (14) + Saving Throws (4) + Skills (16) + Feats (18) + Powers (42) - Drawbacks (0) = 112/112 Power Points DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN

DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN Found I got about 9PP overbudget with some of the edits, so I dropped them. [b][u]Players Name[/u]:[/b] Arichamus   [b][u]Characters Name[/u]:[/b] The King of Suits   [b][u]Power Level[/u][/b]: 7 (110/112PP)   [b][u]Trade-Offs[/u][/b]: -2 Attack / +2 Damage, -3 Defense / +3 Toughness   [b][u]Unspent PP[/u][/b]: 2   [b][u]Progress to Bronze Status[/u][/b]: 7/30   [b][u]In Brief[/u][/b]: French janitor with the power of the stars at his fingertips, taking up the mantle of an unpowered Balkan hero group.   [b][u]Alternate Identities[/u][/b]: Marceau An-Sallah/Suvou   [b][u]Identity[/u][/b]: Secret, as nobody believes him when he tells them who he is.   [b][u]Birthplace[/u][/b]: Aude, France   [b][u]Occupation[/u][/b]: Janitor for an office building owned and operated by the only clean section of Grant Conglomerate, The accounting staff.   [b][u]Affiliations[/u][/b]: Super-Teams on every continent, as well as Grant Conglomerate, his employer.   [b][u]Family[/u][/b]: Kioni Suvou(mother, deceased), Masud(father, deceased). Morran An-Sallah(Uncle), Erran An-Sallah(Aunt) and their four children.   [b][u]Age[/u][/b]: 23   [b][u]Apparent Age[/u][/b]: 35   [b][u]Gender[/u][/b]: Male   [b][u]Ethnicity[/u][/b]: African (Moroccan)   [b][u]Height[/u][/b]: 6'7''   [b][u]Weight[/u][/b]: 138 lbs.   [b][u]Eyes[/u][/b]: Blue   [b][u]Hair[/u][/b]: Black   [b][u]Description[/u][/b]: An-Sallah has a thin, lean chest and long limbs with wiry muscles, his skin lined with scars and small divots. He has four tattoos, the sign of the suit of Clubs on his right shoulder blade, the sign of Diamonds on his left, the sign of Spades on right thigh, and the sign of Hearts on his left. His hair is thick and wiry, and very difficult to maintain, so he keeps it short while in civilian work. His eyes are broadly spaced, and high on his face, giving him an open, honest look. His nose is broad and slightly flat and blunt, with an aquiline hook to the end of it. His mouth, that can be seen from behind his enormous beard, is oddly thin-lipped and angular, and has a slight overbite. His out-door voice can be heard several blocks away, his in-door voice one. At work and on most days, he wears a variety of earth-toned coveralls he bought by the suitcase-load in Moldavia, due to the fact that he can wear his body armor all day and not raise eyebrows. As the King of Suits, he wears long,hooded poncho-like capes, each embroidered with one of the symbols of the four classic suits. To disguise himself, a metal face mask carved to resemble a grinning bearded figure.   [b][u]Power Descriptions[/u][/b]: A power to add to his natural mental and physical attributes stemming from the influence of the constellation-based eugenics program he was the result of. A life spent wandering the desolate places of the world hiding from his enemies has also inured him to extremes of heat and cold. To assist in his quest to become a hero worthy of being a leader of humanity, he uses various salvaged, re-purposed or legally bought tools of offensive or auxillary nature, including a deck of cards sharpened to a razor edge, and some of which were filled with a vastly weaker and diluted form of nitroglycerine..   [b][u]History[/u][/b]: The Suvou family tree stretches southwards all the way to the southern-most coast of Morocco, where in ages past they were called the Swaarao. They served as diplomats to foreign lands, including embryonic Dakana. In 204, however, economic self-destruction seemed inevitable, and the family left for the (comparatively) stable lands of Europe, buying a village a few dozen miles west of the Alps in what is today France. There, they settled and became, if not prosperous, stable and financially secure. They were good at dealing with people, and passing barbarians were treated kindly enough and given enough in gifts that the Eurasian emigrants felt it unnecessary to burn the place or ravage the inhabitants. Thus, and by the steady fortification of their village, plus their careful method of keeping on the good side of anyone strong enough to harm them, left their region of land untouched by war for several centuries. They even managed to survive the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, sheltering travelers and refugees in their relatively peaceful abode. They held onto rule of the town for around 400 years, until 866, when their power was undermined by a cabal of merchants, who foresaw(with perfect accuracy) an upcoming struggle that the then-Savoro family's machinations couldn't stave off. The family smarted from this loss, as they had in the centuries beforehand enjoyed almost unbounded success in their efforts. By one of those fatal accidents that crop up in history with appalling regularity, the matriarch of the the line happened to be passing the house of a family friend, Janus Amblaeth, a reclusive astrologer who had an unparalleled knowledge of the medium, when she commented angrily that she wished "All the princes were [their] kin! We would have true power then". By itself this incident wouldn't have caused any harm, but Janus heard it in the midst of checking over his star-chart for inaccuracies, and he happened to glance at the sign that heralded the birth of a king's child. It should be noted here that there are other stellar marks which signify the birth of a woodsman's child, a pirate queen's child, and even a shepherdesses child. These ones however, aren't much noted, as the birth of a woodsman's child wasn't exactly a matter of political importance. What he saw that gave him such impetus to follow the wish of the matriarch (Plautia Savoro) was that he had an epiphany, and saw that those with(magical) powers often were born under this-or-that star. Thinking fast, he saw that if he could get the right people to have the right children at the right times, he could make one of the most powerful beings in existence! Janus realized that this also was a way to get the matriarch(and the rest of the family, if they were as honest as she)'s wish. He was a magician of some power, able to influence the fates and actions of others by introducing elements that would encourage them down one path and render another forbidding and potentially even dangerous. So he set out at once to figure out, from as many vantage points as he could, when and where the children of the monarchs of the next two thousand years would be born(taking into account stellar drift), so he could get them to intermarry(or just breed, he didn't care) in more frequency and with greater...variety among houses. He managed to convince the majority of the non-isolationist royals within 30 years, laying spells on the houses of far-off lands that he couldn't get to himself to safely. Ironically, the matriarch's anger over the matter of her and her family being dethroned proved short-lived, as she found the business of guarding the river and trading with passing boats(the job the family took up after their fall from power) was both helpful to the community around the Aude river and let them take the active role in the area's well-being she had wished all along. The family lived in peace for many years, weathering the perils of the Early Medieval Era under the attacks by the Turks and repeated invasions by the Vikings, not mention the manifold Continental powers that frequently attacked the city of Carcassonne. In 1793, however, the year the French Revolution broke out, twelve aristocrats, fleeing the violence of the country, found themselves in Janus's ancient villa. In the catacombs of the place, they found the perfectly (and magically) preserved map of the relationship between the royal lines of the world. Their lessons in Latin payed off handsomely for them, as they managed to decode the map and unravel exactly what Janus (who signed his name in the map's lower left corner) had planned on doing. Unfortunately for our hero's family, they failed to notice that Janus had explicitly done his work by [i]magic[/i], rather than physical action. As they had no idea that everything was in fact proceeding quite smoothly for Janus's plan, and that they would do more harm than help to it if they intervened, they stuck their oar in and began traveling the countryside of Europe digging up as much dirt as they could on all the royals they could find. What they did with said dirt need not be explicated. Their aim was to create the world's strongest super, like Janus. But their reasons for doing so boiled down more or less to snobbery and a proto-eugenic idea that such a being would be invaluable as a source of other supers. Christening themselves 'The Januii", they spun their webs and meddled as far as the thrones of China in things they had no understanding of, passing the job onto their children as they died. Anyway, in 1987, on the same bank of the same river that his family had lived on for more than a millennium, Marceau was born to two people of very different backgrounds. His mother, Kioni, was of the ancient Sahelian Kingdom line, and a recent immigrant from Kenya. His father, Masud, on the other hand was of the same branch that the family patriarch Abelo had led, and had lived in France all his life. The joy that his parents felt at his successful birth was short-lived, however, as the agents of the Januii arrived only hours later, and demanded to Masud (who had answered their knocking) that he surrender his child. When he refused, they shot him unceremoniously, the Januii having forgotten to tell them they wanted no deaths if it could be avoided. Kioni, hearing the gunfire, grabbed whatever valuables she could along with Marceau, and escaped out a window and down a hill-side, taking the small sailboat she and Masud owned, she sailed across the sea to the coast of modern Algeria. Thinking it would be best to travel incognito, Kioni used some of her and Masud's assets to buy a camel and some random goods, which she carried along with Marceau across the Sahara in the direction of Timbuktu, where she had relatives with rumored supernatural powers. She managed to get within about twelve miles from the city, dodging the raiders and desert bandits the Januii hired to chase them up until October 31st, 1987. Kioni and Marceau were finally caught while gathering water at a temporary oasis by thirteen desert bandits, all of whom had been hired by the previous assassins to finish the job. After a half-hour-long gun battle(Mrs. Suvou had also bought a rifle and several dozen rounds) around the oasis, Kioni had killed all but the scout who had discovered them and led the bandits to their location, but was herself mortally injured twice over. As the scout was beginning to aim his pistol at the lamed and slowly dying mother, he was stabbed in the back of his neck by a long knife. As the scout fell, killed instantly due to the damage to his brain stem, newlyweds Mossar and Erran An-Sallah, who had been drawn along with the small crowd of outskirt-dwellers by the gunfire, bent over Kioni. They saw that she was wounded almost to death by then, and in her last minutes she told them with agonized slowness of what had happened. Pledging to care for the child, the newlyweds buried Kioni in their family grave site. They raised the child as best as they could, and did a commendable job of it, raising him to be responsible for his actions from the age of 7, which was when his latent powers manifested, and to keep a tight rein on his powers until they grew beyond what the two were capable of keeping in check. However, they never told him he wasn't their son, though they gently discouraged him from making that assumption by the subtlest of distances. When Marceau turned 9, the local super-team, the 'Cercle de la Fratrie'(4 shape-shifters and 2 air-controllers)., who policed the city of Timbuktu and most of North-Western Africa, agreed to train him in the finer usage of his powers. By the age of ten, he could incapacitate(with some effort) a fully grown adult human without outside help, so long as the other guy didn't have any aid himself. As he was returning to his home after a training session, he saw two armed men holding his adopters at gunpoint. A quick sneak attack laid them both out on the ground, stunned, and he destroyed their guns before their eyes. It turned out that the Januii had found out about their assassins' slacking, and had sent two of the original twelve to kill the child(the current leader was the son of the previous, and hadn't known Marceau was wanted alive). Realizing that if the Januii could send assassins to their door, the An-Sallah's s asked Marceau to leave, and keep danger from their door, telling him at last the event that led him to their hearth and home, and begging him to ask the Cercle for help, as they were themselves only low-ranking electrical technicians, and unable to defend him against hired killers. The Cercle couldn't take him either, as they were often required to travel vast distances, and thus couldn't count on always being there to protect him. After much consideration, they decided to send Marceau to a super team in Guangzhou called the "Zanghonghua Weidui', or 'Saffron Guard(2 flying bricks, an amphibious water-controller and 3 speedsters), by boat. Thinking he would be safer going the long way around, they got him a job on a freighter, the [i]Sangerkrieg[/i], bound for the city and carrying a couple hundred thousand tons of coal. His job was the simple, thankless yet necessary job of cleaning the sides of the tanker of barnacles and the occasional limpet. The sea voyage passed uneventfully, practically the only part of Marceau's Eurasian odyssey that did. He lived only a few years in Guangzhou, as the Saffron Guard was swamped by calls for aid from all over the province of Guangdong. They decided(after the eighth time a wanna-be Dr. Sin tried to blow up their headquarters with Marceau in peril as a distraction) to send him south to the Laotion team Fifty Trumpets(fifty members, none with powers greater than slight emotion control). However, when he got to the rendezvous point in northern Cambodia, he joined for a time(or so he thought) the counter-revolutionary soldiers called the Tiger's Claw. They were(as he learned later) actually the Fifty Trumpets in disguise, to lend deniability to this operation. Their aim was to break the power of a warlord named Teng Zsi, and free the peasants under the rule of him and his minions. There, in the dense jungles filled with hungry tigers( he had the dubious pleasure of seeing a banteng cow get torn open by one), he developed a terror of forests that haunts him still, with him seeing to this day a luminous pair of green, hungry eyes in every bush. Not helping with his mental health was the fact that the Tiger's Claws used distinctly martial avenues of ousting Teng, The resultant hails of gunfire, impromptu introduction to the horrors of war, and the fact that he was barely a teenager, all conspired against him ever leaving the murderous jungle. The saving grace that kept him safe from Teng's minions for most of the sixteen-month conflict was his rapidly-developed tactical mind, not to mention his carrying capacity began to increase exponentially during his time in Cambodia, leaving him far more useful as a tactical consultant and courier of soldiers and gear than as a sniper. During a break in the gunfire, Marceau and three others chanced upon the mansion of one of Ace Danger's old foes from the 20's, whose house had become haunted by the spirit of a disgruntled servant. After exorcising it, a great trove of treasures( to Marceau's eyes) found, including his first-ever exposure to silent film and fine statuary. He still has around a dozen small statuettes, and an entire door from the mansion. His wanderings after the Fifty Trumpets melted back into Laos upon completion were much less focused after that. The 'Trumpets passed him off to the super-groups in the 'Stan's, where Marceau learned he had a good throwing arm through games of pick-up baseball. He lived in India for half a year with the super-team "Eyara Janakarom", or 'Air-Watchers'(flyers all) who then passed him off to a super-team in Russia, where he learned endurance against the cold equal to that he had acquired against the heat of the desert. He arrived(after passing through Greece) in Kosovo in 2005, in which year he met and became the apprentice of the Ace of Suits. The Ace of Suits was a protege of the second Raven, a martial-artist who had assisted in the cleanup of a slavery ring in 2001, and had at the encouragement of the Raven taken up the cape and cowl to defend the Balkans against all evil-doers. He met Marceau when the latter was being threatened by a group of ten gun-wielding hooligans, and the young man had been running from them for around fifteen minutes. Exhausted, Marceau was gathering himself for a surge of power that likely would have killed him as well as his enemies when the Ace of Suits sprang onto the scene. The Ace knocked eight of the ten unconscious in around four seconds, leaving the last two blasted into a wall by the surprised but grateful Frenchman. The Ace revealed his assumed title, and offered the younger man a place in his gang of crime-fighters. Eager to repay the Ace's kindness, Marceau readily agreed, and spent until the June of 2007 working under the intrepid crime-buster. at long last he took his leave of the super-team House o' Suits, arriving back at his birthplace in Aude a month later. The first thing that happened upon his arrival, annoyingly enough, was that a small squad of mercenaries tried to kill him in the half-abandoned hotel he was staying at. The placed a number of explosive charges around his door, and called on him to show himself when they heard him stirring within. Our hero had, fortunately enough, heard one of the [i]conduttori[/i] when he tripped over a fold in the hall carpet, and had observed the setting of the charges through the spy hole in the door. When called upon, he told them that he knew who they were(not actually a lie, they had called each other by name several times), that he knew who sent them, and that the charges they had set were not nearly enough to kill him. He then, having affixed his bed sheets to the door, pulled it open and jumped out the window, grabbing onto another line of bedsheets hanging out of said window. He had landed lightly and watched in amusement as the sell-swords ran in a blind panic. He was less amused when he had to stay at the hotel and work off the damage to the hotel. While still in Auden, he happened to find the ancient villa owned by Janus, and found the star map still within, the Januii having made rough copies of it. They had also left behind a small book that translated the various symbols Janus had used to sort out who had what child with whom, and through it, Marceau abruptly found his place in the puzzle: the second-to-last. As it turned out, the Januii had badly mucked up the plan. They had gone with the idea that the time of conception didn't matter, and that all that was needed was to have two astrologically-compatible people have a child together and that was all. As a result, Marceau, who had been scheduled to be the father of the strongest creature the world had ever seen, was not only impotent(childhood accident easily foreseeable through his stars), but bound to a much slower process of attaining his powers, meaning the timescale was utterly broken beyond all repair. He also found, in a crevice overlooked by centuries of visitors, a metal mask in the shape of a grinning face eerily like his, nearly unbreakable, which he wears to this day as a disguise, with no idea of its true power to strike fear into the hearts of others, though that day approaches. Taking the map with him, as a curio, Marceau then set himself to work finding gainful employment. It wasn't hard, but due to his lack of official education, it was greatly limited in what he could do. One thing he did do, however, learn English, hearing that the land of America was a place brimming with wealth, and eager to employ anyone with the right education(it should be noted that his source wasn't exactly infallible). Thinking it would be a good idea to start fresh, Marceau set sail for America in 2008, and spent most of that year near starvation. He wandered south from Maine, slowly picking up an increasing 'posse' of homeless, harmless crazies and the generally unlucky in life. Today, he works as a janitor at an office building, a humble job that just barely pays enough for the needs of him and his gang. He is not nearly satisfied with this state of affairs, however, and knows that many others suffer as much if not more than he, and thus takes to the streets of Downtown Freedom City bearing the cloak of the House of Suits, and the death-mask of his family, a hunter of those who prey upon the unfortunate, the King of Suits! [b][u]Personality & Motivation[/u][/b]: Marceau is by upbringing and nature deeply religious, and by attendance a believer in Greek Orthodoxy. Despite that, he sees himself as a practical man(all evidence to the contrary aside), with a hard-headed and skeptical outlook on life, which has led him to undertake a study of chemistry, so as to better understand the reason for the physical phenomena he would otherwise spend sleepless nights fretting about, such as how poison is dangerous. Living up to the example of his monarchical forebears is a driving pursuit of his, as he feels that as the only uncrowned king, he must be of unimpeachable character, to make himself worthy of someday ascending to the throne, not to mention making up for the monstrous autocrats that many crowned heads made of themselves. Also unrestrained is his quest for the meaning behind things, and new acquaintances often find themselves in the unenviable position of tour guide to the human mind. Marceau's desire to be a worthy ruler, not to mention his travels through some of the poorest and most ill-managed regions in the world has born in him a passionate devotion to protecting the 'lower-class' first and foremost. He will actively speak on their behalf or challenge any real or imagined insults against them. Of a similar origin is a deep suspicion of conspiracies of any kind, seeing high-handed assumptions of "the ends justify the means" as insufferable.   [b][u]Powers & Tactics[/u][/b]: Due to his lack of bulk, the King of Suits prefers to hide and wait for a law-breaking victim, then jump out while laughing like a bull being tickled and bash them senseless. If surrounded or otherwise unable to attack from concealment, he'll attempt to charge his way out, or use loose objects against his enemy. [hr][/hr] [b][u]Complications[/u][/b]: [b]Phobia:[/b] Terrified of forests, as he lived most of his life in them throughout Southeast Asia. [b]Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder[/b]: His nerve-wracking months in Cambodia have not failed to leave their mark on Marceau's psyche, sharp clashs of metal, gunfire, and just being near a forest can cause him to suffer flashbacks to those days, often causing him to act in an outwardly irrational manner. [b]Responsibility[/b]: Caring for the needy, especially his 'posse' of sundry homeless, harmless lunatics and underemployed vagrants who have latched onto him as their protector against street-gangs and minor organized criminals. If any threat comes against them, Marceau feels honor-bound to aid them. [b]Responsibility:[/b] Making up for the misdeeds of rulers, especially monarchs. [b]Secret Identity:[/b] He's a quiet janitor in civilian life, not very high-profile. [b]Struggling:[/b] Maintenance work doesn't pay much.     [b][u]Abilities[/u]:[/b] 4+ 4 + 4 + 0 + 4 + 2 = 18PP Strength: 14 (+2) Dexterity: 14 (+4) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 14/ (+2) Charisma: 12 (+3) [b][u]Combat[/u]:[/b] 10 + 8 = 18PP Initiative: +2 Attack: +5 Grapple: +7 Defense: +4 (+4 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -1 [b][u]Saving Throws[/u]:[/b] 3 + 0 + 1 = 4PP Toughness: +4 (+1 Con, +3) Fortitude: +5 (+2 Con, +3) Reflex: +4 (+4 Dex, +0) Will: +3 (+2 Wis, +1) [b][u]Skills[/u]:[/b] 72R = 18PP Acrobatics 4 (+6) Bluff 4 (+5) Craft (Chemical) 4 (+4) Drive 4 (+6) Diplomacy 4 (+5) Handle Animal 4 (+5) Intimidate 4 (+5) Knowledge (History) 8 (+8) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+4) Knowledge (Streetwise) 4 (+4) Knowledge (Tactics) 4 (+4) Language 8 (Arabic, English, French [Native], Greek, Hindi, Malay, Mandarin, Russian, Serbian) Notice 4 (+11) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 4 (+6)      [b][u]Feats[/u]:[/b] 18PP Attack Focus; Ranged Beginner's Luck Blind-Fight Endurance Equipment 3 (15EP) Fearsome Presence (DC11) Quick Change Ranged Pin Set-Up Sneak Attack Startle Stun Attack Takedown Attack Throwing Mastery 2 Well-Informed  [quote name="Equipment"]Armored Jumpsuit (Protection 3) [3EP] Bolos (Snare 4) [8EP] Gas Mask [1EP] Concealable Microphone [1EP] Handcuffs[1EP] Multitool [1EP] [/quote] [b][u]Powers[/u]:[/b] 14 + 24 + 2 = 40PP [b]Absolute Sundered Empowerment 7 ([/b]14PP Array, [i]PFs:[/i] Alternate Power, Subtle[b])[/b] (Inherent, Magic) [16PP] [list][u]Base Power[/u]: [b]Cosmic Energy Control 7[/b] [14PP] [u]Alternate Power[/u]: [b]Super-Strength 7[/b] [14PP][/list] [b]Device 4 ([/b]20PP Container, [i]Flaws:[/i] Easy-To-Lose 2[b])[/b] (Fool's Deck) [12PP] [device][b]Fool's Deck 9 ([/b]18PP Array, [i]Feats:[/i] Alternate Power 4[b])[/b] [24PP] [list][u]Base Power[/u]: [b]Blast 6 ([/b]10 60ft Range Increments, 600ft Max Range, [i]Extras:[/i] Penetrating[b])[/b] [18PP] [u]Alternate Power[/u]: [b]Blast 6 ([/b]600ft Max Range, [i]Extras:[/i] Area [General, Burst, 30ft radius][b])[/b] [18PP] [u]Alternate Power[/u]: [b]Obscure 9 ([/b]Visual Senses, 2,500ft radius Area, 900ft Range[b])[/b] [18PP][/list][/device] [u]Alternate Power[/u]: [b]Dazzle 9[/b](Auditory and Visual Senses, 90 ft. Range Increment, 900 ft. Range)[18 pp] [b]Immunity 2 ([/b]Cold, Heat[b])[/b] (Inherent, Natural) [2PP] [b][u]DC Block[/u][/b]: [code]ATTACK   RANGE      SAVE              EFFECT Unarmed   Touch      DC15/22 Toughness (Staged)   Damage Blast    Ranged     DC21 Toughness (Staged)    Damage Blast    Ranged/Area   DC21 Reflex          1/2 Effect               DC21/18 Toughness (Staged)   Damage Abilities (18) + Combat (14) + Saving Throws (4) + Skills (18) + Feats (18) + Powers (40) - Drawbacks (0) = 110/112 Power Points DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN

Introduction- Theme Music- 20 Questions- News-

Just to re-iterate, if you see something you don't like, please tell me with all speed. I'm honestly looking for feedback, and wil be the first to tell you that I need all the help I can get. If you think the premise itself needs work, please don't hesitate to say so. If the History is too convoluted and over-long, say so, and I'll trim and amend it. If the Powers and Tactics bit isn't right, I'd be gald to know that. If you have any critiques whatsoever, I would be glad to hear them.

The King of Suits waited for the officer to finish his questions. Once the interrogation was complete, he answered at once with "You may rest assured, Officer Wlodjyka, that I didn't do any harm to the man named Wolfgang that a day or so of rest won't cure. There are no permanent injuries to be found on or in him, and I was as gentle as I could be with him. He told me the location of the gathering of thieves, yes, and all I did was demonstrate to him that I wasn't quite as bad a fighter as he thought I was. You may, if you wish, disbelieve me, but I hope you won't. He told, aside from this location and its significance, that he and the others waere in the employ of a man named "The Contrarian"' a powerful wizard from another world who lurks in a sub-dimension inaccessible except through the use of a particular tool. If you wish, I shall return with you to the police station, and tell you the story in full. What so you say?"

With a creak of rubber on packing snow, the four police cruisers, sirens blaring, came smoothly into the square. Police Detective Arnold Wlodjyka, short and thick-set, came walking rapidly over the snow to the King of Suits. He shot an inquiring look over the odd figure with the grinning mask and card-suit cloak. "So, you the guy who called us?" at the nod from the masked man he beckoned to four beat officers to follow him into the place while the rest checked around the building for anything of worth to their investigation. Marceau followed the first group in, to make sure none of the thieves had escaped. None had, and he learned moreover that most of the group he had caught had been in recently for petty theft at least four times. After settling the captured criminal element in the police cruisers, all but one of the cars thus filled sed off into the night, Arnold staying behind for a quick chat with the masked man. Looking him up and down, he decided to get straight to the point: "Alright mister, how'd you get word of this little operation? One of them rat out to you? That Wolfgang guy didn't look that well, you didn't hurt badly, did you?" he watched the gleam of the other man's eyes behind the mask, trying to get an idea of what was going on in the vigilantes head.

Marceau, for his part, was much more inclined to believe the sudden turn-around to be a sign of genuine remorse. "Well, I'm sure it seemed reasonable to act like that from your perspective. After all, our two worlds haven't had very good relations at any time. I assure you that the most of us know nothing about this matter, so I would suggest you bring at least most of us back, and just ask the ones you want to about this Nacht-Krieger, then bring them back, and all will most likely be forgiven and forgotten." he smiled kindly at the corpse-like being before him, certain that all would soon be peacefully and amicably resolved in everyone's favor.

Sorry for the delay, here's Marcy's Sense Motive check:(3+2) = (5) Dang.

Alrighty, I'll put in spoilers below what people who pass the check observe and what those who do not observe. Passed: Failed:

Sorry about that :? . Basically he's saying that he's sorry for acting the way he did earlier, but he was trying to play up to the expectations of people living in the Light World, that he hasn't any kind of issue with his dad, but that his attempt to get information about where the criminals(as he calls them...) are is genuine and partially an attempt to allay the gloom his father has been in lately. Also, the so-called 'Radiance' won't hurt anyone, and that if neither Zap nor Wisp know anything he'll be happy to send everyone home. Also Apep of the Egyptian pantheon is a brother of his, and the ancient sun gods burned the living daylights out of him when he came to haul his brother home. Sorry again for that, I'll tone down the Gratuitous German and make his lines more phonetical, and thus easier to understand without Google Translation. Also, Sense Motive Check time! DC 15.

The creature seemed taken aback by Jubatus' attempt at persuasion, clearly not having thought of the issues just brought up until now. Brian and Marceau's admonishment, and Zap's open defiance, all served to neatly undercut the atmosphere he had been creating. After a moment of evident thought and consideration, the shadow retreated into the corpse-pale body and the opened jaw was returned to its usual state. "Eech asssk duur p'rad'n. Eech...haff keine n'ledge off was die Licht-Welt onss now off wir Schattenfolk. Wenn miness fatter vennt tsu yuur Welt zu helfen figght hess Bruder Apep, und bringen ihn hier, heh was burnnt, scerch'd by de Sonnengotter, anss heh haff des pains zu diese tage. Des Sonnengotter thinkt hair vas off like-sert tzu Apep, de alle thinkt tzu". He looked at them apologetically "I dist'nt no vess die vurrde see meech asss liket das, tzu eech postured, und sprach als Eech thoughgt Sie alle vurrde expect me tzu. Dare issint harm withinet diese Auto, but beyond est, de killers und those who trieg'd tzuVerwuster der Magde lurk. Eech can kill dem, yet dey arre purr, mad creatures who dwell in diese Halb-Licht aut off fear". He lowered and shook his head. The crown, which looked like a circle of spears, dissolved into his cloak, and the throne with it. "Eech haff no karrel wit mi fatter" He looked at Jubatus, adding "Yest, er ist sehrr distants nou. Antwort keine zu my kestons off vasst isss wreng. Serraw gnaws err,und dare really are mad Serienmorder that haff fled deise Welt, und eech really do needs yuur hilf" by this point he had turned to Zap and Wisp "Est will nicht harm tzu, de Radiance harms kein, zo iffen tzu know keine, sagt zu! Eech amm nicht immoon zu reason". He looked rather shame-faced, which looked downright ghoulish with his corpse-like pallor and flat grey eyes. A soft bump when his speech concluded apparently signaled that the bus's descent had ended.

ALrighty, here's the Duke's Sense Motive Check: (10) = (10). Successful on your part, Cubist! Target now Friendly.

Realizing that they might well be about to be turned into soulless corpses, perhaps join the ranks of the wraithlike shadows, Marceau decided to try and weigh in on the situation. "Ah, excuse me, Half-Shadow, if your father wishes to know the truth, why not just ask the ones you've already said you're looking for, and ask them where this Natch-Krieger is, perhaps they've even seen him, and can lead your agents to his location. But please, let these" he gestured to the other passengers "others go. They cannot possibly be of much use or help to you, if that is all you wish to know. And I think Brian and Jubatus have a good point: you won't make any friends, and you'll earn many enemies, if you do this. Why not put the bus back, and ask Mz. Knight, Zap, Jubatus" he nodded to each in turn "Abput this matter in our home dimension? You'll get all the information you need, if you're lucky, and you risk nothing if we don't know enough to help you." he steeled himself internally for the Half-Shadow's answer.

That's a blasted shame, like to re-roll? Or would you prefer to go with it?

Cubist: yeah, a Diplomacy roll would be good, it may well work, after all. The bit of flattery Jubatus put in here and there will be a definite +1 modifier for his chances. felicitousFolly: I didn't think it was a negative critique, actually. But I was getting tired of thinking how to pseudo-phonetically write a heavy German accent, and I wanted to write at least a couple posts of this guy without having to worry about that.

By now, nearly everyone on the bus was looking at the shadowy creature in horror, as his words(translated by some into more generally accepted English) signified that not only were they trapped in another dimension, but trapped by creatures who had no issues with allying with the Nazi regime. Norman had come away from the door(now slightly bent) he had been tugging on the hear the shadow creature's words. The Half-Shadow, seeing that his listeners were having trouble understanding him, shrugged and abruptly opened his mouth wide enough to place his lower jaw on his chest. Out of this opening came a thing like one of the wraiths that had captured the bus and its occupants, but more solid-looking. It leaned idly on the deathly pale skin of the body that had spoken before, and spoke again. This time, however, it was much louder, and brimming with malice and cool venom "Well, now, is THIS better?" its eyes glared like two chasms into a volcano as it looked at them "We will soon arrive at my father's house, he will search your souls with his radiance, and nothing will be concealed from him. We will learn your secret of how you know the criminals, and You will learn why you do not second-guess the Emperor of the Dark. any other questions?"

GM:The Duke of Oily was all too happy to answer, and indeed, his tone implied that he thought his answers obvious. "Die crm'nals wier seek, they Serienmuderors, seek th' Tot of ev'n th' allyies of the Third Reich! To yuur second keston, wier told a creature with comand Uber Blitzen and a one Mit weisse hair wood be on board. Asss tsu deine third keston, 'jurisdiction' ist nicht ein problaym. Th' sorcer's vee Spricht mit gaav full rights tsu hunting crm'nals off urr Folk ins yuuurr Welt. Tsu fiert one? Vee send du Alle back" the creature leaned back in the throne, looking even more impassive than it had at first "though Nicht ins grosse speed". It looked at each of the other passengers in turn, as if weighing them in its mind. Turning to Brian he added: "Eins eech am sure tu Wisst, der valorus Natch-Krieger, who vee haff found was betrayed by the spirit that empowers him." he shrugged "Aus leasst, vier thinnk tsu". ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// IC: Marceau hadn't realized until that moment that his question to Sam had been answered, and that he had been asked one himself. Turning to Sam he said "Well, I was wandering Eurasia, looking for some relatives of mine. Didn't find them, though".

Oh sure, it's Here. Third from bottom, my only post on that page.

Hope to see you soon! :)

Nope! Just reacting to events that have unfolded.