Don't Forget Where You Came From (Worm Quest)

[AllyDJ]

VILLAIN FILE: CONDUCTOR
​

Civilian Identity: Marianne Annalise Baxter
Age: 35
Sex: Female
Gender: Female
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 189 lbs
Description: Curly ginger hair, emerald green eyes, freckles across her face. Well endowed, considered traditionally beautiful, unusually skinny. Evidence suggests eating disorder of some kind. Typically dresses in business attire, preferring tailored suits to dresses, and wears minimal makeup.
Personality: Marianne comports herself as a pleasant, motherly woman. She is quick to offer aid and kindness, and while acting as head of the Baxter group was noted for contributing significantly to the redevelopment of Detroit, as well as several charities. She is noted as having a particular fondness for young women in a platonic sense; she went out of her way to provide opportunities and support for vulnerable women and girls, and seemed rarely to utilize her power to affect them without first acquiring consent.

However, Marianne views her power as a 'kindness', and believes that her changes are good for her targets. She does not seem conscious of her tendency to restructure others even outside of criminal enterprises, and seems genuinely confused at the idea that others may not want her to utilize their power on them. It is known that her husband, in particular, used to be a strong willed businessman; after marrying her, he was completely loyal and subservient to her.

She is extremely dangerous, and is not allowed human contact without a blindfold and hand restraints.
Classification: Master
Power Description: Manipulates target's mentality through unknown means, but requires that she be able to see the target, and possibly requires the ability to move her hands. Power is extremely hard to detect, as the Mastering isn't a direct effect, but rather involves restructuring of the target's drives. Currently known possible changes include, but are not limited to:

• A target's sexuality, gender identity, or self-identity. Such changes, when observed, were virtually indistinguishable from regular realizations of such facets of self; currently believed to be due to the target not being immediately aware of the change. Believed to be utilized as a means of tailoring target's self-identity to be susceptible to manipulation.​
• A target's attachments. This could be as simple as changing the association of a child's favorite toy to include herself, or to completely remove an attachment to an object or person. In one particular case, she is noted as having intervened in a couple amongst her employees known for having domestic disputes, and removed their attachment to each other entirely; the couple assigned culpability to the frank talk she had with them regarding it, but evidence suggests that it is in fact her power: despite efforts, they have proven wholly uncapable of empathizing with the other, nor with having a grudge against the other. However, it is known that such alterations are capable of being logically noticed and worked around, which seems to begin to erode the alteration, though on the timescale of a decade the alterations had not disappeared.​
• A target's association with concepts. For example, all known criminal accomplices are known to have no aversion to crime, even if they can agree in abstract terms that it is harmful to others. If directly asked if they think crime is acceptable, they always answer in the affirmative. If presented scenarios, personal morals are shown. Including the capes Onslaught(still active), Whisper(currently inactive, whereabouts unknown), and Sling(in custody.), all have proven to have been meddled in this way; or, perhaps, they were that way to begin with.​
• What is known is that Baxter is wholly incapable of directly affecting a target's emotions or thoughts; she must alter the target in the above ways to manipulate them at all, though it is relatively simple to do so. However, this exact effect is why it's almost impossible to pin anything on the woman: her alterations do not appear to be manipulations at all, merely shifts in the target's natural drives and biases.​

Addendum: If we had a justification, Baxter would be Birdcaged. But the nature of her power makes it impossible to tell just how much she's altered most of her victims, and some of the alterations were requested. For now, she is being kept in a supermax prison.

 

[AllyDJ]

Spoiler: The Tabletop Cluster

— Sumire Midorikawa ~ Brute ~ Brute powers are near-invulnerabilty and peak human strength along with the ability to spread contact with her body out as if it contacted every inch of skin at once, which can be applied to her punches so that she strikes as if every muscle in her body was behind the swing. Secondary powers are Shaker power that allows for minor amplification or dampening of sound(you); mental 'backup' of her mind and memories she can restore herself to, automatically triggers in the event of mastery(Lexie); Tinker hyperspecialized in armor made of bronze(Marcus); Changer ability to enlarge or shrink herself(Felix); and combat precognition based on the phase of the moon(Lizzy).

Sumire is one of your two best friends, and she sucks at being social. Not because she doesn't try, but simply because she doesn't really get other people; mostly she spends her time around you, and finds your presence 'calming', in her own words. She used to be somewhat skittish, and prone to throwing herself into academics as an escape from things.

— Lexie Stamford ~ Thinker(Striker) ~ Thinker powers consist of a perfect mental library of all information she's ever heard, even if she had previously forgotten it. She intakes perfect factual information about any object that enters her sight, which allows her to 'read' the pages of a book simply by looking at the page, or know the exact composition of your clothing by looking at it. She is then able to 'loan' this knowledge through skin contact, as if by checking out a book; when the knowledge is loaned, she can set a time limit on it, at which point the gifted knowledge must be returned to her. The power groups information inside of her mental library according to relation; if she has all the facts, then her power will make it obvious what the truth is. Secondary powers are a minor precognition of intentions towards her on a individual basis, through the medium of a song only she can hear when perceiving an individual(You); skintight telekinesis that pushes with equal force to her current level of strength(Sumire); Tinker hyperspecialized into inscriptions upon existing objects that alter their properties(Marcus); Stranger ability to alter any documents about herself she is aware of(Felix); clairvoyance cast her perception to areas without natural light within a hundred feet(Lizzy).

Lexie is affectionate and touchy, and a massive fucking nerd that wants to know everything about anything she takes an interest in. She has a tendency to be a little petty, and to overstep boundaries by a lot, but she's generally speaking kind and willing to listen about pretty much anything. You're pretty sure that she has a complex about being useful to others; she took a suggestion that someone else run a oneshot pretty poorly.

— Marcus Schoenfield ~ Tinker/Trump ~ Tinker whose creations are made using smithing. All metals are the same to him; through means he's not sure of he melts them down into an lightweight, hyperstrong alloy that is then used to create things using his forge. He is somewhat unique in that his alloy can be utilized by other tinkers and enhances their Tinkering when used, assuming they can use any resource; his personal specialties appear to be dual 'personal use' and 'reinforcement'. Secondary powers are mover ability that allows him to generate platforms under or around his feet, allowing limited three dimensional movement(you); tirelessness and Noctis Enhancement(Sumire); the ability to examine and understand the material properties and maintenance of objects he has watched be created(Lexie); Striker ability to alter anything worn or carried by a person to perfectly fit them(Felix); minor ability to concentrate light into shapes or heat(Lizzy).

You don't know Marcus very well. He's serious and has a stick up his ass; you're a joker that figures that mocking the world's hardships is ideal. Still, you're capable of coexisting, and he was strangely impassioned about saving you on the bus.

— Felix Concord ~ Stranger/Changer ~ Perfect control over his appearance, requiring only the necessary mass to change shape. Unless one watches him change appearance, it becomes impossible to understand that the 'new' person is in fact Felix, even if logically it can't be anyone else. Secondary powers are stranger ability that allows mimicry of voices close enough to fool Tinkertech recognition software(you); striker ability to render an object or person twice as vulnerable as normal temporarily(Sumire); perfect balance and control of his body, down to the individual muscle(Lexie); Tinker hyperspecialized into 'concealment'(Marcus); Ability to shape light into 'cloaks' that prevent perception(Lizzy).

You don't understand Felix. He's always checked out, except when he gets a chance to be somebody else. And given the chance, he always seems to want to be the furthest thing from 'Felix Concord'. Seems to hate Stormfront, for some reason?

— Elizabeth Lewis ~ Blaster ~ Has the ability to manifest a bow made of moonlight, and generate arrows from it's 'string'. Her lower bound appears to be about as harmful as a blunt arrow, but she can charge each shot to make it more destructive, with an upper bound after charging for ten seconds of something closer to a howitzer. Can 'split' arrows, dividing their power by the number made, but allowing for multiple end targets. Split arrows can be charged longer, proportionate to how many are split. Arrows and the bow are drawn from a reservoir of moonlight, which is gained by exposing skin to air during the night. Her natural sleep rhythm appears to have been inverted, turning her nocturnal. Secondary powers are a Trump augmentation to her blaster ability, allowing her to imbue it with effects based upon parahumans she has had contact with the powers of; such as a healing arrow from your power(you); Breaker state that briefly turns her body into moonlight, allowing her intangibility and invulnerability(Sumire); hears whispers that inform her of 'troubles' or 'secrets' about people she can see(Lexie); Tinker specialized in ranged weaponry(Marcus); stranger ability smooths away 'imperfections' in her stance or looks(Felix).

Elizabeth is rock solid. Always there for you or any friend that needs it, always ready to deescalate and negotiate. Until the bus, you wouldn't have thought she had a violent bone in her body; but when all of you were under threat, she went on the attack, did her best to defend you all.

 

[AllyDJ]

The Detroit Protectorate, as of 2011, consists of a total of 9 capes, eight being combat capes. Due to the sheer imbalance in the city—with the Protectorate being outnumbered at generous estimates of 3-to-1, and worst case estimates of 10-to-1(though it should be noted that such estimates include any non-Protectorate cape as hostile), they have adopted a recruitment strategy that could be described as 'aggressive and gentle'; simultaneously doing their level best to get to new triggers first while being careful to not do anything to push capes away from being willing to work with them.

The PRT is overseen by Director Kirkhope; she took over in November of 2010 from Director Grant, whose hard-line policies were causing new capes to be unwilling to enter the Protectorate. Kirkhope has spun the public relations to minimize the exposure of any villain group that doesn't directly endanger civilians, while extending backroom overtures to come in for the cold in exchange for amnesty for those that have no egregious crimes, which has yet to see results.

Perhaps most uniquely, the Detroit PRT works more extensively than normal with the DPD and DFD, working to undermine the non-superpowered support structure as it's main avenue of attack, due to its capes rarely being available for proactive action, and it maintains amongst the top 5 number of non-parahuman combatants amongst PRT departments.

The Protectorate Central-North-East is headed by Horizon, originally posted in 2008 as a position for her to learn the ropes. At the time, her team consisted of the Protectorate Capes Aqua, Castle, and Fluorescent, with the Wards Stormfront, Tag, and Warning.

Since 2008, they have added two Wards; Network and Shutdown. As of October of 2010, Stormfront graduated from the Wards into the Protectorate.

The Protectorate CNE is known for being somewhat by the books, though Fluorescent is known for being a PR darling, and Stormfront has suffered several infractions in the past three months for excessive collateral damage.

Horizon is the leader of the Protectorate CNE, and has been commended for stepping up to the role despite the outsized difficulties. Her power is three forms of enhanced senses, a long with a Striker ability that scales based on her focus on the target.

Castle was new to the team, joining in the same week Horizon assumed command, after the tragic death of former team leader Bulwark against the Motown Marauders. He's a tinker specializing in 'security' and 'static defense', and is a non-combat member of the team. It's been requested several times for Castle to become a traveling cape, but his capabilities in turning PRT vehicles and properties into strong points capable of withstanding high level brutes without Parahuman assistance is needed too greatly in Detroit.

Fluorescent is a Blaster/Striker veteran of Detroit, but fervently denied the position of Protectorate leader. Her power is a form of light manipulation, consisting of draining 'neon' signs and lights, and then releasing it as blasts with different effects depending on the color of light. The lights can be drained indefinitely so long as they are powered, but if she pulls too hard or too fast it will rupture the lights.

Aqua is a Case 53, whose powers are necessary for his survival. Aqua is a hydrokinetic capable of changing water under her control through any of it's states of being, though his exact limits are currently unknown; at the very least, Aqua is wholly capable of rupturing fire hydrant and water mains when she needs more water to work with. And, yes, Aqua has heard every genderfluid joke there is.

Stormfront is a Brute/Blaster, though since joining the Protectorate she's gained a Mover rating. She's a stereotypical regenerating Brute, and passively produces bioelectricity far in excess of normal. She has been seen releasing this in shocks that range from a taser to a full on lightning bolt, and recently seems to have gained the ability to travel with her bolts, 'riding the lightning'.

The Wards CNE are second only to the Wards ENE for actual combat time, and there's something of a one sided rivalry between them.

Tag is the current leader of the Wards CNE. She's a Master with the power to imbue cans of spray paint with her power, causing anything painted with those cans to 'come alive'. Living tags made this way persist for 24 hours, but can be refreshed with fresh coats, and the longer a tag exists the stronger it gets. Utilizing tags in combat degrades them faster, although she can use tags of a flat color to cause minor effects, such as red to start a fire, or blue to create a geyser of water.

Warning is a Thinker whose power provides preternatural reaction speeds, perception, and danger sense. The larger and more lethal the threat, the more forewarning he is given; it's speculated he may be able to predict Endbringer attacks, but his parents don't authorize his deployment to at-risk areas.

Network is a Tinker whose official specialty is in 'drones', with her power armor being known for essentially being a mobile command center, drone port, and bestowing an indirect Brute rating. However, it's believed that her specialty may go beyond 'drones', but that she is being restricted due to the uncomfortable parallels to Eagleton.

Shutdown is a Shaker that has the ability to increase the failure rate of any technology more advanced than a medieval melee weapon within a wide block radius, which can be targeted selectively. He can focus on particular pieces of equipment to escalate the failures into catastrophic failures, usually explosive(even if they shouldn't explode.)

 

[AllyDJ]

LOUISE BAXTER
​

It's you.

15 years old, you resemble your mother more than you'd like to. Your hair is much darker, but still ginger; your eyes better resemble bottle-glass than emerald, but they're still green; the place where you most deviate is that you're significantly taller than your mother, at an even six foot tall, but where she was a little bit wide, you're on the slim side; you're not quite gangly but you're not big either. You assume what difference you have must resemble your father, but you never managed to meet the man.

Powers:

Your primary power would be classified as Shaker/Master, and it allows you to sing and heal the wounds and ailments of all who can hear it, including mental trauma, as well as reversing Master effects on subjects, the stronger the master effect, the more you need to sing. The effect persists through speakers and televisions at drastically reduced effect. The song is mildly addictive, on the same level as caffeine or alcohol, but fades over time assuming an individual is not re-dosed.

Your secondary powers are:

Master/Trump ability consists of an semi-visible humanoid projection that resembles a translucent golden female humanoid with a short cropped pixie cut; it is summoned from out of your skin, and range out in a five feet radius around you. While projected, it is comparable to a mid-level Alexandria package cape, with the exception of being completely impervious to any parahuman ability not based on touch. You can approximate a mid-level Brute rating by having the projection 'overlay' itself over you, similar to a skintight forcefield, but the projection is not the same size, so there's always gaps. If an attack with sufficient force to pop the projection occurs, you will experience an intense migraine, and the projection will be unavailable for the next minute, at which point the migraine fades.

Thinker ability that allows you to detect Mastered individuals if you have a comprehensive physical description of the master, the means of how the Master's power functions, or have personally met the Master out of costume. Does not allow you to detect Masters themselves.

Trump/Tinker ability that allows you to assist in the building of tinkertech. During this state, you fall unconscious and your body operates as a perfect assistant, responding to the tinker's needs as they need them, otherwise building as if a second body for the tinker. When you emerge, you remember nothing of the process. You can also enter this sleepwalking state to assist tinkers with maintenance of tinkertech. When in the presence of Tinkers that are feeling urges to Tinker, you also feel their urges, and can involuntarily be shunted into the sleepwalking state if they fall into a sudden fugue.

Stranger/Striker ability that allows you to render someone you touch with the ability to 'appear harmless' so long as they take no hostile action, and remain in areas that would not arouse suspicion. The effect lasts 10 minutes, but can degrade faster if the area is not clearly a 'public' or 'private' area. This would not, for example, allow someone to enter an employee only area without appearing to be an employee.

Thinker ability that allows you to designate one target you can see to be the 'prey'; you gain the ability to anticipate the target's fight or flight response, their fear or confidence in your presence, and gain a visual string that allows you to track them so long as they stay within a hundred feet after breaking line of sight.

 

[AllyDJ]

Thieftakers
​

Classification: Villains

Modus Operandi: Protection racket, illegal and legal casinos, possibly other illicit activity, thievery from other villains

Rules of Engagement: The Thieftakers are to be left alone, so long as they are not actively harming civilians. They are known to actively intervene in Puppetmaster's attempts to abduct capes, villain or hero, and induct them into Marionettes; and to intervene when innocents are in danger. If possible, convincing them to join the Protectorate is high priority. Backroom channels emphasize that they do not pressgang non-parahuman members, and that all ground level muscle is given adequate pay and health benefits that would be considered generous for a middle class worker. Strictly speaking, were it not for lack of following proper guidelines regarding the businesses, and the protection racket, the Thieftakers would fall under Rogue, or possibly Independent Hero classification.

Additionally, members of the Thieftakers have quietly indicated that should transportation be provided discreetly for Endbringer attacks, they would attend for protection of Movers and Healers, and search and rescue—see Stonewall and Vector.

Members:

Stonewall is an Alexandria package brute, with a secondary striker/shaker ability to 'claim' a building he is in contact with over an unknown, but not instantaneous period of time, allowing him the ability to rearrange the inside. By his own admission, the definition of 'a building' to his power is somewhat flimsy, requiring only four walls and a roof, none necessarily intact. It is currently unknown how his brute abilities manifest.

Iterator is a precognitive of some form; no success has been made in identifying the nature, beyond that it seems focused on individuals rather events. She is suspected to be the same individual as the Rogue Negotiator, but as she is highly cooperative as the Rogue, and has raised DPD and PRT negotiation success rates by twenty percent since entering retainer, the link is being quietly swept under the rug.

Vector is believed to be either an aerokinetic or telekinetic, but the details at how her powers manifest are currently unknown. However, in terms of staying power, Vector is the heaviest hitter amongst the Thieftakers; comparisons have been drawn to Ballistic of the Travelers and Krieg of the Empire Eighty Eight. Is highly protective of children, and it is recommended that Wards be point of contact, as she has repeatedly disengaged whenever they are involved.

Kung Beauty is a Combat Thinker and minor Striker, and despite Corporal Menendez's efforts to the contrary, not an honorary Master 0 for being 'really fucking annoying'. Her powers consist of a supernatural mastery of martial arts and weaponry in her hands combined with the ability to read body language so precisely that it could be considered combat precognition. She has made offhand comments regarding 'pressure points' on objects and individuals which have clarified a previous poorly understood ability to disable Brutes despite having no enhanced strength or durability.

The last member joined in December of 2010, named Cowl. Information on Cowl is sparse, but current insights place him as having a Thinker power, as he has used the fact he has yet to commit any crime to send several anonymous tips to the PRT and DPD, conveniently at times in which resources were available for an immediate raid.

 

[AllyDJ]

I realized, sifting for some more fics to devour, that I really should clarify the angle I'm going for with the PRT, Protectorate, and Cauldron, here.

In general, my reasoning is this: The PRT and Protectorate are government organizations. They cannot afford to not be squeaky clean on the PR front, even if everyone, top to bottom, hates the fuck out of that.

That being said, that doesn't mean the organization is useless, beyond the behind the scenes meddling to make it useless.

You have your Taggs, and your Grants, who are thoroughly shitty people. They don't do nice things, and they're kept around because when the PRT needs someone to play hardball, it needs people who are willing to play hardball.

Grant got shuffled off for reasons that'll come up later, in story. They changed Hardass Director for Nice Director because they think Nice Director will be better to keep the public from losing faith, like Grant was.

In comes out Background Problem: Cauldron is behind the PRT. Cauldron does not actually want the PRT to succeed at putting villains in the slammer all that often, because Cauldron isn't here to make the world a nice happy place.

This means that the PRT, and the Protectorate, are fighting against the odds to make it work. And in Detroit, there's relatively little meddling, so the problem is more that they are nine capes in a rampantly growing city with an unmanageable refugee class. If they had more manpower, they could do something. This is in part why Hero chooses it in that Interlude beyond the stated reasons.

Cauldron's firm sights are on the fact that in 2-16 years, the world is going to end.

They want strong capes, the means be damned. But when they can take the high road, and it's as good and effective as the low road? You damn well bet they'll take the high road. That's why they didn't whack Hero, when he saw past the layer of 'this is shitty' to the really fucking shady stuff, and walked away.

They don't need to kill Clark. He isn't going to air Cauldron's dirty laundry. He's aware of the stakes, and the rampant crimes against humanity really might have some grounds in reality, considering the magnitude of the problem.

Cauldron's sole concern is Surviving Doomsday. They do not expect to be the heroes in the aftermath. They do not expect to be hailed for their actions.

They sort of expect that when the dust settles, and people rifle through the ashes, they will be the ones who people point to and blame.

Like a certain savior, in Ward.

Harmonist would really like you to take a stroll in the Flesh Garden.​

All in all: I'm not really interested in running this with a world where the PRT is malicious and terrible. The organization has rules, and they follow those rules. The people inside, for better or worse, are working with a system they believe in, or are trying to believe in, or that they once believed in. They're people. It's always about the people.

Like, pretty please?​

Cauldron is doing whatever it can to prepare. They are trying to kill God, and that means they cannot be slowed down by morals. This means that they make mistakes. A lot of them. They are cruel where it would be better to be kind, because they are staring at the countdown to the apocalypse, and that justifies anything, and the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.

It could do fascinating things with Momma's corpse.​

Also, in case you're worried: Contessa is a busy woman. Unless you start doing things to actively jeopardize the war on the apocalypse, she won't come to break your kneecaps.