Grey Area (CAD archive)

[Gris]

Rain O'Bannon

- - -

Being the only girl with four younger brothers, Rain O'Bannon has always acted like a second mother to them, as their parents are always busy in their grocery store in Hell's Kitchen. The only worry on the O'Bannon family was getting enough money to pay for protection and to keep their children healthy and safe. One day, the young Rain was caught in the wrong place in the wrong time running an errand, and was caught in a crossfire between mobsters.

But that wasn't the end of her. Hours later, in the way from the hospital to the police morgue, her mutant power awakened, making her come back to life. The skin was almost white, and the eyes, oh, the eyes were fully black. Escaping from the ambulance, leaving some scared doctors, she did the only thing that came to mind, she run home.

The thing is that there wasn't a place she could call home anymore. Her brothers cried when they saw her, and her parents and the rest of the neighborhood reacted like she was some kind of monster, a ghost, a revenant. She didn't have a home anymore, so she ended taking refuge on the institute.

- - -

Rain O'Bannon, mutant female.
17 years old, red haired, full black eyes (formerly green)
5,1 Height (155 cm), 97 Lb Weight (44 Kg)

Although her appearance can creep some people, she is quite the cheerful girl, but her mood swings between something a little bit motherly to total airhead mode, when she appears to be listening to voices in her head. She misses her family, so the subject can get her mopey, but not for long. She tends to stroll through the institute in comfy clothes, usually too big for her, and you can find her in practically any place. If you are actively searching for her, the odds are that she is taking care of any young student that she can find or running some kind of apparently nonsensical errand.

- - -

Abilities

Intelligence: 2
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Speed: 2
Health: 3
Energy Pool: 3 (9)
Energy Regen: 3

Actions

Telepathy 3
+1 Hear the voices of spirits and the dead
+1 Astral Projection
-1 Can't read minds
-1 Requires eye contact

Telekinesis 5
She basically asks the ghosts to move things.

Phase Shift 3
She can go into a ghostlike status herself.

Social Skills 3
- Irish Culture and Customs.
- Little Kids.
- Hell's Kitchen.

Modifiers

Improved Senses: See the dead 3

Reconstitute Self

Precognitive Flashes

Challenges

Mutant 3w
Looking non-human (very pale skin, full black eyes) 2w
Haunted Past / Chronic Condition (dieing, the ghosts ask for small favors) 1w

- - -

[Gris]

Michael Walker "Fever"

The son of "Typhoid" Mary Walker and an unknown man, Michael was given on adoption by one of her personalities without the others knowing where. He bounced from one foster home to another, passing by the hands of all kind of people, ending on the streets as a runaway at the age of twelve. He lived by as he could, committing minor thefts, but short thereafter his powers awoke, creating all sorts of trouble. Part taking advantage of his powers, part being pushed by the violent nature and difficulty to control some of them, Michael ended in hammer custody at the age of 15, with several arson and proprietary destruction charges, not to mention theft. He doesn't have any blood crime yet, but he's afraid that the day of injuring someone will inevitably come sooner than later.

Michael has been blessed with a telekinetic gift that surpasses the one his mother has. But, as well as his mother, he has been cursed with a pyrokinetic power difficult to control, that makes objects around him to burst into flames. This power doesn't seem to affect people. Luckily he seems to inadvertently generate a personal force field while using his main powers. His telepathy power does not have the finesse and subtlety that his mother demonstrated. Of course, he doesn't have his mother's training, and the only scrapping skill that he showed has been learned on the street the hard way.

Michael projects a false "tough kid" image product of survival instincts, but he is basically afraid of what he has done in the past and what is he going to do next. If pushed hard this could lead to a dissociative personality disorder not different to the one his mother suffers. For now is just a scared boy who protects himself "being bad and dangerous" but seeks someone that breaks through that layer and allows him to trust someone.

- - -

Intelligence: 3 (1w)
Strength: 2 (2r)
Agility: 3 (1w)
Speed: 2 (2r)
Health: 3 (1w)
Energy Pool: 2 (6) (2r)
Energy Regen: 6 (4w)

Actions:
Telepathy (+0) 3 (1w)

Telekinesis (+2) 6 (9w)
Small Objects Only -1
Telepathy -1
Free Force Field (Mastery Option) +2

Pyrokinesis (Fire Force Blast +0) 6 (12w)
Area Effect (from the character itself) +3
Collateral Damage -1
Affect only non-living substances -1
Free Force Field (Mastery Option) +2

Social Skills 3 (1w)
- Street child
- Adoption bureaucracy
- Crime culture

Close Combat 3 (1w)
- Dirty fighting
- Knives
- Hit and run

Challenges:
Mutant (3w)
Total of 33w

- - -

[Gris]

The Stranger

The stranger was walking the road. His clothes seemed somewhat old, they were nice but used, so the bandits thought they could get something out of him. They surrendered him fast, cautiously at first, but more confident when they saw that he was unarmed. The stranger was a middle aged man, with his blond hair graying here and there, he seemed confused and tired.

"Excuse me, how? ... where? ..." he said at the sight of the bandits. "I don't seem to recall..."

"We excuse you, old man" said the leader, an arrogant young man with almost more jewelry than clothes. "We excuse you of all the valuables you got, and only then you will continue your walk to... wherever."

"But I have" the man stopped before saying 'nothing'. He couldn't remember, oh if he could! He had something! But he couldn't even remember his own name! "nothing" he ended, with a sad, empty stare.

"Whoa there" the alpha bandit seemed to have fun. "Hella long of a pause, grandpa. It makes me and me boys think that you indeed have some. Don't we, boys?" asked to his half a dozen thugs, who made obnoxious noises.

"I can't remember" said with a fading voice. But something seemed to awaken inside of him. He couldn't focus, but was as familiar as the smell of your favorite food, as warm as the hug of a mother. A song a thousand times heard and a thousand times echoed, but it still escaped his grasp. "Maybe I'm a grandpa" doubted, half sad, half mocking the bandit. "But I'm sure I ain't yours, or I'd spank you in front of your boys."

The face of the leader turned from smile to scowl, and in a lightning move that required no effort, no thought, a move made repeatedly over his short lifespan, he shot the stranger in the belly. "Not so wee weey now, grandpa?" clucked making a silly dance around him. The blood trailed between the strangers' fingers, the pain feeling as known, as usual, as customary as the sun in the east every morning. Echoes of voices past gone called his name, but he couldn't understand them, couldn't remember. "WHO?" he screamed on top of his lungs. "WHO?" again. "Whoa, he lost it, man" the leader said. The stranger obtained no answer, the voices were there, but still far. The familiar feeling was still near, and with tears in his face, as knowing that the path hold no good, he extended one arm, as grasping the air. He got it, the first step to the greater answer of who he was.

"..........." he said, voice broken, almost muted.

"What?" the bandit asked, coming near.

Then the light engulfed them all, leaving just the stranger standing, the bandits laying down, as smitten by a lightning. The stranger had a sad melancholic smile, and where he was grasping just air now he was holding a sword that looked like made of a sun beam.

"Excalibur" he repeated, now with a more confident voice. "Excalibur."

- - -

INT 3
STR 3
AGI 3
SPD 3
DUR 3

Actions:
Close Combat 3
Psi-Weapon 7
Social Skills 3
Acrobatics 3
Hunting/Tracking 3

Modifiers:
Reconstitute Self
Self-Contained Life Form
Immortality
Translation: Normal

Challenges:
Amnesia 2

[Gris]

Mei Ling



The Avatar walked the lands of the Earth Kingdom, a few days of travel separated her from the humongous capital, Ba Sing Se. Even if she has work to do she knew that arriving with a hurried mind would do no good, hence the stroll instead of taking faster means of travel. That, and maybe a sense of nostalgia of simpler days, days with time to just walk by the woods.

Then she heard the scream of a girl, so much for the stroll. Dashing through the trees she saw a most peculiar scene. A young girl in rich Earth Kingdom garbs was, apparently, being attacked by a trio of what looked as bandits. One of them was on the ground next to a knife, with a strange looking wound in his arm. The other two were looking positively scared, and run away. Feylin awaited between the bushes, unseen, eager to see what was going on. The girl moved towards the fallen assailant, and now that she changed her position Feylin could see that she was brandishing a sword made of fire. "Well, well" Feylin thought. "This is getting more and more interesting." The girl was by the thief, whose face was showing panic, as the girl raised her arms. "No!" Feylin was about to scream, preventing a murder, but she contained herself when she saw that the sword was gone. With the peculiar course of events, she decided to approach the pair.

The bandit was in pain, and the girl was turning her back to Feylin, so they didn't see her come near. The girl, now that she could see her more clearly, was looking much more less dangerous and majestic with the fire sword gone. Feylin now knew what the bandits saw, an innocent looking girl that looked helpless and rich. The girl herself looked concentrated, watching the wound through some fine looking spectacles. Then she rolled up the sleeves and, with shaky hands, she applied green healing fire to the wound of the surprised bandit. "I'm sorry..." the girl muttered. "But you shouldn't try to steal from others. And you startled me. Also, in what kind of company you move that they left you wounded with no second thought?"

Luckily no one could see Feylin's face. "This is priceless" she thought. "A little helpless looking girl making a pair of bandits flee by wounding a third isn't unheard of, at least not if the girl is a bender" she said in loud voice, making the girl jump like a rabaroo. "But then healing his wound while scolding him? I think thats a first. What followed surprised Feylin even a little bit more. "Greetings oh Avatar" the girl said, with a deep bow. "My name is Mei Ling, and is an honor to meet you" completed, with a flustered look on her face.

"How do you know who I am?" Feylin asked, curious. "Quite a lot know me, but to the extent of recognizing me in some woods in the middle of nowhere..."

"I saw you in an Earth Kingdom noble party, I was there with my father" Mei said, but her voice trembled in the last part. Meanwhile the bandit, almost fully healed used the time to run away like a madman.

"After today, I think that he will get an honest work" Feylin said. "A work with no little girls near" mocked.

Mei Ling blushed even more, but she smiled. The night was falling, and Feylin decided to set camp near, helping Mei and learning why the young girl of a wealthy Earth Kingdom merchant was a peculiar firebending young girl alone in the woods.

...

The next morning, after hearing the story of how Mei was thrown away from home by her disgusted... well, she couldn't think of him as a father anymore, stepfather should work, Feylin was sure of her choice. Mei will come to her school and get training, friends, and a new life.

- - -

As for the challenges, I don't particularly like loading new young characters with them, at least if they don't have a particularly troubled past and conditions. I tend to prefer to use that "space" while the game goes, using the challenges for rivalries, unrequited loves, deadly enemies or whatever it comes (if allowed, of course). If not sometimes I have the feeling that the character has lived more before I created her that when I play her.

That being said, I'm going to put a little bit of a challenge more, that occurred to me while I was writing the story above.

- - -

INT 5 (6w) (Energy Int) STR 2 (2r) AGI 2 (2r) SPD 2 (2r) DUR 2 (2w)

Firebending 4 (Total: 12w) Green Fire (+2CL) Fire Force Blast, 2x Damage (+1w) Fire Create/Manipulate (+1w) Fire Weapon (Psi Weapon) (+1w)

General Knowledge 5 (4w) - History. - Geography. - Fauna. - Flora. - Politics.

Social Skills 4 (2w) - Noble Customs. - Trading and Business. - Diplomatic Protocol. - Earth Kingdom Customs.

Challenges: Haunted past (+1w) Minor disability: reading glasses (+1w) Compulsion to stick up for underdog (+1w)

Total: 25+3w

[Gris]

Georjette "Jet" Wilson

She took the first step, whole body moving like a well oiled machine. She knew the fastest route, she needed to made it.

A year ago she was the most promising young athlete on the US, fast as lightning, she ran on every category under 5000m, with or without obstacles. She had several sponsors, including the state of the art line of Stark Tech Sport Wear, and advertisings with her ran nation and worldwide.

She started running, dodging both people and cars alike, she needed to get out of the city.

Months ago, on her eighteenth birthday, she went with her parents to a lake. It was nobody's fault, as the brakes didn't work on a dangerous slippery turn, but the car crashed, ending her parents lives and her career.

She was at the coast now, she had to make it.

Weeks ago she started the rehab. After reaching an agreement with Stark Tech, she got new legs to substitute the ones that she lost with the accident, alongside an array of little improvements and sensors to make them work properly. The catch? She owed Stark Tech more money than anyone could think of.

She finished crossing the sea, and the goal felt near.

Mere days ago she started with the Heroes for Hire initiative, doing some jobs that paid so well that she could afford an expert technician just for her and her experimental implants. Still, a long way to seal her debt, if she could ever make it.

She arrived, the automated translator blinked the proper Spanish phrase to ask for her required destination. "¿Disculpe, el quirófano número siete?" asked, searching for the seventh operating room. The man pointed the way, and she could deliver the container with the heart in time to save a kid with a rare disease. After that she stumbled and ended sitting in the floor, it seemed that the travel was too long and too fast, and running on water would need some parameter tweaking. For a second she got sad, as her right knee seemed to itch even if she knew that it was impossible, but it always itched after winning a tough race. "Cheer up girl" she told herself.

"You saved a kid's life, and you can run again."

"Everything will go well as long as I can run."

- - -

Georjette "Jet" Wilson, female, 19

Intelligence 3
Strength 3
Speed 7 (Using it for initiative)
Agility 3
Health 4
Energy Pool 15
Energy Regeneration 5

Actions:
Acrobatics 4
Close Combat 3 (Self defense, Karate, Judo)
Social Skills 4 (Athlete lifestyle, Fashion world, Business environment)
Biocomputing 3
Computers 2
Technology 1

Modifiers:
Reflexive Dodge 3
Sonar Sense 6
Photographic Memory
Normal and Computer Translation

Challenges:

Major Phobia to not being able to run again, standing still for long makes her nervous, getting tied would be a major issue, anything related to losing her legs makes her panic (3w)

Negative 2 point wealth, to pay her own technician (2w) and a debt to Stark Tech, that basically forces her to do almost anything they ask or risk losing her legs (2w)

Won't go into a car again if she can help it (1w)

- - -

Georjette, or Jet, as her father used to call her, and she vastly prefers it to Georjette, is a cheerful 19 year old girl, despite her situation. She's quite open and easygoing, but her focus on the sports had left her shy and somewhat nervous around boys. She's used to get tended and handled after many years of sports injuries and her long hospital and rehab, but she still blushes when her young mechanic attends her. Brian is a young 18 year old prodigy on the cybernetic field, and is his youth and no any lack of talent that makes him affordable for Jet.

- - -

Modeling picture she did before the accident for some sportswear fashion magazine:


Her cover on Sports Illustrated for the StarkWear sportswear line of clothing:


Her new legs: