The Homage Paid to Virtue (OOC)

[Drifter]

"Do not be afraid.
Our fate cannot be snatched from us.
It is a gift."

(whether we like it or not)​

Every city has its heroes and villains. They've long since become a fixture in the civilized world, right alongside post offices, hospitals, jails, and overpriced eateries with fancy but meaningless names. Take San Luca, to the south, for example. A lone figure known as the Raptor faces off against a seemingly endless number of villains who call themselves The New Tyrants. In the north, in the picturesque metropolis known as Lacombe, a band of picture-perfect prettyboys known as The Judges patrol the skies and streets against mad scientists, hulking mutants, and other twisted nemeses. It's a system, and it works out well for them.

Welcome to Escoria City, though. The place is a shithole. Literally. Escoria City was built upon what used to be waste management for Lacombe before it started developing into a commuter suburb and, eventually, a major city in its own right. Escoria has never been rich, nor clean, nor well respected. It's a true case of urban sprawl. More people came in than the borders could handle, the local government reluctantly expanded, and the only things they had money for were projects. The closer you come to the center of the city, the more it resembles its postcard ready relatives.

Towards the edges, however, is where the real heart of Escoria beats. Small-time criminals and two-bit heroes fight among the back alleys for control. Some of them have big plans. They want to be the beacons of justice that kids wear on their pajamas, or they want to be the rich boogeymen who kidnap said youngsters for sex slavery. Either way, they want what no hero or villain in Escoria has ever gotten. Recognition. Half the time, the government acts as though the city's the only one in the country without a "super problem". They chalk the astronomically high crime rate up to bad police work. Sure, there's currently a tryhard by the name of Allegiant, but he seems more like a face than anything. He works with the cops in the city center and his efforts haven't reached the population that needs them most. As for villains, it's no secret that the people with the real power in the city are a group of shadowy villains known as The Apex. Not much is known about them, individually, but together they've single-handedly won Escoria City its reputation of being one of the worst places to live on the west coast. Nobody knows who they are behind the masks and well-written ransom notes. It'll be impossible to stop them unless that changes.

Jerks like Allegiant are much too worried about their image, about the little guy and the American Way™, to take the necessary steps. Justice isn't neat or clean, and sometimes adults don't really see the right way to go about things. They've spent too long on this earth under the strict teachings of morality fables and political filibusters. Someone else has to do that job for them.

Escoria's a shithole, and it needs Shitlords to keep it safe.

Don't worry. We volunteer.

​

Shitlords

Sneak

Name: Wakana Oda
Alias: Sneak
Sex: Female
Age: 16

Appearance: Wakana looks like she has no patience for anyone or anything, even if she doesn't bother to do anything about it but glare. She moves in an almost mechanical way, her power always at the ready to apply any one of her techniques, and therefore has impeccable posture and precision.

Powers:

• Ninjutsu is unarmed combat and armed combat. She can take to any weapon and does some pyrotechnics. She is stealthy, and excels in disguise and impersonation. Her more cape-like ability is her hand-seal practice, allowing her to immobilize a person or object.

Origin Story: Her parents are workaholics and always traveling or needing to be places so Wakana was left with her grandpa. She's always had a temper, but retains a soft spot for the old man that has done his best to give her a normal life. Unfortunately for him, she followed the wrong crowd at an early age and got caught up in some very dangerous situations. One in particular triggered her ability, allowing her to escape and leave behind that nasty crowd. Some would argue her new set of friends isn't all that different… but she thinks they are.

Costume:

Squander

Name: Cavan Mohana
Alias: Squander
Sex: Male
Age: 14

Appearance: Cavan is a very pretty boy, almost fragile looking. His appearance is very deceptive of his ability to force fear on others. His intent is to be more manly but nature and nurture are hard to overcome. Only when he's behind the mask is he able to break that mold. However, even then... sometimes that horrid looking Squander can be caught showing some delicate moves.

Powers:

• Decomposition Manipulation, which is self explanatory. He can potentially increase or decrease the rate of rotting, or stop, prevent or even reverse the effect though his skills are presently lacking. Any control over vermin is purely accidental.
• Death Negation, which is also self explanatory. His lack of skill only allows him to negate his own death but even then, he's not always so skillful as to have the effects be immediate. In other words, he might end up resuscitating later instead of just not dying on the spot.

Origin Story: Cavan Mohana is the son of a gardening enthusiast and his entrepreneur wife. They own a hip and super healthy organic food store. They take very good care of their son and dote on him as much as they can which doesn't help the delicate impression everyone has of him and he dislikes that. He didn't have a trigger event, at least not one in which powers suddenly appeared. It was a gradual process for him. Despite that fact, he still finds his powers very hard to control.

Costume:

Skirmish

Name: Hannah Riggs
Alias: Skirmish
Sex: Female
Age: 15

Appearance:


Powers:

• Giant Weapon Proficiency with a Gunblade.
• Pyrokinetic Combat, which is an offensive power. She cannot just start a fire while static therefore she cannot use it strictly defensively.

Origin Story: Videogame fanatic. She was raised by a single dad. They've always bonded over video games and taekwondo, but when she hit her teen years and could take care of herself better, he wasn't around as much. She couldn't blame him too much since their living depend on his job, but at the same time she was spoiled enough to be a full-fledged angst filled rebellious teen. Her powers came about when she cosplayed for a Con in a nearby city. She held a giant weapon made out of foam but it somehow felt right and wrong at the same time. The weight of it was wrong.

Costumes:

Stranger

Name: Eduardo "Ardo" Montalbán
Alias: Stranger
Sex: Male
Age: 16

Appearance: Waify and on the short side, Ardo doesn't strike fear in the hearts of others. His head is dominated by cowlicks, his ears are kinda big, and his complexion is that of smudged china. In another life, he'd have made a wonderful dancer, as he somewhat gracefully drifts through the motions of everyday life. Even when donning the brass skin of his alter ego, there's no great physical change. His powers would've been better suited to a bruiser, but he's more of a... cruiser?

Powers:

• Brass Mimicry, which basically means Ardo can turn his skin to brass. It is mainly a defensive power, as it weighs him down, but it can also be used to add some muscle to his usually wimpy punches.
• Disaster Inducement, a fancy term for being a jinx. A much less controlled power, it allows him to will bad luck to befall others. It isn't perfect, of course. It's much harder, impossible actually, to will a piano to fall on a foe in the middle of a field, than to cause a gun to misfire or send someone stumbling down a flight of stairs.

Origin Story: Ardo has a little brother to go along with his parents, which creates his cozy family. His mother was always quiet and graceful, and he mainly took after her. His father tended more towards ambitious and rowdy, and those traits rolled right off his shoulders like rain on wax. They led a typical, uneventful life on the outskirts of Escoria, with his father taking odd jobs and his mother spending time with her kindergarten class. They always ate dinner together. It was a rather nice environment, even if cash was tight.

As for a trigger event? He was trying to keep his devil of a brother entertained with a game of catch when the ball slipped through the kid's hands and into the street. August went to grab it and a car came careening out of nowhere towards him. Ardo reacted without thinking and ran out to push August out of the way, only to find his body changing right before his very eyes. He was moving too slowly to reach his brother, and he might also be shining in the sun somehow, but before he had time to process it all fully, the car was turned on its side like it had rolled up over the curb.

Costume: ugh

Swiss

Name: Candace Hooke
Alias: Swiss
Sex: Female
Age: 13

Appearance: In every way, quite a normal looking girl on the awkward edge between childhood and adolescence. Her hair is naturally wild, and it adds a few inches to her ungainly frame. Her lips and face filled out quickly while the rest of her body lags behind in a more tomboyish era.

Powers:

• Weaponized Arms, a power that, as expected, allows her to transform her arms into weapons. She's still working on melee weapons, like blades and axes.

Origin Story: Candace's parents raised her in the lap of luxury. Her mother is a councilwoman on the school board and her father sells expensive cars. Everything she's ever wanted was handed to her, and though that is usually enough to spoil a child, she has maintained a tenacious will about her. She enjoys challenges that money cannot overcome, and so she finds herself continually trying new sports and hobbies. Driven by immature impulse and a stubborn, selfish desire to accomplish, Candace can often come across as the annoying youngest sister of the group. Her serious moments seem to echo the traumatic trigger of her powers. When home with the flu, she was left alone for a few minutes while her mother departed to purchase soup and cough medicine, as her father was still at work. A burglar, who must've been casing the house, broke in and attempted to rob them blind. A feverish Candace grabbed for a kitchen knife in an attempt to subdue the invader, but her trembling hands betrayed her and the weapon clattered to the ground, drawing the man's attention. In an instant, she was frozen, her hands reeking of rusty blood and her arms lodged thoroughly through her assailant's torso. Therapy was paid for immediately, and for as much as it seemed to help, there's just really no cure for feeling a man's innards like that.

Costume: fakku

Siphon

Name: Noah Brandt
Alias: Siphon
Sex: Male
Age: 17

Appearance: Noah hit his growth spurt early on, and has been on the tall end of his peers for years now. Never having felt fully comfortable in his own skin, he's spent a lot of time focusing on his image. Multiple piercings, carefully styled hair, an ever-updating wardrobe and a muscular body are his perennial safety nets against a persistent sense of self-loathing.

Powers:

• Enhanced Bite, which sounds exactly like what it is. Sharp teeth and a powerful jaw make him capable of chewing through all manner of things.
• Haemopotent Regeneration, which allows him to use the blood of himself and others to heal.

Origin Story: Noah was raised by a single mother, a woman of shady morals and a deep resentment for humankind. He never knew his father, but his motherly surely did, and she simultaneously pined after and cursed the shadowy figure whose heir she could not bear to abandon. He grew up feeling very much on his own, knowing he could never hope to impress his mother and fearing he would never be accepted by his carefree peers. Noah did anything to fit in. He watched sports. He played collectable trading card games. He even once took a dare from the most popular kid in class to lick a frozen pole. Of course, his tongue stuck, and while the teachers ran to call for the fire department, the panicked young man bit through his tongue like it was chewing gum, leaving the wagging stump behind as his mouth gushed blood. It was then that he discovered he could regenerate, growing another tongue shortly before the paramedics arrived. He became a pariah. He switched schools. Self confidence became an issue. No longer could he pretend to be average, because he was clearly exceptional, if not also quite gross. His status as outsider weighed upon him, and he wrapped himself in layers of noncompliance and sarcasm to set himself apart. Many say he fell into an emo stage that never ended, but Noah is more self aware than that. He bears the chip on his shoulder with winking hamminess, yet it doesn't change the fact that he is revolted by his very being.

Costume: why

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[Pastor ćhoi]

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