Phalanx

Phalanx
Author	/u/Magos_Nashoid
Civilian name	Jasper Newchapel
Alignment	Hero
Affiliation	Protectorate Captain (Devilfish)
PRT Classification	Tinker, Master,
Born	Devilfish, Minnesota
Status	Active

A long time member of the Protectorate, having been a core member of the Minneapolis team for almost a decade. Phalanx is known to be a top of the line Robotics Tinker. Much (but not all) of his tech is given a Greco-Roman Theme.

Over the years Phalanx has volunteered for a variety of Charity Fundraisers, the presence of one or more heroes often being a deciding factor on the success of some of them. Notably among them the 'Trevor Project' and the 'Transgender Law Center' being his first choices when forced to pick.

Recently Phalanx has been promoted to Protectorate Captain, assigned to enure the safekeeping of Devilfish Minnesota, and the smooth operation of its Protectorate and Ward teams. So far he's done an excellent job watching over his hometown, but only time will tell what hardships await him in such an important leadership position.

Character Sheet

Appearance

Phalanx's appearance out of costume

Civilian: Jasper Newchapel is a lithe but incredibly fit individual. Phalanx's skin is olive, having been the children of Greek Immigrants. He has light hazel eyes, and black hair. Standing at roughly 5'9 in height.

Costume: Generally speaking Jasper wears a suit of Power-armor. Typically the exterior plating is made of a polished golden-bronze material, with a red plume on the helmet.

Mundane Equipment and Resources

Wealth Level: 7

Primarily lives at the Protectorate HQ, but has a well furnished/stocked Family Home ,conveniently down the street from his own parent's house.

Has a slightly-higher than average Tinker budget, to account for expensive-but essential components in his Robots CPUs.

Has an extremely hardened set of Databanks for backing-up the digital half of his androids consciousness, backs them up every night before heading home from work.

• PRT-issue Radio
• PRT-issue Medical Kit
• Zipties
• Set of Handcuffs
• Multi-tool
• Police Truncheon

Skills and Specializations

• Understanding of Government bureaucracy
• Understanding of criminal and conspiratorial behavior aka basic level criminology.
• High speed pursuit vehicle training
• Basic first aid
• Understanding of basic human intelligence gathering.
• Basic Forensic Knowledge
• Understanding of laws and legal procedures
• Navigating his way around quickly with maps, charts and tables, orienteering, instruments, or dead reckoning.
• Searching a room, vehicle, or person for weapons and contraband.
• PRT Self Defense training in unarmed combat
• PRT Self Defense training with PRT weapons
• Skilled Use of Antiquated weaponry, and associated tactics.
• Basic PRT/Police Squad Tactics
• Customized Squad Tactics (Devised by Phalanx for himself and his AI)
• Can play the Piano.
• Is a pretty good Dungeon Master.

Mentality

Jasper is a relatively jovial person, greatly respecting his co-workers, Protectorate, Ward, Trooper, and Clerk alike. They do their best to remain professional whenever possible, but have trouble not looking at the team like a big family. Feeling somewhat parental over the Wards at time, though they keep this to themselves usually.

Jasper has changed since their trigger, having mellowed out oddly enough, compared to the more serious person they had been when working as a PRT trooper pre-trigger.

Heroism is not just a job for Phalanx, they are genuinely called to be the best they can be, and while heroism is a major part of their life, they consistently endeavor to not let it consume them, or to let it be the sole focal point in their life.

Jasper is a follower of Hellenism, though they aren't usually forward about it. They are also Transgender and Pansexual, the later two being clear if you pay attention to context clues, thought they are a private person about Religion, Gender, and Orientation.

Power

Trigger type: Single Natural Trigger (Controller Tinker)

Phalanx is an Artificial Intelligence & Robotics tinker. Capable of building three varieties of AI.

• Virtual Intelligence: 100% Tinker Code
• Robots: 100% Positronic Circuitry
• Androids 50% Tinker Code / 50% Positronic Circuitry

Virtual Intelligences and Robots are the inverse of eachother.

Both being built from the ground up for a specific purpose, and being generally unable to adapt beyond that purpose, without direct input and alterations from their creator. VI are designed for management/interaction with specific computer systems, while Robots are designed for specific physical tasks.

Neither is capable of achieving sapience/sentience on their own, though Phalanx could feasibly adapt sections of the software/hardware from a VI or Robot into an Android.

Androids are designed to be the best of both soft-ware and hard-ware. The best learning algorithms and code Phalanx can fashion, and the most advanced Positrionic Hardware he can afford. Together these form something capable of sapience/sentience. Emotions are also available, though Phalanx's particular variety of Androids are not even close to 1:1 with human thought processes.

Phalanx-Androids function via advanced neural-coding, and a rather difficult to maintain 'Positronic Brain.' Phalanx is limited in his ability to build and maintain more than half a dozen (6) of them, before they would be forced to neglect their Protectorate Duties and Personal Life. Though a smaller number of VI and Robots are within reason for him to maintain along with his 'Main-cast' of androids.

Phalanx has a particularly useful Alloy-recipe provided by his power, called 'Elysian-steel' which see's significant use in the fragile circuitry of his Robots and Androids. Phalanx like most tinkers is able to build rudimentary armor, weapons, and equipment for his AI, but its typically quite underwhelming compared to a dedicated tinker.

(Simple Ballistic weapons, Magnetic Dart launchers, low-powered Laser weaponry, Meta-material swords, Shock-bludgeons, hard-light melee weapons.) Power armor designed by Phalanx is basically a hollowed out Robot, with much of its automated functions replaces with manual controls.

All of the Androids designed by Phalanx possess a distinctly alien mental-architecture, meaning that while capable of passable social interaction with humans they come off as somewhat socially incompetent, this means they may only be utilized to their fullest potential by Phalanx, who possesses an intimate-familiarity with their thought-processes, and technical-specifications. Only achieving maybe half effectiveness at best when supervised by others.

Virtual Intelligence's and Robots do not count as 'alive' for the sake of powers Though the Androids do for some powers, and can even be perceived by Empaths.

Backstory

Like many children, Jasper wanted to be a Hero when they were a kid. Things didn’t work out that way though. But a successful career in the PRT was rewarding in its own way. Jasper would even argue that putting your life on the line to help others meant more when you weren’t a bullet-proof Modern-day Demi-god.

This wasn’t just a job for Jasper, it was a life-calling. But on Earth Kaff, all good things must end in tears. During one fateful operation Jasper and his squad was disabled by a potent emotion-manipulator. To this day Jasper is uncertain why it affected him so much more than his squad-mates (not that they didn’t have a rough time too).

The others took sometime to recover from the long-term negative effects, perhaps a month of downtime on average. Power-induced PTSD was no joke after all, but it seemed that the effects wore off with time with minimal lasting effects.

Not so for Jasper though, perhaps Jasper was simply more inclined towards Agoraphobia, but the PTSD had left Jasper a grade-A agoraphobe and Insomniac. They were able to tough through things at first, so they returned to active duty (barely passing psych checks) but their performance quickly dropped. His comradery with his co-workers fizzled out, and their combat effectiveness was hampered. The PRT discharged Jasper, putting them on reserve, so that Psychiatric help could be given.

Months passed, with minimal progress, Jasper isolated themselves from civilian friends, and family, video calls with their Therapist continued, and Jasper found some solace in the form of digital media, but things remained stagnant, and alone. Efforts to improve were continually met with setbacks, this continued for months.

TRIGGER

The PRT Therapist was alarmed when Jasper ceased communications, concerned that Jasper had taken their own life, they called the police, and the paramedics.

Jasper was not dead, but had simply dismantled every electronic device he owned in a fugue-state, having constructed most of a Bipedal Robot. Jasper remained unresponsive to the Police and Paramedics in his home, and the PRT were dispatched when it was clear this was a parahuman matter.

Their Trigger had left them different, they still had agoraphobia, but something had fundamentally changed, that allowed a gradual recovery. Legally they were now a member of the Protectorate, and while it took over a year and a half of concerted self-improvement to recover to the point that they were allowed on active duty. Jasper flourished as a protectorate hero.