Arbiter
| Arbiter | |
|---|---|
| Author | /u/Scrublord_Koish |
| Civilian name | Madeline Hayden |
| Alignment | Hero |
| Affiliation | None ({{{location}}})[[Category:{{{location}}} characters]] |
| Born |
February 19, 1996 Somewhere in America |
| Status | Active |
Public Information
Arbiter has been wandering America for about two months now, settling disputes between people and the occasional fight with minor villains, but nothing major.
Character Sheet
Appearance
Physical Appearance In costume, Arbiter wears a grey-blue robe with golden accents over a few pieces of armor. A deep hood and a smiling white mask hiding her identity.
Out of costume Madeline is a rather small woman with soft features, sleek red hair trailing down to her back. She usually wears a bit of makeup to hide a glasgow smile-like lines on her face. In the middle of her chest, the teiwaz rune is visible.
Equipment and Resources
- A set of lockpicks
- Some knives
- A few spare tranquilizers. Usually not brought along.
- Basic cape equipment (burners, zip ties, etc.)
Wealth level: 5
Skills and Specializations
Impersonation Sneaking Lockpicking Public speaking Some knowledge about basic security measures and hacking.
Mentality
Mentality She keeps on a very pleasant, if quieter personality most of the time, stemming from how she's tired of being bossed around by everyone she's known for more than a week. Uses her powers as an excuse to stay quiet or to change the subject by pretending that they're automatic at times.
Power
The first part of her power is a master power to be able to set a rule. This rule, when heard by any living creature, has two effects. The first is that they feel like invisible blades are positioned all around them. (Think pushing the tip of your nail against your skin.)The second and main function is that whenever the rule is broken by anyone who isn't the cape will take steadily increasing wounds all over their body as they continue disobeying rules, starting out as little pinpricks. These wounds bleed of course, as well as pose the regular dangers that flesh wounds have. It takes about 4-5 rule breaks or 20-ish seconds of disobeying before they become an immediate health risk. In order for something to qualify as a rule, it needs to be spoken vocally and mean that certain actions are/aren't allowed to be performed. Thinking about said actions is allowed and rules cannot be set on thoughts. There is a 30 second cooldown between new rules being set and this effect lasts until the effect is dropped by the cape or the affected creatures are out of sight and more than 30 meters from her. Re-entering this radius would resume the effect.
As a Coven mutation, she has a sort of glasgow smile on her face, and when opening her mouth, there would be faint tears and scars at the corners, barely visible, and resealing once closed. Most of this is hidable via makeup. This effect is amplified when the power is active, far larger tears forming to show the flesh underneath or even the insides of the mouth. When speaking normally while using the second part of the power, the scars aren't visible.
The second part is the summoning of a mask, looking like it was made of pale wood. When worn, the wearer's body, clothing included, transforms into a copy of up to two people copied by the mask. They also gain knowledge of the past 3 days that the copied person experienced, which should be enough information to somewhat impersonate them unless anything particularly weird has happened or they were isolated from people. This knowledge fades immediately when taken off. Capes can be copied, but not their powers.In order to copy someone's identity, they need to learn what binds a person to this world, what made them who they are or something that defines who they are. If someone's trigger made them into the person who they are today (like by relentlessly following a goal) or someone who they love to the point of doing anything for, then that would be a good example.
Backstory
Madeline used to work for a small law firm, and with time, had found herself gotten good at finding and poking at what makes people tick at their core.
But as all good lawyers, she had made enemies of the people who she had worked against and thus kept a rather strict and low risk schedule in order to not get assassinated like some of her coworkers. It had just two weaknesses, the court room and the law firm itself.
And then one morning while doing paperwork, she heard the screeching of tires in front of the building, hearing the sounds of gunfire from below and remembering the horror stories, she quickly went to hide in a storage closet.
Inside she found a woman with an offer. She would work for them and do whatever they asked of her, and in exchange, they would save her life. And with a bullet grazing her side, she took the woman's hand in her own, agreeing just about immediately.
More backstory
She put down her phone with a heavy sigh, her 'employers' had called, and they wanted her to start moving. They wanted some kid this time.Grabbing a jacket from the coat rack in her house, pushing out the door and stepping out onto the street, shivering a bit from the midnight chill.
Taking out her phone again, she found the supposed address on google maps. Some run down motel on the edges of town. At least this would be a supposedly easy task. Get in, tranq the kid, then bring her to the forest at the edges of town. She wished that it hadn't become such a common request from her employers.
Fidgeting a bit with the syringe in her pocket, a mask materializes in her other hand. Picking one of the people copied inside, she put it on and became Roy Barnett, some old veteran who she'd met in a bar last week. His memories weren't interesting, mostly a drunken haze, but it was his appearance that she needed, to not be Madeline Hayden for this.
Coming up to the hotel, she looks out over the number plates until finding the one that her target slept at. Moving up the first floor, a set of lockpicks come out of what was now a hoodie. (He was still wearing the same one as when she'd copied him, the hell?) The feeling of wearing an filthy hoodie that hadn't been washed in over a week aside, she scans her surroundings for anyone who might still be up at 1:30 in the morning before she starts her work, the door opening half a minute later. Stupid old lock was stuck for a bit.
Still, it was open now, as was the way to her target. Quietly closing the door behind her, she finds her target sleeping on the bed, peaceful as can be. She really hated this job.
Out of her pocket came the needle as she walks up to the side of the bed, taking the safety cap off and slipping it back in her pocket. Then in a single fluid motion, she put her hand over her target's mouth while the other jabs the needle into their neck, injecting the tranquilizer into their bloodstream.
Her target's eyes shoot open and their body starts to change, or at least, until the tranquilizers kick in and their struggling slows before it ever had a chance to properly start. And now came the hard part.
Grabbing what she could find personal possession wise, she loaded it into her target's backpack, slinging that over her shoulders before grabbing her target as well. Strolling back towards the door, she notices a baseball bat, spray painted to look like... a trans pride flag? Huh. It was a personal possession though, and thus along it went.
Finding her way to the forest took significantly longer, having to dodge into alleyways whenever possible and avoiding what little traffic there was this late at night. Still, it wasn't too bad. The meeting with the other agents right after wasn't horrible either, one of them put a hand on the kid's head and told her to bring them to a backwater PRT office of all places. It took a while to get to the PRT building, and a few more minutes before she had her chance, the secretary manning the desk going out for coffee or something. Walking up to the front, she lays the kid down so that they're sitting against the wall there, placing their possessions at their side. A few light slaps to wake her up faster should hopefully mean that they would wake up soon and not catch a cold from the chill.
Her job done, she starts walking back home, the mask on her face dematerializing as she became Madeline once more. She never slept well after a job like this. A week later, as she's watching the morning news, she gets another phone call from her employers, then gets told to 'Head to Ashton and wait for further orders.'
Where the fuck is Ashton?