Apprentice

Apprentice
Elizabeth's lovely face
Author	/u/sarcastic-romantic
Civilian name	Elizabeth Dancer Violet
Alignment	Hero
Affiliation	None (Devilfish)
PRT Classification	Trump
Status	Active

Elizabeth was born and raised in Portland during the Temporal Black Hole Event. When she emerged she had already triggered, and she became a Ward for all of her teen years before leaving the public eye. On forums and image-boards she’s occasionally mentioned, and she now wanders and takes on jobs here and there that are best described as bounty hunting.

Character Sheet

Appearance

Elizabeth is about 5’3, with a build reminiscent of athleticism but withering with hunger from life on the edge of society. She has black hair and blue eyes, and a very patient—or perhaps very tired—look about her.

In costume, she wears a scholarly dark robe along with a ceramic mask and gloves.

Equipment and Resources

• Blazer and ascot, the only luxury in her life
• Run-down truck, only still runs because it’s a Nissan from the 90’s
• Costume from her time with the Wards, mostly aesthetic with little functional purpose

Wealth Level: 2

Skills and Specializations

• Wards Cape training, as well as a deep understanding of her power from years of use
• Broad collegiate-level education but no actual degree
• Streetwise enough to get jobs and keep her head down

Mentality

Elizabeth feels ungrounded in life, partially due to her turbulent day-to-day and her instinctively sprawling powers. She wanders from town to town, searching for purpose and a dry place to rest her head for the night. She had a bright future once, but she feels no resentment regarding what she lost. That’s just the way that it is in her eyes.

Power

Elizabeth is a Trump whose power is based around observation. At base she has a low-tier Brute from her father, allowing her to withstand low caliber gunshots and dent metal with hits. She can sacrifice a portion of this in order to mimic other powers she observes, morphing the two powers into one weaker combination. She can do this multiple times, reducing the potency of each individual power but adding new combinations and minor subpowers as a result. She can also remove powers from this mixture through a period of great effort lasting several hours, restoring the potency of the remaining powers.

Stipulations

• She can only hold five powers at a time: she will always have her father’s Brute, so she has four proverbial "slots" which can be filled with other powers.
• She must understand the power she is observing. Her power does not grant her any ability to detect other Shards, so it’s all based on her own perception and knowledge.
• The time needed to study a power goes up with how obfuscated the power is:

* Generally, physical and flashy powers like Brutes, Movers, and Strikers take about a minute or so of observation at minimum.
* Changers and Tinkers take active observation of the actual creation process, and about ten minutes is the minimum.
* Non-visual powers such as most Masters and Thinkers require actual knowledge of the power as opposed to mere passive observation. Elizabeth must be aware of how the power works on an intimate level, usually information only the owner is privy to.
* For powers that hide themselves as a rule, such as Strangers and many Thinkers, mimicry is nearly impossible. Elizabeth can, however, be taught directly, or observe if she already knows what’s going on with regards to the power. (Req. about an hour minimum of observation after deciphering the power)
* She is unable to copy Breakers or Trumps, because their powers are too tight-knit to have sub-powers discerned from them.

Backstory

The Temporal Black Hole Event was a nightmarish existence. The accounts of the survivors are scattered and traumatized, and the sparse living were wrung out for details. One account was that of Elizabeth Dancer Violet, one of the children who were born inside. Seventeen years into the week, Elizabeth was born to two vigilantes: Dancer and Overseer. They were Parahumans who triggered inside the Temporal Black Hole Event and met as a result of being some of the few still alive. A passionate love blossomed, but it was not destined to last. A year after Elizabeth’s birth, Dancer perished in the ruins. Determined to hold onto what little he remembered of the old world, Overseer tutored his daughter with whatever books could be salvaged from the area. It was harsh and bitter work for such a child, but Elizabeth’s blossoming intellect and lack of anything else to hold onto pushed Overseer forward. Overseer was strict, but more than that he was cruel. He’d make Elizabeth study and learn every waking minute, drilling her into remembering useless knowledge for an outside world she didn’t know. It got worse when she started pushing back. As she grew she naturally became resistant, and when he’d get upset with her for faltering she’d shoot back with a remark of her own. When she was ten he started getting physical, swatting her on the head for mistakes and pushing her around when they’d traverse the ruins. But Elizabeth always told herself it was fine: he never used his powers on her, so she bit her tongue and lived with it. But one day when she tossed a book into the floodwaters out of frustration with him, he started shouting more than ever before. It was like he’d snapped, and Elizabeth wasn’t having any of it. She shot back at him that Dancer probably would hate who he was, and he finally lost it. She triggered as he punched his own daughter with a Brute power, and though he regretted it immediately it was too late. She fell into the floodwaters, her power keeping her alive with what it stole from her father. She awoke later in the ruins, washed up in a broken-down building. She later found her father had killed himself. She hated herself for mourning.

She was 12 when she was introduced to the outside world. Given no other choice, she became a Ward, and found herself unable to break old habits. She graduated high school early and went on to study various subjects in college, but she could never commit to anything: a dying curse of her father’s influence on her. With little to her name, she became something of a wanderer, taking jobs where she could while maintaining legality to avoid the PRT. Still alive, she went on.