Freakshow

Freakshow
Reputation	Notoriety Criminal D / -
Author	Dreamer (capes)
Pronouns	He/Him
Civilian name	Nate Brooks
Alignment	Villain
Affiliation	None (Denver)
Age	20
Status	Active
Nationality	American
Approver	Nashoid
Trigger Type	Single Standard Trigger

Costume Appearance

Wears a partially bio-luminescent, dark flesh and cloth-like biosuit. See about his Tinker tech for more detailed description.

Relevant snippet: A living tissue made by a network of mycelia-like strands. At first glance it may just look like a dark and moldy cloth covering him, but it's moving and constantly pulsating. Tiny strands of it extending into the air, only to retract shortly after. Capable of bio-luminescence. Tends to not fully cover his body, with visible parts of his real clothes left beneath. Often seen in combination with a dark hoodie and a ski mask.

Civilian Appearance

Medium length black hair, green eyes, 1,70 m height. He does not really care much about his appearance. Usually, his hair and skin appears to be somewhat greasy and sweaty while his clothes seem to be old and worn off.

Tends to wear a dark hoodie beneath his costume, otherwise fairly ordinary, with some cargo pants and a t-shirt. Somewhat scrawny and occasionally even starved out body stature.

Mentality

At first often seen as creepy, his most notably feature would actually be his almost childlike curiosity. Fascinated by possibilities more than consequences, he tends to prioritize results while overlooking dangers or the image his work portrays to the public. Still Nate does recognize how people tend to see his cape persona and usually he would even double down on it... be more creepy, dangerous and edgy because that's just his role the local villainous bio-tinker even if there are no outright malicious intends... just the image Freakshow is destined to present

On top of that, mostly as a result of not being raised right and odd interests, Nate has a hard time emphasizing with others, but he does appreciate some good company, especially with that longing to get his well deserved appreciation and respect.

Wearing his teach and outright being infused by it, also creates some form of feedback link, influencing his mental state in a way. Just like he gets to enforce control, his mind similarly tends to shift, it attempting to synchronize with things far from human. Occasionally causing fluctuations in morality as well as priorities. A fact he is aware and a little bit afraid of, but usually plaid down, more considering the advantages than the possibility of being manipulated by his own creations.

Skills & Training

• Nate is skilled at rationalizing death or work in situations others would be easily overwhelmed or too grossed out to be useful. He also seems to have an almost instinctive awareness, related to the biology of his creations or anything infected, his mind more or less receiving feedback from them.
• Experienced at handling a variety of creatures, venomous, poisonous or dangerous in other ways and proficient in utilizing different drugs, many of which he was forced to experience the effect on himself.
• He is well versed in science fiction and a bunch of other media(comics etc..), able to utilize that knowledge as inspiration for his creations.
• Cooking is one of the few things he enjoyed learning from mom and he got pretty good at it. Skilled at preparing various dishes many people would mistake for something, straight out of an restaurant. Though the majority would probably still decline once they realize what kind of ingredients he uses, as nowadays he would often cook utilizing his own creations.
• He is somewhat exceptionally good at karaoke, but more embarrassed than proud about it. Claiming those evenings were the most traumatic experience he had to endure.
• Sci-fi, comic and horror nerd with various book, movies and comics in his possession
• Biology PhD student in his civilian live.

Resources & Wealth

Freakshow isn't really that wealthy but still does make a living by offering his service to various shady organizations, be it custom creations, enhancements or body modifications/healing.

• Rents a small warehouse somewhere in the city, for his tinker lab
• Has various enclosures and cages for test subjects or altered organism.
• A complex system of sealed tanks, petri dishes and vials, for his more delicate parasites.

Equipment & Gear

Tinker Tech & Major Equipment

• Lab equipment
• Taser
• First aid kit
• Smartphone
• transportable holding containers
• Blood bags
• Chicken-eggs, roaches, locust and other small-sized host species.
• medical equipment

Parahuman Power

Classification: Tinker (Liberty x Controller)

Trigger type: Single natural Trigger, can second trigger

"Did you knew how much potential there is?... life itself a miracle... and just like that my eyes were opened... a way to interact with it in the most intimidate form possible.... Something new... sole purpose to communicate and connect. Scattered into the frame of a being..... a mediator introducing change... Just to see what could be...to accelerate a process...usually far too slow..."

Freakshow is a tinker specialized in parasites and symbiotes. Utilizing a new form of life which he usually calls: SYM's( Symbiotic, micro-cellular hive organism ), acting as a form of biotech enabling him to change other lifeforms to his whim.

By nature those SYMs lack the capabilities to survive on their own, always on the risk of desiccation, starvation and light exposure, albeit more advanced forms capable to somewhat circumvent this.

SYMs can either infect(change) something or band together to form more complex minions. New tech/minions are almost always derived from some of his previous work or various infected host species, tweaked and crossbreed to get the desired result.

There is a somewhat vague distinction between mutated hosts and fully SYM-based creations, the former being weaker and possibly hiding something inside of itself and the later being far more monstrous, while also further limited by the obvious weaknesses(Light exposure, desiccation, nutrition, range...)

Because of his spec, tech will always work best if supported by something or someone. Often not even fully functional on its own, either needing more of its kind, a host or some form of sustenance/protection. Parasites capable of disproportionate growth if sustained by fresh blood opposed to dead materials and minions seemingly getting stronger once nourished by each other.

With regard to the point above, its possible for it to incorporate or to integrate with non organic 'support' structures. A 'tech-parasite' capable to take over electronics not being out of the question. Albeit its sub-optimal, with the organic component still in need of sustenance, inorganic parts more functioning as a skeleton or protective casing.

Besides Freak-show's work centered around parasites, his tech is rarely contagious, the infection process itself too unreliable and complex, especially concerning more advanced organism like humans(and their immune system). The tinker more likely seen directing altered organism on the field. Minions only a shell for his actual tech inside and even in death, still useful for the rest of the swarm. SYM's capable to reorganize and cannibalize existing tissue creating something else.

If he puts his mind to it, infectious parasites are still very much something he can do, provided there is sufficient data on the targeted host. Albeit they're usually unable to spread notably far.

Just like other tinkers, Freakshow is capable to scan powers. Though usually limited by his biological spec, on second encounter there is a possibility for creations to adapt manton protections, replicating probes of parahuman tissue as a form of camouflage.. Regular maintenance is needed to ensure survival of symbiont's, with some unable to leave the local hive network(short ranged connection with his suit or other creations).

Background & Trigger

Nate grew up confused, his family far from normal.. mom tried to, but actually just wanted him to behave, to be a good kid others would find cute... to control him.

While he would watch horror and science fiction movies with dad every time she was away.

If he couldn't sleep because of the movies mom would notice, causing his parents to argue, with dad treating him like a traitor after.

Still he tended to go more along with dad, as mom just dragged him from one unbearable activity to the next.

On his tenth birthday dad showed him his collection, and how to handle the animals, most of them being invertebrates but also some reptiles, plants and other stuff.. he brought from work. There was a silent agreement to never talk about the collection at home and he understood why as there was already enough fighting as it is, mostly because of him.

From there on Dad often took him along showing and teaching him his work. Most of the time to have him help with something.

At school people usually avoided him, at least once he started to be himself instead of pretending, still there were kids he viewed as friends until he fucked up not even sure why they stopped interacting with him, sometimes seemingly their whole family kept them from meeting each other.

The situation at home grew worse after he almost died because he made a mistake handling something of dads collection.

His parents fought more often and more violent, practically waging war against each other.

Mom disposed part of dad's collection, while he at one point just killed the cat and made furniture out of it, coercing Nate to help with the taxidermy.

After that they fought one last time until neighbors called the police and dad just left.

Things were about to change but they didn't, or they did but not in a good way. The evenings still shaped by arguments and violence. Dad's gone but there is another guy filling the same niche.

Nate tried to spend his days ignoring it, diving into the things he loved or learnt to love. He knows what dad did and how he sometimes helped, but one day everyone seemed to know it. Things became public and the few relationships he cherished unbearable. The bullying got to a point where he almost couldn't leave the house, but he dealt with that fear and weaponized it.

Which only made everything worse.

Nate glares at it, the door is locked, he did it to be safe but the knocking gets louder, they already found what he kept in the basement and what he recently did at school.... Only the collection, his projects... his stuff in here are left. The gaze of fearful eyes wanders through the room, to the enclosures and to leftovers from dads old collection, jars, bottles and parts... evidence!

He tries to think to have ideas a way out of it until he triggered.

(Optional) Misc Lore Snippets

Where-as the above Info sections are for concise & pertinent info, there are some who like to write more detailed tidbits of in-character lore about, or relating too their characters, this is for things like that, so that the above sections remain concise and useful for ease of lookup.