Payback

Payback
Reputation	Notoriety Criminal /
Author	Alargedwarf (capes)
Pronouns	She/Her
Civilian name	Emily Dawson
Alignment	Villain
Affiliation	None (Denver)
Age	16
Status	NPC
Nationality	American
Approver	Nashoid
Trigger Type	Single Parallel Trigger, with Sister Steel

Costume Appearance

The average tinker is beset by numerous difficulties given the nature of their abilities, one of which is the often forceful discharge of any number of viscous materials.

The constant battle to stay clean is often a losing one as a tinker descends into a fugue of creation wherein the desire to stay clean and orderly is no longer a precedent.

An ideal solution for this problem is the simple white lab coat, often coated in a thin layer of grime and or oil. Emily appears to care very little for her appearance and her “costume” seems to reflect that.

Her lab coat meets the bare minimum requirement to be classified as a costume, often under which is a denim skirt and a black undershirt. The only truly consistent aspect of her outfit is a pair of brown military style boots that often clash violently with what little cohesion her outfit maintains.

It’s often been noted by those who have encountered this small-time villain that she smells rather badly, often being compared to roadkill that’s been out in the sun for a few days.

This can be attributed to the often crude body and temporary body modifications attached to portions of her body. The area around which is often red, swollen, and occasionally leaking a bit of pustule fluid.

Civilian Appearance

Despite being somewhat short in stature the dark haired villain has a tendency to impress her will upon any room she enters. That being said, standing at roughly 5,4 does make that rather difficult without the assistance of her tech. The crazed tinker often glaring upwards towards her object of annoyance rather than meeting them eye to eye.

Several notable features of Emily consist of; her unkempt often greasy looking black hair, and a pair of dark green pupils that often contrast her lab coat.

Typically her posture is rather bad as she can often be found hunched over even in a standing position, that being said it can vary depending on the weight of whatever she may have grafted into or onto her skin.

Under her lab coat and whatever project she has grafted onto her skin as of late is a rather skinny frame, devoid of much muscle or fat. That being said her skin is often marked with a variety of bruises and still healing scars from past modifications.

Mentality

As of now, two Emily’s currently exist; the one in the memories of her Mother, Father, and Sister as opposed to the current post trigger event Emily.

Her personality changed almost as if a switch had been flipped and the girl known to her family and friends was dead, the talkative and open minded girl discarded in favor of a quiet and solitary personality upon triggering.

As opposed to her sister Emily is a rather apathetic individual and has been found to be rather bad at socializing after her trigger event. Emily has long speculated that her trigger event may have altered her brain chemistry, formerly able to carry a conversation rather well; she now finds it difficult to converse with others about mundane topics.

The rhythm of the average conversation now an anomaly to her as she interrupts others or pauses for an uncomfortably long time before resuming her thoughts. Mundane conversations and small talk about topics that don’t pertain to her current fascination can often lead to her wandering off mid conversation much to the annoyance of those around her, a dull expression on her face as she wanders off to focus on her next creation.

This is the great tragedy of Emily, after attempting to be the best in all fields in an attempt to outshine her sister she failed and is now only able to focus on one thing with vested interest. That being revenge on the sister that somehow managed to benefit off of her suffering and steal her glory and one chance to permanently outshine her as a parahuman.

Skills & Training

• Two Years of French Classes
• Has taken several classes in first aid
• Prior to triggering Emily used to enjoy making pottery
• Three and a half years of self defense classes
• Somewhat accurate with low caliber firearms

Resources & Wealth

Due to her precarious homelife and lack of current income Emily isn’t exactly in the best of places financially, her living situation reflecting her current financial woes. Currently the bankrupt builder is hiding out in a variety of unused and or abandoned buildings, without a plan to address the coming winter as temperatures start to cool.

As of now Emily persists off robbing local gas stations and other petty thievery without the use of her powers, frightful that she may be looked for with more gusto should it be revealed publicly that she’s a parahuman. Most of her belongings can be shoved into a backpack within minutes and those that can’t fit are easily discarded items, most of her baggage consists of dirty clothes and half torn apart electronics. As of now Emily is currently on the hunt for a stable living situation and is willing to join any villainous groups.

Equipment & Gear

Tinker Tech & Major Equipment

• A rather bulky hiking backpack
• A picture of her mother, father, and sister. It’s worth noting that her sister's face has been scratched out with a coin.
• Several bunches of clothes
• A concealed pocket knife
• A series of random wires and bits of plastic shoved into her pocket, often streaming out and occasionally falling onto whatever surface is below her.

Parahuman Power

Payback is Focal x Magi tinker with a specialty on reactive improvement. Implanting and adding their tech into/onto themselves. Their tech is mediocre at best on its own, but they can make upgrade modules for their tech after gathering combat data on issues said tech encountered in combat. Allowing them to augment the tech to better deal with an encountered issue and being able to switch out said modules in their workshop. Each piece of tech is generally only able to slot in one module at a time.

For instance, fighting a cape that covers themselves in armor made out of ice will allow them to make a module to heat up an arm blade to melt and better be able to cut through it. (This is not intended as a ‘silver bullet’ tinker, as the actual power of their opponent is irrelevant in most cases. Rather, the modules make the tech incredibly good at fixing one issue Payback encountered during combat using said tech.)

Background & Trigger

Born into a degree of wealth unobtainable by most Emily lived a rather lavish lifestyle, enjoying the luxuries of such an opulent life was unfortunately rather difficult as she was pressured by her parents to excel in nearly every possible field of study.

Unlike her sister Emily wasn’t blessed with the capability to absorb information like a sponge, instead she found it rather difficult to keep up to her parents high standards as her sister surpassed her academically. This led to a rather tense homelife as she was outshined by her sister, often being verbally abused by her parents or neglected entirely as her sister Emma was taken out for dinners and trips while Emily was forced to stay home and study.

Emily tried her best to keep thoughts of running away and revenge upon her sister from entering her mind, after all it wasn’t her sister's fault that she managed to do so well in school. That being said she did find it rather hard to keep the resentment from building up over time.

It wasn’t until one day in mid September that the camel's back finally broke and the Emily that her family once knew ceased to be and was replaced almost in an instant. The day had started out rather nice, after slipping out early to ride the bus to school Emily had anxiously arrived at class early before her sister and waited with bated breath. That day was going to be the day she finally out-shined her sister and earned the praise of her parents because that day she was going to receive the test results for her mechanical engineering class.

A class that Emma struggled greatly with but Emily seemed to find rather easy. Unfortunately for Emily her dreams of parental approval were dashed as her paper was returned, a failing grade and alongside an accompanied frown from her teacher.

Panicking she frantically flipped through the packet only to discover that this test wasn’t her own, rather her sisters. The fear of failure, damage to her pride, all accompanied by the smile of her sister as she was given her test sent her spiraling as she raced out of the room and back home.

Emily spent the next several hours combating fierce headaches as she curled up in her bed, ignoring the knocks of her parents and even the worrying questions of her sister. Which she perceived as mocking triumph and gloating. After several hours of intense migraines the pain almost suddenly ceased and Emily felt an almost ethereal urge to pull her out of bed and downstairs in the dead of night.

Creeping silently down the stairs of the grand staircase and tiptoeing through the kitchen. It only took moments for her to cease walking silently and leap into action upon seeing her family’s numerous gardening tools and electronics. Her hands disassembling and rearranging wires to assemble something great, something that would finally allow her to outshine her sister!

…And then the door opened. Emma stood silently with the same determined look across her face as her sister. Silently in the cold almost frigid garage, Emily realized that her sister hadn’t only stolen her test but her trigger as well. Emily stood frozen in her pajamas, her mouth briefly agape as she tuned out any words spoken by her sister before suddenly leaping forwards with a cold determination.

Her new creation she’d subconsciously made being a rather ornate knife, half finished it bore no technical advantage but the sharp blade would do well enough to cut through flesh. Emma, always being that slightly more athletic twin was able to wretch the knife from her hand, another reminder that she’d also managed to outshine Emily in those self defense classes her mother had insisted the pair take. Managing to free herself from her sisters grasp she managed to flee out of the open garage and into the night, not looking back to see if her sister had given chase.