Transient
| Transient | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | /u/spider_dream23 |
| Pronouns | He,She, They,Them |
| Civilian name | Keith Simmons / Guy |
| Alignment | Villain |
| Affiliation | Noncanon (Devilfish) |
| PRT Classification | Thinker, Shaker, Changer (Brute/Trump), , |
| Born |
December 24, 1998 Vancouver, Canada |
| Status | Noncanon |
Responsible for theft, murder, kidnappings and other shenanigans, but also not that well known yet. Mostly because of his ever changing appearance and tendency to use dozens of throwaway names. Which usually tends to prevent people from pinpointing those crimes on one person.
Though they recently appeared with a mask, to openly make their presence as a cape known.
Note: His cape-persona is more known for theft, stalking, mercenary work, harassment and other low level stuff. Additionally he is establishing himself as an information broker.
Kidnappings murder, torture and some of his more monstrous deeds are yet to be proven. Either covered up, or going under different pseudonyms.
Character Sheet
Appearance
They’re extremely inconsistent, appearance shifting from one moment to another, changing with every encounter. Height, weight, hair color, skin color, or gender its all fluid without any original or default appearance. Though he has a tendency to heterochromia, one eye not matching the other or different hair colors.. skin color. Sometimes straight up like a bunch of different people patched up into one.
His appearance can change even more drastically after a cape fight, replicating the appearance of other changers, minions, case 53 and constructs, turning him into some sort of chimera.
As a Cape he does tend to wear a mask with a wide smile on it, sometimes only as a half-mask. Less to conceal his identity and more for dramatic reasons, to be actually more recognizable, considering his inconsistent real appearance.
Can choose to take on certain physical traits, creating a variety of more or less consistent personas by the use of his so called Totems.
Equipment and Resources
Taser
Gun
Narcotics
Hunting knives
Smartphone
Painkillers
First aid kit
Currently living with a friend, who was nice enough to share his small apartment.
He does have a secret warehouse for his other belongings.
Totems: Either small body parts(teeth, nails, hair, skin, bones, toes, fingers...) of still living people or items crafted out of many of those parts.
Used to induce certain physical traits and change his appearance into something less random.
Wealth Level: 4
Skills and Specializations
High pain tolerance and natural dexterity. Often utilizing his body without any care or regard to his own well-being, viewing any part of himself as disposable.
Able to instinctively adapt to a new form, or weapon. To know how something is used by mere observation.
Skilled at hand to hand combat, like a trained soldier and martial artist.
Somewhat familiar and skilled at psychological warfare.
Natural Charisma
Mentality
His personality is almost as fluid as his appearance, feeding off on others. Transient would seek out interactions, especially with those he deems as interesting. Trying to be like them or become a part of their life.
He has a tendency to pick up similar interest and character-traits of the people he gets close to.
However he seems to have no morals on his own and a disregard for life in general. People are valuable only in the same sense a moth craves the light. In many cases he would just dispose of them the moment he either gets what he wanted and therefore becomes bored with them or they turn into an obstacle for some greater goal.
Though his malleable personality makes him just as much suggestible as he would be dangerous. As long as someone has his interest, he would do almost anything. Each interaction being like a game he wants to win, be it to reach his 'price' or just to keep it going, to keep interacting.
He doesn't really gives a fuck about his old name, and usually goes with pseudonymes depending on his current form or gender. Often just calling himself Guy or something equally generic.
They're effectively genderfluid and pansexuell, depending on their form and the role they're playing.
His Clustermates are deemed interesting by default. As he almost sees them like a family in his own creepy way. Not necessarily preventing him from trying to harm them, but a fight would be as delightful as working together or keeping the bodys forever with him, though them being alive is preferable.
Power
Primary: Changer(Trump)/Brute
Body mimicry: Whenever he experiences physical pain, his body would gradually express traits of the one who is responsible. In a fight each injury would cause him to become more similar to his opponent taking on eye, color, height and muscle mass of them. Range does not matter and indirect damage(guns etc) counts just as much. Him purposefully placing an injury or otherwise pain sensitive body part onto someone else still counts and will trigger a transformation This simultaneously acts as some form of regeneration, replacing the damaged tissue with new one.
- Severed body parts(fingers, bones, skin, etc..) of a still living person, are a rather unorthodox but possible way to trigger a transformation.
- With the transformation only being partial(max 50%), each new form would still keep parts of the previous version, causing him to never look the same.
- Changer-Regeneration can act slow and gradual or instantly, with the new flesh immediately rejecting the damaged or old one. Able to regrow limbs and heal otherwise fatal injuries.
- Regeneration is useless if he already got too similar to his opponent, or if the enemy has similar/worse injuries, causing him to copy those too. This gets circumvented if he just so happen to lose his copied limb, causing him to be less similar and able to regenerate it once again.
- Capable to imitate other parahumans (Changers/case 53s), minions as well as solid constructs to a certain degree. His power favoring those traits over anything more human. Small injuries now causing more severe transformations. Running into a wall of power generated concrete rapidly causing parts of him to turn into the same material.
- Copying other parahumans only gives him their physical traits and powers related to this (claws, armored skin etc..) however the more similar he becomes the more likely he would be able to exploit manton protections.
- Able to replicate technological implants if those are sufficiently connected to flesh and considered part of the person he imitates.
- Naturally the transformation is proportional to his injuries, but he can suppress or shift it to another part of his body. Keeping the injured arm the same and instead transform his head.
- Suppressing a transformation would cause it to manifest much more forcefully once he loses his concentration ( skin and flesh ruptures revealing the new growing tissue beneath.)
Secondary: Shaker/Trump
Parasite: Able to feed on the 'life energy' of anyone he gets close to. Weakening them and enabling him to replenish his own stamina, as well as slightly boosting his strenght and speed(nothing superhuman). At base level, his mere presence ( 20 m) could make others feel weak, though its almost unnoticeable. It gets stronger with interactions, the more attention he gets or the stronger someone reacts to him, the more they will start to tire
Works through mundane interactions(albeit slower) or torture(physical and emotional pain is especially effective if the victim is aware of him being the cause).
He can use it to boost himself or redistribute it to someone else causing the same effect in others.
Concerning capes, the use of active powers gets slightly more difficult over time as they start to exhaust themselves faster.
At best people feel somewhat weaker, and exhausted just like a day after work
At worst and over extended amount of time, they lose all strength and ability to move, feel like they're freezing to death as they become unable to feel anything else besides cold, emptiness until they go into shock.
Realistically this is not going to happen in a fight unless he already won, as it needs either an extended amount of time(hours), or great physical/emotional trauma which would end the fight anyways(More something offscreen concerning NPCs).
- Note:
Can synergize with lingering aura, into a more potent trump effect. Feeding on powers actively used against him, draining them in the process.
This by no means protects him against any damage caused by that power and it isn't exactly that effective as a power dampener either. Thinkers would get headaches just faster than usual, blasters won't be able to shoot out as much than they're used to... and overall the use of powers would turn more difficult as they start to feel some kind of emptiness and numbness throughout their body.
The main effect is that he would be able to use that power effect for himself depending on how much he drained, can temporary drain a power completely, allowing him to use it for a day.
Due to it being partly derived from lingering aura, it can only replicate powers as a nonphysical field he surrounds himself with.
META NOTE: For balancing purposes this synergy of the Parasite and Linger Aura secondaries can only be used on Player characters.
Secondary: Trump
Lingering Aura: Power effects have a tendency to just stick to him, anything that acts like some form of intangible energy, or aura he gets hit with tends to overwrite the immediate vicinity around that specific body part. Initially it works on him/harms him like any other human, but after that his body just constantly radiates that same effect for a certain time(usually 5 to 15 min).
He can actively suppress it and the time limit would only start once activated.
Effect grows and spreads over his body if fueled by life forc
Secondary: Shaker/Striker
Synesthesia: Able to cause various forms of synesthesia in people who perceive him in any way. His voice able to trigger ones sense of touch like something crawling on your skin, visualizing colors or triggering taste and smell through a punch. He can choose to activate or deactivate his power and if the stimulation would be something vaguely positiv or negativ. It gets somewhat stronger with proximity.
can also cause nausea or euphoria
It is unable to do anything more then to distract or confuse
Cluster Mechanics: Cluster members are able to sense each other’s presence in close proximity in the real world and have the urge to compete/fight with each other.
Backstory
Keith was always a nobody a weasel that would latch onto anyone in hope of some advantage or benefit he could get. Going along with the bully at school to avoid getting picked on or coaxing his boss to get a better position, orbiting those he saw as more powerful and more successful than himself. After-all the best he can do is live in their shadow, but deep down he hated himself to be this kind of person, unable to stand out to be successful on his own… to be the hero of his own story..
He finally quit and left everything behind, trying to escape from his pathetic life and seek some fulfillment on his own. Naturally he fell back on old habits and did what he always does latch onto the next person he saw as more powerful. In this case someone with actual powers… in need of his help…
He was aware of what he got himself into, the real purpose of the machine and the project the tinker was working on and he was content with it after all he now had a new purpose and the real possibility of acquiring some power… influence…. once the project would be finished, once they got their army..
Mostly helping with the non tinker tasks, like getting the money, covering up any dirty details, he was also involved at recruiting new test-subjects.
Luring them in with his charismatic personality and false promises Keith didn’t expected to end up just like them…
..
…As the simulation started to fall apart, They partially woke up from what seems like an never ending nightmare, receiving sensory feedback from both the simulation as well as their real unfortunate reality. They felt overwhelmed by it all, not able to tell what is real… if he is even real… Unable to piece it together, their life, distinguishing real memories from fake one. Remembering death in multiple ways and different versions of them self.. being attacked.. in pain and pulled apart.
All while simultaneously stuck in a body that started to fail inside of the simulation and being bound to a table encased in darkness in reality. They tried to scream but couldn’t… to move without legs.. to do anything… get any feedback from them self.
They triggered immediately rebuilding them self as someone entirely different.