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 A flashlight illuminates a blue-tinted face in an otherwise dark room. "So you want to hear the story of Clatterclaw? Well, I can oblige, but you all better hold onto your butts since its going to be a wild ride. See, it all started with Rachel Allison. Just your average schoolgirl of the burbs, minding her own thing, returning home from tennis practice when suddenly she was kidnapped by a criminal most foul and carted off into a van-" The lights flickered on, causing Clatterclaw to blink a bit and squint. "Fine I'll do it normally sheesh. Can't let a girl have any fun can you?"  Clatterclaw, the Bull quote:Who changed you? "Woah, starting with the hard hitters right away huh? No 'Wow Clatters what's the secret of your fabulous fingernails' or 'Hey Clatters, how do you keep your skin so soft and springy even though you're technically a corpse'? Haha, for real though, I suppose that's a fairly obvious question to ask, no need to dance around it or mince words. The Lazarus Initiative is to blame. Well, at least their sort of illegitimate continuation. See, during the whole Nemesis Crisis debacle, well if you can even call a huge supervillain orchestrated terror campaign like that a 'debacle' ahaha..." "...Yeah you probably can't. That was pretty insensitive of me, sorry. But uhh, yeah, anyways, The Lazarus Initiative was created by the state as an attempt to forge a superpowered edge for themselves to fight all this rampant vigilantism, or at least to bolster the ranks. One of the many projects to create superhumans artificially, in fact. See, a bunch of necromancers figured out, that you can actually fill a human body with a fairly large amount of magical energy. Like, a ridiculous amount. There was just one problem on their way, just a teeeeeensy one: The soul was on the way, taking all that space they could otherwise stuff to the brim with arcana." "Now of course, they were real smart cookies the lot of them, so they figured out how to make even that work for their advantage. See, they could remove the souls of their subjects, leaving only a miniscule arcane string connecting it to the body, and stash it into a container of some sort. Mostly eerie glowing crystals. Not that that was in any way necessary, they just like keeping up appearances I think, haha! But yes, with the souls in their possessions, they had a convenient leash on their creations. You don't want to mess with wizards who have your soul." "Yeah, the whole thing was shady as hell, from the outset. But at least during the time, it could all be sort of justified via a sort of 'the end justifies the means' style of thinking, especially since supervillains were viewed as such a huge existential threat during Nemesis. So you know, Lazarus actually had a lot of public approval back then, especially since a lot of the more objectionable stuff was Top Secret. Like, obviously, right? It was the part where big parts of the Initiative straight up refused to disband after things cooled down, the researchers slipping away to continue their work alone and only sort of semi-legally or you know, completely and absolutely illegally, where things get straight up evil." quote:How did you escape from them? "Now, maybe you've managed to brilliantly deduce from both my age and also my not at all pointlessly meandering description of events (haha, sorry about that, I sometimes get a bit carried away), that I was part of one of these 'independent' operations. I'm not going to detail too much about what took place there. Just rest assured, that all of the things I detailed before about The Lazarus Initiative were things that happened with state oversight. And these post-disbanding operations were even worse than that. It wasn't a very good time is what I'm saying, and I'd rather not dwell." "As for my escape? Well, before you clap and cheer me on for being a total badass who beat all the baddies -and by the way, thanks for the flattery haha-, hear me out first. See, Rachel was never a particularly brave girl. Or a tough one either. In most ways she was in fact perfectly average, except apparently in being kidnapped where she proved a natural ahaha!" "...So maybe Rachel was scared, and maybe she didn't put up much of a fight at all. Maybe she even played along with her captors more easily than the others, and was given special privileges due to her pliability. Maybe she only escaped because the captors got too liberal with the rights she was given, and she managed to opportunistically nab her little soulgem and leg it, possibly crying the whole way she was running to safety? Seriously though I can't remember that last part, the people who held me didn't put all that much effort into ensuring my lacrimal glands worked properly what with my body being largely sustained by the necromantic magics inside me." "But yeah, I'd rather you not judge me. I only got these sweet as hell adamantite claws, and my combat training later on. Taken my circumstances, I doubt you would have done much better." quote:Who, outside the team, tries to take care of you now? "Oh, that would be Ivan! Or Uncle Ivan as I sometimes call him (no relation). He's one of the people who worked on the Lazarus Initiative back during the Nemesis Crisis when it wasn't a corrupt edifice of evil cartoon villainy, and merely a brutally calculating and morally grey state program not unwilling to sacrifice a couple innocents for the continued survival of the country. You know, a cheery lot, haha! But yeah, at least Ivan was one of those involved who stopped the work when told to stop, and thus one of the good ones."  Here's Ivan! "You might rightly think I'd be leery around him, and at first I was. But he's turned out to be very helpful. He tinkers with my upkeep magics when I ask, and at this point I'm pretty close to normal. Sure, my skin's a weird pallor of blue and sure, I'm unbearably stiff at morning, and sure maybe even though my heart technically beats it only does it two or three times per minute. But even in spite of all that, I'm willing to bet that I'm the purtiest technically dead person you know. And if you think I'm bad now, you should've seen me when I escaped. My hair was absolutely terrible, haaaAAH!" "Anyway, Ivan's surprisingly okay." quote:Why do you try to be a hero? "A couple of reasons. First, I'd rather be able to fight back if those Lazarus goons dare and try to nab me in the future. I want to help those that might be in similar situations too, since speaking from experience it's not a very nice situation to be in." "But yeah, there's also the fact that I'm a hyper-powerful ghoul-girl where else would I go than a superheroic getup? Like c'mon." quote:Why do you care about the team? "Because they are... good people? The reason you usually care for others, sheesh. But yeah, I suppose it's fair to say there's a bit more to it in my case. See, I know this comes as a huge surprise, but most people don't want to hang out with a corpse-girl who's also a magically created supersoldier. Not that they recoil in terror or anything, nah I have it way better than some others here when it comes to the looks department. It's more that they... don't really know how to deal with that. They skirt around it and things get awkward, so its hard for me to feel like I belong with them." "But heroes and other assorted powereds? Well, they are all some manner of freak almost by definition, so its way easier for us to get along without it getting weird! Well at least in theory haha!" quote:How has the injustice of society affected you, personally? "Man like, I seriously hope you didn't just miss my whole spiel on being a victim of the illegitimate offshoot of one of the State's less than wholesome projects to stay relevant? Like, I rehearsed that stuff you know, haha! I mean, if they'd been less worried about covering up the less savory aspects of what they did and actually had the balls to try and prosecute these independent rogue actors, then none of this would have happened. But of course they wouldn't do that now would they? Way bigger supervillains around nowadays, and risking such a huge scandal just because of a handful of kidnappings was unthinkable, yeah?" "Ugh..." "Man, just thinking about this makes me so mad. Like, I don't mean that you were wrong to ask but, just... ugh. Just ugh, you know?" quote:Optionally, help me seed some NPCs! People your character isn't personally connected to, at least not yet. If you want, give me a brief rundown (like two, three sentences) on any number of the following:  The Collector The Collector is what happens when you take mania, excessive funds and a leisurely lifestyle, as well as an affinity for magic and magic items and cram them all into a person. The Collector has a hobby of trying to steal unusual, rare or just simply powerful items that he then tends to stash in his mansion. Main powers include sorcery, eccentric tools, as well as his signature Magic item called the Planar Pocketwatch, that allows him to subtly manipulate the dimensions of space and time around him. Prefers subtlety to brute force. quote:Hero Name: Clatterclaw Theantero fucked around with this message at 01:16 on May 14, 2018 |
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May 13, 2018 14:24
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"Oh we're doing this? Well I mean I'm not really a gossip but if you insist hahaha!" quote:Webway "Right, ok. So, I sympathize with the whole 'coming from a crap future' angle. Like, my own past has not been so great if you know what I mean haha, so there's deffo a connection there. So in that light, maybe her generally abrasive attitude and rampant alcoholism can sort of be forgiven? Like, maybe they're a sort of a mask she needs to wear to not get too attached to things because, well, I would guess that world murdering plagues sort of manufacture a need for cynicism." "Still doesn't stop her whole too cool for school thing from being really annoying." "And I don't like the way she eyes my hat. I put some time and effort into designing this outfit you know so hands off ahaha!" quote:Exo "Oh my god???" "Just look at her! She's adorable! I mean like I don't mean to infantilize her or anything, but she's like one of those dog breeds bred for max adorableness you know?" "...wow ok that definitely came out wrong, sorry, sorry. But like, now that I think of it, maybe there is a point there? Like, she is associated with NightShift, and NightShift is basically just a superpowered advertisement right? So maybe her whole 'look' is also partly manufactured? But even if it is, I doubt she's complicit? She doesn't strike me as the manipulator type. Then again, isn't hiding that whole thing the first thing every manipulator type has to learn?" "Man why can't everyone have simple backstories, like 'evil wizards put your soul in a box and played keep-away with it until you managed to break through and legged it' haha! Nice and morally simple, right?" quote:Almeisan "Wow, starstuff!" "...Hahaha yeah, I was never too good with this stuff? And I've skipped a couple years of school because, well, you know, I was too busy getting dead haha. But like, it's a neat power I think, and his look would be really cool too if he wasn't stuck that way. That's just kinda sad you know? I mean I'm not normal looking either, but it's mostly just pallor and cold feet. Stuff you can actually manage with heavy makeup and those cozy, furry slippers. I've got like, three pairs of those. They're neat, you should get a pair if you don't have one already! Hahaha but yeah, I doubt that you can hide what this guy is carrying no matter the amount of foundation you try to slam on it." "Behind the veneer though, he seems really ok. Well adjusted and nice. A bit of a nerd but not too badly ahaha!" quote:Chameleon "drat. I just feel so bad for her you know?" "Like sure, I was toyed around with by those ex-Lazarus goons, but at least most of that is behind me now. I can move forward. It might be moving forward with a zombie shuffle but you know, still counts right hahaha! But yeah, this girl though? She comes from bad part of town, and her issue is constant, as must be her fear of being found out. And the problems she tries to tackle are big. I really want to help, I really, really do, but the issues of Kingston Heights are not the sort of knot you can cut with a pair of claws." quote:Pandora "Pandora huh? A bit of a glum name for someone who is basically a barely controlled explosion of cosmic energies, right? It's like me naming myself Zombie Apocalypse, haaAAH! But yeah, don't set yourself up for failure sister!" "...In all seriousness though? That's a real rough deal she got. Sure, I suppose the part where she got her powers was over fairly quick, and sure I suppose she actually gets to continue being a living person, but still. It's kinda like with Chameleon, in that her problem is this constant weight. She will probably have to keep living with her volatile nature until the day she dies, which is just... man. I don't know if I could deal with that. Probably not." "At least I'm tough enough that I should be able to hang out with her without fear of sudden annihilation, I suppose. I think she could probably use a friend like that." quote:iyEMPiy "...Honestly? I don't even know what to think of them really. It's just, they're so closed up and brooding I don't even know if I know them. All I know is that their past is supremely screwed up to the eleventh degree, and they honestly probably need therapy more than they need being a superhero." quote:Errant "Ok so I've given up already on all this time stuff I think hahaha! But like, I'm happy that at least one of us here is not from some totally sad-sack past you know? She's more of a bright hero of a bright lineage trying to do the right thing for heroic reasons which is refreshing! Her presence here is like someone lighting a sweet scented candle in a room after the aftermath of an all-you-can-eat burrito feast of sadness hahaha!" "Ahh is that a bit gross? I'm sorry, I just kinda miss tasting food like normal." quote:Reverie "Oh her! I know her, she's got her face plastered in a bunch of places. And honestly I feel a bit of kinship you know? She got her soul messed with too. I know how much that particular operation hurts, and I'm dead haha! But yeh, she's basically got this Magical Girl thing going on right? And now that I think of it, my soul's in a weird gem, so does that make me a magical girl?" "Hm." "I suppose I lack the weird-cute companion creature that you need to seal that particular deal." "Still though: Mahou Shoujo Clatters & Reverie Starlight Adventures? That sounds pretty good right? Hahaha!" Theantero fucked around with this message at 13:18 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 11:59
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Auraboks posted:Clatterclaw Clatterclaw wants to live a happy life despite of all the things that have happened to her. A fairly simple want, but made complicated by her circumstances. First of all, she is a very expensive bit of investment for those ex-Lazarus people that kidnapped her in the first place, so her immediate short-term goals revolve around not having to spend her existence afraid of their reprisal. Long-term goals are to somehow improve government transparency and oversight and all that good stuff so that nothing like Lazarus can happen to other people, but she is not very confident in her ability to affect that sort of societal change because she's basically a bruiser by trade now. This is something that can change of course, but likely only after she gets a better sense of her own place in the world. As per blending in, she can't really unless heavily disguised. That she is dead is not so readily apparent, but only having many physiological functions being upheld artificially sort of leaves an inhuman impression, not to say anything for the blue skin (she's not super creepy and is actually fairly good looking in her own way, this being a point mainly because the whole Can't Deal With Others Because I'm Too Creepy Looking is more a Transformed thing). But she does not care about that so much, as long as she can at least fit in with the other heroes. As mentioned in the app proper, she's largely there because its the only place she feels she could properly belong into. She accepts that being a hero is basically her job, and likely to be so in the future too, which is a big part of why she insists on being so tenaciously cheery: This is her life now, so she's set on having as good a time of it as possible. She's basically taken the attitude that even though the hand she's been dealt is kind of crap, she will make her damnedest to play it well enough to carve an existence she can enjoy.
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May 16, 2018 21:43
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