[SUDS] Cycles of Power (High T-Low M)

[Liiammmm]

I'd like to make two character reservations, please.

Character One: Sam Webster.

Spoiler:

Name: Sam Webster.

Age: Unknown, presumed to be around mid thirties.

Side: For hire by anyone, money is his only aim and he will do whatever he must to achieve that aim.

Rank: N/A, though he is known well in the underground scene.

Gender: Male.

Appearance: Sam keeps his appearance an enigma. He shrouds himself constantly with dark clothes and hoods, intent on keeping his identity a secret. In doing so, he retains the representation of being an unknown manipulator, something that he has worked on for a long time. The cloaks he dons are usually dark colours - navy blues, blacks, dark browns and greens - which allow two things: a sense of power which he , as well as a sense of enigma. The cloaks will often reach to around knee level. Underneath the cloaks he wears an outdated version of battlewear - it resembles medieval armour in design, and is not incredibly durable but provides more freedom than newer versions. This battlewear covers his entire body, and is used as nothing more than protection.

Sam's physical stature is nothing that strikes as intimidating. At 5'9 and weighing 144lbs, he is not physically dominating. Underneath his cloak is short and ragged brown hair, with dull brown eyes and a slightly large nose. A twisted and warped smile is plastered onto his face amid a peppering of stubble, though the smile is rarely seen. His body is void of any definitive muscle, his physique is slim and smooth. He has a few scars that decorate his arms and backs due to previous incidents while working - they are gouged primarily across his shoulders and upper arm. He also has a tattoo of a single rose being burnt which is placed on his right forearm.

Personality: Sam is, in the simplest of terms, psychotic. He does not retain a single regular form of thinking, and his thoughts are often dark and haunted. These haunted thoughts often creep into what he says, which can confuse and scare those around him. His humour - what little there is - is sadistic and dry. He knows that he is not physically scary, so instead he relies upon mental intimidation to achieve what it is that he desires. He is not allied to a single cause - as long as he is paid, he will do what he must. This is his sole driving force in life.

Sam does not often show much regard for the pain he inflicts upon other people - any times he does regard it, it is usually to revel in the twisted beauty of the situation. He does, however, show compassion for injured or abandoned Pokémon, of which three of his own Pokémon were, once. When discovering a Pokémon in pain, he will first track the area down for any humans. Any that are in the location receive an interrogation while his own Pokémon help to relieve the injured Pokémon. After this, he will treat the Pokémon in any way he knows how to. Sam will often go out of his way to ensure that Pokémon are not injured in any malicious way, unless it is he who is causing the pain or it is necessary for survival.

History: What is life without the wealth to live it?

Growing up as a poor child, Sam would always strive to be the best he could be. If he could better his life in any way possible, he would take the chance and bear the consequences. During his childhood he worked at least four jobs, trying his hardest to gain the single most precious thing that could better his life: money. To Sam, money was everything. Money bought what would make him happy, it would bring him his desires, it would bring him his life. When he was without any money, he felt lost. Though this was rarely the case.

Initially, Sam did only legitimate jobs - working in Pokémon centres was something that lit a spark within him. For several years he treated mistreated Pokémon and slowly developed a hatred to the careless trainers who allowed their Pokémon to be put into such pain. As he did not have any Pokémon of his own while growing up, he got very angry and passionate when people would take their comrades for granted. In private, he would often approach anyone he saw abusing or mistreating their Pokémon and try to convince them of their ways, through physical means. In this time, he would almost always be at a disadvantage due to the other person being a better trainer or having a weapon. This is where the majority of his scars come from.

He met his first Pokémon comrade while performing a job for a crime gang. It was a simple snatch and grab. He had no idea what it was he was to be grabbing, but all he knew was that whatever inside the package was valuable and could be used to revolutionise defensive weaponry when it was "used and disposed of". When Sam saw that one of the items with the "package" was a Poké Ball he refused to take the creature back to the crime gang, instead choosing to release the Pokémon. He explained the entirety of the situation to the creature, a Gardevoir, who in turn sought to protect him just as he had protected her. He accepted the protection.

Through the several illegal jobs he performed, his mind started to waver and crack. Breaking the law on so many occasions caused issues within his brain, and eventually it snapped and boiled over into a psychotic disorder. This has been with him ever since, and it haunts his mind and twists his thoughts, though Sam is unaware. His Pokémon were captured from the crime gangs HQ following a police bust - the group's Poké Balls had been hidden by Sam previously that day in order to protect them all. Sam released the vast majority and just kept a select five, which have now become his team.

While his Pokémon do not always agree with his actions, they know that it is what makes their master happy. As such, they choose to simply allow Samuel to do what it is that makes him happy and completes his life.

Pokemon: Mr. Mime - Mimicry
Tyranitar - Blocker
Banette - Schadenfreude
Espeon - Reflection
Roserade - Decay
Gardevoir - Guardian

Powers: Master - Level 7: Sam is able to influence the way in which someone moves. A lot like he is pulling at the strings of someone's limbs, he is able to make alterations in someone's actions. He doesn't claim full control, rather he just influences and pushes / pulls the individual. When he uses this skill he creates a one-way link between his mind and their body. Something that Sam has started to perfect is his own personal form of hypnosis. By spending hours physically inspecting somebody using his link with their body, he gains knowledge of their personal biological make up. Following this, he gains an ever-present attachment with that individual's body. If that person is in the area, he can reconnect this link and influence their actions and powers as he wants. The amount that this link is used will strengthen his influence, as well as working in tandem with his thinker power to gain a higher level of understanding of the individual's mind. This is through the way in which he detects the individual's voluntary and involuntary bodily reactions when he forces them to do something.

Thinker - Level 7: Sam has a heightened ability to discern immediate situations and possible actions to take in those given situations - what may take somebody hours upon hours to work out he can solve in a significantly shorter time. He also has a heightened judge of character - the longer spent around someone, the more he will be able to discern their actions and personality. This works in tandem with his master power - if he has his link with someone, then he will be able to discern their actions. Once the link is removed, he no longer takes information in about that individual at a heightened rate.

Trump - Level 5: Sam's trump ability allows him to interfere and nullify another person's powers and abilities for as long as he wishes, so long as the link from his master power is on them. This ability also grants him immunity from other forms of trump so long as he focuses on blocking out the opposing trump powers. In doing so, it lowers his ability to use his own trump power.

Other:

Character Two: Jessica Saunders.

Spoiler:

Name: Jessica Saunders.

Age: Twenty three.

Side: Allied with the Organization.

Rank: High ranking guard / soldier.

Gender: Female.

Appearance: Through constant training and vigilance, Jessica has achieved a slender body, standing at 6'2" and weighing only 104lbs. Her hair - blonde - falls neatly down to her shoulder blades when she lets it flow freely, but most often keeps it in a ponytail, with a fringe framing her eyes. Her eyes themselves are icy blue, accompanied by a sweet smile which seems almost out of character for a soldier. Her skin is smooth and pale, signs of someone who has spent a lot of time perfecting their appearance for reasons only they know. Her arms and legs are long, slim things, protruding from a thin body with small breasts.

Her outfit is state of the art battlewear. Kevlar that has been manipulated by high level tinkerers to be lighter, more malleable and tougher than normal. It is a white suit, softly glowing blue due to the lights that are placed within small grooves across the body. These grooves allow the suit to be taken apart and thus taken off, and are located at the shoulders, breasts, pelvis, knees and ankles - every groove has the small blue lights placed within them. The suit is skintight to prevent anything from being caught on environmental objects or grabbed by the opposition. It is designed to be usable in every situation and environment, and is thus used as every day clothing as well as combat gear.

Personality: As to be expected form most soldiers, Jessica's personality is split. In normal situations, she is an intellectual, somewhat sarcastic girl, who is independent and happy to speak up for what she believes is right and wrong. This half of her personality is opinionated, and a strong believer in rights for everyone and everything, as well as allowing everyone to get their own points across. She is happy to argue and just as happy to back down. Her humour is relatively dry, but she does get a few small laughs from cheesy and predictable jokes. She is down to earth and believes that everything happens for a reason.

The other half of her personality is that of a coldhearted soldier. Anytime a fight breaks out she will sever all attachments to her ordinary life and focus entirely on the situation that is at hand. She will take any and all orders that she deems necessary to follow, and will not stop at anything until her task is complete. This half of her personality allows her other half to live peacefully, as while she is under the influence and haze of this personality she feels no remorse or guilt for her actions. Anything that could otherwise scar another human being is locked out and buried within her mind, so as to protect her ordinary life.

History: Jessica lived a completely normal life, void of any surprises. Growing up in Agate Village, her childhood was calm and simple; a few hospital visits due to accidents when she was playing rough, but aside from that there were no issues. During her upbringing she had always been a tomboy, always happy and willing to play rough with everyone else. Her parents let it happen, knowing that that was simply who their daughter is. They had no qualms with it and merely played it off as a quirk of her personality. She never picked fights, nor did she do anything that could potentially injure someone, so there was no apparent problem.

During her teenage years, Jessica became increasingly more rough, starting to pick fights with people. Most saw this as a reaction to her "terrible upbringing", though in truth it was simply Jessica's way of dealing with any injustice she saw around her. If she saw something that was negatively affecting someone else, she would do what she could to help, even if it meant picking fights with people. She knew that actions spoke louder than words, and when these people were being unruly to those who needed help, why should she just shout at them? Again, her parents had no true qualms with this, due to the fact that they knew that their daughter had their own way of dealing with her own life. They provided help if needed, but otherwise they believed that their daughter would be okay with just their guidance, nothing more.

That, however, was their problem. They only ever "guided" Jessica, never truly taught her right from wrong. They thought that having their daughter take care of any injustices was completely okay, but she quite often found herself helping the wrong person. She was taken in by police numerous times due to her attempts at "helping" - in truth she would be defending a criminal. Her parents were happy enough to smooth things over, but never treated it like a problem. After the fifth accident, she was given an ultimatum; either go to jail or do something to help her country. Jessica's mind was, naturally, made up at that point, and she was enlisted into the military. Though the Pokémon military wasn't very flash or out there, they were located all around the world, acting as protection for most major organizations.

Jessica's powers came from the Agate Village cluster, when she was home with her parents. Her parents had some form of research on the Relic Stone and Jessica herself was afraid of the potential of somebody trying to steal it, due to its supposed value. Jessica was not prepared to put her parents' lives at risk, nor their research, so she requested to be assigned to protect them.

She was performing a routine scout and her own research on the Relic Stone when the cluster occurred. Jessica does not recall the events, all she knows is that everything around her felt more alive, as though there was static electricity running through the air. Following that, she passed out, waking up a few hours later in her house with her parents. The days following that were slow and hazy, all she remembered was that feeling of electricity running wild. She discovered her powers when her family was attacked.

Her parents had been asked to deliver any and all information they had to the Organization, something that they had been waiting for for a long time. They had been waiting outside of Agate Village, awaiting their daughter's arrival before they left, only to be greeted by masked strangers who unleashed hell upon them. Jessica arrived in time to see them being dragged away, instantly giving chase with her Talonflame and Luxray. Her parents' captors were too slow to avoid the fight, though they were well equipped and prepared. The devices they used isolated her Pokemon, leaving Jessica to fight by herself. In a moment of intense rage, her blaster ability came forth, decimating the devices that her opponents had used and releasing her Pokemon.

Though she saved her parents, their data had been taken and was long gone. They could replicate it, but were terrified of what could be done with it in the wrong hands. Following this incident, Jessica was assigned to protecting The Organization, with two purposes; to ensure that incidents such as Cipher's initial bombing do not happen again, and to develop her abilities to protect those around her.

Pokemon: Venusaur - Blossom
Forretress - James
Blaziken - Elizabeth
Luxray - Cole
Jellicent - Jacqueline
Talonflame - Jake

Powers: Blaster - Level 6: What makes Jessica an average blaster isn't the potency of her individual shots, it's the speed at which they come and the wide diversity she wields in producing each shot. Capable of producing numerous elemental blasts which she fires at rapid speed, the lack of power is made up for in being able to provide nigh constant bombardment that can affect any member of her opposition.

Breaker - Level 5: Jessica is capable of manipulating the space that surrounds her alone. She is capable of changing gravity and magnetic fields, but only in her direct area, so it only influences her. This is mainly used to give herself an advantage in fights through the way in which she gains control of the immediate area around her.

Brute - Level 7: Jessica has the ability to act as something of a wall in the middle of prolonged combat, as well as CQB. Her brute power passively grants her tougher skin, so as to allow her to take stronger shots without any true difficulty. It also grants her a passive regeneration, constantly slowly knitting her wounds together and repairing what is broken. She does, also, have increased muscle strength, providing her with significantly stronger physical attacks. If she is to focus her power on her tougher skin or her regeneration then those parts of her power will become a lot more potent, but at the cost of lessening the other aspects of her brute power.

Other: Jessica has an attachment to her suit which acts as a laser aiming sight for her blaster attacks. This is used as much for her accuracy as it is to strike fear into someone's heart in close situations. She also has numerous ways in which she uses her blaster ability, demonstrated though the different hand and arm actions she will make - long swings to short flicks of the hand all demonstrate some form of potency, speed and elemental alignment of each shot.