Trellis.
Ivy Steelson always had a knack for machines. Dispite having a less than ideal family life she was able to work her way through one of the best tech programs in the country. After getting her masters, she was able to line up a job in the Rook City branch of Revocorp. Things were looking up for Miss (hopefully soon to be Doctor) Steelson… until OblivAeon…
She had just finished moving her life to a (relatively) decent apartment and was just about to start her first day… when the building came down around her. She was trapped beneath the rubble, unable to move, unable to see, barely able to breathe. After 16 hours, a small stream of light pierced the darkness… this was the end… she was sure of it. But instead of angles (or devils depending oh how harshly she would be judged…) it was a man. He had lifted the several ton slab with one hand and was reaching out to her with the other. She couldn’t help the tears of relief ash he lifted her sore body out of the rubble. She regretted that she never learned the heroes name, but she was alive… with nothing… in Rook City… (Background: Struggling)
She had nothing… no home, no friends, no family worth a danm… she was lucky a few places had survived the city’s annihilation so she could at least stay out of the rain. One day when she was scouring the area for food she came across… something… it was a strange siver and canister with glowing purple lines snaking across its surface… she immediately knew that it was some kind of alien tech. If she could get this to a tech company… or maybe reverse engineer it her self… she could get back on her feet! She brought the canister back to her makeshift shelter and fell asleep, dreaming of the possibilities that it could bring. (Power source: Relic)
She awoke with a start, shaking uncontrollably. As she attempted to shake the eerie feeling that over took her… she noticed the unthinkable. The canister… it was gone. As she sprung to her feet, she felt odd… almost like, instead of moving her body… it was being pulled. Everything, legs, arms, neck… she almost felt like a marionette. It was only then she noticed the silver and purple vines tightly fused to her flesh like vines up a trellis. Her panic only worsened when she felt a voice in the back of her head telling her… to feed… (Archetype: Robot/Cyborg)
To her relief, it didn’t mean people. It turned out that she could now absorb energy freely from her surroundings. After a few weeks of living on the streets of Rook City, she was approached by a… less than savery individual. (Overall, it was surprising it took that long). The man demanded… well he never got time to say… the ‘vine’ on her arm lashed out, stabbing into the man and began to drain. She could only look on in horror as the man was left a dried out husk.
She couldn’t sleep… not because of the traumatic even… she just couldn’t sleep any more. The thing wouldn’t allow it… she didn’t need to sleep, eat, drink… she wondered if she even counted as human any more… she spent most of her time away from people, terrified that she could drain someone else… terrified she may enjoy it…
Months pass before she feels comfortable enough to mingle with people again. Early in her isolation, she had considered trying to remove the extraterrestrial extremity but… that would kill her. She knew it, she could feel it. It had dug into every organ, every bone… she wasn’t even sure her brain was her own anymore… she was just a Trellis for this plant to grow on…
Maybe today. Maybe today she’d to Freedom Plaza. They specialized in helping people like her. Maybe get a hot meal and soft bed (neither she needed but she certainly would appreciate) for the first time in what feels like forever. Maybe she could make something of this… abomination. Maybe connect with people… but she had been saying that for months… and would probably keep saying it for months unless something changed. (Personality: Nurturing)
Principles of Whispers and Teamwork (teamwork didn’t really come through in the overview but part of her character is wanting a contradiction to almost form a new family)
Okay… this is my favorite character of any of my players.
I leveled with her at the beginning. Our group had an alien, a physical power house and a werewolf mage… if could do something techy or ranged… I’d appreciate it but not to force it.
She shrugged and said sure. She had no idea what she wanted. I’m worried I pushed her in that direction to had but in the end the character is 100 percent her own.
Rolled struggling. She doesn’t know sentinels lore so when she said she lost everything, I suggested Rook City (described a Gotham City plus bad Chicago but worse) and she was up for it.
Rolled relic and she was worried it had to be magic but we worked out that it was an alien ray gun that absorbed energy. It initially had this goof premis of it being attached to her but not needing a particular place. Like she could touch it to her face, let it go and it would stick there…
Once she rolled robot, she was a little stumped. But we eventually arrived at it being attached internally as well. And at that point we were like ‘do you even need the gun anymore?’
At one point she was looking at Principle of Inner Demons. I suggested undead. But eventually settled on two she felt fit really well.
THIS is my favorite part. She was writing in the look of her character and she described it as ‘like vines’. While struggling for a name I throw out Ivy and neither of us can get past it. It was just comic book ironic enough to work. THAT IS THE MOMENT when the alien tech became a semi sentient techno organic plant. When we were trying to.come.up with a hero name… nothing planty was working
Me:bramble?
Her:nah, thorn?
Me:meh, vines?
Her: boring, choke… nah…
Me: taken by a villian… and that sounds really villiany. Metal plant… ferro… thorn
Her:thats a pokemon. Maybe we’re going the wrong direction.
Me: I had started going through magic cards in my head whats a trellis?
Her: the thing plants grow on…
Me: like the plant is growing on you…
Her: maybe I didn’t come up with it… maybe the plant told me I was just a trellis.
I still have to run this by her so everything is subject to change (she’s offline by the ime I finished). She had leaned into the horror when building but I’m worried I cranked it up too high.
Unfortunately she won’t be in week 1 so I’ll writing a good place for her to join in week 2.
Edit: she checked the Google doc and loved it. She is thinking about switching her Principle of whispers to inner demons now.
Especially the misspelled Sky Scrapper.
