A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

[Enoch]

A Momentary Shyft

 

/:Begin File download @ 21:34:21……….

File Download Complete; 21:34:39:\

Open Intercepted File? (Y)/(N)

y

 

To: doctormoores@uspec.org

From: drfoster@uspec.org

Subject: Uspec-Alpha 001

 

Dr. Moores,

 

Experiment Alpha 001 terminated at 13:04 04-03-04. Subject’s abilities proved to cause instability in individual cells and resulted in a terminal cancer diagnosis. Experiment Beta 001 still appears to be stable. Subject demonstrates remarkable abilities and seems to have taken to the treatments better then her twin brother. Beta 001 has not been informed of her brother’s death. Staff psychologists have deemed that it would be detrimental to the continuation of the program.

 

Several stem cells have been saved. Cloning of Alpha 001 to commence Monday morning. DNA will be altered slightly to increase cell stability.

 

/:Begin File download @ 11:02:01……….

File Download Complete; 11:02:18:\

Open Intercepted File? (Y)/(N)

y

 

To: doctormoores@uspec.org

From: drfoster@uspec.org

Subject: Uspec-Alpha 002

 

Dr. Moores,

 

Experiment Alpha 002 has officially reached full expected growth and appears to meet our expectations. Subject was awakened from accelerated cloning stasis this morning and demonstrates the desired abilities. An odd side effect of the cloning was noted by the staff; many unexpected aspects of Alpha 001 were passed on to Alpha 002 other then the expected cellular cloning such as many of the original subjects personality traits and basic motor functions. Alpha 002 appears in all regards to be a well-rounded man of his age able to communicate fully and many of Alpha 001’s learned skills also were passed along during the cloning process. These unexpected results have greatly expedited the retraining of Alpha 002 though we are still unsure as to the exact cause. Most concrete memories seem to have escaped the fluke, subject was shown a picture of Beta 001 and though he knew that he was her twin sister he could not recall her name, staff psychologists are working to reconstruct Alpha 002’s memories in hopes that he can be reintroduced to his sister and we can play off the failure of the original Alpha experiment.

 

/:Begin File download @ 09:24:14……….

File Download Complete; 09:24:31:\

Open Intercepted File? (Y)/(N)

y

 

To: doctormoores@uspec.org

From: drfoster@uspec.org

Subject: Uspec-Alpha 002

 

Dr. Moores,

 

Experiment Alpha 002 continues to surprise the staff Doctors. Alpha 002 has shown not only to have the improved cellular stability hoped for but also the remarkable ability to assimilate the personality and skills of those he comes in direct contact with. Alpha 002’s own personality and abilities show signs of repression while he assimilates other life forms. He has also showed the ability to keep knowledge of the assimilation after he has returned to his original form and assumes the forms he has taken previously at later times without having to come in direct contact with the subject a second time. The personalities he assumes do appear to grow over time in their own regard and appear to share conscious memory with Alpha 002 while he is in his own form or the forms of other individuals. Though it appears that so closely mimicking another individual suppresses his ability to shape change further. In other words while he has shown the ability to fully imitate my physical features with his shape changing abilities and even to make minor alterations such as changing hair and eye color when he fully assimilates my personality even minor alterations to my form seem to be at this time beyond his abilities.

 

At this time I would call the experiment a success. We have not as of yet been able to rebuild the full memories of Alpha 001 but have managed to reintroduce him to Beta 001. Following staff psychologists’ suggestions of explaining away his fractured memory due to an unexpected side effect of the experiment. Beta 001 has agreed to help us walk her ‘brother’ through his memory restructuring and we have not explained to either the exact nature of his ‘rebirth’. Thankfully Alpha 002 follows suite with Alpha 001 as far as personality goes and appears just as reluctant to befriend the other subjects on the grounds thus easing the process of having to explain to too many curious minds. Beta 001 seems to be adjusting well to the situation considering the circumstances just as staff psychologists predicted her optimistic and trustworthy nature has allowed us to further give Alpha 002 the impression that he is none other then the original Jared Roberts.

[Enoch]

Re: A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

 

Just a quick third person account of a character idea I'm playing around with. The basica idea is that Shyft has full shapechanging abilities and can effectively duplicate those he touches but at the expense of surpressing his own personality in exchange for assuming the personality of the person he is transforming into.

 

Thinking of taking Multiform with a large number of undefined alternate forms for him and shapechanging. Later on have him learn a few shapechanging tricks and be able to take the form of animals but for now he'll only have the ability to shapechange into humans.

 

Basica personality of the character is a loner and I also am going to talk to the GM about him witnessing the death of his sister in the first scene of the opening adventure for the campaign and having him assimilate her so she can live on inside of him. On the same note the GM wants all of us to have Amnesia and wake up in a lab that's been ransacked so I'm not sure if the story above will really tie into the campaign but I like the idea of playing the clone of a dead guy.

 

Anyway feedback would be appreciated. Enjoy

[zornwil]

Re: A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

 

Pretty interesting, I like the idea. I don't have anything to add but would ask why would he fight crime or adventure?

 

I think you can do the animals thing with shapeshift and a VPP, if so desired, and if VPP's allowed. It's a reasonably tight set of effects, and if the group uses the Bestiary it will be easy for you to pick and choose animals/powers without bogging things down.

[Enoch]

Re: A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

 

Motivation? Good question. Since the GM wants us all to have amnesia then working something into his background that would inherently want him to fight crime is difficult. The only thing I've really come up with is that some of the personality traits that were passed along from the person he was cloned from gives him a strong desire to help the innocent. I also know that the rest of the party also will have both amnesia and many disadvantages that are along the Hero Psychological limitations line.

 

I also want his sister to die in the begining and for him to absorb her personality and abilities. Playing some more with the idea the last couple days I'm thinking of giving him some powers and disadvantages to reflect that when he's in his primary form the other personalities guide him and influence him. Basically like having Multiple personality disorder. His sister was motivated by a strong desire to help others and her voice is one of the ones inside his head. Thus giving him further reason to help the innocent.

 

Animal forms I want him to learn to do eventually but starting off I'm going to limit his shape changing to humans and his multiform power's special effect will preclude it being used to clone non-sentient beings.

 

Thanks for the feed back Zorn.

[zornwil]

Re: A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

 

Oh, you're welcome, it wasn't much!

 

Amnesia, eh? People with real-life amnesia often develop wholly different personalities and are, looks aside, unrecognizable to those they know!

 

But I assume this is comic-book amnesia where bit by bit memories trigger odd reactions and the person is mostly heroic before and after.

 

The sister angle is good, re her strongly influencing him and having that perspective. Maybe as an added bonus re disads, she thinks of herself as truly dead aside from having this limited consciousness in him, and as such she, as a voice in his head, often drives him to reckless behavior even when inappropriate.

[Enoch]

Re: A Momentary Shyft (Character Background)

 

The sister angle is good, re her strongly influencing him and having that perspective. Maybe as an added bonus re disads, she thinks of herself as truly dead aside from having this limited consciousness in him, and as such she, as a voice in his head, often drives him to reckless behavior even when inappropriate.

 

Interesting idea. I was actually thinking of playing it with the other angle. Basically Blink (re his sister), is eternally optimistic and would be even unto death (Near total Optimistic Disad). Shyft however is distrought and reckless over her death. Though he doesn't remember her per se he does remember enough to know she is the only relative he knows of. Losing her was like losing the only link to his past and he views the voice in his head as a phantasm and constant reminder of her dying.

 

Most of the scenes I've thought about where her personality re-emerges have been extremely heartbreaking for Shyft though Blink handles it with empathy and comforting to those around her. Such as if Shyft ever finds his parents and let's his mother know the situation with his sister. Mom asks Shyft to let her talk to her and he does. The whole scence while the Shyft personality is dominate he's sad and a bit withdrawn. When Blink comes to the surface she is the opposite and comforts mom saying, "It's okay mom I live on in Jared." Or something to that affect.