Since we're all sharing characters, I figured I should tack one on here myself. This is the villain that will probably plague the hero (singular) of Newport City in the near future. Anyway, I'm a little concerned that he's too weak. He's supposed to be a "Joker" type; not dangerous in a fight at all, but it's the schemes and the nuttiness that makes him dangerous.
I hope. Criticism is welcome.
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Name: The Artist
Real Name: Jason Weller
Player: Ry Stevenson
Affiliation: None
Hair/Eye Color: Brown / Brown
Height/Mass: 1.77 m / 75.00 kg
Nationality: American
Place of Birth: Newport City, New York
Date of Birth: January 9th, 1978
Background Story: Math. English. Physics. The world outside. Food. Family. Television. Exercise.
Distractions, all of them.
Jason Weller woke up one morning as a child, and realized that he had something to say. Not so unusual, really; most everyone wakes up one day with that creative pang, that need to create something, to demonstrate to the world a talent that would draw the eyes of others, that would garner attention and get them pats on the back or taps on the head. Most everyone's tried their hands at doodles, at painting, at music, at dance, at some form of creative expression that lets them get that need to be creative out. A form of release.
But Jason was different in that he saw that as the only thing in life. Expression was all there was, and nothing more. It wasn't a means for his imagination to soar, or for his world to make more sense. It simply "was". It was what he did, what he was, what he meant to the world. So much so that, from infancy to childhood, to the throes of teenage-dom, to his young adult life, all anyone could say about Jason Weller was how wholly and absolutely absorbing those artistic practices were. Good, bad, or not, Jason was always creating.
But was he good? He believed so, and had prepared more than one portfolio to throw his hobby into full-fledged artistic professionalism. He worked day and night once graduating from High School, never taking his brush from canvas, in the hope that he could create and that the world would stand back, jaws slack, shocked and amazed at that which he made. They'd all stand back with their arms crossed, wine in hands, and they'd burn their Piccasso, they'd douse their Michaelangelo's in gasoline and ignite them, they'd destroy their statuettes and stand back to gaze at the only art that mattered; Jason's.
That belief swelled into pure ego (naturally). Before too long, Jason Weller's artwork had gone beyond the boundaries of even that which he'd created, as a lack of social skills, a desperate need to be the best, and the vein belief that such a goal wasn't so unattainable, had driven his artwork into darker and darker places. Unseen by the sun for months, his family and few remaining friends pleaded and begged Jason to let the art go just for a while, begged him to step outside and smell fresh air and look at the world. They begged him to experience life, instead of imitating it through artwork. They begged him to put the brush down. But with each desperate plea, with each prodding comment, they only drove him farther and farther into his work. Farther and farther into his belief that the world was a distraction to his art. That art was life.
The day would come that his resolve would crack him in two.
Who knows what day it was, but Newport City would remember it's consequences for years. Jason Weller took his grotesque and slowly-warped images of the world he knew - a world of a social outcast, of a broken man who'd never grown out of his infancy - to the gallery, hoping to have his first display. To see him then: he marched in so wide eyed and hopeful, probably the first time he'd ever felt that way. He clutched his artwork wrapped in brown manila paper to his chest, wearing a suit that barely held to his fragile and bone-like body. His hair hung about in his eyes, his lips constantly smacked and chapped. He stepped through the lobby, went to the curator's office, and presented his work. As any artist would've.
The curator unwrapped the artwork, and was taken aback. Images suitable only for truly evil types, for devil worshippers and for twisted psychopaths stared back at him. Images of a man who'd grown into his mid twenties without ever experiencing the world. Dark pictures of a black and convoluted horrors that didn't have a place on canvas, or in the world at all. He was shocked, and he displayed that disgust with insults and vehement words that broke Jason's spirit, and gave him a first glimpse of the real world.
Of rejection.
He didn't take it well.
Jason snapped. He was an artist. No, he was THE artist, and he wouldn't be insulted by some museum curator! Filled with spit and anger, he flew out of his chair and pounded the curator hard against the wall. He reached to the wall and plucked the first solid object his hands hit, then used it to begin to bludgeon the curator. Before too long, his world had taken a twist down the same dark and horrible paths that his artwork had wandered in to. Before too long, Jason Weller was two people; a young man with no social skills, with no belief in anything beyond his artwork. And The Artist, a black visage, a reflection of artwork at it's worst. A villain that Newport City would learn to loathe, to fear, for many years to come.
Quote: Art is a birth of something from nothing. If I want to make the greatest art of this city, of something, then I must change it into nothing.
Quote About Him:
Personality: Jason Weller believes in two things; in himself, and in the power of art. But he's got no sense of right or wrong, no human compassion or fear of muder. As so much, he seeks to create bigger and bigger "pieces". Massive effigies of death and destruction. He seeks to burn Newport City down into ash, to show the world the power of "art through destruction"
In other words, he's loonie tunes. Most crime analysis and psychiatric evaluations of Jason's actions lead counselors and police men alike to the belief that Jason is simply angry, mad, and doesn't know how to deal with it. So he destroys, he massacres, and he rampages. Somehow, though, his quirky art-themed crimes and massive bomb-induced frenzies always seem to go somewhat unpunished.
Appearance: Jason bludgeoned the curator of the Newport City Museum with a mask he'd blindly plucked off the wall. A simple mask of a face, plain and quaint, with a pouty look on it's face. The mask was made of reinforced clay, and managed to survive only the first few strikes before shattering into pieces. He took those pieces, and in his typical nostalgic ways, rebuilt it with glue and patience. He now wears that cracked and broken mask as the guise of The Artist.
With it, he has a penchant for suits, albeit hardly fine suits. He wears suits that cling to his thin, skeleton-like body all of the time. The suits are all of bright and vibrant colors, usually shades of cherry red or sky blue.
Powers: Jason, in his guise of The Artist, uses art themed weapons born of his sick and twisted mind. Simple gadgets and tricks that fuel his murder sprees and his heinous actions. Items like his painting tool throwing knives, his paint ball smoke grenades, and his airbrush gas plumes.
Characteristics:
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0 STR 10
15 DEX 15
0 CON 10
0 BODY 10
5 INT 15
10 EGO 15
8 PRE 18
-1 COM 8
2 PD 4
2 ED 4
25 SPD 5
0 REC 4
0 END 20
12 STUN 32
Combat and Roll Information:
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OCV: 5 STR Roll: 11- INT Roll: 12-
DCV: 5 DEX Roll: 12- PER Roll: 12-
ECV: 5 CON Roll: 11- EGO Roll: 12-
Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 rPD/rED: 0/0 Running: 6"
Powers:
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Cost Powers
45 Art-Themed Weapons: [ Multipower, 60-point reserve, all slots Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (90 Active Points); all slots OAF (Art Tools; -1) ] END:
1u 1) Air Brush Hallucination Spray: [ Sight and Hearing Groups Images 1" radius, +/-3 to PER Rolls (24 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1), Limited Power Only to create swirling masses of color (-1) ] END: 0
3u 2) Air Brush Painkilling / Numbing Spray: [ Drain STR 3d6, Area Of Effect (7" Cone; +1) (60 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1) ] END: 0
1u 3) Paint Ball Flash Grenade: [ Sight Group Flash 8d6 (40 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1), Range Based On Strength (-1/4), Linked (Paint Ball Color Change; -1/4), Can Be Missile Deflected (-1/4) ] END: 0
2u 4) Paint Ball Glue Grenade: [ Entangle 6d6, 6 DEF (60 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1), Range Based On Strength (-1/4), Can Be Missile Deflected (-1/4) ] END: 0
2u 5) Paint Knife Dagger: [ Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6+1 (1 1/2d6 w/STR), Range Based On STR (+1/4), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (35 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1) ] END: 0
3 Cracked Clay Facemask: [ Armor (4 PD/4 ED) (12 Active Points); OAF (Clay Mask; -1), Conditional Power Only protects damage to his face (-1), Ablative BODY Only (-1/2) ] END: 0
10 Paint Ball Color Change: [ Cosmetic Transform 6d6 (one color into any other base color, washing off, a few days time) (30 Active Points); OAF (Art Tools; -1), All Or Nothing (-1/2), Range Based On Strength (-1/4), Can Be Missile Deflected (-1/4) ] END: 3
zippercomics got a reaction from Magmarock in Character: The Artist (Newport's City resident villain)
