Charlatan - The Fool

by **Charlatan** July 18th 2020, 2:18 am

Basic Biography

Name: Patrick Marks
Vigilante Codename: Charlatan
Title:
Alignment: Neutral good
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Metahuman
Hair: Dark brown (occasionally dyes it)
Eyes: Grey blue (sometimes wears colored contacts)
Height: 6’0
Weight: 170 lbs
Blood type: 0 -

The Looks

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The Charlatan:

The Legacy

Personality:
Describing Charlatan is something both easy and difficult, the choice depending on who you ask. The short of it is he’s an introverted, creative individual with a moral compass that can at times veer on the side of idealism. Never the one to harm when he can talk someone out of something, and even then he’s only willing to do as much harm as he needs to and no more. Killing never seems to come to his mind when that time comes, using what skill he has to incapacitate and nothing more. The very code of his vigilante work being to leave no corpses in his wake, to be nothing like the people he goes after and takes down,

Behind the mask he is what yoiu would call a less curated version of himself with the mask on. Vibrant and curious, with a vast interest in most things cultural and artistic in nature. When the chains of laziness don’t bind him, he’s the kind of person with an insatiable curiosity that can’t be bound by most restrictions. Save for the ones he would put on himself. Considers himself quite open minded and is likely not to judge a person for most things, save for something that actively hurts another person in the process. At times uptight and prone to overthinking most things presented to him, this can lead to a level of executive dysfunction which leaves him indecisive more often than not.

Despite his flaws, he’s a genuinely good person who believes in equality as nebulous as that might seem and tries to do the best despite his own shortcomings.

History:
Charlatan’s early life was lacking in intrigue. It was transient to an extent, though he knows people who stayed in places far less than him but he also knows people who were even further sedentary. If you asked anyone, he didn’t have any outward reasons for becoming a vigilante and he would have agreed once in his lifetime. He did the minimum required in life, following the expectations for him in this life. Graduating high school but never quite making anything of himself. His grade point average wasn’t anything impressive, at times even low compared to those around him. Just barely scraping by in a life at that time was more comparable to mediocrity. At the age of sixteen he didn’t garner any power or even anything to make his life of intrigue, save for maybe a few more spots of acne because his body just didn’t like him. His home state didn’t have much for him, which led to a good portion of wheel spinning and mud being slung everywhere.

That inertia felt like it would go on forever, leaving him unable at times to even do anything but as with all stories there is something that leads him to change. He didn’t remember exactly what the circumstance the change came in, but involved meeting someone. An at time new acquaintance, a good few states away by the name of Brandon Hale. The kind of friendly guy with blonde hair that at times reminded him of a shaggy golden retriever. They got along well, talking for the time they knew each other in person and even afterwards when he returned to Chicago to live with his as Pat put it “rich family”. As far as he knew they were loaded, which explained the expensive hotel rooms he ended up somehow sharing with the blonde and the other things as well. Gifts that more than anything managed to shame him in a way he couldn’t explain, not that he could say no to them. That was just who he was.

What changed everything was when he was invited to move in with his friend a year or so after they met, the week after that he was moving into a new room with all of his stuff. Though he had to admit at the time he was more bothered by having to move all of the books he had come with him. The big city was a bewildering thing, something he recalled once before but didn’t really know how to deal with. Everything was a new experience and he soaked it up with the enthusiasm that could only be described as childlike. Even when certain relationships took on more platonic tones, he was still welcome to stay but the nature of life is change afterall. He couldn’t live off someone else and their mom, not when he did that long enough in his own life. There had to be change, something to make things interesting. As always he was the kind to talk, usually with people he rarely saw the faces of on the internet.

At times he finds it hard to explain how he met his two friends, the two people he had come to call his brothers. Perhaps brothers closer than his own blood brother. Maybe the time and place didn’t matter, because the time after felt like it had always been. Like they had known each other since formative times to him, as if he could trust them in ways he could trust no one else. The span between those nebulous times was when he first started his vigilante work. It started when he was walking home from his many club hops, half drunk and hearing the sound of someone being assaulted. A woman saying no in many ways, including outright no and he acted without the inhibitions of rational thought. The man was drunk, though he didn’t go down too quickly. Still he managed to help someone and the rush itself was something that stuck with him as he lay drunk, soaked in sweat in his bed.

His mind couldn’t stray from remembering that blurry memory, and so he slowly started training. Honing himself and the reasoning behind why he would want to do something like this. Just as many reasons he had before, they were paper thin but done well enough to explain it. Helping people and going against the many structures he could do nothing about before. He didn’t go to anyone directly for this training at first, though Brandon did eventually offer to teach him a few moves when he noticed he was training. The sessions didn’t last long but they did help him learn to take down the more mundane mooks walking around Chicago. Even when he moved to LA for a variety of reasons these lessons helped him perform what he needed to. Vigilantism was something that he had taken to when he really got to it, feeling that he had actually made a difference and helped people. He had friends and for a time felt like he knew what he was doing. He even managed to follow his dream to publish books, something that apparently when he did it enough he could make money. Not that a job was off the table but it made things much easier.

So with everything he had in his life, he decided the Charlatan moniker through something he’d heard once and went with it. The idea of fooling people was intriguing. Even if he didn’t like the idea of deceit too much.

The Powers and Weaknesses

Powers
Amping: Charlatan was born with a metahuman ability that more closely ties his brain with his nervous system. He can channel channel external sources of electricity, storing it up to initiate a controlled adrenal burst, allowing him enhanced strength and speed while under the influence of it. This has allowed him to lift the ends of cars off the ground with concerted effort and allowed him to move at speeds comparable to olympic athletes and even speeds considered peak human when pushing himself; these speeds reaching around 40 mph. Without direct electrical charge this power lasts for two minutes, though it can be prolonged through contact with a live charge for depending on the intensity of it.

Electrical resistance: In part due to his ability, Charlatan has a resistance higher than the average person. He can take a taser shock without even flinching and most electrical sources a person would normally encounter he is resistant to near immune to it.

Weaknesses
The hardest choice: Charlatan has made a personal vow against killing and will do everything he can to avoid taking lives. This means he will do the least amount of damage he can without dealing lethal or even at times crippling damage, which can lead to holding his punches massively and that isn’t good for a human to do.

Idealism: Charlatan is a painful idealist. Even when dealing with someone that he knows should be seen with intense skepticism, if they show a sign of redemption he will latch onto it rather quickly.

Still only human after all: He’s physically still human, so he’s got all the weaknesses that come with being one. Even when using his ability he

Charge needed: To activate his power, he needs a charge which means taking away a sufficient charge can mean he is nothing more than just a skilled human.

Items
Sparky: A bat wrapped in wire attached to a battery at the handle of the weapon. Normally harmless electrically, save for when he turns on the switch which sends strong currents through the wires and tends to send off sparks. Charlatan can use the bat to hit people, though he prefers not to due to how dangerous it is.

Sparky weakness:

Beating Sticks: Two escrima sticks he can use as melee weapons with small electrical output things that allow him to taze people or just cause general disorder by hitting them. They hurt when they hit someone.

Beating Sticks weakness:

Playing Cards: Specifically pokemon cards, they’re special implements with little mechanisms crafted by him to perform certain effects. He’s normally quite pleased with how they work.

Fire = Amped up flash powder basically. On impact the cards burst into flames, and can easily start fires.
Water: On impact a chemical coating the card reacts and produces enough moisture for a good amount of water to pour from the card.
Electric: These cards are lined with fine circuits that, when disturbed, produce a high voltage shock.
Fighting: Sharp metal edged cards
Poison: Coated in a small amount of a nerve agent. Non-lethal but a normal person would probably slow in the first minute and then drop after 3 minutes without proper treatment.
Ghost: A card with religious symbols on it coated in a thin layer of silver and dried salt. Made because Pat couldn't think of anything better to represent the ghost type.
Ice: Coated in a reactive powder form of nitrogen. Cools anything it comes into contact with rapidly, but not to a very heavy degree.

Pokemon Card weaknesses:

Fire: Damage to the flash powder can cause premature explosion and set the holder on fire.
Water: Cutting or puncturing the card can cause the water effect to not activate.
Electric: The circuits can be disrupted and card made useless either through being submerged or cut.
Poison: Requires skin contact, so clothes can stop it from taking effect.
Ice: Effects can be halted by simply washing off the powder with warm water.

Smoke bombs:A tennis ball sized pellet of compounds that when broken through impact create a large cloud of smoke. The utility of the item is pretty obvious.

Fluff
Combat training: Since the start of his interest in being a vigilante, he has practiced hand to hand fighting to better allow him to deal with the human threats to the city. Over the years he has managed to make himself out as a very skilled fighter, making use of mostly grapples and strikes meant to knock out rather than deal lasting damage when he can help it. This helps him take out untrained foes with seeming ease and allows him to put up resistance against those known for being masters within combat.

Chemical savant: Through experimentation and looking through various articles he has managed to gather information on what chemicals do what when mixed together and has allowed him to form various vigilante gadgets.

Pain Threshold: He can take alot more pain than your average person without being taken down.

Miscellaneous information and Trivia

Orientation: Homosexual/Demiromantic

Charltan’s dominant hand is his right one, though he is working towards being ambidextrous.
Under a pseudonym, he has managed to publish a couple young adult fiction novels as well as a romance novel which have gotten some awards and scant praise for realistic representations of LGBT characters.
A self proclaimed Atheist who despite what he might meet continues to be skeptical of all gods and higher powers.
Keeps a taser on his person at all times.
Despite having some knowledge on how guns work, his skills with them are actually very lacking. Just knowing the basics of aim and shoot, not that he often hits what he wants to shoot.

by **Silus** July 18th 2020, 2:25 am

Approved until stated otherwise.

Charlatan - The Fool

Charlatan - The Fool

Re: Charlatan - The Fool