To: Zonkes (Coda)

Real Name: Gustin Clifford Buckley
Renegade Name: Coda
Title: “Gus”, “Cliff”, The King of Acoustic, Best of The Bass, The Poor Man’s Poison
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Age:19
Gender: Male
Race: Music-Fiend
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Yellow/Orange
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 215 lbs
Blood type:






  Gus is often considered to be one of the more “simple” members of the group. His light hearted approach to the world around him and his very “simple” view of the world stemming from his “humble” background often lead to him being overlooked by others. The truth is, however, Gus is perhaps one of the most insightful people you’d ever meet. His entire personality, from his southern accent to his ripped flannels and jeans are all a carefully curated and selected part of his image, allowing him to embody the stereotype of a country boy. He doesn’t mind being overlooked so much, because there are times where he can pretend to be the dumbest person you’ve ever met, but randomly hit you with some of the wisest advice you’ve ever heard, pat you on the back and walk off, leaving you to question how he managed to figure it out.

 As a performer and a music fiend, Gus appeals to the sense and satisfaction of the American Folk genre in the most humanitarian way possible. He plays the part of the forgetful but quippy oaf of the group on stage. Representing a sense of patriotism and country but progressing it in a more modern and appealing display. Truth is while all that stuff is nice, he doesn't really care too much about it. His antics tend to cause a ruckus on stage, even going out of his way to interact with the other band members with his silly ideas and feigned benign stupidity but in truth he is a representation of Wisdom, Community, Hard Work and Honesty.


  Gusting Clifford Buckley was born on the 3rd of July, one day away from the birth of a country of great potential, albeit several dozens of years later. Gus or Cliff was born to your average lower middle-class family in the southern part of Texas. His father was a transport specialist of large vehicles and his mother worked tirelessly to tend to the animals that lived on the land, as well as tending to the land they cultivated.

 Despite the lack of Monterey wealth, the family was a functional and mostly happy one. Gus and his little brother Remi learned from a young age that hard work and patience were a large part of human life. The lessons were ones that Gus took in and embodied, though his sibling seemed to be far more resistant to the teachings. Remi was always hard working, but very rarely was he ever patient, something that Gus would often use to passively agitate his brother, in the most playful way possible.

  Gus and his brother both took to music from a young age, sitting with his grandmother and listening to her play the violin trying to learn it for himself and failing hilariously. But she’d laugh and tell him to try again. Failure is just learning how to succeed. Gus really started paying attention to music after that, listening to the instruments and the cool noises they made, like they were people with their own voices. The Guitar spoke to him most of all, and practicing the craft was something Gus did every chance he could get. Whenever he could play with his dad, he did. Whenever they were sitting by the fire, he’d let their mom sing while he played. Remi, on the other hand, always tried to play on his own. Always seemed to try and distance himself from the acoustic as best he could.

  The little slice of life had to end at some point. As the factory closed down and transporters were needed less and less, their dad lost his job. He took to drinking at the bars, doing odd jobs here and there to try and sustain the habit, and pay off what money he could where he could. He was never a mean drunk, but a thoughtful and reflective one. He seemed to get so lost and so miserable, and Gus would always just sit there and listen to him. Take in whatever drunken wisdom he could, and slowly he started to write some music about it.

 Their sorrows were eventually lifted as a company came to buy some land from them. Apparently they had been looking to drill into the earth, in hopes of recovering something akin to oil. The company offered a generous compensation for the land, though it would result in the family needing to downsize and choose between supporting livestock or continuing their agriculture.

 Fighting was typical in anyone’s history. Fighting is how you come from a conflict to a resolution. It doesn't always mean that the strongest person wins, but rather that one person will eventually convince the other that there’s merit to their perspective, and they will relent. But the way Gus’ parents fought in the next coming week was something hellish. There was nothing physical, but boy when people said money was the root of all evil he almost believed it now. Mom didn’t want to sacrifice their happy lives or embrace change for money. Dad wanted to downsize and take the money because with the money there were options that opened up for the family as a whole.

  The fighting only stopped when their grandmother started to feel a little ill. She needed some surgery and the money was all the reason their mom needed to help out her mama. Their grandmother survived alright, but older people and anesthesia don’t always mix the best. She came out of surgery in a fog, not able to remember things too well. Their mom, to this day still swears it was because she was willing to sell out. The Universe, God or something was out to teach her that lesson. She didn’t grow bitter though, she just smiled and endured the confusions day in and day out. No sense of fighting a battle that can’t be won. Only thing worth fighting for is what you got left.

 The worst was about to come. The company that was now drilling the oil from the land they bought? Well that wasn’t exactly oil, and it didn’t exactly go well. Middle of the night sometime in January there was a loud noise that sounded off. Woke up almost everyone in the house. Well Gus and Remi got the bright idea to go out and see what it was, make sure everyone was alright. Their dad went with them and their mom stayed with their grandma and put in a call to the cops.

  Heading back to the old bar, or rather what was now the drilling site, they found the machine had broken. The drill was stalled, and the large rig was beginning to bend and twist. It made no sense at all, none that any of them could figure. But soon there was a more pressing question. A silver liquid began to bubble and burp itself up out of the hole where the drill was puncturing into. The substance was gray, almost silver and the lights seemed to shine and refract off of it, similar to gasoline.

  Only a few people were on site, a security guard was one of them. As the liquid began to surface it started to move on its own. It lunged out and splattered all over the security guard, his skin seeming to steam as he screamed in pain. It seemed impossible really, but Gus didn’t want to stay back and watch as this self-propelling liquid attacked the man. Despite their back and forth, Remi couldn’t stand to see Gus run off and get in over his head helping someone. Remi took off after Gus, and their father left in the dust, chasing after them and trying to wrangle them up.

 The Liquid began to come in mass now, it began to usher out from the drill site and overflow, running onto the earth like a deranged water. The security guard tried to run, but slowly his clothes turned a strange gray color, then his skin. Gus almost made it to him when he collapsed, and not as in “he fell forward”. Like the man suddenly turned into liquid and like a bucket of water he poured down and splattered everywhere.

  Remi froze in horror, and Gus turned to run. Sadly he had to go back for Remi, who seemed to be in shock. He picked his little brother up, but the strange liquid lashed out, tripping Gus and sending them both tumbling to the ground. There’s no real memory after that. All he remembered was hearing a voice, hearing a conversation. Then waking up.

 Now the story gets weirder and weirder, but to paraphrase it there were some “changes” that happened around their house. First of all, whenever Remi listened to music he liked or whenever he played music… he turned blue. Which is really weird right? Well the same thing happened to Gus, except he turned crean and the horns poking from his forehead didn’t hide in his hair. Now the most normal thing that happened from that was their mom bringing in someone to try and exorcize the demons from them. Remi was a little sore about that, but Gus actually understood. If there was a god then they did look a little like devils. It obviously didn’t work, but the part that was really strange was that whenever Gus sat down and played his music with his grandma. Now you’d think that him turning green and having horns wouldn’t be a problem, right? Or maybe it would. But here’s the kicker, right? When he played his guitar for his grandma, it was like the fog was lifted from her. She started to remember things she didn’t even know days ago, let alone months or years. It was a right miracle to be honest. But then she also remembered what demons were and freaked out and tried to hit him with a baseball bat. Understandable response, right?

  Either way see turns out that Remi got in touch with a few other people on a message board. Turns out Gus and Remi weren’t the only ones to end up with this “condition” and there were 5 others total, and with some convincing they all managed to convince their guardians to go to the same school for superpowered people. Thing was each one of them was a different color, which was really odd. Each one played a different instrument, though some types were similar. All different colors, all different genres, all different emotions and music types that made them turn from human to music-devil thingy. Anyway these 7 people, Gus included, did the most sensible thing they could all think to do.

  Be students or workers respectively by day, and by night they started a boy band…

  Now Gus insisted that he be called “Poor Man’s Poison” for a stage name, but there were some legal issues with that. Ultimately the band followed the advice of Percy, and he gave them all stage names, on the condition they could change them later.

 Half of the band is simply happy for their new metahuman powers and their new fame, and their popularity working in their favor with the new laws and impositions against people throughout the world, though Gus and a few others are far more concerned about this strange substance that gifted them all power, and how it seems to talk to them on occasions.



Iron Belly: Gus and eat or drink anything he wants, without cessation. Nothing he eats will have any ill effects on him. He can drink any known poison and it will be ineffective. He can devour pieces and fragments of metal and as long as they are not indestructible he will not suffer any adverse effects. He can also eat or drink as much of anything that he wants without ever feeling full.

Tireless: For as long as Gus has the will to keep going, he will. He can ignore the standard effects of lactic acid, exhaustion and other such effects, not allowing them to inhibit his efficiency or impair his judgement.

Poor Man’s Poison: Gus is a little green on the inside. Whenever he hears music, plays an instrument, or even plays a song in his head he can transform into his green devilish persona. While in this form, he has access to his other powers and abilities under the spoiler list before.

Transformed Powers:

Fear: Gus is wise, and it takes a lot to make him afraid. But someone or something that is frightening to him, has the ability to completely remove him from his music-fiend form.

Chromesource: The Source of his powers, and a common issue with many of the music-fiends, they are bound to a source of power. The Chromesource is a being and entity all of its own and it has a will, and a desire and it will not be denied. When subjected to mind control effects, the power automatically changes the music fiend to a chaotic evil being, and it will use its power in any way that it possibly can to create chaos.

Silence/Deafen: The Powers and transformations of the music fiends are reliant on their ability to hear noise and create noise. To remove the ability to make noise, or their ability to create noise, you have successfully reduced them to being incapable of using their powers.

TV Static: White noise created by TV static caused auditory hallucinations within the music fiends. The hallucinations manifest as intrusive thoughts, wisdom and insight of what comes next, but it is always in the most unflattering and paranoia-inducing ways possible. Being subjected to this noise for too long begins to strip the music-fiend of their sense of identity and they begin to talk in the third person, as if they are part of the Chromesource’s collective consciousness.

Intensify/Dilute: The Chromium Hydragyros power is highly resistant to corrosive properties, can be liquid or solid and is reflective of light. While this will protect the person behind the substance, it will actually reflect these elements in random and unpredictable directions with an even greater intensity, it does not reflect back at the original source however. Fundamentally this effect can be reduced or even bypassed if there is a presence of water, even going as far as to negate the corrosive effects of the Hydragyros itself.

Allergy: Gus specifically has an allergy to fresh flowers. There’s something about the pollen that causes his eyes to water up and begin sneezing. It’s able to be prevented with medicines, but it will cause him to spontaneously switch in and out of his music-fiend form with each sneeze.

Music-Fiend Family: Gus has a family and a second family. The Music fiends all have their arguments and troubles, and even different alignments, but Gus is more likely to go out of his way to help or save one of these people, even if it means saving them from themselves. It can put Gus in a lot of strange situations and a lot of controversial positions as he tries to mediate and assist his rowdy bandmates.


 Item Name: Poetry for The Poisoned
 Description: A beautifully hand-crafted acoustic guitar that has been laced with strings created directly from the chromsource.
 Abilities: Plucking the strings of the guitar send vibrations through the very soul of a human being, invoking emotions and pulling upon their heartstrings upon their deepest temptations and desires, even creatures whom have never heard things before can hear the melody it plays.
 Weaknesses: Whenever the user of this instrument plays it, their own emotions can corrupt the purpose of the instrument and cause it to implant emotions or twist their desires and mental state depending upon the user's emotional state. If a person who hears this melody is under the influence of a power or substance that alters one's cognition, there is a chance the user will suffer the same effects of impairment.


 Superstitious: Gus is supremely superstitious about a few things. First off, his sleeveless denim jacket with the double pockets is lucky as Hell. Cows are unlucky creatures, he will not even continue along the path a black cat crosses; and he is absolute certain that a four-leaf clover means you can drink as much as you want without worrying about anything bad happening to you.

 Lead Foot: Gus really, really wanted to be a NASCAR driver when he was younger. It absolutely shows.

 Sustenance: Gus does not require food or water to survive, as long as he has access to his transformation. Keep in mind, no matter what he can eat and he WILL eat.

 Coda: Coda is the "Tail" in musical theory. His nickname comes from the fact that he is the most proficient music-fiend at using his tail. Gus is SO talented at using it, in fact, that it is essentially a prehensile one.