Nest (Needs Role-Playing Sample)

Real Name: Hermes Crane

Professional Name: Nest

Title: Creepy-Ass Motherfucker, Smuggy Buggy

Alignment: Good enough. Fairly legal. Mostly Ethical.

Age: 30

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Hair: Brown. Specifically, the color of chitin.

Eyes: Irises are the same color as the hair. The sclera and pupil are somewhat clouded with whitish brown.

Height: 180cm (5 feet, 11 inches)

Weight: 90kg (198.4 lbs)

Character/Costume Description: Nest wears a button-up shirt with nice jeans, a sport coat, and canvas shoes. He has medium-length hair that needs to be trimmed and is almost arranged in some sort of style but not quite. His patchy beard is in similar condition. His skin, hair, and clothing all make him look almost sepia tone. Termites frequently appear from, crawl across, and disappear into his skin, hair, and clothing.

Personality: He is an smart-mouthed, arrogant know-it-all to cope with his overwhelming bitterness. Nearly half a lifetime of repulsing people, strangely looks, yelps of surprise, and whispering behind his back has left him with a lot of anger and frustration. Nest remains an optimist despite himself and works to improve this world for those few who can fully accept him.

History: How does one explain the life of Hermes Crane? In order to understand Hermes, you have to understand the termites. This colony of termites burrowed through space-time and made its home in Hermes’ lifespan the same way a normal colony of termites might live in a rotting log. The termites fed on some latent superpower that Hermes would have possessed had the termites never run across him. They crawled through, over, and around him from his birth and continued until his death. Now, this wasn’t a totally raw deal for Hermes. The termites worked hard to protect their home and keep it in prime condition.

All of his life, Hermes was an outcast. This isn’t really surprising. I mean, he had bugs crawling on him all the time. Hermes and his parents tried to get rid of the colony many, many time over the years, but nothing was effective. When termites can burrow through space-time, they can simply avoid the parts that would get them killed but not harm their host. Even those methods that might have worked ultimately failed because the colony would relocate Hermes within his own lifetime. Eventually, he accepted that this was how life would be for him, but he certainly was not happy about it.

Superhumans and superhuman crime always interested him greatly. Growing up with the termites, he even learned to exploit the various effects they had on space-time, giving himself some mild superhuman abilities. As an adult, he earned degrees in psychology and law, all while establishing himself as a consultant on superhuman cases. By the time this story begins, he is well known in the field, having been instrumental in capture of more than one supervillain.

Powers: Nest’s latent power, the one on which the termites feed, is unknown. Therefore, his powers are defined by the abilities of the different termite castes.

Workers: Sensory augmentation and accelerated healing

Sensory augmentation – By burrowing through space-time, the termites leave tunnels Nest uses to observe more of the world than humanly possible.

--Sight--
----- Short range “X-Ray” vision
----- Sight from alternative angles (around corners, behind himself, etc.)
----- Limited microscopic vision

--Hearing--
----- Short range “X-Ray” hearing (hearing as though there were no obstructions)
----- Accurate directional hearing

--Smell and Taste--
----- Short range “X-Ray” smell and taste
----- Substance isolation for identification

--Touch--
----- Short range “X-Ray” touch for tactile identification of concealed objects
----- Objects cannot be transported by this method

Short range in this case will mean a three meter radius from his head.

Accelerated healing – The termites will make the necessary repairs to their home, patching up holes and restoring structural integrity in short order. However, while repairs are being made, tunnels are not being dug, so the sensory powers are unavailable.

Soldiers: Durability, temporal duplication, and emergency temporal teleportation

Durability – Some soldier termites have hard heads that plug up the tunnels when the nests are being invaded. This colony’s analogues appear right when Nest is being attacked to provide limited armor.

Temporal duplication and emergency temporal teleportation – Some soldier termites have powerful jaws with which to slay their foes. These would hardly be effective against superhumans. Therefore, these soldiers turn their jaws on the fabric of space-time and snip Nest out, plopping him down at some previous point in his life. This means that there will be two versions of Nest existing in the same time and place. Because the future Nest cannot take any actions which might prevent the past Nest from being in the danger that resulted in the teleportation, this ability is not an effective means of precognition. Interference like that would create a paradox. Additionally, no emergency teleportation can take place unless there is already an unresolved temporal duplication.

In game terms, this means that at some point, an additional Nest could show up. Great! An extra body to help out! Unfortunately, this also means that eventually, something will happen to cause the original Nest to emergency teleport, leaving the additional Nest to deal with the problem alone.

Royalty: Reproduction and telepathic confusion

Reproduction – That’s what the royal cast does. The kings and queens are constantly making babies. When Nest finally dies, their children will go out into the world and infect other superhumans. That might be something to watch out for down the line.

Telepathic confusion – While Nest is certainly susceptible to psychic intrusion, being host to a swarm intelligence makes targeting him kind of a freaky experience for the telepath. Looking at Nest is weird and so it trying to get into his head.


These powers essentially boil down to three powers: Durability, Duplicity, and Super Senses. I realize that it looks pretty bulky, but it's mostly flavor stuff. I would make a similarly long list for almost any superpower concept. I like to explore my options.


PowerGrid:

Intelligence: 4
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Durability: 5
Energy Projection: 7
Fighting Skills: 2


Roleplay Sample: (To Be Completed)

No stat can start off at 7 dude

and when you take it down to 6 you should have 1 point left.

And you have time manipulation, which is against the rules.

Thank you for pointing out my mistake in point allocation. The more you know, right?

I could make a case for the temporal abilities, that feels pointless and whiny. That's not really my style. Temporal abilities are necessary for the character concept, so I'll put this one aside for use in other projects and try a different direction.

Thank you all for the feedback!

A termite hero?
....
Thank god it's not a clown hero.

Clown hero, you say? Hmm...

NO CLOWN.

Andrew wrote:Clown hero, you say? Hmm...

OH, POSSIBLY-EXISTENT GOD NO!