Fractal (Hero-in-training)

Real Name: Soren Hartshorn/Verger
Super Hero Name: Fractal
Title: Melancholy One
Alignment: Lawful Good
Age: 27/3million
Gender: Male/Female
Race: Human/Kretonian
Hair: Dusty blond
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6’4’’
Weight: 250lbs

Costume Description/Image: Fractal has a very splendid costume, forged from untold trillions of intersecting points of matter and antimatter, contained within layers of magnetic variance. His suit is essentially made up of constantly moving patterns of pure energy, giving him a majestic ‘rainbow-esque’ quality. Because his suit creates billions of fractal patterns as he moves, Fractal has the appearance of never being quite in phase with reality, as if he were more a shiny silver ghost than a man wearing a suit. Additionally, his suit is permanently melded to his skin, including his head, making it impossible to ever remove the suit. It is possible for Fractal to mentally will his suit to vanish, hidden from the visible light spectrum, but doing so effectively shuts down all major abilities and requires some level of concentration on Verger's part.

Because of the highly charged nature of his suit, Fractal must be extremely careful when wearing clothing over his activated suit, or when touching anything, for occasional power spikes in his suit can vaporize matter that comes into contact with him.

As close a representation as I can find:



Personality: Fractal is an extremely complicated person. On one hand he’s a twenty year old human from California, a young man who is completely in awe of the power that has been handed to him. On the other hand, he is infused with a several-million year old consciousness known as Verger, the last remnant of a race that died out long before humanity invented the wheel. Verger was a distinctly alien entity when she came into contact with Soren, but over time, her personality evolved and formed itself around Soren, and Soren found his own consciousness expanding because of Verger. The two have become friends in the deepest possible way, both relying upon each other for everything.

Both Soren and Verger believe in the ideals of good and the innate order of universal law. They both understand that the concepts of good and evil are very real and they believe their goal must be to preserve order in the multiverse whenever possible, no matter the personal cost. It is because of this shared belief that the entity known as Fractal was born.


History:

Verger -
Verger was once a member of an exceptionally powerful and nearly godlike alien race known as the Kretonians who controlled most of the known galaxy during the height of their power. The Kretonians were capable of amazing feats of energy manipulation, and were able to completely control and harness the power of gravity to do their bidding. Verger was a Kretonian scientist working on a possible means to cheat death, a way to extend life past the point of material and energy degeneration, past the point of physical and spiritual death. The Kretonians believed that each individual had within it a small piece of a greater soul that was lost upon death and so the idea that the loss of the soul could be negated was of utmost importance. Verger’s creation was the Fractal suit, a garment of limitless energy that could conceivable store an entire galaxies worth of data within its fractal shell. Unfortunately while it was possible to use the suit to capture the essence of a being, there was no way of getting that essence to show itself after it had been absorbed, thus rendering Verger’s life’s work worthless. No matter how hard she worked, she couldn’t solve the problem.

Then one day a dark cloud swept over the Kretonian Empire, laying waste to their cities and ships, crushing their civilization to dust. The Kretonians fought for several years, but in the end the dark menace proved too much for even their mightiest weapons.Verger was never sure exactly what caused the downfall of her race, as the dark enemy never revealed its identity to its victims, but she had little time to worry about it. During a test of her suits other capabilities in the hopes of creating a weaponized version of it to use against the dark enemy, Verger’s research base was attacked and destroyed, and her material body was destroyed. Her life essence however, her very soul, was locked away within the suit. She drifted for three million years, slowly learning to focus her will and maneuver the suit she now inhabited into life-bearing sectors of space. Finally she came upon a small green and blue jewel of a planet called earth, but her journey was far from over.

Soren-
Soren was never a popular person, nor was he amazingly special in any way. He had loving parents and a moderately good life, he was very intelligent but massively lazy and he suffered from chronic depression and anxiety. When Soren was sixteen his father passed away, leaving Soren and his aging mother alone. Soren did his best to help support his mother for several years, but in the end the strain proved too much for her and she had to be committed to a psychiatric hospital, leaving Soren to fend for himself. He tried to attend college, got a job, found a cheap apartment in L.A., but he never felt as if he could fit in and belong. He had no friends, no prospects, and no hope. Time passed and life went on as normal, leaving a deep pit of depression in Soren’s gut. Then on his twenty-seventh birthday, while contemplating drowning himself in the bath, Soren’s ceiling suddenly exploded, and he found himself sitting in his bath suddenly wearing what appeared to be a suit of pure light.

At first he was certain that he had lost his mind. Then the voices started speaking to him. Well, one voice actually. It may seem strange, but it was this voice that convinced him that he wasn’t going insane. For one thing it had a better vocabulary than he did, and for another it was distinctly female in essence. It took several weeks for Soren and Verger to come to an understanding, and during those few weeks Soren quickly realized that not only could he not remove the suit, but he was also highly visible now that he was encased within it. He also learned that during moments of stress, matter that came in contact with his suit tended to explode. It wasn’t long of course before the nice men from the government showed up at his doorstep, but neither Soren nor Verger felt like being controlled. Together they fled the United States and hid themselves away in the jungles of Brazil for several years, learning everything they could about each other. The relationship that formed was extraordinarily complex. Verger took on the responsibility of mentoring Soren, helping him grasp a mental discipline that he had never believed that he would reach and while their relationship could hardly be called romantic, they developed a bond closer than any two humans could ever have done.

But hiding away in the woods didn’t suit either of them for long. Soren wanted to make a difference in the world, and with the power of the suit he finally had the ability to make that difference. Verger at first was hesitant about interfering, but the sheer joy of interacting with another intelligent life form after 3 million years of solitude was too much for her and she agreed to Soren’s seemingly far-fetched idea of “Hey, we could be a super hero!”



Powers: All of Fractals powers stem from his suit. Both Soren and Verger together control the energies of the suit, though admittedly Verger handles the really tough parts. The suit itself is indestructible in the standard sense, although Soren’s body can still take damage ‘through’ the suit. (Kinetic energy for instance can’t be stopped by the suit alone, so while a bullet would be unable to pierce Soren’s body, the bullet could still shatter a rib or his skull.) The suits abilities are technically limitless, but many of its abilities lie dormant and unused. Even Verger doesn’t fully understand everything about it, and she created the damn thing. As Soren’s body and mind grow used to it, the suits abilities open further, allowing greater and greater feats as time goes on.

Apparently wearing the suit reduces its wearer’s cell degradation to a near standstill, effectively granting its wearer immortality. Unfortunately this doesn’t come with any enhanced regenerative abilities, so damage done hurts just like normal and takes just as long as normal to repair. Verger is able to control many of the suits basic functions on her own and can use the energy of the suit to aid in repairing Soren’s body if he is hurt, but doing so places a great strain on Verger, causing her extreme pain. (Of course, it’s technically all in her mind, but still...)
The suit’s most basic abilities lie in the manipulation of localized energy fields. From a combat perspective this entails beams/waves/etc. of charged particles and radiation. The suit has many other abilities locked away, not the least of which is the mastery of gravity - the secret power of the Kretonians. Antimatter abilities and telepathy are also part of the suit, and Soren has found that he can occasionally project his thoughts into the minds of other humans, though doing so usually ends up leaving him with a splitting migraine, and he as yet has little control over who he projects his thoughts to. Verger is certain that this is just a symptom of the melding process as the suit bonds itself to Soren at the subatomic level and she believes that eventually he will be able to bear the strain of the suit’s full abilities. That time is a long way off however, and for now Soren is content with the already awesome abilities the suit provides.

The one higher-end ability that the suit can currently perform is flight. This is likely due entirely to Verger’s presence within the suit and it’s almost certainly her willpower alone that allows such a feat to be possible. While in flight she is completely absorbed with the task of keeping the gravity field and the anti-inertia field active, the latter being very important as without it the extreme acceleration the suit is capable of would surely crush Soren into a fine paste. This puts much pressure on Soren while flying since he has to keep concentrating on direction, speed and a dozen other variables. They have not yet tested their flight during combat.

Speaking of combat:
For Fractal, combat is not in any way a physical act. While Soren was moderately strong by human terms, he’s no match physically for anyone with martial training. Instead the suit utilizes massive amounts of local energy when the need arises, and Fractal relies entirely upon his energy abilities to fight, block and escape from danger.

Power Grid:
STR: 2
SPD: 3
END: 3
INT: 4
EP: 6
FS: 2



NOTE: I should make it clear that while the suit could technically hold enough power to effectively make Soren/Verger/Fractal into a god, Soren's body and mind are no where near evolved enough yet to handle that much power and the effort would simply fizzle or maybe even destroy him. Due to the incredible long life granted by the suit however, there could come a time hundreds or thousands of years from now when Soren's body and mind evolve to the point where he can master the suit. So while it may seem overpowered on it's face, please realize that he has no way of accessing such power without destroying himself in the process.

Character Image/Description:

Powers stage 1 (current):
Energy manipulation within sixty feet, complete energy control within fifteen feet. Draws energy from local matter and energy sources, slowly depleting them. Using powers within five feet of living creatures for extended periods of time is inadvisable as the suit will draw power from living creatures just as it would from inanimate objects. Limited exposure causes no real harm, but continued exposure can cause death.

Energy projection takes the form of projected fields of energized particles and radiation. Fractal can bend these projections into almost any shape imaginable and can maintain most projections for as long as ten minutes at a time. (Though the longer he maintains a construct, the more it takes out of him.) In this manner Fractal can shoot beams of energy, create shields to protect himself or others and generally do lots of cool things with flashy energy projections).


Powers stage 2 (Won't reach this for a while):

Basically just a more stable version of his current abilities, with the ability to maintain projections in more stressful situations. By this stage Fractal would have also mastered the flying capabilities of his suit and flying would become a feesable option in combat rather than simply a quick mode of transportation. (In stage 1 maneuverability while flying is extremely limited and not a safe option for combat as Verger must concentrate all her energy on flying leaving Soren holding the proverbial reigns).

Role-play Sample:

It was a dark night, the sort of night where even the roughest criminals stayed indoors. There was a sort of chill in the air that caused the hairs on the back of the neck to all stand up on end, as if currents of electricity were churning the air. The city was abnormally still, quieter than anyone could remember. In the distance a police siren wailed for a moment and then faded into the heavy curtain of silence once again.

On one side of the city a woman screamed, her voice cutting the air. If it had been any other night her cries for help would have gone unnoticed and she would have been found dead some days later, her body abused and broken beyond belief. But this wasn’t any other night.

Soren stood on the top of an apartment building several blocks away, his highly enhanced vision granting him a perfect view of the scene of the crime. A young woman was struggling with two bald white guys who seemed to be under the impression that swastikas were still in style.

‘You know, I’ll never understand your race. My people would never have harmed another of our own kind.’ Verger’s voice was slightly huffy but tinged with pride. She obviously still felt kinship to her long dead people, it was just one of the many reasons Soren liked her so much.

‘Yeah...’ he replied, his voice low, ‘but we’re not as evolved as your people.’

‘Got that right.’ came the swift and condescending reply. ‘Shall we get to it then, I doubt she has much fight left in her.’

Soren nodded and grinned. ‘Yeah, I reckon it’s time Fractal made his first appearance back in the states. Let’s do this thing with style ‘eh?’

----
The two large nazi-wannabies were having a good night. The girl they had found was probably just twenty and had a great body. What she was doing out at this time of night and in this part of town was anyone’s guess, but the two skinheads didn’t pause to give it much thought. The larger of the two, whose name was Mac, unzipped his pants in preparation for the first of many intrusions he planned to make into his latest prize. His fly caught and it took him a moment to get it undone, a moment where all his attention was fixated on his groin. When he looked back up his world changed.

At the end of the alley stood a tall figure, clad in a suit with a bright metallic sheen that reminded Mac of liquid silver. He found himself unable to look away at first, his gaze trapped by the billions of shadow like patterns that crisscrossed the surface of the figure’s body. Every now and then an almost imperceptible spark of light would appear somewhere on the surface of the figure’s suit. Or was it within the suit? Mac couldn’t tell. It was like looking at a mirror suspended within a localized aurora borealis, the very space around the figure seemed to shiver, as if reality had a hard time facing the fact that something like this could exist. Mac’s buddy had seen the figure first, while Mac was busy with his fly, and had drawn his gun. The girl was sobbing behind them, her quiet racking sobs the only sound in the alley for what seemed like an age. Then suddenly the world erupted.

Mac’s buddy lifted his gun and squeezed the trigger. Then Mac watched as his buddy lit up like a Christmas tree, arcs of prismic energy coursing through his body and filling the air around him. Then suddenly a massive static charge filled the air, and both Mac and his buddy found themselves sent flying backwards into the brick wall of the alley. The kinetic force of the energy blast blew Mac straight through the wall an into the building beyond, turning most of his larger bones to mush in the process. His buddy was slightly luckier and went through a window instead, although the force by which he penetrated the window caused the shattering glass to slice his skin to ribbons on his way through.

Soren smiled inside the suit and felt a similar sense of elation from Verger. Fractal had been born.

An hour later Fractal made his first public appearance at a local hospital when he dropped off the young woman at the emergency room. An enterprising desk clerk captured the entire episode on his cell phone and quickly transmitted it to the internet, and within the span of a few minutes a new hero had been created. But fractal's work had just begun.

Cool Character 8)

If I may ask (I'm not a character mod but I like helping people out and this is for my own clarification) would you mind posting a list of the powers he would be able to use but are dormant and the powers that are currently accessible? I got a tad thrown off.

Sure, I'll do my best in the following posts. The suit itself has essentially limitless power. As long as there is energy in the universe the suit will be able to draw upon that energy. Presumably the suit would be powerful enough to create black holes, shatter planets even forge new suns. The real issues don't come into how powerful the suit itself is but rather with just how much punishment Soren can take. Every time Soren uses the powers of the Fractal suit he drains his own energy into the suit along with the local energy of the general area, (there's no way to stop this. The suit draws all local energy without discriminating between friend or foe). Normally this level of energy drain would be essentially harmless and the side-effects can be cured with a good nights sleep. If however he were to attempt something on a larger scale, if he blew up a small town for instance, the energy drain would be far more significant and would have a much greater impact on his health. And even greater act such as trying to open a black hole might simply fizzle at Soren's current stage of development, (and even once he's grown tremendously in strength such an incredible feat as that might still backfire and simply destroy Soren instead).

See, over time Soren's willpower will grow, and so will his ability to control the powers of the fractal suit, (with Verger's help of course). His body and mind will also begin to adapt to the suit as time passes and he continues to use the suits powers. Eventually he will be fused utterly at the subatomic level with the suit and will develop a natural resistance to the effects of the energy drain. Even then however a sharp enough drain can cause severe damage to the body and mind, and a truly powerful drain could still cause the energy to backfire and destroy Soren.

With this I hope to set up an additional leveling system of sorts, if only within my own mind, in order to better plot the course of the character. Additionally I've added in something personal to strive for as a character goal, (and since the rewards are limitless, the striving can also be limitless), and I've added in a sort of Dr. Manhattan/Solar Man of the Atom tragic feel to the character, displaying how someone with this terrible power ties to continue with his life.


Hrm, got a bit sidetracked again. Sorry. :face:

Powers now:
Beams, shields etc. of pure energy. Basic telepathic communication with random people.

Later:
Anything and everything imaginable.

(As noted in the main bio (later) is counted in the span of hundreds of years. Fractal can still become quite powerful in a few years time, but he won't be building any black holes from scratch in the foreseeable future.

Here is a better overview of his powers, (since looking around I've noted that the point system somehow shows which powers are used and how.... I also edited my main post for continuity and some minor grammar mistakes, (I wrote it late at night).


Powers stage 1 (current):
Energy manipulation within sixty feet, complete energy control within fifteen feet. Draws energy from local matter and energy sources, slowly depleting them. Using powers within five feet of living creatures for extended periods of time is inadvisable as the suit will draw power from living creatures just as it would from inanimate objects. Limited exposure causes no real harm, but continued exposure can cause death.

Energy projection takes the form of projected fields of energized particles and radiation. Fractal can bend these projections into almost any shape imaginable and can maintain most projections for as long as ten minutes at a time. (Though the longer he maintains a construct, the more it takes out of him.) In this manner Fractal can shoot beams of energy, create shields to protect himself or others and generally do lots of cool things with flashy energy projections).


Powers stage 2 (Won't reach this for a while):

Basically just a more stable version of his current abilities, with the ability to maintain projections in more stressful situations. By this stage Fractal would have also mastered the flying capabilities of his suit and flying would become a feesable option in combat rather than simply a quick mode of transportation. (In stage 1 maneuverability while flying is extremely limited and not a safe option for combat as Verger must concentrate all her energy on flying leaving Soren holding the proverbial reigns).

It all looks good to me, if you edit your app and put that more talked about over view into the app in a little side note it'll be perfect =D The stats though we need to sort out to give you the bed chance you can!

So personally as you have flight you have 20 points. So here goes...

STR: 2 - because you're going through the boy so he wouldn't be as strong.
SPD: 2/3 - Again you're only human so this would be that level and in flying the suit will weight you down so it works =D
END: 3 - This makes you pretty good to be honest. You can take a good few punches.
INT: 5/4 - This accounts for your suit and the scientist side of you
EP: 6 - Of course, gives you a big upper hand
FS: 2 - this means you won't be beaten up by a 5 year old.


When you gain XP I'd add on more to END and STR and FS personally. (: It'll give you more of an advantage. Hope that helps.

Ok, I like it. It makes sense that certain abilities would still be low since Soren and Verger have only been melded together for a few years yet and still have a long way to go before they unlock more of the suit's potential. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the skills are set up, but I think I'm getting it down slowly... at ay rate, I think I'll use your idea.


Just to make it clear though - he's not a kid. He's been with Verger now for several years hiding away from the US and is actually 27 years old. Still young, but I don't think the descriptor 'boy' fits all that well.

Here's the link if you want to put it in your signature ~

https://2img.net/h/i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt60/Ember_Fangs/Grids/Fracsgriid.png


Approved Happy Roleplaying!

Hooooold on a second here.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to unapprove this for now because you have a bit too much going on with your powers here. black hole creation, the apparent eventual gravity control and telepathy will have to be axed entirely, and I'm not sure that we can allow you to drain energy from everything within 60 feet like that.

A few problems.

If Alan Moore came here and tried to get Dr. Manhattan's character approved here it would not happen. If you are trying to make a Dr. Manhattan it will be far too godmode.

You said he possess unlimited powers that can create black holes, crack planets, and make suns. He doesn't; nothing within our mythos can do any of that. Those powers, even in hypothetical terms are restricted. We need to keep things balanced, even in a world of superheroes.

Energy control within 60 feet surpasses possibly even 7 EP. Energy manipulation seems fine within those parameters, but not absolute control. The prolonged exposure thing got axed with a member's ice based characters a few months ago. Many logic died to bring him that information...

You also said he creates fields of energy that contain radiation. This presents a problem with him creating high radiation fields that could kill people in prolonged usage. That means without even trying he can fry people for just standing too close to him; this may not be the intention of the power, but it needs explanation as to how he will not instant kill people by proximity power. If controlling energized particles merely acts as a setup for him manipulating particles into things than that would be acceptable, but radiation is a topic.

I don't actually think you are using EP for this character. Make an item app for the suit. Then we will base the power of the suit off of your INT, since you are not actually doing anything, but instead the suit is doing the power. If the suit gives him power, its based on how well he can use it and unlock it, which requires zero EP. I teenager could put the suit on and use it, but without knowledge would not get far from how I am reading the character.

Defensive and offensive abilities need separation into different forms of power. Bliss could control energized particles and send them into blast waves and shields, but since the merger she dropped the shields, and retained a straight 6 in attacking with the particles. You can split it between attack and defense, but you cannot attack with an attack of 6 and defend with a 6 as well. It becomes too strong.

This character right now is far more of a literary creation and not quite a roleplay character, and I get that you want to make a more literary character with depth, but balances must be maintained for the sake of the game.

Agreed, it is a more literary creation than a D&D style roleplaying character. I'll think about changing it, but I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice the character I've built for the sake of the rules. I'll think about it for a while, but I'm not sure if what I'm looking for at the moment is a rule-oriented game.

You could use the ooc roleplay section to rp with him if you don't want to sacrifice him for the rules. I was planning on doing that eventually if it's allowed.

Not a bad idea! so mods, is that allowed? I really have no real interest in a rules oriented game, especially with the limitations it places on the creation of the character. I don't mean for this to sound picky, and I certainly bear you no ill will, I just have a preference for story over rules.

Now I'm quite certain that I can roleplay my character without any fear of godmodding, I've been playing online RP's for some time now and haven't pulled out an unstable character since my first foray into the world of online RP's. I RP online because of the enjoyment I get out of creating a unique story with other people, not from things like EXP points and ability scores. (Even when I DM a D&D game I keep the rules insanely light and try to focus on weaving the story or describing the action rather than rolling through it). Just personal preference. I'm a writer not a gamer.

So if being able to write with all you awesome people means I have to stay in the OOC writing section, I'll gladly do that instead.

(The sort of RPing I normally do is known as Simming by most people, and an excellent example can be found at Obsidian Fleet: http://www.obsidianfleet.net/index.php ) Just check any of the Simms listed there and you'll see the type of game I normally play.

I prefer the writing part more too.

Yo peeps.

It is with a heavy heart and much regret that I must withdraw my application. I just don't think I can enjoy myself in an environment that is so vastly different from my normal form of roleplaying. I understand your need to maintain the rules you've set up here and I respect that, but it just isn't for me... (And being contained to the OOC section really doesn't jive with me at the moment).

Thanks for the short time I spent here, you all seemed like swell people and good writers, I wish I had the chance to write with you more in the future.

Cheers,

~Frac

@Ember: For all your hard work in trying to help me get used to things here, you have my deepest thanks.