Chester Haines

Real Name: Chester Haines
Renegade None as of yet; he may be given one by someone else.
Title: None.
Alignment: Renegade, chaotic neutral?
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Race: Human, Caucasian
Hair: Red
Eyes: Pale green
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 160

Costume Description/Image: Black sweatshirt with hood, black gloves, black cargo pants, black boots, and a gold and black masquerade mask.

Spoiler:

He usually carried a black duffel bag with him. Around his neck, he wears a gold circular amulet, about the size of a quarter, with two different inscriptions, one on each side, apparently in some kind of ancient language; it hangs on a gold chain, and he keeps it concealed under his clothes at all times.

Personality: A friendly, cheerful guy, always grinning. He has the sort of sense of humour that seems to run the range from lively and fun to downright morbid; what most people don't realize is that he grins and laughs even when he's not the least bit amused--he's just gotten that accustomed to faking it. He appreciates the nice things in life; not so much a fan of ridiculous extravagance, but he enjoys pleasant luxuries, and tends to live a rather expensive lifestyle as a result. While generally laid-back and uninterested in fights, he doesn't always know when to keep his mouth shut, especially when he tends to enjoy inciting a reaction in people.

History: Born and raised pretty much in poverty, Chester learned early on to take the cards your dealt and laugh off your crappy luck. Never very good in school, he was told he was never going to amount to anything, and, well, frankly, he had no reason not to believe it. He turned to stealing as a way to make ends meet, and despite a few early brushes with the law, has become fairly successful at it, something that he would say amused him if asked, because it was the one thing he seemed to have a knack for.

His luck changed, however, when he was 21; Chester and a couple of his friends broke into the home of a rich woman, old money type with a bad temper who had recently had a heart attack and died. While searching her house for anything of value, they found a trunk full of strange items, most of which appears as old, useless junk. Chester took a gold amulet he found in there, however, thinking that if it was real he could sell it for a profit. He also took the old cloth it was wrapped in, which turned out to be his greatest stroke of luck, as he later discovered that that cloth had writing on it-- a translation of the symbols etched into either side of the amulet. Once he learned how to use the amulet properly, he burned cloth with the translations to prevent anyone else from learning how to use it.

Despite several close calls early on, he’s learned to make the amulet work to his benefit, learning his limits so as not to push them and risk endangering himself. Since mastering it, his abilities as a thief have improved many times over. He became quite adept at scouting out the homes of wealthy individuals and families, and when the house was empty, would infiltrate it with the amulet's magic, take anything of value he could fit in his bag, and then use the amulet to leave once again. By taking up the habit of moving to a different state every month or so, he managed to avoid attracting too much attention, but there were still reports in the news about the mysterious thief who left no trace of how he was entering or leaving the scenes of his crimes.

Before long, he was living in comfortable luxury, but his pride swelled. In addition to his bread-and-butter crimes of house burglary, he decided to try something more daring; he decided to infiltrate a high-end art gallery, with state-of-the-art defenses. He only needed to scout out the place beforehand to find what he wanted to steal-- a gold masquerade mask. Then, he returned later that night, used his amulet to get inside, and took the mask. He set off the alarms as he did so, but thanks to his amulet, he was able to walk right out the front doors, unseen, unnoticed, unhindered.

Since then, he has worn that mask at each of his high-profile heists, uncaring about being seen on cameras; the most data they could gain about him, after all, was his height and approximate weight, and even that was iffy due to the bagginess of his clothing. He's widened his travel base, finding ways to sell off the rest of the "hot goods" he acquires in that manner in other countries, but most of all, trying to find the next best thrill without risking his neck too much, a balance that's growing a bit difficult to manage.

Powers: Chester himself has no inherent powers. What he has is a magic amulet, which, with a single word, acts as a sort of doorway to... well, the best way to describe it would be another dimension.

This dimension is a sort of "ghost world". And I don't mean it's a world inhabited by ghosts, I mean the dimension itself is a ghost, overlapping the real world. When you enter it, you're in pretty much the exact same location you were before, geographically speaking, and you can see everything around you-- buildings, trees, etc. But everything appears faded and blurred, like a picture that's too pale, washed of most of its colours. People pass by you and even right through you; they can't see or feel you, and from your perspective, they're faceless and almost impossible to discern from one another without very distinguishing traits. Even sound is muted; some could be shouting right next to you, and at best you hear a dull murmur, totally indecipherable. This doesn't change regardless of how sharp your hearing is.

In this realm, the only thing that is solid is the ground beneath your feet, and that's assuming there are no sewers or caves or secret passages beneath that. You can pass through walls, but going up stairs to higher levels in a building requires strong focus. This is the main benefit of the amulet; it allows you to go places, completely undetected. It doesn't matter if someone placed a homing device on you-- while you are in the ghost dimension, the signal can't be traced. Hell, even most psychics can't detect your presence, because technically, you aren't "there". You can enter any building, completely undetectable. But you can't actually do anything, unless return to the "real world".

It should be noted, however, that returning to the "real world" while inside a solid object would result in loss of limbs and/or death. Chester himself has never tested this, but isn't willing to risk finding out.

He can take objects with him into the ghost dimension, such as his duffel bag and his stolen goods; but it must be small enough for him to pick up and carry, and it cannot be a living creature.

Lastly, the drawback of this amulet, and it's a very dangerous drawback: the more time you spend in the ghost dimension, the harder it is to return to the "real world". It drains you. Chester himself can only stay there for ten minutes at the most when fully rested. Any longer and you risk being too weak to summon the willpower to return.

Power Grid:
STR: 1
SPD: 3
END: 2
INT: 4
EP: 6 (plane shifting)
FS: 3 (skilled primarily in evasion and deflection, rather than offensive fighting)

Power Grid colours: Black and green.

Character Image/Description: A tall, lanky man with short-cropped, messy red hair, not quite as short as a military cut but easily hidden beneath his hood when he's on a job. His eyes are pale green, and almost always in a half-open state, giving him a lazy expression. His face is narrow, with a sharp, angular nose and chin, and he almost always has his mouth quirked in a wry smile, as if laughing at some unknown joke. His skin is fair, a bit on the pale side; he dresses in clean, comfortable clothes—blue jeans, sneakers, a t-shirt, and an expensive designer watch with an understated design.

Roleplay Sample:
Scoping out the place had been child's play. He stood outside on the sidewalk, just looking at the place; it was late at night, and most of the neighbors were asleep. He'd parked his motorcycle several houses down, so anyone still awake and happening to look out the window wouldn't notice it near the house. The family that lived here was on vacation in their summer home in the Bahamas.

Chester grinned to himself. All that was left was to get inside and find the valuable stuff. And the first part, getting inside-- that was the easy part.

He reached up with black-gloved fingers to rub the spot on his shirt, where he could feel the cool weight of the amulet he wore, resting against his skin, concealed beneath his clothes. He spoke a single word:

"Kotal."

The world changed. Everything became washed in white; he was glad it was night, otherwise the shift would've been blinding. All the late night noises became muted, almost inaudible, nothing but dull static background noise that he could barely even pick up, let alone identify. Even the cars on the street lost much of their detail--the only reason he could tell most of them apart was by general shape, and even that was difficult without being right next to them.

Fortunately, he hadn't lost his bearings. His target was the house he was facing. Still smiling, he stepped forward and walked right through their immaculately-kept hedges, up their lawn, and through the front door.

"Zenal," he said, voice echoing strangely in the ghost-like white-washed version of the house, and immediately, the world became real again.

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