pl 10 Meridian

[NineOfSpades]

Meridian 
Power Level: 10 (150/151)
Unspent Power Points: 1
Trade-Offs: -5 Attack, +5 Damage, -5 Defense, +5 Toughness

 

In Brief: Paragon with literal Popularity Power

Catchphrase: 

Theme: Dragonrider by Two Steps From Hell

 

Alternate Identity: Sophia Powers (Public)
Birthplace: Freedom City

Residence: Emerald City
Occupation: Public Figure/Superhero
Affiliations: P3 Hero Management Solutions, LLC
Family: None

 

Description:
Age: 25 (DoB: July 4th, 1993)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 215 lbs
Eyes: Glowing Silver
Hair: Blond

 

Image credited to SoDrawnOut

 

History: Sophia knew she was born to be a hero, even before she fully understood what that meant. As a child born in the aftermath of the second Terminus Invasion, Sophia had been altered by the alien energy that leaked into the world. As she was only a child at the time, her memories of her life as part of the 'protective custody' and experimentation performed on T-Babies is sketchy at best, though she knew she was different. In her case, at least at the time, the differences were only cosmetic. She was big for her age, and had eyes that glowed with their own luminescence, but that was it. Rather uninteresting compared to other kids who could levitate objects with their mind or command elemental forces. 

 

Her drive to heroism was inspired by the Centurion, the greatest hero of all time. Entertainment options were limited, but positive messages about using super-powers were actively encouraged, so she had no shortage of exposure to the Freedom league and their exploits, which left her with the clear impression as to who she wanted to be. However, it also left her with the aftermath of his death and its effect on public consciousness, that the Terminus was fundamentally bad and anyone tainted by it was likewise something to be shunned. That distinction would follow her for the rest of her life as she strove to follow after her idol while unable to escape the perceived flaw of her birth.

 

Lacking any outwardly dangerous abilities, Sophia was released following the legal action against the imprisonment of T.E.M.S afflicted children. However, she had no parents waiting for her, as her biological family could not be located. Instead, she was placed into a suitable foster care, along with other children who had no families to return to. This later allowed her the opportunity to enroll in Claremont Academy, a school that specialized in the education of prospective hero's. Sophia was a lackluster student, eager to do well but not particularly talented, and so stayed relatively under the radar. Even so, it at least gave her the basic combat training to see her through a battle, and further entrenched her desire to don a costume of her own.

 

After Graduating, Sophia moved west, to Emerald City, wanting a chance to make a name for herself as a superhero, and feeling that Freedom was just to crowded for her tastes. Initially taking the name Go-Girl, she had a struggle in her early career as a vigilante, only succeeding at thwarting acts of vandalism. It was disheartening, to say the least, but she stayed at it, believing that she needed to do what she could. 

 

Her break came when she assisted the Emerald City Fire Department in evacuating and containing a fire at city hall. Her bravery, and the assistance she lead, earned her a public commendation from the Mayors office, which was broadcast nationally. After that, Sophia found herself changed. In the weeks that passed, she grew stronger, faster. She'd always been a tough-cookie, but she'd never managed to lift a car with her bare hands before, and that was only the beginning.

 

Sophia was at a loss to explain the transformation, other than to assume she was just a late bloomer whose powers had remained dormant until placed in a life or death scenario, and only now were awakening. With her newfound powers, she was able to stop more than just petty criminals, but actually thwart felons who endangered the public. And with each new success, she found her spirits lifted even further along with new abilities.

 

Sophia has been a full time hero for 5 years now, and in that time, she's risen to prominence in Emerald city. As easily one of the most proative and outgoing hero's, she's become the chief client of P3 Hero Management Solutions, LLC, a marketing and PR firm specializing in superhuman's. As per their recommendation, she dropped the moniker Go-Girl and now goes by Meridian, which in addition to being a better symbol, was also open for trademark. Sophia spends her days on active patrol, when she's not visiting local schools, or meeting up with talk show hosts to discuss her exploits. 

 

And she's never been happier.
 

 

Personality & Motivation:

Outgoing, Charismatic, Charming and Social, Sophia is a dynamo in person that can be tough to keep up with at the best of times. She lives her life full of energy, always eager to go out and be proactive. Still a young hero, she's got a very positive worldview that is a tad overly simplistic, but positive. People are good, and she wants to help where she can. That being said, she's also more than a bit of a showoff, and likes to keep herself in the spotlight, so her antics can make her seem immature at times, or at least irresponsible. 

 

Sophia cannot recall a time in her life when she didn't want to be a superhero, even before her powers developed to the point where they could be used to elevate her into an actual meta-human powerhouse. While he may have died before she was born, Sophia was enraptured by Centurions legacy and strove to emulate the fallen champion as much as she could. You may not agree with her way of doing things, but its clear to anyone with eyes that Sophia loves every second of being a superhero, and that kind of genuine positivity is infectious.

 

Powers & Tactics:
Sophia is not a very tactical fighter, relying entirely on her superior strength and near-indestructibility to ensure victory. She opens up her battles with some manner of grand proclamation, and then wades into the thick of things, putting a greater focus on showing off than directly fighting. Seldom in any personal danager, she'll get civilians to safety or take risky plays without hesitation, and always has a quip or triumphant remark to fit in between punches.

 

Power Descriptions:
Sophia's exposure to terminus energies in-utero altered her biology and genetics at a fundamental level, making her something akin to a living nexus between the physical world and the astral plane. She draws her strength from the cumulative psychic energy of conscious minds, which vastly empowers her beyond mere human capabilities. Simply put, she is something of an unwitting psychic vampire, drawing on psionic energy through the astral plane. The normal 'background' levels of energy have made her stronger and tougher than most, it is to insubstantial for her needs. This flow of energy is transient and insignificant compared to the more active and directed energy at her disposal, as a result of emotions produced in relation to her, specifically. As a siphon of psychic energy that flows through the astral plane, Sophia most readily pulls from the positive emotions she inspires in others, and similarly derives the greatest increase in strength from those feelings. Love, Joy, Hope, Gratitude, Respect, and most of all: Adoration. It is a literal statement to say that her fans are her strength, as she slightly drains all of them to a tiny degree. Those who supply her with her energies suffer no lasting effects, and are unlikely to even notice any negative effects, so long as her power supply is spread out over large numbers of individuals. Sophia isn't aware of this, and only acknowledges that her power has generally increased over time, attributing this to her own growth and maturation rather than to her increasing presence in the cultural mindset and corresponding greater access to mental energies.

 

Complications:
 

Slave to PR: All of Sophia's incredible powers are drawn from the love and support of the people who she inspires. When she remains in good standing with the public, she's at her strongest. But if her popularity begins to wane, so to do her powers. As a secondary limitation, she's mostly tethered to population centers where she has a strong presence in the popular consciousness. Moving far from her supporters does slowly drain her energy, leaving her progressively weaker until she returns.

 

Fame: Sophia actively cultivates a place of high public status, and as such is hounded by the media, her fans, or just tabloid journalists, which can be both exhausting and disruptive to any efforts to have a private life.

 

No Secret Identity: Not only is Sophia's name and face widely known, she maintains a dedicated website with a calendar of scheduled appearances.

 

Responsibilities: Charity Work, Talk Show Appearances, Movie Cameos, Sponsorship Deals, Commercial Filming. Sophia isn't just a hero, she is a brand, and that means she has a lot of obligations to uphold, keeping her busy.

 

Unwitting Pawn: Sophia's prominence in Emerald is at least in part due to the Chamber using her as a means to maintain their operations. She is fairly easy to trick so long as their manipulations are kept through publicly trusted figures, and acting in a manner which can be cast as heroic. When a more direct intervention is needed, they use their psychic manipulations to compel her obedience and then erase or alter her memory of events. More than once, Sophia has been an enforcer of their dark schemes, but remains none the wiser.

 

Hatred: Stemming from her childhood where she was made to feel weak and inferior compared to other children, and then magnified by her idolization of Centurion, Sophia has come to develop a deep and festering anger towards the Terminus and anything associated with it, as a coping mechanism for her own psychological hangups. 

 

Secret (T-Baby): Sophia is a byproduct of the second Terminus Invasion, which remains a matter of contention. Due to her own complex feelings about the Terminus, she's covered up and tried to deny that she's a T-Baby, keeping it as secret as possible.

 

 

Abilities: 10 + 2 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 32PP

Strength: 40 [20] (+15/+5)[Ultimate Ability]

Dexterity: 12 (+1)

Constitution: 40 [20] (+15/+5)

Intelligence: 10 (+0)

Wisdom: 10 (+0)

Charisma: 20 (+5)

 

Combat: 10 + 10 = 20PP

Initiative: +1

Attack: +5 Base

Defense: +5 Base, +2 Flat-Footed

Grapple: +28 to +21 (Super-Strength, Improved Grab)

Knockback: -12/-2 (-27 with Bracing)

 

Saves: 0 + 4 + 5 = 9PP

Toughness: +15/+5 (+5 Con, +10 Enhanced Con) [10 Impervious, Ultimate Save]

Fortitude: +15/+5 (+5 Con, +10 Enhanced Con)

Reflex: +5 (+1 Dex, +4)

Will: +5 (+0 Wis, +5)

 

 

Skills: 36R = 9PP

Diplomacy 4 (+9)Attractive 2, Connected

Bluff 2 (+7) Attractive 2

Intimidate 2 (+7)

Knowledge (Current Events) 2 (+2)

Knowledge (Pop Culture) 2 (+2)

Notice 8 (+8)

Perform (Oratory) 10 (+15) Fascinate

Sense Motive 6 (+6)

 

Feats: 14PP

Attractive 2

Benefit 4 (Wealth 2, Fame 2)

Connected

Fascinate (Oratory)

Improved Grab

Interpose

Luck 2

Ultimate Strength

Ultimate Toughness

 

 

Powers: 20 + 21+ 6 + 19  = 66PP

Descriptors: Psionic, Dimensional, Terminus

 

Enhanced Constitution 20 (to Constitution 40 [+15]) [20PP]

 

Astral Power Array 10 (20PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 1) [21PP]

• BASE: Enhanced Strength 20 (to Strength 40 [+15]) {20/20}
• AP: Blast 13 (Flaws: Distracting [-1]; Feats: Accurate 3, Precise, Improved Range (325'), Affects Insubstantial 2) {20/20}

 

Super-Strength 1 (Effective Strength 45, Heavy Load: 6 Tons, +1 Strength to some strength checks; Feats: Bracing, Countering Punch, Super-Breath, Shock wave) [6]

 

Champion Array 7 (14PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 2,  Dynamic 2) [19PP]

• DBE: Impervious Toughness 10 {1-10}
• DAP: Super-Strength 0-7 (Effective Strength 45-80, Heavy Load: 6 - 800 Tons, +1-7 to some strength checks) {2-12}
• DAP: Flight 0-7 (0-1000 MPH/0'-10,000' per move action) {2-12}

 

 

Drawbacks: -0PP

 

 

DC Block

ATTACK                              RANGE               SAVE                               EFFECT

Unarmed w/no Powers    Touch (+5)        DC 20 Toughness          Damage [Physical]

Unarmed                             Touch (+5)        DC 30 Toughness         Damage [Physical]

Blast                                    Ranged (+7)      DC 27 Toughness         Damage [Energy]

Super-Breath                      Cone                  DC 25 Reflex                  Tripped

Shock Wave                       Cone                  DC 25 Reflex/30            Damage [Physical]             

 

Totals: Abilities (32) + Combat (20) + Saving Throws (9) + Skills (9) + Feats (14) + Powers (66) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/151 Power Points

Edited June 16, 2019 by Fox
+1pp for May 2019

[Avenger Assembled]

APPROVED

[TheAbsurdist]

So she is a T-Baby, who's abilities are empowered by people's view of her?  How is that reconciled, given the nature of Terminus mutation to be more deleterious?

Also can you define Astral Energy?  And why that would fit more than Psychic/Psionic?

[NineOfSpades]

Astral energy, being energy drawn from the astral plane. The difference between astral energy and psionic energy, at least to me, is a slight one, similar to the difference between heat and fire. The biggest factor here is that its not a matter of mental focus, she is physically storing the energy in her body cells. So I went with Astral energy to specify that she's not wielding tactile telekinesis and its not a matter of mental focus. She's a biological battery that runs off of emotions and feelings of others, which is used to supercharge her capabilities.

 

For the incongruity, I would say that her power is at least in line with Terminus energy being destructive, in that she is draining power out of the Astral plane. It is only due to the fact that the rate at which she draws astral energy out is many orders of magnitude less than the energy produced by sentient beings that the net loss is negligible on the scale of an entire dimension.

 

I hope that helps.

 

 

[TheAbsurdist]

That does, I'd recommend clarifying this points in the Power Descriptor section.  Also the Descriptor isn't TEMS, it is more Terminus.  As you can say she is basically siphoning the power from somewhere.

[NineOfSpades]

Alright, I've touched up the power descriptor to make it a bit clearer that she's draining extra dimensional power and walk through the steps from Popularity to Psychic Power To Her Draining that power. Cleaned up the descriptors to cover Dimensional, Terminus, and Psionic, which should cover the bases as to what sorts of effects she's likely to interact with for a mechanics perspective. 

[TheAbsurdist]

APPROVED