(no subject)

[balladin]

APPLICATION

Player Name: Marie
Plurk Handle: seemarierun
Player Status: Current Player
Other characters: Tim Drake

Character Name:
Fandom: Marvel Comics
Character Journal: balladin
OU, AU, or OC? OU
If canon, canon point: New Warriors v 5 #11
PB: comics art

Setting Background: N/A

History:

As a warning, some of these links (and the personality section) contain references to Robbie's self-harm. As per usual, it won't turn up "onscreen" in the game, not even in his thoughts, unless it has been explicitly okayed by any other player participating in that log.

Speedball at newwarriors.com
Again at the Marvel Database
New Warriors at Wikipedia


Personality: What is the character's personality like? Please take care to talk about both their thoughts and motivations and their outward actions. For AUs, please note how their development diverges from canon.

Robbie had a decent, if not idyllic, start to his life in Springdale, CT. His parents, Justin and Madeline, were comfortably upper class, and Robbie had friends, decent grades, an after-school job, and a sunny personality. The only thing that was amiss is that his parents argued nearly constantly, sometimes about him, and Robbie played up the role of rebellious teenager with his ripped jeans and hard rock to get their attention. In spite of this, he was, all in all, a good kid. He made quips, was always there to lend a hand, and was fun to be around. He managed to be carefree without being flippant. Things like his parents' divorce and a friend's arrest for murder didn't leave him unscathed, but they didn't sink him into depression.

At his core, he's a good person with decent enough morals. He's just a little bull-headed and occasionally lacking in common sense. He might help steal a Quinjet from the Avengers, but they're stealing it for a rescue mission, so it all works out.

Everyone always has their own reasons for wanting to be a superhero. However, his real reason for being a superhero was because he was looking for the positive attention that he never got at home. The reality tv show fed into this, as well. Everybody knew who he was. He got fanmail and free hugs from grateful citizens, and Robbie was making a difference in the world. He loved it.

The Stamford incident, despite it happening several years ago, and what followed it effect him to this day. He still blames himself for it, quietly. He's still estranged from his parents, and that hurts to this day. Robbie's been trying to win their approval, both of himself and of being a hero, since he was first introduced at age 15. He might not be wearing his spike-lined Penance uniform anymore, but it's pretty clear that everything he does - even reforming the New Warriors - is about atonement and redemption. If he can just save enough people. If the New Warriors can be successful without slipping up again. Then maybe, someday, he'll get back to even.

Post-Stamford, Robbie went through a period of grief, mental illness, and increased capacity for violence while with the Thunderbolts. Once he was no longer in that detrimental atmosphere, he began to heal slowly. During his stint as a teacher at the Avengers Academy, the Avengers were concerned that he was too rough in training sessions with the students, and Robbie sometimes reacted harshly when things went badly. He hasn't become an angry person, but he doesn't have good coping mechanisms when it comes to stress. For example, when a student used a radiation blast in the training room, Robbie asked if she wanted to wake up shaking from nightmares full of screaming and the smell of burnt pork.

He's done this again recently, as well, When one teammate hits another with an energy blast, he yells at her, asking her if she was insane. These serious moments seem few and far between, and they always have similar triggers (Stamford, heroes using too much power, heroes walking away from their duty).

He still wants to atone for what happened, even though his life no longer revolves around it. His experience after a tidal wave in Newfoundland helped a lot. The citizens were posting nothing but nice things about him online. While it didn't completely erase the animosity, polls after that day showed that 70% of people had, in fact, forgiven him for his role in Stamford. It alleviated some of his burden.

Nowadays, he's a mix of the before and after of Stamford. On the surface, Robbie is back to his "old" self, but he's trying too hard. He's too much of a chatterbug now and he seems to be "on" almost all the time. For example, he's auditioning catchphrase battle cries again, something that he hasn't done since the reality show was in production, and strings several of them together in the same fight until he's ordered to shut up.

He can be over-the-top with his cheery enthusiasm, but it's so breezy and flippant that it doesn't hold up to close inspection. For example, when confronted with the knowledge that the man he attacked (because he looked like a demon) was actually a superhero, he said "Look, mistakes were made." It's hardly something that makes sense, given that he's been dragging around the weight of his last mistake for years, but it is the joke he would have made when he was young.

People tend to treat him with bewildered amusement or outright exasperation, and he doesn't care whether it's because they think he's funny or an idiot. Anything is better than being treated like you're about to break or already broken. The role of the class clown is safe and familiar, and he would rather command attention than simply have it thrust on him.

When Robbie's faced with death, there's a moment where he internally shuts down, doesn't put up enough of a fight, and thinks about about how he deserves this because of Stamford.

On his past/present self-harm, it seems to be ongoing. When his teammate was able to read his mind, his mental image of himself was that of Penance. It's implied that Robbie is continuing to harm when he uses the blue energy attack (see canon powers) and when Aracely telepathically says "You do it because it gives you power". He smooths it over aloud, explaining to the group that he was in a bad place after Stamford, but he's okay now. As this conversation is happening, mentally he is warning Aracely to stay out of his head, to never speak of this to anyone, and that this is the only time that he'll ask nicely.

Regardless of why he thinks he does it, it's an addiction that he needs help with, IMO.

Robbie will do anything for his friends and teammates. They're his family.


Canon Powers:


Robbie has access to other dimension of kinetic energy, which he is able to channel. He can manifest this in several, one with a predominantly orange energy signature (his traditional Speedball powers) and the other blue (his powers developed later as Penance).

Historically as Speedball, he is capable of generating a kinetic energy shield and, in fact, instinctively does so whenever he is hit above a certain force level. It used to be so uncontrolled that a touch, even snapping his fingers, could set it off. The downside to this field is that whatever hit him is ricocheted back to where it came from with the same force, and Robbie is sent flinging off in the other direction, making him the equivalent of a human rubber/wrecking ball. He refers to this as bouncing. He is very good at controlling his rebounds and ... not terrible at controlling where the things that were hitting him go, provided he knows they're coming.

The upside to the field is that he is incredibly hard to injure, bulletproof, etc. He seems to be able to bypass the field's activation with blades and spikes because there is not much force behind the cuts. Robbie has survived being thrown at a wall at 400 mph, headfirst. The field is generally orange, as are the bubbles of energy that he can generate (although they can be multi-colored like Skittles). These energy bubbles can be used for attacks, to cushion someone's fall, or to turn a dance floor into a ball pit.

After Stamford, it was theorized that Robbie had "burnt out" his kinetic powers with the effort that it took to survive the blast. In reality, it was more like his mind was suppressing them. His powers manifested again in another way; now with a blue energy signature, he was capable of generating hyperkinetic shockwaves, blasts and shields. He had never been much of a high-damage dealer as Speedball, but, as Penance, his attack power was devastating and near Hulk-levels. When he is using his pain-based powers, he does not bounce. Instead, his energy field allows him to levitate (IDEK this was only shown in a handful of panels - I'd never use it anyway).

As he healed, his original powers returned, and he is able to access both of them, often using them in tandem. He learned how to store up the blue energy with pain inflicted before a fight. Due to his conversation with Aracely in New Warriors, it appears that he is still in the habit of harming himself in order to stockpile this power.

Finally, there are a few side effects of his Speedball powers. When he's using his original power set, his hair wiggles around like Jell-O, and his voice sounds "hollow". Also, his Speedball costume isn't one that he actually takes off. It's either made from kinetic energy or stored in the other-dimensional energy field. Either way, he can summon it without changing and return to the clothes that he was wearing.


Freebie Powers: N/A

Power Selection: Magic (Monk)

Game Powers:

Healing spell: Lay on hands. LOH is generally a heavy duty healing spell that comes with the cost of not being able to cast it very often (In WoW, it's equal to the full HP of the caster and on a 10 minute cooldown which means you get it once per fight, for all extents and purposes). In Wilderlands, I'd like it to be a roughly a 25%/50%/75% heal (moving up with ranks) with a 24 hour cooldown at ranks 1 & 2. He must be within arm's reach of the target, best results require contact. The spell's effect is technically on him, causing him to glow with holy healing light for 12 seconds. He can transfer this to a nearby person (or persons, if they have been tightly grouped he could hit up to 3), but there is not time to dart around camp finding injured during the spell.

• At level 1, the spell leaves him severely weakened, where if he himself had also just got through a fight it puts him at risk of unconsciousness. It heals the equivalent of a broken arm. Someone near death will have a much better chance of survival, but they'll still be at less than half strength.


• 2, it wearies him, and he'll probably sleep 10 hours when he gets to camp, but he's not necessarily a vulnerability now. It heals the damage equivalent of two badly broken bones - a near death person would not be in great shape, but definitely conscious and possibly able to move under their own power.


• 3, the first spell no longer troubles him beyond the energy used for any attack or spell. It will put all but the gravest injuries into anywhere from "battered but ready" to excellent shape.

Damage Reduction: Shield Bubble. The (hopefully ally) target of the spell is encased in a translucent orange bubble that ripples with the impact when a physical attack hits it. It either completely negates a small/medium/large attack (with rank 1/2/3) or reduces the damage a comparable amount.

• At level one, it's good for not-too-serious damage along the lines of cuts becoming scratches, something that would've caused a bruise only leaves a red mark. The most it might do is keep a rib from cracking. Anything more serious than that, the damage is reduced but the amount of reduction is flat and not a percentage. In other words, using an example of everyone having 100 hit points, a level 1 casting will prevent perhaps 10 HP of damage, regardless of the actual damage of the attack.


• Level two, those reduced cuts and bruises are completely negated, and a broken bone becomes a sprain (we'll call this 20 HP prevented).


• Level 3, broken bones are now negated, or impalement becomes a stab wound (30 HP prevented).

O.stentatious P.urity P.ellet - A shiny ball of Holy energy that flies towards ita target. If the target is susceptible to holy damage, it's an attack. Those insusceptible (ie not evil, undead, etc) will feel renewed with the warm and fuzzies.

Non-Powered Abilities:

No, Robbie is useless. He can draw a bit, and he wasn't the worst teacher ever at Avengers Academy but the bar was set low. He's tech-savvy for your average person, not that it matters in this setting, and he seems to be able to sort of cook (with a stove, so not useful here either).

His outdoors knowledge is about Cub Scout level and not even a good Cub Scout. Robbie was that kid in the troup who only made every third meeting because his parents won't prioritize.

He does have some practice and training with non-powered fighting, though not as much as most superheroes. He has always heavily relied on his energy based powers (which also made cross-training difficult).

Setting/Suitability:

Due to the exact moment of his departure from his universe, Robbie will spend some time caught between thinking this is a pain induced hallucination, the afterlife, the work of Arcade (because what isn't), or... real. It's not out of the realm of possibility for him that it is in fact real.

He's not made for camping. He's not great with hiking. But he's full to the brim of heroics and stubbornness, and Robbie will have a particular hangup about not being the weak link, not letting THIS group down. He's in some weird second chance space - he'll bring his A game.

SAMPLES

Prose Sample:

The whispers followed Robbie through the town.

“Did you see his hair?”

“Did you see his eyes?”

“It’s unnatural.”

He had tried to ignore it. Robbie was only here to buy more food for the group, whatever looked the least likely to give them all salmonella.

But he stood out here, and this was not a good time to stand out This region had a darker population of indeterminate race, but there isn’t anyone who could even be called dirty blonde if the light hit them just right while he squinted. Robbie's long sunny hair was remarkably clean, too, in comparison, and that just made it worse. Half the stalls in the market mysteriously closed before he could approach them to try to buy supplies.

It’s about then when a pair of the braver town folks begin a loud, painfully staged discussion of whether 'he' – Robbie is a witch or merely the poor victim of a spell. “After all, them witches don’t waste time on each other when there’s good proper people to bring to ruin.”

“No, sometimes they fight amongst themselves. He could be her familiar turned human.”

They weren’t pretending to ignore him anymore. Dammit. Robbie started to ease his way out of the square, the relative slow pace only to not raise an alarm. The crowd around him was thin.

“Say, I think you’re right, Bill. Doesn’t he look like one of them, whattaya call em – warblers! With the yellow head and all?”

“I am not, nor have I ever been, a bird.” Robbie says blithely without stopping his steady escape. “If I was a bird, I would be a tufted titmouse, because who wouldn’t?”

He was maybe ten yards from the edge of the square. From there, a straight run would put him back at camp. Robbie was certain he could outrun them, as a product of 21st century nutrition.

“I’m not a witch, warlock, or wizard either. Woah, sensing a pattern. What problem do you have with the letter W?” They don’t seem to know what to make of his talk, but they’ve figured out where he’s going and have started to follow at a distance, keeping pace with Robbie as he moved out of the square.

They hadn’t even set him up for a really good line. He feels like he’s been waiting his whole life for an accusation like this and all of his ammo got left out in the rain this morning, with a camp full of hungry, sleepy compatriots that he doesn’t want raided by an angry mob. There’s nothing to be done. Someone else will have to do the shopping.

Turning on his heel, Robbie sprints out of the village, not looking to see if they’re following. The racket implied that some response is being mustered. “I’m not a witch – I’m your wife!”

Worth the extra oxygen.


Network Sample:

“Magic mirror in my hand, who’s the fairest in the land?” Nice to see somebody appreciates their classics undisneyfied.

[ Robbie considers the depths of the mirror. It’s late, and the Brugh is very still when everyone’s asleep. It’s too quiet, with no wind or crickets. He has nothing better to do than talk to an audience that may or may not be there, or else it’s silence until he hears somebody moving around again. ]

Mirrorculous, really, how they got these to work. Because no one ever looked at a mirror and said, “You know, on reflection, this mirror is trapping me, holding me back. What I need is a mirror that lets me talk to people who just so happen to be looking at their enchanted mirrors. So extra.
[ The thing is, no one does seem to be using right now. If he keeps babbling on through the night, how would that look if someone’s eavesdropping without responding?
Robbie rolls his eyes quickly, at his paranoia and the entire situation – including the uselessness of the mirrors - and his voice turns to sarcasm. ]

Yeah, I can see me using this a lot. Eyeronic, I'm on fire and nobody's here to appreciate it. If a tree falls in the wood, does anyone know how it fell? Sure, I saw it myself.

And now I'll see myself off.

Additional info: Any additional info you think it's important to include. You can use this space to ask the mods if certain weapons, gear, belongings, or animal companions can be brought into the game with the character.