Seizhi Da Montreal

Nightmare's Hero

Background

You used to be a simple, heroic nightmare scientist. You live in an old, ruined mansion on the border of Horizon and Old Molder, served only by your robotic butler, Alpha-Red, and you stalk the streets fighting monsters that drift in from the Outside, matching wits with the Riders and standing against the terrors of the Bleak Academy. You had very few friends - an orphan trained by mysterious forces, isolated from the world you protected. There was Chuubo, who you rather like despite yourself. Possibly, your alternate rival and ally Laodemus Von Halifax, with his zepplin airbase and his handsome sidekick Aiden, could qualify as a friend. Not many others. You'd already saved the world - most impressively, when you tore out your own heart in a grand sacrifice as a child, using it to fuel your Incredible Sun-Stoking Engine. You even almost won a soapbox derby once, which was honestly kind of beneath you but Chuubo had this sad face when you said you weren't interested, and… well.

And then one day, Chuubo was having trouble with his Wish-Granting Engine, and he asked you if you wouldn't mind working on it, and of course you said yes, and you walked in the door, and

//you

remembered//

that you were never real. You were born from a wish - a wish made by Chuubo, to save the world. You think this wish happened when the sun went out, but you aren't sure. The wish took all of the pulp stories and heroic tales that Chuubo read, and pulled out fragments of the Outside, and spun them together into an isolated hero, an unstoppable champion who saves a world that fears him. It created, in short, you.

Chuubo doesn't seem to be aware that his wish actually created you, so you haven't burdened his fragile mind with the knowledge. You have kept this horrible secret to yourself, where it festers and grows. Are your enemies real, or are they just as fictional as you? Did your parents exist - were you dreamed into existence attached to two dead people, or were they dreamed into existence already dead? How much of your life warped to match you, and how much was invented wholecloth? And most importantly - can you truly take pride in your skills if you never actually worked to earn them?

You've redoubled your efforts to understand and protect the world, trying to lose yourself in your work, but the questions remain. One day, perhaps, you will learn the answers - you suspect that they lie in the Bleak Academy far beyond the world, a place that you sometimes dream of in your worst nights. For now, you remain friends with Chuubo, you stalk the streets and search out villains, and you try to understand what your life may become…

Skills and Arc

Arc: Wounded Angel 3
Current Arc: Wounded Angel 3+
Emotion XP: Speechlessness

Skills

Nightmare Science 2: You are the incomparable nightmare scientist Seizhi Da Montreal!
Know-It-All 2: You have an array of knowledge, both of the real and the unreal.
Shield 2: You live your life to protect the dreams of others.
Weather-Sense 1: You always know when there's going to be a good dramatic storm to pose in.
Exist 1: You have a knack for continuing to exist despite the best efforts of others.
People Skills -1: You are honestly kind of off-putting when you aren't on task.

Perks

Connection: The Wishing Boy 2 [You understand him, despite yourself]
Connection: The Child of the Sun 1 [You used your heart to relight the Sun, and now you sort of understand her.]
Connection: Laodemus Von Halifax [You understand him. You really wish you didn't… but you do.]
Affliction: "I Save The Helpless" [Rating equal to your Sickness Issue.]

Miraculous Powers: Wounded Angel

You are a fictional super-scientist, and you will behave as such.

Sickly

You live a life of tragedy and woe. As long as you are on Wounded Angel, you have the Sickly Arc power.

Only I Can Save You [Imperial Miracle]

Whenever someone is in serious danger, you may show up to save the day, regardless of the situation or where you might have been before hand. It all just kind of works out. This makes patrolling the streets at night a lot easier on you.

Nightmare Devices

You have a collection of pre-existing gadgets and gizmos that run on dream logic and your dubious science. They give you a +1 Tool bonus to Nightmare Science, which can increase to a +2 bonus when you're using it in reasonable super-scientist crimefighter ways.

Holding Back The World [Imperial]

You do not technically exist, and if you suffer enough damage, the world will remember this. If you lose your last Divine health level, you will retroactive cease to ever have existed, undoing all of your good works. Since one of those good works was re-starting the Sun, this will have the minor side effect of ending reality. You aren't totally sure that this will happen, but it seems logical. It's a good thing that nothing can really stop you!

Empowered Wounds [Imperial]

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger! You are able to hold onto your injuries, transforming them into terrible miracles. You already have four of them lined up, taking up all four of your extra Divine Health levels. In addition, each of them has a potential use of a Supreme Invocation attached to it. They are as follows:

Heartless

  • Heartless Perfection:

In the darkness, you are immune to blood loss, chest wounds, and emotional attacks. After a few minutes, you may spend 1 MP to take 1-2 mechanically perfect actions. Spend 2 MP to take any number of mechanically perfect actions, or 4 MP to do so the instant you hit shadows.

  • How Naive [Imperial]

Nothing can kill you. In the darkness, you may heal from any injury or debilitating condition for free, once a week. Doing this a second time costs 1 MP, doing it more than once a day costs 2 MP, and doing it more than once a scene costs 4 MP.

(Note: If this wound is healed, the Sun will die. Probably… don't heal it.)

Orphan

  • You're Just Like Me

Choose a target and create a Level 2 Bond, "We're Alike", directed at them. You can use it as a Level 2 Connection, or as a Bond enhancing another action towards that person, for the remainder of the scene. This is free once a week, costs 1 MP if used multiple times a week, 2 MP if used multiple times a day, and 4 MP if used multiple times a scene.

  • My Parents Are Dead! [Imperial]

Once per season, you may completely shut down any mental or emotional effect targeting you, either miraculous or mundane.

Fictional

  • The Stuff of Dreams

After a few minutes of frenzied narration, you can imagine ingredients for your nightmare science into existence. It costs 1 MP to create more than a few things, and 2 MP to really create a lot of ingredients or create really ridiculous things.

  • Seizhi Syndrome [Imperial]

You have a tendency to become what people expect of you. When you first encounter someone, you can have that player create a Bond that applies to you, at a rating of 2. The Bond must reflect something they believe about you. This Bond lasts for the remainder of the scene. Doing this once a week is free; a second time costs 1 MP, doing it more than once a night costs 2 MP, and trying to have two Bonds active at once costs 4 MP.

  • Just In Time!

When you enter a scene, if you aren't quick enough to define yourself as Seizhi Da Montreal, Nightmare Scientist, you may get the scene defined for you! A few minutes into any scene, you tend to develop the Affliction "He's an authority here" rated 1, which causes people to miraculously believe that you're an expert in the current situation and have useful skills. They will not leave you alone until you help them. With a lot of yelling, you can define what sort of an authority you actually are, which just lets people miraculously know that you really are a nightmare scientist, and is occasionally, but not often, helpful. Sometimes you slip up and forget. A

Special Note: Healing this wound will not make you real. It will merely make you forget being fictional until the next time you see the Wish-Granting Engine.

Glorious

You are a terrifying and imposing figure! This grants the powers Superiority and Flash of Insight, which are identical to the Glass-Maker's Dragon entry for Leonardo Da Montreal.

Supreme Invocation

You may twist any of your powers into a miracle, once per season. This miracle acts as a wish. Usually, you use your Fictional to activate your Incomparable Nightmare Engine and make one of your devices basically real. Sometimes, you use your Orphan to forge a rough family out of a collection of outcasts, and you think you could become something more than human for a scene through your Gloriousness, but that also seems kind of tacky.

Salvation

At some point, when all hope seems lost, you are going to meet an NPC - and you will save them. This can only ever be done once, and will connect that person to you. Once per season, you can have them gain a point of Connection towards you (or spend 4 MP to fast-track the process by a point). This is a big deal. Let it happen organically.[/sblock]

Starting Quests

  • Quest: Science! (Investigating The Shards of Glass)
  • Basic Quest: You Owe Me! (Over The Top!) - Remind people of the time that you saved them from a wildly improbable situation. Go into it at length! Really discuss how great you were, and how much trouble there was. This event may, or may not, have actually happened.
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