Dead Drop

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

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Dead Drop
Player: RustyMonky
Origin:	Mutation
Archetype:	Dominator
Threat Level:	Confidential
Personal Data
Real Name:	Damien Merlot
Known Aliases:	Confidential
Species:	Human
Age:	39
Height:	6'1
Weight:	180 lbs
Eye Color:	Hazel
Hair Color:	Raven Black
Biographical Data
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Hit-man, Covert Agent
Place of Birth:	Classified
Base of Operations:	The Rogue Isles
Marital Status:	Confidential
Known Relatives:	Confidential
Known Powers
Telepathy, Telekinesis
Known Abilities
Martial Arts, Military Training, Stealth Techniques
Equipment
Shuriken, Caltrops, Stealth Device, Piston Boots
No additional information available.

Steps to Evolution

At first glance, one can easily mistake Damien's upbringing for a typical, working class American childhood. But unlike the struggling peers of his youth, Damien entered the world with psychic abilities. He spent his youth eagerly seeking opportunities to hone this power. He quickly developed a fierce competitive attitude, and devoted himself to equally perfecting his mutation and athleticism. Naturally, this caught the attention of an army recruiter at his school. Believing the military would provide the optimal setting he needed to further evolve, Damien eagerly enlisted. His fleeting excitement became bitter regert once he clashed against the military’s rigid hierarchy and values.

The first Rikti invasion changed everything. Its chaos afforded Damien with an excellent cover to slip away. The military, his relatives, and all past relations believed he died in action and left no body to bury. Very much alive, and now liberated from societal restraint, Damien slipped into the criminal underworld. He pursued a life without limits, full of spoils for gifted men like him to reap.

While Damien found success mind reading gangsters and trading secrets, violence became his true calling. By combining, telepathy, telekinesis, and his military training, he transformed into a deadly and efficient killer. For nearly two decades, he operated as an assassin, covert operative, and information broker. Entities like Malta and Crey paid him to deliver results with brutal efficiency.

During this time, Damien’s life underwent its most significant changes. His hits on high-profile targets, including business executives and politicians, yielded lucrative rewards. He even assassinated other meta-humans.

This work inevitably drew attention, but learned of his reputation for an entire different reason -- theatrics. In order to adapt to his rising criminal “stardom”, Damien officially donned a villain’s costume -- adding a special mask and cape to his military armor and vestments -- and assumed the moniker he undertook with his employers: Dead Drop.

This dramatic publication of his supervillain persona influenced how Damien carried himself. While still a zealous pursuer of strength and challenge, he began easing his perspective on everything else. He executed his missions with a more carefree attitude, refusing to "sweat the small stuff". When not working, he turned heavily toward vice. Drinking, gambling, and sex filled his life. The small fortune he accumulated from his work gave him a considerable safety net to fall into, should he stumble.

Turning Point

By his late thirties, Dead Drop had melded the voracious appetite of his youth with his newer debaucherous, laidback style to become possibly one of the most dangerous hedonists in the United States. Unfortunately for him, this era of paradise would abruptly end. One night, Damien met with an indirect associate of the Crey Corporation, codenamed “Larry Strikes”. A superhero named Eagleheart had scheduled a press conference in Founder’s Falls the next day. Larry’s employers wanted Eaglehart killed in retaliation for disrupting Crey operations. Relishing the chance to assassinate a cape in broad daylight for a hefty payday, Damien gleefully accepted the job.

May 13th: the next morning. Reporters gathered near the university in Founder’s Falls for Eagleheart’s appearance. Ascending a distant building, and armed with a powerful sniper rifle, Damien positioned himself with a clear shot at the speaker's podium. Yet the hero never arrived. Damien kept his eye fixed down the scope for an eternity. Minutes passed in a blur, and he did not budge, until a thought crossed his mind -- what if Eagleheart never intended to come? What if the superpowered target was someone else -- him.

Damien recognized the trap too late. He barely finished packing his equipment and descending the building before SWAT teams converged on his location. Ill prepared to fight through them all, he scrambled toward the roof. He planned to grapple onto an adjacent ledge -- only to witness the sudden arrival of Eagleheart, hovering just in front of Damien’s planned trajectory. The hero engaged before Damien could leap. For all of Eagleheart’s brute strength, he lacked safeguards against Damien’s psychic ablities. Even with the hero's defeat, it only took a few minutes before SWAT reached the two combatants. The fight ended with Eagleheart limping away and Damien in custody.

The authorities never uncovered Dead Drop’s real identity. Though unmasked and in hand-cuffs, he had aged considerably since his enlistment and supposed demise in the First Rikti War. He had plenty of time to erase records in the invasion's aftermath, rendering him little more than a ghost. The police viewed Dead Drop less as a typical criminal and more as a superpowered terrorist threat. Thus, he deserved no better home than the Ziggurat.

To the Isles

Damien brooded over his capture and betrayal within the confines of the Zig. He quickly established himself as a man best left alone. Behind bars, his mind replayed the events of his capture and the details of his set-up. Did Crey itself set him up? What role did Eagleheart play in this plot? Who actually tipped off the police? Could this have been the Malta Group erasing a potential loose end, or did a relative of a past score dig up enough dirt to trap him?

By a stroke of luck, opportunity presented itself through a generous Arachnos jailbreak. Upon arriving in the Rogue Isles, Damined planned to continue his hedonistic lifestyle, but with one important new priority: revenge. None of life’s pleasures would taste the same as long as the bitterness of treachery lingered. Thus, as Damien gauged Arachnos’ iron grip on the Isles and tested its hierarchy, he simultaneously started his investigation into possible suspects.

Not long after his life in the Isles began, Dead Drop met an interesting character (to say the least) -- a Czechian Doctor, with an exposed brain and lidless eyes in a jar. They styled themselves Dr. Pain. He proclaimed he sought to rid the world of all pain, and feverishly studied all possible methods to achieve this goal. Though understandably taken aback in his first impressions of the man, Damien eventually took a liking to the doctor after partnering with him and his trained mercenaries in the field. Not long after, he received an offer to join a secretive collection of like-minded rogues: The Conclave.

Within this new organization, he fought alongside a wide variety of eccentric individuals. Although he respected much of their strength, he clashed with their worldviews and personalities. He flirted obnoxiously with many of its female members and antagonised others for amusement, often pitting himself against his more rigid colleagues. Despite this, he would eventually forge a comradery among many of his fellow agents, and soon enough their club-front on Mercy Island, Firavel’s, became his second home.

(More coming soon)

Damien's actions and decisions fall within the Neutral Evil alignment.

Damien always maintained a healthy skepticism, but being set up has only amplified his distrust of others. However, he doesn't lack respect towards those he believes have earned it -- usually through displays of strength. He also appreciates when others give into their selfish impulses, or act hedonistically, as Damien can strongly relate.

His experiences have left him without a strong moral compass, so he enjoys dark humor and is overly sarcastic. Despite the dangers, failings, and trials he's endured, Damien still seeks thrills. Each fight is a chance to test his limits. He's convinced that, overall, life is a never-ending pursuit of strength, and he harbors a rather Machiavellian worldview:

• Might makes right, and strength dictates agency.
• The individual matters more than the group. Those sacrificing themselves for the greater good get tread upon.
• Do what makes you happy, and damn everything else.

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