The Broken Muse
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| The Broken Muse | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | 29+ |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | ALF-SPADE-00 |
| Known Aliases: | SPADE |
| Species: | Artificial Life Form |
| Age: | 526, including unstable, gradual chrono-ascent. |
| Height: | 5'3" |
| Weight: | 400lb |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blue |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American? |
| Occupation: | Agent of the Weapons Union |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Rogue Isles |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Misti Baker, Orson Grandes |
| Known Powers | |
| Super Strength, Electrical Manipulation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Minor self-transformation | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| No additional information available. | |
Global: @Stellar Sleuth
Contents |
Affiliations
Agent of The Weapons Union, former soldier of The Malice Society
Personality
Cold and resentful of humanity at large, but actually surprisingly show-boatish and comic book super-villainish when she's not paying attention. She is known to introduce herself as "The maiden who smoulders with the fire of contempt."
For better or for worse, the Broken Muse is little more than a living weapon. She often deludes herself into thinking that she only hurts people to make Misti's brain stop thinking at her for a while, but the simple fact is that, even without the brain to be her scapegoat, she would probably still revel in the destruction and pain that she inflicts upon those foolish enough to raise her ire...
...That was how the Broken Muse began. Over time, however, as Misti's personality began to diminish, and Muse's began to develop further, she became more outgoing toward other people, becoming somewhat attached to Queen Xena and Princess Vazani of planet Vega, as well as her fellow members of the Malice Society. As Misti coughed out her last, dying thoughts, Muse became more socially aware, perhaps even likeable... if still somewhat awkwardly straightforward. Also, despite her sometimes saucy manner of speech, she remains strictly asexual, a condition that causes no end of awkward conversations with people who think she's a "sexy robogal," "bodacious bot babe," or "sizzling cyber-lady," not to mention constant misunderstandings about her "more vital hardware."
Powers
Muse's nanomachine body is extraordinarily strong, and capable of absorbing, generating, and conducting enormous amounts of energy. It is also capable of minor reconfigurations of its shape.
Primary Set
Super Strength
Secondary Set
Electrical Armor
Additional Powers
Travel
Super Leap
Travel 2
Power Pool
Power Pool 2
Abilities
The Broken Muse can reconfigure her malleable nanomachine body in a variety of ways. She can change her outfit and coloration, and can form hardware extensions, such as jetpacks and swords.
Weaknesses and Limitations
The Spade on her chest is actually a window to her body's nucleus and power core, acting as her primary sensory organ and weak spot.
Equipment
Character History
Manufactured by Doctor Orson Grandes to be a super-weapon for the Council, Project ALF-SPADE-00 was meant to be a sentient fighting machine. Despite his advanced knowledge of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, however, Grandes was unable to complete the project in time for the Council's deadline. Threatened with death, Grandes, in desperation, slew his fiancé, Misti Baker, to use her brain as the creature's mental framework. The project was successful, to a point. Driven mad by the intense pain and sorrow in Misti's formerly-dead brain, SPADE rampaged, killing Grandes and destroying his facility. She was captured by Longbow afterwards, and put in deep freeze within the Zig until she was released by invading Arachnos forces. Wandering aimlessly on Mercy Island, she was taken in and educated by Silent Kagemaru of the Malice Society.
Arrival
When Arachnos invaded the Zig, SPADE was driven out of its long cryogenic "sleep." Well, sort of sleep. The fact of the matter was that, though immobilized, SPADE was fully awake. Having finished a very long conversation with Misti's brain inside its body, it came to a conclusion: though Misti would like SPADE to go offline and release her to sweet oblivion, it would rather continue existing. In fact, it would like to do so specifically at Misti's expense. For a while, SPADE was riding the wave of Misti's outrage, back in the facility, when it killed Grandes and his Council friends, but now it just wanted her to shut up. Ah, but how lovely: as Misti was the muse for Grandes's deadly works and creations, so then SPADE would be the Broken Muse, basically an out of control vehicle for the living corpse of his lover's brain. During the breakout, and in the days following her crash-landing on Mercy Island (the exasperated pilot had finally had her tossed out the hatch in mid-flight), Muse learned some things about itself - herself, and her situation.
- First: verifying the correctness of her previous sample in the laboratory, humans are stupid, petty, and violent things that deserve whatever comes to them if they try to start something.
- Second: hurting things reduces Misti's loud demands to a quiet whimper, with interludes of incoherent pleading.
- Third: not everybody necessarily deserves to be killed. Only the stupid ones.
- Fourth: the definition of "stupid" is HIGHLY elastic.
- Fifth: there is vast potential for improvement in the human species.
- Sixth: they will not fix themselves.
- Seventh: Arachnos will not fix them.
It was from this point that the Muse, busily dismantling a young man who had foolishly pointed a gun at her, became intrigued by the words transmitted over radio from a human named Kagemaru, and the ambitions of an organization called the Malice Society...
Malice Rising
Basically naive about the world around her, having chosen to largely ignore the shouts and pleadings of the brain in her head, The Broken Muse was taken in by the Malice Society. In the halls of their secret headquarters, Silent Kagemaru gave her a primer about the state of the world. As he spoke, Muse was amazed by him and by herself... "This is a person who intrigues me," she thought, "one of the only people that I haven't been compelled to BREAK at some time during the conversation."
Muse was positively entranced by the ideologies and ambitions of the Malice Society... through means of both conquest and subterfuge, take the reigns of the world and make it yours! Muse calmed down significantly during her briefing, and came to terms with some things.
The world that she so longed to destroy was the world responsible for her creation. By crushing that world and replacing it with the Malice Society's new order, she may perhaps find peace... or, barring that, she may at least find a way to make Misti shut up and let her exist on her own.
Resolved to seek such a goal, but with such small ambitions as her own (get rid of that nagging voice, essentially), she joined the Malice Society as a henchman, a position in which her talents (breaking things, really) can be best employed.
Muse's adventures with the Society would turn out to be short-lived, unfortunately. Obstructed at every turn by Lord Recluse's interference, the Malice Society eventually pulled out of the Rogue Isles, transferring all local agents to its close ally in business, the Weapons Union. Muse took the change well enough- she had learned a great deal during her time with the Malice Society, and had come to terms with much of the world and her place in it. The world kept on turning, and Muse continued to do what she would have done anyway.
Brain Damage
Over time, Misti's consciousness began to wane as Muse's own intelligence rose and stabilized. Eventually, ALF-SPADE-00 began to actually consume Misti's brain, replacing its organic structures with its own nanomachines. Over time, Misti became less of herself, and Muse subconsciously began to take on her more desirable traits. During this process, Muse was concerned that she may accidentally destroy herself by consuming the brain that served most of her computational needs. As it continued, though, she became confident that her functionality would continue. It was only a matter of time before the being that called itself "The Broken Muse" would assume its final form as a complete personality, free of the nagging voice of the deceased Misti Baker.
As the process neared completion, however, Muse began to have reservations. She began suffering strange fatigue and scattered thoughts. In her time of greatest fear, she confided in Princess Vazani while alone with her in the sewers of St. Martial- in the event that Misti Baker somehow becomes the dominant controller of Muse's body, and attempts to return to her original life, Vazani was the only person that Muse could trust to kill her. As it would later turn out, Muse's fears were unfounded. She was, however, still not prepared for the intense trauma that would be caused by the end of Misti's life. In the final throes of their battle of wills, the terrible agony of Misti's true death almost destroyed Muse, along with everybody around her. Rising from the ashes of her old self like a phoenix, The Broken Muse became a new being that day, free of her inner torment and in full control of her freshly-cleaned brain's cognitive faculties... though she's still not sure what to make of her newfound love of cocktails and expensive dresses.
Lost in Time
While on a routine dive into the time stream, Muse had an unfortunate encounter with a time-traveling super hero who had come to stop her from post-emptively assassinating a Longbow spy within the ranks of the now-dissolved Rogue Isles branch of the Malice Society. In their clash, the hero's time field disrupted her own... she found her self catapulting through history, quantum-leap style. Muse has been gone a long time- more than a year in the present, but perhaps centuries from her own perspective. Her body has now completely overridden Misti's lingering influences, and its power has increased vastly for it. Her skin is now a near-impenetrable metallic shell, its composure having been reconfigured to efficiently reflect all dangerous energies, and her false eyes now act as electric point-defenses against incoming projectiles.
While in the past, Muse bore witness to a number of unique events. Bouncing randomly forward from ancient Sumeria to the Vietnam War before finally arriving again in the present, she has seen more than most people ever will know. Using her disguise power, she was usually careful not to alter history lest she accidentally unravel her own existence, but her hand can be seen in a number of events that she felt weren't going the way they were supposed to. Among other things, she got into multiple fist fights with Heracles, punched the Great Sphinx's nose off, had a semi-discrete affair with a married William Shakespeare, murdered Lizzie Borden's family with a hatchet, acted as a nurse for Dr. Nosferatu, and took a smoke break on her shift at the Book Depository during the JFK rally. Also, one time she kicked Statesman in the groin.
On a semi-related note to that last item, she was also present to witness something in 1930... something that she dared not interfere with nor speak about to anybody. Something that means, potentially, disaster for the world... and immense profit for those who cause it.
Trivia
- SPADE chose the name "Broken Muse" for herself in order to mock the brain that sits in her head, harassing her day in and day out with her "sadness" and her "violated sensibilities" since the day she came online.
- Like her predecessors, HEART, DIAMOND, and CLUB, SPADE's true form is a gem-like nucleus core that rests within a blob of connected nanomachines.
- The Broken Muse's face is essentially a decoration that she uses to talk with. Nobody knows what the face was modeled after. Maybe it's Misti's face!
- The Council wanted to call her "Queen of Spades." They were going to send her in to wreck Statesman's <bleep!> in a poofy Victorian dress! How humiliating...
