From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

50

The Baffling

Choppin' Broccoli

Sensation

Art by AngerBunny

Player: @AlwaysAPrice

Physical Traits

Species

Brassica oleracea

Sub-Type

Italica

Height

5'4"

Weight

100 lbs.

Body Type

Voluptuous, crisp

Hair

Green florets

Eyes

Green

Skin

Green

· Distinguishing Features ·

Is large, woman-shaped broccoli.

Affiliations

Super Group

League of Misfits

Rank

Punk

· Other Affiliations ·

Spokeswoman, People for Equal Rights for Vegetables (PERV)

Last Updated: 7/4/2011

Origin

CeeBee's first memory is of waking up in the bombed-out ruins of a house in Skyway City with a wok on her head. Nearby in the wreckage were charred shreds of clothing tangled around a pair of unusually (given the surroundings) pristine swords with large, curving blades. CeeBee took the swords with her when she wandered away from her "birthplace", never really knowing why they were important to her or even considering that they were. It just seemed to be the thing to do.

Outside, the city was in chaos as the Rikti teleported down in pursuit of Paragon City's costumed defenders, and before she could fully comprehend what was going on, Conscripts and Guardians were materializing around her. She understood at once that these beings meant her harm, and she readied her swords with an instinctive flourish.

After the initial onslaught was turned away by the very heroes and villains the Rikti hunted, CeeBee wandered through Paragon in search of answers. Unusually aware and possessed of a solid grasp of human thought patterns and language, she quickly came to realize that the swordsmanship and regenerative gift she discovered in her skirmishes with the Rikti ground troops constituted a solid foundation for registered heroism. She visited Freedom Corps, and after several months of tests and training she was granted her official CCFA license -- at a loss to provide a name, she left the decision to the registrar. He took one look at her florets and her blades and named her as matter-of-factly as possible after an old Saturday Night Live skit he'd run across on YouTube a couple weeks prior.

Powers

The most remarkable and immediately apparent supervegetable abilities possessed by Choppin' Broccoli would be her sentience, her animation, her humanoid shape, and her grasp of the English language. According to all tests run by Freedom Corps' various divisions in advance of her hero registration approval, she is in fact broccoli -- merely of a size, shape, and intelligence markedly different from the rest of her kind.

Enchanted Swords

The consensus among M.A.G.I. and Midnight Club researchers who have had the opportunity to observe Choppin' Broccoli is that her animation is very likely related to the magic inherent to her swords. CeeBee exhibits a powerful bond to the swords that even she does not entirely (in truth, not even remotely) understand.

The swords themselves straddle the divide between the material and astral planes, disappearing into the ether but remaining bound to her own astral form when she does not have need of them unless she specifically bequeaths them to another of her own will. The one time she released her swords in his fashion, the magic of the blades continued to affect her body even after her apparent death.

Among what seems to be an entire suite of enchantments intended to improve the survivability and combat efficiency of their wielder is one which grants them an instinctive familiarity with the blades and a measure of skill in their use. As with all the magic the swords possess, this ability takes time to "warm up" to the user. After over a year and a half of possession, CeeBee's mastery is virtually complete.

Her mindset as a swordswoman is all about flash, but her showmanship does not much hamper her effectiveness. Even as she swoops and twirls acrobatically through the air, she is always waiting and watching for the perfect opening in which to execute a stylish finishing blow.

Regeneration

The most obvious of her swords' enchantments is one that Choppin' Broccoli discovered through innumerable and often ill-advised forays into combats even many non-vegetables would shy from. She is possessed of a remarkable resilience to physical damage as well as a startling capacity to regenerate injuries to her flesh. The blows of fists and feet rarely faze her as she usually fights while airborne and simply goes with the flow of the incoming impacts -- blades and bullets will tear through her flesh very easily but the resulting wounds will knit in moments, seconds provided a measure of concentration is applied to the task.

CeeBee's regenerative ability was pushed to its limits in March of 2008 when, in an attempt to get a sample of DNA to prove the presence of a murderous lycanthrope among the League of Misfits, Choppin' Broccoli was torn to pieces trying to ensure her best friend, the Acorn Avenger, could escape with her bloodied blades. Her remains were transported to the Misfit Mansion and over the course of several days in soil and water she was able to quite literally pull herself together.

After a similar incident in October of the same year, CeeBee's connection to the regenerative magics of the blades seems to have strengthened. More than an actual reinforcement of her bond, this is a reflection of her confidence that they will keep her alive -- she is more willing than ever to push herself to and beyond her previous limits because she firmly believes there is no stopping her.^[3]

Other Abilities

As CeeBee's bond to the swords strengthened, she began to unlock more and more of the power with which they are enchanted. At first these additional powers were merely unconscious, accidentally triggered by her need for an additional edge in a tough fight. Her growing comprehension of what the swords are and what they are capable of is leading to the ability to apply their power to specific ends.

Speed

The first of these additional benefits she discovered was the ability to move with astonishing speed. Aside from the benefit she gains in befuddling her opponents with the dazzling flash of her blades whipping through the air at blinding speeds, she is also able to run incredibly fast and even twirl in place at such ridiculous speeds that enemies are cast away by the buffeting of the resulting whirlwind. She rarely employs this ability for travel however, applying her speed mainly to improve her combat skills -- and to execute swift wardrobe changes as the mood strikes.

Flight

The gift of flight startled CeeBee at first; she can not recall ever explicitly seeking the ability, it simply seemed to come to her when she needed it. Her reasoning at the time was quite simple: running at 60 mph in high heels is uncomfortable. Put off of running by the rate at which she was going through otherwise perfectly good boots, and not a little frustrated by the nuisance of flying robots, pirates, and ghosts, CeeBee decided she needed to develop a less wardrobe-intensive means of getting around -- and her swords obliged.

It may be that whatever consciousness the swords may be said to have recognized the strategic value of the shift, or it may have been the first manifestation of CeeBee's own developing ability to command their magic. Either way, the end result was that one day she found herself leaping after a flying foe only to discover that she remained airborne several seconds longer than she expected after she struck. Experimentally, she tried lifting her feet out from under herself while she ran from battle to battle and found she did not fall. As her confidence in this new power grew, she took to flying like a fish to water -- nowadays she rarely touches the ground, not only for the maneuverability flying provides her in combat but also for the delight she gets from that moment when someone realizes that she's not only giant broccoli -- she's giant flying broccoli.

Magicka Channeling

This latest and purest manifestation of her command of the swords' magic startled CeeBee even more than her first flights did. As her skill has grown, the blades have begun to act even more as an extension of her will -- it's hard to tell where her intent ends and their augmentation of her ability begins. The swords almost seem to seek her targets of their own volition now. With her bond to the swords nearly complete, she has developed a more instinctual understanding of their potential.

Through the swords, their wielder can siphon raw magical energies from the arcane "wavelength" to which they are attuned to power their more specific enchantments. CeeBee began to explore this function at first cautiously, drawing magicka into herself in small amounts -- the sensation, she found, is rather like that of being a boiling teapot, and she immediately sought to release the "steam" by venting it through her eyes in the form of red bolts of energy. Gradually she has increased her capacity for magickal intake and is learning to store greater and greater amounts of power, letting it build until she is ready to unleash a more powerful wave of force.

Equipment

Wardrobe

Classic Costumes

CeeBee's classic costume consists of a small bolero vest in dark green with gold trim, a matching pleated skirt and high-heeled boots. She also keeps a red version of the skirt and boots to wear with her Misfits jacket.

Stealth Gear

CeeBee has two costumes reserved for those missions requiring a more discreet approach, and neither really serves that purpose too well. The first is her "ninja" costume, originally put together for the League of Misfits first themed training night at the Galaxy City Arena (the opposition dressed as pirates, of course). The other is even less apropos but at least serves the purpose of masking her true identity to some extent. This is her "undercover" guise, which requires a night's rest in a tub of food coloring and the careful crimping of her florets to lend her the aspect of a tomato.

Personality

According to her recollections she has been sentient only since the moment she awoke in what was left of that Skyway City home -- she has no memories prior to that moment. However, she has needed little to no adaptation or acclimation to human (or at least superhuman) society. She displays remarkable cultural literacy for broccoli, and seems to take the developments of life pretty much as they come. Easy-going, open-minded and a touch garrulous, CeeBee has encountered almost no-one she can't strike up some sort of rapport with. She's frankly jazzed about her situation for the most part, and rather than being mortified by or agonizing over her differences, she seems to get a kick out of the "Wait, what?" reactions that follow the double-take.

CeeBee has fully embraced the hero lifestyle, and is constantly trying out new catchphrases and epithets with which to cement her reputation with the criminal element. She's not sure what compels her to the service and protection of this city, but it feels right to her so she gives it her all.

Gender

CeeBee's overall shape suggests that of a human woman, but her body is simply overgrown, animated broccoli which has assumed such a form, lacking in detail -- for example, were one to inspect her teeth they would find each row to be simply a solid ridge indented in a way that suggests individual teeth. She doesn't think of herself so much as a woman but rather as womanly; as such, she refers to herself in the feminine. She's more than happy to exploit her curves to fluster opponents and fellow heroes alike, however, dressing skimpily and moving with nearly no concern to what she may be showing as she actually has nothing to show. That she wears clothes at all is simply a habit she grew into after Freedom Corps' prudish insistence that she wear something when she began her heroing career.

The Beam Thing

The Black Starbeam is to this day the first and only human to be allowed to touch Broccoli's florets, after asking politely to satisfy his own curiosity about their reality. This seems to have sparked some kind of fondness in CeeBee, a mostly innocent fangirl crush that nevertheless occasionally verges on the...unsettling^[6].

Myers-Briggs

Chopping Broccoli's Myers-Briggs type is ESFP (Extraverted - Sensing - Feeling - Perceiving)

ESFP Profile at TypeLogic.com

Portrait of the Performer at Keirsey.com

Portrait of an ESFP at PersonalityPage.com

NOTES

• Inspired by Dana Carvey.

• CeeBee's ideal voice actress: Cree Summer, no question. I've heard everything CeeBee says in her voice pretty much since creation.

• This is Choppin' Broccoli's 3rd 4th incarnation.

• Choppin' Broccoli the first was a BS/Regen scrapper.
• Choppin' Broccoli the second was a Will/DB tanker, created with the plan to eventually repurpose her into a second incarnation of Angel Eyes.
• The 3rd C-Broc was created for the same reason but as a DB/Will Scrapper; by this time Ceebs had taken on a life of her own in RP and thus earned a reprieve from the renaming plans. DB/Will Broc lasted a very long time and made it to level 41 before I was finally soooo fed up with the lackluster performance of DB/Will in my hands, I rerolled her from scratch.
• In October of '08 I finally gave in to temptation and rerolled her as a DB/Regen -- makes more sense visually and in how her powers have been RPed. The reroll was an absolute success -- /Regen Broc hit 30 in about three days.

• The only thing I regret about the reroll is correcting her Origin to Magic in the process -- that meant I lost access to the level 25 Natural title "Death-Defying", which I really liked because it was chosen to reflect a live RP development. Now I make do with "Baffling", which has its own charm, but I do miss the original.

• Of all my characters, CeeBee is the one that seems to seize the most attention -- through all her incarnations I haven't had a play session go by without at least one random thumbs up from a fan of the skit or a compliment on the look.