Corrigan Easton
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Corrigan Easton, Sentinel of the Magus Arcana | |
| Corrigan Easton | |
| Player: @Tathya | |
| Origin: | natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Corrigan Easton |
| Known Aliases: | n/a |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 24 |
| Height: | 5' 7" |
| Weight: | 158 |
| Eye Color: | green |
| Hair Color: | black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | caucasian |
| Occupation: | Full-time hero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | married |
| Known Relatives: | Only Amelia Easton, his sister |
| Known Powers | |
| Skilled Katana fighter, and the Node Vitas of this region | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Control over the font of vital energy (which he is slowly increasing), Vitamantic magic | |
| Equipment | |
| Desu, his katana, which is soul-linked to him | |
| n/a | |
Corrigan Easton isn't very well-known among the heroic community, and he prefers it this way, more or less. Working as one of the Vigilantes who protected Paragon City in the days after the first Rikti invasion, he joined the Paragon Superhero Initiative just days after it was reinstated, and has been fighting crime ever since.
Affiliations
Sentinel (and leader pro-tem), Magus Arcana
Early Days
Corrigan was a gutter orphan - he, along with his sister, Amelia, lived on the streets for as long as they can remember, with no parents and few friends. As such, Corrigan got used to the hard life early on, and managed to make a good go of it. The earliest fight Corrigan can remember was with a street gang not unlike the Skulls. Corrigan was only eleven at the time, his sister nine, and they were trying to flee from the toughs. When Corrigan's sister was caught by one of the gangsters, he discovered his first 'superpower'.
The Ice
Corrigan refers to this ability as "serenity born of focused emotion." It narrows his mental facilities to a very fine point, centered around one emotion, commonly joy, though in this first case, it was born of anger. Corrigan often comments that this turns a hot emotion cold - reckless anger becomes cool, calculating hatred, and wild joy becomes peaceful ecstasy. While utilizing the Ice, goals come one at a time, and it becomes easy for him to make decisions and move precisely. During combat, the Ice allows Corrigan to fight in perfect form.
During this initial confrontation, Corrigan came to the decision that he didn't want himself or his sister to live in fear of gangsters forever, and that conviction eventually spread and gained depth, becoming the sense of justice he holds today.
The First War
There's little to tell of Corrigan during the first Rikti war - he and his sister went into hiding in a basement in King's Row. Now that he knows the scope of his powers, Corrigan often laments that he didn't take a stand during the first war.
Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the first Rikti war, Corrigan joined a large, underground group of heroes (both super and natural) who referred to themselves as the Vigilante Organization. The organization was originally created to deter looters and criminals, and quickly picked up the duty of opposing the new wave of villains who sought to make use of Paragon City's vulnerable state. When Statesman and the city governor announced the Paragon Superhero Initiative and the formation of the Freedom Corps, the superhuman division of the Vigilante Organization disbanded. Similarly, the human division dissolved upon the rebuild of the Paragon Police Department. Feeling akin to neither group, Corrigan continued to fight as a vigilante for several months.
Regeneration
Corrigan often fought in close-quarters, his only ranged options being guns. His weapon of choice during this time was usually a bat, lead pipe, or similar improvised weapon - anything with solid striking power and decent balance. His fights didn't always go well, of course, and during this time, he discovered a second 'power' - his regeneration rate was preternaturally fast. Even after the most brutal beatings he received (mostly from the Family), he was up and ready to continue the fight by the next day, if not earlier. In tandem with the Ice, this power made Corrigan a dangerous combatant, the equal of many lower-powered heroes.
Koga Takeshi
It was during a fight against a group of Tsoo in Steel Canyon that Corrigan first met Koga Takeshi, a middle-aged man of japanese descent who held a personal grudge against the martial-arts gang. Takeshi was a skilled fighter with a katana, being a black belt in several styles, and he was impressed by Corrigan's raw potential. He agreed to take Corrigan on and teach him the martial arts. Through the training, Corrigan quickly became a master of the katana. Through the understanding of chi energy, Corrigan was able to supplement his natural regenerative ability. Through meditation, Corrigan could call the Ice faster and control himself better while focusing. Nearly a year went by as he trained with his sensei, and when he chose to step back into his role as a vigilante, he was more prepared than ever. Takeshi, believing that his pupil could withstand the dangerous missions given to superheroes, and feeling that Corrigan (given his somewhat hot-tempered nature) could use a sense of direction and a watchful eye, forced his student to apply to become a registered Superhero. The application was accepted, and Corrigan went back to his work with a will.
Working Undercover
Corrigan's early work as a hero saw him, more often than not, undercover among the various gangs of Paragon City. Because of his early life on the streets, he knew the lingo and the attitude of being a gang member, and because he was a very low-profile hero to begin with, he fit into this job quite well. His reports on gangs including the Skulls, Hellions, Outcasts, Trolls, Tsoo and Warriors have led to the arrest of several prominent gang leaders, as well as unmasking a definitive connection between the Family and the street drug Superadine. Though he is too well-known these days to work undercover any more, he still wears the clothes and sports the tattoos that he had in his earlier career during much of his hero work, often stating "The look just kinda stuck."
Life Drainer
The following is Corrigan's personal account on his first major commendation by the Freedom Corps:
"A few weeks or so before my old Sensei, Koga Takeshi, declared me skilled enough to begin using my training, there was a serious rash of kidnappings. Started in Skyway City, worked its way through Galaxy and King's and started hitting a lot of the city. Noone knew what was happening, there didn't seem to be an actual Modus Operandi, the victims were young, old, male, female... several heroes tried to investigate, most turned up empty... a few turned up dead.
"When I got to work, it had become a pretty big deal - something like twenty people gone missing. So I started trying to check it out. I checked with a few people, then went to the house of one of the victims, talked to his family. I remember getting a really weird feeling from all this, like something was very out of place. Guess I know now where it came from.
"Anyways, I started tracing some of the victims. Had some luck with contacts, some people'd seen them maybe hours before they disappeared and such... with that, I was able to lay out the general areas they disappeared in, and I noticed a couple really odd things.
"First, all the kidnappings happened near uninhabited places - junkyards, rivers, areas where people didn't go often. Second, there was a definite epicenter, and a pattern that looked like the kidnapper was ranging further out each time.
"The epicenter boiled down to a lab complex in Skyway, unregistered. When I broke in...
"...best way to describe it is, the air felt dry, everything felt very off, as if the area were hollow somehow. The place was a hidden lab for a guy named Kali, who fit smack-dab into the 'evil genius' stereotype, and I was expecting resistance... but there wasn't any.
"They were all dead.
"No signs of a fight, no indications of gassing or chemicals... hell, no indication that they had any idea they were dying. They were slumped over computer panels or diagnostic stations, looked like they'd all be struck dead right in the middle of a normal workday. The computers were still logged in, even.
"They were all focused around a central... looked like a giant test tube. Glass was smashed out - something'd been in there, then busted out, probably after all the scientists were dead.
"Well, I went out with no idea what'd happened... began looking for anything that didn't belong. I was investigating for about a week, and it looked like I'd hit a dead end...
"Then a friend of ours, guy named Kethric, gave me a call. He was supposed to have gone on a date with my sis, Amelia, but she stood him up, and he hadn't been able to get in touch with her, did I know where she was? Well... I didn't at first.
"She disappeared. Just like all the other people who'd been kidnapped. Sure enough, there was a handy abandoned power station, right between our house and the restaurant she'd been going to.
"So I went to investigate."
- Corrigan pauses at this, looking somewhat upset by the memory.
"I remember what he looked like... kind of like a Nictus, but shaped like a human. Had a face, sort of, and two arms and two legs, but it looked like he was made of really dense smoke. But more than what he looked like, was what he felt like.
"He felt... like a black hole for life. Like my soul was getting sucked out of me, little by little, just from being around him. It's not a pleasant feeling. I could hardly stand, felt like I was made of rubber...
"Well... I couldn't fight him. So I talked to him. I accused him, at first, of kidnapping and murder, demanded he let my sister go, and all the others. "He was confused. See, he knew the language... I think they engineered that into him... but he'd never heard it before."
- Corrigan drums on the table
"He'd never known what was happening. Everyone he was close to died.
"See... he was a black hole for life. They'd engineered him so he could drain the life of their enemies, and it would make him stronger when he did. Except they overdid it. They'd made a being that couldn't control it - that fed off of life permanently, all the life around him, and he never even knew he was doing it. Grass died as he walked over it, people collapsed when they came near him, most probably never even saw him, and he had no idea he was doing it.
"We talked... for hours. A day, maybe two, I'm not sure. He was..."
- Corrigan sighs, looking close to tears*
"He was a good person. Basically childlike, very friendly, eager to talk to someone. He was lonely, didn't understand why people kept fainting when they saw him, why they'd never get back up afterwards. He kept them all, you see... put them on beds, checked on them every day... because he really wanted one of them to wake up and keep him company.
"He was so ecstatic when we first started talking... but when I explained what had been going on... he was horrified. The scientists who'd created him died when he was born, and they'd never explained to him what he was. He didn't want it.
"I've met people, meet them every day in my job, who don't give a damn about their fellow man, who torment and torture for fun, people who want to destroy all life, the world... even the everyday populace always talks about shooting the guy who cut them off, or killing their boss... and this one being, this creature who'd been created to feed off of life, was one of the nicest, most virtuous people I've met.
"In the end, he refused to allow himself to live any longer. He didn't want to kill any more. He'd lived less than two months, had been lonely and scared for the duration, and now, without a second thought, decided to end his own life to prevent anyone else from dying.
"I never really understood what he did. He turned his powers on himself somehow, fed on himself... and he didn't so much die as explode. His life bled outward, all the energy he'd fed on, and in his last moment, he brought everyone he'd killed - except for the guys in the lab, I think they were too far away - back to life.
"...so, yeah... that was my first 'assignment.' My first major job as a hero. Meet a creature who devours life, find out it's one of the nicest people you've ever known, then watch it kill itself. Great introduction, huh?"
Amonn and the Magus Arcana
A month or two into his work, Corrigan met a man who went by the name Amonn. The two, having similar views on humanity and heroism, quickly became good friends. Amonn was a skilled mage, and had a great deal of power over life and energy, and working alongside eachother, the two made a particularly dangerous pair. Amonn was part of a group of heroes who had taken on the name "Magus Arcana" and the duty of seeking out and preventing corrupt misuse of magic. At his suggestion, Corrigan joined them as well, and quickly distinguished himself as both a fierce warrior and a useful tool to the Magus.
Amplification
It was among the Magus that Corrigan's third 'power' was realized. He proved to be a powerful Amplifier - magic, especially vitamantic magic (magic which affects the life force and/or soul), worked significantly better in his presence. Among other things, a vitamantic ring that slightly improved a person's legs and ability to jump caused Corrigan to leap as high as many 'super-leaping' heroes. This factor in particular greatly aided many of the other Magus, especially Amonn.
Healing
During this time, Corrigan also discovered a distinct ability to heal others, by touch at first, then at range after some development of the power.
Grudge against the Council
More recently in Corrigan's heroic career, the Council have become one of his prime targets. The reasoning behind this is based in their "Vampyr" super-soldier program. During a raid on one of the Council bases in Striga Island, Corrigan uncovered evidence that the Council had taken genetic samples of many prominent heroes, including his own. Apparently, they were able to discern a second genetic signature buried in Corrigan's sample - that of the life-draining being he had met so early in his career, the essence having flowed into Corrigan when it exploded. This was combined with their original super-soldier serum, giving their "Vampyri" the reminiscent ability to drain life, though not nearly with the power the original being had. Corrigan has made it clear that he feels this is an offense to his friend's memory, and he intends to ensure the death of everyone involved in the project, including the leader of the Council herself.
The Node Vitas
The correlation between all of Corrigan's powers was finally unveiled by Amonn after considerable research and experimentation. A 'Node Vitas' is a point where vital energy (a form of mystic energy which empowers the essence of a person, without which neither body nor soul could survive) flows into the universe. Because of the nature of vital energy, all Node Vitas are living organisms (though they need not be sentient or even complex - anything from a human to a flower to an amoeba may be a Node Vitas), and Corrigan himself is one of these. It is theorized that very few Node Vitas exist at any one point in history - there are no official records of more than one being in existence at a time, though certain sources suggest it. All of Corrigan's 'super' abilities are linked with his nature as the Node Vitas. The Ice is, in fact, vitamantic in nature, a simple spell that Corrigan was able to pick up in a moment of extreme stress. His regeneration rate is directly related to the amount of vital energy flowing through his body, and this energy also makes it fundamentally impossible for him to die except in very specific ways. This energy also sustained him during his encounter with the life-draining being, and accounts for his ability to amplify vitamantic magic. Having developed a small amount of control over this power, he was able to direct it, which accounts for his healing ability.
Ashen Steel
During a harrowing trip to Egypt (in which he was incapacitated and used as a battery by the Banished Pantheon before being rescued by Amonn), Corrigan was able to recover an ancient Pharaoh's store of ashen steel. The store was nearly forty-six grams, which is vast considering the total amount of ashen steel in the world is estimated at just under a kilogram. Ashen steel is iron which has been warped by naturally occurring magic, making it strong but brittle and giving it particular value to makes of magical items. This supply has been poured into several different projects of the Magus Arcana, the most notable being Corrigan's sword, Desu. Crafted from an alloy of impervium, orichalcum and ashen steel, Desu (Japanese predicate. "A friend wouldn't stop bugging me about how a sword has to have a name, so I used Desu - sort of like saying "It is" in Japanese- to shut him up, and it just kinda stuck.") is one of the more powerful artifacts possessed by the Magus, and houses a connection to Corrigan's soul. It also functions as Corrigan's equivalent to the traditional mage staff that many magi still use.
The Second Rikti War
Corrigan was enjoying an evening at his home in Croatoa when the second Rikti invasion happened. He returned to the city immediately, and took part in the resistance effort, which thankfully proved successful. He was quoted stating "I sat out of the first invasion - they're not so lucky this time. I'll be fighting twice as hard and killing twice as many, to make up for that first war!"
Security Level 50
Corrigan was officially promoted to Security Level 50, the highest security clearance a hero can obtain, on October 17th, 2007.
Current Events
At the moment, Corrigan is leader pro-tem for the Magus Arcana during Amonn's absence. He's taken the opportunity to try to expand the supergroup. He is also actively combating the remaining Rikti as a honorary member of Vanguard, and has begun training himself in the arts of vitamantic magic.
Trivia/Random Facts
- Corrigan is deathly afraid of werewolves, and though he controls his fear fairly well, it makes fighting the Council particularly difficult for him.
- Corrigan officially lives in the farmhouse just west of the Croatoa tram. He bought the house with his saved-up money from being a hero, and with the understanding that the farmland and nearby barn aren't his - just the house.
- There are ten artifacts that Corrigan made to house connections to his soul, Desu among them. Currently, if Corrigan's body is completely destroyed, it will be rebuilt near one of these artifacts. If they are all destroyed, it is possible to eliminate Corrigan himself - however, he checks them from time to time, so if they are being destroyed, he'll likely know. The only other ways to kill him outright are to shut off the flow of vital magic before it even reaches him (causing, potentially, the deaths of many others on this world) or to completely eradicate his soul. However, as the Banished Pantheon demonstrated in Egypt, "Alive" doesn't necessarily mean "Functioning"...
- Currently, the Magus Arcana are recruiting! Active RPers on Virtue are welcome to drop me a line (at @Tathya) if they think it sounds like the sort of group they'd enjoy being a part of.
