Jerry Malone
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| The Malone Bookkeeping Agency: Saving, if not making you money. For a nominal fee, of course. | |
| Jerry Malone | |
| Player: @Doczilla | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jerry Malone |
| Known Aliases: | Sapphire Escutcheon |
| Species: | Human (Peacebringer when Sapphire Escutcheon) |
| Age: | 32 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 197 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Steel-gray |
| Hair Color: | Dark brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Public Accountant and Bookkeeper |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown |
| Base of Operations: | King's Row |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None known |
| Known Powers | |
| Gravity manipulation and moderate-strength empathic abilities. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Pair of banker's spectacles which serve as the source of his powers as well as their focus. Wears a slightly modified armored body-suit in combat. No special qualities without augmentation from his powers. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Appearance
Physical
Jerry is much more on the slim side of the physique scale than one normally sees in Paragon. At 6'2" and 197 lbs, his frame indicates a life of minimal physical labor, but his toned muscles are indicative of a man who cares enough about appearances and definitely takes care of himself. His skin isn't as pale as it once was, his active lifestyle of the past several years seeing him outdoors a fair deal. His hair is usually combed back, but free of any styling products. The eyes behind his spectacles were once a dark brown, but with the saturation of magic and his powers, they've turned a steel-gray matching the visual spectrum of the gravitational disturbances he controls. In the last several months, an energy bleed-off emanates from his eyes, granting the almost fiery look, which flares when his powers are used to any conscious extent.
Style
Jerry Prides himself on class, and his wardrobe generally shows this. When seen in public, he's always wearing an expensive suit of fantastic tailoring, and generally in colors that work well on him, such as crimson, white, and royal blue. He jokingly refers to his sense of style as one befitting a man of his profession, enjoying vests, a focus on an intelligent look, and high-quality cloths. He insists he enjoys making fun of "style" in particular by wearing a pair of vintage Converse All-Stars with just about any suit. He is always wearing both an antique pocket watch complete with gold chain and a modern, and extremely expensive, wristwatch.
Personality
While many would consider him a smooth-talking ladies-man, Jerry prefers to bill himself as a connoisseur of women. He doesn't have to try very hard to come off charming, and flirting seems to come naturally. He takes insult at the label of womanizer, considering such a person classless.
"The only woman worth spendin' ya time on is one that deserves bein' admired, adored, an' appreciated. None'a those ladies are the types that should ever be relegated to a notch in ya bed-post. That kinda guy deserves ta never truly enjoy a woman's company."
His intelligence and love of "class" both shine through, as well, being well-versed in literature, music, and classical entertainment. His speech pattern and accent both betray his past in the Marcone family, but only those people with sufficient experience in this area would make the direct connection, as opposed to the "Mafioso-talkin'" Malone outputs.
History
Early Years
The first fourteen years of his life are completely unknown and/or a closely-guarded secret of his own. All that is known is that he grew up on the Rogue Isles, and came onto the scene in Cap Au Diable.
When he was fourteen years old, he was adopted into the Marcone crime family by a cousin of the main family, Giovanni Malone. The 36 year old raised the boy as his own from then on, and found in the lad an extremely savvy mind, and a sharp intellect. Malone was the most prominent bookie in the family, handling the oversight of the entire family's operations. It was in this realm that he focused the young man's mind, the elder Malone passing on everything he knew. Jerry showed a remarkable aptitude for this, and was given assignments supplementing his surrogate father's work.
Five years into this pattern, he was accepted into the Marcone family, officially hired on as a bookkeeper at the age of 20. He continued working under Giovanni, but their relationship began to shift away from father-son into one of colleagues and mentor-student. Jerry continued learning the various ins and outs of creative bookkeeping from Giovanni, and began his own rise to prominence in the Family.
The Student, Now the Master
Unfortunately, further prominence would be thrust upon him with the death of Giovanni. At 23, Jerry was given the task of filling the void left by his mentor and adopted father. It took a full year for him to situate himself comfortably in his new position. The Family's holdings then became better hidden than ever before, government digging leading to untraceable accounts and dummy fronts. His name was both a closely-guarded Family secret, and reference to how things should be done.
The years came and went and he continued doing his job. His nose usually buried in books, though it varied from ledgers to literature. He began expanding his interests in his spare time, developing a deep love and appreciation for classical music and art. Once he discovered it, from his office flowed the tunes of Big-Band jazz, a distinct fondness for Glenn Miller above all.
One summer, the Family came into possession of a surprising array of magical and technological items. One of the bosses above him decided to shut the music and attitude (the latter more of a personal opinion than fact) up and directed Jerry to go to the warehouse where the shipment was being held and handle the inventorying and cataloging in preparation for an appraisal. Over the last couple of years, Malone had been increasingly disturbed with the things he was seeing in the ledgers. Smuggling and other relatively tame practices began to fade to nothing when seen alongside the more violent of the Marcone practices.
So when during the inventory he came across of spectacles nearly identical to his own, excluding a minute hairline fracture in the left lens, he decided he could use a little compensation of his own, and relieved the Family of a single pair of glasses. A pair of glasses that would be worth millions on the magical black market. A pair of glasses that would later on serve as a means of escape from an increasingly unhappy profession and lifestyle.
Manifestation Destiny
When it was found out that he'd pocketed the glasses, the same boss that sent him on the errand was disciplined and went to repay the kindness on Jerry himself. Finding himself wearing the glasses on a daily basis, he found he could get a feel for other people a shade easier, including picking up on when someone was coming and what their mood was. So when he sensed several people with rather malevolent ideas on their way toward his office, he began to fret.
He was amazed further when during this period of panic, the stationary on his desk began to lift, the papers seemingly falling upward toward the ceiling as though it were the floor, while the pencils, pens and calendar did the same, but in odd directions. When he focused on stopping a bottle of ink and quill pen he liked, it instantly froze in the air, the feather beginning to wilt a little.
So when the six men burst through his door with violence in their eyes, he simply tried to duplicate what happened with the ink. The men suddenly crumpled to the floor, struggling as though their bodies weighed many times more than normal. Because in fact they did, though Jerry didn't realize what exactly was going on. He only knew that their surprise would give way to even more anger. Something told him his time in the Marcone Family was at an end. And if he didn't make use of this situation, his time on the Earth would be as well.
In his not-so daring escape from the building, he'd managed to incapacitate thirteen men, wound several more, and disable another handful with broken bones or by being plastered to the walls in uncomfortable and unusual positions. In response to this, the Marcone family has declared all ties seperated, and have recently begun an active campaign to locate Malone and, at this point, get rid of him.
With precious little time to collect his belongings, he gathered a handful of suits, his favorite white, wide-brimmed hat, and fled the Isles for the only place he thought reasonable: Paragon City.
The Shadow Would Roll Over...
Upon arrival, the 29 year old began utilizing his powers more in an experimental fashion. He didn't know what he was doing, per se, or how it worked at all, but it did, and he worked at it. He came across several people in a team he was assigned in order to familiarize himself with the city, and one observed his powers were of a particularly strong form of gravitational manipulation. Jerry looked at the man like he was trying to teach rocket science to an accountant. Over time, Malone used this knowledge to sharpen the powers, eventually figuring out how to manipulate small gravitational fields. This mastery enabled flight, though it's more accurate to say he causes himself to fall in any desired direction, as well as advanced scientific actions such as wormhole formation and trans-location.
Over the next year, Malone would skyrocket through Paragon's Security levels, catching the eye of the Ouroboros organization as well as the prominent Portal Corporation. Having shown a grasp of both forms of travel, each group began entrusting him with increasingly delicate but important missions, culminating in numerous time-hops for Ouroboros, and an staggering number of jaunts to Praetorian Earth.
It was on his last, and largest, mission for Portal Corp. that he and his team were tasked with not only eliminating Dominatrix, but in the process had to do battle with the Praetorian versions of themselves. The battle raged for hours, each side losing member after member, leaving Jerry Malone and Star Saph-Fire toe-to-toe with JadeBurn and Crimson Lonewolf, the latter being Malone's praetorian counterpart. Attempting to fortify Star Saph-Fire through her combat with JadeBurn caused an amazing amount of strain on the man, tapping into reserves of the magic in the glasses he didn't even realize he had. this added stress began to expand the fracture in the lens, spider-webbing across the entire lens, yet still holding. Saph-Fire, in a last-ditch effort to be the victor, super-saturated her cells with the deep blue energy she wielded, and told Jerry to hurl her at the Praetorian duo. The split-second of hesitation on his part was enough for Crimson Lonewolf to compel JadeBurn to instead throw herself on Saph-Fire. The resulting explosion decimated the area, the only thing saving Jerry being the emergency recall system Portal uses.
The mission was successful, however an unexpected side-effect reared its head as Malone emerged from the Portal. Collapsing in a heap, his hands gripped his head and his mouth moved, yet no sound came out.
The Crimson Lonewolf managed to collide his psyche with Jerry Malone's at the instant the recall took place. Inside his mind, Jerry was forced to fence with the sinister mentalist, a battle which he was certain to lose. It was then that a light ignited around his psyche, a brilliant blue-white energy. A third voice chimed in, a voice overlapped with yet another. An infusion of psychic energy revitalized him as the Sapphire Escutcheon, a Peacebringer version of himself from thirteen years in the future, locked away inside the most magic-soaked recesses of his mind, joined energies with Malone and together successfully subdued the Praetorian psyche.
These Are the Days
It's been two years (three for Jerry, thanks to Ouroboros and Portal Corp's tasks), and in that time the Malone Bookkeeping Agency has not only gotten off its feet, but is thriving beyond all expectations, having just completed a full renovation and remodel of the two floors of the King's Row apartment building he bought. The Agency has serviced numerous high-profile clients, which have been kept anonymous in spite of the myriad of rumors surrounding these various companies and individuals. The biggest draw to his business is the multitudes of heroes of Paragon, and even some of those from the Rogue Isles.
Rumors have begun to surface of a man fitting Malone's description being seen in more questionable activities on the Isles, but these have yet to be corroborated.
Powers
The magical spectacles that Jerry wears at all time, excluding sleep, provide him with the ability to manipulate gravitational forces, creating, abolishing, and modifying them around any given target. The sheer strength of the magic within them strengthens his naturally sharp mind, granting empathic abilities.
Strengths
Gravity Control
"People keep askin'at. No, I don't have a clue how the science behind what I do works it. It just does. I focus, an' things do what I make'em do. Same thing goes with the magic side'a things. No, I don't cast spells, an' no I don't have a clue as ta what the enchantment on these glasses is. These things just are. My head's good with figures, not science an' magic."
His expertise lies in the realm of gravity manipulation. After the several years invested in mastering these abilities, he's able to affect micro-gravitational changes, even effectively create an area of collapsed gravity. This event is then forged into a self-sustaining singularity which then orbits him in a symbiotic gravitational relationship. He can even create effective vacuums by collapsing the gravity in a small area and then sealing that collapse with a counter of expanding gravity inside.
In combat, however, he utilizes primarily large-area effects, opting to immobilize an entire area with anywhere between three and six times the normal gravity just above the ground's surface. Provided he has enough time to focus on each target, he can take it the other way as well, suspending whole areas in a null-gravity field and hold them inactive with a micro-gravity field around their immediate person, the objects within hovering several feet off the ground and unable to move due to the severe stress encompassing their body.
Empathy
His mind had always been an open one, easily reading people's moods by body-language and the numerous other signs. The magical power infusing the glasses steadily began leaking into him the moment he first started wearing them, strengthening this ability to superhuman levels.
He can easily sense the general emotions of the people in his immediate area (rough estimates put it at 30 feet), and the ability to read specific emotions from a target he extends a reasonable amount of focus to. This enables him to fortify one's mind against intrusion or manipulation, as well as apply a burst of energy to enable increased attentiveness, resistance to pain, and even modified strength.
He unconsciously exudes an aura of his own emotions, having a negligible to moderate effect on those in his immediate surroundings. This aura makes itself known in combat through obvious waves of emotional energy connecting him to his teammates and soothing any of their wounds, aches, and even going so far as to revitalize them for a short duration.
Additional Powers
He's recently discovered a way to use his gravitational control to press ambient light into a cohesive ball or wave and then propel these toward his enemies, as well as using a similar technique to condense the light around his body into a sort of barrier, reducing nearly all kinds of direct attacks on his person. The focus for these acts tends to drain him, and take his focus off his gravitational holds, so balancing them is taking a lot of work, both physical and mental.
Weaknesses
Jerry is very much a normal person in the sense that he's susceptible to sickness and overwhelming physical or mental stresses. His empathic abilities open him even further to emotional manipulation at a subconscious level. The only counter to this is a strength of willpower that will alert and free him from acting against his normal wishes. His defenses against physical attack only work if he's prepared for it, which is generally the case, but there have been instances of a cleverly-shielded mind being able to surprise him.
He himself is just as susceptible to gravitational control as he is adept at using it. His countering of gravitational disturbances is severely lacking in power, as the fight against the Praetorian version of himself severely weakened him in this area. That combined with the fact that it takes an intense amount of energy and concentration to keep up his physical defense, since a lapse could end with him collapsed into oblivion, mean a skilled enough assault on a number of senses would bring him down rather quickly.
His mind is also an open book to telepaths, but is layered in learned defenses. The vast majority of surface thoughts and emotions are easily read by anyone with an ability for non-intrusive means, getting increasingly more noticeable and difficult the deeper and harder one digs. Thanks to the trio of psyches embedded at the deepest levels, a flash of pain and momentary, almost schizophrenic break, will occur, leaving him physically helpless while an internal struggle for psychic dominance plays out, if one is powerful enough to penetrate the wall at the deepest levels of his mind.
He's also been accused of being a sucker for dangerous women, to which he will neither agree or deny. On several occasions has he almost met his end with a woman involved. He learns certain lessons each time, but is decidedly opposed to the cessation of mingling.
"What can I say? Women're easily the more dangerous sex, but I couldn't imagine a life without'em. Life's not worth livin' if ya don't enjoy a little bit'a danger."
