Mr Mundane
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| The Common Man | |
| Mr Mundane | |
| |
| A Portrait in Grey | |
| 50 Natural Tanker | |
| Willpower / War Mace | |
| Player: @CastorQuinn | |
| Activity Level: Frequent | |
| Basic Information | |
| Real Name: | John Sebastian Smith |
|---|---|
| Aliases: | None needed |
| Titles: | None |
| Rank: | Tertiary Tier |
| Physical Identifiers | |
| Species: | Human |
| Sub-Type: | Caucasian |
| Gender: | Male |
| Apparent Age: | Early 30s |
| Height: | 5'8" |
| Weight: | 140lbs |
| Build: | Average |
| Complexion: | Average |
| Eye Color: | Grey |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Distinguishing Features | |
| None whatsoever | |
| Biographical Data | |
| Birthdate: | 11 November, 1976 |
| Birthplace: | Newbury, Berkshire |
| Nationality: | English |
| Residence: | Kings Row, Paragon City |
| Occupation: | Consulting logistician |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Legal Status: | Registered Hero |
| Relatives & Associates | |
| One brother, details unknown. | |
| Known Powers | |
| Statistically anomalous but otherwise non-powered. | |
| Skills & Abilities | |
| Common touch, insight; ability to blend into a crowd and pass without notice; statistical analysis, pattern recognition; research, database management, filing. | |
| Equipment | |
| Bowler hat and a shovel. | |
A non-powered hero with no particular skills but an heroic disposition and a commitment to the Reciprocators, John Smith had a traumatic introduction to the group which caused him to almost immediately retreat to the safety of administrative work in the Citadel while he dealt with his personal demons, mostly out of sight of his team mates. However all that is now behind him, and since returning to active duty, reenergised and with a positive outlook on life and more confidence in his own abilities, Mr Mundane has been supportive of his allies both in the field and on a personal level, brave in the face of the worst that Paragon's villainy can throw at him, and secure in the knowledge that he's an important member of an heroic family that have the same commitment to and support for him that he feels for them.
When not in the field (which is often, as he patrols far less than most Reciprocators), John can usually be found at his desk in the Citadel's Security Room, running stats and monitoring comms and activity in Paragon City, relaxing in the comfy chair that Static Bolter put there for him after seeing how many hours he spent sitting at that computer. He also maintains a flat in King's Row where he sleeps most nights.
Contents |
Background
John Sebastian Smith was born 1975 in Newbury, an unremarkable town in Berkshire, England. He performed slightly above average at school, attained his A-levels and went on to attend university, where he completed a Bachelor of Business Management with a major in Logistics, achieving a distinction average.
After several short-term positions in various European countries, John Smith was employed as a Logistician with Boxco Ltd, a medium-sized packing and shipping company based out of London. He performed well, and after five years with the company was promoted to middle management. When Boxco sought to expand overseas, Mr Smith was sent as part of a management team to Paragon City to establish an American branch office.
While in Paragon City, John formed a relationship with fellow ex-pat Sarah Saunders. They lived together for three years until she eventually left him for being "too ordinary".
In 2007 Boxco decided to close the US office, but by this stage John had encountered the Reciprocators, and decided to remain in Paragon City rather than return to England. Mr Smith is currently on the casual payroll of Boxco Ltd as a local area consultant, and does some freelance work for other companies.
Publications
John has actually co-authored or been statistical analyst on several papers published in academic journals as diverse as the Oxford Journal of Statistics, the American Journal of Accountancy, the Kinsey Microbiological Research Papers and the Australian Journal of Linguistics. In each case John was approached by an academic who had read his graduate thesis on new applications of statistical modelling and wanted him to apply his analysis to look at their fields in new ways - he would bring the statistical expertise to their papers. A couple of these papers were of mild interest at the time, but none were ground-breaking and most have passed into academic obscurity.
One paper has just been published with John as co-author of which he is very proud. However he has never mentioned this to his super-hero friends, as the paper is titled Super-Ego: A Statistical Analysis of Personality Disorders in Superheroes, and he is fearful that his friends may be uncomfortable around him if they knew of his involvement - especially as many of the milder personality disorders are present in the ranks of the Reciprocators. He still keeps a copy of the Trinity Journal of Psychology with his article in his desk draw in the Citadel's Security Room.
Character History
In an attempt to become less "ordinary", John Smith took up various trades, hobbies and sports including martial arts, where he discovered that, despite a lack of any real natural ability, he was more effective in a fight than was statistically average. John had always enjoyed better luck than was usual, but when witnessing a mugging in King's Row he decided to take a chance and see whether his statistically improbable winning streak continued outside the controlled environment of the dojo. It did, and in the process he attracted the attention of Officer Zap and Black Starbeam who trialled and then inducted him into the Reciprocators.
That night Black Starbeam invited John - who had adopted the self-depreciating name of 'Mr Mundane', a title Sarah Saunders had used when explaining why she was leaving him - to accompany the Reciprocator leader and six other Shield of Paragon heroes - including Officer Zap, Kitsuki Kaijuko and Static Bolter - to Praetorian Earth, where the Reciprocators and their allies were running recon on Siege, the evil, parallel-Earth Citadel. Mr Mundane had only ever been involved in two mundane fist-fights up to this point, and was completely out of his depth; he witnessed his new-found friends falling from terrible wounds all around him, and he himself nearly died on seven or eight occasions, only to be snatched away by the Citadel of Defiance reclamators at the last moment. The experience traumatised him. His next two solo outings saw him beaten into unconsciousness by the Skulls, and left for dead in the sewers by a band of Lost. His confidence was shattered, and for two months he was too paralysed with fear to even leave his house, though he hid this from his comrades, feigning work commitments.
Two months later John Smith attempted to regain his confidence by acquiring a Reciprocators uniform, which required him to consult with Annah in the dangerous environs of Croatoa. Although ultimately a success, the expedition was a farce which he barely survived. Without ever donning his super-group uniform, John Smith retired the Mr Mundane persona and returned to the Citadel of Defiance not as a hero but at the behest of Black Starbeam, who employed him on a small stipend to analyse and streamline the base expenditure of power and resources - a task for which John found himself better suited.
Six months of being in the Citadel, of reading logs of field activity, monitoring communications, running support tasks as his role expanded and being around the Reciprocators made him feel like a part of the team. More importantly, he saw the amazing support network that had built up in the group, that kept the heroes safe from themselves as much as from villainous threats. However John still feared that his lack of powers and experience would make him a liability in the field, and that his inevitable shortcomings would lose him his position in the group.
During this time he came in contact with a relatively benign cell of Freakshow operating out of a warehouse in the Argosy Industrial Park. John flirted with the idea of joining this group as they all felt the same sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the face of the super-powered threats that assailed the city, and all sought to make themselves stronger at any cost, so they would never feel traumatised by overpowering villainy ever again. However John never took the Crey super-serum or received any of the Freak implants - on the eve of his first modification a Freak Juicer called Byron, who had become friends with Mundane, carried him bodily to the Chiron Medical Centre and left him in the care of the hospital staff. Byron left Mundane a note, and by the time he was released from hospital John had decided not to return to the Freaks. He returned to his job in the Citadel. So far as John knows, none of his Reciprocator colleagues know of his association with the Freaks, though his detailed knowledge of the group has raised some eyebrows on occasion.
In late 2007, almost a year after first encountering the Reciprocators on the streets of King's Row, John Smith was visited in a dream by a Shard spirit. Without identifying its purpose, except to say that it was watching the Reciprocators with interest, the spirit conversed with John, and in the process John overcame the fears that prevented him from fully embracing the opportunity that being a member of the Reciprocators offered him. The spirit also gifted him with a perfectly mundane shovel, a weapon but also a representation of the metaphor for the fight against evil - a metaphor that had been established in the dream visitation, and which John Smith now takes to heart.
In April of 2008 Mr Mundane, alongside fellow 'Cip Yuki Frost, was offered the opportunity to trial as an officer of the Reciprocators, an opportunity which John leapt at. He and Yuki both passed their trials and were accepted as officers of the Tertiary Tier.
Hero of the City
In late June 2008 John Sebastian Smith was awarded Hero of the City. Gladys, an elderly woman who lived up the road from John, told him that her handbag had been snatched by a Skull about an hour previously so John got the aid of a few 'Cips, they spread out around the thuglands of King's Row and knocked a few Skulls, and within about five minutes they'd found the handbag (as well as several other stolen wallets and purses) which John then returned to the grateful woman. John stayed with her for a few hours, drinking copious amounts of tea and looking through photo albums until she had calmed down and was no longer concerned about the thugs.
A couple of days later John received a message to meet with Statesman at Crowne Memorial where he was visiting with some of the patients. Statesman took Mr Mundane aside and presented him with the Hero of the City medal, commending him for not losing sight of the small, every-day villainy that goes on in Paragon City, and saying:
- "A big part of being a hero is making people feel safe, and protected, and most importantly cared for. Villainy, big and small, will always be a problem, and we can't stop it all, but when it happens to them people need to feel like they are not alone, that the community cares about what has happened to them, and that someone is there to step in and help them when help is needed. It's such a little thing, but it makes a world of difference to the victims of a crime, just to know that what has happened to them is important.
- "Through your continued efforts in this respect you have earned this accolade. Keep up the good work Mr Mundane."
This was the first time that John had ever spoken directly to Statesman, whom he greatly admires and looks up to, and he was too awe-struck to get out much more than a 'thank-you' before Statesman returned to his work at the hospital.
John is incredibly proud of his medal and keeps it in a box in the top drawer of his desk.
Shield Breaking
In 2009 the Countess Crey took advantage of circumstances to launch a serious attempt to destroy the Reciprocators. Although her attempt ultimately failed, in part due to the unpredictability of The League of Misfits, the assault finally resulted in the disbanding of the Shield of Paragon, the long-lived and dynamic alliance of heroic groups which the Reciprocators had co-founded. As a part of this attack on the 'Cips John found his hero license revoked due to a mistake in the paperwork, which resulted in his visa being cancelled. Rather than leave his friends in a time of trouble John moved into the Citadel; the Citadel teleporters were deactivated by the Paragon authorities (as another prong of the Countess' assault), leaving John living alone in the Citadel for over a month, with only Resistance and Justice, the robotic butlers, and Subtractor's three-legged dog Pythagoras for company. John fulfilled a very important role at this time, maintaining communication between the 'Cips, processing information and keeping everyone linked. He also grew a beard which he has kept. Even more than before he now considers the Citadel his home, and spends many nights sleeping in the barracks rather than returning to his underused flat in King's Row.
The Auspician
In 2010 John adopted the persona of a powerful but untrained natural mage and, with the assistance of the 'Cips, managed to build up a public profile as a reckless, arrogant solo operative. This was to allow him to draw out and capture a villain who was hunting young mages, and who had killed a new friend of John's, La Chemise Rouge. Although ultimately the villain was taken to ground, the chase took John out of Paragon city for weeks at a time and for a period of almost nine months John was barely present in the Citadel and rarely worked with the Fists. Because of the chaotic events of the time, several other high-profile members taking a break after the traumatic events of the Shield Breaking, an influx of new heroes and John's generally unobtrusive nature this absence was barely noticed by many of the 'Cips, who simply thought he was a bit preoccupied.
Personality
John tends not to grab attention by his presence, personality or appearance. Conversation with him is enjoyable, but not especially entertaining or gripping unless he makes a serious effort to be effusive and engaging. He is unobtrusive, and his presence is innocuous. He comes across as a nice, pleasant, average guy, but he is largely forgettable, and only those who know him well see him as anything other than 'just some guy'. Even when he takes to the field with the 'Cips, onlookers tend to focus on the other heroes and forget that he was there, and many a time the news will report that disaster was averted "by Yuki Frost and a colleague" or that villains were apprehended by "Static Bolter and a fellow Reciprocator". There's no magic at work here; Mr Mundane just doesn't stand out. John generally isn't upset by this; he prefers staying in the background, unnoticed, and becomes nervous when he's the focus of attention.
Previously quite shy and introverted, John has come out of his shell somewhat since becoming an officer of the 'Cips, and the change is a deliberate one: John considers the most important thing he brings to the Reciprocators to be grounding, a mundane perspective from an average man in the street. After several conversations with Kit he has come to realise that this is his greatest strength as a member of the team, and he believes this is why he was made an officer. As a consequence John tries hard to maintain a presence in the group; he spends much time in the Citadel so as to be around his colleagues as much as possible, he joins his fellow heroes whenever they are relaxing or having drinks, he says hello to 'Cips that he sees, shakes their hands, pats them on the back and congratulates them on a job well done. John is active on comms, participating in most conversations. He is always up-beat and enthusiastic, reassuring, encouraging and congratulating his team mates, in an attempt to keep morale high. He sees himself as a peace-maker, stepping into disagreements between heroes to calm them down. In the field he engages in banter, keeping spirits high as well as keeping the group bonded. This up-beat personality is not hard for John to project; he is honestly thrilled to be a hero, he loves what he is doing, and loves being a Defiant Fist. He honestly could not be happier than he is right now as a member and officer of the Reciprocators.
John has a very classical view of heroing, and this can cause some tension between him and some of the less idealistic heroes he works with. He grew up idolising heroes like Statesman, Back Alley Brawler and his native Dawn Patrollers, and holds them up as ideals that all heroes should aspire to be like. John respects the Surviving Eight, and considers it the greatest of honours to have the opportunity to work alongside them, but he has an even greater respect for those heroes who gave their lives to save the citizens they protect: people like Atlas, Galaxy Girl and of course Hero 1 and all of Omega Team. He enjoys the idea of being a hero, and fighting the good fight, and has a poor opinion of 'anti-heroes', those who break the law or push the limits of pure heroism in the pursuit of justice - he believes heroes need to be unequivocally heroic if they are to be heroes at all. Although he works with 'darker' heroes and even villains on occasion, on this topic John is vocal and will not be swayed: a hero's responsibility is to live his life as an example of the very best that humanity has to offer, no matter the circumstances. Even among the Reciprocators, a group that only rarely dabbles with the grey area between good and evil, this is an idealistic belief.
For the most part John feels no malice and little anger towards villains, seeing them as just regular people who followed the wrong path in life - their villainous activities need to be stopped, but he believes that most people will be good if just given the chance, and some support and encouragement. Villainous organisations attract his (admittedly pretty mild) ire, but on an individual basis John's dominant attitude towards the villains he fights against is sympathy. When working as a part of a team John will often taunt larger opponents to keep their attention focused on him, knowing he has a good chance of avoiding any critical hits, but, coupled with his very 'British' sensibilities, his taunts are so lacking in aggression or sting that they are comical.
Powers
John Smith's effectiveness is a statistical anomaly. In a fight, enemy attacks don't often seem to connect or, if they do, don't do much damage, while his own moves, clumsy and basic though they are, just happen to work. When presented with a choice of corridors, directions, rooms, boxes or anything in life, he chooses the right one more often than is statistically likely. His uncanny luck is exactly that, however - uncanny, but not absolute. Nine times out of ten an attack will miss John or fail to do any real damage, but that tenth time John will take the hit, and as he lacks any physical defences, super powers or even above-average constitution, those hits that do connect hurt. John will be bruised and battered after even a short, straight-forward run, while a difficult, dangerous or lengthy mission may leave him too injured to take to the field for days afterwards. John has put a great amount of effort into increasing his on-the-field stamina, after several early runs with the 'Cips left him winded long before they had achieved their goals. John is proud of the fact that he can now keep pace with most heroes, and though he'll never have the muscle tone or longevity of a classical paragon, he's fit enough not to leave his team in the lurch as he used to do.
Lacking the regenerative or defensive powers of many heroes and their physical conditioning and experience, John is easily hurt, and concludes most missions with significant bruising, sprains, pulled muscles and other minor injuries. To mitigate the day-after stiffness and lessen the effect these injuries have on his performance John has developed an extensive after-care regimen for himself, which includes relaxation techniques, muscle balms and relaxants, massage, essential oils and baths, all designed to get him back to match fitness as quickly as possible. He makes extensive use of the Citadel's well-equipped medlab to deal with the more serious injuries he occasionally receives. When he's not 100%, John tends to remain active in the Citadel, monitoring the comms and getting on with his administrative work, only taking to the field when his allies need his support. John ensures that he eats well, and though he has dropped the scientifically-designed, high protein diet that he attempted briefly he does take special supplements designed to help his body recover from the rigours of being a superhero.
John's attacks do little real damage. Being hit in the head with a shovel can leave an opponent dazed, and with a lucky sweep John can knock someone off their feet; it's rare for John's attacks to cause serious injury. Betsy is a particularly effective weapon against objects, however, and this includes robots like the Clockwork and Rikti drones. John is good at chasing off thugs like the Skulls and Hellions, but only takes the fight to more experienced villains if working with other heroes where his strategy of keeping the enemy focused on him, trusting to his uncanny luck to keep him safe, while disorienting foes with slaps from his shovel and knocking them over by smacking them on the legs buys time for the other heroes to do what they do best.
Aside from his combat prowess, John is also very non-descript, and tends to go unnoticed unless he draws particular attention to himself. He blends into the background, the shadows and most terrains because of his habitual grey suit as well as his subtle and quiet movements, and just as easily disappears in a crowd or an urban setting because he fits in so perfectly. People have a hard time remembering the details of his face or his conversation. This allows him to get into situations where a hero would attract too much attention, and he is often the 'Cips' 'man on the inside'. Infiltration by pretending to be a regular citizen has become a hallmark of his work, and he often allows himself to be captured by unsuspecting villains in order to get information back out to the 'Cips waiting to storm the enemy stronghold.
Other than this unusual 'luck' and his ability to pass unnoticed in most places, John has no powers, training or particular skills that make him stand out as a superhero. John doesn't spend much time dwelling on why he is statistically aberrant, but investigation with Flux and exposure to certain artefacts by Azuria as part of a mission he undertook with her have determined that at the very least there is no magical basis to his luck.
As a 'Cip
Over the years of working with organised yet idiosyncratic and varied teams of heroes, and learning from such tacticians as Black Starbeam, Officer Zap and more recently Sean Cassus and the Subtractor, John has become very tactically aware, recognising in the field of battle the same patterns he explores in his statistical analyses; John is able to spot gaps in friendly and enemy formations, moving to cover them and coordinating the team in a way that improves the whole team's performance. He carefully studies each hero's strengths and weaknesses, considering their powers and how best they can be utilised as a part of a team; this is because his initial stint as a hero was a very steep learning curve, as he adjusted to the Shield of Paragon's wide variety of powers and very dynamic team compositions. John has whole-heartedly adopted the Reciprocators' love of banter when in the field, seeing its value in keeping everyone aware of their team mates and in boosting morale but also just really enjoying the team mentality it fosters; he constantly chatters throughout missions.
The Reciprocators have never really had a resident medical specialist, though there has been a succession of heroes with some degree of medical expertise stepping in and taking over this role within the group, such as Alexus Apollo, and John's good friend Neutron Light. The lack of a dedicated doctor or healer in the group means that most officers have learned to be field medics, and John is no exception. The injuries he treats most often are his own, or those of civilians, but when the need arises he can tend to his fellow heroes.
John's experience as a logistician and statistician has allowed him to support the Reciprocators in many surprising ways, giving the Fists certain advantages they might not otherwise have had. John is naturally very good at allocating and managing resources, which in this context means figuring out how heroes' powers can most effectively and efficiently be combined for maximum effectiveness. He is very good at coordinating people which, combined with exposure to battle tacticians in the ranks of the 'Cips, allows him to contribute to tactical discussions and help to coordinate a team in the field.
Perhaps his signature role within the group is as an analyst. John utilises the power of the Citadel computer and the huge quantities of data fed to the 'Cips from their own field activities, the activities of their allies, and public sources of information, to track activity in Paragon City and in the Isles. Over the years John has been able to establish profiles for various villainous organisations and other power groups, and by analysing changes in their patterns of behaviour is able to in some ways predict their behaviour. The most successful target of this analysis is the Council; thanks to constant involvement with the Council courtesy of Yuki Frost and Kitsuki Kaijuko, the 'Cips have been able to anticipate almost every major action by the Council in Paragon City and prepare an appropriate response. The longer John gathers this data, the better his predictive models become. It's worth noting that John is not a 'maths wiz'; this is bog standard statistical modelling turned to an unusual subject, and made possible by the huge quantities of data gathered by the Reciprocators.
John is a straight-down-the-line hero who takes a very classical view of how to be a hero. Although the Reciprocators are far from some of the darker, more violent, more vigilante attitudes of some of the 'anti-hero' groups operating in Paragon City, his attitudes do sometimes bring him into conflict with his fellow fists. John frequently finds himself being the voice of law and order, and on a few occasions has found himself voicing concerns about Black Starbeam's more hands-on approach to the law. However John always supports his team mates whether he agrees with a plan or not, and trusts to the experience of the other officers, content simply to voice his perspective; so far this approach hasn't caused any tensions within the group, and the fact that the Reciprocators and their officers for the most part tend towards the lawful, restrained and good side of heroing is probably a large part of this.
Equipment
John's only weapon is Betsy, his signature shovel. Although he takes exceptionally good care of her, Betsy is neither magical nor in any way extraordinary. The shovel was gifted to him by a spirit of the Shadow Shard which once investigated the dreams of the Reciprocators; although the Shard spirit had little interest in John, being primarily curious about Pariah Flux and her powerful compatriots, the interaction was critical to John, being the point at which he finally overcame his early fears and became able to fully accept his position as a hero and Defiant Fist. The shovel is a metaphor for his fight against villainy: John is one man whose efforts are akin to attempting to level a mountain by standing atop it and reducing it one shovel of dirt at a time - individually, a futile gesture, but collectively, alongside many other heroes, each small change contributes to a reshaping of even the most imposing of mountains. This metaphor is core to John's approach to heroing, and is represented by his shovel.
Very early in his career as a Reciprocator, John was given hydraulic piston boots designed by Akechi (Officer Zap), intended to allow John to keep pace with his super-powered colleagues in the field. John found the sensation of leaping in huge bounds through the air to be unsettling at first and rarely used them, but he adjusted to the exhilarating feeling and he can often be seen leaping from rooftop to rooftop in King's Row just for the thrill of it. John rarely attempts to use them in combat situations, and he is incapable of using them while carrying another person because this unbalances the delicate calibration of the boots and causes him to crash to the ground. John often leaps to high points in the city, such as the tops of very tall buildings, just to look at the spectacular panoramas on offer in Paragon City, and is especially fond of sunsets - this is one perqs of being a superhero that John fully embraces.
Static Bolter once gifted John with a normal-looking pen which contained, hidden inside, a UV lamp, a set of lockpicks and a miniature laser, something he treasures because of it's symbolism: that the ordinary can contain something extraordinary. John has a battle suit, designed by Akechi and tweaked by Cyberette, which he stores in the Citadel but which he rarely uses; for all the protection, strength and power it provides, John just isn't very adept at using it, and only really pulls it on if tackling a mission somewhere he needs environmental protection.
Friends
More than most heroes, John's friends are very much responsible for his ability to perform as a hero.
Jennifer Watkins
Jennifer is a reporter and journalist, working both freelance and for several news outlets at various points in her career. John met Jennifer when attempting to free her and other hostages being held by the Banished Pantheon in Talos Island. Although ultimately the hero went down under the undead forces he held them at bay long enough for other 'Cips to arrive and save the citizens. A few months later, John allowed himself to be captured by the Circle of Thorns, who mistook him for a regular citizen, so that he could effect the escape of citizens the mages intended to sacrifice, and once again Jennifer Watkins found herself fascinated by the lengths the unpowered Mr Mundane would go to simply to hold the line long enough for 'real' heroes to arrive and save the day.
Realising how valuable a contact an everyman within a renowned heroic organisation would be to her, and how much she could offer a hero who operated under the radar, Jennifer began working with John and the two shared information and leads. The more fruitful this arrangement became, the more Jennifer became impressed by the hero's down-to-earth approach to heroing, his modesty and his loyalty to and love of his friends in the Reciprocators; for his part, John appreciated that Jennifer was always straight with him, and he respected that she was sincerely trying to play her part in keeping the citizens safe, by doing the only thing she could do: keeping them informed.
The two have since become very good friends, and Jennifer is John's closest and most trusted ally outside the Reciprocators. The two often spend time together, and have a standing dinner date once a fortnight which Jennifer treats John in exchange for him keeping her own dark secret: she writes under an assumed name as a food critic for one of Paragon's less-respected magazines.
Byron
A juicer in the (relatively) benign Argosy cell of the Freakshow, John's history and relationship with Byron is something he has kept hidden from everyone, even his close friends in the Reciprocators, out of embarrassment and some degree of shame.
The trauma of his introduction to heroing left John feeling weak and vulnerable, and he became fearful that his lack of powers and experience would result in the deaths of his team mates and his being rejected by his new friends. He was drawn to the Freaks like so many others who felt helpless and desperately sought strength. There he met Byron, an Australian who had lost his beloved wife tragically early in their relationship to marauding thugs and had joined the Freaks out of desperation. Byron recognised that John still had friends who cared about him and forcibly deposited him at the hospital rehab facility on the eve of the hero's being inducted into the Freaks, to save him from himself - a debt that John feels he can never repay.
John and Byron occasionally meet to talk - for John, this is an expression of gratitude and a recognition of how close he came to losing himself, and for Byron it is the last vestiges of his humanity seeking the friendship and conversation he can't find with the Freaks. Although John is a paragon of virtue when it comes to being a hero, he does take steps to keep the Argosy cell out of reports and under the radar, so long as they don't cross over into harassment of the citizens of Paragon City. In a couple of dire situations John has even called on Byron and his Freaks for assistance, such as by having them distract the PPD while the Reciprocators broke the law to save a captured team mate. Byron has yet to call in any of the favours John now owes him.
So far as John knows, noone knows about his relationship with Byron, though John's intimate knowledge of the Freaks and how they operate has raised some eyebrows from his colleages. John suspects that Black Starbeam has a good idea of the situation, but that out of respect for John he has not looked into the matter further.
Stories
Some stories are posted to threads locked to all but members of the Reciprocators.
- Perspective
- You've Got To Be Kidding Me
- Land of the Lost - or How I Learned to Stop Being Emo and Start Loving the Shovel.
- The Tree
- Friendship
- Mundanely Extraordinary - a Perspectives story by Yuki Frost (locked).
- The Rescue of Jennifer Watkins (locked).
- Battlefield - a Perspectives story by Showstarter (locked).
- Incompetence (locked).
