Pridemaker
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| Pridemaker | |
| Player: @M I M | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Threat Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Alicia Padopolis |
| Known Aliases: | Pride, Big Shipper |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 54 |
| Height: | 5'10" |
| Weight: | "Go To Hell" |
| Eye Color: | Hazel |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | CEO, Advanced Expedited Systems |
| Place of Birth: | Glassboro, NJ / Crestwood, NJ |
| Base of Operations: | Founder's Falls, Paragon, RI |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None Known |
| Known Powers | |
| Unknown | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Unknown | |
| Equipment | |
| See PPD Notes | |
| "Speed limits are for people who drive boring cars." | |
Contents |
Seriously Under Construction. No, seriously.
CONTINUATION CHARACTER
No break in continuity has occurred. Only Pridemaker's birthdate has been revised to make her 54 as of 2019.
Alicia "Pridemaker" Padopolis
Her family name the victim of a sloppy immigration agent decades ago, her great grandparents took a particular interest in ships and transport. They founded a company which thrived, till people realized that steam power beat sails. But it was already in the blood, and her grandparents founded a new company. Learning from their errors, they instead contracted with the best ships available, guaranteeing full loads or paying only for space they needed and using intermodal extensively.
Alicia's past is somewhat hazy due to the incident that turned her into a mutant, as well as suspected dealing with organized crime. To the extent of records available, she was to be born in Glassboro, New Jersey but her mother was transferred to Crestwood, New Jersey during labor due to a fire in the maternity wing.
Alicia currently owns an entire building in Founder's Falls, occupying the first five floors. She has relocated her business to Paragon with the main office in Talos Island.
She is a constant pain to the Paragon Police Department, who are afraid to push things overmuch. Alicia was tried and acquitted fully of most charges from her time in the Rogue Isles, with the remainder being dismissed or acquitted by reason of mental incapacity due to the mutation. She frequently speeds in her many cars, often doing twice the posted limit.
Alicia has fought the law, suing the Federal government and the state of New Jersey over the raid on her warehouse, and won. The final judgment was sealed by agreement of all parties, but it is believed that she was awarded somewhere in the area of 30 to 40 million dollars by the jury for lost profits.
Public Face and Publicity
Since her recovery, Alicia has resumed duties, and often is the public face of her businesses. She is almost never seen without tinted glasses, due to side-effects from the mutagen. While she rarely grants interviews, she is an extremely public figure and very outspoken. She has her own YouTube channel, 'Ask The Boss,' where she posts videos where she explains everything from international maritime law to why animal conservation matters. She also operates several Instagram accounts including @Cars_of_Paragon, @Paragon_Performance, @TracksideNewEngland, and @WildWildLife in addition to her personal Instagram @Pridemaker. Alicia frequently uses lawyers to shut down impersonators and 'placeholder' accounts, and has no presence on other social media.
Since her return, she serves as the public face of AES more often than not, and performs numerous public appearances to represent the company. However, she is known to be very strict about these appearances. Before she will agree, any interviewer or presenter must agree that certain topics are strictly off-limits, and certain video and photo angles are also forbidden. Despite this, she regularly appears - typically by telephone - on business shows to talk about the shipping industry and maritime law in general. Within business circles she is not only well known, but highly respected, and sometimes feared.
Alicia has publicly feuded with several prominent car personalities, primarily over whether or not 'collector' cars should be driven. She has both joined and hosted Jay Leno multiple times. One of her most popular videos with over 1 million views is 'Jay fails at lunch.' Filmed from a dash cam, it is Alicia and Jay sitting in her McLaren SLR, discussing their preferred techniques for waxing their cars. When Alicia passes Jay the bag of food, he drops it and the video cuts out.
She is extremely well known and very popular within the car enthusiast community in Paragon. She is widely known to pay Paragon City and the State of Rhode Island in order to provide a police escort and close down disused roads outside of Paragon proper on a weekly basis, in order to perform high speed runs. This began in 2011, and since 2014 she has opened these 'events' up to other cars in a limited fashion. Since 2016 she has hosted 'Cars and Coffee' every Saturday at Skyway City Garage, and a monthly 'Hypercar Hangout' at Founder's Foreign, with both events open to any and all car fans. She is always a visible presence at each, and always brings several of her best.
Alicia is also an amateur racer, primarily running autocross and time trials. Her helmet is immediately recognizable, as it is painted with an elaborate rainforest mural.
The Cause of the Chaos
Advanced Expedited Systems was based in Bayonne, New Jersey with additional warehousing and a private hangar in Lakewood, New Jersey. In 2005, AES was raided by the combined forces of the FBI, DEA, Vanguard, and local authorities who believed the company was trafficking in Rikti technology illegally. At the time of the raid, AES was repacking an export shipment of weapons and ammunition. Failing to make their announcement heard properly, the repacking staff believed they were being raided by the local mafia. Having weapons at hand, they began a firefight. Automatic weapons fire tore apart the entire facility, and severely damaged several crates that did in fact, contain unknown Rikti technology, as well as killing several live animals that were being held for quarantine.
Trying to get both sides to stop firing, Alicia was caught in the crossfire and critically injured. What happened after that is uncertain, but it is believed that one of the shipments or the combination of multiple shipments that were damaged had or caused a extremely virulent recombinant retrovirus. At some point, her blood is believed to have mixed with tiger blood, resulting in extreme mutations. These occurred while she was en route to the hospital. The extreme changes, pain, and side effects from the retrovirus resulted in insanity and a predilection to violence.
Pridemaker was being held in The Zig due to her mutations, as it is still largely considered the premiere metahuman and super containment facility on the Eastern seaboard. The problem being that while being held in the medical wing under guard, Arachnos launched their breakout operation. And took her along for the ride.
Years in the Rogue Isles aside, Pridemaker finally succeeded in finding a solution from an unknown scientist, which forced the retrovirus into remission. She returned to the United States to stand trial, and succeeded in getting acquitted on the charges that survived dismissal. One charge was settled with Alicia receiving a suspended sentence of probation, conditioned on continuing her treatment and not assaulting any law enforcement officers. Her probation was completed in July, 2014.
Biology
Alicia's biology has been severely altered from human, causing ongoing health problems. Despite years of work and intense research, the treatments only suppress the mutagen. It is impossible to cure. The mutagen itself has also been found to be extremely virulent, particularly when separated from human blood. Scientists hypothesize that it was a Rikti biological weapon, but have no way to confirm it. Because of this, the government continues to be heavily involved and exert substantial control over treatments and her medical care.
The virulent and polymorphic properties of the mutagen have also made it impossible to identify exactly what DNA or biological material Alicia was contaminated with. Identifying the involvement of tiger was easy due to her altered appearance, but the other contaminants have never been successfully identified or isolated. However, this has not significantly impacted research.
Without treatment, Alicia grows distinctly tiger patterned fur, and gains tremendous muscle density, the process of which is excruciatingly painful. Her body continually produces extremely potent neurotoxin, but she does not possess a true self-immunity. The neurotoxin is a unique amalgam with no antitoxin or treatment available. Her blood also possesses a never before seen 'anti-antigen' factor which does not suppress her own immune response. She can receive whole blood from any blood type, and if toxins could be removed, could donate to any type.
Alicia has a developed immunity to the worst effects of the toxins and her nerves appear to be truly immune, but the presence of it causes continual organ damage. Treatments have lowered the amount of toxin, but no means of removing it has been found. As a result, handling of her blood is extremely dangerous. At a toxin load of just 10%, skin contact with one drop of wet blood can cause seizures and permanent nerve damage. Full Biosafety level 2 precautions are required when treating her, and samples of her blood can only be handled in a BSL-4 or BSL-5 facility.
Of particular concern is that the neurotoxin can cross the blood-brain barrier by an unknown mechanism, and appears to either inhibit or damage memory centers when it does so. As a direct result, Alicia recalls very little of her time in the Rogue Isles, and sometimes has severe problems with short term memory. Attempts to further investigate have been abandoned, as the paralytic kills before it can cross the blood-brain barrier.
Businesses and Wealth
Pridemaker is one of the wealthiest residents of Paragon with a net worth estimated at well over $5B. She is famously private and rarely grants interviews, especially after her time in the Rogue Isles. It is known that she owns significant property in Italy, Austria, and Denmark; as well as six office buildings and two piers in Paragon, as well as other undisclosed real estate holdings. Alicia routinely employs corporate shells and holding companies to shield various assets from prying eyes. However, she is very careful to ensure taxes are paid promptly and in full. She also employs this strategy in her charitable entities, and is infamously guarded about how many organizations she funds partly or fully.
Her known public holdings include Advanced Expedited Systems, the '220 Main' multi-story office building in Founder's Falls, and the 110 Quay high-rise office building in Talos Island. AES itself owns South Dock Piers 1-3 in Independence Port, Pier 2 in Talos Island, South Landing B in Nerva Archipelago, 230 Main in Founder's Falls, 1155 Shoreside in Talos, 104-134 Independent Plaza in Nerva Archipelago, and dozens of other docks and buildings throughout the world. AES is a Class C corporation with a multiple tier share structure; up to 30% of shares are privately held by outside companies, but the remaining shares are held by people within AES. Alicia is known to have at least 25.1% of all shares, with 'super-voting' rights, allowing her to exercise absolute control on simple majority votes. Ordinary employees own an estimated 25%, with the remainder floating between investors and executives.
Alicia's most visible 'public' holdings are her cars, which she actively promotes and shows off. Unlike most collectors, she actively drives nearly all of her cars, and not only eschews but actively argues against multi-million dollar "never drive this" cars. She also has a penchant for unusual or atypical cars. Her own collection is valued at more than $12M USD, and includes some of the rarest cars in the world.
Alicia's will is known to leave more than 75% of her assets to various charities, but which charities is a closely kept secret. It is known that she views most 'scared straight' and 'jail reform' organizations very unfavorably. She has publicly said that her cars absolutely will not go to museums or people who won't drive them, as well.
Advanced Expedited Systems
NOTE: this requires extensive update Import/Export with main offices located in Talos Island, warehouses and piers in Talos Island, Independence Port and a satellite office in Nerva. AES ships everything, with a focus on extremely large raw materials shipments and highly specialized transport including live animals. They currently operate a fleet of ten intermodal semis. Their air fleet is comprised of an Ilyushin Il-96TP with pressurized cargo compartment for transport of live animals, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 purchased from FedEx after fire damage and rebuilt, a Bombardier Challenger 300 Cargo, and a modified Gulfstream G550 modified to extend it's range to 17,500km.
Despite the generally poor economic conditions, AES continues to record steady profits with a focus on the long term rather than short term gains. Profits for FY2009 were $39M USD and profits for FY2010 were $43M USD. This is a 32% increase over profits prior to the raid and seizure, largely attributed to an increase in facilities. AES' reputation among customers is excellent, and all Federal agencies contract non-exclusively with them for wildlife transport.
AES records are subject to incredible scrutiny due to Pridemaker's position as CEO and President, but are entirely aboveboard. There have been no irregularities, and law enforcement rates AES very highly due to their cooperation. Four attempted smuggling operations have been busted due to AES' cooperation in the past two years alone.
Falls Foreign Repair
Automotive repair shop in Founder's Falls, specializing in European makes. Highly rated by all their customers for being fast and extremely reasonable about repairs. Also equipped with a full service body shop including two paint booths. Certified by Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes AMG, Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. Ownership is split 51/49 with Alicia being the minority owner with the original owner as a "silent" partner.
Unlike Skyway City Garage, FFR has not expanded the shop in any way. Partly due to a lack of real estate and space in Founder's Falls. They have instead focused on efficiency and upgrading their technology and training. FFR employs the only independent Mercedes AMG certified mechanic in Paragon, as well as the only Porsche GT3 Gold Meister.
Skyway City Garage
Automotive repair and tuning shop in Skyway. Specializes in high performance cars of all makes and performance modifications. Well known throughout the city for excellent work and being willing to do modifications others won't due to difficulty or complexity. Ownership is split 60/40 with Alicia being the majority owner. Formerly having a reputation as being an employer of Skulls who would try to deal drugs out of the shop, Alicia has cleaned the operation up completely. Customer reviews are mixed, though generally attributed to the customers not knowing what they were really in for - such as the customer dissatisfied with the extremely poor gas mileage of a V8 converted Ford Escort.
Skyway City Garage has grown to become the second largest auto shop by bays in Paragon, has in-house machining and fabrication as of 2015, and boasts of a highly diverse client base. They have also launched several subsidiaries to sell their parts outside of Paragon. Their work is highly respected and in demand, and they have collected a number of wins at SEMA and similar shows.
Specialty Wheels East, LLC
A joint venture with Michelin, Tanabe USA, and General Electric. Most commonly written as 'SWE'. Limited in house production, but primarily contracts with other manufacturers to produce accurate and licensed reproductions of high technology wheels in limited numbers. Offers several internally designed high technology wheels including 3D printed all-carbon fiber, fiberglass-composite wheels (technology purchased from Shelby American,) and solid-billet motorsports wheels.
Black Marlin Auto Parts
Offers a wide variety of parts primarily based on work performed for customers or show cars. As a result, there is no apparent rhyme or reason to what they offer. However, their offerings are always considered of the highest quality. In order to improve shop-to-shop sales they began reselling parts from other reputable manufacturers in 2017.
Personal Livery
NOTE: requires extensive updates Pridemaker is fanatical about transport in general, especially cars. She owns a significant collection of both cars and absurd speeding tickets - including one for 94MPH in a 25MPH zone. Most of her cars are foreign, one key exception being her 1987 Buick GNX. Often referred to as her "baby," she is the original owner, and paid nearly twice list to get Buick to build "just one more" after the production run had finished and she had been unable to buy one. Other than the "+1" serial number, it is an entirely authentic GNX and kept factory original with over 200,000 miles on it.
- 2011 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG - Daily Driver
- 1987 Buick GNX "+1"
- 2001 BMW M3 GTR Road Model (Imported)
- 2000 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0 SE (Marrone Eklipsis) - Almost never driven, total garage queen.
- 1998 Chevrolet Caprice - Re-engined with Corvette ZR1 driveline, 1996 Impala SS suspension and brakes
- 1994 Ford Escort Cosworth RS T35 - Upgraded to full WRC driveline including ECU, interior intact.
- Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition - Dashboard autographed by David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen.
- 1989 Shelby CSX-VNT - Factory re-engined as a Turbo III 16 Valve VNT Turbo
- 2012 Alfa Romeo 4C (Reserved, US Model)
- 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera Spider 4WD (Garaged in UK)
