Psychotical
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Psychotical's Mk V Techweave Bodysuit | |
| Psychotical | |
| Player: User:Sardonic Paladin | |
| Origin: | natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Nat Prudeau |
| Known Aliases: | Psy, Crayola Wonder (obsolete) |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 35 |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Weight: | 210 |
| Eye Color: | green |
| Hair Color: | none |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | chairman, Paragon Naturally |
| Place of Birth: | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Base of Operations: | Founders Falls, Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | father René, mother Christina, sister Heather (all deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| martial arts, willpower | |
| Known Abilities | |
| fitness, flight, concealment | |
| Equipment | |
| Mk IV armor, Mk II helmet, Hovercloak armor vest | |
| Psychotical has a fear of confined spaces. | |
Psychotical is my first "serious" character. He came about when playing around in the character creator and becoming enamored with the "Psych" costume pattern, and "Psychotical" was the name that I came up with to tie into the pattern I was using. The idea of developing a character concept around him was a total afterthought, and so what follows is an attempt to catch up to the name.
I would like to take a moment to give thanks to User:Ascendant, who greatly inspired me with his page on Ascendant. Give my page a read, then do yourself a favor and go read his, and see how the master writes. Ascendant deserves all the credit for not only the basic outline of my page, but the idea of the eWardrobe, which I basically included as a tribute to him. (On Ascendant's page, he calls this concept the "Televalet.") My only contribution to the idea was thinking of a description of how the technology would actually work. Ascendant, thanks for being such an inspiring and entertaining part of our game, and for being a fairly neat guy to boot. You rock.
Contents |
Origin
René Prudeau was born in Metarie, Louisiana on December 18, 1952 to Louis and Marie Prudeau. Louis was a construction worker and Marie was a teacher, and they scraped by in a lower-middle-class neighborhood. René finished high school with excellent grades, joined the Army, and eventually became a 2nd Lieutenant in Supply Management during Vietnam. While in Vietnam, he met a nurse named Christina Hartwell and the two were married December 26, 1972. René took a job with a textile company in Hartford, Connecticut following his discharge, and it was there that Nathaniel Edward Prudeau was born on September 20, 1975.
Nat starting taekwondo classes when he was four and immediately became obsessed with the martial arts and with helping people. By the time he turned 18, he had earned black belts in eight different disciplines, and had volunteered over 4,000 hours with various charities. He earned a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston in 1998 and took a job with a civil engineering firm in Paragon City upon graduation. Right away his new job took his lifestyle away, requiring him to work 16-17 hour days six days a week. He had no time for the dojo or volunteer work or friends, and he was getting two and three hours of sleep a night on top of the immense stress that his job was causing him. He was making very good money, but could never enjoy it. After about a year and a half of the pressure of this so-called life, Nat had a nervous breakdown. He became paranoid that everyone was working together to cause his downfall, he was having tactile and auditory hallucinations, and he became violent toward his loved ones. After a week, he realized that he was in trouble, and he checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.
During his seven weeks in Holly Hill, he admitted to his counselors that his job was killing him, that not having time to himself was adversely affecting him, and that he desperately needed a change. Under his doctor's recommendation, he resigned his position with the firm and was advised by his lawyer to sue for physical and psychological damages. A year later, Nat and the company settled out of court for a significant amount. During this time, he struggled to regain the social confidence he had before his psychotic episode, though he returned in earnest to the dojo and sharpened his martial arts skills, which helped a little. He took his medications faithfully, got regular sleep every night, and saw a therapist
A few months after the settlement, in 2002, the Rikti invaded Paragon City, and his whole world crumbled.
He and his whole family were rendered homeless by the Rikti forces, and they lived for months in one of the Red Cross shelters that served Paragon until the city's war walls could be built and its neighborhoods rendered somewhat safe for habitation. Eventually Nat moved into an apartment in Founder's Falls, and moved his family into a place on Peregrine Island - his father had always liked the sea - and life returned to normal, or as near to normal as it could in a city overrun by criminal elements in the wake of an alien invasion that obliterated dozens of cities around the globe. To help rebuild the city, Nat used the money from the settlement to help found Paragon Naturally, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing greenbelts across the ruined cityscape.
It wasn't the Rikti, but the rejuvenated Nemesis army, that forced Nat into action. Nat was visiting his family on Peregrine Island when suddenly a squadron of Nemesis forces, led by Lord Nemesis himself, attacked the family as they were walking down the street. Nat survived - in fact, he was barely hurt - but his mother and sister Heather were in critical condition for days, and his father was killed by a blast from Nemesis' wand. Nat was devastated. His mother's health began to deteriorate, his sister slid into depression, and he felt helpless to do anything about it. He confessed this to his sensei, Motosugo Shintani, who gently reminded him that he could, in fact, do something about it. Paragon City was home to hundreds of registered heroes, and not all of them were meta-humans, Sensei explained. Many were regular people who used equipment or weapons to defend against evil and villainry ... and Nat was the Sensei's best student in years, perhaps ever.
So at Sensei's behest, Nat went to Galaxy City and registered himself as a hero. Thinking of what might be a meaningful moniker, he recalled the collapse that he had rebuilt his life from, and chose the name Psychotical.
Recently, once it was made available to him, Psychotical took the measured step of accepting a Shard of the Incarnate, meaning that the path of the Incarnate was available to him to follow. Along with this came fundamental changes in his DNA, as listed below.
Powers
Martial Arts
Psychotical is an expert in many different forms of martial arts. He has a wide variety of attacks that he can call on to defeat his foes, but his favorites are "Eagles Claw," a devastating jumping high kick; "Dragon's Tail," a low spinning kick that knocks several enemies off their feet at once; "Crippling Axe Kick," a powerful high kick; "Crane Kick," a waist-high sideways kick that sends an opponent flying; and a flurry of quick punches made possible by a mystic talisman Psy discovered called the "Sands of Mu." It is because of his status as an Incarnate that he is now capable of doing super-human damage with every blow.
Willpower
Psychotical is an extremely tough fighter. Through his martial arts training, and through the training he has received from other heroes throughout Paragon City, he has developed an unusually high pain tolerance, heals much more quickly than most, hardly ever tires during combat, has exceptional resistance to almost every kind of damage known, rises to almost every challenge given him, has extremely heightened senses to his environment, and even has a miraculous second wind that he can call on when very near defeat. Because of his status as an Incarnate, this power is enhanced beyond anything that he could experience as a mortal man.
Abilities
Fitness
Because Psychotical's "powers" come from physical training, he is exceptionally fit, able to run, heal, and catch his breath much faster than most. Being an Incarnate enhances this slightly.
Flight
Psychotical has used many different methods to allow him to hover and fly through the air. While wearing spandex and the Mk I armor, he utilized a pair of rocket boots designed by the Crey Corporation that he acquired in a raid. The environmental concerns of using rocket fuel to travel around the city bothered Nat, so he started looking for other options of swiftly getting around. As he was finishing up his Mk II armor, he acquired both a set of piston boots that allowed him to leap across great distances and an alary dorsalpod containing a set of lightweight wings that allowed him to hover in place or travel through the air, albeit very slowly. This change was incorporated into the Mk II armor and carried over into the Mk III armor.
With the recent developments between Earth and Praetoria, commerce between the worlds became possible, though not common. He became aware of a piece of Praetorian technology called a Hovercloak armor vest, which was designed to allow the wearer to fly at any speed, with the added feature of providing concealment. He acquired this and once again began flying through the skies of Paragon City.
Once he became an Incarnate, he discovered that he no longer needed outside technology to fly, and thus the use of this equipment has been discontinued in the latest version of Psy's hero costume.
Concealment
Thanks to the Hovercloak technology, Psychotical has several levels of concealment technology available to him, from a simple camouflage into existing settings, to bending light beams around him to render him truly impossible to see, to phasing his corporeal body partially off this plane, making him not quite invisible but intangible. Becoming an Incarnate means he can stealth his body at will, and thus he no longer needs the Hovercloak either for flight or concealment.
Archenemies
Nemesis
Because of his father's death, Psychotical has a powerful grudge against the forces of Nemesis. After becoming involved in the hero community, he learned that it was almost certainly a "fake Nemesis," one of the multitude of self-powered suits of armor, that killed his father. He vows to destroy any such fake Nemesis he comes across, in the hopes that one day he'll defeat the man behind the armor and avenge his father's death. While he doesn't voice this among the hero community, he's quietly marshalling his resources to eventually lead an all-out assault on the Nemesis army.
Rikti
Psychotical frequently encounters these malevolent xenomorphs through their constant invasions in Paragon City and his regular excursions into the Rikti War Zone as a member of Vanguard. He is often called upon to help raid the crashed Rikti ship to turn back the horde of invaders that use the still-functioning portals on board as a means to access the earth. He has been recognized by Vanguard for his contributions to stem the tide of Rikti in Paragon City.
Banished Pantheon
While Psychotical hasn't often faced these abominations, he has an intense dislike of them due to their twisted designs on Earth's environment. This is something of a corporate obligation that Nat has because of his work, and though he doesn't usually directly square off against the Banished Pantheon, he funds superheroes in their objective against the Pantheon through Paragon Naturally.
Affiliations
Midnighters' Club
Psychotical has joined the exclusive Midnight Squad roster, a list that includes such legendary names as Pontice Doub, John Knox, and Tommy Arcanus, and such current luminaries as Montague Castanella, Mercedes Sheldon, and Percy Winkley.
Vanguard
Psychotical is active in the Vanguard Gauntlet, working under Serpent Drummer to counteract the presence of the Rikti in the War Zone and throughout Paragon City.
Capesters
The Capesters are Psychotical's current super group. The Capesters are in coalition with the Cape Radio Station, Virtue's finest player-run radio station, and Psychotical currently maintains a position on the Cape Radio's Street Team, a position that is reflected in his rank within the Capesters. The Capesters are a group of supporters of the radio station, who mostly socialize together, but their role in Paragon City is growing.
Uniforms and Costumes
Spandex
When Nat first started out in Paragon City as Psychotical, he wore a spandex costume of five different colors swirled with gray, with shoulder pads of a sixth color. The look was evocative of the name in that it was fairly chaotic in appearance. About the time he was awarded the right to wear a cape, he changed his color palette to primary colors (still with the gray swirl).
Mark I Armor
Eventually Nat realized that spandex was not very protective, nor did his costume provide any identity concealment, and so he began designing a new lightweight armor. He finally arrived on adding thin sheets of impervium to a leather bodysuit, and adding a thicker impervium chestplate and helmet that provides concealment, protection, and infrared capabilities for fighting in low-light conditions, as well as a filtering mechanism designed to assist in toxic situations. He developed many different versions of this armor, almost all with the impervium plating painted flat black and the leather bodysuit in varying colors. His main armor was still in the primary tones of red, blue, and yellow, though he would often wear a different palette to represent the season, a cause, or for functionality (for instance, he would wear a version of his armor with a black bodysuit and the impervium painted bright yellow whenever running missions to the crashed Rikti mothership to maximize visibility for his teammates).
Mark II Armor/Mark I Helmet
Over time, Psychotical came to the conclusion that the leather bodysuit was extremely warm for the summertime, and so he set out to design a new version of armor that protected him. For a brief period of time, he used a kevlar-based armor with impervium plating; however, this didn't fit well, and was similarly warm. He quickly set out to design a new version of armor that was comfortable, practical in combat, and effective as protection.
Mark III Armor/Mark II Helmet
This third version of Psychotical's armor was made of panels of extremely fine impervium chainmail over a thin layer of kevlar-lined cotton, with further impervium plating over strategic or structurally necessary areas. He maintained many different color schemes of the Mk III armor, though he tended to prefer the red/slate blue, medium blue/orange and brown/sky blue palettes the best. The tactical helmet was improved from the Mk I and II, providing both IR and UV spectrum visibility along with satellite communication capability and a vastly improved filtration system that is both able to protect against far more toxins than the previous model and one-third the size of its predecessor. This enables toxic filtration to take place completely unobtrusively. The armor was powered, which allowed Psychotical to attack with slightly more power than he would naturally be able to. As a side effect of this power boost, there was an electrical field which could be seen surrounding the Mk III armor at all times. Extended testing proved that this electrical field could be exploited to short-circuit the armor and render all electronics useless as well as making the armor as difficult to maneuver as driving an automobile with manual steering. He immediately set out to replace this armor as quickly as possible.
Mark IV Armor/Mark II Helmet/Hovercloak Armor Vest
The latest version of Psychotical's body armor was created after the stabilization of the dimensional rift between Earth and Praetoria, and thus this new Mk IV edition is heavily reliant on the superior technology available in this alternate world. The armor is made from a fabric that is lightweight, breathable, and stretchable like lycra; yet it is durable, tough, bulletproof and puncture-proof, and stronger, ounce for ounce, than Damascus steel. Attached to this in strategic places are plates of an impervium-strength metal that weighs a fraction of what impervium does. Over this is the Hovercloak armor vest that allows Psychotical to fly invisibly. Psychotical retained the Mk II helmet from the previous version of his armor with no functional changes.
Mark V Alpha Techweave Bodysuit/Mark III Helmet
Upon the advent of becoming an Incarnate, Psychotical discovered that he needed no outside apparatus to fly, or become invisible, or to lend a hand with most defense. Therefore he commissioned a new, lightweight bodysuit in black and white and redesigned his helmet, including all previous functionality and adding GPS capability on a heads-up display. The design is extremely futuristic and finally seems to fit with how Nat feels as a hero these days.
Ceremonial Uniforms
In addition to the Mk V, Psychotical has a small number of ceremonial costumes based on historical concepts he wears for promotional considerations. While he in the past has not been called into service wearing these costumes as they lacked the technology for Psychotical to fly, since he became an Incarnate that no longer is an issue.
Costume Contests
Nat is a regular participant in the costume contests throughout Paragon City, and has won or placed in several of them. He enjoys creating new looks for special occasions and has appeared in various contests as a Red Army officer, a Greek patrician, a Roman Centurion, John Lennon from Sgt. Pepper, a disco dancer, a pirate, the comic book characters Spider Jerusalem and Spawn, the Headless Horseman, the Cape Radio personalities DJ Cozmic and DJ Shecky, Sam Spade, Dr. Evil, Ben Franklin, and a Gigeresque alien, among many others. He minored in theatre in college and uses his knowledge of stage presence to create believable costumes with the help of Trina in the Pocket D nightclub, as he can't sew. (He does his own makeup, however.)
Because of recent events in Nat's life, he has gone on hiatus from costume contests and does not know if or when he will return.
eWardrobe
Nat needed the ability to change into outfits quickly as his various roles in society take him from armor to boardroom to nightclub to undercover to volunteer gig. He developed technology that allows a low-power modified teleport beacon to be placed within an enclosed dampening shield in order to teleport whatever is within the shield to a beacon at another location. He made a cabinet of five such dampened spaces, each containing a non-teleporting mannequin, upon which he places various clothing changes for use during the day. He calls this technology his eWardrobe. When he wishes to change clothing, he simply excuses himself to a private area or throws a smoke bomb, activates the controls, and the clothing that he was wearing teleport back to their mannequin, replaced a split second later by the new clothing. It is important to realize that concealment is essential, because for a fraction of a second Nat is completely naked in between clothing changes. Whenever Nat purchases new clothing, he does so exclusively from Trina in the Pocket D, as he has set her up with a single-space version of the eWardrobe that allows for new clothing to be teleported to the appropriate mannequin, and for the clothing that currently occupies the mannequin to teleport from there to his clothing hamper to allow anything new to be immediately incorporated into the eWardrobe system. When he returns home, he simply refits the mannequins with the next day's clothes.
The mannequins usually are occupied by two different versions of the Mk V armor, a business suit, club wear, and casual wear.
Personality
Nat has a quirky personality, with a broad sense of humor including Monty Python and Doctor Demento. Before Nat's psychotic episode, he was an outgoing, very social person, and found it easy to strike up a conversation with anyone anywhere. Afterward, however, he became extremely introverted, shy (especially around women, a major reason why he's still single), and socially awkward, though able to conduct business both as Nat and as Psychotical. He eventually opens up to people, though it may take months for this to happen. He has times when he says or does things of an inexplicable nature, mostly out of nervousness, and this tends to put some people off.
His therapist has suggested that he spend as much free time as possible in social situations. This is to both help re-normalize his social behavior and to fight the depression that has set in after the episode. As a result, when he's not at home, at work, or fighting evil and villainry, he can usually be found in the Pocket D nightclub, dancing like there's no tomorrow, and struggling to make friends among the regulars there.
Nat is unfailingly polite and nice when dealing with others, both as a result of how he was raised ("if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all") and of his desire to be liked given his awkwardness and depression.
Psychotical is much more sure of himself than Nat is, more confident, more in his element. Nat has often said that "Psy is like a comfortable sweater that I put on when I go to work" and because of the boost in self-esteem that being Psychotical gives him, Nat spends as much time as possible in the hero persona. Outside of the hero community, only Nat's family, his sensei, and his therapist know about his secret identity, and his therapist wholeheartedly approves of the change that being Psychotical has brought in Nat.
Recent Events
On August 2, 2010, Nat was to have dinner with Christina and Heather at Christina's, but when Nat arrived found the apartment ransacked and the bloody, mutilated bodies of his mother and sister. At this time, there have been no clues uncovered by the PPD. What they don't know, however, is that a note was found at the scene by Nat which stated simply: "Psychotical: This was a warning. There will be others." Nat was devastated at the death of his last remaining family members. Leo was kept at a kennel while Nat went undercover in the Rogue Isles to find and punish the people that killed off his family. Recently he has been seen again in the Pocket D, very changed, very different, but redeemed from the things that he had to do to get to the Isles. Once again, he is a hero in good standing.
However, he is not actively serving Paragon as a hero in the traditional sense. He's become disillusioned with the entire philosophical and moral differences of being a hero and vigilante, so while he does hero work, with hero morals, he is definitely a hero for hire at this point in his career.
Nat has stepped down as CEO of Paragon Naturally but still serves as its chairman, giving it a spiritual and moral leader while others tend to now do the bulk of the work.
As best he can, he spends time every day in the dojo, refining his martial arts skills, and still reverently obeys his Sensei, who has a small hand in advising Nat's career as Psychotical.
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