Scarlet Mark
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
ONE FOR ALL...
The Scarlet Mark is a humanoid tiger from Sorrento, Italy, recently arrived to the United States and Paragon City thanks to the efforts of Dr. Gnosis and The Channeling Caroler.
He is in constant search of adventure and excitement- he has been described as a sort of "Errol Flynn with a tail."
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| The Scarlet Mark | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Natural |
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| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | 21 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Alexandros Marangoni (no secret identity) |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Feline |
| Age: | 19 |
| Height: | 5'5" |
| Weight: | 180 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Gold |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American Citizen (Naturalized) |
| Occupation: | Undecided |
| Place of Birth: | Sorrento, Italy |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Confidential |
| Known Powers | |
| Flight (limited) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Literature, Design (Draw), Philosophy, Gymnastics, Languages (Greek, English), Bodybuilding, Boxing, Standard computer/internet use skills. | |
| Equipment | |
| Jump Jet, Jet pack, Assorted grenades, Composite bow with laser sight, arrows and quiver. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Powers
| Attributes | |||||||||||||
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| Statistic |
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| Fighting |
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| Agility |
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| Strength |
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| Endurance |
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| Reason |
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| Intuition |
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| Psyche |
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The Scarlet Mark's set of super-powers include invisibility, super-speed and super-jumps. He prefers to jump, climb and backflip around the battlefield, rejoicing in his own athleticism like the feline he is.
He is extremely versatile with his bow and arrows, capable of firing multiple arrows, incendiary arrows and similar modified arrows which he either makes himself or made by hired gadgeteers.
Personality
Scarlet Mark can be described as jovial and a shameless extrovert, the kind of person that can chat and make a newly-made acquaintance feel as if they've been friends for years. It probably says a lot that despite having the teeth of a feline predator, Scarlet Mark possesses a disarming smile. Most of the time he is also a very rational young man, someone who can be dispassionate and coldly honest in an argument, valuing Logic over everything else. Sometimes, however, there are issues that touch too deeply -and which he himself hasn't examined- and the passionate Greek lets loose with a fury that often astonishes both observants and recipients alike. While these bursts of fury dissipate quickly, and they do not happen very often, those who have come to know him well understand that an active volcano lies under the apparently serene look in his eyes and the congenial smile.
His feline side makes him sometimes a little too indulgent, a little arrogant and disdainful of humility- but he is also not someone to boast when he doesn't have the goods to back his claims up. His attitude is best explained by one of his favorite quotes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in the short story The Greek Interpreter (A quote to which he refers often in these cases): "My dear Watson, I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers."
The Scarlet Mark is an avid philosopher who derives his own line of thinking from Aristotle and contemporary (dead) philosopher Alyssa Rosenbaum. He follows a strict code of morality that he claims is formed through logic and reason, instead of superstition and whim, and observes objectivity. In matters of principle he is often uncompromising, and when accused of seeing things too much in black and white without regarding the shades of grey, he answers with another of his favorite quotes: "There are no grays, only whites that have gotten dirty." In the monastery he also became a lover of classical music and opera, and specifically the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini.
There is a streak of the adventurer in him, as evidenced by his childhood reading the works of Emilio Salgari and Rafael Sabatini. He never misses an opportunity to show off or to perform a daring feat of courage or acrobatics.
When upon the field of battle, Scarlet Mark seems to be invigorated and to take on the mantle of the great swashbuckler heroes of old: No battle undertaken without a certain dashing attitude, and acrobatic work is a must in SM's mind. At first a strategy adopted by sheer flamboyance, it has given good results to the archer, as his natural athleticism and speed combined with his gymnastics makes him a very difficult foe to hit. Add to this a constant repertoire of taunts and witticism , and SM's strategy might seem all the more infuriating to the less self-controlled villains.
The Mark is also a hopeless flirt, but more prone to gallant romanticism of the Zorro/Errol Flynn kind than anything crass or sleazy. He knows he is attractive, after a fashion, and capitalizes on it by simply not thinking too much about it-- this apparent ignorance of his own sensuality seems to be very effective. Alexandros is gay, but he will flatter women he respects with his customary panache and debonair charm. This sometimes backfires unintentionally, as it leads some females to suspect he may be romantically interested in them.
Personal History
Born to an otherwise normal family in Modena, Italy, Alexandros (the Greek version of his name was given to him by his mother) seemed to be destined for an ordinary life. Being the only child in his family, he was give much attention and in many cases one could consider him spoiled, but his mother Ioanna suspected there was more than met the eye under the child's green eyes, almost perpetually focused inwards. Alexandros had, his parents discovered, a very rich imagination, and one that craved for constant knowledge. It was his father (a professor in literature) who introduced him to literature, and the young child devoured book after book with an obvious gusto. His favorites were the adventure journals, such as the books of Jules Verne, Emilio Salgari and Antonio Sabatini. Of these, his favorite was Sabatini's "Scaramouche", a romantic adventure of a young lawyer during the French Revolution. In the course of his adventures he becomes an actor portraying "Scaramouche," the trickster character of the Commedia Dell'Arte, as well as becoming a revolutionary, politician, and fencing-master, confounding his enemies with his powerful orations and swordsmanship. To Alexandros, these books seemed to suggest that life was something greater, fuller than one normally dared to dream.
Alexandros developed into a very intelligent teenager, popular among his peers due to his easy smile and wild flights of fancy, capable of inventing the most outlandish stories to entertain his friends. Despite his large field of interests which he cultivated (including drawing and writing), he still seemed dissatisfied with his lot in life- there seemed to be something greater to which he wanted to aspire, but what it was exactly? He couldn't tell. He felt, at times, like the protagonist of "Scaramouche", André-Louis Moreau, living an educated but otherwise placid life, but unlike the protagonist there seemed to be no deadly duel to jolt him into that special place from whose precarious position life becomes richer, fuller and the more precious for its vulnerability. Although his family moved to Paragon City when his father accepted a job teaching the works of Italo Calvino at the University, not much seemed to change- his life, it seemed, was stuck in a rut. Fate, however, was about to change.
The Rikti war changed many lives, and among them was the life of Alexandros Marangoni. His father was killed in one of the first attacks, and for the duration of the war all he and his mother knew was the uncertainty of survival, as an unending train of refugees and survivors traveled to and fro through the no man's land that the world had become. Ioanna, a nurse, had to face a mortality rate that she would have never imagined she would ever see- this was a blow to her spirit, and both mother and son felt as if their lives were nothing more than wisps of smoke, ready to be dispersed by the winds. There were the heroes, of course, that tried to protect the innocent. The heroes that tried to push back the invaders, some using super powers while others just their wits- but heroes all of them. To young Alexandros, it seemed that these men and women embodied the spirit of Scaramouche. There had been super-heroes in Italy, of course, but he had never really had any direct contact with them whereas here, even despite the horror and the hardships going on around him, he could see them face to face. It was the larger-than-life image of the heroes that kept Alexandros from succumbing to the pessimism in which his mother seemed to steeped. "They'll win, μαμά" he kept telling her, addressing her in her own Greek "You'll see."
The heroes did win, but the majority of earth's greatest heroes lay dead- with the exception of the Surviving Eight and others, the world seemed a darker place because of the absence of the heroes. Although his mother was relieved that the invasion was over, Alexandros himself sank into a deep depression and became prone to sleeping whenever he didn't necessarily have to stay awake. His mother was very worried for him, but during the early days of the reconstruction emergency cases were still flooding into makeshift emergency rooms, and as a nurse she saw very little of her teenaged son.
It was in this emotional state of torpor that Alexandros first met the Smiling Cat. At first the dreams seemed innocent enough, the fabrication of his mind, perhaps-- Alexandros would dream of a strange land with rolling hills, where plots of land seemed to be divided into regular squares like a chessboard. In this strange dream-land he met many unusual denizens, such as knights in white armor who constantly fell off their horses, and saw many strange things. No place ever quite remained the same, and the whole realm (except for a few locations) seemed to be in a state of constant motion. What never changed, however, was the Cat. It was a feline of unusual appearance, in that he could never be certain whether it was a British Shorthair or whether he was like no other cat he had ever seen, but his eyes and grin- for he grinned- were always the same. For weeks, at first, the cat merely showed up in the dream, grinned, and disappeared, usually after a totally unrelated but somewhat insane scene had played out between the other inhabitants and occasionally Alexandros. The cat's disappearance always seemed to mark the end of each dream.
Over many months, Alexandros' dreams became more vivid, until one night it seemed to him that he was really there- that he could touch, feel, smell and think as if he were awake. He said this out loud. "That's because you are awake", said a voice behind him, and Alexandros saw that the Cat was grinning at him.
The cat then began to talk to him, and over several nights he learned that the realm he 'visited' was a place called Looking-Glass Land, that its most notable traveller had been a human by the name of Samuel Dodgson (known by his nom de plume, Lewis Carroll) and that the Cat himself was not originally of that place. He tried to find out more about the Cat, but the feline simply grinned and interjected with an unrelated, and often absurd, topic, such as a small dissertation on the consistency of jam. One night, however, his dream of Looking-Glass Land was different. Everything seemed burnt down to the ground and there was nothing to be seen-- except the Cat. The state of this place, his only real escape from the dreaded reality he faced back home, jarred Alexandros, who confronted the Cat with uncalled-for rage. "Do you want to know who did this?" the Cat asked, and upon the youth's affirmative he continued, "The Jabberwocky did it. And if you ever wish to see it as it was, you must slay him."
Alexandros was aghast, but he saw no other way. Though what happened in that strange land is a long tale in itself, suffice it to say that Alexandros met the dreaded beast and slew it only after nearly losing his own life. As the monster disappeared into nothingness, the Cat appeared to Alexandros, grinning wider than ever before. "The world hasn't lost its heroes," he said, "It's merely waiting for its new ones. Come forth." As Alexandros came fort, the cat touched one of his paws to Alexandros' chest, leaving a red glow upon it. "Many are called but few are those brave enough to come. Do you, Alexandros Marangoni, accept to be my avatar in the world beyond the mirror? Are you brave enough to seize what you have always wanted?" Without thinking it twice, Alexandros said yes, and everything became dark.
Strangely enough, though his preparations and perilous journey seemed to have taken days, the whole scope of the dream seemed to have taken no more than four hours, according to what his bedside clock read when he woke up. That, however, wasn't the most startling thing- where there had previously been a handsome human teenager there now seemed to be a powerful, muscular humanoid feline resembling a tiger! Not knowing what to do, he stood paralyzed before the mirror until there was a knock at the door, and he heard his mother answering. Shortly thereafter an elderly (but extremely vital) woman dressed in white with a voluminous silver bob entered the homestead and spoke to both Marangonis at length (Alexandros' mother had to be calmed first, though, after she had seen her son). Although she seemed to be someone famous, she introduced herself as The Caroling Channeler, a superheroine who had acquired her powers the same way Alexandros had: through Looking-Glass Land. It turned out that Alexandros had been chosen as the representative of the Cheshire, a powerful -if extremely mischievous- spirit who had taken an interest in the broken state of the world. The Channeler herself was the Avatar of the White Queen of Looking-Glass Land, which had granted her the power to use her uncannily familiar reedy voice as a powerful sonic equivalent of the battering ram. The Channeler told Ioanna that his son needed to be trained, as the Cat's gifts had to be honed through practice- the purpose for which she had been guided to the Marangoni Residence by the White Queen in a dream.
After a tearful farewell, Alexandros went to train at the new school for the gifted and unusual run by the Channeler and her partner-in-education, Dr. Gnosis, a tremendously talented telepath and avatar of the Red Queen. The school was geared towards helping the fast emerging new heroes to train their powers, and It was there that Alexandros discovered his potential as a superhero. The Cheshire had given him all the abilities befitting a cat of his size: powerful muscles, extreme agility, distant leaps, night vision and claws. He could also run faster and jump higher than he could have thought possible... and, in this showing off the Cheshire's propensity for humor, he also had acquired the ability to become invisible- every time he smiled! This, of course, posed some inconvenience, but the White Queen assured him that he would learn to control it in the future. Patterning himself after Scaramouche, Alexandros tried to learn to use a sword but proved inept at it. Instead it seemed that he had an uncanny knack for Archery, which became his primary weapon.
After five years of training, Dr. Gnosis and The Channeling allowed Alexandros to take up the mantle of a superhero-in-training as The Crimson Mark. He created his own outfit with a mind to honor the Carrollian origins of his power: a jester mask and a playful combination of reds and whites (for the Red and White queens) and a stylized cape in the shape of a scarf (to commemorate the White Queen's shawl incident). At the age of 19, and under supervision by Dr. Gnosis and her fellow headmistress The Caroling Channeler, Alexandros is eager to strike out on his own and see whether he is up to the task, taking the place he always felt was set aside for him.On the field of battle he is an unstoppable dynamo, he boasts, taunts and jokes his way through with aplomb and an almost infuriating (for his enemies) carefree attitude. His moniker came about when he was deciding what was the most suitable way for him to leave his signature- Zorro had the slashed "Z", so it occurred to him that a distinctive mark could be his gimmick. Every time the Scarlet Mark completes a mission, he leaves a splattered mark of red paint (carried in one of his arrows) as a signature. If a criminal has been particularly troublesome, the mark will probably be on him/her- ruining whatever clothes they had.
Cheshire Powers
Alessandro's powers have developed as his connection with the Cheshire Cat has deepened. Among these are:
- Invisibility: By grinning, Alessandro can become invisible-- his grin remains floating in the air a second or two before vanishing as well.
- Craneo-Sacro-Sympathetic Dimensional Affinity: Looking through the eyes of the Cheshire Cat, Alessandro can see many dimensional anomalies, including 'paranormal' entities and other curiosities. He can see them, but most of the time he has to consult an expert since he can only see the phenomenon but does not know what it means.
- Mirror Travel: Thanks to the official of the White Queen and the Red Queen, Scarlet Mark can travel through Looking-Glass land and emerge through mirrors in our reality.
- Calling Card: The Scarlet Mark can imbue some of his 'resonance' into items of his choosing--- aesthetically, he has chosen playing cards with a feline jester--- and when these are torn apart, they create a signal that he can hone into while traveling through Looking-Glass land.
Devices
Scarlet Mark sometimes will resort to web grenades in order to slow down his enemies.
Weaknesses
He is not invulnerable nor exceptionally immune. Outside of his feline appearance and Cheshire Powers, he has the physical weaknesses of any human being. Psychologically, there are moments where he can be too overconfident and set himself up for failure. If a villain knows the right strings to pull, it could result in Scarlet Mark losing his control- something that is a gambit to begin with, as it could either make him terribly efficient and focused in battle, or cause him enough distress so as to shatter his focus. It depends on the issue that is at the heart of the outburst.
Trivia
- Favorite Movie: A toss-up between "The Princess Bride" and "Amelie"
- Favorite Song: "Hartino to Fengaraki" by Manos Hadjidakis and sung by Nana Mouskouri, and "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond.
- Favorite Opera: "The Marriage of Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- He is writing a novel, but he hasn't let anyone see the manuscript.
