Snared

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

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Snared
Player: @Talen Lee
Origin:	Science
Archetype:	Brute
Security Level:	50
Personal Data
Real Name:	Ryker Baptiste
Known Aliases:	Ryker
Species:	Human
Age:	23
Height:	223 cm
Weight:	240 kilos
Eye Color:	Blue
Hair Color:	Cornflower Yellow
Biographical Data
Nationality:	Etoile Citizen, Former
Occupation:	Police agent and full-time hero
Place of Birth:	Sharkhead Isle
Base of Operations:	Atlas Park
Marital Status:	Bien-aimé
Known Relatives:	One sister, Michelle Baptiste
Known Powers
Ryker is host to a full-body symbiote that absorbs energy and defends itself with a variety of methods.
Known Abilities
Ryker is multilingual, speaking English, French, German and Italian.
Equipment
None
No additional information available.

Character

Ryker is a proud, stubborn, headstrong young man who, without any other influence, would have burned himself out and become one of the many unpleasant statistics of the Rogue Isles, and its dangerous history of emigration to Paragon City. It was a happenstance of good fortune, then that he was not one of these people. Ryker is instead the only remaining legal guardian of his little sister, Michelle - a 14 year old girl of vivacious personality and such optimism that she always has sought a better world. It's in living up to his sister's ideals that Ryker has found himself such a tireless hero - even while he finds himself assuming the unwelcome mantle of a stand-in dad.

Powers

Ryker holds a symbiote capable of carrying his whole body in a chitinous carapace that shifts and reflects energy as it moves. This creature covers him almost entirely and limits his ability to speak. While in this form, Ryker is almost untouchable by energy sources, capable of walking through the Terra Volta reactor, and can turn aside most blunt forms of damage as well. In addition, the symbiote sports a pair of wicked claws, each sharp enough to tear steel like it's paper.

Metatext

RP Notes

• Ryker is currently operating as a provisional member of the PPD Special Offenders Unit, under a special clause in a superhero version of the Dream act. As long as he maintains his position in the police with good standing, supports his sister, avoids crime and misdeeds, and continues to build a life for himself in the United States, he will be able to stay there, with citizenship coming at the end of a number of years.
• Ryker is not yet legally allowed to carry weapon aside from the Snared symbiote.
• Ryker does not lack for combat ability without the symbiote on his body, but they are leagues different in combat performance.
• Ryker always looks tanned. This is a byproduct of his symbiote leaching a small amount of UV energy into the surface layer of his skin.

Themes

Ryker is a character archetype I've wanted to play now for some time. It's very easy for me to play a proud, angry young man, an archetype with which I have far too much commonality to truly call it roleplaying. I know from my own experience, though, that someone can subjugate their pride in the name of something greater, in the name of some personal responibility. This Humility is what drove Ryker's story, what made him who he is. Ryker really is no different from the out-of-control recklessness of Rough Hex, but he could not be that person as long as Chell has faith in him to be something better. What follows then is a big brother, a man who will not let himself disappoint his sister, who will never let a promise go broken, and who will tear the moon from the sky rather than let her be hurt.

Trivia

• Ryker's origin point was inspired by Terry Bogard, from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
• Ryker was my first character created after the launch of City of Heroes Freedom.
• Ryker is the first character I've had who had a dedicated inspiration-eating bind, which also emoted hisses.