Snowblasted
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| "We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant." ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden | |
| Snowblasted | |
| Player: @Talen Lee | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | Full Clearance[1] |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Luc Aucoin |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 20 |
| Height: | 6'2 |
| Weight: | 150 |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blue (naturally blonde) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | French |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Place of Birth: | Auvergne, France |
| Base of Operations: | Talos, Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Claire 'Corbassiere' Aucoin (sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Possession of Carthaginian demideities of war and winter | |
| Known Abilities | |
| First aid training, skilled mountaineer | |
| Equipment | |
| Minimal | |
| Footnotes | |
Misc.
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One role I find myself roleplaying pretty readily is the conversational dominant. It's easy to take charge in a chat, to throw around bigger words and to hold heavy-handed ideas. But once, in a tabletop game, I played a character - for over a year - who was actually the second-in-command, the guy who Got Things Done while the leader of the group gave us direction. When Cauda approached me, suggesting we pact a pair, and then told me, against all things that I know of her, she was talking about playing an active and idealistic hero, I felt it best to avoid anything that might get in the way of that - to enable rather than to provide a cynical background for the character. With the Wonder Twins' motif in my mind, I set out to see what I could do to make Luc distinct from my other males - and to perhaps pay a tribute to that tabletop character I enjoyed so much.
Luc is really the other half of his sister. While Claire approaches every problem, every situation, as a problem that seeks a remedy, usually capable of being solved with human interaction and a willingness to do the work, Luc is a much more passive individual, convinced that events transpire and most people just react to them. Perhaps an implicit believer in Laplace's Demon, Luc is therefore hard to offend, and hard to bother. Not likely to engage in life or world-changing actions as a prime mover, he instead makes sure to enjoy his reactions as much as possible.
Luc at his best, however, has that streak of nastiness that his sister lacks. When someone lets him down, he can laugh it off and let it be - after all, to him, it's nothing he took too seriously in the first place. On the other hand, if someone disappoints his sister - by failing to live up to her expectation - he breaks out the thumbscrews.
Luc and Claire's parents, in a more normal world, would come across as exciting, and exotic in the effect they had on the pair's lives. They were climatologists, working on a multi-year thesis about the influence of humanity on extremes of weather-pattern temperature and the influence humanity has had upon them. While unexciting on the face of it, it meant that the Aucoin family spent most of their years moving from one populated, snowy area to another, over the course of several years, chasing winter from hemisphere to hemisphere.
From this comes the pair's international upbringing; they've lived for years at a time in France, Switzerland, Japan, and New Zealand, with their parents spending days at a time out on field research, checking deep ice and rock samples atop mountainsides. When Claire and Luc were born, then, it was immediately into a life of international travel, scientific discovery, and the marvels of personal achievement without superpowers.
Neither of the two grew up in what could be called the 'typical' Superheroic culture that permeated the world. Their development was pretty much that of equal parts athletecism and science. Instead of venerating Sister Psyche and Foreshadow, the pair were more likely to espouse Marie Curie or Beethoven, individuals whose exploration of the world around them predates the Pandora incident.
Luc has a strong explorer's sense and enjoys the presence of his twin sister. This confluence meant that he and Claire would routinely take tracks into the mountains of a winter, scaling mountains for the eternal reason it was there.
On one such trek deep into the Swiss Alps, the Aucoins were caught in a freak blizzard far away from camp. A minor avalanche buried Clair beneath feet of snow and left Luc stranded at the mercy of the storm. Sensing their opportunity, the Carthaginian spirits, long abandoned by Hannibal's army stirred and offered to bless Luc with freedom and the power to cast aside the snow and ice long enough to help his sister, if only she would swear to use these powers for the benefit of his fellow man, a nicely flexible contract. Luc accepted the deal, unaware that the spirits were uninterested in the plight of humanity, and wished merely to increase their power by attracting worshipers to their new champions, Claire and Luc Aucoin.
Once the gods had bound themselves to the twins, after a hasty rescue operation, the pair found themselves surrounded by a sussurus of spiritual sound. Considering their options, and discussing things at length, the pair opted to head to Paragon City, where the American Citizen Crimefighting Act - and Hero Corps' infrastructure - would let them chase their goal of benefitting mankind. If nothing else, time spent in Paragon would be invaluable at learning and building their powers, while they moved on to chase winter in their own way.
For better or for worse, Luc is shackled to deities who are as lost and stunned in this world as he is. Carthage is a long way and a great many years from the expansive universe of steel and science in which Luc lives, and the world of the superhuman, with its own tropes and metaphors, is a mystery to Luc as well. The gaggle of demideities that surround Luc are nonetheless entirely self-serving and view Luc as basically their only actual worshipper. Therefore, they want to guide his actions towards the things that most fit their portfolios - which in some cases can be bizzarely specific.
Luc's powers, granted from the Carthaginian gods of war and winter, are simple and potent. He can summon storms of ice and fights with a kind of savage ferocity. Unfortunately, he's also quite fragile - while he has the means to strike out and lash out at those around him with heavy, overhand strikes, he's only about as strong as a normal person. A pure force of offensive wind, he's transitory and fragile in combat, power ebbing and flowing as he wields it. So far, he's never encountered the limit of his powers, always feeling he could go just a bit further. In essence, Luc can become drunk on his own powers, and it's this drive that most makes him glad for Claire's influence, reminding him of his own humanity and limits.
Luc as a character is half of a whole, and the dynamic he mainly owns is between himself and his sister. He's not really a leading type character, and doesn't take command in a social situation. Never a team leader, he's instead a robust second, someone who you can rely on to follow orders, but not slavishly need direction. He's also personable and flexible, meaning he's not likely to make waves or cause a fuss on his own. The first amongst followers, Luc flirts with girls to make them feel pretty, jokes with guys to make them feel comfortable and in general just seeks to make people around him feel comfortable and happy.
Just as much as he's the comforting reflection of his sister's authorative ideals, he takes an 'out of sight, out of mind' approach to his sister's behaviour. He does things she wouldn't approve of, but makes sure she doesn't see them, hear about them, or notice them. He hopes. Luc loves his sister, and honestly aspires to live up to the standards she sees in people, and hates when she's disappointed - both in him and in others.
The central theme of Luc's story is aspiration. His entire path through life has been sequentially thrust from one hard path to another, following from an easy life to a harder one, always with a more and more impressive role model. At first he spent his time pursuing the benchmark set by his parents, trying to match up to them as scientists and athletes. Then, with the discovery of the Carthaginian Lost Gods, he had to match up in his own mind with the great warriors of Hannibal's army. Upon achieving superhero status and pursuing it to Paragon, he found himself looking up to many heroes, such as Positron and Synapse, only to have to dispense with those idols as he stopped regarding them as role models. The final and most pressing model to whom Luc has found himself aspiring is his sister.
A secondary element of Luc's story is the idea of the stranger. Moving from country to country as he did, he was always coming to terms with a new culture, or reconnecting to one he'd left behind, he's never really felt connected to the place he's in.
- Luc is well-versed in most European languages, while his player is not. He does dislike, however, speaking at length in a language other than English, thinking it's rude.
- Luc is remarkably ambivalent to racist jokes about his French heritage. It doesn't seem to bother him much.
- Luc owns a St Bernard, named Batroc the Sleeper. Batroc is a serial bed-stealer[2].
- Luc is the younger of the twins, and was born after midnight. In deference to this, growing up, the twins would typically have a two-day birthday celebration.
- Luc is quite scared of clowns.
- Luc's second outfit, with its layered shirt and skivvy, has him wearing a neck chain and a pair of snowboard straps on his upper arms.
