Sparrowshade
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Sparrowshade | |
| Player: @Regit Seye | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Suzume Harrison |
| Known Aliases: | Sparrow |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 17 |
| Height: | 5' 2" |
| Weight: | 125 pounds |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Japanese-American |
| Occupation: | Full-time hero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Hara Daiki (father, deceased), Hara Mayu (motehr, deceased), Maternal Grandparents (native Japanese, never met), Paternal Grandparents (deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| None(?) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Olympic-level gymnastic training | |
| Equipment | |
| Twin black jade bracelets, impervium-threaded costume | |
| Considered a vigilante due to consistent post-arrest condition of perpetrators | |
Contents |
Personal History
Early Years
On the day that Suzume Harrison was born, the last thing her mother- Hara Mayu to her family, Mary Harrison to the United States government- saw before she felt the first pangs of labor was a tiny bird sitting on the windowsill, peering curiously into the home. As she smiled at the little creature, her daughter began the thirteen-hour long process of coming into this world. The memory stuck with Mayu long enough to influence the way she and her husband named their child- and so, thirteen hours later, the hospital received a birth record for one Suzume Harrison. She came very late in the life of her parents, and was a well-loved surprise to both.
While her mother did her best to spoil their only child, Suzume was very much her father's girl. Her father -once Hara Daiki and now "Dick" Harrison- was a driven, principled man who felt very strongly about their family's heritage. Once an antique dealer in Japan, he had squirreled away the money to move to America- to Paragon- for decades. They had just enough to get themselves here, with a single suitcase each- one of which was half-filled with the last, and rarest, of the artifacts on which Daiki had made their living. Upon arrival, he had allowed himself to be swayed in his opinions once, when arriving, and had let the immigration agent Americanize their names to ease their transition. Both spoke english, albeit with heavy accents, but both were concerned that it would be difficult to fit in with names so foreign. He was determined not to allow his daughter to lose such contact with the homeland she'd never seen, and insisted that she answer only to Suzume- and, when prevailed upon by his wife, "Sparrow," which he allowed only because it was the meaning of her name in the first place.
Elementary school was... an interesting experience for Suzume. She'd learned to write before she arrived at kindergarten... but in Japanese. When the teacher asked who knew how to write their name, Suzume volunteered to show the class- only to be laughed at when she did so in hiragana. Still, it made her seem very interesting, and she never had any trouble making friends. When one of her schoolmates started taking gymnastics classes, she pestered her parents until they agreed to allow her to attend as well, but under her father's one condition- if they were going to pay for the lessons, she had to put her all into it.
Hard work did not begin to describe the amount of effort Suzume put into her gymnastics. Before too long, her teacher was praising her as a prodigy, insisting that she'd earned her name by being as quick as a sparrow- and as prone to being airborn. She excelled at the uneven bars and the rings, and while her floor routine was nothing to scoff at, it seemed that throwing herself aloft was what she was meant to do. In time, even her practices weren't enough, and she took up parkour, which she viewed as the undiluted essence of the art of gymnastics.
When the offer came to accept candidacy for the 2008 Olympic team, there was no question as to whether she'd accept. Her training intensified further, and parkour took a backseat out of concern for injury. There, she was paired up with Heather Phillips- the nemesis of their juniors tournament circuit. They had traded triumphs back and forth, the determining factor usually whether the judges preferred floor and balance beam routines or uneven bar and rings. No longer opponents, the two became acquainted, and- after both of their lives took unexpected twists- friends.
Turning Tides
Her position confirmed, Suzume and her parents threw themselves a lavish party. Unfortunately, there were other persons aware of the occasion, and they had made plans to take advantage of the distraction. There was no warning. There were no signs. There was the celebration, and then there was the chaos. Reflex helped her parents hide her in a nearby closet before the invaders made it to the dining room they were in; she hit the wall hard, cushioned by the coats inside, and dropped to her knees, dazed. As she sat there, a shoebox toppled from the shelf above her, spilling a pair of... somethings, dark and shiny in the dim light of the closet. She heard the attackers speak loudly, rapidly, in Japanese. It was a little hard to keep up, but she caught mention of "the artifact" and understood their purpose here. She had no idea what they were looking for- or nearly no idea, at least. When both of her parents steadfastly refused to yield, there was a brief rattle of automatic weapons fire- and a few stray bullets ate into the closet door. The rounds peppered the girl's chest, one of which punctured her left lung. She cried out as the impacts rocked her body, and collapsed slightly, fingers falling onto the shape of the dark objects on the closet floor. As blood seeped through her blouse, ran down her arm, she heard whispers, distant croonings, and without knowing why- not consciously- she picked up what turned out to be a pair of bracelets and slid them onto her wrists. Her consciousness still fading, the door was thrown open, her parent's murderers alerted by her scream- and the whispers became screams of rage.
The police found a bloodied, uninjured Suzume Harrison wearing bullet-riddled, gore-soaked clothing and a pair of black jade bracelets kneeling over her parents' corpses and weeping uncontrollably. Around her were the beaten bodies of several of the armed assailants, each comatose and completely white-haired. Suzume was taken into protective custody, examined and released when it was discovered that she was completely unharmed physically, despite clearly having been shot numerous times. However, with suspicion of metahuman capabilties raised by her survival and growing public outrage fueled by the media's negative portrayal of the orphaned girl as a liar and a cheat, she was dismissed from the Olympic team under grounds of emotional instability. Orphaned and with little more than the home and some small savings her parents had left her, she returned home and locked herself away from the world for nearly two weeks. By the time she could face the world again, she had been forgotten or vilified to everyone that might have supported her- with the sole exception of Heather, who had undergone a similar discharge not long before when her mutant powers caused the incineration of a gymnasium.
Recruitment
Not three days after Suzume began leaving her home again, she was visited by a recruiting agent for the organization known as Heroes, Ltd. The company, a corporation centered around training- or reforming- both young and dangerous heroes and shaping them into productive members of super-powered society. While most dismissed her claims that she possessed no actual super abilities, they believed that- whatever their source- "her" powers were something she could learn to control and put to use. Bitter at her experiences, she agreed to undergo their training program and register as a hero with the city with the intention of using the fame and influence the position will give her to track down her family's killers- and bring them to her own personal definition of justice.
Training Assignments
Suzume- and, as she discovered upon arriving at the Heroes, Ltd. facility, her friend Heather- was introduced to the corporation's training program the day after arriving. It was simple, but effective- they had purchased a license to operate an Architect Entertainment center in their facility, and had already designed a colossal number of programs around highly publicized missions completed by high-profile heroes and heroines. The two were subjected to the tests, one at a time, and upon each successful completion were graduated to the next and more dangerous mission. Sparrow's final mission involved a simulation forcing her to track down and defeat the villain known as Vandal. Completion of the task was followed with graduation to Agent status and regular assignments and patrols.
Acquaintances
By no means quick to trust, Suzume has few acquaintances and even fewer friends. Her only "real" friend, Heather Phillips, was recently reassigned to a different Heroes Ltd. base. As such, her list of friends in Paragon City is currently extremely short- none.
-Mobius Knight is a man she met during her first, extremely disappointing trip into Pocket D. She joined his conversation with Terra Skye, XM Radio and Jasmine, also known as Midnight Radio, when Mobius made a comment regarding being in the news. Suzume remarked, "It's overrated," and was drawn into the discussion.
-Doctor Crom has earned a spot on Suzume's internal list of possible threats. Their first interaction was in Pocket D, shortly after she met Mobius Knight and crew. While she has promised to arrest Crom should she ever see him outside the bounds of DJ Zero's domain, he has earned a grudging sort of respect as a dangerously intelligent and insightful person- to the point of abandoning his presence lest he learn more about her from their interactions than she was willing to reveal.
-Novy is an apparently Russian scientist who, as far as Suzume can put together, was brought to Paragon by some sort of experimental accident. She is wary of the woman- there are entirely too many unknowns to be comfortable around her- but respects the woman's apparently prodigal intellect and seeming openness.
City Dossier
Sparrowshade has not been on the streets of Paragon City for a particularly long time. There are rumors, based on her teammate's observation of her attitude in combat, that she may have no actual combat training. She seems to take the Medicom system for granted, throwing herself into combat with what appears to be reckless abandon. However, while she occasionally struck down, she never seems to stay there, rising mid-battle amidst an circling burst of dark power as her signature shield reforms. As of late, however, she more often than not is found by her teammates standing amidst the unconscious forms of her opponents as they are claimed by arrest beacons. Several heroes have expressed discomfort while working with her, as more often than not, her opponents are discovered with shocks of white hair and arrhythmia after their encounter with the girl hero. None have perished- as of yet. She has been placed on the vigilante watch list in anticipation of her first casualty.
She has shown a propensity for taking on tasks that might well be above her ability to handle safely. Even so, the growing list of accomplishments is impressive, to say the least. The following is a catalog of the Task Forces which she aspires to assist, and which have been completed successfully.
(Positron)
Synapse- Completed.
(Sister Psyche)
(Moonfire)
Citadel- Completed.
(Ernesto Hess)
(Twilight's Son)
(Katie Hannon)
(Manticore)
(Mender Lazarus)
(Numina)
(Imperious)
(Dr. Quaterfield)
(Sara Moore)
(Justin Augustine)
(Faathim the Kind)
Dr. Kahn- Completed.
(Statesman)
(Lady Grey)
(Mender Silos)
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