Stronglaw
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| File:Millertime.jpg | |
| Stronglaw and Jamie Pearce | |
| Stronglaw | |
| Player: @PFCdoofles | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Threat Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Katherine Sarah Larsen, "Kari" |
| Known Aliases: | Blonde Bruiser, the Bitch, Kari |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | Late 20s |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Weight: | Unknown |
| Eye Color: | blue |
| Hair Color: | Bottle Blonde, naturally brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Gang Leader |
| Place of Birth: | King's Row |
| Base of Operations: | Rogue Isles |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None |
| Known Powers | |
| Confidential | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Formerly Saw trajectories and understands inertia as naturally as knowing from which direction a sound travels. Currently has very little of this ability and relies on her natural charisma and fighting prowess. | |
| Equipment | |
| Pistols, tech goggles, various gadgets and whatsits | |
| Kari's pistols are phased energy Ballistas, firing pellets of energy charged to a chosen energy level. They have been and remain set for stun. All of her organization's members are trained in nonlethal combat and issued similarly nonlethal weapons or rubber bullets. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
Supergroups
The House of Cialestia, The Echelon.
Formerly of:
(note, IC affiliations. If any of these groups exist, She is not actually a former member)
"Stars of Paragon" a group of heroes awarded special status by an independent orgainization: Revoked.
"Paragons of Virtue" Recipient of an award for being a good influence on those around her: Revoked.
Background
The Rise
To understand Kari Larsen, you have to go back to the beginning. Kari Larsen was born to Janet and Aaron Larsen. Janet and Aaron were superheroes themselves, "Planetary Janet", and the "Aarrow", and encouraged their beautiful daughter to become a hero as well. Kari's ability to manipulate kinetic energy, natural talent, good looks, and spunk made her an excellent teen heroine, and she wore the name "Standup Girl" with grace and honor. By the time she was 15, she was already a star of Paragon city. In a town where everyone and his uncle wears a mask and has superpowers, becoming one of note is no easy feat. She achieved this through her adamant protection of a particularly downtrodden borough in Kings Row. Every week or so, a group of Marcone thugs pulled up to several businesses in the area and demanded that the owners pay protection money. Kari would regularly raid these thugs wile they were running their protection racket, and even sometimes while they were just assembled in their various hideouts. They couldn't catch her or stop her because they lacked the skills to do so, she refused to be hired, and they knew if they killed her, the public that loved her would demand that the family be removed. As extensive as their operation was, they didn't think a full law enforcement crackdown on their activities would be practical, But she was making a fool of them, and something had to be done. Somewhere along the chain of command, Kari could never be sure how high, a decision was made.
The Fall
During a particularly busy week while she was 17, Kari had busted up six separate family jobs, and had barely slept. It was night, and she had chased a car full of thugs downtown, trying to find the source of the wave of activity in her neighborhood. She sneaked into the apartment building, intending to make a dramatic entrance accompanied by a witty remark. That was the last thing she remembered. She came to a half hour later, standing in a room filled with the bodies of the six men she had tailed. Her arms and front were covered in their blood, and she could hear sirens outside. It was a trap. Kari was arrested and charged with six counts of murder. She was held The evidence brought against her was strong, and the attorney assigned to her case was at best inept, at worst on the take. It seemed that everyone involved with the trial had been selected for the express purpose of making Kari look like a monster, and it worked. Where they had once seen a spirited teen trying to make a difference, they now saw a sociopath with fascist tendencies and a sadistic streak a mile wide. Kari's murder trial dragged on, and her support dwindled. Even her parents started to distance themselves. Kari became cynical when she realized the system was fixed. Her cries for mistrial were overturned, her dismissal of her attorney came too late. She resigned herself to her fate, naively believing that she could handle it. She was tried as an adult and sentenced to 20 years consecutively for each count of murder. The city that had once loved her rejoiced at her imprisonment, glad to see her baleful influence on the city's impressionable youth removed. The judge's approval rating jumped 12 points.
The Ziggurat
Kari was sent to Ziggursky Penitentiary, the only prison in the county that was equipped for super-powered prisoners. She was fitted with a device which nullified her powers, as all prisoners were (take this with a grain of salt: I assume the prison must have SOME kind of anti-power contingencies, or there would be no point in sending super-villains there.) As a girl of barely 18, newly stripped of her powers, Kari wasn't prepared for prison in any sense. She spent six years in the Zig being physically and emotionally abused. One prisoner took a particular interest in her. The other inmates called him "The Pit Monster." A permanent resident of the Zig, his dark will boiled over the nullification bands. He could have used this power to break himself out, but he took far more pleasure in torturing the prisoners with their own deeds, making them relive their most shameful actions until they broke. He found a unique pleasure in torturing Kari with her own manufactured guilt and shortcomings, not to mention the perverse pleasure he took in torturing a innocent young woman.
Kari hardened under the harsh conditions of the Ziggurat, learned to resist the physical pain, and hide the emotional pain with anger. She grew into a wholly different woman. Before her six year tenure at the Zig was up, Kari had overcome her victim status. She had become institutionalized.
The Rebirth
Two years ago, Kari escaped from the Zig during a massive breakout orchestrated by Arachnos. Kari hitched a ride out of the Zig and found herself in Mercy Island. She intended to live quietly and not draw attention to herself, but that was not to be. The neighborhood she moved in to, like all the neighborhoods in the rogue isles, was a bad one. After a few weeks she couldn't handle standing idly by any longer. Kari was no longer accustomed to living under the authority of another person. In fact, she found the idea repugnant. She wouldn't join the R.I.P. so she decided that she would become the law in her neighborhood. She took the name "Stronglaw" and headed to the streets, pounding on the local thugs to clean up her town. She eventually convinced a few of them, through repeated and shameful beatings, that the best way to avoid such a beating was to start handing them out with Stronglaw. She quickly found herself at the head of a gang of teenagers. Recognizing that the only way to keep these kids from going back to their former lives of crime was to keep them busy, Kari enlisted the aid of a man who escaped at the same time as her, Jamie Pearce, to keep them in line while she gave them something constructive to do. Fighting Crime, so to speak.
Despite her newfound power at the head of her own private army, Kari missed her life as a true hero, and at one point found her way back to the city. She pretended to be the Praetorian version of herself, rather than try and clear her name. She found that her family had decayed from despair, her parents had been killed on the job, and her younger sister had killed herself. In that moment, she knew that the Kari Larsen she had been was dead. She had to decide, however, whether to become this new, good Kari from another dimension, or to let the world's opinion of her lead her life. Eventually the choice was made for her, seemingly by fate, when she lost her method of traveling back to Paragon City.
Kari eventually linked up with a trans-dimensional woman named Celia, whose organization allowed her to complete her jobs with more efficiency. Through relationships forged in the House of Cialestia, Kari is slowly regaining lost pieces of her humanity...
Slowly.
Personality
Kari is a cynical, nihilistic, somewhat bitchy woman. She has been hurt very deeply in the past, and has some very screwed up ideas on how to deal with people. She has rather low self esteem, which she covers with anger and recklessness. She balks under authority, and shows respect through familiarity.
