Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
(Ansalom999@aol.com) on Friday, June 6, 2003 at 15:23:24
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
charname: Melissa Hartson A.K.A Gabriel
race: Altered Human
gender: Female
position: HERO
descript: Suggestions....
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 118 lbs
Nature: Caregiver
Attitude: Rebel
Lifestyle: Semi-Profesional Poker player / Stock Market Investor
Costume: Form fitting Silver blue Glowing force field
Special Effects:See Costume
Melissa is a beautiful young woman around 5’ 5” slim but with a decidedly
feminine figure. She has short blond hair and silver-blue eyes. She normally
conceals the unusual colour of her eyes with either a pair of sunglasses or more
often a set of cosmetic contacts.
Melissa has a kind compassionate nature and would willingly walk through fire
for her friends She is idealistic and always ready to believe in the best in
people, her idealism extends to her personal freedoms and she is unwilling to
accept others placing restrictions on her actions, prefering to allow her own
morality to guide her
history: Melissa Hartson was born to relatively prosperous parents in late
February 1980. Supported by parents who sought to stretch her but never push her
past her limits, Mel as she prefers to be known, reached college a remarkably
well adjusted individual. In college she blossomed into a truly beautiful young
woman, intelligent confident and compassionate. She majored in mathematics, a
passion of hers since early childhood, though she spent some time studying
economics and gained an interest in astronomy via a boyfriend.
In her final year of college tragedy struck, her father was diagnosed with
prostate cancer. The diagnosis was late and shortly after she graduated her
father died. Her mother who had cared for him during the six months of his
illness sank deep into depression after his death and by Christmas Mel was alone
as her mother died of what her doctor said could only be described as a broken
heart.
Though the Hartwells had been insured medical bills took the bulk of that money.
Unable to face the memories of the family home Mel sold up and moved to Las
Vegas. Mel had supplemented her income during her college years by playing
poker a pastime her mathematical abilities and empathic nature made her
especially skilled at.
With the investments her parents had made plus the money raised by the sale of
her parents home, Melissa was able to set herself up on the outskirts of Las
Vegas and make a passable living as a semi-professional poker player and part
time stock market investor.
Over the next three years Melissa spent her days reading company reports with
the occasional foray into the Nevada desert to collect meteorites and her nights
either at the poker tables of the Las Vegas casinos or stargazing through her
own small telescope.
Melissa may win more than she loses at poker but she doesn’t really play in the
big leagues. She’s an able player but is unwilling to risk too much of her
capital on what is still the turn of a card and so hasn’t yet moved up to the
more expensive games. With the poker table providing all the excitement she
needs Mel’s stock market investments are far less flashy. She has invested for
long term growth and has a solid rather than a high-flying portfolio.
Six months ago this stable, structured life style changed radically when Melissa
found an unusual meteorite on one of her trips into the desert. The large
meteorite, slightly oval and more than a handspan long lay in the desert without
any sign of an impact crater yet the object was to Melissa’s eye obviously
extra-terrestrial in origin. Her curiosity piqued Melissa picked up the rock and
that’s when her life changed forever.
Her next memory after touching the object is of waking up just at sunset
surrounded by the fragments of the rock she had found. Unharmed after spending
at least six hours exposed to the Nevada sun Mel collected the fragments,
returned to her vehicle and drove home.
When she reached home Melissa had the first of what she would come to call an
‘event’. Melissa had an auditory and visual hallucination. The auditory
component of the hallucination consisted of a ‘alien’ voice speaking an unknown
language while her vision was over laid with what appears a glowing figure.
Melissa can’t explain how she knows the sounds she hears is a language she just
does, even though at this time she can’t understand the words.
Though the event was distracting especially since it was so unexpected Melissa
managed to function sufficiently to make it inside her home. Tired despite her
earlier collapse Mel prepared for bed with every intent of discussing her
symptoms with her doctor the next day. So it was something of a shock to see her
now silvery blue irises in the mirror.
On the basis of her symptoms – The sudden blackouts and hallucinations – Her
doctor scheduled a variety of tests including a CAT scan and blood tests but
could offer no explanation for Mel’s sudden change in eye colour.
The CAT scan was inconclusive finding no evidence of a tumour or any other cause
for Mel’s symptoms. The blood tests were even stranger, her blood chemistry was
different with the relative balance of normal components shifted and additional
unknown compounds also present. But while the blood work was definitely odd Mel
was obviously healthy and none of the changes suggested a particular condition.
Beyond scheduling regular check ups her doctor could offer no explanation.
Two months passed the check ups showed no changes and though Melissa continued
to suffer occasional events usually at the poker table she had no further
blackouts. Her doctor suggested a number of drugs that were prescribed to
schizophrenics to control their condition but invariably the medications made
Melissa physically ill.
Then while on her regular morning run Melissa was the victim of an attempted
mugging. Attempted because when the man had pointed his gun at her, Melissa’s
skin began to glow silvery blue. Melissa was almost as surprised as the mugger
who had fled when confronted by this suddenly glowing woman.
It’s hard in the modern world not to be aware of superhumans and Melissa
understood then that whatever had happened to her out in the Nevada desert had
elevated to that august company. She continued to see her doctor regularly but
refrained from telling her what had happened. She inspected the fragments of the
meteorite she had found reconstructing the object to realise that the stone had
been hollow.
That for Melissa was the clincher, whatever had been in the meteorite had
changed her, she needed to deal with that fact, ignoring the issue would make
matters worse. Mel cut back on the poker spending many of the next few months’
nights out in the Nevada desert far from anyone who would notice the lights.
Now she has managed some measure of control over her powers and is ready reveal
her alter ego to the world.
powers: Argent Fire
Melissa can project a silvery blue energy from her body. Though the energy has
the appearance of flame it gives off no heat. The energy seems to penetrate most
physical protections more easily than might be expected. Melissa can manipulate
this energy to produce a number of separate blasts all of which she appears to
be immune to.
1. A simple energy bolt roughly as damaging as a modern assault rifle, the bolt
has a range of approximately 60 meters
2. Energy lance roughly 15 meters long and about 1 meter wide. It delivers a
similar amount of damage to the first type of blast to anything caught in the
area of effect.
3. An energy globe that detonates on contact with a solid target or at the
extreme of it’s range (60 meters approx.) The globe can be projected in a
similar war to the bolts or held and thrown like a physical object. The
explosion is roughly equivalent to that produced by 1lb of high explosive
Forcefield
This is the ability Melissa first discovered. Melissa can create a formfitting
field of energy similar to the energy in her blasts. The force field protects
her from physical harm, highly intense or coherent energy emissions and similar
damaging events. Though she has not tested the extremes of its protection the
forcefield can withstand light side arms and offers almost complete protection
against most modern combat rifles. Modern heavy machine guns, extremely strong
Supers etc can penetrate the field though they would expend significant energy
doing so. The forcefield produces a significant amount of light at all times and
Melissa is easily spotted while using this protection
Flight
Finally Melissa can fly. To do so she must activate her forcefield then focus
her desire to fly, when she does so a pair of wings appear, less substantial
than the forcefield and ineffective in producing lift. Melissa is aware of the
effect and believes the wings are simply a visual manifestation of her desire.
Melissa’s altitude is limited only by her ability to breathe and her ground
speed is around 200 Mph.
Other Abilities
Melissa is physically very fit, running for a minimum of an hour every day, she
has taken self-defence classes and owns a pistol, spending an hour or two at the
range most weeks. She has however never been in a real combat situation. Melissa
is a talented mathematician she can do most simple mathematics in her head and
more complex forms come very easily to her. She has an excellent memory a keen
analytic mind and an almost uncanny sensitivity to people
Origin Details
Melissa has deduced that some form of alien technology/lifeform/energy has
formed a symbiotic link though she is unaware of the exact details. The
symbiotic link has granted her, her various abilities and she believes,
correctly, that her hallucinations are some form of communication from her
symbiote. She feels the development of her powers was relatively easy and was
aided by a near instinctual understanding of them probably granted by her
partner. At this time she is unsure as to whether her powers we granted solely
by the symbiote or that it has merely enhanced latent abilities she already
possessed
items: Melissa has all the trappings of a reasonably prosperous lifestyle
She owns a small house on the outskirts of Las Vegas. A SUV for moving stuff
around trips into the desert etc. and a bike (for fun). Other than her rather
normal possesions Mel has not been a active Metahuman very long and as such has
not built up the variety of tools costumes and such that seem to go with that.
She has no batcave no super computer crossreferencing clues. no cool weapons or
funky costumes.... Though she's looking into getting some sort of flight suit.
(Her force field protects her from windchill and such but it still gets cold at
altitude.)
played_by: Anne Heche
player: Well you all know Me...
I'm a 29yr old englishman with a tendency to lurk. I play Sorrow over on LABN (A
really cool game I suggest you check out ;-))
I've been roleplaying about 15 years played mainly Gurps early on though I moved
onto a variety of other stuff including Amber SLA industries and White Wolf's
various games
Of those ( Vampire, Werewolf Mage etc. ) I prefer Mage though as a self
confessed die roller (the Amber not withstanding) rather than roleplayer I
prefer the GURPS convertions of those backgrounds
As for the rest well grab me on MSN and I might talk to you ;-)
- Login to post comments
Post to Twitter
Melissa "Gabriel" Hartson
Player already has my view through MSN, so.... will just say, looks good. Very nice, well thought out. And makes me look bad for not even having started yet. :)
Melissa "Gabriel" Hartson
Gabriel looks like a good "soldier" in the super team concept. Not a leader like a Batman or a Cyclops (yes he's a leader despite being a stiff jerk) but more of a Wolverine or Green Lantern. She seems the kind of character who will save the others bacon when things go bad.
I wonder if she can carry a solo story or not. That remains to be seen. I trust Robin to pull it of since he has a very clear concept.
I understand that the form is stripping of the villains writups...I need to fix that ASAP, could you post your nemesis here robin? I'd like to see.