| 1 | Go back to the [[Characters/{{Worm}} main characters page]] or [[Literature/{{Worm}} the work page]]. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ---- |
| 4 | |
| 5 | * [[Characters/WormSkitter Taylor Hebert / Skitter]] |
| 6 | * [[Characters/WormBrocktonBayHeroes Heroes in Brockton Bay]] |
| 7 | * [[Characters/WormBrocktonBayGangs Gangs of Brockton Bay]] |
| 8 | * [[Characters/WormSponsoredHeroes Sponsored Heroes]] |
| 9 | * [[Characters/WormWorldwideThreats Worldwide Threats]] |
| 10 | * [[Characters/WormOthers Other Characters]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | |
| 14 | |
| 15 | '''Serious spoilers for the entire story ahead:''' |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | At the beginning of the story, the Undersiders are an up-and-coming supervillain team based in [[WrongSideOfTheTracks the Docks]] of Brockton Bay, known -- barely -- for their ability to avoid capture or defeat. However, the fact that they (mostly) ''continue'' to avoid capture and defeat in the face of a long series of escalating threats leads their name becoming more widely known, particularly when they and the Travelers effectively take over Brockton Bay. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | The initial members of the team are Grue, Bitch/Hellhound, Regent, and Tattletale; over the course of the story, they recruit Skitter, Imp, Parian, and Flechette (who changes her name to Foil); the character entries of the latter two may be found in the "Misc. Superheroes and Rogues" folder of the Others page and the "The Wards (Others)" folder of the Sponsored Heroes page, respectively. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[folder:Tropes for the group as a whole]] |
| 26 | * NinetiesAntiHero: Imp and Rachel both act this way as a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype in their own ways. |
| 27 | * AntiVillain: Pretty much all of them count as this trope, with Skitter being the closest to being a hero (albeit a ClassicalAntiHero) and Regent being the closest to a genuine villain. |
| 28 | * BadassCrew: The Undersiders became this somewhere between [[spoiler:attacking the PRT headquarters]] and [[spoiler:chasing after Siberian]]. |
| 29 | * BadPowersGoodPeople: Despite have powers that are very easy to use maliciously (or at least illegally), the Undersiders are, especially by the standards of villains in the series, overall pretty good people. They almost certainly ''are'' still villains, but they spend the majority of the story helping people and fighting other major villains and threats. |
| 30 | * BandOfBrothers: After all of the fights and terrors they have faced, The Undersiders have become this. |
| 31 | * BanteringBaddieBuddies: Regent and Imp, who make it their mission to [[TheSnarkKnight snark]] or [[TheGadfly annoy]] everyone they meet. |
| 32 | * ClassicalAntiHero: Taylor. She started out as a heroic mole until [[spoiler:she was betrayed by Armsmaster]]. Even as a "villain", she has an almost unbreakable moral code and tries to help everyone she can. |
| 33 | * CombatDiplomacyStealth: [[spoiler:The three remaining members of the original Undersiders have this dynamic by the end of the story]], with [[TheBeastmaster Bitch]] as Combat, [[TheSocialExpert Tattletale]] as Diplomacy, and [[PerceptionFilter Imp]] as Stealth. |
| 34 | * CombatPragmatist: Unlike the superheroes who have an image to maintain, the Undersiders and other villains have no reason to fight fair. Hell, most of their powers necessitate it. Ambushes, sneak attacks, wasps in the face, attacks aimed at the throat or crotch, blinding people with darkness, dismemberment, guerrilla tactics, running away, explosives, and petty insults are all fair game in a life-or-limb street fight. |
| 35 | * DysfunctionJunction: Literally ''all'' of them come with horrible traumas essentially shackled to their ankles. Justified thanks to them being capes, which in this world naturally necessitates a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening. |
| 36 | * FamedInStory: The Undersiders and the Travelers attain this status after [[spoiler:the Slaughterhouse Nine arc]] when [[spoiler:they take over the city]], as pointed out in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/queen-18-3/ 18.3]] by Clockblocker. |
| 37 | %%* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: Taylor is the idealist, Tattletale is the realist, Grue is the cynic and the rest are apathetic. |
| 38 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: They start out as a small, low-end group of villains in a relatively small town. By the end of the story, they're [[spoiler:sitting on Cauldron's planning sessions to fight Scion, as unquestioned equals with the Protectorate, the Guild, and the Thanda, among other global-scale heavy-hitters]]. |
| 39 | * AHeroToHisHometown: In the wake of all they did to protect the people of Brockton Bay from [[spoiler:the Merchants and the Slaughterhouse Nine, the Undersiders -- and Skitter especially -- become a local institution]]. |
| 40 | * HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: It's noted in series (by Amy specifically) that their main combatants line up pretty well with the original four horsemen: Regent is Conquest, known for their crown and white color with the ability to forcibly control others (and most used puppets having a focus on distance combat much like the bow); Bitch is War due to her temperament and acting as the main muscle with her near literal "Dogs of War"; Grue is Famine by "starving" people of their senses and association with black/darkness and his need for financial support (the scales); and Skitter is Death/Pestilence due to her swarms and acting as a major force of [[TarotMotifs change]] in the story. |
| 41 | * ALighterShadeOfGrey: The most 'good' of the villain groups in Brockton Bay. |
| 42 | * ManOfTheCity: The Undersiders acquire this role for the city of Brockton Bay after it's badly damaged by [[spoiler:Leviathan]], first claiming territory and driving off the supervillains that are less friendly to the populace (drug dealers, Neo-Nazis, and serial killers) and then funding the city's revitalization with their illegally gained money, as well as providing smuggled supplies where government supplies fall short. When the city is [[spoiler:about to be condemned]], they convince [[spoiler:the mayor]] to campaign against it in Washington by [[spoiler:invading his home and threatening his family]]. Later, they create [[spoiler:the first stable gateway to an alternate world]] in order to bring revenue to the city and revitalize it. |
| 43 | * MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:Both male members of the group die, but none of females despite outnumbering the former]]. |
| 44 | * NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters: Skitter and Tattletale become this when they get their territories, with Skitter handing out relief supplies, defending her subjects against other villains, organizing reconstruction and generally behaving like one of the more beneficent feudal barons; while Tattletale runs her entire territory from a relief shelter, taking no overt control and running things from behind the scenes. Grue and Imp mostly limit themselves to driving off other villains while Regent uses his power to take over the existing gangs himself and Bitch quickly drives almost everyone out of her territory. |
| 45 | * NobleDemon: Because of the way the Undersiders tend to focus their efforts on taking down other criminals and villains in the wake of [[spoiler:Leviathan]], at least some of the Undersiders acquire this reputation. |
| 46 | * NominalHero: Rachel ''looks'' like this on the surface, but that's a case of BlueAndOrangeMorality, and she ''does'' try hard to conform to the human norm. Regent, however, [[TokenEvilTeammate most definitely qualifies]]. |
| 47 | * PragmaticHero: Grue, and [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation maybe]] Tattletale (her KnightInSourArmor status does not really help to define her one way or the other). |
| 48 | * PrimalFear: The unifying theme of all of their powers. Grue, Bitch and Skitter are obvious targeting the fear of Darkness, Large Carnivores and Bugs respectively. Tattletale targets the fear of exposure, her pseudo-telepathy allowing her to know people's secrets and take away their privacy. Regent targets the fear of losing control of one's body, while Imp targets the fear of ambush and the unknown. |
| 49 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: When they were originally formed, they were pretty much just a group of random no-name supervillains recruited to form a team by a mysterious benefactor and sticking together because, well, ''money.'' Over time, [[TrueCompanions their connection grows to be a lot more than that]]. |
| 50 | * SquishyWizard: All of the original five, relative to other capes. All have mental, spell-like abilities and none of them have any power that enhances their durability or increases their ability in close combat. Imp is a StealthExpert and [[spoiler:Flechette]] is more of a GlassCannon. |
| 51 | * SupervillainLair: At the time Taylor joins the team, they have a base on the second floor of an abandoned factory in the Docks. After they spread out to claim territory for [[spoiler:the team benefactor, Coil]], each member gets their own base. |
| 52 | * TheTeamBenefactor: The team's initially-anonymous boss, revealed eventually to be [[spoiler:Coil, a local recruiter of mercenaries]], supplies the team with equipment and financial support in exchange for doing his jobs. |
| 53 | * ThouShaltNotKill: One of the unspoken rules that the Undersiders follow, though they're willing to make exceptions for dangerous figures such as [[spoiler:Coil, Echidna and her clones, and the Slaughterhouse Nine and their clones]]. |
| 54 | * ThreePlusTwo: Grue, Skitter, and Tattletale are the ones with the largest role in the story and the ones who primarily determine the group's direction, with the others mostly going along. Skitter eventually comes to dominate the group and the story even more with even Grue and Tattletale relegated to secondary roles. |
| 55 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: As good of friends as they all are, they also subtly build up one another's worst personality traits and encourage their toxic behavior. It's perhaps most obvious with the friendship between Taylor and Lisa, as despite on the surface the latter providing a much-needed friend for the former, Lisa also continuously enables and feeds into the worst parts of Taylor's personality (such as her ControlFreak tendencies and GuiltComplex). |
| 56 | * TrueCompanions: They become this after a couple months of [[TheHeart Taylor's]] influence helping to bind them together. Unfortunately, it's also slightly deconstructed in that they all have fundamentally screwed-up personalities that -- for the most part -- encourage their worst personality traits. |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | !The Undersiders |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[folder:Skitter]] |
| 62 | ->See [[Characters/WormSkitter her page]]. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[/folder]] |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[folder:Grue]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | ! Brian Laborn (Grue) |
| 69 | !!!'''Debut:''' Gestation 1.5 |
| 70 | ->It was a little disquieting to hear Brian methodically describing how to break a human being. I saw him as a nice guy, if I ignored his career choice. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | The first leader of the Undersiders, Grue is a 17-year-old black man who got into crime in order to have the financial independence needed to take over the guardianship of his sister Aisha from their drug addict mom as soon as he turned 18. According to the Parahumans Online wiki at the beginning of the story, his power is simple darkness generation -- a factoid he added himself, so that his opponents would be caught off-guard by the way it blocks hearing and touch as well. The darkness seems to affect some superpowers as well, and after his second trigger event, it allows some PowerCopying. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | The darkness also seems to eliminate his bodily odors, as Brutus notes. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | His costume is basically motorcycle leather and a helmet designed to be wreathed by his smoke when he uses his power. His first helmet is a stylized skull, done in black; his second a demonic face. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | Classification: Shaker; Trump |
| 79 | |
| 80 | ---- |
| 81 | |
| 82 | * AbusiveParents: [[invoked]] His stepfather, according to WordOfGod. |
| 83 | * AngerBornOfWorry: He gets very angry when anyone else puts his teammates at risk. |
| 84 | * BigBrotherInstinct: His trigger event happened when he was protecting his little sister Aisha from their abusive stepfather, and he never stops trying to protect his teammates. |
| 85 | * BoxingLessonsForSuperman: One of the things he made a point of as a leader was to make sure everyone in the Undersiders learned basic first-aid and hand-to-hand combat skills. |
| 86 | * BusCrash: [[spoiler:Gets killed by Scion [[KilledOffscreen offscreen]].]] |
| 87 | * CastingAShadow: His primary power, darkness that blocks hearing, touch, microwaves, radio frequencies, and radiation. |
| 88 | * CoolMask: Grue has two -- his first is a skull, the second a demon. Both are designed to be wreathed in his darkness. |
| 89 | * DemotedToExtra: He gradually fades in importance in the later arcs [[spoiler:and leaves the story entirely by the Cockroaches arc, due to his death in the first battle with Scion.]] |
| 90 | * ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Grue intentionally averts this by listing his power as darkness generation on the Parahumans Wiki to [[ExploitedTrope catch enemies off guard with what else his darkness does]]. |
| 91 | * FightsLikeANormal: His power usually lets him avoid combat, but when he has to go up against an opponent, he does so using the fighting skills he got from having been raised by a military vet and former boxer. |
| 92 | * JustifiedCriminal: Brian's sister was with his crazy and neglectful mother and an abusive boyfriend, and his father had no parenting skills. The courts would only award custody to him if he could take care of her and provide very well for her, and it is hard to do that as a poor college student. So he turned to crime and was hired by the Undersiders' mysterious boss to get the money and connections to a reputable company to gain custody of Aisha. |
| 93 | * TheLancer: [[spoiler:Following the trauma of being capture by the Slaughterhouse Nine and having his second trigger event, Skitter takes over leadership of the group and he slips into this role. After Skitter joins the Wards he again takes on the role of battlefield leader but Tattletale becomes the de facto leader.]] |
| 94 | * LanternJawOfJustice: One of the first things Taylor notes about Brian when she sees him out of costume. |
| 95 | * HowDoIShotWeb: When using his [[spoiler:secondary power, Grue has had issues using his newly gained powers.]] |
| 96 | * MalevolentMaskedMan: Wears a skull or demon mask when in costume. |
| 97 | * NeverBeHurtAgain: Was abused by his stepfather in the past. Having to confront the man again to save his sister from the same fate was his trigger event. He doesn't ever want to remember or admit the abuse to anyone. |
| 98 | * PowerCopying: After Grue's [[spoiler:second trigger event,]] he can also use his darkness to copy others' powers in a limited fashion. |
| 99 | * PromotionToParent: Brian is doing everything possible to gain custody of his sister due to how messed up his mother is and his father's lack of parenting ability. |
| 100 | * RequiredSecondaryPowers: He can see through his darkness to the extent that he can barely tell it's there. However, he does have a sense of where it is at any moment. |
| 101 | * ScaryBlackMan: As Taylor notes in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/tangle-6-2/ Tangle 6.2]] when she sees him lounging with his eyes closed outside his apartment building, he's six feet tall and obviously fit: |
| 102 | -->Even if you gave me my knife, baton and a good enough reason, I was pretty sure ''I'' wouldn't want to mess with his nap. |
| 103 | * SkullForAHead: His first CoolMask, and [[spoiler:what Bonesaw wanted to do to his head when she was done examining him]]. |
| 104 | * SupervillainLair: Shared with Imp -- notably including a fitness room with a punching bag and a 'war room' with maps of their territory. |
| 105 | * TherapyIsForTheWeak: Grue's gut reaction to the thought of seeing a shrink. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Tattletale]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | ! Lisa Wilbourn/Sarah Livsey (Tattletale) |
| 112 | !!!'''Debut:''' Gestation 1.5 |
| 113 | -->"Oh honey, now who's being stupid? I've got the most powerful weapon of all," Tattletale purred, smiling wickedly, "Information." |
| 114 | |
| 115 | A pretty seventeen-year-old girl with dark blonde hair and mysterious origins, Lisa possesses a power that is essentially BatDeduction -- she can extrapolate an incredible wealth of inference from the least soupçon of data. It's not perfectly reliable, however -- if she pushes it too far from too little data, she can end up very, very wrong, and even under less extreme circumstances a lack of information can mean her guesses are significantly off. As a member of the team, she usually primarily provides intel, such as analysis of the powers of their opposition, but she has used her power to BreakThemByTalking on more than one occasion. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | Her costume consists of a skintight black-and-lavender outfit and a mask that hides her freckles and disguises the lines of her face. She also makes a point of loosening her hair only while in disguise. |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Classification: Thinker 7 |
| 120 | |
| 121 | ---- |
| 122 | |
| 123 | * AlphaBitch: Tattletale/Lisa is explicitly beautiful and has [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]] as a superpower. However, despite her very bitchy tendencies towards the world at large she lacks any [[GirlPosse crowd]] to be in with and is a loyal friend to [[SociallyAwkwardHero Taylor]] from their first meeting. What little is known of her [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]] would suggest that she probably used to be either this played straight, or something similar before [[spoiler:her brother's suicide triggered her superpower and drove her to flee her wealthy home.]] |
| 124 | * AwesomenessByAnalysis: When analyzing someone or something, she needs to have some information about the target to begin with, and her power fills in the gaps in her knowledge, allowing her to crack computer passwords, profile people around her, and make predictions about the most likely outcome of a given situation, among other things. She's very accurate, although not infallible. In the few instances where she makes mistakes, she messes up pretty big. Also, she can become mentally overloaded if she tries to take in and analyze too much information all at once. |
| 125 | * BerserkButton: Insulting her intelligence. Though being Tattletale, she responds by coldly and methodically verbally eviscerating the person who insulted her. |
| 126 | * BreakThemByTalking: Due to her power, Tattletale is an absolute master at this. It doesn't matter who you are, if you can hear her, she will get to you. At one point Taylor sees her doing this and thinks that if she'd wanted to, Tattletale could have been a cult leader that made Heartbreaker look amateurish. |
| 127 | * CheshireCatGrin: {{Perpetual|Smiler}}ly, even -- being as she is ''often'' up to something. |
| 128 | ** It's also how she masks fear; she smiles when facing [[spoiler:Leviathan, when forcibly recruited by Coil's mercenaries (who for all she knew could have been assassins hired by one of the wealthy men she'd robbed), when confronting the Slaughterhouse Nine, and when she's about to be eaten alive by Echidna]]. |
| 129 | --->Tattletale grinned. Sometimes you couldn’t do anything else. “We are so fucking out of our depth.” ---[[https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-8-extermination/8-x-bonus-interlude/ Interlude 8 (Bonus)]] |
| 130 | * ChessmasterSidekick: Works as this to whoever is leading the Undersiders or in any situation where she's not in charge. |
| 131 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Tattletale got her powers due to [[spoiler:[[SurvivorGuilt stress from her older brother committing suicide]], and left after her parents decided to use her for her powers.]] |
| 132 | * DeadpanSnarker: One of several on the team, though not to the degree of Alec, thanks in part to her powers and manipulation ploys. |
| 133 | * {{Determinator}}: She performs a tracheotomy ''on herself'' using a pocket knife and the casing of a ballpoint pen to survive after [[spoiler:having her windpipe crushed by Perdition]]. |
| 134 | * DoNotTauntCthulhu: She just can't resist needling the most dangerous person in sight, including at various times [[BoisterousBruiser Glory Girl]], [[GeniusBruiser Armsmaster]], [[SuperheroPackingHeat Miss Militia]], [[FlyingBrick Alexandria]], [[AllYourPowersCombined Eidolon]], [[LovecraftianSuperpower Night]], [[SuperSmoke Fog]], and [[TheSociopath Jack Slash]], ''while he's flanked by [[MadDoctor Bonesaw]] and [[TheJuggernaut the Siberian]]''. The last one doesn't work out so well for her since Jack [[GlasgowGrin cuts her face]], but that doesn't break her of the habit; towards the end she even mouths off to [[EldritchAbomination the Simurgh]]. |
| 135 | * ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Tattletale {{exploit|edTrope}}s this trope by inventing a succession of misleadingly false explanations, starting with a claim that she reads minds -- something impossible in this setting -- to intimidate anyone in front of her. |
| 136 | * ExpositionFairy: Has the ability to do this on any foe. |
| 137 | * EverybodyKnewAlready: [[spoiler:Tattletale knew that Taylor was intending to be a superhero before they even met.]] |
| 138 | * FailureKnight: The reason she befriends Taylor is [[spoiler:to try to make up for her failure to prevent her brother's suicide.]] |
| 139 | * GlasgowGrin: Jack Slash slices through her cheek when she has the temerity to spill the beans on Cherish's plan. It's not actually a smile. |
| 140 | * HeroicRROD: She's vulnerable to "Thinker headaches" if she overuses her power, like when she tries to analyze Leviathan's body structure. |
| 141 | * HollywoodHacking: Actually justified due to Tattletale's power. Since she can almost instantly deduce passwords and codes, she doesn't even need to hack. |
| 142 | * InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Acts arrogant and brazen about the intelligence her power gives her, but behind this is [[spoiler: a feeling that she wasn't smart enough to stop her brother's suicide, and a determination to never be that dumb person she hates herself as again.]] |
| 143 | * LogicalWeakness: Her ability to BreakThembyTalking can be easily countered if the target cannot hear her. Armsmaster prevents Dauntless from falling victim to this by having the latter wear earbuds so that he can only hear Armsmaster's orders. |
| 144 | * LonelyRichKid: What her childhood was like before [[spoiler:her brother's suicide]]. |
| 145 | * LovableAlphaBitch: Despite the above and similarities to her abusers Taylor certainly thinks so. [[spoiler:Taylor isn't wrong, at any rate-Lisa can be genuinely ruthless when scared or insulted, but the very reason she made the offer of membership to Taylor is largely out of the kindness of her heart and genuine desire to avoid anyone else suffering through her tragedy.]] |
| 146 | * NervesOfSteel: One of the reasons Tattletale is so ferociously effective is that she doesn't let pain, injury, or threat to life and limb stop her from using her smarts, her superpower, and her [[GrinOfAudacity vulpine grin]] to break down any obstacle in front of her. |
| 147 | * TheOmniscient: Lisa/Tattletale's power, generally speaking. It's not perfect or all-encompassing, leading to occasional cases where she's NotSoOmniscientAfterAll. |
| 148 | * PerpetualSmiler: She smiles when she's up to something. And she's ''always'' up to something. |
| 149 | * PetTheDog: [[spoiler:Her entire relationship with Taylor is this, ignoring her wannabe [[TheMole mole]] status purely out of the desire to be the friend Taylor desperately needed to quell her suicidal impulses. Even if the relationship unfortunately turned out to ultimately be more toxic than intended, she still tried to uplift and support someone who really, ''really'' needed a friend in their time of need.]] She also '''did''' genuinely want Amy to help Victoria when the latter was mindraped and is hinted to feel genuine guilt for her role in Amy's descent. |
| 150 | * SecretlyWealthy: [[spoiler:The Livseys]] are apparently well-to-do (although, as a supervillain, Tattletale isn't exactly pinched for funds). [[spoiler:It turns out that she's been embezzling from Coil and skimming from the Undersiders' jobs for him to the point where, when he turns on the Undersiders, she's able to outbid him for the loyalty of most of his mercenaries.]] |
| 151 | * SherlockScan: Lisa's power makes her ''really'' good at this, and she can apply this kind of analysis to just about anything, not just people. |
| 152 | * ShipperOnDeck: She was a major factor in getting Brian and Taylor together. |
| 153 | * TheSmartGuy: Tattletale explicitly describes her role in the group as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_(military_staff) Ops]]" (although she [[DoingResearch does a lot of intelligence work]] as well). She goes in the field rather than simply acting as MissionControl because, first, Bitch insisted that everyone fight when Tattletale originally joined the team, and second, firsthand observation enhances what she can do with her power. [[spoiler:Also third, it lets her skim additional proceeds from jobs like the bank robbery, where she hacked the CEO's computer while the other Undersiders were collecting the ready cash.]] |
| 154 | * SummationGathering: Claims that she lives for moments like these and her actions in the story bear it out again and '''again'''. |
| 155 | * SuperHeroPackingHeat: Less so than the typical example, but she's got a pistol and knows how to use it. Also played with, as she is a super''villain'', though there's a lot of [[GrayAndGrayMorality gray area]] in that regard. |
| 156 | * TooCleverByHalf: Tattletale has the common Thinker problem of following faulty logic chains down rabbit holes when faced with insufficient or even too much data: her own biases will affect the conclusions she reaches, or she'll spiral into overcomplication trying to make sense of things. Added to that is a tendency to let her mouth overrun her common sense at times |
| 157 | * YouthfulFreckles: When she's not wearing her mask. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:Bitch]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | ! Rachel Lindt (Bitch/Hellhound) |
| 164 | !!!'''Debut:''' Gestation 1.5 |
| 165 | -->"I don't think you realize how badly you fucked yourself. You. Shot. My. Dog." |
| 166 | |
| 167 | A unlucky sixteen-year-old foster child who gained the power to grant short-term {{Power Upgrading Deformation}}s to dogs, and who ended up on the streets fighting and fleeing superheroes for two years afterward. Her total inability to pick up on human social cues and the fact that she is a known criminal even in her civilian identity has left her isolated from almost everyone she has ever met. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | Given that her identity is publicly known, she usually doesn't bother with a sophisticated costume. When Taylor first meets her, she is wearing a dollar-store rottweiler mask. Taylor's description based on her picture on the [[FictionalDocument Parahumans Online wiki page]] is that "[she has] a squarish, blunt-featured face with thick eyebrows"; she has short-cut red hair and a muscular build. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | She chose the codename "Bitch" for herself; "Hellhound" is just what the heroes refer to her as. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | Classification: Master 5; Striker 5 |
| 174 | |
| 175 | ---- |
| 176 | |
| 177 | * AngryGuardDog: She acts like this to pretty much everyone who tries to enter her territory, being willing to set her dogs on people on a moment's notice. |
| 178 | * AttackAttackAttack: Bitch generally deals with threats by attacking them until they stop moving. Backfires for her in Monarch 16.4, when Dragon throws a suit at her that [[spoiler:repairs itself whenever it gets badly damaged]]. |
| 179 | * TheBeastmaster: Unlike Taylor, Bitch can't mentally control the dogs she transforms, so she trains them to respond to whistles and specific verbal commands. |
| 180 | * BeneathTheMask: Bitch's Interlude shows that she cares more about fitting in with her teammates then she lets on. |
| 181 | * BetterWithNonHumanCompany: Bitch is very good with dogs, fitting her power to mutate them. She both spends lots of time with them and is very knowledgable of how they think. With humans, on the other hand, she is less than friendly, has NoSocialSkills, and claims to only care about her dogs rather than caring about any other humans. Taylor might be the closest thing to a friend she has ever had. |
| 182 | * BerserkButton: Mistreatment of dogs. She also hates it when other people try to order her dogs around. |
| 183 | * TheBigGuy: She provides nearly all of the team's melee combat power. |
| 184 | * BookDumb: Thanks to her childhood, she is functionally illiterate and ignorant about most things that don't relate directly to dogs. That said, she's not ''stupid'', just very direct and blunt. |
| 185 | * CharacterDevelopment: While she never fully overcomes her anger issues and isolationist nature, Rachel becomes a ''lot'' nicer and more approachable over the course of the series, willing to work through her own mental problems for the sake of others, as is best shown by the close bond she forms with Taylor even after they initially hated each other. |
| 186 | * DisabilitySuperpower: Her power gives her a social handicap dealing with humans, but makes her effectively the best dog trainer in the world. |
| 187 | * EtTuBrute: She does ''not'' take the news that Taylor was initially planning to betray the Undersiders well at all. |
| 188 | * EveryoneHasStandards: She's willing to viciously break a man's femur for trying to [[BerserkButton shoot one of her dogs]], but she's clearly bothered by the Siberian killing the same man by [[EyeScream plunging her fingers into his eyes]]. |
| 189 | * FireForgedFriends: With Taylor. Rachel was ''not'' happy with the former joining the Undersiders early on, going as far as to physically assault her in the team's base in one of their early meetings to try and drive her away. Over time and across many death-defying experiences, though, they start to grow closer (helped along by Taylor [[DefeatMeansFriendship beating Rachel up in return]]), culminating in Rachel saving Taylor's life in the Leviathan battle, sacrificing several of her dogs to do so. By the end of the series Rachel is arguably Taylor's best friend amongst the Undersiders (and possibly her closest friend, ''period''). |
| 190 | * FriendlessBackground: Even before her trigger event, Rachel had no friends, going straight from ParentalNeglect to ParentalAbandonment and then into the DepartmentOfChildDisservices. Her time as a member of the Undersiders is as close to having normal interpersonal relationships as she has ever been. |
| 191 | * FriendsWithBenefits: Apparently develops this sort of relationship with Biter, a sexual relationship with no romantic component. |
| 192 | * FuzzTherapy: After CharacterDevelopment, Rachel starts loaning her dogs to troubled capes and also gives the orphaned kids in [[spoiler:Skitter's territory]] some puppy time. |
| 193 | * HairTriggerTemper: She's very quick to anger, though later in the series she learns to temper her rage with rational planning. |
| 194 | * HatesSmallTalk: Again, a corollary of her handicap, she's not very talkative. |
| 195 | * {{Hypocrite}}: She's furious at Taylor for ''thinking'' about betraying the Undersiders, so she ''actually'' betrays Skitter to Dragon. Taylor throws this in her face, feeling the knowledge alone will wound Rachel worse than any revenge she could possibly get. |
| 196 | * JustifiedCriminal: The death of Bitch's foster family was an accident. If she had a good lawyer she probably would have gotten manslaughter, but there was probably very little chance of her being given a fair trial. Rather than go to a parahuman detention center for teens and be institutionalized, she went on the run. Not knowing how to read, interact with people, or having any other skills, she had to resort to crime to survive and needed to be the meanest thing around to protect herself. |
| 197 | * MountainMan: [[spoiler:Or rather, woman, on Earth Gimel, as she ends up living alone there for a while except for a few henchmen and her dogs.]] |
| 198 | * MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: Part of the modifications that her powers made to her brain makes Rachel very good at comprehending certain types of body language. This includes clocking Taylor's romantic interest in Brian, to the former's mortified shame. |
| 199 | * NeverLearnedToRead: While she can read at an extremely basic level, most of the time she doesn't bother. When the group writes letters to Taylor later in the story, she has to dictate hers to one of her subordinates, who does the actual writing. |
| 200 | * NoSocialSkills: [[spoiler:Bitch's CanineCompanion HulkingOut powers affect her mind]] so that she thinks and perceives social interactions like a [[spoiler:dog instead of a human]]. This also makes her unable to grasp tone, expressions and several other key aspects of human interaction. |
| 201 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: An interesting example by way of PaintingTheMedium. Taylor's narration normally code-switches between other characters' cape names and real names based on [[{{Kayfabe}} whether or not they’re in costume at the time]], but she exclusively refers to Rachel as "Bitch" due to their [[TeethClenchedTeamwork fraught relationship]]. After they [[FireForgedFriends start to grow closer]], though, Taylor's narration switches to near-exclusively referring to Rachel by her given name, even when in costume, illustrating how their bond has changed. |
| 202 | * PetTheDog: In [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/colony-15-1/ 15.1]], when Bitch adopts out two of her dogs to one of her minions. |
| 203 | * TheQuietOne: A side-effect of her [[NoSocialSkills lack of social skills]]. Rachel doesn't talk much, but when she does everyone else listens. |
| 204 | * SarcasmBlind: Another corollary of her handicap is that she's poor at understanding sarcasm. |
| 205 | * SecretPublicIdentity: The one person in the Undersiders to be known by their real name amongst the general public, since she triggered while young and spent years fleeing PRT agents. |
| 206 | * ShipperOnDeck: She's the first member of the team to pick up on the UnresolvedSexualTension between Taylor and Brian, and tries to (in [[DoYouWantToCopulate in her own way]]) encourage Taylor to be honest with her feelings. When the two later come clean about their relationship to the rest of the team, her only response is [[KnewItAllAlong a smug smile]]. |
| 207 | * TaughtByExperience: Bitch gained her combat skills from spending several years fleeing agents of the PRT. |
| 208 | * UndyingLoyalty: After recovering from the anger of her [[TheMole mole]] status, she becomes Taylor's staunch ally. She didn't even see the problem with getting in [[spoiler:Khepri's body controlling aura]]. After all, it's ''Taylor''. |
| 209 | * WickedStepmother: Bitch's abusive stepmother was directly responsible for her trigger event when she tried to [[KickTheDog drown her puppy as punishment.]] |
| 210 | |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Regent]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | ! Alec/Jean-Paul Vasil (Regent/Hijack) |
| 216 | !!!'''Debut:''' Gestation 1.5 |
| 217 | -->"I dunno if I care all that much, but it's the sort of thing I'll do because it feels like I should. Dunno. There's also the fact that you're dangerous, and you've outlived your usefulness, so... unless you can give me a convincing reason."\ |
| 218 | \ |
| 219 | "Please."\ |
| 220 | \ |
| 221 | "Not that convincing." |
| 222 | |
| 223 | A sixteen year old kid, pretty, with black curls and light blue eyes. The son of Nikos Vasil a.k.a. Heartbreaker, a major supervillain in Montreal, who escaped his father, changed his name and tactics, and joined the Undersiders. He carries a scepter with a taser in it as his hand-to-hand weapon, but his power allows him to manipulate the bodies of other people, causing muscle cramps which force people to trip or stumble, a subset of his ''actual'' ability with full-scale {{People Puppet|s}}ry. Is amiable but sociopathic, probably as a consequence of his upbringing. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | Besides his staff, he wears a white mask, a silver coronet, a ruffled white shirt, and skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots. The mask and shirt contain padding designed to camouflage the lines of his body. |
| 226 | |
| 227 | Classification: Master 7(?) |
| 228 | |
| 229 | ---- |
| 230 | |
| 231 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: Alec seems happy whenever any witty banter takes place, even if it's directed at him. He's only in the cape business for the fun of it after all. |
| 232 | * BookDumb: Not to the extent of Rachel, but he's also distinctly lacking in the formal education department, and notes that his math skills are rather poor multiple times. In addition to his not being all that good at strategizing. |
| 233 | * BrilliantButLazy: Regent is far, far smarter than he looks, but, like most sociopaths, he's rather lacking in motivation and isn't much for long-term planning. The nature of his [[PeoplePuppets power]] adds another dimension to this, as both Regent and his allies are pretty reluctant to use it outside of [[GodzillaThreshold desperate situations]] or with [[PayEvilUntoEvil very bad people]], and over-using it would likely result in a kill order on him. Regent is justifiably stuck being a bit of an underachiever if he doesn't want to be a monster like his father. A subject he quite vociferously has views on. |
| 234 | * CainAndAbel: With [[MoreThanMindControl Cherish]]. Although it's less "Good vs. Evil" and more "[[SociopathicHero Sociopathic Anti-Hero]] vs. complete and utter bastard." |
| 235 | * CarryABigStick: Uses a scepter with a taser installed as a weapon. |
| 236 | * CasualDangerDialogue: Fear is one of the many emotions that Regent is incapable of feeling. |
| 237 | ** After watching Bakuda [[spoiler:turn a man into sludge with a bomb]]: |
| 238 | -->'''Alec:''' That was pretty cool.\ |
| 239 | '''Bakuda:''' I know right? I modeled it off Tesla’s work in vibrations. He theorized that if you could get the right frequency, you could shatter the Earth it-.\ |
| 240 | '''Alec:''' No offense, well, I’ll rephrase: I don’t really care about offending you. Don’t shoot me though. I just want to stop you there and say I don’t care about the science stuff and all the technobabble about how you did it. It’s boring. I’m just saying it’s kind of neat to see what a person looks like when dissolved down like that. Gross, creepy, fucked up, but it’s neat. |
| 241 | ** Just before [[spoiler:being consumed by Noelle]]: |
| 242 | --->'''Alec''': Hey monster girl, when [[spoiler:you make my clone]], could you give him [[BeardOfEvil a goatee?]] |
| 243 | * CharacterCatchphrase: Regent is fond of "Seriously?" |
| 244 | * DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Guess who teased Weaver the most about how telling someone you loved them was a common {{Death Trope|s}} to see before a massive conflict and then made sure his own parting words to her were (ironically) invoking the same thing?]] |
| 245 | * DeadpanSnarker: Particularly when he's bantering with Imp, but he'll readily drop a dry observation in front of anybody's train of thought when he feels like it. |
| 246 | * DisabilityImmunity: He's immune to mind-controlling and emotion-influencing powers, which seems to be related to his general sociopathy. |
| 247 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Amoral to the point of dangerous he may be, but Alec does have standards that prevent him becoming an absolute monster. Namely "be classy and successful with minimum effort, but don't be [[StupidEvil Dad]] to get there". His subdued, yet disgusted and horrified, reaction to Cheri's life choices is a case in point. |
| 248 | %%zce* EvilIsNotAToy: He understands this very well, possibly the most important difference between him and his sister, Cherie. |
| 249 | * FreudianExcuse: |
| 250 | ** A very good one; [[spoiler:he had an intensely traumatizing upbringing under the sociopathic Heartbraker, and Heartbreaker's abuse using his powers may have killed his ability to feel emotions, including empathy. He seems at least somewhat aware of this.]] |
| 251 | ** Discussed when he finds evidence that Shadow Stalker was somehow mistreated by her father, he calls her out for not at least trying to rise above it. |
| 252 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: A more subtle variation until [[BirdsOfAFeather Imp]] joins the team, as his "friendship" with Grue is more like coworkers or roommates by even his own admission and when talking about out of costume his is the most likely name to be tacked on at the end like an after thought. Not that this seems to bother him much since it helps him stay in the background. |
| 253 | * HeroicComedicSociopath: Though he's technically a villain, he generally tends to direct his sociopathic impulses at those more evil than himself (there's no shortage in the Wormverse), with occasionally hilarious consequences. |
| 254 | * HeroicSacrifice: During [[spoiler:the Behemoth fight, to save Imp's life.]] |
| 255 | * HiddenDepths: It's made clear in his interlude and his conversations with Cherish that he's aware there's [[LackOfEmpathy something wrong with him]] and that he isn't entirely happy about about it, and the thought of becoming like his father seems to disturb him. [[spoiler:Then there's his HeroicSacrifice.]] |
| 256 | * InsistentTerminology: He doesn't appreciate people describing his People Puppetry as mind control, as he sees it their minds are still their own, it's only their bodies he's controlling. This actually turns out to be a pretty important distinction- most other people who can control people's minds (Panacea, Bonesaw, Heartbreaker, Valefor...) leave the person irreversibly changed, Regent can take control of someone for a few days and then let them go with no ill effects, other than the psychological trauma of the experience. |
| 257 | * IJustWantToHaveFriends: His interlude, his conversation with Cherish, and ultimately [[spoiler:his HeroicSacrifice]] indicate that a significant part of his motivation was having friends. |
| 258 | * JustifiedCriminal: Regent became what he is because of his father. Though he ran away, he knows he would never be trusted by the authorities due to what his father made him do and how scary his power is to people. Having never gone to school, he had to commit crimes to survive. |
| 259 | * KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Behemoth zaps him right in the middle of his distraction attempt.]] |
| 260 | * LackOfEmpathy: He may well have had it, once, as he certainly is aware that something's missing and that this is not a good thing. But, being raised in Heartbreaker's compound sandblasted any chance to develop his empathy to near-extinction. The best he can manage is to approximate the appropriate behaviour... after thinking through how puppets of his generally feel and filtering everything through his personal set of "don't be Dad" rules. Which actually puts him closer to normal without outside help than most of his family, scarily enough. |
| 261 | * MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Regent is incapable of feeling most emotions. This is due to some combination of inheriting it genetically from his father, his power affecting his psychology directly and/or via the intensity of vicariously experiencing the intense emotions of [[spoiler: his thralls]], over-exposure to his family's emotion-controlling powers at a young age, and the normal psychological effects of being raised in an entirely loveless family by a father and his army of sex slaves. Regent isn't sure which it is. |
| 262 | * NoSell: He is highly resistant to emotional manipulation-based abilities, like Cherie's. They discuss whether this is because of built-up resistance from frequent exposure or due to his sociopathy, but the sequel implies it may be RequiredSecondaryPowers, as it's noted that capes with emotion-manipulating powers tend to be resistant to other emotion-manipulating powers. |
| 263 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: Delivers a rather brutal comeuppance to Shadow Stalker as payback for what she did to Taylor by [[spoiler:puppeteering her in order to ruin her life]]. |
| 264 | * PeoplePuppets: The true extent of his power enables him to have complete control over the bodies of others. He can maintain the effect pretty much indefinitely, but requires a lot of time to initiate it, so it normally only sees use on either willing targets or those unable to resist. |
| 265 | * PrettyBoy: Is explicitly described as attractive in a more feminine way in his civilian guise. |
| 266 | * RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: While he [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't really seem to see it as such himself]] by how casually he can refer to it [[spoiler:his sister makes a point that while he may be known more for murder he's committed plenty of forms of rape too as an attempt to make a rift between him and his team. And before ''he'' was of the age of consent to boot.]] |
| 267 | * ReluctantPsycho: He's very disturbed by his own inability to feel emotions, and he usually tries to act as though he could actually feel things like empathy. |
| 268 | * ShipTease: Has a surprising amount of it with Aisha, to the point Taylor assumes they became an item but how accurate that is remains unclear. This is confirmed after Leviathan's attack, to the point that Imp rather lasciviously admits she enjoys [[PowerPerversionPotential him using his power on her in bed]], as her power will instantly NoSell it at her discretion. |
| 269 | * ShockStick: Regent uses a scepter with a taser concealed in the crown for melee combat. |
| 270 | * TheSociopath: Tattletale's power describes him as this, and his actions bear it out-though he's a somewhat more realistic portrayal than most examples of the trope. |
| 271 | * SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: One of his easier tells when controlling people, seen twice with [[spoiler:Shadow Stalker]], which while the first was very intentional (Calling Taylor "dork", his preferred nickname for her, when making his puppet adopt his tone and body language as well) while the second was more a case of SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay (using the term "whinge" towards his victim's mother in place of the more commonly used "whine") and was likely less so. |
| 272 | * TokenEvilTeammate: Is the most amoral of the Undersiders, though he does appear to have some loyalty to the group. |
| 273 | * {{Troll}}: Loves to screw with people's heads. |
| 274 | * UnblockableAttack: One of the perks of his power. His base power (just using it to trip people up rather than dominate them) is pretty damn weak, but the upshot is that he doesn't have to move, and it works on (almost) anyone. If Regent can see you, he can nerf you. He's used this to mess up heavy hitters such as Dauntless, Aegis, [[spoiler:Clone Eidolon]] and at one point, dozens of armed thugs at once, in situations where they were protected from all of the other Undersiders. |
| 275 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He has a fear of spiders. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't like the idea of Taylor turning the Undersiders' base into a breeding ground for literal thousands of them. |
| 276 | |
| 277 | [[/folder]] |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[folder:Imp]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | ! Aisha Laborn (Imp) |
| 282 | !!!'''Debut:''' Tangle 6.3 |
| 283 | -->Flechette was loading for a third shot when a girl in black clothing with a horned demon mask and black scarf struck her weapon with a fire axe, splitting the metallic string and knocking it from her hand.\ |
| 284 | \ |
| 285 | The girl with the horns was on our side, wait-- I could almost remember her. Some relation to Grue.\ |
| 286 | \ |
| 287 | Then it slipped from my recollection, and I was distracted by the fact that Flechette was disarmed, her weapon broken. How had that happened? |
| 288 | |
| 289 | Brian's younger sister. Four years younger than Brian, and already beautiful (and [[ACupAngst larger-chested than Taylor]]) despite her [[RummageSaleReject questionable fashion sense]]. Her brother told her he was a cape before the story started, and she deduced from that his identity and membership in the Undersiders; she had her trigger event sometime within a few weeks of the Leviathan attack and subsequently joined the team. Has the power to hide within a PerceptionFilter. |
| 290 | |
| 291 | Classification: Stranger |
| 292 | |
| 293 | ---- |
| 294 | * AchillesHeel: She's so reliant on her power for stealth that whenever she encounters another cape that can bypass it, she tends to freeze up and become an easy target. She nearly gets captured by Dragon and killed by Cherish and later [[spoiler:Behemoth]] due to this. |
| 295 | * AscendedExtra: For the first couple of arcs she appears in after her trigger event she's the least prominent of the Undersiders, not counting [[TokenGoodTeammate Parian]]. She steadily increases in prominence after the TimeSkip, to the point where she's one of the five characters who get an epilogue chapter. |
| 296 | * AttentionDeficitOohShiny: She mentions in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/02 Interlude 13.5]] that she couldn't sit still or concentrate in school. |
| 297 | ** [[spoiler:She ultimately manages to overcome this, self-educating herself with some help from Heartbreaker's kids]] |
| 298 | %%zce* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Her treatment of Grue after his [[spoiler:capture by the Slaughterhouse Nine.]] |
| 299 | * DelinquentHair: Part of her generally-trashy style as of [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/tangle-6-3/ Tangle 6.3]] is a skunk stripe with a stripe of purple in it. |
| 300 | * DeviousDaggers: Imp's personal weapon of choice is a knife, which she uses in tandem with her perception-altering powers to make a deadly combination. |
| 301 | * TheGadfly: Imp seems to have made it her life's mission to annoy as many people as humanly possible for the sheer lol-factor. |
| 302 | * {{Gaslighting}}: She uses this as a method of driving undesirables out of the territory she shares with Grue. |
| 303 | * HeroicComedicSociopath: In a very similar vein as Regent, to the point she casually points out how easily her power lets her gaslight people to the point of possibly driving them insane. |
| 304 | * IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHim: Has this view of [[spoiler:Skitter]] concerning her relationship with Grue. |
| 305 | * LittleMissSnarker: Especially when she's bantering with Regent. |
| 306 | * {{Metaphorgotten}}: She often uses long-winded metaphors that end up turning into a very specific description of something that actually happened. |
| 307 | * NoSocialSkills: Being raised by a neglectful, drug-addict mother hasn't left her with a lot of social graces. |
| 308 | * NoSell: Mind-controlling powers don't work on her while her power is active. |
| 309 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: |
| 310 | ** During the TimeSkip, Imp [[spoiler:''murdered Heartbreaker in Regent's name and adopted his kids.'']] |
| 311 | ** In 30.6, we learn that her power allows her to [[spoiler:follow Taylor in her sphere of influence without becoming [[PeoplePuppets one of her tools]]]]. She was holding her hand the whole time, and murmuring encouragement, even after Taylor [[spoiler:lost the ability to understand her]]. |
| 312 | * PerceptionFilter: Imp's power seems to work this way, to the point of making people forget she was ever there in the first place. As a downside, she has to consciously make herself visible to others. |
| 313 | ** [[spoiler:Her ability to negate always-on Master/Stranger powers like Nice Guy and Khepri may indicate her power even works on the power-granting shards.]] |
| 314 | * PluckyComicRelief: It's not her only purpose, but a lot of the humor in the latter half of the story comes from her irreverent attitude and complete disrespect for authority. |
| 315 | * PowerIncontinence: {{Downplayed}}, but her Interlude chapter reveals that her power (which makes her functionally invisible to others) is ''always'' on, and it requires active and continuous effort by Aisha to suppress the effect. |
| 316 | * ThePowerOfLegacy: [[spoiler:After Taylor disappears, presumed dead, at the end of the Scion War, Imp takes it upon herself (and a few of the Heartbroken) to make sure that Taylor's legacy remains untarnished.]] |
| 317 | * ReduceAggro: Her power in a nutshell, people just ignore her and don't pay attention to her. They won't connect the result of her actions to ''her''. |
| 318 | * RummageSaleReject: When Taylor meets her, she is wearing a microscopic strapless top and ripped denim shorts over neon green fishnet leggings. |
| 319 | * SophisticatedAsHell: Following the TimeSkip, Imp has become notably more knowledgeable, such as making several references to classical literature, but she's as crude and tactless as ever. |
| 320 | * StealthHiBye: Her power is naturally suited to appearing and disappearing suddenly with no on being the wiser. |
| 321 | * SupervillainLair: She lives in a lair shared with Grue. |
| 322 | * UnkemptBeauty: Taylor describes her as a pretty girl who deliberately dresses trashy to aggravate her authority figures. She grows out of it over time. |
| 323 | * WickedCultured: Following [[spoiler:Regent's death]] she decides she has to become this if she's going to be awesome enough for both of them, so she starts working on her vocabulary and reading up on classical literature. |
| 324 | [[/folder]] |
| 325 | |
| 326 | [[folder:Foil]] |
| 327 | -->[[Characters/WormSponsoredHeroes See here]]. |
| 328 | [[/folder]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[folder:Parian]] |
| 331 | -->[[Characters/WormOthers See here]]. |
| 332 | [[/folder]] |
| 333 | |
| 334 | !Minions |
| 335 | [[folder:Bitch's Dogs]] |
| 336 | |
| 337 | ! Bitch's dogs (Brutus, Judas, Angelica, Bentley, Bastard) |
| 338 | !!!'''Debut:''' Gestation 1.5 |
| 339 | |
| 340 | A number of dogs owned by Bitch. Brutus is a rottweiler or chiefly-rottweiler mutt, Judas is a German Shepard, Angelica is a hairless terrier missing an ear and an eye, and Bastard is a wolf pup given to Bitch by Siberian. |
| 341 | |
| 342 | %% Physical description for Bentley later. |
| 343 | |
| 344 | ---- |
| 345 | * CanineCompanion: Bitch's pet dogs. |
| 346 | * CanisMajor: They turn gigantic whenever Bitch uses her power on them. |
| 347 | * HeartDrive: Whenever Bitch transforms her dogs, their true bodies are placed in a sac inside their shell bodies. |
| 348 | * HeroicSacrifice: Brutus, Judas, and several others are killed by [[spoiler:Leviathan]] saving Skitter. |
| 349 | * MadeOfIron: While transformed the dogs are capable of even surviving [[spoiler:direct lightning bolt strikes from Behemoth.]] |
| 350 | * SavageWolves: Bastard is a wolf who helps Bitch as a supervillain, though he's just as well trained as any of her other dogs. |
| 351 | * WallCrawl: Their claws allow them to climb straight up walls, though their size can make it difficult to move on weaker surfaces. |
| 352 | [[/folder]] |
| 353 | |
| 354 | [[folder:Atlas]] |
| 355 | |
| 356 | ! Atlas |
| 357 | !!!'''Debut:''' Prey 14.4 |
| 358 | |
| 359 | Hercules beetle created by Panacea and modified by Grue for Skitter's personal use. Can fly. |
| 360 | |
| 361 | ---- |
| 362 | |
| 363 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: It's a giant beetle with [[spoiler:a human digestive system]] |
| 364 | * DeadGuyOnDisplay: [[spoiler:Cast in gold post-mortem in a memorial to Skitter some time after Taylor leaves Brockton Bay.]] |
| 365 | * PetMonstrosity: Skitter's personal mount, though effectively it's more akin to an organic flying bike. |
| 366 | |
| 367 | [[/folder]] |
| 368 | |
| 369 | !Minions of the Undersiders |
| 370 | |
| 371 | As the Undersiders begin to claim territory in the wake of the Leviathan attack, some members -- Skitter, Tattletale, and Regent, particularly -- begin to recruit or hire followers. |
| 372 | |
| 373 | !!Skitter's Territory |
| 374 | [[folder:Sierra Kiley]] |
| 375 | ! Sierra Kiley |
| 376 | !!!'''Debut:''' Infestation 11.2 |
| 377 | |
| 378 | A redhead with dreadlocks who was just finishing her college degree when Leviathan attacked and destroyed her family home. Was in the crowd when Skitter distributed her first truckload of supplies, and found herself asking Skitter for help finding her brother, who had disappeared during an attack by the Merchants on the church they were staying at. She and Charlotte joined Skitter's crew after the mission, and Sierra in particular ends up as her chief lieutenant. Quits sometime in the wake of the Slaughterhouse Nine attack. Brought back in by Tattletale to take control of a large swath of properties owned by the Undersiders in Brockton Bay. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | |
| 381 | ---- |
| 382 | |
| 383 | * ActionSurvivor: She's managed to keep herself and a lot of others alive in quite terrifying circumstances, despite her lack of training or powers. |
| 384 | * FieryRedhead: {{Averted}} and even partially {{inverted}}. Sierra is a natural redhead, but is actually quite modest and introverted, and one of the sign's that she's [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in badass]] over the TimeSkip is her ImportantHaircut that includes dying her hair blonde. |
| 385 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Was a college student in the original story (albeit one who became second in command to an up and coming ganglord.) By the end of the story, she's a billionaire in charge of the Undersider's legitimate assets. In ''Ward'' she's running for Mayor of the Mega City. |
| 386 | * ImportantHaircut: She cuts her hair short and dyes it blonde after [[spoiler:Tattletale puts her in charge of the territory around the portal in Brockton Bay.]] |
| 387 | * NumberTwo: She falls into taking this position in Skitter's territory for a while. |
| 388 | * SleazyPolitician: Is technically one in ''Ward'' since she still works with Tattletale and is currently running for mayor of Gimel's megacity. |
| 389 | * SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: In [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/interlude-14/ Interlude 14]], Sierra's narration mentions her fear that Skitter would start assigning her more dangerous and morally ambiguous jobs over time, as per this trope. [[AvertedTrope Except it never happens.]] |
| 390 | [[/folder]] |
| 391 | |
| 392 | [[folder:Charlotte]] |
| 393 | ! Charlotte |
| 394 | !!!'''Debut:''' Infestation 11.5 |
| 395 | |
| 396 | A dark-haired girl, student at Winslow High before Leviathan attacked, and one of the many silent witnesses to Taylor being stuffed in the locker full of {{squick}}. She was rescued from one of the Merchant's [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy events]] thanks to a flaring-up of Skitter's ChronicHeroSyndrome, and figured out that Taylor and Lisa were capes when they reacted to Scrub's trigger event the same way that Skidmark's crowd did. She, like Sierra, joined Skitter's crew in the aftermath, but ended up working primarily as a caretaker for orphaned children. By July, she is posting regularly as "Char" on the Parahumans Online forum. |
| 397 | |
| 398 | ---- |
| 399 | * ActionSurvivor: In much the same vein as Sierra she has no training or powers but goes through a lot over the course of the story. |
| 400 | %%* AmbiguouslyJewish: Although WordOfGod later confirmed she was indeed Jewish. |
| 401 | * CharacterDevelopment: Starts out working for Skitter because she doesn't feel she has a choice. By the end she's working for Taylor wholeheartedly and is probably one of her closest friends who isn't Tattletale. |
| 402 | * FriendToAllChildren: She starts taking care of the orphans in Skitter's territory not long after joining her crew, and continues to do so [[spoiler:even after Brockton Bay has been rendered uninhabitable by Scion and the majority of Brockton Bay's residents (including Charlotte and the kids) have fled to one of the alternate Earths.]] |
| 403 | * HatesBeingTouched: Due to her experiences as a slave of the Merchants she dislikes physical contact and feels uncomfortable around most men. |
| 404 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Part of Charlotte's motivation for not leaving is concerns that she will be targeted for having connected Skitter and Tattletale to their civilian identities. |
| 405 | * LikesOlderMen: Is in a romantic relationship with Forrest, who's a grown man when she's still 16 years old. |
| 406 | * PairTheSpares: She and Forrest hold each other after Taylor goes to say goodbye to them [[spoiler:before the fight with Scion.]] By Cassie's description, they're quite happy together. |
| 407 | * ShamefulStrip: What Charlotte was being submitted to before she was rescued. |
| 408 | * TeamChef: For Skitter's crew, being in charge of cooking. |
| 409 | * WhatTheHellHero: Is subject to a rather brutal one from Taylor, who points out that feeling bad about what happened surely didn't stop her from not reporting the crime. She actually breaks down in tears from it. |
| 410 | * YiddishAsASecondLanguage: The reason she gave for not wanting to leave Brockton Bay is that her ''zaydee'' -- grandpa -- refused to leave. |
| 411 | [[/folder]] |
| 412 | |
| 413 | [[folder:Forrest]] |
| 414 | ! Forrest |
| 415 | !!!'''Debut:''' Plague 12.7 |
| 416 | |
| 417 | One of Skitter's minions. The same man who helped her with Mannequin's head during the fight in the factory. NumberTwo to Skitter after Sierra leaves. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | ---- |
| 420 | |
| 421 | * AscendedExtra: He isn't even named in his initial experience during Taylor's fight with Mannequin, but later becomes one of her most trusted underlings. |
| 422 | * BadassBystander: Was the guy who helped out Skitter by dragging away Mannequin's body and later smashing in his head. |
| 423 | * FriendToAllChildren: Taking care of the kids in Skitter's territory is technically Charlotte's job, but he helps out just as much. |
| 424 | * NerdGlasses: Wears a pair. |
| 425 | [[/folder]] |
| 426 | |
| 427 | %% Dr. Tegeler: A dentist in Skitter's territory. Brooks borrows some of her equipment to remove the spikes Flechette left in Skitter's back. |
| 428 | |
| 429 | [[folder:The O'Dalys]] |
| 430 | ! The O'Dalys |
| 431 | !!!'''Debut:''' |
| 432 | |
| 433 | A group of related families who end up joining Skitter's gang ''en masse'' after she defeats Mannequin. Over time, they become Skitter's main foot soldiers. |
| 434 | |
| 435 | ---- |
| 436 | |
| 437 | * TheClan: Expressly described as one. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[folder:Aidan]] |
| 441 | ! Aidan |
| 442 | !!!'''Debut:''' Interlude 22.x |
| 443 | |
| 444 | A young orphan taken in by Skitter as one of the people under her protection. Has numerous screaming, wailing, nightmares often while sleepwalking with the stress of things that happened to him while living in Brockton Bay after Leviathan. It's later discovered that Taylor's passenger matured and reproduced, splitting off a piece of itself into Aidan. After the timeskip he has recently had a trigger event and finds he can control birds similar to how Taylor controls insects. |
| 445 | |
| 446 | ---- |
| 447 | |
| 448 | * TheBeastmaster: Of birds, compared to Taylor's invertebrates. |
| 449 | [[/folder]] |
| 450 | |
| 451 | [[folder:Jay, Sugita, and Yan]] |
| 452 | ! Jay, Sugita, and Yan |
| 453 | !!!'''Debut:''' |
| 454 | |
| 455 | Three former members of the Azn Bad Boys. They signed up with Skitter after she beat Mannequin, but were subsequently fired for attacking Sierra, Charlotte, and the kids at Skitter's headquarters. The character tags list them as Shaggy, Accent, and Nosering, respectively. |
| 456 | |
| 457 | ---- |
| 458 | |
| 459 | * AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Their belief in this is reflected on both the occasion of their employment and the occasion of the termination thereof. |
| 460 | * ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Yan was part of the [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/interlude-19/ ABB's attack on Emma]]. This led to Emma abandoning and bullying Taylor, which led to her trigger event and the events of the story.]] |
| 461 | * TooDumbToLive: Three former employees of the UnstoppableRage HumanoidAbomination Lung -- also known as the guy whose [[EyeScream eyes]] Skitter carved out -- and they [[spoiler:try to attack Skitter's second-in-command and take over her base while she's out]]. |
| 462 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Rare heroic example. [[spoiler:Their attack on Emma led to the birth of Skitter, who in turn sundered the AZN BAD BOYS by bringing Lung down.]] |
| 463 | [[/folder]] |
| 464 | |
| 465 | !!Tattletale's Minions |
| 466 | [[folder:Pritt]] |
| 467 | ! Pritt |
| 468 | !!!'''Debut:''' |
| 469 | |
| 470 | Another of Tattletale's minions. A woman and former {{child soldier|s}}. |
| 471 | |
| 472 | ---- |
| 473 | * ActionGirl: A woman and one of Coil's highly trained mercenaries. |
| 474 | * ChildSoldiers: Used to be one. |
| 475 | [[/folder]] |
| 476 | |
| 477 | !!Bitch's Minions |
| 478 | [[folder:Barker]] |
| 479 | ! Barker |
| 480 | !!!'''Debut:''' Extermination 8.3 (mentioned), Parasite 10.6 (appearance) |
| 481 | |
| 482 | A supervillain assigned to work for Bitch by Coil. An inch or two shorter than Skitter and not particularly physically imposing. His power involve exhaling puffs of smoke he can manipulate the properties of -- usually to cause them to detonate with thunderclap force. |
| 483 | |
| 484 | Classification: Blaster/Shaker |
| 485 | |
| 486 | ---- |
| 487 | |
| 488 | * BreathWeapon: His main power is to exhale clouds of smoke which then detonate. |
| 489 | * BullyingADragon: You'd think that a man might think twice before yelling "Whore" at a female supervillain and making a thunderclap explosion in her face right in front of her employees while a guest at her base. This seems like the kind of act that could result in said supervillain not even bothering to telescope her baton before she slams it into your jaw, kicks your chair out from under you, and sends capsaicin-coated insects into your nose and mouth. Why, I imagine your boss -- who isn't all that enamored with you to begin with -- might not even bother making a fuss over her doing that to you, should you opt to be that stupid. |
| 490 | * PunnyName: Together with Biter they're "bite and bark." |
| 491 | [[/folder]] |
| 492 | |
| 493 | [[folder:Biter]] |
| 494 | ! Biter |
| 495 | !!!'''Debut:''' Extermination 8.3 (mentioned), Parasite 10.6 (appearance) |
| 496 | |
| 497 | Another supervillain assigned to work for Bitch by Coil. Tall, over six feet, with teeth filed to points, a bear-trap--style band of metal around his lower jaw, and spiked gloves. His power allows him to enlarge parts of his body -- hit harder, bite through larger things, etc. |
| 498 | |
| 499 | Classification: Changer |
| 500 | |
| 501 | ---- |
| 502 | |
| 503 | * FriendsWithBenefits: Apparently he has this kind of relationship with Bitch. |
| 504 | * HulkingOut: His main power. |
| 505 | * PunnyName: Together with Barker they're "bite and bark." |
| 506 | [[/folder]] |
| 507 | |
| 508 | [[folder:Bitch's Vet]] |
| 509 | ! Bitch's vet |
| 510 | !!!'''Debut:''' |
| 511 | |
| 512 | A first-year vet student before the Leviathan attack who originally took the job to pay for her boyfriend's hospital care, and continued in the position after said boyfriend broke up with her for lack of anything better to do. |
| 513 | |
| 514 | ---- |
| 515 | |
| 516 | * GratuitousForeignLanguage: She had two greyhounds growing up, [[GratuitousFrench Eclaire]] and [[GratuitousGerman Blitzen]].[[note]]This is also a type of ThemeNaming. Both words mean "lighten", as in illumination.[[/note]] |
| 517 | * HealthcareMotivation: Joined originally to pay for her boyfriend's hospital care, but stayed after they broke up for lack of direction. |
| 518 | * NoNameGiven: We never learn her name. |
| 519 | [[/folder]] |
| 520 | |
| 521 | [[folder:Cassie]] |
| 522 | ! Cassie ([=WagTheDog=]) |
| 523 | !!!'''Debut:''' Interlude 19.y (Parahumans online), Imago 21.6 (appearance) |
| 524 | |
| 525 | A mixed-race teenage girl (probably around fourteen years old) with blue eyes, brown skin and coarse brown hair. Volunteered to join Bitch's gang because [[AscendedFanboy she thinks Bitch is awesome]] -- enthusiastic about being able to work for her and thrilled when Bitch offers her praise. |
| 526 | |
| 527 | ---- |
| 528 | |
| 529 | * AscendedFangirl: She was a long-time Bitch fanatic who was recruited into Bitch's gang after [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/interlude-19-y/ Charlotte replied to her post to the Parahumans Online forum]]. |
| 530 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: While it's not really gone over in detail, it's implied that she grew up in an abusive household. |
| 531 | * EarnYourFun: Cassie solidly believes in the NintendoHard approach to life. Probably because it often has been beyond brutal for her. However, she seems to have found both her niche and her fun with Rachael and the dogs. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / WormUndersiders
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
