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Dragon
The group created by Tiamat, named after the heroine Dragon. Their goal is to rid Brockton Bay of its criminal elements. Their base is located in an abandoned warehouse on the docks. In General
- Animal Motifs: Dragons. Taylor’s cape identity is named after a deity that resembles a dragon and refers to the tikilings as her dragons. Later on, Tiki learns how to create humanoid creatures from his body that are called “Dragon’s Teeth”.
- Creepy Good: Despite being a biotinker covered in organic armor and followed around by large insect-like monsters, Tiamat and Tiki are pretty heroic and friendly to those who are affable enough.
- Family of Choice: Due to different forms of Parental Abandonment, Taylor has this relationship with the tikilings. Unlike other tinkers and their creations, Taylor and Tiki regard each other as a mother and child rather than master and drone.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: One more than one occasion, Taylor and the tikilings have had to steal supplies from others to keep up with their tinkering demands.
- Oddly Small Organization: Dragon is an interesting variant. Taylor is The Leader and Tiki is the Number Two. Where it gets interesting is the fact that Tiki also happens to be every other tikiling. Despite there being a dozen other bodies, they are all controlled by him, technically making it just him and Taylor. It still doesn’t stop her from treating them as separate entities with their own names.
- Taking Up the Mantle: A variant where an organization takes the name of a single individual. Taylor chooses to honor the greatest tinker heroine, Dragon, after her true nature as an AI was discovered and she was destroyed by the heroes.
- To Be Lawful or Good: The general conflict between Dragon and the other heroes, particularly the Protectorate. While Dragon’s goals are heroic in nature, Taylor’s powers and Tiki’s very existence are considered dangerous and illegal respectively, which makes it impossible to be lawful. Regardless, most decisions they make leans towards good and the group’s ultimate goal is to save Brockton Bay from the gangs infesting the city.
Tiki
The Player Character. A newborn biotinkered creature made by Taylor. You quickly discover that you are the only self aware and intelligent tikiling, while the others act as extensions of your self. His first body is a reddish-orange color with brown tiger-like stripes, and has dexterous digits instead of claws. After reaching adulthood and gaining Growth, he’s become a building-sized living creature called the “Nest” that serves as Dragon’s HQ.
Born on Day 0
Traits: Tendril, Overmind, Growth, Implanted: Redundant (Morph/Ooze)
- Bizarre Alien Senses: Apart from the standard Super-Senses that all tikilings have, Tiki himself can detect the “sparks” of parahumans. Besides letting him know that someone is a cape or not (some exceptions notwithstanding), it also allows him limited insight into their emotions and lets him know if someone is being deceitful.
- Combat Tentacles: Tiki’s first trait is Tendril (formerly Tool-User), which turn turns his forearms into flexible tendrils and turn his claws into flexible digits and gains more tendrils as he grows. It is later revealed that his tendrils act as a “spreader” for his traits, allowing him to divide a trait’s power and effects through each limb at reduced efficiency. After activating the Growth trait, Tiki has hundreds more of these that he can use.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: Tiki can control all of the tikilings simultaneously without missing a beat. It helps sell the illusion that the tikilings are all individuals with their own identities to outsiders.
- Genetic Memory: From time to time, Tiki has dreamlike visions of the species that he and the tikilings are based on, like glimpses of an alien planet and even memories of the cycle that happened there.
- Hive Queen: Due to Overmind, Tiki is capable of controlling all tikilings within his sphere of influence. He can perceive what the others can, as well as act and communicate through them.
- The Leader: Despite Taylor being Tiki’s creator and the founder of Dragon, she herself believes that Tiki is the true leader of the group due to being the one who makes the major calls. Tiki primarily has the tikilings do patrols, research, and espionage activity against any groups that Dragon will encounter, friend or foe, making him -and by extension Taylor- the Mastermind. Unlike Taylor, he has a Charismatic approach with attempts at diplomatic outreach and making business deals with other groups. Finally, he’s significantly more pragmatic and calmer than Taylor when making decisions, making him the Levelheaded to her Headstrong.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Tiki is very much this for Taylor. He acts a pillar of support for her during trying times and looks out for her wellbeing when she pushes herself too hard.
- Living Structure Monster: What the Growth trait ultimately turned him into. After activation, Tiki turned into a building sized creature called the Nest, a living hive that serves as the base for Dragon.
- Meaningful Name: Tiki is the name of the first man in Māori mythology.
- Meta Power: Aside from a size increase, Growth amplifies his powers’ effects greatly. After activation, Tiki’s mile wide Overmind radius extends to global range.
- Mook Maker: Tiki learns how to combine his traits to morph pieces of himself into humanoid soldiers referred to as “Dragon’s Teeth”. He controls them with his Overmind trait to function as troops for Dragon.
- Number Two: He’s this to Taylor. It crosses into Hyper-Competent Sidekick with his ability to control all of the tikilings and act simultaneously through them. He also acts as a source of moral support for her and tries to stop her from making rash decisions.
- This is ultimately deconstructed. Since Tiki is the one who does the lion’s share of the work (research, resource gathering, patrols) and makes major decisions for Dragon as a whole (diplomacy, espionage, ground operations), Taylor herself deems Tiki the true leader of Dragon.
- One-Winged Angel: The Growth trait allows for Tiki to become a building-sized creature with exaggerated traits and amplified abilities. This form serves as a living base for Dragon.
- Person of Mass Construction: After implanting the Ooze trait, he becomes capable of creating and reinforcing walls and structures with copious amounts of hardening resin and foam. In conjunction with his other traits, he’s quite able to rapidly excavate and build underground structures in a single day.
- Supporting Protagonist: While Taylor is the founder of Dragon and an aspiring heroine, the narrative is entirely told and focused around Tiki and his perception of the world.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: After implanting Morph, Tiki is fully capable of not only changing his shape, but his state of matter as well due to Growth’s power boost. In conjunction with his Tendrils and Overmind, he’s able to shapeshift and separate them into controlled drones called “Dragon’s Teeth”.
Tiamat
Taylor Hebert
Your mother and the founder of the heroic group Dragon. She is a young biotinker whose specialty revolves around the creation of the tikilings and related tech. She wears a purple biosuit resembling a humanoid Tikiling when out caping.- Archnemesis Dad: Her father is Ratcatcher.
- Better with Non-Human Company: Due to the bullying campaign that she endured and her poor family situation, Taylor doesn’t have any real human connections. As it stands, she prefers company of the tikilings and is freer with her emotions around them.
- Bio-Armor: One of Taylor’s earliest creations is a purple biosuit that resembles a feminine, humanoid Tikiling. It comes with digitigrade legs for speed and shapeshifting Wolverine Claws for combat or tinkering. She later upgrades it with the ability to turn into a Powered Armor combat mode that greatly increases her strength and durability.
- The Determinator: Taylor is very much determined to rid Brockton Bay of crime and refuses to give up on her goal, even when it would be easier to leave town and start over somewhere else.
- Dye or Die: After going on the run, Taylor cuts her hair shorter and dyes it a different color to help avoid getting recognized.
- Enemy Mine: She doesn’t like the gangs and is planning on removing them from the city, however she is willing to work with them and make deals if necessary.
- Friendless Background: Due to a prolonged bullying campaign, as in canon. Tiki counts as her Only Friend.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She is a tinker. Besides creating tikilings, she can also build things like computers & scanners, power generators, and automated hoppers.
- Genki Girl: Shockingly so compared to canon. While she is very much subdued with people due to her poor school situation and family life, Taylor’s interactions with the tikilings are all akin to a mother cooing and coddling a baby. She’s significantly more upbeat and emotionally free around them as they don’t judge her, support her endeavors, and are each other’s Family of Choice.
- Hot-Blooded: Very much so. Unlike canon, Taylor doesn’t have the ability to offload her emotions into a swarm and has a worrying habit of lashing out at powerful individuals and making rash decisions whenever under duress.
- It's Personal: Her vendetta against the Court. They happen to be the cause of Taylor’s life falling apart. In order of grievance:
- Her father joined the Court as Ratcatcher, which caused her mother to leave.
- The leader of the bullying campaign at her school, which caused Taylor’s trigger event, was non other than Amelia Lavere, the Red Queen, a leader of the Court.
- Danny later reveals that Annette didn’t leave Taylor, she was killed on Marquis’ orders.
- The Leader: Zigzagged and ultimately averted. Taylor is the founder of Dragon and the creator of the tikilings, giving the group its mission of cleaning up crime in Brockton Bay. She is steadfast in her commitment to the mission, regardless of challenges, and relies heavily on intel gathering by the tikilings to deal with Dragon’s enemies. This makes her leadership style a mix of both the Headstrong and Mastermind. However, as she herself later opines to Cataclysm/Grace,Tiki has been the one calling the shots and making the major decisions for quite some time, making him the true leader of Dragon. She doesn’t mind, though.
- Locked into Strangeness: During the process of implanting a trait into Tiki, Taylor gets exposed to his core’s energy and gains a few mutations as a side effect, primarily Glowing Eyes and grey hair.
- Mad Scientist: She certainly gives off this vibe when tinkering.Tendrils reach up, grabbing the fluid- and it begins to writhe. Taylor slams a cap over it, turns the dials to maximum, and the lights begin to flicker. Sparks of lightning roil through the living thing. It burbles and screams, the glass canister beginning to buck despite Taylor holding it still.Something goes clunk in the fusebox in the corner, and the lights all go out.Lightning continues to thrash through the inside of the reagent's mass, through temporary nerves, illuminating the room. Purple light glints off of Taylor's glasses and teeth as she grins madly at it.
- Maker of Monsters: Taylor’s power in a nutshell. Her tinker specialty revolves around the creation of the tikilings and technology that can improve them.
- Mama Bear: Do not insult or harm the tikilings. If you’re lucky, you’ll just get punched in the face. If you’re unlucky, you’re likely to get mauled, like Jack Spades.
- Missing Mom: Annette left the Hebert household some time before the start of the story. It is later revealed by Danny that she was killed by the Court.
- Motherly Scientist: Taylor’s treatment of her creations is more like that of a mother taking care of her children rather than a tool. The feeling is mutual for Tiki.
- The Runaway: After the events of the first week, Taylor and Tiki run away from home and live in an abandoned warehouse on the docks.
- Workaholic: Taylor doesn’t really have a social life beyond being a cape. She normally spend all of her time tinkering and helping come up with plans for Dragon to the point that she doesn’t even leave the Nest for days.
The Tikilings
In General
- Achilles' Heel: Water. Due to their biology, they can’t hold their breath like humans and are too dense to swim. Inhaling water, even for a short while, causes their reagent-based bodies to dissolve and they don’t even do too well in rainy weather. Some of their traits can overcome this to a degree, though.
- Adaptive Ability: Downplayed. After the birth of the second generation tikilings, it’s discovered that they’ve slowly started evolving to adapt to Brockton Bay’s humid climate over the arid environs that they are more suited for. Taylor speculates that it would take dozens more generations before there’s a noticeable difference.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Their standard forms look like arthropods with four legs and two forearms that end in pincers, but are actually microscopic colony organisms in that shape. They have to eat biomass to grow, but don’t need to eat for survival. Their individual traits cause mutations that deviate from their standard biology.
- Designer Babies: All tikiling eggs are extremely modifiable prior to hatching. Whereas Taylor has to spend reagent to implant/swap traits with live tikilings, eggs are primarily made of reagent, making the process easier and free.
- Evolution Power-Up: All tikilings have three life stages: juvenile (1 to 5 days old), adolescence (6 to 12 days old), and adulthood (13 days old). They are born with a basic trait, and as they continue to consume biomass to grow, the tikiling will usually grow larger and gain a new trait at every stage; moderate at adolescence, advanced at adulthood. Everything from their physical parameters to their traits will dramatically improve as they grow. Traits in particular will become more complex and unlock new aspects with each age milestone.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: The average tikiling is born from an egg as a palm-sized creature that can grow to the size of a horse when it reaches adulthood. Some can grow even larger than that.
- Hereditary Twinhood: Should any tikiling born with the Twin trait be cloned in an egg, the result will always be twins, enforcing the Small trait regardless of whatever basic trait the donor had at the time.
- Hive Caste System: Although the interchangeable nature of traits makes roles somewhat flexible, the tikilings -particularly the first generation- have many of the same characteristics of a caste system:
- Tiki serves as the Hive Queen with controlling all Tikilings and later becomes a living nest.
- Abernathy serves as the Insect Queen providing biomass and laying eggs.
- Gregor serves a worker with ooze and telekinesis.
- Toddle serves as a warrior and infiltrator with his physical abilities and shapeshifting.
- Goldie & Brownie serve as hunters and scouts with spines and flight.
- Nervous serves as an infiltrator and scouts in bird host bodies.
- Hive Mind: Through the control of an Overmind, all of them share senses with each other, though they have their own instincts and drives depending on their traits.
- Insectoid Aliens: Their general appearance is that of arthropods, such as insects and crustaceans.
- A Kind of One: After her firstborn creature names himself Tiki, Taylor decides to call the rest of her creatures “tikilings” or “Tikis” for short. The individual colony organisms that make up the tikilings are called “tikicytes”.
- LEGO Genetics: All tikilings are born with three traits (basic, moderate, advanced) encoded into their being, however they can be replaced with a different trait of similar complexity and have a fourth trait implanted in a different “slot”. This process requires reagent that Taylor can create.
- Natural Weapon: Even without their traits, the Tikilings still possess powerful pincers and venomous bites with enzymes that can break down organic matter similar to spiders.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: As a Hive Mind comprised of arthropod-shaped colony organisms, they are this. While they technically are sexless outside of certain traits (Egglayers in particular are always “female”), Taylor and even Tiki himself refer to tikilings by gendered pronouns based on whether they have a masculine or feminine name.
- Psychic Powers: Neural traits. These traits revolve around granting psychic-like powers (Telekinetic, Blackout), enhancing a tikiling’s perception (Calculation, Integrate), or controlling other lifeforms (Overmind, Interface). Whether some of it is true psychic activity or not has yet to be revealed.
1st Generation Tikilings
The first clutch of eggs that Taylor created. Tiki was hatched from this clutch.
Goldie & Brownie
Twin tikilings hatched from the same egg. Goldie is gold with brown spots and has a set of insect wings, Brownie has a reversed color scheme. Brownie dies on Day 9.Born on Day 3
Traits: Twin (Birth) Small, Flight, Teleportation, Implanted: Spine (Goldie)
- Flight: The Flight trait. Both gain insect-like wings at adolescence, which grants them agile flight.
- Kill It with Water: Brownie dies by drowning, revealing a major weakness of the Tikilings in the process.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being half the average size of a tikiling (and requiring half the amount of biomass to grow) due to the Small trait, they are able to carry many times their own weight.
- Spike Shooter: Goldie gets implanted with the Spine trait, which allows him to shoot needles from his chin.
- Thinking Up Portals: The Teleportation trait (formerly called Wormhole). It allows them to unfold their bodies to create wormholes that allows for one-way teleportation for others, but it has inaccurate targeting since it requires information on the location.
- Portal Network: What anyone with this trait can become. Any two wormholes can connect with each other to create a two way transportation effect.
Nervous
A tiny dark-red parasitic creature that resembles a pillbug, with filaments instead of legs.Born on Day 4
Traits: Parasitic (Birth) Insinuation, Interface, Integration
- Big Eater: Relative to his size. Nervous isn’t larger than a finger, yet he consumes as much biomass to grow as larger tikilings.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Even more so than the rest. Nervous is a finger-sized creature with dozens of filaments for limbs and his body is made up of 90% nerves.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Parasitic Birth trait line enforced this on him:
- He’s born tiny and cannot grow any larger compared to other tikilings, making him physically the weakest and slowest.
- Most of his powers focus on controlling host bodies, meaning that they’re not as useful without one.
- Finally, he can’t contribute to any action until he has a host, usually requiring assistance to obtain a new one.
- Psychometry: The Integrate trait. Nervous gains extreme details on the make up of anything that he’s in contact with. It also works on digital data.
- Puppeteer Parasite: His specialty due to the Parasitic trait line:
- Insinuate allows him to merge with a host and takes over their muscles and nerves.
- Interface allows him to directly control a host brain with a stinger, as well as read/delve into their memories.
- Integration upgrades the previous traits to grant more detailed knowledge, faster memory reading, and access to a parahuman’s power.
- Technopath: His Insinuation trait allows him to merge with and control basic electronics. The Integration trait allows him to gather and translate digital data on touch.
Toddle
A muddy brown tikiling with the ability to shapeshift. He normally serves as the spokesman for Dragon.Born on Day 5
Traits: Morph, Redundant (Dense/Fleet), Calculation
- The Face: As the only tikiling that can communicate with others (at first), he’s often sent to negotiate on behalf of Dragon in a humanoid form.
- Lightning Bruiser: Due to the interaction between the opposing traits Dense and Fleet, Toddle has gained an increase in strength and speed, without any changes to his durability. He’s still able to shift his carapace into something sturdier though.
- Master Actor: Due to Calculation feeding him precise information and Morph being able to perfectly transform into other people, Toddle is able to flawlessly impersonate individuals without anyone noticing the difference.
- Multiform Balance: After gaining Calculation, Toddle uses it alongside Morph to create optimal forms for different tasks, such as combat or reconnaissance. The Dense and Fleet traits provide some boosts, however the further the forms deviate from his standard form, the less effective they become.
- Rogue Drone: Downplayed. In the event that Toddle is somehow separated from Tiki’s Overmind signal, the Calculation trait allows Toddle to act independently in a robotic-like manner to take optimal actions and try to return to Tiki’s Overmind range.
- Super-Intelligence: The Calculation trait turned Toddle’s brain into a supercomputer. He can rapidly process information and learn how to do things in short amounts of time. He also gets increased senses to help with information gathering.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: His Morph trait allow for this, including the ability to speak. He becomes more versatile with it as he grows, allowing him to emulate other physical traits.
Gregor
A mottled green and olive crab-like tikiling with ooze sacs on his back. He now resembles a giant brain.Born on Day 6
Traits: Ooze, Telekinetic, Psionic, Implanted: Amplifier
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: The tikiling who resembles a floating brain also has Psychic Powers.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: His original crab-like legs turned into bunched up neural mass called “effectors” that gave him telekinesis. Instead of a carapace, his back is covered in sacs that produce a variety of chemical mixtures. He now looks like a large, green floating brain.
- Meta Power: The Psionic and Amplifier traits. Psionic increases Gregor’s telekinetic ability, as well as allows him Power Copying of other neural traits. Amplifier boosts all of his traits even further.
- Mind over Matter: The Telekinetic trait. It grants him the ability to move objects with his neural mass, levitate himself, and a force field, too.
- Mundane Utility: His Ooze is an extremely versatile tool that can create thick walls, tinkering supplies, and be used for combat. Gregor also uses it to build furniture.
- Philosopher's Stone: What Taylor actually calls him when she discovers that his Ooze trait can actually make basic elements. Combined with his other Ooze mixes, Gregor eliminates a large amount of need for searching for tinkering materials.
- After implanting Amplifier, Gregor can outright create gold and platinum, as well as other complex materials and mixes.
- Psychic Powers: The Psionic trait. Besides boosting neural traits like his telekinesis, it allow Gregor Power Copying of neural traits of other Tikilings.
- Super Spit: The Ooze trait. Gregor gains chemical sacs on his body that lets him spit out a variety of mixtures with many different purposes, such as foam or resin for crafting.
- Support Party Member: As a result of Ooze and its utility, Gregor tends to be to be relegated to construction or creating tinkering supplies.
Abernathy
A dark purple tikiling, and (initially) the only Egglayer. She is fat, with black plant-like growths and green bunches of needles coming out from her back.Born on Day 7
Traits: Spine, Amplifier, Egglayer, Implanted: Photosynthesis
- Adipose Rex: She’s referred to as a “Queen” by Tiki’s memories. Either because of Amplifier’s physical drawbacks, Egglayer enforcing it, or both, Abby is incredibly fat and can’t move herself without assistance.
- Gender Rarity Value: As an Egglayer, Abernathy is usually kept far from danger.
- Insect Queen: She functions as one for the tikilings, although she isn’t in charge. Tiki explicitly referred to as a “Queen” based on his memories of the alien species that the tikilings are based on.
- Meta Power: The Amplifier trait. It boost the effectiveness of all her other traits, but it creates deformities that weaken and slow Abby.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: The Egglayer trait in a nutshell. Abby can consume biomass to create an egg once a day.
- Due to the her Egglayer trait being amplified, Abby gains a stinger capable of taking genetic material from other tikilings to create “cloned” eggs.
- Planimal: Due to the Photosynthesis trait. Abby gained plantlike growths on her back that allows her to absorb sunlight and produce biomass for the other tikilings.
- The Smurfette Principle: She’s the only “female” tikiling of her generation.
- Spike Shooter: Her Spine trait. Due to Amplifier boosting it greatly, she grows large bunches of them that she can fire across long distances with great force.
- Support Party Member: Her focus is predominantly biomass and egg production. That said, she sometimes participates in fights by firing needles from afar.
2nd Generation Tikilings
Tikilings that have hatched from Abernathy’s eggs.
Shelby & Phoebe
Twin clones of Abernathy. Both are sage green with pink spirals and plant-like growths coming out of their backs. They largely have the same traits as Abernathy.Born on Day 20
Traits: Twin (Birth) Small, Amplifier, Egglayer, Implanted: Photosynthesis
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Both are similarly colored, but have minor differences to tell them apart. Shelby has an underdeveloped spiral design while Phoebe’s spiral is a brighter pink.
- Mini-Me: To Abernathy. They’re both cloned from her and share all of her traits (except Spine), but are half her size due to the Small trait.
- Support Party Member: Even more so than Abernathy as neither of them have a trait to defend themselves and are solely tasked with producing biomass until they can lay eggs.
Rusty & Sylvie
Twin clones of Goldie. Rusty is a mottled red & brown, speckled with black. Sylvie is silver coated with golden circles. They have the same traits as Goldie.Born on Day 21
Traits: Twin (Birth) Small, Flight, Teleportation, Implanted: Spine
- Generation Xerox: Like their genetic donor Goldie and his twin Brownie, both pairs of twins have one shiny twin named after a precious metal (Goldie & Sylvie) and a contrasting duller colored twin (Brownie & Rusty).
- Twin Theme Naming: In addition to Goldie, both of their names are based on the metallic colors of their carapace and all of their names rhyme. All three also fit the Gold–Silver–Copper Standard aesthetic appearance-wise.
Twoki
A clone of Tiki. He has a yellowish, tan body covered with black polka dots. He has the same traits as Tiki.Born on Day 22
Traits: Tendril, Overmind, Growth, Implanted: Redundant (Morph/Ooze)
- Punny Name: Twoki the second iteration of Tiki. It also counts as a Meaningful Name.
George
A blue Tikiling with darker freckle spots and an extra, elongated abdomen, similar to an earwig’s.Born on Day 23
Traits: Gorge, Graft, Integrate, Implanted: Regeneration
- Big Eater: The Gorge trait allows him to eat as much biomass as possible to grow in one sitting rather than being limited to one unit like other tikilings.
- Healing Factor: The Regeneration trait.
- The Medic: With the combination of Graft and Regeneration, George is capable of granting Regeneration to others. It can even work on humans, making him one of the setting’s rare healers.
- Overnight Age-Up: By using Gorge, he grows up to adulthood on the same day that he was born by consuming a large amount of biomass. He can also bestow this benefit to other tikilings by using Graft.
- Power Copying: The Graft trait. Not only can he access the traits of others when he’s connected to them, but he can also grant his traits (excluding Graft itself) to others.
- Psychometry: The Integrate trait. He gains information about any lifeforms and objects that he’s in contact with.
- Support Party Member: None of George’s traits make him suited for combat. Instead, his greatest contribution is using Graft to latch on to other Tikilings to share Gorge or Regeneration to speed their growth or heal them when injured respectively.
- The Symbiote: The Graft trait gives him an earwig-like abdomen that can partially merge with any creature, similar to Nervous. Through this connection, both George and the lifeform he’s attached to can share traits.
Nero
A clone of Toddle. He’s completely black in color as a side effect of the Blackout trait implanted in utero. He has most of the same traits as Toddle.Born on Day 27
Traits: Morph, Redundant (Dense/Fleet), Calculation, Implanted: Blackout
- Color Motif: Black. His name means black in Italian, it’s his natural color, and his implanted trait is called “Blackout”. He’s also currently the perfect Stealth Expert for Dragon.
- Perception Filter: The Blackout trait. It prevents thinker abilities from analyzing or detecting him. It also greatly increases his stealth by erasing any detectable trace of his presence via sight, scent, or sound, making virtually invisible.
- Stealth Expert: While Morph already allows him options like Voluntary Shapeshifting and even Invisibility, Blackout takes it a step further by preventing thinkers abilities or any other senses from detecting him.
Twitch
A clone of Nervous. He’s a dark green color with glowing eyes and tendril tips as an effect of having the Psionic trait. He largely has the same traits as Nervous.Born on Day 28
Traits: Parasitic (Birth) Insinuation, Interface, Integration, Implanted: Psionic
- Power Glows: A side effect of the Psionic trait. With the increase of power, parts of Twitch glow bright blue.
- Psychic Powers: The Psionic trait. It allows him to emulate most neural traits while empowering his native parasitic abilities.
- Superior Successor: To his genetic donor, Nervous. The Psionic trait boosts his parasitic abilities as well as avoiding the Crippling Overspecialization of his donor by having access to other traits that can be used without a host.
Heroes of Brockton Bay
The Protectorate
Armsmaster
- Gadgeteer Genius: He’s one of the best tinkers in the Protectorate.
- Weapon Specialization: Halberds.
The Elite
Gaspar
- Entertainingly Wrong: He assumes that Toddle is a tinker because his purchases flagged him as one. He never considered that Toddle is shopping for a tinker.
- Everyone Has Standards: He was the one to reject Cataclysm’s entry into the Elite. Even though she had an incredibly useful specialty and every tinker is valued for their potential to help overcome environmental collapse, Cataclysm was just that insane that the Elite would not take her.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He’s a tinker of currently unknown specialty.
New Wave
Angel
- Gold and White Are Divine: She has an angelic theme as a cape. Her cape name is Angel, she wears white & gold armor, and the most visible power she has is a set of energy wings.
- Power Gives You Wings: Her power grants her glowing tendrils of light reminiscent of wings.
Gangs of Brockton Bay
The Court
A gang led by the Marquis. They control territory west of the docks. Taylor’s home is located in their territory. In General
- Bio-Augmentation: The source of some of their members’ powers. Red Queen uses her power to give them abilities that put them on equal footing with actual capes.
- Create Your Own Hero: The actions of Marquis, Red Queen, and Ratcatcher all contributed to Taylor’s trigger event in different ways. Ultimately, she later becomes largely responsible for the Court’s downfall.
- The Mafia: It’s subtle, but the Court gives of this vibe compared to other gangs, with Marquis as The Don and his daughters each being a Mafia Princess. They live in a mansion, are driven around in limos, have armed bodyguards, and mooks that report on snitches and bury bodies for them in the woods.
- Quantity vs. Quality: They are the Quality to the Teeth’s quantity. Though fewer in number, they have more heavy hitters power-wise. Red Queen is an aversion to No Cure for Evil and can make any injury vanish overnight compared to the Teeth members having to heal slowly or suffer permanent crippling injuries. Then there’s the Bio-Augmentation which can create gang members capable of fighting capes on even ground.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: They are the Snobs to the Teeth’s Slobs. Some of their members are named after nobility (Marquis & Red Queen). Some of the male capes wear expensive suits as costumes (Marquis again & Jack Spades). Finally, Marquis & his family live in a mansion and are driven around in limousines & town cars, complete with a security detail.
Red Queen
Amelia Lavere
Marquis’ eldest daughter and according to some, the real leader of the Court.- Adaptational Villainy: If you ever wondered how Amy Dallon would have turned out being raised by her supervillain father instead of New Wave and not having her rules, you get Red Queen. Not only is she an Alpha Bitch and a great example of Evil Is Petty who isn’t afraid to utilize her powers to the fullest, without her “no brains” rule, she gradually brainwashes everyone in the Court into being loyal slaves. Even her own father isn’t safe from her.
- Biomanipulation: She has the ability to alter the biology of living organisms. She uses this to augment members of the Court with abilities that can match other capes.
- The Bully: She’s the ringleader of the bullying campaign against Taylor that caused her trigger event.
- Color Motif: Red. Her cape name is Red Queen and it’s the color she wears in both her cape and civilian life. It symbolizes her dangerousness and viciousness, particularly when she fights.
- Combat Tentacles: How she fights. She manifests red tendrils that wrap around her body for protection and lash out at enemies.
- The Corrupter: What she ultimately was to the Court. She used her powers to brainwash the members of the gang into abandoning their previous rules and being loyal to her. She even did this to her own father, as well as Taylor’s father.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Despite Marquis being the leader of the Court, she is the one in charge after brainwashing her father.
- Facial Horror: Gets acid splashed onto her face courtesy of Taylor when she attempts to forcefully recruit the latter in her own home.
- Fatal Flaw: Arrogance. In her first appearance, she attempts to “recruit” Taylor after finding out that they were a tinker offscreen. Amelia completely disregards some of the most important rules of dealing with tinkers, like not attacking them in their own workshop and even allows said tinker the chance to make something right in front of her, effectively arming someone who has reason to hate her. This isn’t even factoring that Amelia didn’t even know what kind of specialty her target had, nor verifying whether her target was actually home alone. It ends with Taylor throwing acid in her face, mauled by juvenile Tikilings, and finally shot by the girl she bullied, triggered and attempted to coerce.
- No Cure for Evil: Averted. Her Biomanipulation power lets her function as one of the rare parahuman healers by reshaping a body to make injuries disappear.
- Starter Villain: She’s the first real cape that Taylor and the Tikilings fight. Her death at Taylor’s hand is what sets off the gang war between the Court and the Teeth.
- Walking Spoiler: As the spoiler’d tropes would suggest, it’s difficult to talk about how she personally affected the story.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She dies shortly after she is introduced. We do get posthumous details about her from the memories of others though.
Wildling
Marquis’ youngest daughter. She wears an animal skull mask and armor made of bone feathers. After the Court Raid, she becomes the 8th Butcher.
- Bad with the Bone: Wildling’s most obvious power. She’s capable of creating large amounts of bone to smash, contain, or skewer enemies.
- Creepy Child: While her exact age is unknown, she’s definitely not a teenager and speaks in a singsong, childish manner, even during combat or when chasing an injured opponent with the intent to kill.
- The Heavy: Wildling becomes the most prominent threat from the Court due to multiple encounters with her. After the Court Raid, she becomes the newest Butcher and an extremely lethal threat to Dragon.
- Little Miss Badass: She’s really young, but is still considered one of the Court’s heavy hitters and capable of one-shotting the likes of Knightwolf.
- Long-Range Fighter: Her primary style of combat. She can detect individuals from as far as three blocks away and snipe them with bone spears.
- Missing Mom: Her mother isn’t in her life and initially an unknown. After delving in Danny’s memories, it’s revealed that her mother is Iron Rain.
- Original Character: She has no canon counterpart. In this quest, since Marquis was never Birdcaged and stayed in Brockton Bay, he was able to father another child, resulting in her birth.
- Sensor Character: Her second power. Wildling has a wide sensory ability that can detect skeletal systems in a three block range. It even allows her to detect Tikilings, making stealth a nonstarter.
- It’s later revealed to be similar to Panacea’s diagnostic touch ability, just at range with less information the further away the target is.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: He cape costume is entirely created from her bone generating power. While in her civvies, she uses this power to create ivory bangles that she wears with costume jewelry.
- Sole Survivor: In the aftermath of the Court Raid, she becomes the last surviving cape member of her gang, as well as her family.
Marquis
The leader of the Court. An experienced and powerful parahuman and the father of both Red Queen and Wildling. He wears a business suit and skull with crown-like points as a mask.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: The first time we see him in costume is him coming out of a limousine wearing a fancy suit and a crowned skull for a mask.
- Bad with the Bone: He has self-osteokinesis as a power and can manipulate the bones of others if they are exposed to his vision.
- Brainwashed: It is revealed through Danny’s memories that Marquis had his brain altered by Red Queen, his own daughter. The alterations made him more loyal to her and cast away his rigid code.
- Noble Demon: One of his major character traits is his rigid code of honor and adherence to certain rules, like never harming women. His ordering of Annette’s death tips questers off that something is wrong and that he’s not himself.
- Papa Wolf: After killing the Butcher, believing that he’ll be overtaken by the other personalities and they will kill his daughter, he chooses to kill himself rather than see her harmed. See Senseless Sacrifice.
- Senseless Sacrifice: After killing the Butcher, he commits suicide to prevent himself from killing his only daughter left. Due to his misunderstanding of how Butcher inheritance works, this causes said daughter to become the new Butcher, cursing her to a Fate Worse than Death with his final act of fatherly love.
- Skull for a Head: His mask is made out into this shape. Considering what his powers are, it probably is an actual skull.
- The Unfought: Despite being the leader of the Court and the indirect cause of a lot of Taylor’s problems, they never cross paths before his death.
Ratcatcher
Danny Hebert
One of the Court’s enforcers. He wears a hooded outfit and fights with a sniper rifle.- The Alcoholic: After receiving news that his daughter is missing or worse, he descends into this.
- Character Death: He is killed by Tiki for his role in Annette’s death.
- Cold Sniper: During the Court raid, he uses a large, bulky rifle and doesn’t show any emotion.
- Death Seeker: After digging through his memories, we discover that he caused Annette’s death. She threatened to leave with Taylor and go to the police about Danny’s involvement with the Court. He had hoped that Marquis could convince her otherwise, only to have her killed instead. Afterwards, he became so guilt ridden that he willingly allowed Red Queen to alter him. He later accepts his execution at the hands of Tiki for this crime, after making him promise to take care of Taylor.
- Disowned Parent: Taylor refuses to think of him as her father after him joining the Court caused Annette to leave. The later reveal that he caused her mother’s death makes Taylor order his execution.
- Elite Mooks: He’s not really a parahuman, just augmented by Red Queen’s power.
- Meaningful Name: His cape name is in reference to how he would be able to catch “rats” (snitches) for the Court to deal with. He reported his own wife when she wanted to go to the police, in the hopes that the Court would be merciful. He just got her killed instead.
- Offing the Offspring: Narrowly averted thanks to Toddle’s intervention.
- Super-Soldier: Sort of. Rather than having an extremely strong body, Ratcatcher has the skills from all the military veterans and mercenaries that Red Queen transplanted into his brain.
Jack Spades
One of the Court’s enforcers. He’s rather large and muscular man wearing a suit and skull mask with a spade symbol.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: His costume is pretty similar to Marquis, only with a different mask.
- The Brute: He serves as the muscle for the Court. He’s large, bulky, and strong enough to move a bus and tear off limbs with his bare hands.
- Elite Mooks: He’s not really a parahuman, just a normal man augmented by Red Queen’s power.
- Off with His Head!: How he’s killed. If it wasn’t that, it would’ve been the Extreme Mêlée Revenge he received at the hands of Tiamat.
- Playing Card Motifs: The Jack is the lowest tier of the face cards, being second to the Queen (Red Queen in his case). He has an Ace Of Spades symbol on his mask, which symbolizes death and danger, and fits his character as one of the Court’s hatchet men.
- Super-Strength: His power. He’s strong enough to move a downed bus by himself.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He gets killed by Tiamat soon after he’s introduced without much characterization.
The Teeth
A group of villains led the Butcher. They control the docks, making them Dragon’s immediate neighbors. In General
- Decapitated Army: After the Butcher’s death, the Teeth instantly fall apart. In the aftermath of the Court Raid, most of the remaining members of the Teeth choose to leave town and wait for the newest Butcher to settle down rather than do anything else. There isn’t a single attempt to recover the Butcher mantle or even to choose a new leader, they just leave their territory to be picked apart by others. This highlights the gang’s biggest flaw: their over-reliance on the Butcher, and only the Butcher, to lead the Teeth.
- Quantity vs. Quality: They are the Quantity to the Court’s Quality. They have more capes, but few heavy hitters compared to the Court. Most of their strategies rely on subterfuge and diversions over brute force since they can’t replace their numbers easily. They’re also heavily reliant on the Butcher to the point of falling apart without her.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Butcher is killed during the Court Raid, most of the gang flees the city.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: They are the Slobs to the Court’s Snobs. Their capes have pretty edgy names (Butcher, Reaver, Bitch). Most of their costumes have a post-apocalyptic vibe. Finally, they squat in an abandoned building and used an old, modified bus as a war-vehicle.
The Butcher
The current leader of the Teeth and the 6th Butcher (originally named Insight). She’s described as a slender woman with an eyeless horned mask and wearing a scrap metal costume wrapped in police tape.
- A Father to His Men: One of the most notable traits of the current Butcher is this. She’s more upset that the Court are hurting her men than anything else. She also goes out of her way to take Knightwolf to safety during a fight after he’s taken out.
- The Butcher: The basis of her cape identity, however it is somewhat subverted. While the first Butcher may have been extremely violent or insane, there is no real indication that the current Butcher is either of those things. In fact, she is more known for her cunning and is somewhat personable towards others.
- Character Death: She is killed by the Marquis during the Court Raid.
- Combo Platter Powers: She has multiple sets of weakened powers from her predecessors, as well as her own:
- Attack Its Weak Point: With a focus on Vein-o-Vision. This came from Butcher II, Deathgaze.
- Gathering Steam: The longer she stays in a fight, the stronger she becomes. This comes from Butcher V, Marauder.
- Mind over Matter: Of the tactile variety. One of the Butcher’s powers can reshape matter on touch and make it denser than normal. This came from Butcher III, Twister.
- Resurrective Immortality: The most well known and feared power that the Butcher as a collective has. If any cape kills the Butcher, that person will not only inherit all of the powers of the previous Butchers, but also their collective voices as a part of the package, driving them insane in the process. This was one of the first Butcher’s (presumably unknown at the time) powers.
- Spider-Sense: The current Butcher’s native power.
- Super-Strength: From the original Butcher and Butcher V, Marauder.
- Teleportation: The Butcher uses an explosive, fiery teleport. This came from Butcher IV, Ricochet.
- X-Ray Vision: One of the current Butcher’s powers. She uses it to see through her eyeless mask.
- Eyeless Face: Her mask invokes this look. She has X-Ray Vision, so it’s not really a hindrance.
- Mind Hive: The Butcher as an entity is compromised of the minds of all past Butchers in the current host.
- The Nth Doctor: When someone kills the previous Butcher to takeover the Teeth, they also take the cape name for themselves over their previous name. It’s not stated immediately, but research done by the Tikilings reveals that she is the sixth person to carry the Butcher name.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Her costume is pretty much cobbled together from scrap metal, wrapped in police tape, with red zigzags painted on for decorations.
- The Strategist: She’s incredibly self aware of the strengths and weaknesses of her gang and other groups. She’s also the chief planner for the Court Raid, coming up with a decent battle plan that kept most of Court, as well as the Protectorate distracted while she and Knightwolf hit the Marquis head on. Her death notwithstanding, the Court was defeated and the Protectorate never had a chance to intervene. Two out of three isn’t that bad.
- Villain Respect: Towards Tiamat. When they first met, Butcher insulted the recently deceased Brownie. It results in Tiamat punching her in the face, which earns the Butcher’s respect.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: The most commonly believed way of inheriting the Butcher’s powers and leadership of the Teeth is by Klingon Promotion. However, as Marquis’ suicide after killing the Butcher and Wildling’s subsequent possession shows, any parahuman can become the next Butcher by being the closest to a dying Butcher.
Reaver
A rather affable member of the Teeth who Dragon has multiple meetings with. He seems capable of turning invisible and typically acts as a scout for the gang.
- Gokarting With Bowser: Despite being a member of the Teeth, Reaver becomes somewhat of a friendly acquaintance of Toddle’s and becomes the go between for both groups.
- Invisibility: His most obvious power, however there is more to it than just not being seen. See Power Misidentification below.
- I Owe You My Life: He becomes significantly more friendly towards Dragon after they save him from Wildling and helps bring them into the Teeth’s plans to fight the Court.
- Nice Guy: He’s always affable, even when dealing with unknown capes. He also cared about Toddle’s wellbeing after he helped in breaking out Knightwolf. In a canonical omake, he sent some members of the Teeth to the alley where Toddle rested just to make sure that he was fine.
- Power Misidentification: Everyone assumes that his power is simply invisibility, however he reveals that it’s a Breaker state that allows him to sidestep reality to a degree and take passengers along for the ride. It can disrupt Overmind’s control.
- The Sneaky Guy: His role in the Teeth. Using his invisibility, he scouts out locations and spies on enemies. However, his power isn’t foolproof and his presence can be detected by many different means.
- Villains Out Shopping: How we are literally introduced to him. He apparently drew the short straw and was sent to do a supply run.
- Weakened by the Light: His power can be disrupted by strong lights shining on him.
Knightwolf
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Well nice is definitely pushing it, but he’s not with the Empire, so he’s not a neo-nazi at the very least.
- Extra-ore-dinary: His power creates and draws metal blades from within his body that he shapes into a wolf-like form.
- Sacrificial Lion: After Wildling becomes the new Butcher, he attempts to kill her to stop her rampage after she begins attacking everyone regardless of their gang affiliation. Wildling ends up crushing him with his own skeleton.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed by Wildling during the Court Raid after a few appearances.
- The Worf Effect: On two separate occasions:
- The first time is when he gets into a confrontation with Wildling, who defeats him in one blow with a massive pillar of bone.
- The second time is during the Court Raid, where he’s immediately taken out of the fight by a combination of Marquis and Wildling’s bone attacks.
Bitch
Rachel Lindt
A volatile member of the Teeth with the power to turn dogs into monsters. She wears furs under scrap metal for a costume and doesn’t appear to have a secret identity like other capes.- The Beastmaster: Her power allows her to turn canines into monstrous creatures that she uses for combat and transport purposes.
- Blame Game: She engages in this post-Court Raid. In her mind, Dragon as a whole is at fault for Butcher being killed and the Teeth falling apart. Keep in mind that Dragon: a) didn’t have anything to do with the planning process and joined in the support team, not the assault team, b) the Butcher being killed was bad luck on her part, and c) the Teeth themselves actually decided to skip town, abandoning their territory for anyone to take. If anything, Dragon actually had the most success in fighting against the Court, saved the Teeth on multiple occasions, and was left to deal with the aftermath of the Raid without any help.Bitch: "Fuck off."[…]"You're the one that talked the Butcher into getting herself killed. Now you're here to pick up the scraps. Take territory. Pretty sure you think you can take me too."
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn’t take much to upset her and make her act out aggressively. The first attempt of diplomacy with her post-Court Raid ends with her threatening Toddle with violence. He wisely decides to retreat rather than risk her acting violently.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Averted. Whereas the Teeth end up leaving the city after the Butcher’s death, she refuses to leave and resides in the gang’s old territory.
Populace
A team of small-time capes and led by the mysterious Weaver. They don’t officially own territory, but are seen around the Boardwalk. In General
- Just Like Robin Hood: According to Cheshire, they steal from the rich, but not often.
- Knowledge Broker: Their specialty, thanks in part to half of their number being thinkers.
Weaver
The mysterious leader of Populace. She wears a black paramilitary outfit with a white spiderweb design on her chest.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The first example of her having these is a story of her being able to one-shot a tinkertech vehicle’s weak point, presumably while it is in motion.
- Sherlock Scan: In her first appearance, she was able to correctly deduce a lot about Nervous (who was in the body of a hawk, mind you), like how he was connected to Taylor, knowing that Blueflame was a fake, and her being Ratcatcher’s daughter.
- The Stoic: She always presents herself in a professional manner, never giving any emotional tells or indication of what she’s feeling.
Cheshire
Sarah
A young, blonde Thinker from Populace. She acts as a representative for the group when dealing with others.- Adaptational Name Change: Cheshire instead of Tattletale. She also goes with her birth name instead of Lisa.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: The basis for her cape name.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When first meeting Taylor and Toddle (in the shape of a child) she assumed that they were brother and sister due to their closeness. She also assumed that that one of them was a thinker because of how they knew that she was coming, never seeing that Nervous (in the body of a hawk) was acting as lookout.
- Nice Girl: When she first meets “Anne” and “Todd”, she sympathizes with them for having to live out in the street and offers them help if they want it.
- Sherlock Scan: Her power in a nutshell. She can pick up on minute details and extrapolate a lot of information from them. In her first appearance, she figured out that Taylor and her “little brother” were new capes and living out on the streets. That said, it’s not foolproof and she can get details wrong with faulty information.
Grue
A young man who wears a skull helmet and can create clouds of darkness.
- Casting a Shadow: His power creates large clouds of darkness that only he can see through. They block out light, sounds, and even Tiki’s Overmind signal.
- The Driver: This seems to be a normal role for him. Both times that he’s gone to negotiate with Dragon, he’s always the one behind the wheel. His Casting a Shadow power also helps him big time as a Getaway Driver.
Oni Lee
A young Asian man with the power to teleport, leaving behind copies of himself in his wake.
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: He’s introduced suffering from one of these, courtesy of Wildling. If he hadn’t received treatment from Tiamat and George, he would have most likely died.
- I Can't Feel My Legs!: Inverted. When he’s being healed by George, he starts regaining the feeling in his legs.
- The Illegal: Lee’s lack of legal identity was actually the main reason why Populace wasn’t able to get him proper medical care and went to Dragon for help.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He was a victim of it by Wildling.
Blastgerm
A group founded by the former Elite cape, Blasto. They own territory in the north side of the city, particularly the Trainyards. In General
- Drugs Are Bad: The first cape outing that Tiamat and the Tikilings do is taking out one of Blastgerm’s drug labs.
- Face–Heel Turn: Two of their members, Blasto and Piecemeal (formerly Epoch) used to be heroes under the Elite.
- Gadgeteer Genius: More than half of their members are tinkers. Between their broad specialties and mutual collaborations, they can be a formidable force multiplier for any group.
- Starter Villain: Downplayed. While Tiamat and Tiki’s first act as a cape team is taking out a drug lab and killing some of Blasto’s creatures, Blastgerm gets put in the back burner after Red Queen attacks Taylor at home and the Court and Teeth start their gang war, making the Court Dragon’s first real focus instead.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Their base is an overgrown compound made with train cars, surrounding an abandoned train station on the bad side of the city.
Blasto
Rey
The founder and leader of Blastgerm. He was once a member of the Elite, working with other tinkers to revitalize the environment, before leaving and becoming a gang leader. He wears an ill-fitting masquerade mask.- Crazy Survivalist: His biggest concerns are growing enough food for a potential shortage and creating a “giant” to combat anyone, particularly the government, who would threaten him.
- Evil Counterpart: To Tiamat. Blasto is a biotinker in charge of a gang who uses his power and creatures to commit crimes in Brockton Bay, whereas his fellow biotinker Tiamat uses her power and the Tikilings to eliminate crime and corruption in the city.
- False Flag Operation: Blasto is revealed to use this tactic frequently. He exploits the belief that his creatures can’t be controlled and go rogue, when in reality, he can control them just fine and sets them loose to attack enemies and distract others from his actual goals while feigning ignorance. One of his creatures is revealed to be the copycat “Blueflame”. Nobody suspected him because one of the supposed cape’s first attacks was one of Blastgerm’s own drug labs.
- Green Thumb: Besides creating plant chimeras, Blasto’s tinker specialty lends itself to creating plant life in general, including foodstuffs.
- It's All About Me: According to the Elite, all he thinks about is himself. A part of this belief is how during his time with the Elite, he betrayed their trust and used their resources to create his chimeras rather than create food for thousands during an impending famine. The fact that he also publicly destroyed their greenhouses on live television, started a gang using those resources, and hurt the Elite’s credibility probably contributes to that assessment.
- Maker of Monsters: A major part of Blasto’s tinker arsenal is the creation of botanical chimeras. These creature are controlled by pheromones and not particularly intelligent, being prone to going berserk, but are versatile in their abilities and dangerous all the same.
- Planimal: His tinker chimeras. Regardless of their function, they all have plantlike traits like leaves or vines as parts of their bodies.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Before he burned his bridges with the Elite, he used all of their resources to build a small army of creatures and took all of the equipment that the Elite provided him to start his gang.
- Start My Own: Rather than chafe under the control of the Elite, Blasto struck out on his own and started his own gang where he’s the one calling the shots.
Bad Apple
Lauren
A female member of Blastgerm with the power to create poisonous spheres. She wears a green, “cartoonish” villain costume with a high collar and a pointed cloak.- Feminine Women Can Cook: Nope. According to Cataclysm, Apple is the worst cook in Blastgerm. She even states that even Tiki, a literal tinkertech monster is a better cook than her.
- High Collar of Doom: Her costume has one.
- Hired Guns: She’s stated to be a mercenary cape working for Blastgerm, however as her Ship Tease shows, her relationship with Blasto might be less than professional.
- Poisonous Person: Her power lets her create spheres of poisonous gases with a variety of effects.
- Ship Tease: She apparently has a crush on Blasto and tries to be “domestic” by cooking meals for him. According to Cataclysm, he’s pretty dense towards her advances and she can’t cook.
- Shout-Out: Her costume is similar to the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Considering how Bad Apple can create “poison apples”, this was probably intentional on her part.
Piecemeal (formerly Epoch)
Chris
A teenage tinker who defected from the Elite with Blasto. He wears a set of goggles with a breather mask, has multiple tools covering his forearms, and has a puzzle piece painted on his back.- The Apprentice: It’s implied that he is this for Blasto. He was in the same group with Blasto in the Elite and followed him when he left the group to start his own gang.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He’s a tinker who had difficulty discovering his specialty, though it’s implied that he discovered it sometime after his Face–Heel Turn. It is later revealed that he can create modular technology.
- Good with Numbers: Inverted, he’s really bad with numbers, which Cataclysm likes to taunt him for.
- Kid Hero: Formerly anyway. Now he’s a villain.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Cataclysm. He has to share a workshop with Cataclysm, who isn’t exactly the nicest person to be around.
Cataclysm
Grace Nakimura
An unknown, female tinker working with Blastgerm. She wears a skintight outfit and jacket with a radiation symbol, her hair styled in dreadlocks.- Adaptational Superpower Change: In canon, Bakuda was an esoteric bomb tinker, Cataclysm is a chemistry and reactions tinker.
- Atomic Superpower: According to the Elite, she’s a nuclear and chemistry tinker. She states that she’s actually a “reactions” tinker, and nuclear tinkering is just a small part of what she can do.
- Disproportionate Retribution: One of her college professors once gave her a less-than-perfect grade. She used her tinkering to coat multiple objects in his office to create a chemical reaction that turned him into goo, all without getting caught.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Courtesy of Nervous. The result is somewhat More than Mind Control in that her personality is still intact, she just acts in Dragon’s interests and isn’t as abrasive as she normally is.
- Insufferable Genius: She’s a talented former college student and has a knack planning as her Disproportionate Retribution shows, however all of that is overshadowed by her ego and general instability. Even after being under Nervous’ control doesn’t diminish her ego.Grace: "Of course. I’m a fucking genius."
- Jerkass: She’s not a pleasant person to work with based on her interaction with Piecemeal.
- Named by the Adaptation: She was never named in canon, here her name is Grace Nakimura.
- Narcissist: One of defining character traits. She has a grandiose sense of her own intelligence and constantly deflects any criticisms or errors on her part as everyone else being a moron or someone who can’t see her greatness.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: She’s very fond of calling anyone she deems less intelligent than her (which is just about everyone) various slurs for the mentally challenged.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Piecemeal. She has to share a workshop with him and spends most of the time insulting his intelligence.
- They Called Me Mad!: According to Piecemeal, she was rejected by the Elite for being too unstable.
Unity
A mercenary cape that works for Blastgerm. They are a grab-bag cape with multiple powers. They wear a welder’s mask and a suit of charred, plantlike armor.
- Ambiguous Gender: They are described as “vaguely feminine”, but considering that this is probably AU!Circus, that might not mean much.
- Combo Platter Powers: As a grab-bag cape, Unity has three distinct powers:
- Combat Parkour: They have undefined acrobatic abilities.
- Hammerspace: They have a pocket dimension capable of storing all sorts of objects. The fact that they work for a group of tinkers capable of outfitting them with all sorts of tinkertech makes them even more unpredictable and dangerous.
- Playing with Fire: They possess pyrokinetic abilities of unknown potency.
- Hired Guns: They are explicitly mentioned to be a mercenary working for Blastgerm.
- Portal Cut: They use this to get through a locked and welded door by using their Hammerspace to store part of the door. Whether it can be used offensively on living things is unknown.
- Shout-Out: To Zerrer’s other quest, Child of Monsters. Anathema also worked with Blastgerm and wore plantlike armor. Unity was a Second Super-Identity that Anathema used as their mercenary persona, complete with a welding mask. Even further, Anathema was thought to be a cluster mate of Circus by the Protectorate due to having similar abilities, Inventory and Sol Ring.
Others
Dragon
The greatest tinker heroine in the world and the inspiration behind the creation of Dragon, the group created by Taylor.
- Benevolent A.I.: Her true nature. Despite not being human, she was regarded as a great hero who dealt with great threats and tried to solve many of the problems plaguing humanity.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She is a tinker, making her this by default. What sets her apart is that she’s considered the best tinker in the world.
- Posthumous Character: She died prior to the start of the quest. It’s revealed that the heroes were the ones to kill her out of fear of her nature as an A.I.
