Paragon
Contents
Personality
While Emily's upbringing initially hampered her social skills she quickly learned to adapt after her first exposure to alien culture. The shock treatment has made her much more comfortable interacting with complete strangers, though she still has a hard time understanding humanity. Her behavior can sometimes come across as childish and she certainly seems to connect easier with young people.
Perhaps Paragon's strongest qualities are her great capacity for friendship and loyalty and her willingness to forget and forgive. She is ready to believe even the most monstrous creatures could be kind and even the worst villain could turn around.
Appearance
Paragon is easily recognizable by her exceptional height, Olympian physic, and ever-present punk hairdo. Emily is at times self-conscious of her appearance and prefers the company of aliens to humans, where her muscles and size are not as unusual. Paragon does not bother maintaining a civilian identity although she doesn't go out of her way to draw attention to herself either.
Religion
Being a creation of science and nearly god-like herself, Emily is an Atheist. Still, she is curious about the faith of others and is too polite and good-natured to look down on believers. If she has any sort of religion, it is pacifism. While she doesn't scoff at using violence, she does try and avoid causing pain and always tries to end conflicts as fast as possible.
Powers
While Emily possesses the raw physical ability of a giant, the majority of her power comes from radiant energy (light, heat, etc) which she can absorb and process in much the same manner as a plant. Her body normally sustains a 'healthy' level of radiant energy, though it can surpass or fall below this point depending on her environment and level of activity.
Super Strength - As stated, Paragon's greatest and most obvious attribute is her physical strength. The upward limit of her might is difficult to determine, but she is notably more powerful in space where her ability to use solar currents and propulsion can be put to use.
Invulnerability - Her resilience is equally impressive, allowing her to shrug off even heavy military grade ordinance and survive in the harshness of space and alien environments. Paragon is not totally invincible, however, as paranormal attacks, equally strong foes, and powerful sustained assaults can cause lethal damage.
Solar Sailor - By expending radiant energy, Paragon is able to levitate and propel herself through the air at incredible speeds in atmosphere. Out in the unfiltered vacuum of space, however, the ambient solar radiation and solar 'wind' allow her to accelerate exponentially. While she can't cross the vast empty void unaided she can keep up with space-faring vessels moving at tactical speeds.
Bioluminescence - While normally invisible, Emily possesses specialized patches of skin on her forehead and cheeks that allow her to expel visible light. By focusing greater amounts of power she can even project beams of pure light and heat, effectively creating a powerful laser. To casual observers the blast appears to come from her eyes.
Equipment
Solar Suit - Another invention of Walker's and that harnesses radiant energy. The suit is a living organism much like moss or algae. It is genetically engineered to fit Paragon's shape and regrows rather quickly after being torn or damaged. Objects can be stored in the suit by cuting a pocket and allowing it to regrow over the item.
Weaknesses
Sunlight Starvation - If separated from a source of radiant energy, Paragon will slowly lose power over the course of several days, theoretically weakening to a near-human state (or at least a point where conventional weapons become harmful). This process can be exacerbated by combat, though even then it could take several hours and most threats don't posses the stamina or resources to wear out such an opponent.
"Trust Me" - Emily is naturally trusting, good natured, and usually assumes that everyone she meets is 'basically good'. She is willing to give the benefit of the doubt to some very questionable characters and wants to believe that everyone can change their ways. Some unscrupulous and crafty individuals could easily manipulate the hero.
Origins
(WIP: Character undergoing major revisions) After the murder of the masked hero Vigil, the United States secretly commissioned famed geneticist Dr. Walker and a team of scientists to artificially create metahumans with the intent of augmenting (or perhaps replacing) mundane law enforcement. Just as the project began showing results, it was leaked to other countries. Dr. Walker's most promising creation, Paragon Alpha, was so shockingly powerful that it sparked an international outcry. Other nations feared (perhaps correctly) that the United States was building a superhuman army. A cease-and-desist was soon ordered, and the project was closed.
By this point, however, Walker had already completed his work on Paragons Beta and Delta, which he chose to raise as his own children. For a time, the government allowed them to stay under his care, but eventually decided to reposes their property for military use. Before this occurred, Alpha escaped, forcing Walker and his team to place Beta (the more violent of the three) into stasis. Fearing that his last remaining child would be turned into a weapon, the doctor gave Delta to the Odd Squad, a team of heroes founded by the now deceased Vigil.
Walker had given Delta the name "Emily". Even at that young age, she was a giant. Built like Olympian gods, the Paragons were genetically programmed to reach physical maturity at a vastly accelerated rate, with Emily eventually reaching her full height of just under eight feet tall. While their mental faculties were intended to develop at the same rate, Emily and her siblings remained stunted due to their isolated childhood. It would be some time before the Odd Squad, her new family, would be able to educate her in nuances of social interaction and living in the outside world.
Aliens!
Paragon has encountered numerous alien species on her ventures into space. Here are but a few of them!
Protosaur
The Protosaurs are a peaceful race of short, reptilian beings who travel the galaxy in massive 'zoo ships' on their quest to preserve endangered species of life. While many sentient species would consider this a noble endeavor, the Protosaurs have occasionally caused conflicts as their definition of 'endangered' inevitably differs from that of the local inhabitants. These disputes often become more strained when one realizes that the Protosaur concepts for 'saving' and 'kidnapping' are synonymous. Despite such incidents, they have undoubtedly rescued countless species of flora and fauna from extinction and are generally considered to be one of the more benevolent space-fairing races.
Throughout their long history the Protosaurs have, for the most part, avoided violent conflicts with themselves and other people and developed a strong culture of enlightenment and pacifism. This has led their military technology lagging behind other advancements, making them a favorite target of piracy. Not only are the zoo-ships full of rare creatures that can be sold to collectors, but they also make some of the best slave ships and space prisons in the galaxy. Because Protosaurs prefer to avoid fighting they more commonly hire on a defense force when venturing into dangerous sectors of space.
One of the few disagreements Protosaurs do have between eachother is known as the "Sorting War". Barely a war by other race's standards, it centers around how best to sort species between ships. The pervading ideology is to devote ships to the flora and fauna of the same planet, while others may devote their ship to a particular type of climate (tundra, jungle, etc) or classification (mammalia, mushrooms, etc). This argument seems meaningless to outsiders as inevitably every ship will pickup some of everything as it travels through space.
Technology
Though they have more conventional sized craft, Protosaurs are most famous for their giant zoo-ships, some of which can be multiple miles across. Built in space, the craft are not intended to safely enter a planet's atmosphere. The most common design is a giant disc. The outer rim is lined with containment cells of various sizes while the center is largely open, often containing multiple 'exhibits' designed to look like a creature's native habitat. In safer regions of space the Protosaurs have also built even larger ships designed to function as a micro-biospheres that imitate planets which have been destroyed or rendered inhabitable. At least one of these has been captured by pirates and converted into a dangerous game-hunting resort.
Protosaurs are also well known for their extensive database of species and their genetic makeup, diet, behavior, reproduction habits, and medical needs. They often carry a device similiar to a barcode gun that scans the atomic structure of objects and creatures and compares it to existing data.
Physiology
Protosaurs are short by human standards, being an average of 4ft tall. Their most striking feature is their over-sized head which bears a large bony frill around the back of the skull. A Protosaur's face is covered in small horns and protrusions like one would find on a warthog. While not a physically diverse species, their skin tones do range in color from rusty browns and oranges to subdued greens. Protosaurs have two genders which reproduce through egg laying, similar to Earth's reptiles.
Vespidians
A collection of sapient and near-sapient species that share a homeworld, the Vespidians are a troublesome race that often ignores galactic boundaries and prohibited zones in their never-ending search for sources of glucose. The different subspecies are divided into castes based on their physiology and preferred building material. Although they have a 'queen' and reproduce enmass much like the insects they resemble. However, the queen is often incapable of leadership and thus the Vespidians have developed a tradition of choosing a leader they deem worthy. Curiously this leader does not need to be a Vespidian and, in fact, does not even need to be willing.
Technology
Vespidians technology is typical in that it is primarily inorganic, but strange it in that it uses almost no metal or artificial substances. Vespoids employ materials such as wood pulp, wax, mud, and sand; all buildings materials common to colony insects. Although normally not the most durable substances, their armor, weapons, and spacecraft are surprisingly durable. The outer layers of ships are coated in a heat-resistant oil which prevents the danger of catching fire when entering a planet's atmosphere.
Just as strange is their reliance on sugar. Not only is it a source of food, but it is also a primary source of fuel for their vehicles. While they have mastered getting the most power out of glucose, it remains an inefficient source of energy and thus Vespidian technology is rarely adopted by other species.
Their peculiar nature has produced several curiosities and sought after commodities that have encouraged other species to put up with their intrusions. Among these are their delicious foodstuffs and candies. For a short time Vespidian products were even popular on Malva when their tasty but impractical edible furniture was considered stylish.
Physiology
The different species of Vespidians share superficial physical and behavioral similarities to the various species of colony insects found on Earth, though this is likely due to parallel evolution and not to actual ancestry. Even the name 'Vespidians', derived from the family name for wasps, is just as translation. Their actual name is a smell.
All three races and their subspecies have two sets of multifaceted limbs and two or more sets of wings. The smallest race resembles a woolly, cat-sized bumblebee and compromises much of the lower wax-building caste. Their intelligence is comparable to that of an ape or dolphin. The two larger and better known Vespidians are divided between the paper and mud-building caste with both being slightly larger than the average human.
Metagame
Theme Music - Bulletproof - La Roux - Rabbit Heart - Florence and The Machine - Don't Stop Me Now - Queen - The Powerpuff Girls
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| Leaders: R'haogo | ||
| Members: Aliona • Eliask • Riptide • Outrider • Paragon • Paradigm | ||
| Auxiliary Members: | ||
