Beryl Buran came to Johnston as a child with her father and mother, escaping the newly dissolved USSR. Her father is a mechanic, and her mother works as a receptionist for a dentist. As she grew up, Beryl fell in with a bad crowd, despite her Middle Class upbringing, becoming a member of a teenage gang on the streets of Johnston. She came to the notice of Dr. Destiny, a warped medical genius who ran one of Johnston's many gangs. She became his "Special Project" - an attempt to create the perfect thief.
Beryl disappeared from her home and the streets. Over a year's time, Dr. Destiny operated on her repeatedly, always without general anesthetic so she would remember who she owed her future to, gradually replacing almost every bit of her body. Her bones and muscles were replaced with elastomer based replacements and extre, cloned, nerve endings, allowing her full muscular control, and allowing her to both stretch any part of her body to four times it's normal length, and to mimic perfectly any person she touched - she can extract DNA from the touch, and temporarily mimic even metahuman powers, though it costs her physically to maintain it. Her body was toughened in the process, giving her twice the constitution she would normally have. A regimen of drugs and operations enlarged certain parts of her brain, giving her the ability to teleport anywhere, and the ability to form a sonic tendril of air and use it as an invisible whip to rifle range.
Beryl was not appreciative of the efforts Dr. Destiny exerted on her behalf, particularly since Dr. Destiny neglected to gain her consent - a trifling matter to one so powerful of intellect, to be sure, but one which made much difference to Beryl. At the first opportunity - when she was healed enough from the drugs and operations - she escaped from his clutches and vowed to fight criminals and crime with all her being. She was found wandering the streets of Johnston in a hospital gown and paper slippers by Decimo, who invited her to join his special team of metahumans. After determining the aims and resources available, she accepted.
Beryl took the nom de guerre of Shade for her fight against crime. Her costume is a form-fitting gray, without emblem or device, and a domino mask with wide cheek wings to hide her face. Her hair is a wild tangle of dark red, her eyes are blue - though the lenses in her mask hide this - and she is freckled, which the cheek winged mask hides. She lives in an apartment in Johnston, and works for Decimo's overt operation as Beryl Buran, an Effector.
A quick sketch of Shade
-clash
Nice Sketch.
ReplyDeleteGray is always hard sell in comic books, needs a visual "grabbing" color (admittedly my own heroes have things like black and gold, or dark blue, so I too have this likely problem.)
In this case, it's not a problem. The sketch is just a sketch of a character, a five minute sketch done during the game, and not intended for publication in the game book. I do them all the time for my group. I will not be the primary illustrator for LUITS! at all, though I may contribute an illo or two if Klaxon wants them.
ReplyDeleteReally, my painting style is not particularly suited for supers. Klax is organizing all that himself. This is entirely his project, not mine. The only thing I am doing is editing the material. I would expect the illos to be more along the lines of Manga/Anime and current comics.
Oh! You have the Alpha test book. There is only one illo in it, and that's a painting of mine. You can see how unsuitable it is for a comic/supers game! It will most probably not be there in the final published edition.
ReplyDelete