COMING SOON! -- The Awfully Cheerful Engine on Kickstarter! An action comedy RPG inspired by cheerful tabletop games of the 80s! With a foreword by Sandy 'Ghostbusters' Petersen, and VTT support!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8176022" data-attributes="member: 30538">Moth Man and Papillion<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-XCHFF9b/0/cf4bdf1b/S/440a525c321b5a624893fbe5cfd7efd7-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Moth Man<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-b573gwD/0/89bf18cb/S/papilllon-S.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />PapillionLouis Byron never expected to be any sort of a hero. Born just a bit before Black Friday, in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, to a mechanic's family, he was one of the top students in his high school. If his teachers had a complaint about him, it was that he lacked focus; instead of concentrating all his efforts on physics, or biology, or chemistry, he would flutter from one subject to the next as it interested him, demonstrating aptitude but not a deep interest. And yes, flutter was the word that they used.After high school graduation, he began studies at Duke University, and his 'fluttering' continued as he switched majors repeatedly, to the dismay of his faculty adviser. His associates were even more baffled by his decision not to claim deferment as a student when his draft number was called, but he reported for duty nonetheless. He served as a radio operator in Korea, demonstrating a surprising amount of focus on his tasks, possibly as a result of his experiences in Boot Camp.After his discharge in 1954, Louis returned home to West Virginia, where he obtained a teacher's certificate and began teaching high school science at the same school where he'd studied just a decade before. He was equally able in all the classes he was given to teach, and confined his tendency to flutter to his private experiments, conducted at home. He also acted as the head of the local Mr. Wizard Club, taking the opportunity to further educate the young people in town about science.As the age of the supermen began, Louis found himself fielding a lot of questions about how some of the things that they did were possible, and admitting to a lot of uncertainty on the subject. But he never lost faith in the idea that science could provide the answers that he needed, and tried to communicate that to his students as well. In 1958, perhaps the biggest change in his life occurred, when fifteen-year-old Paula Kaminski joined the Mr. Wizard Club. She was an enthusiastic and talented student, and Louis rather enjoyed working with her. He told himself, of course, that he was just interested in her mind. (She would later claim that she didn't share that delusion.)In 1960, Louis completed an experiment in metallurgy that produced a material which, he was startled to realize, seemed to be defying gravity. An examination of its properties suggested that he'd rediscovered the material which H.G. Wells had termed cavorite, which he'd always believed to be fictional. He was stunned by the implications of this, but planned to patent the material so that the entire world could benefit from its properties. He certainly didn't plan to use it to fight crime.Fate, however, had other plans. When Paula failed to show up for the club meeting that week, Louis called her house to see what the matter was, and got a borderline hysterical response from her mother. Going there in person, he learned that Paula and her father had been kidnapped by some foreign agents who believed that Mr. Kaminski, who'd fled Poland in 1939, knew the secret location of some kind of buried treasure of their homeland. Louis' first impulse was to contact the FBI, but he hesitated at the thought that they'd put a higher priority on capturing the criminals than saving the lives of the victims. No, what Paula and her father needed was a hero.He threw together the first Moth Man suit from scraps and the first batch of neo-cavorite that he'd created. It was basically just a flying harness, without any of the enhancements that he'd add later, and the mask was just a pilot's hood that he'd picked up somewhere. Nevertheless, he was able to locate the kidnappers and defeat them, despite their armaments, due mostly to their sheer surprise at being attacked by a superhero. He took Paula and her father back home, accepting the name that her mother gave him with a cough. (Moth Man? Really? Oh well.) The problem now was that he couldn't release the neo-cavorite like he'd planned -- if he did so, it would be obvious to the criminals he'd just captured who had come after them, and he might be targeted by the underworld. So the only way to use his invention for the betterment of humanity was to keep on using it in the way that he'd already started. So Moth Man was here to stay, and he began fighting crime and rescuing people from that night forward.When the Institute formed, he was a cheerful volunteer, but was stunned to be chosen, by the President himself, as the group's first leader! It was quite a vote of confidence, though it led to him finally starting to understand what other people called stress. Between his work as a teacher, a club leader, a private crime fighter, a researcher and leading the Institute, he was very much overworked. When the group met to elect a new leader in the summer of 1963, he was happy to decline the nomination, turning the group over to Doctor Freeze, who proved to be much more effective.1963 was also when Paula came back into his life, having graduated from high school two years before and gone off to a finishing school. He was stunned by how beautiful she'd become since she left, and then completely floored by the fact that she knew he was Moth Man, and had since the very beginning. She wanted to join him in his activities, as his sidekick. After all, there were plenty of other women superheroes, so why shouldn't she be one too? Impressed by her conviction but fearful for her safety, Louis agreed to temporarily take her on as a partner -- in a strictly professional sense, of course, he quickly assured her.She stared, then nodded, wondering as she did, as many in similar situations have, how someone so smart could be so dumb.Papillion made her debut later that week, and Moth Man planned to propose her for membership at the next monthly meeting of the Institute. Unfortunately, that meeting, scheduled for November 25, was pre-empted by other events. As it turned out, Papillon didn't join the Institute until February of 1964, and her membership caused a certain amount of controversy, with the Cowl angrily arguing that his sidekick wasn't a member, and neither should anyone else's be. Nobody else quite understood his argument, but Papillion was accepted by a majority vote.Over the next three years, Moth Man and Papillion worked well together, though not as much 'together' as Paula wanted. He remained oblivious to the fact that she was not one of his students anymore. 'Somewhat annoyed, she had a brief relationship with the Meteor, but decided that trying to make Louis jealous was the sort of behavior she'd be disgusted by in someone else. (Besides, something about that guy creeped her out as much as Stardust did.)Matters finally came to a head in December 1967, when they happened to be in the air over Point Pleasant as the Silver Bridge collapsed. Hurling themselves into action, they managed to limit the deaths to less than a score, but Louis was still clearly haunted by those they didn't save. He finally turned to Paula for emotional support, and she allowed her own desire to control their actions. In the aftermath, Louis believed that he'd made a terrible mistake, but Paula eventually convinced him that she'd been in love with him for a very long time, which should make everything okay, right?Despite that, it was a troubled relationship from the very start. Given that she hadn't wanted to make Louis jealous earlier, Paula found the jealousy he was now demonstrating whenever she so much as glanced at another man to be frustrating in the extreme. They went through several break-ups over the next four years, which also ended their crime fighting partnership, with every reconciliation starting it up again. Towards the end, Basilea noted that Paula had some unusual bruises, but was told that she'd just taken some hits in a fight earlier. The Hesperan considered intervening, but events outpaced her intentions.During the Battle of Vietnam, the two of them followed the Meteor's lead in evacuating civilians rather than trying to fight Stardust. Unfortunately, as they were clearing one particular village, Papillion realized that there was still a child in the area that they'd left behind by accident. Moth Man insisted that they get clear, but Papillion went back to save even one more life, with her partner following her ... right into Stardust's path. He annihilated them and the child they were trying to save in an almost perfunctory manner.In 2003, Point Pleasant unveiled a statue to Moth Man, with Basilea among the honored guests. She quietly asked when Papillion was going to get her statue, and was pleased when she was told that it was scheduled for 2004, and would be on the other side of the Ohio River. "Good," she said. "They were better apart than they were together." Just what she meant by that is known only to her.Moth Man -- PL 7Abilities:STR 5/1 | STA 2 | AGL 4/1 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 6 | AWE 2 | PRE 1Powers:Moth Suit: Removable (-8 points)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Artificial Muscles: Enhanced Agility 3; Enhanced Strength 4 - 20 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Body Armor: Protection 2 - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Moth Swarm: Burst Area Visual Concealment Attack 4 - 12 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sensors: Senses 1 (low-light vision) - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wings: Flight 6 (120 MPH), Winged - 6 points</li> </ul>Advantages:Agile Feint, Equipment 2, Move-by Action, Set-up, Sidekick 18, TeamworkEquipment:Utility Belt (10 points of equipment as needed).Skills:Acrobatics 6 (+10/+7), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+9), Deception 6 (+7), Expertise: Science 4 (+10), Investigation 5 (+11), Sleight of Hand 5 (+8), Stealth 5 (+9/+6), Technology 5 (+11).Offense:Initiative +4/+1Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 5/1)Defense:Dodge 10/7, Parry 9, Fortitude 5, Toughness 4/2, Will 6Totals:Abilities 38 + Powers 33 + Advantages 24 + Skills 21 + Defenses 19 = 135 pointsComplications:Responsibility--Motivation. Distractible. Relationship (Papillion.) Secret Identity.Papillion -- PL 6Abilities:STR 3/-1 | STA 1 | AGL 5/2 | DEX 2 | FGT 2 | INT 2 | AWE 3 | PRE 2Powers:Moth Suit: Removable (-8 points)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Artificial Muscles: Enhanced Agility 3; Enhanced Strength 4 - 20 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Body Armor: Protection 2 - 2 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Moth Swarm: Burst Area Visual Concealment Attack 4 - 12 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sensors: Senses 1 (low-light vision) - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wings: Flight 6 (120 MPH), Winged - 6 points</li> </ul>Advantages:Agile Feint, Move-by Action, Set-up, TeamworkSkills:Acrobatics 4 (+9/+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+6), Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Popular Culture 4 (+6), Insight 4 (+7), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 3 (+8/+5).Offense:Initiative +5/+2Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 3)Defense:Dodge 9/6, Parry 9, Fortitude 3, Toughness 3, Will 5Totals:Abilities 26 + Powers 31 + Advantages 4 + Skills 14 + Defenses 15 = 90 pointsComplications:Thrills--Motivation. Relationship (Moth Man.) Secret Identity.</blockquote>

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