App for redshiftrp

[superposition]

Player.

Name: Kae
Contact: caturday
Current Characters: Aradia Megido (Ami Aihara)

Character.

Name: Qubit (real name unknown)
Canon: Irredeemable
Canon Point: A few hours post-canon. The world is saved from the Plutonian, but at great cost.
CRAU Timeline/Game(s): Spent about 14 months in maskormenace.

Character History: Irredeemable (and sister series Incorruptible)

CRAU History: Transported to an alternate Earth and denied access to the rogue Porter responsible, Qubit spent his first month-ish in Mask or Menace working feverishly to create a portal of his own. In theory, this would allow everyone to go home; in practice, it fizzled out due to the Porter's interference.

Not long after, he met Superman, and became convinced that this man was the Plutonian reborn - with all the mixed feelings that entailed. Between that and his portal failure, he had an overdue emotional breakdown, and finally had to accept that he was stuck in this world indefinitely.

He tried to make the most of it, settling in for the long haul and even getting a real job. He continued to help where he was needed, particularly in emergencies, and with Swear-In security (after an attack on his first one left 75 dead). But he'd lost a lot of his momentum and direction. Most of his friends were dead, his world still stood on the brink, and he was powerless to help... and he dealt with his grief by pointedly not dealing with it, which didn't help.

Qubit had a lot of complaints about the US government in this world - such as their totalitarian history, monitoring of imPorts, and harshness to vigilantes while supervillains got slaps on the wrist - but oddly, tended to keep his head down. He rationalized that he'd be useless to anyone if the gov't jailed him or shut down his organs (which they did have the power to do), but it was really just an excuse. Whatever the reason, he ended up self-limiting the scope of his activities, procrastinating on his projects, and getting blindsided by things like Soviet sleeper invasions, large-scale kidnappings, and so on.

Overall, he had a hard time finding his niche in the established imPort community. When he finally decided to assemble a new team, it took him months to drum up any serious interest, and by the time he was Ported out (October 2016), the team had barely gotten off the ground.

But that's not to say he had no impact. He made quite a few friends, particularly with nerdy types like the Pacific Rim scientists and Doc Brown - though he butted heads with Tony Stark every time they met, not least because Tony went full supervillain on two separate occasions. He also ended up as sort of a mentor figure for Tetsuo, and by extension Kaneda. And his team, while short-lived, was cool while it lasted.


Personality: Qubit is an absolute mess of contradictions. Pretty much everything he does is at odds with some facet of his personality, and most of his positive traits are also negative.

To begin with, he's a supergenius, and he knows it. His ego is large and hungry and obvious. But that's all an extension of his inner insecurity - nothing irritates him more than being wrong, or outsmarted, or bossed around, or called stupid. He butts heads with anyone who thinks they know better than him, and instinctively tries to establish dominance over every smart person he meets.

In theory, he's solely devoted to logic, reason, and facts. In practice, he's a profoundly emotional being who regularly lets his feelings get the better of him. To his friends, he's loyal to a fault - as in, it's actually a problem, he has put millions of lives at risk for them.

His morals are a fun topic. He notoriously refuses to kill, or to allow his teammates to, but he broke that code multiple times during canon. Sure, maybe those times were justified - but he still broke the most important rule he ever laid down for himself. He doesn't believe in acceptable losses, and normally he'll go far out of his way to find the elusive Third Option, but in these cases he didn't, and regardless of the context, it will haunt him for the rest of his life. He considers himself a hypocrite and a murderer, and refuses to forgive himself for what he's done.

Still, Qubit tries to be a good person... or at least a person who does good things. As a superhero, he thrives under pressure, taking charge in crisis situations and trying to save as many lives as possible. His extensive travels have made him worldly and open-minded, and he tries to be culturally sensitive. The experiences of ordinary people motivate and inspire him, and keep him grounded. He avoids the spotlight (knowing it'll go to his head), doesn't profit from his inventions, and he's a committed environmentalist. In day-to-day life, he's friendly and approachable, with an infectious enthusiasm, sharp sense of humor, and informal but respectful manner that make him easy to get along with... provided you don't get on his bad side.

That said, what a bad side it is. Getting defensive when his intellect feels threatened is only the tip of the iceberg. When he thinks it's necessary, he can become a manipulative bastard, doing everything short of outright lying to get someone to cooperate. Half-truths, lies of omission, mistaken assumptions left uncorrected, and horrible threats are all fair game. In canon, he even secretly tortured someone for information. If he can't find the appropriate "carrot" to motivate someone, he'll promptly go for the "stick."

And that's dangerous, because he's also been known to follow through on his threats. Qubit has a flash temper, quick to rise and dissipate, but intense in between. On one occasion he impulsively committed mass murder just to prove a point. If he's angry or desperate enough, he's a hazard to himself and others. More mundanely, he's also secretive, impatient, sarcastic, bossy, a workaholic, doesn't plan ahead, and can hold a grudge indefinitely. So... in some ways he's an acquired taste.

Probably his greatest strength, though, is his self-awareness. He knows he's failed spectacularly in upholding his values, that in fighting monsters he became one himself. He knows he should be better - he wants to be better - but after all he's done? He's no longer sure he can.


CRAU Development: In Mask or Menace, Qubit was able to work through some of his grief over his dead teammates, particularly with regard to the Plutonian. His last-second plan worked, after all - Tony got a second chance as Superman, and while Qubit isn't in an emotional place where he can trust Supes (and perhaps never will be), he did come to cautiously respect him.

He made friends quickly, but never fully trusted anyone, and never opened up about his past except in the vaguest of terms. Even his closest friends there, Newt Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb (Pacific Rim), hardly knew anything about him. Of course, without any outlet, he's instead internalized all his guilt and shame, letting it steadily crystallize into self-loathing. You know, like a healthy person.

Still, he's generally in an emotionally stable place at present. He was even starting to put his hand back in the superhero game, recently. He's fine! Everything's fine.


Powers/Abilities: To avoid ruining all the fun, I'm nerfing Qubit's powers heavily for Redshift. Also I'm including my proposals for explaining the nerfs in-universe, since that'll be one of the first things he tries to figure out.

• Technokinesis / Perfect Kludge. Using existing components as raw material, Qubit can telekinetically build any machine he can imagine. The materials and final product must both be electrical in some way, but can otherwise be totally unrelated. The more complex the materials, the easier they are to work with; he can do very little with simpler parts, and even then it's exhausting. His powers don't affect non-electric machines at all, or nanomachines (they're too little).
  
  He can only create or repair machines that he understands the principles behind (for instance, he couldn't make a time machine (yet)). When he has that understanding, he doesn't have to think too hard about it in the moment. That's what "Perfect Kludge" refers to - he can build his machines really fast, and they'll almost always work. He can disassemble machinery even faster and with less effort.
  
  • Nerfed. This power works roughly the same, except that it takes a lot more energy out of him. Side effects include exhaustion, severe headaches, and nerve pain - all of which could become chronic or permanent if he were to try and power through. However, the power still works just as quickly and doesn't require additional mental effort, so if he's not extremely careful, he could sail past his safe limit in seconds, causing serious damage both to himself and to what he's trying to fix.
    
    The threshold depends on the size, complexity, and tech level of the project. The "sweet spot" for each category would be: 1) handheld-size, 2) does at most one or two things, 3) 1970s/80s level technology. As a rule of thumb, the further he deviates from those parameters, the worse it gets. Thus, he can easily make simple devices like Geiger counters, but things like force fields or teleporters or particle accelerators would be out of the question. Also, anything he repairs with his powers, he essentially has to downgrade.
    
    He could still make bespoke electronic components to a degree, but he'd have to space it out. Anything large or complex, he'd have to assemble manually. Disassembly is easier, but he could still go overboard with it, or take something apart to a degree that he can't fix.
  
  
  • Explanation? Could say he was Ported out and snagged by Anchor while he was mid-teleport. Thus, damage to his powers was caused by interaction between an open portal, Porter radiation, and exposure to unstable dimensional energies while in transit. It's a unique combination of factors that basically sums up to "he got super unlucky."


• Teleportals. Qubit's signature invention is quantum teleportation, allowing him to open portals between any two points on Earth. He controls these with a wrist-worn device. He can also build larger teleporters to open gates between planets, galaxies, and dimensions, or to accommodate objects as large as capital spaceships.
  • Nerfed. None of his teleportal tech works at all.
  
  
  • Explanation? His portals require some consistent frame of reference to function. Being so badly unmoored in spacetime, Anchor lacks that. I'd like to leave open the possibility of him re-developing his teleporters from scratch (again), but it'd have limited utility (e.g. a permanent installation linking two locations) and take a very long time to do (even more so without technokinesis).


• Psionic shielding. After one too many bad encounters with psychics, Qubit decided to invent and install a bunch of psi-shielding nanomachines in his head, because that's reasonable. He's immune to telepathy, mind control, and other psionic attacks, though he can whitelist such interactions on a case-by-case basis (since he also had psychic allies). If a non-corporeal entity tries to force entry and possess him, he can trap that entity and gain full access to their memories (as he did to Modeus), but it's purely defensive. Not nerfed.


• Skills. Qubit's incredible at science, especially quantum physics and all things computer, but he has advanced knowledge in most other scientific fields as well. He's also an interdimensional foodie, excellent cook, and decent gardener.

Inventory:

• Green suit with vest
• Green trenchcoat (reinforced, fire retardant)
• Chunky tablet: A handheld quantum supercomputer, about 9"x12"x2". Contains large amounts of data from his own Earth and the Earth of Mask or Menace. Configured with various general-purpose sensors, inc. radiation, life signs, trace chemicals, atmospheric data, electromagnetic fields, etc. Has lots of engineering-related software, most of which he wrote himself. Also performs general computer functions. He used to reconfigure the hardware as needed, but with his powers compromised, he can't now. Irreplaceable.
• Teleportal watch: Its main function (making teleportals) no longer works. Currently it can tell time, work as a PDA, and project holograms. Irreplaceable.

Anything Else? Thanks to the standard nanites from Mask or Menace, Qubit has the word "VIGILANTE" tattooed inside his left wrist. It's barely visible in direct light, but glows blue in the dark. The nanites have also infiltrated his body to the point where if they shut down, so does his digestive system. It's exactly as pleasant as it sounds.

samples

Network Sample: [ Though Qubit generally prefers text, he's found that for whatever reason, people seem to think he's more sincere when he uses video. So he goes with that - you only get one first impression. ]

Good morning, Anchor. You may have noticed a grocery store, of all things, has appeared just outside the main airlock... Ah. I'm Qubit, by the way, should have led with that. Anyways, I've taken the liberty of scouting the place out, and I have good news and bad news.

Good news - near as I can tell, the food's still fresh. Bad news - that's more than I can say for the customers. If you do go, don't go alone, and be ready to defend yourself. It turns out the place has a bit of an undead problem.

[ He shrugs, as if to say "because of course it does." ]

On the plus side, the radiation levels are rather lower than I expected. I'd still recommend suiting up if you can, but you should be all right provided you don't - aah!!

[ As he was talking, something whirred in the background, and now a laser bolt hits the wall not a foot from his head. Startled, he drops the comm, but his voice can be heard receding in the background. ]

Son of a bi- [ the feed ends. ]

Prose/Brackets Sample: TDM thread