Ziggy, the Transformed//Lev "Char" Bondarenko, the Protege

[Moturnach]

ZIGGY
THE TRANSFORMED

HERO NAME: ZIGGY 
REAL NAME: ZIGGY
LOOK: AMBIGUOUS, WHITE, STRANGE EYES, ALIEN FLESH, NO COSTUME 
ABILITIES: TRANSMUTING FLESH, SUPERHUMAN SENSES

HOW POWERS MAKE YOU GROTESQUE:

Once i was a regular axolotl, but now im big, and scary for some reason.

LABELS

DANGER	FREAK	SAVIOR	SUPERIOR	MUNDANE
+1	+3	0	-1	0

CONDITIONS

⬜	AFRAID	-2 to Directly Engage a Threat
⬜	ANGRY	-2 to Comfort or Support or Pierce the Mask
⬜	GUILTY	-2 to Provoke Someone or Assess the Situation
⬜	HOPELESS	-2 to Unleash Your Powers
⬜	INSECURE	-2 to Defend Someone or Reject Others' Influence

BACKSTORY

• WHO WERE YOU BEFORE?

A long time ago i was a pet of the girl named Rachel. I enjoyed my life in the aquarium and Rachel always cared about me, making my life there exciting. I watched for her from inside a lot. How she learn the lessons in school, how she sings. Her singing is very beautiful and she was the best friend for me. But one day aquarium glass was destroyed, and i was flushed in the toilet. I believe Rachel was very upset then.

• WHEN DID YOU CHANGED? WHAT CAUSED IT?

Once i was divided from Rachel, i started to live in city sewers under the town, hunting there for food. One day i found a strange glowing worm in the water and decided to eat it. Mmmm, it was so tasty! But then i became big...and by some reason i started to feel naked, so i gathered myself some clothes and started to investigate the sewers...differently. Like Rachel, i think. I found some abandoned technical room and gathered some stuff there making it into lively room. I think if people outside wasnt afraid by me, id be very happy. Maybe id managed to meet Rachel and we became friends again.

• WHO, OUTSIDE OF THE TEAM, IS HELPING YOU TO UNDERSTAND YOUR NEW BODY?

When the lights in sewer was disabled, i met my other friend, electrician Steve. He wasnt as afraid of me when there was no lights and even thanked me for guidance, but when he fixed the lights, he fall unconcious when he saw me first time, so i brought him to my hideout and putted him down on cushion. When he was awaken, i managed to convince him that i have no plans of making him into a dinner. Why should I? I like human food more. Later we became good friends. He even gave me some books and even was my teacher. I managed to get so many useful things from him. I think he wasnt as afraid of me as many other people and was the first who told me about my abilities and gave advices on how to use them. 

• WHY DONT YOU JUST TRIED TO HIDE YOURSELF AWAY?

Becoming a superhero wasnt my idea, but Steve, however i do like it. Maybe people start being less afraid of me and my powers? I do like people, but they dont like me, so im trying to show that im not evil and helpful for them.

• WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT THE TEAM?

They need someone to rely on, so they can rely on me. I understand their difference from other people more than others. Maybe i feel some similarity towards them.

WHEN OUR TEAM FIRST CAME TOGETHER...
We drew attention and ire from plenty during the fight. One important person in particular now hates and fears us.

WHO IS IT?

RELATIONSHIPS:
_________ comforted you when you were at your lowest

_________ knew you before you changed.

INFLUENCE:
You try not to care what other people think, even if you can’t shut everyone out. Give Influence to one teammate.

MOVES:

Move List

I am not my body	When you take a powerful physical blow, you may roll as if you had two fewer conditions marked. If you do, on a 10+ you must choose to lose control of yourself in a terrible way.
Not human enough	When you directly engage a threat in a terrifying fashion, mark a condition to choose an additional option, even on a miss.
Unstoppable	When you smash your way through scenery to get to or away from something, roll + Danger. On a hit, the world breaks before you, and you get what you want. On a 7-9, choose one: mark a condition, leave something behind, or take something with you. On a miss, you smash through, but leave devastation in your wake or wind up somewhere worse, GM’s choice.
Coming for you	When you mark a condition, take +1 forward against the person you most blame for causing it.
Wish I could be	When you comfort or support someone, if you tell them what you most envy about them, you can roll + Freak instead of + Mundane.
Be the monster	When you frighten, intimidate, or cow others with your monstrous form, roll + Freak. On a hit, they are thrown off and make themselves vulnerable to you, or they flee. On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, choose two. you frighten others you had not intended to scare you hurt someone or break something you shouldn’t have you feel like more of a monster afterward; mark a condition (GM’s choice) On a miss, they react with violence, hatred, and paranoia, and you suffer the brunt of it.

 

 

MOMENT OF TRUTH:
It’s so easy to forget that you’re not your body, and you’re not the voice in your head—you’re both. Be the monster, and save them anyway. Smash down walls, and speak softly. Because when you embrace it, you can do anything. Of course, putting on a display like this is sure to rile up those who see only the monster when they look at you…

 

TEAM MOVES:

When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, clear one condition if they treat you like a perfectly normal person and mark potential if they praise your power or abilities.

When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, ask them if they think you’re losing or gaining humanity. If they say losing, mark a condition and mark potential. If they say gaining, clear a condition and shift Mundane up and any other Label down.

POTENTIAL:
⬜  ⬜  ⬜  ⬜  ⬜
Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.

ADVANCEMENT:
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. When you've taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below the line.

⬜ Take another move from your playbook
⬜ Take another move from your playbook
⬜ Take a move from another playbook
⬜ Take a doom, doomtrack, and doomsigns from the Doomed playbook
⬜ Someone permanently loses influence over you, add +1 to a Label
⬜ Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label
⬜ Unlock your Moment of Truth
⬜ Mutate further and reveal another two new abilities (chosen from any playbook)

---

⬜ Unlock your Moment of Truth
⬜ Change playbooks
⬜ Take an adult move
⬜ Take an adult move
⬜ Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice
⬜ Retire from the life or become a paragon of the city
 

---

What kind of player are you?
Im just a newcomer with wild imagination, would like to experiment a lot, quite curious about interactions with others, would like something new.

Why are you excited for this game?
Superheroes is always cool to play arond, so i decided to apply. Also, since its my potential first game, i want also to try how im good in roleplaying and interactions with the imaginary world around, other players and GM.

What are your expectations for this game?
I expect to get some good story. I never had something like this, so id imagine it like a memorable story that i might tell about to others, about getting fun together. I also watch around other players a lot, so i expect something that would make me feel like a part of team, not just "its your turn now" kind of thing.

Why do you think you would be a good fit for this game?
I think that event when villain pretend to be a good person which make party involved in his web of mastermindery would be cool enough. Like some sort of "everything you did before was for evil, you did evil things without even expecting that, and now villain mocking you for being stupid", and team now trying to undo their deeds dealing with villain on top of that. I dont mind being tricked, because i think its cool way to make villain just more than BBEG, you have bonds, and you probably will try to fight a villain that you actually care about in quite different way than regular bad guy doing evil things. Or it could be a innocent person haunted by evil power or brainwashed hero, something that team actually care about.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Moturnach (see edit history)

[Moturnach]

CHAR
THE PROTEGE

HERO NAME: CHAR
REAL NAME: LEV BONDARENKO
LOOK: MAN, WHITE, ATHLETIC BODY, FASHIONABLE CLOTHES, COLOURFUL COSTUME

Look

ABILITIES: 

You are someone’s protégé. Your powers largely mimic theirs, but each of you is in some way unique. Pick one ability you both share and one ability for each of you that is uniquely yours.

Shared Ability: IMPOSSIBLE FIGHTING SKILLS

Your Own Ability: POWER MIMICRY

Your Mentor's Ability: WEAPONS AND GADGETS

MENTOR

Gamera, Mentor

You have a mentor, someone who’s taught you, trained you, given you aid, or raised you up. Someone who might have confined you a bit too rigidly to a single path. Which Label do they embody, and which do they deny?

Embodies: DANGER

Denies: SAVIOR

LABELS

DANGER	FREAK	SAVIOR	SUPERIOR	MUNDANE
1	0	1	2	0

CONDITIONS

⬜	AFRAID	-2 to Directly Engage a Threat
⬜	ANGRY	-2 to Comfort or Support or Pierce the Mask
⬜	GUILTY	-2 to Provoke Someone or Assess the Situation
⬜	HOPELESS	-2 to Unleash Your Powers
⬜	INSECURE	-2 to Defend Someone or Reject Others' Influence

BACKSTORY

• HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET YOUR MENTOR?

In short, i was an orphan, and Gamera needed someone formidable to follow her path. How to say that, she is very angry towards anyone who break the rules, heroes and villains alike. The reason she was in action for a while was her incredible power to draw powers from videogames. And thats so far is probably the most effective and flexible way to deal with anyone. And no, she isnt your average game assassin or something. She have a much wider array of abilities including skills from literally any game characters. She can even turn into a friggin pixel dragon from Dungeons of Damned II. Or became invisible, disappearing into pile of pixels. Or using various pixel weaponry. You know, pixel swords is surprisingly good weapons, especially if its a +99 enchanted Vortex Blade form Vortex Invaders or something like that. And thats the only ones im aware about. So, her possibilities is truly limitless. It may sound cool, but she literally weaponized videogames, making its own fighting style using videogame characters skills. Imagine something like neon-y looking assassin engulfed in acid-like light, and using different stuff from videogames to deal with threats, and you get the thing.

When she appeared in my life, i thought that she is cool and flashy, but now i feel that her vigilantism is rather questionable. Like she is not a hero i originally thought, but villain.

• WHEN AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO TRAIN WITH THEM?

Then, i thought that being chosen by someone as cool as Gamera would be my ticket towards having relatively normal life with loving parent, but oh hell how i was wrong about her, although i still decided to stick with her, just because she looked like person who may get some help and family relations. But no, she wasnt my loving mother. She was cold with me, and i didnt know her real name or even face yet i feel that i somehow important for her. Sometimes I think that she cares for me, sometimes i think that im just imagining it. Im not entirely sure if my surname is real. Why she behaves herself with me like that?

• WHY THE DID AGREE TO TRAIN YOU?

Somehow she selected me out of the bunch of children in the orphanage without any mistake, as she was knew what she is looking for. For the last moment i thought that she will pick my friend Billy, because he was better than me at everything. I wasnt particularly strong or something, yet i had a hidden gift similar to the one of Gamera, but in a bit different form. I beleive her game powers have some connection with devices she is using, because she literally can open a portals to personal gaming hell where people she punish is sent to atone for their sins, usually for years. Its like prison, but much worse. I cant do that, yet i can simply mimic abilities from games i played at least couple of times. But now i hate playing videogames, because to ensure that i will perfect the abilities, she often forced me to play endlessly. And no, its not the room with videogame console, hell no. Its her gaming hell i mentioned before. Something like a very cruel game with no good ending and lots of threats. During such sessions i was nearly driven insane, yet i somehow managed to endure it. Maybe thats the reason, because otherwise i have no idea what is real, and what is Gamera trying to show me as real. 

• WHO ELSE, OUTSIDE OF TEAM KNOWS ABOUT YOUR TRAINING?

My only friend from my former life, Billy. I prefer not to talk with him about Gamera at all, to protect him form possible consequences. I believe he is a good friend, because he jealous that i have Gamera that cares about me. How id wish to explain him how wrong is he...

• WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT TEAM?

Maybe i feel that its the way for me to be a better hero than merciless vigilante, an enemy for everyone? Or maybe i just want to feel myself a kid, not a supersoldier on permanent training schedule. I feel like relying on someone isnt as bad as Gamera said to me. Or I rather want to prove Gamera that she is wrong, but not me. I believe, she may even think of me as traitor, who failed her hopes. Enemy. Disgrace. However i still feel like it would be wrong to treat her in the same way. She is still my only resemblance of family i have, and i believe team will have a lot of issues because of my decisions, but its my burden to carry, not their. 
WHEN OUR TEAM FIRST CAME TOGETHER...
We stuck together after all was said and done.

WHY? HOW'D WE KEEP IN CONTACT?

 

RELATIONSHIPS:

You and _______ teamed up a few times before the rest of you got together.

Your mentor is cautious; they asked you to keep an eye on________.

INFLUENCE:

Choose your demeanor: PLAYFUL

 

If you choose playful, give Influence to two teammates.

If you choose business, give Influence to no teammates.

INFLUENCE NOTES:

 

MOVES:

Move List

Been reading the files	You’ve learned about the superhuman world through your mentor’s resources. When you first encounter an important superpowered phenomenon (your call), roll + Superior. On a hit, tell the team one important detail you’ve learned from your studies. The GM will tell you what, if anything, seems different from what you remember. On a 10+, ask the GM a follow-up question; they will answer it honestly. On a miss, the situation is well outside your base of knowledge; the GM will tell you why.
Captain	When you enter battle as a team, add an extra Team to the pool and carry +1 forward if you are the leader.
Venting frustration	When you directly engage while you are Angry, you can roll + the Label your mentor denies and clear Angry.
Fireside chat	When you seek advice from your mentor, roll + the Label they embody. On a hit they will tell you what to do. On a 10+, mark potential if you follow their advice, and take +1 ongoing to follow through. On a 7-9, you get +1 forward to see it through if you do it their way. On a miss, they don’t have time for you because something big has gone down; mark a condition, GM’s choice.
Be mindful of your surroundings	When you assess the situation before entering into a fight, you may ask one additional question, even on a miss.
Heroic tradition	When you give someone the advice that you think your mentor would give, you can roll + the Label your mentor embodies to comfort or support someone, instead of rolling + Mundane.

 

MENTOR'S RESOURCES:

Choose up to three resources that your mentor gave you and the team:

A hidden base, a vehicle, a supercomputer, communicators, surveillance equipment, false identities, badges of authority, a chem lab, a med lab, a teleportal, a weapon of last resort, security systems, simple robots.

MOMENT OF TRUTH:
The moment that you show who you really are: your mentor, or something different. You can do whatever your mentor could do and more. You can do the incredible, even the things they always failed to accomplish. Of course, they’re not going to see you the same way, no matter which path you choose…

TEAM MOVES:

When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them if you’ve been a good leader or effective teammate. If they say yes, your mentor loses Influence over you and you mark potential. If they say no, your mentor gains Influence over you, and you take +1 forward on using the Label your mentor embodies.

When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, tell them a secret about your mentor (including your feelings towards them). Give them Influence over you and add a Team to the pool.

POTENTIAL:
⬜  ⬜  ⬜  ⬜  ⬜
Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.

ADVANCEMENT:
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. When you've taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below the line.

⬜ Take another move from your playbook
⬜ Take another move from your playbook
⬜ Take a move from another playbook
⬜ Someone permanently loses influence over you, add +1 to a Label
⬜ Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label
⬜ Unlock your Moment of Truth
⬜ Add +2 to the Label your mentor embodies or denies
⬜ Choose up to four more resources from your mentor

---

⬜ Unlock your Moment of Truth
⬜ Change playbooks
⬜ Take an adult move
⬜ Take an adult move
⬜ Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice
⬜ Retire from the life or become a paragon of the city
 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Moturnach (see edit history)

[Morphling]

So I gave this a lot of thought and I decided I'm not going to review your application at this time. The core drama of the Transformed playbook is about someone human who has been altered into something else and pretty much lost everything, including a semblance of a normal life. I just don't see that replicated here. If you were to edit your application in a way that would sell me on that drama and convince me that it is happening, I would be happy to give your application another look.

[Moturnach]

Generally speaking, i dont see any issue here. He really want to have school and friends just because he never had it. He understands its value because living in sewers alone is quite boring thing by itself, so id say having something that he never had like school and stuff adds up a lot value, especially considering the fact that he lacks social interaction while being a curious teenager. I made him an axolotl not because i wanted to avoid drama, its actually opposite. Its like "I dont get the point of why the school is boring, maybe because i was strucked in sewers for years without anyone to speak with? I think school should be as important for you as it important for me. Have you ever had your arm or leg broken? Imagine this, but for ethernity. Im probably living in hell. Hell of boredom."

So there is a plenty of drama, because he rather understand a real value of friends because he didnt have many, and he even wanted to have parents. Just it have maybe even higher value for Ziggy because he never had average teenager benefits of regular human. Imagine looking after someone from shadows thinking about "Its probably cool to walk the streets with someone" or even "Wish i had a part time job, so i could buy some game or comic book."

From TMNT perspective, turtles were siblings, and they had a father-teacher Splinter. Ziggy doesnt have anything of it, so it doesnt mean that sticking alone in sewers is cool for him. He rather feel lonely and abandoned, plus on top of that he is afraid to scare someone, so thats why he may pretend to be an object using his transmuting abilities, but he still unable to do what he wants in this form either.

Again, if the problem is just because he need to have a parents for some villain activities, i can make him human, but from my point of view, its quite a lot of drama in his life even without being one. The fact that he never had something doesnt mean he doesnt understand the real value of being human. Considering the fact that he will end up being Rapunzel even being a human, the core part of character will not change much, i just slightly alter first two questions changing Rachel to school friend, adding a parents(slightly altering relations with Steve), and his transformation to one via some alien tech, but in the end he will end up in exactly the same situation for the rest of backstory, and will have exactly the same personality as i originally planned.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Moturnach (see edit history)

[Morphling]

Some things I wouldn't mind seeing developed further:

What was the worst incident of Ziggy being treated with fear and disgust? How did it affect him?

What drives Ziggy's desire to be human? What does he envy most in humans? How does he cope with his inhumanity?

What kind of progress has Steve made in helping to understand Ziggy's new body? How did he convince Ziggy to be a hero? What kind of hero does he want Ziggy to be?

Has Ziggy managed to reconnect with Rachel? Does he even want to? What kind of hero does he think she wants him to be?

All in all, solid effort. I would like to see what more you can come up with.

[Moturnach]

What was the worst incident of Ziggy being treated with fear and disgust? How did it affect him?

Probably, the first attempt to interact with two children, boy and girl playing in the blind alley. Ziggy tried to ask them if he can join their game, but it ended up being a disaster. Children crying ran away form him in such primal fear that Ziggy was shocked by their reaction. He remembered their faces for whole life, twisted with fear, disgust and xenophobia. But that wasnt the end of the story. Both kids suffered a mental trauma and had to be treated by psychologist for couple of years. Of course, Ziggy was aware about their fate experiencing crippling depression state for a while. 

Since then he is very careful towards revealing himself to others, so he is trying to use darkness, fog and other circumstances that obstruct him from others to speak with someone. However he is entirely different around person who accepted him. He is trying to look very happy even if he isnt, and he probably looks very optimistic on surface, but ones who may know him a bit deeper may reveal that he isnt as happy as he looks.

 What drives Ziggy's desire to be human? What does he envy most in humans? How does he cope with his inhumanity?

The biggest reason why he wants to be human is probably family. In Ziggy mind it looks somewhat similar to cereal ad family. He often tries to imagine how he would be liked by his family as much as this happy child surrounded by loving parents. Sometimes he think however about orphanage as well, what are the chances that he will be adopted. That is usually days when he is in especially bad mood. Another valuable reason, is to just being able to do regular human things like picnic in the park or something. If someone would organise him such event, he would be very happy and probably memorize this event.

He envy many things that other humans may consider as trivial, such as having own room or being able to get something new from his pocket money, so id say he envy the time the most. Time that he spends in sewer that instead could be used to get education( He want to be either a medic or biologist, but interested in both) or time spend on some cool stuff that he cannot do by himself like playing football or something like that. He can duplicate himself, but its like a self-conversation, which isnt a solution for this, so if he would offered an opportunity he would gladly accept one. Accepting him as a student of some school or university would be probably like a miracle for him.

By my own idea, his abilities based on the fact that he can devour things to fuel his abilities. He can technically mend some simple things, but he need to devour every piece of broken vase to replicate a perfect copy of it or turn into item that he devoured or replicate some properties(metal blade, stone shield, bone ammunition, etc or some animal properties like enchanced sense, wings, or stinger on tail for example, but not able to shapeshift into animals.). He cannot mend or replicate difficult machinery like guns or computers, as well as cannot duplicate living things other than perfect copy of himself. Since that copy also need to be maintained as same as himself in food/water terms, he uses this ability only when he have enough resources to feed himself and Ziggy-2(and probably other numerical Ziggies he manage to create).

Also, he can spit acid he uses to digest something offensively to melt some obstacle, but will use it nearly exclusively to melt something like bars or walls or versus non-living objects like robots and when there is no risk to melt someone alive. 

His final ability, when he devour something, he grows bigger based on the mass of devoured object( and can use excess mass for his abilities), gradually becoming to look similarly to mini-Godzilla but axolotl the bigger he gets, but its temporary, plus the bigger he gets, the harder is to maintain the form, so he need constantly devour something that he is able to chew to maintain this state, such as tires, mailboxes, probably bycicles or small cars or that cool looking donuts on top of some cafe, which looks like cool ability, but definitely not for Ziggy, and it comes for a huge price. Also Ziggy feels like this form is horrible manifestation of all his fears and horrors about himself, so he will avoid using this ability as long as possible, plus on top of that he will need some support since he will feel himself utterly crushed morally afterwards, especially if that would be revealed via news to the whole city. Being a huge beast able to throw stuff and chewing cars might be a good thing strategically, but for Ziggy even a slightest idea of being used like this is utterly disgusting and immoral.

For the reason above, he hates chewing anything that is not a normal food unless he absolutely need to. Its like bargain of humanity vs power. Not necessarily evil, but Ziggy thinks so.

What kind of progress has Steve made in helping to understand Ziggy's new body? How did he convince Ziggy to be a hero? What kind of hero does he want Ziggy to be?

Steve is rather curious about Ziggy, and see him in similar way as his son(however Ziggy is yet didnt realized that). As for himself, Steve story isnt quite special, he lived with her wife Helen a happy life, however Helen died from cancer quite a long time ago, so Steve didnt managed to get any kids and became a loner. Sometimes he thought about commiting a suicide to join his wife, but yet something managed to hold him on the last step before death. That was before he met Ziggy. Axolotl teenager, without knowing that, became the one that old man lacks before, his son. But since he understand what Ziggy may feel, he decided to let Ziggy grow enough to be ready for this. So basically thats their wierd family relations.

He never tried to force something from Ziggy, simply giving him a helping hand when he is in doubt. He occasianally investigated about Ziggy ability when he restored a broken lightbulb glass, and later he encouraged him to experiment and develop his abilities. He didnt saw this ability as something monstrous, but Ziggy did, because he hid the fact of how his ability makes him grow in size from Steve, because he surely decided to avoid Steve looking him like this. His ability to spit acid he investigated later by himself.

Steve just get the point that Ziggy is struggling to find a fitting place for himself in the world, so he carefully asked Ziggy about what he wants to achieve. He thought a lot about Ziggy words about being less scary towards other people, and decided that he might become hero. At first, Ziggy wasnt too enthusiastic about Steves idea about being hero, but later he thought that being a shadow hero and helping others without revealing himself might be great idea. Steve wanted for Ziggy to be less afraid of himself and his abilities, but Ziggy yet did not understood his desire, thinking that this is a way to encourage him.

Has Ziggy managed to reconnect with Rachel? Does he even want to? What kind of hero does he think she wants him to be?

No, he didnt managed to, rather because of fear being monster in eyes of Rachel specifically. If thats ever happened, he will have a hard times, because thats someone that is so precious for him that his reality would be torn apart if she will be afraid of Ziggy. So he want to meet her and at the same time afraid of the worst possible scenario. Rachel is probably wanted to be saved by some cool superhero with fancy costume and superpowers, so he would be very surprised by Ziggy appearance. Assuming she is not afraid of him, she probably wanted him to be less sad about himself, because he is not a monster, but a good friend for her and she is feeling bad about seeng him so overburdened with sadness.

Rachel is a average school girl which have singing talent, so she is actively participating in different class performances. Ziggy personally thinks she is cute.

Her dream is to become real musical actress, being constantly preparing herself for another spectacle, so she often seen memorising or talking some speech from her roles in attemts to master it, or singing some songs.

 

P.S. Added some minor details here and there in addition to questions. If you feel that Ziggy abilities I described require some tweaks, im totally fine about it, its rather minor details.

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Moturnach (see edit history)

[Morphling]

Some things I wouldn't mind seeing developed further:

How was Gamera captured by the Tangee? How long has it been? How does Char feel about rescuing her? What would he give up to do it?

How does Char best live up to his mentor's expectations? In what way does he disappoint her the most? What kind of hero does she want him to be?

How did Char keep in touch with Billy? Why has their friendship endured for so long? What kind of hero does Billy want him to be?

All in all, solid effort. I would like to see what more you can come up with.

[Moturnach]

How was Gamera captured by the Tangee? How long has it been? How does Char feel about rescuing her? What would he give up to do it?

Tangee used the simplest method to draw her attention - a living bait, another prisoner of their, villain named Buster. As you can guess from its villain name , he gained enough trouble to draw attention of Gamera, and later she was captured by their ambush. It was around three years ago. Since Gamera had sort of backup plan, Lev had more than enough money to go to literally any school he wanted and buy everything he wanted, however he was rather conservative with her funds and was spending the money accordingly.

Char from one hand want to rescue her, but on the other hand he know that she probably wont be very happy about the fact that he sticked to the team, so he will carefully ask others, explaining the situation and possible workarounds before saving her. He is not afraid of her, rather afraid of the fact that he is not a match for her power, even considering the fact that Gamera uses older games(around a 20-30 years older) than Char, usually recognizable by clearly visible pixel particles(Char games is closer to reality, if this term could be applicable to a videogame stuff). Char believe that its due to some sentimental value rather than inability to learn them. So probably he will look other ways to convince her, however he will still protect other teammates from her if the peaceful solution is impossible.

Its better to say what he will not give up. Thats his team, his friend Billy and innocents. Other than that, he is ready to pay the price, believing that he will manage to reason Gamera. And maybe sometimes they will became just a mother and son, like Lev always wanted to.

How does Char best live up to his mentor's expectations? In what way does he disappoint her the most? What kind of hero does she want him to be?

Before she went missing, Gamera was very proud of him just because he trusted her, even despite she was literally torturing him with various exercises that could break body and mind. She is still believes that he is perfect vigilante that doesnt require any teammates, so she will ensure that she show Char how miserable and rule-breaking they are. She will make them unworthy of Char and his destiny. Together with all this she will give reasonable advices about what the particular person did wrong, how to fix that and etc., so technically she may change her mind if team manage to pass her trials. She might be a good mentor if she didnt had such awful personality.

The biggest disappointment of Gamera in Char is the urge to protect others. Regardless of challenges she gave to Char, he havent gave up this disadvantage. However, Gamera thinks that either she will manage to fix it, or Char will face a grim reality once or twice and give up. Gamera see relationship with others as a way to affect herself, so she thinks about friendly connections as weakness. Char thinks that she may hide some trauma acting like this.

Gamera see Char as vigilante  that one day probably surpass her in her job, so she still have a lot of expectations towards him. If he gave up his friendliness and desire to protect others, he wouldve been perfect protege, yet she dont want to force or brainwash him in any way, believing that he had to arrive to this decision by himself. But sometimes she doesnt mind to show him the right direction.

How did Char keep in touch with Billy? Why has their friendship endured for so long? What kind of hero does Billy want him to be?

Since Lev and Billy is almost as brothers, they are very close friends. Lev was often protected by Billy when he was in orphanage, so Lev feel a mix of appreciation and gratitude towards him. Also Billy is a valuable piece that didnt let Lev fall apart under hard trainings of her mentor. Shortly after he gained some pocket cash from Gamera, he immediately bought his friend a phone, and they often having chat through either call or video if they just cant go somewhere together.

Billy wants Lev to be strong enough to protect others, without giving up on everyone, so despite Lev wants to meet Gamera's expectation, he also want to meat Billy's expectations as well. Also Billy believes that Lev might be a good leader, but Lev isnt a huge fan of this idea, because he thinks that he doesnt deserve to be the leader.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Moturnach (see edit history)