Anastasia Montague, Socialite/Reality Duplicator

[TheFred]

Anastasia Montague

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https://www.artstation.com/artwork/03Q8vG

BASICS Name: Anastasia Montague Supervillain Name: Nope. What am I, twelve? Superpowers: Reality Manipulation, Duplication Tactical Roles: Flex, Intelligence Concept Role: Charmer   OFFENSES Initiative +? List common moves, attack bonus and saves here

 

Origins

Anastasia avoids talking about her childhood, an unglamorous past quite unlike the image she tries to portray. Born Anne Decker to a mother who soon became single, she was largely left to her own devices. The other kids at school were either bad influences, bullies who made fun of her for being poor, or both, and she spent a lot of her time reading or playing with only her imaginary friends. Her mother might have been more concerned, but she was too focused on other things; it wasn't that she didn't care, but she didn't know how to cope, and between working two jobs she spent most of her time on bad boyfriends and too much drink.

As a teenager, Anne began to crave a better life and, realising that she could make money just by selling things that weren’t worth that much, she began wheeling, dealing, and hustling. Sometimes she was just buying and selling; other times it was a pure scam. When she got a little older she and her then boyfriend took to gatecrashing corporate functions and posh parties and pickpocketing whilst they were there, something which only served to give Anne a taste of the fancy life she craved.

It was also when Anne first came face to face with... herself. Or at least, a version of herself. Anne couldn't explain how, or why, but she realised that she had the power to create almost-doppelgangers, summoning potential selves from other universes. Whether these were real, fully-fledged Annes who thought they were the only one or just projections of her own possibilities, she doesn't know, and has never truly cared to ponder - but with the aid of her small crew of clones, she was able to take her small-time criminal enterprises up a level.

Having always hated her old self and lower-class background, Anne decided that this was the perfect time to reinvent herself. She created a whole new identity, with a new name ("Anastasia" sounding like a much fancier version of "Anne" with its depressing E), and set herself up as a criminal mastermind and fixer. She doesn't think of herself a supervillain; she's not about to put on a mask and cape or shoot up any banks, she's just looking to secure the lifestyle that she's always wanted - whether legally or (more likely) not.

Personality

Anastasia is a bit of a charmer; smooth, elegant and composed, she knows how to make small talk and move in elite social circles. She's even managed to cultivate a bit of that haughty, superiority-complex attitude that says she's looking down on most of the people around her all the time.

Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you find... not the true Anastasia, that's buried deeper, but someone for whom all those airs and graces are a means to an end as much as an end in and of themselves. Anastasia is a crook, through and through, and whilst she might have reimagined herself as a high-class crook (well, isn't that what "high class" is?) she's still always looking for an angle.

 

Powers

Power Name	Effect	Extras	Descriptors
Endless Possibilities 48 CP	Summon: 8 ranks [2/rank]	Heroic [+2/rank] Multiple Minions (2) [+2/rank] Variable Type (General) [+1/rank] Slow [-1/rank]?	Reality
Reality Manipulation 7 CP	Luck Control: 1 rank (force others to reroll) [3/rank]	Luck x4 [+4 CP]	Reality
Sticky Fingers 4 CP	Enhanced Skill (Sleight of Hand): 12 ranks [1/2 ranks]	Limited: Pickpocketing Only [-1/rank] Permanent [+0/rank]	Training

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anastasia's powers warp the very fabric of reality, allowing glimpses into what could have happened. Primarily, this manifests as her ability to conjure duplicates of herself... duplicates, but from other realities, who lived different lives. Though they all look and act similar, each is a little different - and many have skills that she lacks.

 

Abilities

Strength: -1

Stamina: 2

Dexterity: 0

Agility: 0

Fighting: 0

Intellect: 0

Awareness: 0

Presence: 2

Total: 6 CP

 

Skills

SKILL	RANKS	BONUS
Acrobatics	4	+6
Deception	16	+18
Insight	4	+4
Perception	8	+8
Persuasion	16	+18
Ranged Combat (Taser)	16	+18
Sleight of Hand	6	+6
-- pickpocketing	18	+18
Stealth	10	+10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Cost: 40 CP

 

Advantages

Defensive Roll x6
Benefit (Fake Identity)
Benefit (Wealth)
Attractive
Connected
Fascinate (Persuasion)
Taunt
Equipment x1?

Total Cost: 13 CP

 

Complications

Motivation: Greed - Anastasia has always craved the finer things in life, and money is pretty much the only thing that really drives her.

Motivation: Thrills - Whilst money is what makes Anastasia do things, she can't say she doesn't enjoy a good hustle for its own sake, too. She might not run a scam if there isn't a good payoff, but so long as the cash is there she'll take any opportunity to have a little fun along the way.

Complication: Power Malfunction - Anastasia's powers are significant, but she's never bothered to understand them fully... and very occasionally they go wrong in weird and unpredictable ways. Most likely this could mean summoning the wrong sort of double, but when reality is on the line, anything is possible.

Complication: Evil Twin - Somehow, Anastasia has ended up with at least one rogue double on the loose. Whether this was due to her powers going wrong, or it's an alternative Ana who used her powers to travel her from an alternative dimension, she can't say - but the clone has caused no end of trouble. Whilst she might not be working actively against Anastasia, this alt-Anastasia is definitely more rival than ally - and often causes chaos and confusion merely by existing as others blame one for the others' antics.

Complication: Secret Past - It's not going to kill her to have it get out, but the snobby Anastasia really doesn't want people to know about her background or her working-class mother.

Edited September 11, 2023 by TheFred (see edit history)

[TheFred]

Tech Geek Anne
Bullied at school and largely ignored by her mother, Anne spent most of her time playing video games or hanging out with her imaginary friends. When she got older she realised she could make money from hustling, eventually graduating to more complex scams and identity fraud. She found that computers were a good way to take advantage of people - cracking weak passwords, sending scam emails, and it wasn’t long before she’d gotten into proper hacking. Security simply seemed to give way before Anne as if she had some sort of reality-warping superpower, making her one of the most notorious hackers on the dark web.

Anne the fixer
Anne didn’t have a lot of friends at school, and got in a lot of fights. When she got older she realised she could make money from hustling, and soon found herself getting involved in a lot of petty theft. It wasn’t long before she was part of a gang, graduating to ever more serious crimes. Anne, however, had always craved a better life, so decided it was time to take matters into her own hands; one bloody coup later and she’d reinvented herself as the town’s newest crime boss.

 

Martial Arts Ana
Anne’s mother spent most of her time on alcohol and bad boyfriends, and didn’t seem to notice - or care - when Anne got into wheeling, dealing, and hustling. When one of those boyfriends made a pass at Anne, though, the then-teenager decided she’d had enough and that she was moving out. She also took a self-defence class, so that if anything similar should happen again she wouldn’t be forced to brain a lowlife assailant with a telephone. Surprisingly, she enjoyed it so much that she took up martial arts full time. After reinventing herself as “Anastasia Montague” (finally losing the miserable E!) she became something of a criminal mastermind, orchestrating elaborate heists which often involved daring feats of cat burglary that Ana would pull off herself.

Edited September 10, 2023 by TheFred (see edit history)

[TheFred]

Notes

This character was actually inspired by that picture; the two people in it obviously look quite similar, and even have the same earrings, which made me think of alternative reality alter egos.

Mechanics aren’t quite final because I was still waiting on an answer about the Summon but should just be a bit of tweaking one way or another.

I was planning on creating some sample alter-egos (though if Slow is OK, they only have to be settled on once per event anyway).

Edited September 11, 2023 by TheFred (see edit history)