[ metaheroes app ]

Player —

Player Name: Lausanne.
Pronouns: She/Her.
Are you over 18? I sure am.
Contact: blackspire
Current Characters: Fandral.
Who Invited You?: Me!

Character —

Character Name: Marc Spector / Steven Grant.
Character Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Character Age: 37.
Canon Point: Moon Knight, episode 5 (at time of arrival log, episode 5 will be one month old but I'm fine with bumping it back to episode 4 if needed).
Link to History: Here (cw: domestic abuse)
Inventory: Just themselves. :')

Powers —

Skills:

Marc:

Hand-to-Hand Combat. As a former Marine and mercenary, Marc's picked up a variety of fighting skills to aid him when he's weaponless. He's able to hold his own against multiple attackers with just his fists (and a knife if he's lucky enough to get his hands on one).

Gun Handling. Another skill he's acquired from his combat focused background.

Espionage. As per his mercenary career (and his Moon Knight extra-curriculars), Marc knows how to seek out rare things and get around without drawing attention to himself. He also knows good practices to cover his tracks and disappear if needed.

Languages. Marc can speak Arabic, and it's likely that, given the global nature of his occupations, he knows enough of several other languages to get around.

Steven:

Intelligence. While outwardly Steven may seem unassuming and a bit bumbling, his niche interests demonstrate his ability to learn things that may go over the average person's head. He has a knack for knowledge sticking in his mind and then applying it at the right moment.

Egyptology. Steven is highly knowledgeable when it comes to Ancient Egypt. He knows the culture's practices, from rituals to daily living and everything in between. He's able to use this knowledge to locate hidden tombs and navigate through said tombs to seek out hidden items. Steven can also read hieroglyphs.

Languages. Like Marc, Steven is also well-versed in languages. He's fluent in French (he enjoys French poetry), and along with the previously mentioned ability to read ancient hieroglyphs, he can also decipher ancient Macedonian.

Superpowers:

1. The Suit. The suit is like its own power, willed into being as opposed to being thrown on before a fight. It manifests differently depending on who is wearing it. Under Steven, it's a proper three piece suit and supplies him with truncheons to fight with. With Marc, the suit is a bit more classically superhero, featuring a cape that provides not-quite-flight (he can jump to great heights or across distances using the cape to help him glide, but he's unable to actually fly from one point to another). It also equips Marc with two rather sharp crescent-moon shaped blades. Regardless of who is wearing it, the suit is also the conduit for all other powers.

2. Superhuman Athletics. He has highly advanced speed and agility, capable out outrunning (or at least keeping up with) supernatural creatures and using quick reflexes to dodge or deflect. There is also the added skill of acrobatics. While Steven can do this, too, Marc is better at applying this power-set due to his background and having had more practice using them.

3. Superhuman Physiology. As his heroic alter-ego, he has a degree of enhanced strength. While he can't necessarily pick up cars and throw them, he's able to use his strength to exert enough force to do grievous bodily harm to opponents or tear pieces off of vehicles. He is also more durable, able to withstand a lot of damage before it starts to affect him, and he has a stamina level to support this.

4. Regenerative Healing. When hurt while wearing the suit, his body will heal those wounds, including bushing out bullets or anything else that may be stuck inside.

Limitations:

Marc/Steven's powers are only accessible while he's in his suit. Without that, he is entirely vulnerable to all the things regular humans are, having only his regular skills to rely on. While in canon Marc (or Steven) is able to don the suit to heal any injuries sustained, that will not be the case here. Because these powers aren't bestowed by a supernatural patron here, any injury that he may get outside of the suit will have to run a natural healing course and be treated by first aid/doctors/etc.

Personality —

What were your character's most formative experiences?:

Marc: (cw: death, domestic abuse)

1. The death of his brother. Marc's younger brother died in a freak accident that Marc blamed himself for, feeling responsible for not being able to save him (and for putting him in the situation in the first place). This proved to be a pivotal point, as it's what led Marc's mother into drunken, abusive behaviour towards him that ultimately caused Marc to start dissociating. During a particular bad incident with his mother, Marc created the persona of Steven to hide in.

2. Khonshu. On the brink of death following a betrayal, Marc was approached by the god Khonshu. Khonshu promised to bring him back to life if Marc acted as his "Moon Knight" - Khonshu's fist of vengeance against wrongdoers. It's led Marc to do some things he doesn't agree with, but he reluctantly carries on to honour his contract.

3. Layla El-Faouly. Allowing Layla into his life, and marrying her, is a very rare instance of Marc granting himself some happiness. He had a degree of vulnerability with her - sharing his Moon Knight alter ego but not his Dissociative Identity Disorder - and travelled the world with her, even involving her in tasks he was working on for Khonshu. Eventually he decided that he was putting her in danger and cut off ties with her, retreating back into hiding and inflicting unhappiness on himself once more.

4. The death of his mother. Despite everything that happened in his past, Marc returned home when his mother passed away. Even though he didn't go inside for her wake, being in the presence of the house was enough to bring back his years of suppressed trauma, which broke the wall that he'd been able to put up between himself and Steven. This was the beginning of a lot more bleedover between their lives, which eventually led to the two of them "meeting" down the road and forcing Marc to start facing his problems rather than running away from them.

Steven:

1. "Sleepwalking." Steven began to find himself waking up in weird places, or under strange circumstances, and began to believe he had quite an extreme sleeping disorder. He started taking drastic measures to keep himself from doing it, including trying to stay awake as long as possible and using an ankle restraint to keep him chained to his bed. This greatly effected his daily life, making him constantly late for work but also impacting any promise he may have had at a social life (as he said to someone, having an ankle restraint is a bit of a red flag). It generally made him keep more to himself than usual.

2. Meeting Marc. As a result of the bleed-over that began when Marc tried to attend his mother's funeral, Steven inevitably came face-to-face (ish) with his other half. As he learned about Marc being a vigilante for a god, Steven thought at first that he was honestly worse off than just sleepwalking. This is also what got Steven caught up in what Marc was trying to stop, and got Steven to create his own superhero alter ego, Mister Knight. It also gave Steven a chance to feel valued and be useful, something he's likely not experienced much before (especially as his boss at his former job kept putting him down).

3. Learning he's not the original. Steven was surprised to learn that Marc is the original, and that Steven had been the second identity. He realized that all of his memories and his entire life had been essentially false, either entirely made up or carefully doctored by Marc so that Steven could live a happier life. This is really the push that let Steven start to properly come into his own, knowing that he was capable of so much more because he's an extension of Marc and therefore must share similar skills.

What values, morals, and/or philosophies does your character live by, and how are those beliefs demonstrated? What happens when they have to compromise what they believe in?

Marc: Marc is always chasing redemption to ease him of the guilt he feels over his brother. He tries to be good and do the right thing, whether that's joining the Marines or taking great pains to ensure that Steven can live his life without interruption (trying to find a one-finned goldfish, putting up the sleepwalking failsafes again, etc.). This goes against the vigilante actions that Khonshu has him take, which often involves killing or injuring others. Marc, however, keeps doing it because it's a contact and he refuses to dishonour that, which continues to drive him into unhappiness and potentially aids in cracking his already fragile psyche a little more.

Steven: Steven genuinely tries to live his life as positively and optimistically as possible. Even when life is kicking him down, which seems to happen a lot to him, he does his best to maintain his friendly exterior and upbeat attitude (like saying hello/goodbye to coworkers that don't even know his name). While Steven is quite timid, he actually doesn't have any real problems with pointing out when something doesn't seem right by him. In the presence of a dangerous man, Steven asks quite easily how the man thinks killing people for something they'll do in the future is actually morally acceptable. He also isn't afraid to tell Marc to cut the violence, which makes him more willing to face confrontation than Marc.

What is your character afraid of? How does avoiding or preventing these fears influence their actions and decisions?

Marc: He's afraid of ruining more lives because he can't get himself together. He actively avoids dealing with this, choosing instead to run away from his problems. His Dissociative Identity Disorder is clear evidence of this, but it can also be seen in the way that he sends divorce papers to his wife and then just disappears out of her life entirely because he's concerned that Khonshu is going to choose her as Marc's replacement. Deflecting confrontation is a necessary course of action as far as he's concerned, which has led him to a lot of loneliness and self-inflicted unhappiness.

Steven: Steven does not want to be alone. He seeks companionship wherever he can find it easily, which, ironically, usually comes in the form of one-sided conversations - with his fish, with his mother who he only ever communicates with via voicemail, or with his friend who's a living statue and can't reply. He craves connection but it's clear that he also alienates himself to keep people from rejecting him (when he is rejected, it's a rare time we see him lose his constant optimism). He does make attempts to open up to people he likely views as safe, such as a little girl at the museum whom he talks to quite easily, or even Layla (Marc's wife) because he senses that she won't let anything happen to him.

What goals does your character have right now? What do they want, and how do they go about getting it?

Marc wants to return to the way of life he had before. He believes that by serving Khonshu through this final task that the god will release him from service and he'll be able to make his own decisions again. Steven wants to fit in, whether that be as this other persona of Marc's or as his own man again , and with his slowly growing confidence he's starting to make efforts to prove that he's got just as much value as Marc. Ultimately, though, both are coming to realize that Being Normal means coexisting and functioning together rather than separately, and they're figuring out how to work with each other rather than against one another.

Gameplay —

Areas of Interest / Brainstorming: It'll be interesting to play the Man vs. Self conflict. Marc will of course be wary of joining a guild, as he was just in a contract regarding his powers and didn't enjoy it, and he'll want to lean heavily toward unaligned. Steven, however, would see the obvious bonuses of joining the guardian alliance, and would want to use that to convince Marc that Marc can actually be a good person. Also finding how they'll navigate their situation, who they'll tell and how much they'll attempt to hide and how successful that might be.

Beyond that, who can say! I'm down to just see where the wind takes things.

Samples: TDM