Alec, born Jean-Paul Vasil and known as Regent in costume, is the son of Nikos Vasil, and a member of the Undersiders.
Personality
Regent is generally far more amoral than most of the Undersiders due to his upbringing.[5] He does however care for them; when Taylor asked the team not to get revenge on her tormentors, Regent went against this while controlling her tormentor's body with his power. Even though he didn't care, he felt he ought to as Skitter's teammate.[6] The action ultimately resulted in Sophia breaking probation and getting sent to juvenile detention.
Generally Alec is passive-aggressive when it comes to conflict, making wry comments behind the scenes while his friends try to figure out a problem. However, this does not mean Regent could not contribute to the Undersiders' planning. He is noticeably perceptive and astute, but he is largely driven by pleasure seeking. As a consequence, he does not try to keep fit and generally does not apply himself to a task without prompting.
Regent is best described as "a straight-up hedonist"[7] and is bisexual, showing no preference in gender for his partners.[8][9]
Relationships
Given his long-term exposure to his father's power, the extent to which Alec can have relationships with people is an open question.
Family
Largely dismissive of his family, having made the choice to disassociate himself from them.[10]
He did not appreciate the lengths his father tried to push him to.
He displayed no qualms about killing his sister or keeping her in indefinite imprisonment.
Undersiders
Gets along with his teammates but is very good friends with Imp. Taylor had no idea what their relationship actually was.[11] Imp considered their relationship to be an equal partnership that was destined to rule the world.[12] Whether or not their relationship was romantic is an open question, given each of their approaches to life.
He was defensive of his team's safety and berated Shadow Stalker for trying to kill Skitter.[13]
Appearance
In his civilian guise, Alec is described as more pretty than handsome, with a triangular face, light blue eyes, and black curly hair.[14] He's described as having a build more like a dancer than a bodybuilder.[15] He wears expensive if not particularly attention-grabbing clothing, preferring to buy new clothes rather than wash something and wear it a second time. He makes a habit of wearing white.
In costume, Alec wears a white mask and renaissance-era clothing, with a silver coronet atop his head.[16][15] He wears a white, ruffled shirt and skintight leggings that are tucked into knee-high boots. His mask resembles a Venetian mask, albeit less decorated and done up.[15] The mask has a hard exterior, with interior padding that conforms to his face. Only the mouth region is unpadded, allowing him to talk without being muffled.[17] The mouth of the mask is frozen in a perpetual half-smile.[18]
He wields a scepter topped by a crowned orb. Two electrodes are built into the tines, enabling the scepter to act as a taser.[17]
Abilities and Powers
Twitching
On a surface level, Alec has the ability to trigger involuntary, body part-specific spasms and reflexes in individuals within his line of sight.[5] He frequently makes an accompanying gesture with his hand or fingers when inducing a spasm, though he has been shown to use the movement of his neck as well.[19][20] Likely, this means that spasms caused by his power need to be accompanied by a corresponding movement from Alec.
Alec's manipulations are seemingly limited to the voluntary muscular system.[16] He can force a person's gag reflex, but requires an accompanying pain stimulus to properly debilitate or induce vomiting.[21][22] Usages of his power include making someone fall over mid-step, drop something, lose their sense of balance, or pull the trigger on a gun.[23] In the Undersiders, he mainly used this power to trip up his opponents in battle before incapacitating them with the taser hidden inside his scepter. He is shown to be able to force more precise movements, such as swiveling up his target's gun arm to make them shoot themselves.[20] He is also able to prevent someone from gripping their firearm.[19]
Alec's power is able to be used on multiple targets in quick succession, as shown when he swept his arm toward a group of gunmen, forcing them all to fire their guns.[24] Excessive usage of his power in a short period of time causes it to "backfire" on him, causing intensely painful cramps and spasms in the corresponding muscle.[25] Using his power on the nervous system of the fetus creature in Dragon's suit also seemed to risk backfiring. It is unclear whether this is because Alec was controlling Shadow Stalker at the same time, because the nervous system was too alien, or a combination of both.[26]
While not confirmed to have "nerve sight", Alec is able to feel out nervous systems by attempting to use his power on things. He was able to detect a nervous system when attempting to use his power on one of Dragon's suits, indicating that he does not need line of sight for detection alone, though the material barrier between him and the nervous system impeded the usage of his power.[26]
Hijacking
The true purpose of Alec's "spasms" are to decode the nervous systems of his victims.[5] If given enough time—which, with a restrained subject, can range from 15 minutes to 3 hours depending on the individual—Alec can assume total control over a target's body.[27] He does this by using his power to map a person's nervous system to his own, taking over one body part at a time. As such, the more similar a target's physiology is to Alec's, the easier he can take over and control them. This means that Alec is unable to target non-human subjects, and would likely have a harder time with human targets that possess altered physiology.[28]
Once Alec has enthralled someone, he has access to all of the thrall's senses and is able to feel their emotions. When controlling Shadow Stalker, he describes the experience of her fear as "thrilling in the same way a fantastic scary movie was, with the detail and the immersion cranked up to eleven."[29] He feels pain from his thralls, but it is distant and not usually enough to affect him.[30] While Alec cannot directly access a thrall's mind and thoughts, he is able to deduce information from involuntary bodily reactions, emotions, and muscle memory.[31] He is able to leverage muscle memory to make his thralls automatically unlock a passcode or utilize their ingrained fighting skills in battle.[32] He is able to selectively relinquish control over certain parts of a target's body, such as allowing his thralls to speak of their own accord.[33]
If the thrall is a parahuman, Alec is able to access and control their powers, though he has more trouble accessing powers that have a stronger mental aspect like Victor's.[34] His control over a parahuman's ability is more like feeling around in the dark, requiring him to learn the power from scratch, though muscle memory can help for more physical abilities.[35]
Alec's control worsens as the distance between himself and his thrall increases, with overall coordination, speech, and fluidity of movement suffering in both the thrall and Alec's main body.[36][37] Control also worsens as Alec's attention is divided, either due to having to focus on both bodies simultaneously or whenever Alec has control over multiple thralls at once.[37] Emotions from the thrall can leak through in the form of bodily tells such as trembling, crying, or changing vocal tone, and significant resistance from the thrall can impede Alec's control in various capacities, especially when he's distracted or far away.[35][38] Significant enough levels of emotion, such as those induced by Cherish, can disrupt Alec's control if his thralls are far enough away from him.[39]
With people he's controlled before, Alec is able to "remember" the layout of their nervous system and regain control with relative ease.[40] His power can tell him when a former thrall is in range and allows him to instantly assume control. This range is unspecified, but presumably reaches beyond his line of sight.[41]
Power interactions
While not strictly immune, Alec is resistant to master abilities, especially those of his relatives.[42] His resistance was enough that Cherish did not bother attempting to control him.[43][44] After Alec triggered, Heartbreaker had difficulty affecting his emotions to the same degree as before.[45] He would likely also be resistant to Gallant's emotional blaster power, though the concussive element would still affect him.[42] Alec might also have some resistance to Glory Girl's aura, given its relation to Gallant's power.[46]
History
Background
Born Jean-Paul Vasil, Alec was the fourth of Heartbreaker's children to develop powers.[47] At one point, when Alec was approximately eight years old, his father punished him for throwing a tantrum by giving Alec, as well as two of his sisters and a minder, a wave of intense terror. In the aftermath of this event, Alec refused to speak for several months.[48] He ended up undergoing a trigger event at the age of ten, likely due to his father's actions. Jean-Paul worked for his father as "Hijack" for a few years, learning the family trade, until his father began to ride him. Nikos pushed Jean-Paul's limits, forced him to complete dangerous assignments, and forced him to do things that were hard on his conscience.
Eventually, Nikos had Jean-Paul kill a rival foot soldier that was trying to push them out of their territory before telling him that he did it wrong. Jean-Paul realized that, no matter what he would do, his father would tell him he had done it wrong and make him keep doing it.[45]
Knowing his father would continually try and force him to be something he wasn't, Jean-Paul walked away.[10] Hijack would acquire a new identity as Alec and "Regent". He was eventually contacted by Coil and joined the Undersiders.[49]
Story Start
Once the Undersiders learned that Lung was planning to attack them, they argued strategy for the better part of the day before deciding to meet him halfway. They encountered Oni Lee with half a dozen Azn Bad Boys and fought him. Eventually, Oni Lee got spooked and ran before the Undersiders continued on. They found Lung on a rooftop whereupon one of Bitch's dogs tackled him off while the other dogs landed on top of it.
Regent slid off his mount and then hurried over to the edge to watch Lung fight with Bitch's dog. He told Grue off after he introduced him "last and least", but in a tone to show he wasn't offended. Tattletale then told them that they had to scram and Regent got onto one of Bitch's dogs before they left.[50]
He participated in the Battle at the Bank and Battle at the Gallery alongside the Undersiders.
Shortly after Lung was brought into custody by the PRT, Armsmaster pushed them to look into the Undersiders' backgrounds. They identified Regent's old identity as Hijack.[51]
Stayed by Tattletale's side when the Endbringer came to Brockton Bay given that his abilities made him utterly useless for the conflict.
Post-Leviathan
'Totally' wanted Skitter back on the team because she is both good at what she did and to make sure that Grue would 'unclench'.[52] Destroyed Shadow Stalker's career, by revealing what she had been doing to Taylor at Winslow High, and by causing her to break her probation through using his power on her.[6]
Collected Shatterbird in the battle against the Slaughterhouse Nine
Did not contribute when the Undersiders' benefactor turned against them. He did participate in the later actions however.
Post-Echidna
Was at the meeting to talk to the Bay's new villainous arrivals about the lay of the land.
Participated in the fight against the Fallen, with the extracurricular activities he was doing with Imp being a deciding factor. He also fought against the Teeth. Insuring his imprisoned sister was useful one last time.
He did not send a letter to the imprisoned Undersider leader, but said to say 'hi'.[53]
Killed by Behemoth during the New Delhi fight when he distracted the Endbringer from Imp, stepping out of cover into the aberration's firing range, doing so in order to allow his friend to get to safety.[54]
Legacy
The Undersiders mourn Regent’s death following New Delhi. However, Taylor is unable to join them, as she was forbidden from having any contact with her old team due to the conditions of her probationary Ward status.
Imp removed Heartbreaker from consideration and gained custody of Alec's various siblings. She later began educating herself in the classics and similar to be a good enough villain, while looking after his siblings.[12]
Chapter Appearances
Trivia
- Though rarely mentioned, Alec has noticeable talent when it comes to drawing and painting, but like many activities he doesn't apply himself.
- Clones of Alec made by Echidna are tagged as "Viziers". Just as a regent can step onto the throne of monarchical european countries, so too can a vizier (usually a secretarial position) in Middle Eastern countries.
Quotes
“Hey Shitcrumb! Easy-“ -last words.[55]
Fanart Gallery
References
- ↑ Alec was a very average fifteen year old guy in that he had little muscle worth speaking about. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.2
- ↑ Regent, a young 15 at story's outset, not attending school. Triggered at ten (see 7.1), three and a half years as Hijack, half a year on his own, a year with the Undersiders. Age is questionable, he never really kept track.- Comment by Wildbow
- ↑ “Parian,” Kid Win replied. “A parian doll was a kind of doll about a hundred and fifty years ago. Though Parian’s costume is actually closer to a more classical Victorian style porcelain doll, from the same era.”
“Oh.” That was random. What kind of guy knew that much about dolls?
He went on, “She’s a rogue. Fashion student with the costume and stuffed animals as a gimmick to help her build for a professional reputation and stand out. Tentative rating of Master-6, but we haven’t really seen her fight, outside of the Leviathan encounter.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.2 - ↑ One of the other boys spoke, “For any interaction with any flagged shifter or,” the boy paused, “master. Oh.”
“So,” Weld said, “Keeping in mind that Regent is the highest rated Master in the city, I’d like for you to give us this week’s password.” - Excerpt from Parasite 10.2 - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Regent, Alec (Also Jean-Paul Vasil) – Controls the southeast end of Brockton Bay, a shantytown area which suffered badly from the attack. Sixteen, Alec is fairly amoral, stemming from a childhood spent growing up under the shadow of the emotion controlling supervillain Heartbreaker. His powers allow him to provoke uncontrolled movements or spasms of particular body parts, but his true abilities come to bear when he can gain long-term access to a victim, decoding their nervous system and gaining complete and total control over their body. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 “Why?” she breathed.
“You fucked with my teammate,” he shrugged her shoulder.
“Grue? I-”
He didn’t let her finish. “I dunno if I care all that much, but it’s the sort of thing I’ll do because it feels like I should. Dunno. There’s also the fact that you’re dangerous, and you’ve outlived your usefulness, so… unless you can give me a convincing reason.”
“Please.”
“Not that convincing.” He raised one foot, then kicked the chair, hard.
It rocked, but didn’t tip over.
He chuckled lightly, feeling the confusion and the relief from his host. It was a thrill unlike any other. “I think I made my point.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10 - ↑ Regent is a straight up hedonist. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
- ↑ Prey 14.1
- ↑ Look at it this way - at the age that many boys are raising an eyebrow at boobs, family members were saying 'hey, here are all the boobs you could want, in various shapes, sizes, and colors'.
Interested in dick? Big ones, little ones, crooked ones. Dad's not that into it but a sister can hook you up.
At an age when many are just figuring out enough of the world to ask 'what's heroin?' or 'what's weed?' he was given heroin and weed and everything else that was theoretically obtainable and told to only indulge if it was someone else's body.
At an age when many are saying 'sex must be awesome' he was given free reign. Where other 12-13 year old boys might search the internet for weird and disturbing porn and kinky stuff just to see what's out there, he could experience it.
He was given all of this in a context where people either didn't care or they didn't/couldn't judge (or, considering obligatory big brothers and their teasing, judgment didn't count for a hell of a lot compared to novelty.) - Alec's past prior to joining the Undersiders (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2017-05-03) - ↑ 10.0 10.1 Regent shrugged, “I’ve told you where I come from, how I grew up. I’ve seen similar stuff before, only it was my dad’s powers, not drugs. I’ve got a high tolerance for that shit.”
I tried to convince him, “Didn’t you leave Heartbreaker because of stuff like that? Aren’t you just getting back into the same situation with Coil?”
“I left my father because he was trying to control me and force me to be someone and something I wasn’t. It wasn’t even remotely interesting or fun any more. The day that happens with Coil, I’ll leave him too. For now, it’s a good gig.” - Excerpt from Buzz 7.12 - ↑ Cell
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Teneral e.2
- ↑ “You don’t hold back,” Shadow Stalker commented, seemingly unfazed by her circumstances. She teyted the strength of her bonds, experimentally.
“Says the person who tried to slit my teammate’s throat,” Regent spoke.
Shadow Stalker looked at me, the eyes behind her mask moving to my throat. “Tough costume.”
She doesn’t even deny it. I can’t believe I’ve gone to high school with this lunatic. I resisted the urge to respond, shrugged instead. Too easy to get into an argument, too easy to let something slip and reveal who I was. - Excerpt from Parasite 10.1 - ↑ The smaller and younger of the two guys – about my age – was undoubtedly Regent. I recognized the mop of black curls. He was a good looking guy, but not in a way that would make me say he was handsome. He was pretty, with a triangular face, light blue eyes and full lips pulled into a bit of a scowl. - Excerpt from Insinuation 2.6
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 He was wearing a white mask, not quite as decorative or made up as the ones I associated with the carnivals in Venice, but similar. He’d placed a silver coronet around his short black curls, and wore a ruffled white shirt with skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots. The outfit was very renaissance faire. He had a build that made me think more of a dancer than a bodybuilder. - Excerpt from Gestation 1.5
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Regent – Member of the Undersiders, wears a white mask and renaissance fair clothing, with a taser-scepter. Can inflict involuntary movements and trigger reflexes in individuals he can see. - Cast (spoiler free)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Regent was keeping watch, a few feet away. From what I’d seen while we prepared, I now knew his costume was deceptive. He still wore the hard white mask with the silver coronet, but he had shown me how the interior of the mask had foam shaped to the contours of his face, with only his mouth left free, so he could talk without being muffled. In a similar vein, the loose white shirt he wore covered up a mesh vest that was molded to the shape of his body. He was idly twirling a scepter in his fingers. The scepter wasn’t purely thematic – apparently the crowned orb that topped the scepter had two electrodes built into the tines, for the taser that was built into it. It was all about misdirection, misleading and giving the impression of vulnerability. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.7
- ↑ We all turned to look at Regent. Regent, in turn, gave Shadow Stalker a serious look. He ran his fingers through his dark hair. Tattletale stood from the chair, and Regent sat, putting himself four feet away from the heroine. His mask was a plain white, a half-smile perpetually frozen on the smooth, unadorned face. - Excerpt from Parasite 10.1
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Seeing Regent approach, Kid Win turned his turret-mounted cannon in his direction. Before he could fire, though, Regent raised two fingers, and Kid Win lost his footing on his flying skateboard. The cannon shifted until it was pointing straight up, as the young hero dangled from the handles, his weight altering the trajectory of the cannon. His board clattered to the ground a few feet away. Regent made a dismissive wave, and Kid Win let go with one hand, his fingers and arm curling backwards in a palsied fit. Regent repeated the gesture, and Kid Win lost his grip on the controls, dropping a good twenty feet to the asphalt. As Regent approached to stand over him, Kid Win reached for his laser pistol. He scowled in frustration as his fingers continued to twitch and curl involuntarily, instead of closing on the handle of the gun. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.10
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Regent whipped his head up in Tattletale’s direction, and she dropped her gun. As her good hand snapped up to her throat, gripping it, it became apparent that dropping the gun had been quite intentional. If she’d been holding it- - Excerpt from Scourge 19.1
- ↑ On Regent: He could cause involuntary movements/spasms. That could be forcing him to drop something, but it could also be forcing someone to pull a trigger, make their leg jerk forward, force their gag reflex (needs some kind of pain to make something of it), etc. Easiest to make someone fall over or drop something, though. - WB on RPG.net
- ↑ Above Regent, the sword shimmered and turned into that black and green energy. In that moment, Regent struck, drawing his knees to his chest, then kicking up and to the side to drive both of his heels into Miss Militia’s upper stomach. A second later, he shoved both of his hands in the direction of her collarbone. The black-green energy of her power continued to arc around her without solidifying as the contents of her stomach began violently heaving their way out of her mouth, spattering into the flag-scarf that covered the lower half of her face and overflowing onto the floor. Regent had to roll to one side to avoid being bathed in vomit. - Excerpt from Tangle 6.6
- ↑ Lisa turned to me, smiling at the prank and play fighting between the boys, “It’s a bit complicated to explain, but basically, Alec can get into people’s nervous systems. This lets him fire off impulses that set off reflexes or make body parts jerk into motion. It’s not a dramatic power, but with timing, he can make someone fall over midstep, drop something, lose their sense of balance or pull the trigger on a gun.” - Excerpt from Insinuation 2.9
- ↑ I saw a glimpse of chaos, of screaming people running from the place the explosion had happened in the midst of Bakuda’s own group. The fleeing people were obstructing the view of the people with guns. Regent stuck his arm out, swept it outward, sending ten or so people stumbling into one another, turning the crowd into a disordered mob. I heard the too-loud roar of guns being fired, saw Regent grab the shoulder of a limp left arm, couldn’t be sure the two were connected. - Excerpt from Shell 4.8
- ↑ He shook his head in a tight motion as he clutched his hand against his shoulder, “Not shot. Used my power too much, too fast, and it backfired. Left arm’s cramping up, spasms. I can’t move it. Don’t worry about it.” “Backfired?” I asked. “Don’t worry about it!” his snarled response was all the more startling because it came from our normally placid and too-laid-back Alec. As if to compensate for the lashing out, he muttered an apology, “Fuck. Sorry. This hurts, but I’ll deal. You guys focus on getting us out of this mess.” - Excerpt from Shell 4.9
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 “No way she got here this fast,” Tattletale spoke, “She’s based in British Columbia, on the other side of the continent. This has to be remotely controlled, like the one she used to fight Leviathan, which means the only eyes on you are digital, and-” “She’s not,” Regent interrupted. “What?” Tattletale asked him. “There’s someone in there, I tried using my power on her, experimenting, and I felt some kind of nervous system. Too much material between me and it for me to do anything with it, and I wouldn’t really try it while I’m controlling Shadow Stalker anyways. I’d probably backfire.” - Excerpt from Parasite 10.5
- ↑ “I’m cool.” Regent shifted the position of his stool a half-foot to his left, so he could lean back against the corner of the refrigerator. He brought one of his feet up onto the seat of the stool and rested his chin on his knee. “Just as long as you’re sure,” Grue spoke. “How long?” Regent glanced at Grue, then looked to Shadow Stalker, “Depends on her. Could be fifteen minutes, could be three hours.” - Excerpt from Parasite 10.1
- ↑ No. His power maps to his own body, which is why feedback happens. Those closer to his own physique/physiology are faster to take over and slightly easier to control, for much this reason. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ Or maybe it was his own power. He could be two, three or four people at the same time, feeling what they felt. By the time he was a teenager, he’d experienced every kind of drug, in someone else’s body, had slept with himself as various boys and girls. How was being just ordinary Alec supposed to compare? Shadow Stalker wasn’t emotionally dulled. Her emotions were rich, uninhibited. She was passionate in her emotions: angry, judgemental. Even the negative feelings were something he could savor in their own way. He wasn’t really experiencing them – it was more of a very involved spectator role. Her fear was thrilling in the same way a fantastic scary movie was, with the detail and the immersion cranked up to eleven. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ He felt an explosion of rage from within Shadow Stalker’s body. Her hands even shook with it. He laughed, and her anger mixed with his amusement to create something that sounded unhinged.
Probably was, when he thought about it. She had multiple personalities, in a way.
He stepped from the roof, and waited until the last second to use her power. Her body exploded into a cloud of shadows. As she pulled back together, he felt a strong discomfort. Not quite pain. In seconds, she had condensed back to her normal form. The pain his hosts felt was something distant. It didn’t bother him half as much. He couldn’t be sure if it was because he instinctually prevented it or if it was something else. - Excerpt from Interlude 10 - ↑ Regent found her room, then shut the door. It was small, old-fashioned, with wood paneling on the walls. The furniture was limited to a twin-sized bed, a vanity with a mirror, candles and cosmetics littering the top, a bookshelf and a combination computer desk and dresser with a computer and a printer perched on top. The wall behind the pictures showed Shadow Stalker with a redheaded girl. There were a lot of photos with them laughing. Emma? “Emma?” he asked. That slight alteration in her heartbeat and her breathing told him he was right. He found a picture of Shadow Stalker – Sophia – with her family. Her mom looked younger and far less tired there, and was pregnant. Shadow Stalker looked twelve or so, and her brother looked sixteen or seventeen, sporting a fantastic looking afro and a less fantastic attempt at a moustache. They were clustered around one another, but only the mom was smiling. Regent’s eyes fell on the man who was cut out of the photo, only his hand on the mom’s shoulder, and a sliver of his torso and leg were visible at the edge of the picture. “Steven?” he asked. Raw hatred boiled up inside Shadow Stalker, for both Regent and the man that couldn’t be seen in the picture. “Steven. So what did he do do you? Believe me, I’ve seen it all. Hit you? Touch you?” No reaction from either of those. Verbal abuse? Emotional? Something else? He didn’t care enough to quiz her more. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ The smart phone was password protected. That was more Lisa’s thing, but he did have one trick up his sleeve. Holding her fingers above the keypad, he let them follow through with the most natural feeling sequence of numbers, ingrained into the mind-body connection through the habitual repetition of a sequence of movements over weeks or months. Muscle memory. It took two tries. The first felt slightly off at the end. The second was spot on, and was rewarded with a vibration of the phone and a menu. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ He felt her struggle to open her mouth and respond. He could have let her, by giving her some limited control over her own movements, but he didn’t. [...] “Any last words?” He slid the noose around her neck. It was slimy with the soaps and other shit he’d poured on it. He gave her enough control to speak, but retained control of her arms, legs so she couldn’t escape, and held her diaphragm so she couldn’t draw in enough air to scream for help. “Why?” she breathed. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ We fell silent as Regent stepped out of the cell with Victor in tow. “How’s he handle?” Tattletale asked. “Like a Mercedes with an invisible, sticky gear shift,” Regent said. “Care to explain?” Victor stretched, and said, “Everything moves well, peak condition, but his power doesn’t work so hot with him as a puppet. Can’t tell what I’m borrowing or who I’m stealing from. I think I’d need his cooperation-” Our captive sneered a little. “-And I don’t think he’s willing to give it,” Regent said. - Excerpt from Colony 15.5
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 “How’s she handling?” Tattletale asked Regent. “Not the easiest power to use,” he muttered. “It’s not a physical power, so I’m learning to use it from scratch. Doesn’t help that she’s really, really, really pissed off. I think she’s a serious control freak. My control’s slipping a bit.” “How much is it slipping?” I asked. “Is there a chance you’ll lose control of her?” “Always a chance. But I think I’m okay, so long as she and I remain pretty close to each other.” - Excerpt from Snare 13.8
- ↑ Sophia tried to respond, and for the first time, she almost succeeded. The distance between Alec and Shadow Stalker was too wide, now. It would only get worse. He could feel it in his other body, too.
[...]
Her movements were more awkward, now. Her reflexes were slower, her balance worse. Activating her power was becoming a chore, a slower, harder process. Above all, it required more of his attention. He had his Regent-self put his headphones in and turn on some music. It was an excuse to ignore the others, and to have his attention elsewhere. They weren’t at their destination yet.
Shadow Stalker reached Stonemast avenue before Regent, Tattletale, Skitter, Imp and Grue got to Coil. It was funny, but with the route they were taking, if the timing was a little different, the group could have theoretically crossed paths with Shadow Stalker. At least his control was improving as the gap between them closed. - Excerpt from Interlude 10 - ↑ 37.0 37.1 He was cool with it because it meant that when they were all heading out to meet Coil, nobody noticed that he was distracted, or that he wasn’t joining in the conversation. His control got worse as the distance between himself and his puppets widened, which meant he had to devote more focus to Shadow Stalker and the act of keeping her movements fluid. He ran into the same issues when he controlled more people, and there was the irritating side effect that his own coordination, speech and fluidity of movement all suffered to the same extent that his ‘puppets’ did. Were he to open his own mouth now and speak to Brian or Taylor, he might stutter or slur his words. It was almost more trouble than it was worth. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ Shadow Stalker’s body was a cocktail of emotion. Fear, anger, anxiety, worry, panic and sheer fury. Regent staved off the worst of the physical reactions, the trembling and the heavy breathing, and managed to make Shadow Stalker seem calm as she reached the top of the stairs. Terry was up there in the hallway, staring, uncomprehending. [...] “Well,” he said, his tone dry. He had to cough to keep himself from letting her anger turn his voice into a growl. “You sure rose above that shit, treating your classmates like you do, getting in fights, not helping out dear old mom.” Again, he had to struggle to maintain control as she exploded with emotion. It didn’t help that his other self was trying to listen to what Coil was saying. Better to avoid testing her. - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ “Cut it out, Cherie,” Alec said, “I’m controlling them.” “If I remember right, you lose control if they’re hit by enough emotion,” she smiled. She turned up the intensity. “If I’m farther away. Seriously, stop. It’s irritating.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11g
- ↑ “I’m not the best when it comes to strategy, but I’m thinking… I’m going to win here. Eventually. You can’t run without me getting control over my people and sending them after you, you can’t use them to attack me, and if you stay, I can try doing this.” Her arm jerked involuntarily. “Remember me practicing my power on you when it was new?” “I remember, little brother,” she frowned, looking at her arm. “Daddy had us all practice on each other.” “Well, I still remember how to hijack your body, pretty much. Info that’s stored away in whatever corner of my brain makes my power work. I’m thinking I could get control over you pretty fast if I tried.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11g
- ↑ “There’s a catch,” he spoke. “My power? Once I’ve figured someone out? It’s a lot easier to control them, after. Any time you come near me, I can do this. I can use my power and retake control in the blink of an eye.” He had her raise her crossbow and point it at her temple. “Next time I get control? I’m keeping you for a full day. Maybe two, if I feel like pulling an all-nighter. And here’s the funny part,” there was no humor in his voice, “I’m going to do it even if I’m in civilian clothes, if my power tells me you’re in range. You won’t even know when it’s coming. You’re now a liability to the Wards, and you won’t ever know when or where I’m going to get control again… - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Having emotion manipulation usually appends a degree of emotion manipulation resistance. They'd probably both be pretty darn resistant to one another. That would include Gallant fuzzing Cherish's emotion map. His blast could theoretically knock her on her ass but wouldn't do much more than that (and against those she was controlling, would probably dash whatever effects were present to the winds, or sufficiently confuse/paralyze them to stop whatever Cherish had them doing).
When I say 'pretty darn resistant', I'd really say that the 80-100% resistance they had would veer one way or the other depending on how in concert they were with their passenger at the time of the encounter. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ Ulzgoroth:Definitely aren't. She uses her power on him more than anyone else, probably. Insofar as it's a targeted thing.
Wildbow: This. Immunity to powers via. relationships isn't a guaranteed thing. Alec isn't 100% immune to Cherish, or vice versa, but they're both resistant enough to one another that it isn't really worth the effort.
Remember, Cherish had a dead man's switch bomb bike-locked to her neck in case Alec got into a position to hijack her. - [1] - ↑ Interlude 11g
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 Alec shrugged, “So yeah. I worked for him for three or four years. We did jobs, I learned the family trade. Called myself Hijack at first. He started to get on my case. I think maybe he was having trouble affecting me the same way he did before my powers kicked in, so he compensated for that by riding me. Pushed my limits, made me do stuff that was dangerous, stuff that was hard on my conscience. Wanted me to break, beg him to stop, so he’d have leverage to get me to do what he wanted.” - Excerpt from Buzz 7.1
- ↑ Darchiasq:
It's not breaking SoD that Gallant is a bud off Glory Girl, but it seems very unlikely. I think Gallant has been a cape too long for that to be possible. Another big argument for Aegis being a Cauldron cape is that his powers majorly changed his physiology, which is a telltale sign of being one. However, I don't think it's unlikely that he could be an Eden natural trigger, like Leet and String Theory.
Andrew Greaves:
It occurred to me, belatedly, that something like the reverse might be possible.
We know that Glory Girl is a second generation Cape, and the origins of her force field power are rather obvious. But what about her empathic aura? Where did that come from?
It's well known that second Triggers involve polling any other Shards within range and such, but does this also happen with first Triggers? Could Gallant have already been a cape and nearby when she Triggered?
Of course, she could have also second Triggered with him nearby at some point. Incidentally, as a second gen, I'd surmise that her second Trigger would be psychologically comparable to a first gen's first Trigger.
Wildbow:
You're thinking along the right lines, re: the source of her aura, Andrew. - Comment by Wildbow - ↑ Buzz 7.1
- ↑ He wondered sometimes if dealing with his father had messed up something inside him. He could remember being young, maybe eight or so, fighting with two of his sisters over the fact that he’d wanted to watch the music channel and they wanted to watch some craptastic stop motion cartoon. They’d outnumbered him two to one, and he’d known he would lose the argument. So he’d thrown a tantrum, started screaming. The entire atmosphere in the house had changed in a second. His sisters went from argumentative to conciliatory in an instant, changed the channel to the music, tried to give him the remote. One of father’s ‘girls’ came in and tried to quiet him down. When he hadn’t, she’d clamped a hand over his mouth. It hadn’t been enough. Dear Old Dad had come marching out of the master bedroom. Nikos Vasil. Heartbreaker. Tall, wearing only boxer briefs, with a muscled, lanky physique, long hair plastered to his head with sweat. Father had taken two or three seconds to assess the situation before using his power on Alec, his two sisters and the ‘girl’ with a hand over Alec’s mouth. He hit each of them with stark terror. The kind of fear you experienced when you were claustrophobic and you woke up in a coffin six feet underground. Then father had gone back into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him. It had been around summer when that happened, Alec mused. He didn’t have many ways to tell time, back then, since he hadn’t gone to school, and the days kind of passed. Still, it had been hot, he remembered. Between that summer and Christmas, Alec hadn’t opened his mouth to speak once. That was only one of a dozen or so experiences that came to mind. So yeah, maybe father had broken something in the process. Maybe it had been the emotional equivalent of staring into the sun for far too long, too many times, being left almost half blind. Or maybe it was his own power. He could be two, three or four people at the same time, feeling what they felt. By the time he was a teenager, he’d experienced every kind of drug, in someone else’s body, had slept with himself as various boys and girls. How was being just ordinary Alec supposed to compare? - Excerpt from Interlude 10
- ↑ Buzz 7.7
- ↑ Gestation 1.5
- ↑ "What do you know about how I grew up?" Regent challenged him.
"I know what the Protectorate knows. Not long after Lung was brought into custody, Armsmaster began pushing for details on your group. Staff at the PRT offices were tasked with looking through old criminal records and reports of lesser known parahumans, trying to find parallels. Find if perhaps a supervillain in another area perhaps moved to Brockton Bay, changing their names, costumes and methods. They found you." - Excerpt from Tangle 6.8 - ↑ Parasite
- ↑ Drone 23.3
- ↑ The insult doesn’t/didn’t matter – he was simply the first to step out of cover. - Comment by Wildbow on Crushed 24.4
- ↑ - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4
| Leaders | Heartbreaker † • Imp |
|---|---|
| Members | Regent ‡ • Cherish ‡ • Guillaume Vasil • Nicholas Vasil • Samuel Vasil † • Juliette Vasil • Florence Vasil • Nathan Vasil • Darlene Vasil • Aroa Vasil • Chastity Vasil • Candy Vasil • Amias Vasil |
| Associates | The Chicken Tenders |
| Leader | Grue ‡ • Skitter ‡ • Tattletale |
|---|---|
| Members | Bitch • Foil • Imp • Parian • Regent † • Chicken Little |
| Subordinates | Atlas † • Barker • Biter • Cassie • Charlotte • Forrest • Bryce Kiley • Sierra Kiley • Chicken Large • Snuff |
| Associates | Accord's Ambassadors • Bitch's Dogs • Coil's Organization • The Heartbroken • The Needlepoints • Sons of Bitch • The Chicken Tenders |