Aleksander Azimov
"The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story."
― Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell Tale Heart
Appearance
Alek looks a bit rough. As a result of extreme genetic tinkering, he presents with partially asymptomatic Type 1 Waardenburg Syndrome; he has complete heterochromia, a small section of white hair behind his left ear, and hearing abnormalities (mostly white noise and occasional tinnitus) for which he compensates by lip reading. He keeps a media player on his person almost at all times (strategic, and for leisure) and habitually plays his music a tad too loud. It's often audible through his headphones.If he has used his abilities extensively, he more closely resembles a burn unit or advanced rehab escapee than the extremely capable, disciplined and motivated asset he is. His eyes sink. His face becomes gaunt. He can shave, but the shadow never seems to go away. No, he doesn't know how he got all those bruises. They just happen. No matter how dedicated, present and proficient at his job he might be (and he is, always, as a a point of great pride) he looks haggard. This can last for a day to up to a week, depending on how extensively he has used. A strange black and red exolayer he refers to as 'Burn' shifts in placement and severity, beginning at his left hand, growing up his arm, shoulder, back, and finally his neck if he's gotten in really deep. While it looks like a Lovecraftian nightmare, it doesn't actually hurt him until later stages.
When he abstains from using his powers for a few days -at game intro, this is uncommon, as it was both an encouraged habit and is a very real addiction for him- Alek cuts a much more impressive figure. He's tall and lean, athletic, with an approachable, angular face, clear eyes and an infrequent but generous smile. He laughs often and easily, but quietly, closed-lipped. As he jumped from his previous facility with only the clothes on his back, he can be spotted in military issue attire or hand-me-downs until he's saved enough for his own clothes. He owns a rust brown leather jacket with military designations and patches, which he cherishes.
On speech: While he now (at onset) understands English and slang as fully as a native speaker, he defaults to Russian syntax and sentence structure when speaking, and frequently drops articles. He thinks they're unnecessary. He can speak with an American accent and proper structure, if needed, but it's still an uncemented skill, and incurs a small Burn.
Personality
Alek is that peculiarly well-trained tramp of a stray that shows up at animal shelters now and then. As an agent he's a top performer despite 'by the cover' judgements, but as a recent defector, most won't really know that they're not at risk of being bitten until they get to know him. He'd like to forgo this 'limbo' stage, but understands that he can't control what others think of him, only his own actions and attitude. From early childhood, he's been taking a lot 'on the chin.' Look to offend or upset him and you're in for a challenge. He's a realist leaning towards optimism not because he always feels it, but because he chooses to frame the world that way.His whole life has been run by the State. He introduces himself by his codename and won't offer his civilian name unless asked. He's a diehard team player despite the recent shift in allegiance. His sense of honor, pride and self-worth are deeply tied to this. As far as asset care and standard of living are concerned, OM is the Ritz compared to the program he recently left. He's happy to be here, but will not like being referred to as a defector. It's a scab, though he believes he did the right thing. He's professional, hard working, disciplined and goal-oriented, but manages not to be too straight-backed. Alek is overtly friendly. He genuinely likes and enjoys being around people, familiar and new. He's just not exuberant about it in the way most Westerners are accustomed. Those who can teach him new things, are similarly amicable and have inquisitive minds are his favorites. Though not mean about it, the clownish, rude or lazy don't interest him.
Many of his notable traits come from being militantly raised, and being very, very Russian. Though extroverted and friendly, he's not a smiley sort, a combination which may confuse some. Culturally, smiling too much is associated with mental instability, or lack of discretion, and is saved for friends and loved ones. He has well defined boundaries and guards his personal information - not strenuously, more like 'three kids in a trenchcoat trying to sneak into an R movie' kind of guarded. Highly adaptive, acclimating shouldn't be too stressful. He enjoys challenges, learning, exploring new concepts, and malaphors/blending idioms in English ("One man's trash is another man fed for the day"). At game start, he doesn't really get American comedy due to cultural specificity, though he may learn. Football baffles him, as does the trend towards sarcasm, self-deprecation, false humility, too much self-disclosure with strangers (it's very 'cowboy') and fuzzy lines in work hierarchy. Not from an emotionally effusive culture, he hides disappointment or anger and will purge it in training. Unsurprisingly, he's not the sort to cry at a movie no matter how sad, unless an animal dies or is hurt; he's a sucker for that, though he hides it. Dogs are the worst. He tries to be graceful about it, but he's highly competitive and not a great loser. Lastly (and he'll take cracks at himself for this) is the infamous Russian sense of grim tragedy. They romanticize it, as they do most hardships (and honestly, just about everything), to make it more tolerable. Alek can get just a little bleak if he's been 'using' his powers heavily enough to have caused Burn above his shoulders, and subsequently, incurred a good deal of pain. The withdrawal feels (and looks) like a weeklong hangover.
Where team cohesion is concerned, he's used to a strong leader and a sharp team. If he's not the leader, he wants clear orders to follow - no democratic nonsense, no pushback, no hesitation. He'll support his CO and execute as directed. If said leader won't provide that structure, then Alek believes he should be leading. It's not arrogance, it's confidence. He knows how strong and capable he is (through the crucible), he's well-trained, and more than qualified. He'll fight for that. Lack of purpose makes him antsy. He's not a busybody, he's just unaccustomed to having leisure time, or much of a personal life. He's on the lookout for ways to support, develop and help others but becomes disinterested if effort isn't reciprocated. It's difficult to convince him to come back from that. Loyalty has limits - it has to go both ways. He can be selfish if he feels like he has to watch his back, but prefers to be a team player. He respects ambition, capability, confidence and open minds. Per allowance, he'd like to copy his entire team at least once, so that he can cover for them in the field should something go wrong.
He has an addiction-prone, or adjacent personality. Alek has issues with risk taking and self-regulation, especially where his Burn Rate is concerned. He gambles, mostly with his tolerance levels and health, but occasionally with other vices. Novelty gives him a serotonin / dopamine hit, especially the copying of new powers. Incurring Burn became a habit in his teens, then was encouraged for most of his career. It's a not an entirely healthy tangle of drivers for him. Worth mention.
Abilities, Skills
>> VISUAL : Faustian Burn <<
The physical metre of Alek's power output and remaining tolerance. It's not a real burn by medical definition, and looks more like a disconcerting paranormal corruption. Beginning at his left hand, the spread increases in coverage and severity the more he uses his abilities, resulting in red markings on the skin, darkened veins and a strange black exolayer that crawls up the arm when his abilities are active, almost like a living thing. The condition can be counterbalanced or managed by a healer, but if left unattended long enough for the black to reach his upper shoulder, neck or face, a healer can only do so much; they can remove the black. The underlying red remains, as do most of his symptoms, and resolve themselves naturally after several days of minimized power use. He cannot heal himself, even if he copies an ability that should allow him to do so. Despite how it looks, the Burn is only an uncomfortable annoyance until it reaches his shoulders and upper back, at which point the pain increases exponentially. If it reaches his upper neck, lower jaw or face, he's in serious trouble. It's both a blessing and a problem. He's not typically bothered by pain in the field, but he also lacks incentive to stop within safety parameters until his condition is severe. It's best thought of as a fuel gauge.Intuitive Learning:
By reading, observing, hearing or otherwise interacting with a new input of data, Alek instantly learns, understands and permanently accumulates knowledge. Speed of learning is dependent on speed of information gathering. For example, he could read a full textbook on the mechanics of the English language and learn it completely, but he'd still need a few hours to read the book. Until a new skills solidifies for him (a few weeks of consistency) it still costs him a bit of burn to use. This doesn't extend to muscular control. While he may watch Olympic wrestling and perfectly understand the physics, force and skill necessary to replicate, his body doesn't assimilate this knowledge concurrently. He would have to practice to apply it. He'd become proficient at an incredible rate, but not instantly. The more complex the skill or subject, the more Burn he incurs. Still, this ability causes the slowest, or most mild Burn Rate. If not used and/or practiced, the things he learns this way will eventually 'decay.' His brain is still human. He only has so much bandwidth.Meta Power Replication:
Alek is able to replicate and use the powers of other Metas. By visually observing a Meta using one of his/her powers (either in person, or via video) he may copy their full power set for ten minutes, at which point he must observe the same meta (though they do not need to be using an ability again) to refresh the copy, or a new Meta, to borrow theirs. There is no penalty or 'lag' in switching power sets, either at the end of the allowed ten minutes, or before, as necessary. As a result of his Intuitive Learning, this copy is perfect and fully functional, subject to the same penalties and restrictions applied to the original user. However, he may sometimes use an ability in ways that vary from the original user, with either positive or negative results.Ability Intuition:
Each incidence of copying will further his Burn, and spread the corruption in his body faster than the use of other native abilities. If he receives no help from a healer, roughly 20 consecutive copies taken to the ten minute burn-out (or a little over three hours of constant use) would incapacitate him, and may be critical. If he 'hops' between powers rather than take them to burn-out, his capacity for copying is undefined. He has only pushed himself to 14 burn-out copies, previously. Consistent healer support may allow him to function indefinitely, playing into his preference for organized teamwork. Faust keeps a 'playlist' of a few dozen of the power sets he (or his handler or squad leader) deem most useful in a media player on his person at all times to facilitate his best functionality, and support for his team. This makes him a bit of a Swiss Army Knife in relevant situations, or a helpful stand-in, should one of his team with a critical role be compromised or incapacitated.
All constant physical mutations, like wings, are exempt. ***This ability is never used on PCs without the approval of the player.***
A small expansion on the combination of his learning and replication. Alek can identify which abilities another Meta possesses if allowed to observe them for a minute or so, either in person or via video. Pictures or still imagery don't work. He still can't make the initial copy of an ability set until he sees it used, but he's aware of it/them. Also, in observing and understanding how another Meta's abilities work, he can sometimes see ways in which the native user might better their control, strength or use of their power, making him useful for assessment and teaching. This works defensively, as well. He can sometimes see holes, weaknesses and exploitable aspects of an enemy Meta's abilities (Ex: A specific telepath has a hard time reading through lead, etc). As this is more an observational skill resulting from his set and not an active power, it causes no burn.Other Relevant Skills:
Via his intuitive learning, he's proficient in all government issue (and some not) RUS firearms, as well as small-squad tac and evasive maneuvers. Extensive training in Silat (reverse knife karambit), and BJ-J. Minor demolitions training (Anti-personnel, but not structural). Tactical driving. Essentially, when he has no actively copied powers, he's an exhaustively trained CT/Spec Ops agent within normal human limitations.
Learned a few bad habits from 80s/90s American movies (Swayze in Road House was the worst for guard form) that have been hard to break, but it doesn't effect work. Has an assortment of weird, likely useless high proficiencies. If Burn allows, he can learn new ones in short order for missions readiness & advantages. Ridiculously good Ping Pong player. Speed reads. Knows all the solution steps to a Rubik’s Cube. Learns the accents, speech and movement patterns of his fellow agents and staff quickly, and can do spot-on impressions.
Personal History
Proyekt Dedal (Project Daedalus) is a Russian Metahuman Eugenics program founded in 1981. The mission statement outlined the intended creation and optimization of Metahuman Spetsnaz teams, and hopefully, developement of the means by which to bestow Metahuman abilities on qualified non-Meta military personnel. Originally run and overseen by the KGB, the rebranding of the branch as the Federal Security Service (FSB) in 1995 resulted in few changes to the program. Born in 1986, Alek is registered as 'Subject 27' in the Delta batch of Daedalus' engineered Metahuman operatives.An underprivileged Meta teenage mother-to-be from Moscow's Yasenevo District, Anastasya Serova pledged custody of her unborn child to the project shortly after he had a natal heartbeat. In exchange, she secured five years of free health coverage for her large family. For six months she adhered to a schedule of injections, genome modifications, therapies and transfusions designed to 'optimize' her son. She was allowed to hold him for five minutes.
Among four dozen other children engineered by Daedalus I.Delta, Alek was raised in the state-run Nadezhda Orphan's House southwest of Moscow, in Nihznii Novgorod, a front for the program. Children are children regardless of culture; he was teased for his mismatched eyes and the fleck of white in his hair, often compared to the orphanage dog, a similarly odd-eyed Siberian Husky named Pechen'ye (cookie). He learned the best way to diffuse comments was to be easy-going and bulletproof about his faults, or to anticipate the insults. Otherwise, his childhood was fairly normal. He climbed trees, scraped his knees, played wild games of make-believe with his friends, fed his vegetables (and snuck treats) to Pechen'ye whenever he could, tried to trick his caregivers into later bedtimes and believed that Ivan Drago should have won in Rocky IV (like anyone with a brain). Nadezhda was a good home. The kids thought it might be magical. It was known and accepted that at nine or ten, they'd all get powers, would immediately be adopted, and taken away in a luxe black car. It's how things worked there. Maybe it was something in the water. He would miss his friends, and Pechen'ye, but he couldn't wait to have his own family.
All the other kids his age got their abilities before him - or rather, seemed to. With fancy new powers, they were leaving the orphanage in droves. Alek remembers this as one of the hardest times in his life, but a formative experience. Where he could shrug off the teasing about his looks, being the slowest to develop abilities (or, god forbid, to not develop them at all), to not distinguish himself, and subsequently be left unwanted and unvalued at Nadezdha, twisted a knife in him in a way he never forgot. He was furious, and hurt, and it got him nothing.
His caregivers noted that he seemed exceptionally bright, however. At age ten, he started effortlessly tearing through his schoolwork. As the other children continued to leave for 'new families,' his dedication only increased. Once, it was mentioned in his file that one of the more volatile kids -an unstable cryokinetic- used his powers less around Alek. This was discounted as the boy's level-headedness rubbing off on his fellow. In truth, Alek had a keen an inexplicable understanding of how the other boy's ability worked, and had started to talk him through his episodes, thus making them less frequent, and less troublesome.
Finally, at age eleven (when the program was preparing to label him a failure and discharge him to a real orphanage) his third ability manifested, along with the beginnings of his Burn. He'd been eating Kalamari at dinner, and sprouted tentacles. Though thrilled to clearly have an ability, it was absolutely, totally gross. Still, he couldn't stop grinning. In reality, the power belonged to the kid sitting next to him, who'd had practice suppressing the growth of traits associated with any food he ate - practice Alek lacked. Involuntarily, he copied several other abilities belonging to kids in the dining room over the course of the following few minutes. He woke up the next day in the infirmary covered in Burn, waiting for a healer to arrive from Daedalus control.
In hindsight, buying the fairytale that Nadezhda kids were being adopted seems about as moronic as believing in Santa past the age of ten. It was a brutal wake up call at the time, however. As soon as he was back on his feet, Alek was transferred to FSB outpost 'Kuznitsa' in Tol'yatti for assessment and training. Though crushed he wasn't being sent to a family, he reunited with several older Nadezhda grads (and many new faces from other programs) and took that as a victory. They were all in the same boat. His fellows became his family.
Kuznitsa was a fair, but unforgiving place. When not continuing their education, instructors trained Daedalus subjects in foundational military disciplines, and control of their abilities. The teens began to prepare for life as soldiers, adhering to strict codes of conduct which helped temper both their impulses, and powers. They ran rigorous tac drills and physical conditioning courses, and were seasonally assessed for progress and usefulness to the FSB when of age. Alek excelled in all categories but the last. He absorbed tactics and strategy like a sponge, understood economy of movement in the body in a way that made him a natural talent in almost all of the curriculum, but his Burn Rate was a problem. Four or five consecutive copies would send him to Medical. So while his replication was potentially an immensely useful skill, his short fuse disqualified him. Told that he'd be kept on to ride a desk in Intel and as a R&D participant, but that he was ineligible to move forward with his friends into an FSB assignment after graduation, Alek dug in his heels. He wouldn't accept it. He wouldn't be left behind again.
At fifteen, he started aggressively copying fellow trainees' powers, daily, to increase his copy capacity and exercise his Burn Rate. It was a dumbass move - the sort of boneheaded stunt only a desperate teenage boy would think was a good idea. But he was also tenacious beyond reason, so much so that his instructors let him run with it after locking him in a negation cell several times to 'cool off,' with no success. He was utterly barbarous with himself, sometimes to the horror of staff and friends. Once, his Burn advanced so far up his neck and face, Medical believed he'd lose his left eye to it. They healed him. He repeated the process the next day. After several months of this, he'd almost blown the nerve endings in his hand and forearm, but had increased his pain tolerance. Perks! Progress was slow. It was frustrating. It hurt. He considered tossing in the towel half a dozen times. Some days, only dour humor saw him through; he was halfway through a badass montage. But his effort paid off. At some point, he started to thrive in it, to define himself by it, to be proud. By eighteen, a workload that would have knocked him unconsciousness and resulted in an overnight in Medical was treatable with an hour or two of R&R, and a shot of vodka at the end of the day. Three years of brutality had hardened his will and body, and trained his abilities to catch up with his tactical skill. He felt accomplished, like he'd both built and validated himself. He'd fought for, and earned that. In a way few can claim, he knew what he was capable of. And he could play the Stab Hand game with hardly a worry. More perks!
Though enlisted in the Spetsnaz Meta division, Alek rode on the B team until 2008. The nature of his ability was difficult to predict, and reliant on either abilities present in his team, or among hostile Metas. When not in the field, he was called upon to analyze and optimize incoming operatives, picking out weaknesses in their power usage, and highlighting areas for improvement. It was rewarding work. He was glad to be of use, but it wasn't what he wanted.
The introduction of small portable media players overhauled his career. He could now carry a small library of selectable skills, a plug-n-play for command, and his handlers, to tailor as they pleased, per mission parameters. As he'd wanted, he saw very little down time after that.
In 2016, increasing political tension in the East took him from his team, then stationed in Balkhash, Kazakhstan, to do solitary work. His playlist changed very little for the next several years; covert infiltration abilities, tech manipulation, polymorphism, and a long docket of target pictures. Some, he was sent to frame. He'd stake out the individual in question, learn their mannerisms and how to mimic their walk and speech patterns, then take their shape and have them filmed in compromising positions, or in the midst of crimes of various turpitude. Some targets were doubled in order to make deals, to break them, or to sew discord. Others were only meant to be eliminated. Often, he was asked to complete two or three of these objectives without withdrawal to a facility capable of removing his Burn. While he enjoyed the freedom afforded as an 'off leash' asset, the work was soul crushing, and lonely.
In late 2019, FSB gave him an objective he couldn't ethically stomach. The work of the last several years had shaken his faith in the cause to which he'd dedicated his life, but he'd held hope that it'd end, that he'd find renewal. The last order relieved him of that hope entirely. He started planning his defection. The skills he needed weren't all available to him. He spent weeks tracking down a regenerative healer not involved with the military to help him manage the removal of a deeply imbedded tracking device. Details are gory and unnecessary. Afterward, he copied a teleporter's ability from his list and aimed to jump to France, where Meta restrictions were slim to nonexistent. He meant to land at the Eiffel Tower. However, never having seen it in person, Alek underestimated the size of the thing, and arrived at the Eiffel Tower reproduction in Las Vegas, Nevada. If it wasn't for the USA's far more stringent Meta laws, it would have been a funny but workable mistake.
Exhausted, suffering serious blood loss, thoroughly Burned past the ability to copy and jump again, unfamiliar with the language and identifiable as a Meta on sight, he did the only smart thing he could; he surrendered himself before he could be caught. A few hours later, after he'd begun to understand the language well enough to roughly communicate, he started pursuing asylum. That was the first week of March, 2020.
His first weeks were populated with seemingly endless interviews, FBI screenings, paperwork, medical tests and documentations, and a host of physical and psychological pokes and prods. Determined not to be extradited, he gave up everything he felt he ethically could about the state of Project Daedalus and the Russian military's advancements in Meta utilization, but has not and will not disclose the final target requested of him. His asylum was approved March 24th, as was his enlistment in Operation Midnight, effective immediately.
He spent the first week in Tartarus' Medical Ward recovering from extensive Burn resulting from a crash course in English, Spanish, slang, cultural and governmental studies, country and relevant Meta history therein, and a list of other topics he felt he'd need to have assimilated to best adjust to life as an American.