Feel free to work on your character concept(s) here!

So, I'm thinking something like this:

Brainstorm, the Nova (Telekinesis and Telepathy) - After a tragic accident when he was 6, he'd lived in a catatonic state in an assisted care facility. His powers manifested years later when a criminal broke in and threatened to kill him to get one of the nurses to comply with his orders. His powers manifested violently, frying the criminal's brain and throwing his husk of a body across the room. While now completely lucid, he still hasn't learned to control his powers and fears what he is capable of, while trying to learn how to live again.

Interesting. I'll ask you a few questions from the top of my head - you don't have to answer them right away, they are just there to help you flesh out the character and help me understand what you have in mind.

1) Did all of that happen in New Atlantis?

2) How long ago did he wake up?

3) Does he have a family or a guardian looking after him?

4) Abilities-wise, are we looking at your standard, powerful psychic generalist package (nothing wrong with that of course!), or did you have some more specific emphasis in mind?

5) Is he basically in good, normal health now, missing years and psychic powers aside? Or were there lingering effects of any kind from his coma and the nature of his awakening?

In any case, what I find really interesting about the concept at this point is the time displacement angle. As far as his consciousness is concerned, he sort of time travelled. The world is not very familiar (granted, also because he simply hadn't lived in it long before), and neither are the people that he is supposed to know. He isn't the Outsider, but he is sort of an outsider, even more so than someone with his powers would be. Do I have that right?

Hmm, it's a good question. Having done an initial read on New Atlantis, I'm not sure the inciting violent act would have happened on New Atlantis. So I was thinking it happened somewhere "Mainland" and then he was "recruited" to come to New Atlantis; both to teach him how to use his powers and keep him away from others that might be harmed due to how little control he has over them.



I'm thinking at most a year or two. I'm probably going to put him at 18, so he woke up probably around 16ish.




I'm thinking no on the family. I think whatever trauma put him in the catatonic state also killed his parents, but maybe there was a trust in place to pay for his care. But I'm thinking there is a powered mentor of some sort that found him on the Mainland and brought him to New Atlantis. Probably another psychic type to help him learn to control his powers.



More the generalist, but focusing a bit more on telekinesis. I really want to play up the uncontrollable nature of the Nova playbook. For example, when he "woke up" he instinctively used his telepathy on everyone in the facility he was in, causing massive mental overload. My inspiration from a powers perspective is Tetsuo from Akira, specifically as he's escaping the hospital. So using telekinesis very forcefully (because he still doesn't have fine motor control), etc.



I think he's in normal health for the most part, but I could see some levels of muscular atrophy just due to his catatonic state for most of his life. And of course mentally he's still a bit all over the place.



I think that's an accurate viewpoint, but by taking the Nova playbook, I want to focus more on the fact that his powers are still uncontrollable and extremely powerful. Essentially the idea is that he didn't get the opportunity for his powers to appear at puberty and to evolve gradually as he learned how to control them; rather they arrived full powered with no basis of how to control them.

I'm definitely getting some good/evil ideas related to this character already. Though I shouldn't get ahead of myself with that.

New Atlantis is hardly violence-free, or you would have little to do, but yes, such an incident does seem a good deal more likely to have happened elsewhere. And the contrasts that he has been exposed to could be interesting to play with.

A mentor would also be neat. Not so big a presence as a Protégé mentor, but still a useful NPC to have around. I guess one thing to decide is whether the mentor is a superhero active in the city or not. Also their place on the power/control spectrum.

Powers-wise, I understand that the kind of psychic powers that require more finesse would be more challenging for him, while powerful effects beyond the mental strength of most psychics come only too easily. Easy to fry an unprotected brain, harder to slip a subtle telepathic message. And so on.

I also wonder if being in a coma might have distorted his powers' development in ways other than lack of mastery. Like there is a lot of pent-up psychic energy stored up over the years, just begging for release. Meanwhile, his psychic sensitivity may have been somewhat numbed or stifled by lack of exposure, and needs to be trained up.

Just my two cents, anyway.

When did you first use your powers?

So, something happened to me when I was young, like 6. I don't remember, and nobody really seems to know, but my parents were killed and I ended up as a vegetable. No, really. Like the lights were on but nobody's home. Thank god I don't remember that. Anyone, at the place I was staying, there was this janitor who was a telepath; not very powerful or anything, but good enough. So he was basically reading the minds of all of the patients like me, hoping he could maybe find where they had hidden money or jewelry or something that nobody knew about. Not the brightest bulb in the pack, you know? Anyway, when he tried to read my mind, it woke me up instinctively, and well, I fried him. His mind I mean. From what I was told, there is basically nothing left of him; ironically I turned him into what I was. But that wasn't the scariest thing; when I woke up, my powers came on full blast. I read the mind of literally everybody in that place; it was total overload. Oh, and my telekinesis went crazy, I was levitating stuff all over the room, throwing chairs against the wall. Thank god I didn't hurt anyone, other than the janitor of course.

Who was the first person you accidentally hurt with your powers?

Like I said, that janitor guy. I think his name was Marcus.

Who, outside the team, helps you control your powers?

Insight. She's a telepath like me who also has precognitive powers. She happened to be in town when my, well let's call it eruption, happened, and she sensed it just before it happened. So she showed up about 10 minutes after it happened and talked me down I guess. I mean, you can imagine how screwed up I was; I went from basically being a 6 year old kid to 17 with the memories of every person in that building in a matter of seconds. I was totally freaking out.

Anyway, she helped calm me down and quiet all of the chaos in my mind. She taught me how to drown other people's thoughts out so I didn't get confused about who I was. And she brought me here to New Atlantis so that I can learn to control my powers better.

Why do you continue to use your powers?

Well, if I don't use them, they're going to use me, you know what I mean? I mean, if I don't learn to control them, they'll overwhelm me, and the only way to learn to control them is to use them and to get better. And it feels good to help people.

Why do you care about the team?

Because other than Insight, they're really all I have. My parents are dead, and I honestly don't know anyone else.

Interesting change to the inciting incident. Probably works better that way. I like the idea of a psychic "spark" inadvertently lighting the "fire" as it were.

Some more information on Insight would be welcome. Is she a superhero or "just" a psychic? What are her motives - or are they a mystery to him? Does he live with her now, or did she arrange something else?

In any case, a precognitive mentor can be a very useful device.

Yeah, it seemed to fit more to me. And I think it's also going to shape him such that he feels more comfortable using his telekinesis than telepathy due to what happened to him.



I think Insight is a superhero, perhaps in a team (The Guiding Lights?) that is somehow associated with us, perhaps like sponsors or something? I think her motives, or at least those Brainstorm would be aware of, are that she knows how hard it is to grow up with psychic powers and how frightening telepathy can be when it first manifests. So she feels a sort of kinship/protectiveness over him, something like a big sister.

Sounds good to me. How much older is Insight? Trying to get a feel for the generation. Maybe she is one of the people who joined the Guiding Lights after they founded the city, rather than an earlier member?

In my mind I was thinking she would be maybe late 20s/early 30s, so I'm thinking the newer generation of the Guiding Lights.

Hero Name: Brainstorm
Real Name: David Stone

Look: Man, White, Normal Skin, Casual Clothing, No Costume

Abilities: Telekinesis and Telepathy


Moment of Truth: Your mind’s eye opens, and you can see the world around you like never before. You can control
it, at will, with ease. Of course, warping reality tends to have ramifications down the line, but in
your moment of godhood...how could you possibly be worried?


Team Moves:
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them if there is any fear in their
eyes when they look at you. If they say no, take +1 forward and mark potential. If they say yes,
immediately shift your Danger up and Savior down.

When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, tell them how they could stop you, if
it came down to it. Give them Influence over you and clear a condition.


Potential:
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

Advances used:


Labels:
Danger +1
Freak +3
Savior +0
Superior +0
Mundane -1

Conditions:
Afraid [ ], Angry [ ], Guilty [ ], Hopeless [ ], Insecure [ ]

Backstory:

When did you first use your powers?
So, something happened to me when I was young, like 6. I don't remember, and nobody really seems to know, but my parents were killed and I ended up as a vegetable. No, really. Like the lights were on but nobody's home. Thank god I don't remember that. Anyone, at the place I was staying, there was this janitor who was a telepath; not very powerful or anything, but good enough. So he was basically reading the minds of all of the patients like me, hoping he could maybe find where they had hidden money or jewelry or something that nobody knew about. Not the brightest bulb in the pack, you know? Anyway, when he tried to read my mind, it woke me up instinctively, and well, I fried him. His mind I mean. From what I was told, there is basically nothing left of him; ironically I turned him into what I was. But that wasn't the scariest thing; when I woke up, my powers came on full blast. I read the mind of literally everybody in that place; it was total overload. Oh, and my telekinesis went crazy, I was levitating stuff all over the room, throwing chairs against the wall. Thank god I didn't hurt anyone, other than the janitor of course.

Who was the first person you accidentally hurt with your powers?
Like I said, that janitor guy. I think his name was Marcus.

Who, outside the team, helps you control your powers?
Insight. She's a telepath like me who also has precognitive powers. She happened to be in town when my, well let's call it eruption, happened, and she sensed it just before it happened. So she showed up about 10 minutes after it happened and talked me down I guess. I mean, you can imagine how screwed up I was; I went from basically being a 6 year old kid to 17 with the memories of every person in that building in a matter of seconds. I was totally freaking out.

Anyway, she helped calm me down and quiet all of the chaos in my mind. She taught me how to drown other people's thoughts out so I didn't get confused about who I was. And she brought me here to New Atlantis so that I can learn to control my powers better.

Why do you continue to use your powers?
Well, if I don't use them, they're going to use me, you know what I mean? I mean, if I don't learn to control them, they'll overwhelm me, and the only way to learn to control them is to use them and to get better. And it feels good to help people.

Why do you care about the team?
Because other than Insight, they're really all I have. My parents are dead, and I honestly don't know anyone else.

Relationships:
You hang out all the time with __________________ to blow off steam.
You once hurt ________________ when you lost control of your powers.

Influence:
give Influence to three teammates.

Have Influence Over:
Under Influence From:

Moves:
Burn
When you charge up your powers, roll + conditions you currently have marked. On a hit, hold 3
burn. On a 7-9, mark a condition. On a miss, hold 2 burn and mark three conditions.
Spend your burn on your flares. You lose all burn at the end of the scene.

Reality storm: You channel a destructive burst
with your powers. Spend 1 burn to directly
engage a threat using your powers, rolling +
Freak instead of + Danger. If you do, you will
cause unwanted collateral damage unless you
spend another burn.

Shielding: You call up a fast protective field to
stop a danger. Spend 1 burn to defend someone
else from an immediate threat, rolling + Freak
instead of + Savior.

Move: Spend 1 burn to move to any place you
choose within the scene, breaking through or
slipping past any barriers or restraints in your
way. Spend a second burn to move to any place
you’ve previously been.

Elemental awareness: Spend 1 burn and mark
a condition to open your mind up to the world
around you with your powers. You can ask any
one question about the world around you, and
the GM will answer honestly.