Individual Character's full name: Harlan Crowe
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Harley (affectionate) Buggy (derogative)
Gender: Male
Age: 30
Date of Birth: (mm/dd/year) December 7th, 1982
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Hoboken, New York
Nationality: American
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Part swedish, english, jewish and american.
AppearanceHair color and style: Light brownish, short and combed.
Skin Tone: White-ish beige.
Eye Color: Light green, blue-ish
Height: 5'11"...ish
Build: Somewhat muscular. He excercises regularly and stays slim (weighs 76kg/167lbs)
Visible mutation: Thin lines that require some close observation to be noticed (similar to an un-healed deep cut that isn't bleeding, done with a scalpel). He has one of these all around his neck and one around each wrist as well.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: None
Other features: Is fond of having short beards, mostly five or six days old, sometimes grows a bushier one when he wants to look older, wiser, serious and more mature... because beards are AWESOME!
Everyday clothing style: Shirts and t-shirts, jeans, conservative clothing (nothing too scandalous), nice brands, dependent on the weather. Likes scarves or clothes that cover his neck when dealing with clients, also watches, bracelets or long sleeves to hide the lines in his wrists.
Uniform: Suits if he's at the office or dealing with clients, specially important ones, shirts and jeans if he's working outside doing field work.
Sleepwear: None.
Miscellaneous clothing: He uses disguises at times, though most of the time they're just shades, glasses, some extra hair and a prop or two. He has a fake badge, a lab coat with a doctor id plaque and stethoscope, a recorder, a clipboard, electronics and perfume still in their boxes (to play the salesman) and different changes of clothes of varied styles in the trunk of his car.
CharacterPersonality: Harlan is sarcastic and selfish, a decent liar, likeable and with a sense of humor, proud, overconfident at times and dedicated to his job. He befriends those who can help him and tolerates those who can't. He's smart in some areas and ignorant in others, good at confusing people and pretending to be something he's not, a bit of a manipulator and interested in making money without much fuss. Does not like following moral causes and is not inherently prone to helping others unless he gets something in return, but has been known to do it from time to time.
Hobbies/ Interests: Acting, filming, photography, disguises, eavesdropping, and pretty much learning any skill that can help him do his job. He is very interested in meeting mutants and learning what they can do, mostly to catalog them in a 'future suspect' list. Likes reading psychology stuff to learn what makes the human brain tick and how to exploit its flaws.
Job or part time job and description: He runs a small Private Investigations firm owned by his father and located in New York, called The Crow's Eye. He's working to expand in what he calls 'the mutant market', since he visualizes a goldmine working cases for and against mutants. The firm has 9 other employees, all of them human, but the names of NPC's that might pop up in threads are:
- Penny Mae: (Not her real name) She's the receptionist, a latina with a sweet voice for clients, but is sassy and has an attitude with her coworkers, including Harlan.
- Lyle Fitzgerald: He likes to go by 'Grimlock' as his nick, but Harlan calls him 'the nerd' and Lyle calls Harlan 'Buggy' (as in Buggy the clown, from One Piece). Lyle handles the computer security/internet/high tech cases. Harlan calls him whenever he has a question regarding nerdy/techie things.
- Dominic Burke: (everyone calls him by his last name) A large, serious man with thick arms and torso, an ex-cop and a good friend of Miles' father. Harlan trusts him and usually calls him when he needs some muscle, a look-out, a tail or detective work not worth his own time.
The rest are redshirts.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: -He dislikes swords, specifically katanas, but this fear is more of a trauma and will likely get him edgy, with his hand close to his gun, instead of scared spitless.
-His one true fear however, is losing his body. Because of his mutation, it is a very likely possibility that at some point he'd lose his body and he'd have no way of tracking it or finding it without visual contact.
Special talents: Harlan has picked up several skills in his job and life that help him get what he wants. He's a good actor, lies convincingly, knows how to read gestures and body language, knows a little bit of lip reading, but that one's difficult because he doesn't depend on it and it takes a lot of practice (he has been known to totally read them wrong). He's also a decent shot with his handgun when conditions are in his favor, but it's nothing spectacular.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: Neutral. Harlan has been known to help those in need, though he usually has an agenda or hidden motive behind it. Sometimes he'll do it because it's not much of a hassle, but won't if he has too much to lose. He may look the other way from a felony, but only if there's absolutely no way he can get pinned with it and if it's more trouble than it's worth. He'll help friends and family, specially if those friends or family can help him back in a tight spot. If you tell him 'I owe you', then watch out, because at some point he'll come and collect.
MutationsMutation description: Mega-Bolts of DESTRUCTIOOON!!!
Nah, I'm kidding!
Harlan calls his mutation 'lid portals'. He doesn't create them willingly, nor can they be created anywhere else that is not his own body. Whenever Harlan is cut, shot, punctured, slashed or pierced, he will bleed and can even die from it like any ordinary person would, but if a wound manages to cut off a limb or dismember Harlan in any way, even if it's just the tip of his finger, two 'lid portals' will be created, each covering one wound. One will completely cover the wound in the body while the other lid portal will cover the wound on the detached limb. When this happens, then blood flow, nerve commands and muscular contractions continue 'teleporting' from body to detached limb as if the limb had not been dismembered at all. Harlan will be able to continue using his detached limb even if it has been separated from his body. This is a 'defense mechanism' his body has and Harlan has no real control over lid portal creation. They just show up if any of his body parts are hacked off (yes, including that one.)
Lid portals look light blueish with a low glow and are somewhat translucent. If you look at them closely, you can still see the cut bone, muscle and veins through it, but from afar it seems like Harlan's insides is made of blue stuff. Harlan doesn't understand how they work or why they have antigravitational properties, at least those located in his detached bodyparts. Harlan can float, levitate and fly any detached limbs with a lid portal at a top speed of 70 to 80 miles per hour (the faster he flies them, the brighter the blueish glow). Since nerve endings are still connected through his lid portals, he can feel everything his detached limbs feel, including damage, no matter how far away the limb is from the body.
Once lid portals are created, they remain there forever. He can't move them elsewhere or re-stich his body back to the way it was. He can 'stick' together his detached limb to his body and create the illusion that he hasn't been cut (joining both lid portals together), but he will be able to separate the limb again and again if he needs to do so, yet never be able to heal it back permanently to his body. The lid portals in his body (not the ones on his limbs) do not have an antigravity effect on them, but they do have a small, short range 'attraction' effect, which is what allows him to 'stick' back detached limbs. This attraction is not too powerful and a strong pull, push or punch can detach 'stuck' limbs against Harlan's will. The 'attraction' effect only works on lid-portals.
Lid portals only work one way. You can't push any object through a lid portal on the body and expect it to pop out on the corresponding portal of a floating limb.
Due to a traumatic event that ocurred to him and is explained in detail in his History, Harlan has had his hands cut off and has been decapitated. The thin lines around his wrists and neck are there because of it and are the only visible clue to his lid portals and mutation. He can separate his head and hands and fly or float them around to do whatever he wants, while leaving his body behind. His detached limbs can fly up to 2000 feet away from his body, but beyond that point, he starts feeling numbness and even dizziness, since the lid portals start to have problems teleporting blood and nerve commands so far away. Flying or floating is just as tiring as running or walking, so even if he can fly his head or hands at his top speed (80 mph), he'd only be able to do it continuously for 30-60 minutes, while floating his limbs around (much slower than top speed) without rest can be done for up to 4-5 hours, after which he'd feel really tired in either scenario.
Strengths:- Reach: Having floating hands and head allows Harlan to have great advantages in his line of work. He's a P.I. and he can easily take pictures or video from hard to reach places, break and enter places if need be, spy or follow a suspect, drop objects unseen, etcetera, without the limitations of arms, neck or a body. He can also rotate his head or hands 360 degrees.
-Small targets: In melee combat, it is a very unique advantage not to have your body around limiting your reach and giving your opponent something big to hit, while having your head calling the shots from on high and only your hands delivering punches.
-Survival: Harlan's survival is guaranteed the moment his body notices a body part missing. Not so much if said bodypart is hanging by a thread or was not successfully cut off. The experience however, is as painful and traumatic as you can possibly imagine and he has no intention of getting hacked into any more pieces.
Weaknesses and Limitations:-Diminished lifting and pulling strength: A normal person lifts or pulls using the strength of their arms and if the object is too heavy, they'll use their legs and torso for an extra help. Harlan can't do that. His hands are detached and independent from any pull his arms can make. Each lid portal can make a hand lift approximately 45 pounds tops. That is, his hands can only lift or pull small to medium sized objects (90 pounds when using both). Pushing, squeezing and pressing strength remains unaffected, since he can have the strength of his body behind his hands no problem if he sticks them back to his arms but they pop out when he pulls too hard. He can try and lift something heavy (like a large bag) using his arms, but he can't depend on his hands for heavier lifting (like a large desk).
-Lack of precision: When firing a handgun, a normal person needs to line their eyes with the gun barrel and sight as they hold the gun with both hands to take proper aim. When your floating hand is carrying a gun and your head is flying elsewhere, it's difficult to hit the broad side of a barn. He can only use it this way at point blank range or for covering fire. His aim improves if his head is floating behind his hands holding the gun, but they're all floating in mid air and that'll never be as stable as two strong arms on solid ground (his best aiming happens when his limbs are all stuck to his body instead of floating around). The same lack of precision occurs if Harlan wants to use his hands to do anything that requires care and his head is too far away to keep track of things. This forces him to keep his head close to where his hands are if he wants the hands to be effective and precise or even to land any punches in the right places. It is difficult to do things when you're watching them from afar in 'third person'.
-No way to track his own body: Harlan doesn't have a sixth sense that tells him where his body is. He uses his sight, his sense of touch and his memory to remember where he left his body. Whenever he sends his hands and head to do anything far away, his body becomes a blind, deaf, stumped liability, vulnerable to attack, kidnapping, tickling or pantsing. This is his most glaring weakness and it could even be used by enemies to force him (or more like, force his hands and head) to do things he doesn't want to do while keeping the body for ransom.
-Nothing really super: Despite having floating hands, they're still very human floating hands, that can bruise and break just as easily. His punching speed depends on their flying speed. Their small size and flying capabilities are Harlan's best bet to keep them safe, but if they get caught, then it's going to hurt. Harlan's damage dealing capabilities come from whatever weapons his hands can carry, be it brass knuckles, knives or handguns.
-Winds: Powerful winds can totally disrupt his flight pattern and leave his floating head and hands unusable. He could even run the risk of having them detached from his body and flown about unwillingly if the winds are strong enough.
-Pride: Although not a mutation weakness, it is a personality weakness. Harlan will often bite more than he can chew, refuse to do the sensible thing or will take the more complicated way to do something if his pride is on the line. This is something that other people can use against him if they find out about it.
Physical AbilitiesGeneral Physical Capabilities: Harlan exercises and is in good physical condition, but his mutation does not improve his physical capabilities in any way beyond human limitations.
Fighting Style: Harlan's fighting style is unique, in that he tends to keep his body safe from harm and will use his floating hands to beat or shoot his enemies. He will depend mostly on flying punches to subdue an opponent, but he's also fond of using his gun and avoiding punching altogether if need be.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: His lack of body in a fight is a strength and also a weakness. If he keeps his body safe, then he can't use bodyweight, grappling, arm strangling, tripping, kicks, knees or any other conventional fighting style except punching with his flying fists. If he includes his body in a fight to get any of those 'pros', he also gets the cons. Because his hands are detachable and can't lift much weight, things that require raw physycal strength like wresting a weapon off another person's hand is very difficult without the element of surprise.
History Of Your CharacterHarlan is the third son of Andrew Crowe, an ex-cop who owns a licensed private investigators agency called The Crow's Eye. Harlan's school life was average and he had an inclination for acting and the performing arts, dreaming of making it big in Hollywood and acting along the likes of Anne Hathaway or Jessica Biel. He went to college in New York, going for an acting degree and doing part time jobs at his father's agency, since it let him practice some of his acting skills, specially lying and pretending he's someone he's really not. He also picked up investigative techniques on the job and learnt how to use a handgun, even though strictly as a self defense tool.
He finished college at age 23, stuck around working full time with his father since it paid more than his acting gigs, but he was totally intent on going to Hollywood once he had some money, made some contacts and had a little more experience in theatre and commercials. He could have easily gone his entire life without knowing he was a mutant, but that was not meant to be.
Working on a case for a woman who had been scammed by her husband, he managed to find the scammer in a warehouse. The man was large and strong, with a taste for katana blades and as it turned out, he was involved in the drug trade. Harlan witnessed through a window as the husband used a katana to murder a man who had been tied by the hands and ankles. He took pictures of it all on his phone, but was captured by the husband's bodyguard before he could flee the scene. Harlan himself was then handcuffed, beaten and forced to confess who he was. When he caved in and spilled the beans, the bodyguard tied him in such a way that Harlan's arms were stretched over a table, pulled by the wrists from the handcuffs. The husband wiped his sword clean, and wagered the bodyguard he could cut both hands off with just one stroke of the blade.
Harlan begged and cried and the trauma from the feeling of helplessness from that experience still haunts him to this day. They laughed and taunted him, until the moment came when the man raised the blade and lowered it over Harlan's wrists in one quick, yet powerful stroke.
What happened next was a mix of confusion, screaming and fear from all three of them combined. Harlan felt the pain as the blade sliced through and felt his arms freed from the shackles, but he had the distinct impression that he could still move his hands. The bodyguard held him by the head against the table while the man with the katana realized the fallen hands were still moving its fingers and where there should be a pool and streams of blood, there was nothing but a blueish, translucent cover over the wounds.
That spooked him. The man ordered the bodyguard to raise Harlan's head and expose his neck. The bodyguard pulled Harlan by his hair, forced him to the ground on his knees and in an instant, the blade sliced through Harlan's neck.
That's when the man and the bodyguard pretty much crapped their pants.
Harlan kept on screaming, his head detached without him fully realizing it. The bodyguard dropped it to the floor, screams of 'shoot him! SHOOT HIM! HE'S A FREAK!' ringed in his ears and Harlan instinctively tried to get up. He felt his arms pushing but his body was not under his head, yet he still felt his head rise. When he looked down, there was empty air under his neck. More screaming ensued and as the now shaken bodyguard managed to take out his gun, Harlan's head instinctively ducked for cover behind the man with the katana. Shots were fired and the man dropped the sword as he fell dead, while the bodyguard was too terrified to realize he had murdered his own boss trying to shoot a flying head. He dropped his gun and ran out of the warehouse as fast as his legs could take him.
It took Harlan several minutes to get himself organized and leave the scene. He realized his body was still connected somehow when he managed to throw up, his heaving stomach sitting with his body on the ground while his spitting mouth was floating three feet off the floor. It took him even longer to call the agency. His father was informed of the whole situation, went to pick him up and called the police. The gun was tracked to the bodyguard, the sword to the murdered man and the previously killed victim was also found. What no one found was any traces of a private investigator snooping around the scene.
It took him several years to deal with the consequences of that day. He went through denial, depression, rage and finally acceptance. He took a more sarcastic view of life and dropped his dreams of ever becoming an actor, focusing instead on learning how his mutation worked and how to use it to his advantage. He lived with his father for a couple of years until his old man convinced him it was time to get back on the horse and start working again.
Harlan returned to work fully as a licensed private investigator, using his abilities for many things no normal man could hope to do. Snooping was so easy for him with a pair of flying hands and a head to match them. The one thing Harlan always tried to convince his father about, was that mutants were a market that was being completely ignored and even avoided by other agencies, but his father had his reasons. Mutants were unpredictable and there were too many variables. Where a normal man needs a door or a window to break into a room, mutants can phase through walls, teleport inside, turn microscopic or use many ways to accomplish their goals. They had always had this difference in opinion, but when his father retired from the trade and left Harlan to manage the agency, he made it a priority to delve and succeed in the mutant market.
Now in charge of The Crow's Eye, Harlan Crowe is very interested in meeting other mutants, learn what they can do, catalog them and if their abilities warrant it, even use them to his advantage in his trade.
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?: Google
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Miles Derek Haxton
Sample RP:Doot deet doot doot DOOT!Doot deet doot doot DOOT!Pick it up, woman.
Doot deet doot doot DOOT!She picked up the phone on the fourth ring and gave him her usual greeting in that sweet voice of hers.
"The Crow's Eye, Private Investigations Agency, this is Ellie speaking, how may I help you?"
"Hey there, Penny Mae"
Her voice instantly went ice cold. He knew she wasn't up to this stupid game this late in the afternoon, but did he really give a damn?
"Missster Crowe" she said, restraining herself as best she could. "You KNOW my name is not Penny Mae."
"But it's such a beautiful name, all sexy like. I had a girlfriend whose name was Penny Mae and she loved it so much. Why don't you like it?"
"Because it's not mine."
"What's your name again?"
"You can call me Ellie, and you know it."
"But what's your
full name, honey?"
She sighed and he covered his phone as he snickered quietly so she wouldn't hear him.
"Eliodora Marabunda Benavides, but like I said, you can call me Ellie for short."
"Your parents were cruel, Penny Mae."
She didn't like that at all and Harlan managed to hear her huff,even if she tried to hide it. Then she brought out that sassy attitude of hers and Harlan knew he had pushed her enough.
"Mister Crowe. It's late and I'm leaving soon. If you call me Penny Mae one more time, I'll hang up the phone and I won't pick it back up again, no matter what you wanted to call me for..."
"Fine, fine..." he conceded, putting 'pleasantries' aside and jumping right into business. "I'm sitting in my car across the street from Mr. Tolliver's office building, working Burke's case. This BBB just parked her car in the office garage and she's going in. What am I supposed to do again?"
"What's a BBB?"
"Bloned Bimbo Bombshell. Or maybe Blonde Bombshell Bimbo, not really sure. Why isn't Burke doing this? It's his case."
"He called in sick. He's been trying to get evidence on Mr. Tolliver cheating on his wife for her child custody and property dispute case, but he sees this other woman after hours on his office on the fourth floor. He hasn't been able to get in or bug the place."
"He hasn't...? Am I actually paying him to do this? This is easy as pie! Piece of cake! He's a bonafide professional!"
Penny Mae's voice remained serious and matter-of-factly. She knew very well when she could get away with things and when she couldn't. It also helped that Harlan's father was still the owner of the Agency and he was very fond of her, since she had come through for him multiple times when he was the boss.
"Not everyone has a flying head and for some of us, climbing to the fourth floor window of a building is quite a hassle" she said.
"Damn straight it is" he answered, confident and proud that for him, it was barely a nuisance. "You're gonna have your evidence in a minute."
"Tolliver has been playing it careful and Burke has been working this case for a while now. Are you sure you'll succeed where he failed?"
"I'm not Burke, so of course I will," he said as he closed the call.
Harlan opened the sun roof from his car. It was late afternoon on a lazy saturday, there were almost no cars parked on the office building lot, meaning most employees had gone home, there was only one window with it's lights on, meaning Mr. Tolliver was working there (and would soon be
oh so busy) and there weren't that many commuters walking on the street. No one would notice a flying head and a pair of hands ejecting from a vehicle to take pictures from outside a fourth floor window, the conditions were perfect for it.
The mutant's head shot up from his neck, followed by his hands, one of them holding his cell phone. The picture quality he could get from it was good enough for what he needed and it was easier to carry than a full blown professional camera. He quickly made it to the window, his two hands holding the phone and his breath condensing on the pane of glass as he looked around and found...
...no one. The office was empty.
Crap. Maybe they'd decided to use another office as their love nest? The light from every single one was out. And what if they'd decided to take matters on an office or room that wasn't even facing outside?
This needed a closer approach.
Harlan floated his head and hands downwards, peeked into the parking garage underneath the building and found it empty as well, except for the BBB's car. The glass door into the building however had a card security system, but his eyes veered towards a small, metal door on the wall with a tiny fenced window on top. Harlan floated closer, took a peek through the fenced slots and noticed garbage bags all piled up inside and next to them, a garbage chute.
He grinned. The door only had a spring lock mechanism that made it close automatically but you only needed a pull from your finger to open it, which he did. He floated his head and hands inside, snuck into the open bottom of the chute and flew himself up. It was dark, stinky and the walls were messy, but using the light from his cell, he managed to avoid touching the walls and reach the door of the garbage chute on the fourth floor. Then he tried to push it open with his head and...
... nothing happened. The door didn't budge.
Wait, what?
The door could only be pushed from outside. There was a spring mechanism holding it tightly in place and no lever to pull it from. Harlan tried to pry it open with his fingers to no avail, it just kept slipping.
He grumbled. He'd need to find another way in, so he floated himself down and out of the chute and tried to push open the metal door leading to the parking garage.
Nothing happened. This door didn't budge either. The spring lock had closed it from outside. The tiny window had a fence and the holes were too small for him to fit anything through. He was locked inside the garbage compartment of an office building on a saturday. They'd be opening back to work on monday.
What an easy as pie, piece of cake mission! Penny Mae would laugh her ass off if she could see him now!
Wait, wait... there had to be a way out. Harlan waited a few minutes to see if anyone left the building so he could yell at them and have himself freed, but no one did. Time was running out, Burke was sick, Lyle was out of town and Penny Mae would soon leave the office as well, so he only had two options:
1) Clamber his body out of the car via the sunroof. Have its headless, handless ass stumble blindly across the street all the way into the parking garage and use its stumps to pull open the spring locked door or...
2) Swallow his pride and call Penny Mae for help.
Decisions, decisions...
Harlan's body was half ways out of the car as he felt his way with his arms, trying to pull himself out, until he heard the distinct sound of an eighteen wheeler, with its twin mufflers going all BRRRRRWAAAAAAHRRR as it sped through the street he had to cross without being able to see where he was going.
Was this really worth it? Was he actually willing to bet his life on this? He grumbled as he decided option '2' was actually the wisest choice, but there had to be a way for him to make it look less embarrassing. He had already belittled Burke's work, he was not going to have this be the talk of the office all of next week.
Harlan thought for a few minutes and came up with a reasonable tall tale. All right, he'd call the office, tell Penny Mae he managed to take the pictures, BUT!... he also noticed Tolliver dumping evidence down the garbage chute, so he had gone and tried to pick it up but it had gotten mixed up with the rest of the trash, so now he needed her to bring the pick up truck over, so he could stash it all in there and sort it out afterwards. When she arrived, he could pretend he was classifying the trash and the moment she opened that damn door, he'd sneak a hand out and hold it in place.
She'd never dare to question him lest he politely suggest he needed help. She'd keep her mouth shut if it meant not playing with garbage. Was he actually willing to carry useless trash in the pick up truck just to keep his pride intact?
Yes, he totally was! It was a brilliant plan!
Harlan fumbled with his phone and called back to the office.
Doot deet doot doot DOOT!Doot deet doot doot DOOT!Pick it up, woman!
"The Crow's Eye, Private Investigations Agency, this is Ellie speaking, how may I help you?"
"Hey there, Penny Mae..."
*CLICK!*....
....
....
"GOD DAMMIT!!!"
