Character LogIndividualCharacter's full name: Maksimilian Zaslavskaya
Alias: Trenchfoot
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Date of Birth: (02/27/1983)
Nationality/ Ethnicity: American / Russian
Birthplace: Vladivostok, Russia
Home: Shadowy Places of NYC
AppearanceHair color and style: Bald
Eyes: Milky green and rotten brown, like a boiled egg yolk rolled in bacon fat.
Height: 5'11"
Build: Condensed, average build
Visible mutation: Maks' skin has been replaced with a virulent, living carpet of fungus. The coloration is mostly purple with twists of green and a deep red, and the texture varies not only by location, but by the day to day movements and growths of his own flesh. In a quiet room, his skin squirms audibly, giving off the impression of a jar of writhing worms. This 'skin' covers everything up to his jawline and face, leaving the skin on the surface there relatively normal. Left unchecked, the growth would continue to cover his face, so he removes it daily by cutting it away. This process is painful, but for the sake of saving others the constant revulsion of seeing him, he does so.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Thick scarring along his jawline and neck, which ends as the fungus begins.
Everyday clothing style: A thick canvas trenchcoat with a coil of rope around the midsection, a pair of old black boots with the laces removed
Sleepwear: A damp hole, some garden mulch, or an old tarp.
Miscellaneous clothing: Old backpack, sealed plastic wallet.
CharacterPersonality: Maks is slow in thought and speech. He has none of the glands and brain chemicals that fuel emotions such as fear and love, and though he recalls these sensations, they are fuzzy memories of a chaotic time when the heart ruled the body. Maks subscribes to the world, even with its complex societal intrigues and unnecessary culture, as part of the natural cycle; there are predators, and there are prey. The 'casually murderous' and the 'thoughtlessly brutal' are just as abhorrent to nature as many humans consider Maks. The 'benevolent' and the 'protectors of mankind' are equally to blame for interrupting the way of the world. Creatures are meant to die in their own time, and if they are too weak to help themselves, they are deserving of their fate. Despite this simple philosophy, Maks is an avid conspiracy theorist, believing that within every action and word, there is a hidden purpose, usually diabolical and self-serving for the originator. This is not to say that he 'trusts no one', as Maks believes that only the immature and childish truly 'trust no one'. Instead, Maks is
fiercely loyal and trustworthy to beings he considers friends.
Hobbies/ Interests: Mycology, Natural Sciences, Wrestling, a Secret love for cooking.
Job or part time job and description: Unemployed.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Maks has earned a passionate mistrust of psychics and telepaths, and finds himself intensely uncomfortable around people significantly more intelligent than he is. Maks also hates cats, mistrusting them in a bizarre, paranoid fashion.
Special talents: Maksimilian is a practiced wrestler, considering it the best way to handle combat. In a way, he calls on his nature as a plant to
grasp things and dig deep into the earth. He is far from a scientist, and is more of a home-grown expert on fungi.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: Lawful Neutral. There is no good, there is no evil. There is only the way that the world works.
MutationsMutation description: Only a tiny portion of Maks, the skin of his face, is truly human any more. It merely sits on the surface of his flesh, appearing like a well-designed rubber mask. The remainder of Maksimilian's body has been replaced with a fungal mockery of human flesh with no discernable organs or bone structure. Maks does not bleed, and instead will continually drip and leave behind lumps of harmless fungi in his wake, unless he attempts to control this. Even his brain matter has been replaced with a spongy, fibrous mess. His body retains its humanoid shape at all times, and he has no control over his physical appearance or the shape of his body. Maks does not breathe, but if deprived of oxygen for too long, he will die. Maks' body, and his fungal spawns, remain at room temperature at all times. Maks no longer sleeps or dreams, and instead enters a resting state for several hours every day.
Strengths:Spawn Carpet: With a physical touch, Maks can spawn a carpet of a fungus of his choice. Maks must have physical contact with a surface to initiate the carpet, which then spreads in a formation or direction he commands. Maks does not have to maintain contact for the carpet to grow, but its growth speed and his level of control is enhanced if he does. Maks can achieve this same effect by hurling a projectile, either by balling it up in his hand, dropping a wad of his from his body, or by violently
purging it out of his mouth. The effect is the same as if Maks had initiated a carpet with a touch and then let go, growing more slowly than if he had made contact. When thrown or spewed, a fungal projectile only reaches the same distance as a football throw from a decent quarterback; about 60 yards on average. It lobs slowly through the air like a massive spitwad, and is rather easy to dodge. All fungal carpets can be created on, or thrown onto, a living creature or their clothing, or on an inanimate object or surface, where it will grow at its appropriate rate. If left on for an inordinate amount of time, the fungus strengthens its grip, and if the environment is acceptable and unless Maksimilian commands otherwise, the fungus will remain alive and growing. The fungus can be scraped off of a person with relative ease, requiring only several seconds to remove the gunk before it locks its hold. Maks can control the carpets once they are spawned, and can start or stop their effects at will. Maks' carpets can only extend up to a 10 foot diameter around him, and distant growths can reach a 5 foot diameter.
Time on Living Target with Contact: Half a minute for full body coverage and minimal to no resistance from target.
Time on Living Target without Contact: One minute and a half for full body coverage and no resistance from target.
On inanimate objects, the carpet grows slower than a person can move at a casual walk; he is incapable of 'catching' someone who is normally ambulatory. Given that the average human walks at a speed of Three Miles Per Hour, that's 15840 Feet Per Hour, or 264 feet per minute, or 4.4 feet per second, walking speed. Maks' fungus grows at approximately 3 feet per second on inanimate surfaces and with contact. Without contact, it grows at approximately 1 and a Half feet per second.
Fungal types are listed blow.
Harmless: Lumps and clusters of fungi spread from the epicenter. This version of the carpet is never harmful in any way, even if ingested. With this power, Maks can create edible fungi, and even specific types and species, as long as they are harmless.
Slickspore: This variant creates a slippery, wet spread of squirming mold. Beings caught on the surface run a high risk of slipping and failing attempts to balance. Removing a Slickspore carpet from a surface may be more difficult depending on the tools or powers used, as blunt objects and fingertips will simply slip off. For real-world comparisons, consider driving on Black Ice, or trying to remove spilled olive oil using only your fingertips.
Stickspore: Stickspore is a powerful adhesive. It is in no way strong enough to restrain an average human upon first contact unless they are almost completely covered on one side, or remain in the Stick long enough for Maks to begin enveloping their bodies in it. Even then, supernatural strength or special abilities could easily free one from the mess. At its strongest, the Stick can manage to slow or even stop a car, bind an object smaller than a refrigerator, and slow down ground-based enemies. A being that is hit with a glob of stickspore may find themselves slowed or even bound if they do not quickly remove the substance. The difficulties of removal are left up to your own imagination.
Weaknesses:
Who It Cannot Affect: Beings without nervous systems, or who are covered in a substance other than skin, or who do not breathe through fleshy lungs, or who have otherwise extraordinary organs may not be affected by some powers. Many of the sporeclouds need time to really affect someone, meaning a character can simply dodge or move out of the carpet's radius to escape their more serious effects.
Removal: All carpets can be removed from their surfaces. Some carpets are more difficult to remove in accordnace with their types; these difficulties are suggested in the fungal-type. Fungal carpets will dry out or die if left in harmful environments, or if Maks commands them to release themselves into death.
Climate: The growth and health of fungal spawns are less effective in cold temperatures and dry climates, and will halt when approaching sources of fire or extreme heat. Powerful winds will render spore clouds ineffective, or disperse them into a different direction.
Past His Limit: Maks goes past his limit when he exerts too much of his power without resting or taking in nutrients. His body begins to shut down, and he may simply collapse, unable to move or think, until he can restore himself.
Secondary mutation description: Maks' own nature as a fungal mass has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:Fungal Monstrosity: Maksimilian's mind is no longer composed of flesh, and instead has been dispersed throughout his entire body with no discernable organs or bone structure. He is still as smart as he ever was (that is to say, not very smart) and essentially, each length of his 'brain' has been reduced so that it could be spread. Because of this, any attempt to sense him telepathically has the same effect as trying to telepathically sense a plant that possesses an active X-gene, and psychic powers may experience little or no effect. He is still a Mutant, and he is still sentient, but the mind itself is subdued. Powers related to possession, the soul, the mind, and the physical senses may find themselves thwarted or lessened by Maks' nature. Drugs, narcotics, and pharmaceuticals that affect humans have no effect on Maksimilian.
Tough: Maks' body is unnaturally tough and hardy, and can take a remarkable level of punishment. Solid blows only cause dents, straght slashes may only leave a thin line that can seal quickly, energy blasts may merely sizzle, and piercing weapons cause no more than a fashionable hole. Significant damage and the removal of limbs will render him immobile and helpless.
Fungal Reformation: While out of combat, Maks can grow his flesh in the place of what is lost, having it look like the wound is 'closing up'. While in combat, he must grow some fungus in his hand, or tear some from somewhere else, and simply shove it into the wound, if he cares enough to even fill the gap. Without organs or bone structure, he's merely making sure he's still able to function. To many holes in the chest and it might start to sag forward. Too many chunks out of the thighs and he won't be able to walk.
Fungal Effects: Maks can instantly create the same effects with his body that he can with his spore carpets.
Immune to Spores: Unless he chooses otherwise, Maks is immune to the effects of his own powers. Should Maks cover parts of his allies with his Harmless fungi, he can render those parts of their bodies immune to physical contact with the carpets or the spores. This immunity can only be conferred by Maks himself.
Electric Resistance: Electricity still causes significant contact burns, but even on a fungal being that is naturally moist, the pain and convulsions are diminished. With no muscles to override or brain synapses to fire, electricity is less effective on Maks than it is on humans.
Weaknesses:Fungal Monstrosity: Maks' mind has been stretched out and simplified. This has made him somewhat slow to think or to realize certain concepts quickly. This, in addition to his slow physical body, makes him easy to predict or outsmart in combat. He and all of his powers and their effects are easily commanded by Mutants with power over plants and natural creatures.
Obvious: All of Maks' powers, including Maks himself, are inherently
obvious. Maks himself is repellent to the senses, and even with the face of normal skin, he is tragically horrifying to behold. He represents what can happen to a Mutant when their Mutation replaces the baseline Human. It is impossible to hide his abilities in combat, or subtly strike at an enemy in a situation where Mutants must remain hidden. Even closely wrapped, the sound of his skin and the smell he exudes are difficult to ignore. Additionally, nearly all spores are easily seen in the air.
Fire Weakness / Cold Weakness: Maks' body requires a moderate amount of moisture to keep from drying out. Normally, his body produces this moisture itself, but in dry climates, continual sunlight, or frigid cold, there is a danger of
crusting over. The surface layers of his body will become dead and broken, eventually cracking and falling off painfully. Powers relating to fire or cold are significantly effective on Maks and his powers.
Slow: The nature of Maks' mutation prevents quick movements. He can manage a decent hustle or a sidestep-dodge, but anything faster is beyond him. He can hurl or spew a wad powerfully, but that is the extent of his 'bursts of speed'.
Feeding: Maks is unable to take in food normally, and must instead absorb it through his outer layers. Despite being a 'plant', Maks does not take in energy from the sun, and instead will Dry Out in direct sunlight!
Agent Orange: Though Maks and his powers are by no means mundane fungi, they are still subject to many of the same rules. Defoliants have the same effect as a can of raid on a mutant with an insectoid body. They will sicken him, and weaken his creations. There is risk of severe chemical
death if a defoliant is introduced to him in large doses. Luckily, like insects, Maks can slowly gain a resistance to chemicals over time.
Ground-Based: Maksimilian loses most of his combat effectiveness if he is brought out of contact with a surface. Any power that can lift him off the ground only has to worry about existing powers Maks already used, and his projectiles. As the projectiles each take a moment to prepare, anyone could easily catch them in the air.
Fighting StyleExplanation: Maks' fighting style revolves primarily around Battlefiend Control and Area Denial. In close combat, Maks prefers to grapple his opponents, wrapping his limbs around them and holding on as tight as possible. When affixed in this way, he may try to incite a fungal growth on his opponent from his own body, slowly engulfing them, or at least leaving a spawned carpet should be he torn off. Maks is incapable of real fighting, as he is far too slow to trade punchs or kicks.
Pros for fighting style: An accomplished wrestler and grappler, focusing on holds, take-downs, tackles, and throws.
Cons for fighting style: Despite the visual impressiveness of Maks' mutation and powers, there is little in the way of immediate damaging effects. Aside from hurling or spewing a wad of his most virulent fungal concoction or filling an entire room with a carpet, Maks' attacks can be easily dodged.
Faction Allegiance: Unaffiliated.
History Of Your Character:Maks did not have a traumatic childhood, or a psychological impediment, or some other horrible experience that would scar him to the end of his days. He was a normal child of a Russian immigrant family in New York City, a family from whom he seperated to work and live on his own once he came of age. When his powers manifested at twenty, the body-coverage was was complete almost overnight, and his apartment was flooded with the horrible growth. Before the last of his human mind was transformed, Maks recognized what he was becoming, and knew that he had no choice but to disappear. For several years, he wandered the cramped hallways of the sewers, slinking through the shadows and controlling his powers out of a need to survive. Though many creatures would become bored and insane, Maks had lost most of the complex needs of the human mind. He entertained himself by taking over small sections of the sewers, practicing and studying his creations as he enveloped drainage ditches and swarmed his fungus over the walls and ceilings. It would take 8 years for Maks to remember 'loneliness'.
In the present, Maks has decided it may be time to set out, and see what the Mutant culture has to offer for a rejected and despondent creature like himself. He knows little of what has come to pass in the city of New York, and is apprehensive at best about how things will turn out for him. Still, he is ready, spreading out of the darkness like a slowly-creeping infection...
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?: Googled X-Men Rolepaying Forums
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: None.
Sample RP: Under a dark sky, a single man-hole cover rose, borne aloft by an inhuman hand. The street of abandoned apartment complexes echoed the dull scraping that was quickly followed by a sound like a fish being gutted. Trenchfoot, returning to the surface world after years of isolation, hauled his putrescent form up and out of the hole. It was darkly reminiscent of some creature being born from the streets and muck of New York City itself, and in a way, that was the case. "Hello New York." the creature said, his voice wrenching up out his body like air squeezed through rotten oranges. He looked up at the moon; his sour-milk eyes reflected the magnificent gleam of the celestial rock. "Hello Sky." he mused. As he looked out to the errant shadows left by flickering streetlights, he spied a sleeping man; some homeless derelict covered in rags. The man was a soldier in the army of disaffected adults, their drug addictions and pyschological traumas preventing them from being a functioning part of the natural world. "Hello, Humanity." he said.
The creature began to step across the street, the asphalt feeling cold and foreign on his bare feet. With the silence of a crawling leech, he loomed over the sleeping man, Trenchfoot's mass silhouetted with a silvery lining from the moon above. That inhuman hand reached out once more, and the homeless man awakened, his head lifting up from the book that was his impromptu pillow. As Trenchfoot's hand covered his face with a wet squelch, the human struggles vainly under the powerful grasp, feeling some kind of horrible
thing snaking its way across his eyes and ears. The creature looked down to the book, recognizing it as a Bible, and looks back to the man.
"Bible? Bible is to God... as a Clock is to Time. Putting a physical face on an... invented concept."
He shrugged as he said this. He was likely wrong; it took him three years to come up with that, and the idea was still bouncing around. The homeless man didn't seem to think much of it, as he had given up his struggle and quietly suffocated in the time the phrase had taken to say. Wordlessly, Trenchfoot removes the man's coat, hat, and belt, donning the items clumsily. It felt... strange to wear these things again.
"Clothes... Stairs... Cars... Only humans need these things." he surmised. Now
that... that he was certain of.
With a nod, Trenchfoot stepped away, leaving the man to stare lifelessly at the sky, his face locked in a red masque of death.
