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Mr. Vaudeville
Participant

Notes: I know there are a few things wrong with the image (layering fails, mostly), but I can live with them for now. I found it quite a challenge to describe and categorise his gear, but I think the concept is lots of fun.

Profile

Alias: The Magician
Legal Name: James Locke
Gender: Male
Age: 30
Ethnicity: American
Occupation: Sound/Lighting technician; Gambler; Vigilante; Anti-hero.
Height: 5′ 11′
Body Type: Toned, slim
Hair Colour: Dark brown
Hair Type: Short, straight
Eye Colour: Dark brown
Skin Colour: White/Light tan
Species: Human

Powers and Abilities

Powers: ‘Magic’ (Via technological tricks and gadgets)
Details/Limitations: Uses technology and gadgets to achieve a variety of seemingly magical attacks, abilities, and effects; limited to what he can carry on his person.
Abilities/Skills: Stage magic, pyrotechnics, sound/light engineering, Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai.
Costume: Bulletproof, stab resistant shirt; combat trousers with armour inserts; utility belts; steel-toed boots; fireproof trench coat, mask, and hat; Neckerchief ‘for colour’ .
Weapons: A custom double-barrelled, sawn-off shotgun, modified to fire non-lethal rounds, beanbags, smoke bomb shells, and flash-bang shells; a deck of thin, lightweight ‘throwing knives’ designed to resemble playing cards.
Gadgets/Tech: Wrist mounted fireball launchers/flamethrowers; utility belts contain smoke bombs, flash-bang grenades, handheld holographic projector (for casting ‘illusions’), chemical powders for causing sleep or hallucinations.
Physical Weaknesses: Only slightly above average human strength, speed, and stamina.
Mental/Emotional Weaknesses: Has a habit of gambling and taking chances. Vulnerable to psychic attack.

Personality and Relationships

Primary Traits: Jaded, cynical, cunning, risk-taker, maverick.
Likes: Magic, music, theatre, casinos, poker, technology, science-fiction.
Dislikes: Loansharks, mobsters, sports, mushrooms, the government.
Habits/Quirks: Addicted to gambling, almost always owing lots of money to lots of different people. Often to the first to make a joke or quip with a dry and cynical sense of humour, although he tends to see the worst in humanity and trusts almost nobody, preferring to work as a lone wolf. When on patrol and ‘in character’, he enjoys dramatics and refers to his tricks and attacks as actual magic. He thinks it’s hilarious that some of the criminals he encounters believe he has actual superpowers. Sometimes displays psychopathic tendencies when dealing with criminals – a true vigilante, with no problem using violence to fight violence, and willing to break the law without a second thought to apprehend serious criminals.
Fears: Needles, mild vertigo.
Family: Mother in Atlantic City (may or may not actually exist, but he refers to her a lot in jokes and quips).
Romantic Interests: Lady Luck.
Allies: Paragon, The Jetman, Mantis, Overmind, Solara
Affiliations: International Freedom League, United States Sentinels.
Rivals/Nemesis: Lady Luck, Memnon, The Don
Enemies: The Shadowguard, the Mutant Syndicate, Tau Magi, Church of the Fractured Dawn, certain members of the Lawless Earth Network.

Origin

Born somewhere on the east coast of the United States to young and unstable parents, James led an unremarkable life until he went to college. While studying sound and lighting technology – and with his parents breaking apart – he developed addictions to gambling, fast women, drinking, and recreational drugs. After graduating, he moved to Las Vegas, NV, where he could use his qualifications and further his love of gambling, abandoning his roots.

Throughout his 20’s, he worked as a technician behind the scenes at many of Vegas’ smaller and less prestigious venues, befriending those stage magicians, comedians, singers, and other performers that frequented the same casinos. While he broke the addictions to drink and drugs, the gambling problem only worsened, resulting to him eventually owing money to a few criminal gangs, including the Mutant Syndicate. Able to claw his way back from the brink, he did enjoy some successes – enough to purchase a decent apartment and live reasonably – but he was never truly stable and always ended up back in debt before long.

Late one evening, after a half-decent magic show at mediocre club, James was packing away the sound gear alone backstage, as usual. It was the end of the night, and very few people were still around, when he saw and heard a mugging in progress in the alleyway outside the stage door. He improvised with some stage lights and pyrotechnics to frighten and confuse the attackers, physically beating one of them and causing the rest to flee, saving a couple of young friends from being beaten and robbed. Inspired by his own ‘good deed’ and excited by the thrill of punching a criminal in the face, he came up with the ‘Magician’ persona and decided to become a vigilante.

Spending a large chunk of casino winnings on martial arts lessons and developing his vigilante costume, while stealing a few gadgets from some of the better performers, he turned out to be an excellent crime fighter, if a bit more violent than most. Las Vegas police started to find a lot of criminals beaten, bruised, burned, and handcuffed by the time they arrived at the scene, and reports started to emerge of the ‘Mysterious Magician’ or the ‘Masked Magician’ in the press. In less than a year, he gained the attention of the superhero community at large – who disapproved of his violent methods but were impressed by his results – and joined the United States Sentinels. He was invited to join the IFF another year later, where he is kept on a tight leash.

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