Nova Name: Never-Never
Real Name: Naori Kadar
Eruption: Emotional Trauma
Nature: Jester
Allegiance: Four Horsemen, The Apostle
Concept: Madman
Archetype: Stage II Portent
Background: Naori was a French Saudi boy who had everything and anything thanks to his father a Saudi oil tycoon Almad Kadar. Even as a young man Naori was jaded. By the age of 17 he had slept with dozens of women and had excelled at every activity he had put his mind to. His father didn't see anything wrong with his son and his mother had left years ago.
Naori had dozens of siblings and being the eldest he was also the most popular. He learned sleight of hand and mime to entertain his brothers and sisters, which made him always the center of attention when he visited from Princeton. He also pleased his father by becoming an accomplished athlete, horse racer and stock car driver. At age 18 Naori's list of accomplishments read like a copy of the requirements for a Romance novel hero. But the year 2000 was approaching and slowly novas were beginning to occupy the thoughts of everyone.
Naori began to follow the exploits of novas as avidly as everyone else. But after he graduated from Princeton at the early age of 18 he returned home to find that he was no longer the center of everyone's attention. the brothers and sisters he had entertained every summer with his magic tricks and performances now only wanted to hear about the American novas that Naori had met because of his family's money. Especially devastating to him were the youngest ones, who ran around pretending to be novas while ignoring him. One of his younger sisters, 8 year old Afifah, would pester him constantly to tell her stories about novas.
Things got worse for Naori when his father installed a wide screen TV in the palace complete with satellite dish. Now his siblings didn't even need to ask him to tell them stories about novas. They could follow their exploits themselves on the news and the N! network. Now Naori even missed Afifah's constant pestering. His frustration soon turned into obsession which would prove fatal for Afifah.
One day Naori bet an American nova 200,000 dollars that he could beat him in a horse race. The nova worked for a security agency that was working with his father's oil company to protect the pipelines. Naori the more experienced rider won the race easily and came home ecstatic. But his siblings soon crushed his good mood with questions about his competitor. He simply could not understand why they would still prefer to talk about the man who lost. Afifah was merciless in her hounding that day. She wanted to know every detail, from what the nova was wearing to what his powers could do and even what he had eaten for their brunch. Naori finally lost his temper and sent everyone away in a true display of temper.
Most of his brothers and sisters knew better than to press the issue with their older brother. He could be just as hot tempered as their father when he didn't get his way. The servants in particular could expect severe beatings and rough treatment if he noticed them while in one of his foul moods. But Afifah was too young to realize the danger and just smart enough to think that she would give her older brother a piece of her mind and get away with it like their mother would when he was younger. She confronted her brother alone in his room. She was direct, to the point and in her mind, entirely justified. She accused her brother of being jealous of the nova because the nova had let him win the race. Naori backhanded her across the face so hard that she slid across the floor with a broken jaw and missing several teeth. Far beyond any rational thought Naori pounced on her, repeatedly pummeling her small body with his fists. When he finally stopped there was nothing recognizable about Afifah. Her body had been reduced to a bloody mess.
That was when Naori erupted. Afifah's body disintegrated, converting into raw energy. Naori took that energy and forced it into solid form again, creating a silver and gold statue of his sister that captured her in a joyous pose quite the opposite of her final moments. After he erupted he collapsed helpless in the pain of the post eruption stress. Immobile he was carried out of the house to a waiting helicopter while all his siblings watched on. They were merely curious, but in his mind the stares were all too knowing and each set of eyes held a silent accusation of his crime.
His father did not want anyone to know the particulars of his son's eruption. Especially that the eruption had resulted in his sister's death. Naori's eruption had eliminated all trace of his crime and his family assumed it was an unfortunate side effect of his eruption. His father managed to send him off to live with Raul Orzaiz. The count did not have time to care for the young basket case however and Naori was shuffled from one house to another until Delorimier met with the boy. The Apostle saw the power residing inside the broken shell of a man and coaxed Naori out of his catatonia. He renamed him Never-Never from the boy's mumblings whenever he would enter Chrysalis. Never-Never is unique in that each time he undergoes Chrysalis his body remains unchanged while his mind becomes ever more warped.
Roleplaying Notes: While most Terats seek Chrysalis as a way to turn mental deviations into physical aberrations, Never-Never finds that boring. The way he sees it, when you change your body, you only change the way you look. That doesn't change who you are. Never-Never usually emerges from Chrysalis with a different and wider array of mental aberrations, but his fear of small children remains constant. When confronted with a child under the age of 13 or so, Never-Never will immediately disintegrate the child and transform the energy into a gold and silver statue.
Never-Never has a unique power to convert matter into energy and then convert that energy back into matter, but of a different kind. When Never-Never uses his power of Disintegration he can then use his Absorption power to convert the resulting energy into fuel for his Matter Creation power. To activate Matter Creation, Never-Never has to activate Disintegrate during the same turn at the same time of his use of Matter Creation. He doesn't suffer split dice penalty.
In combat he uses his powers to confuse his opponents as well as bring them down. He creates many clockwork animatronic creatures to distract his opponents. He also animates whatever objects happen to be in the area to add to the confusion. To further rattle his enemies he Teleports himself and everyone in the vicinity to random locations across the globe and even some across the galaxy. He will usually drop or pick up people and objects along the way. Some combatants might be stranded in strange locals, while some innocent bystanders are whisked away into a battle they never knew was coming. When he is ready to go in for the kill however he simply disintegrates his opponents turning them into energy which he then turns into fanciful statues that resemble the person but which are clothed in garish and overly decorative garments.
Attributes:
Strength: 3, Dexterity: 5, Stamina: 3, Perception: 4, Intelligence: 5,
Wits: 5, Appearance: 5, Manipulation: 5, Charisma: 5
Abilities:
Athletics: 5 (Acrobatics, Dodge, Jump, Fall, Tumbling), Drive: 5, Firearms: 5, Legerdemain: 5, Martial Arts: 5, Melee: 5, Ride: 4, Stealth: 5,
Endurance: 3, Resistance: 3, Awareness: 5, Academics: 5, Bureaucracy: 3, Computer: 4, Intrusion: 5, Linguistics: 5, Medicine: 5, Science: 5, Survival: 3,
Arts: 5, Biz: 3, Rapport: 5, Intimidation: 2, Style: 5, Interrogation: 2,
Streetwise: 4, Subterfuge: 5, Etiquette: 4, Perform: 5 (Mime)
Backgrounds:
Allies: 3, Attunement: 4, Backing: 3, Cipher: 5, Dormancy: 5, Eufiber: 5, Followers: 4, Influence: 3, Mentor: 4, Node: 5, Resources: 4
Mega Attributes:
Mega Strength: 2 (Quantum Leap)
Mega Dexterity: 5 (Catfooted, Fast Tasks, Flexibility, Perfect Balance, Physical Prodigy)
Mega Stamina: 3 (Resiliency, Tireless)
Mega Perception: 4 (Blind Fighting, High End Electromagnetic Scan)
Mega Intelligence: 5 (Analyze Weakness, Linguistic Genius)
Mega Wits: 5 (Artistic Genius, Enhanced Initiative, Natural Empath, Quickness x2)
Mega Appearance: 3 (Appearance Alteration, Damn Cute, Mr. Nobody)
Mega Manipulation: 5 (Conflicting Accounts, Creeping Paranoia, Hypnotic Gaze, The Voice, Trickster)
Mega Charisma: 4 (Natural Agitator, Soothe)
Mega Abilities:
Mega Athletics: 5 (Catfall, Human Fly, Mid-Aerial Dodge, Proactive Dodge)
Advantages:
Willpower: 10, Quantum: 5, Taint: 3, Chrysalis: 8, Quantum Pool: 61, Initiative: 20 (25)
Quantum Powers:
Absorption: 5 (Extras: Energy Magnet; Provides extra dots to Matter Creation)
Disintegration: 4
Luck: 5 (Extras: Extreme Luck)
Matter Creation: 5 (Strength: Enhanced Duration - Permanent, No Split Dice Penalty; Weakness: Linked & Dependant upon Disintegration)
Molecular Manipulation: 5 (Animation, Destruction, Molecular Alteration, Second Skin, Shape Alteration)
Teleport: 4 (Extras: Area)
Aberrations:
Absent Minded, Bipolar Disorder, Delusions, Obsession (Clothes), Phobia (Children)
Health levels:
Bruised x2, Hurt, Injured, Wounded, Maimed, Crippled, Incapacitated, Dead
New Enhancement
Damn Cute: The nova with this enhancement is too damn cute for words. Her mere presence elicits a chorus of Ooh's and Aww's wherever she goes. People find it hard to remain mad at her even if they have no particular feelings for her otherwise. This nova finds that forgiveness comes much easier than permission. A nova who is damn cute can get away with murder. Sometimes quite literally as people who look at her automatically assume she's blameless even in the presence of overwhelming evidence. This enhancement won't save a nova from an angry mob bent on killing her but if the person is at all predisposed to give the nova the benefit of the doubt then this enhancement will ensure that she gets the lightest treatment possible. This enhancement also makes it very difficult for people to suspect the nova of any ulterior motive or insincere intent.
System: The nova can spend One Quantum to activate this enhancement for a scene. Once activated the nova can roll Appearance, resisted by the target's Manipulation or Willpower. Each net success reduces the effective Strength with which the target can attack the nova using Damn Cute. In effect this enhancement causes the target to 'pull his punch' If the attack is physical the Strength is taken first from Mega Strength and then from strength plus combat modifiers until the Strength of the attack is 0. Attacks from powers are reduced from the Mega Dice of the attack first if applicable, then the Power level and the Quantum level if that also provides damage for the attack. The damage converted from successes (up to a maximum of five) is applied even if the Strength of the attack is reduced by more than the necessary to reach 0 after Combat modifiers and Strength are calculated. A lethal or aggravated attack reduced to strength 0 is considered bashing. While active this enhancement also adds a number of dice equal to the Mega Appearance of the nova to any Subterfuge or Perform attempt.
New Extra for Luck power
Extreme Luck: This extra for the Luck power works as a counter to any attack or attempt to harm the nova. In combat Extreme Luck adds to the difficulty of any maneuver performed against the nova a difficulty rating equal to the rating of the Luck power. Outside of combat this extra allows the nova to roll a special 'dodge' pool equal to the rating of the Luck power to avoid accidents or random incidents that could be perceived as unlucky. A single success is usually enough to avoid common accidents, more may be required by the Storyteller depending on the circumstances. And finally this extra provides dice equal to the Luck power to any roll associated with games of chance or random luck.
For example take a simple coin toss. The player would normally flip a coin and take the result to reflect the in-game result. With extreme luck the player could roll dice and with a single success change the result to his favor. Unless of course resisted by another nova with Extreme Luck. In poker the player could use each success on the Luck roll to designate one card drawn. With five successes the nova could be guaranteed a Royal Flush.
Mega Athletics Demi-Enhancements
Catfall - The Nova can safely land from great heights using this technique. For every level of Mega Athletics double the safe landing distance of the Nova. Of course the Nova can extend this distance with a dice roll to land safely from even greater heights. Instead of being able to fall one meter per success without taking damage the height is doubled for each level of Mega Athletics. At level one this is two meters at level two it is 4 meters at level three it is eight meters and so on. This Demi Enhancement remains active for one fall.
Human Fly - For each level of Mega Athletics the character can double the distance he can move on a vertical climb with a successful Athletics roll. At Mega Athletics 1 he could cover 6 meters per success, at level two he could cover 12 meters per success and so on. This Demi Enhancement lasts for one full turn of climbing. The character may need to activate it multiple times to complete a long or terribly difficult climb as judged by the Storyteller.
Mid Aerial Dodge - The Nova can whip crack his body in mid flight to avoid attacks in mid-air. With this Demi Enhancement the character can dodge incoming attacks while using Quantum Leap or when someone playfully launches him across state lines with Lifter.
Proactive Dodge - As long as the Nova with Proactive Dodge has Quantum he can dodge. Proactive Dodge is an instinctive and reflexive action and takes up none of his actions, however he can only roll his Mega Athletics and Mega Dexterity dice for each of his Proactive dodge attempts. This Demi Enhancement costs one Quantum per dodge. If this causes the Nova to reach his limit of Quantum expenditure for the turn then he can no longer use proactive Dodge.