Antron/blurb

From Stormravengaming

This article uses the 4th Edition of the Hero System rules. Content may be incompatible with the latest version of the rules.

Characteristics

Skills & Perks

Powers & Talents

Disadvantages

¹ Value reduced due to exceedance of campaign limits.

Description

Nesto is a typical hispanic man living on the fringes of society. Physically he is fit, perhaps even fairly attractive, thanks to the physical demands of his work in construction. He doesn't have much money, and he sends what he can home to his family, so his clothes are simple and well-worn. The only jewelry he wears is a ring given to him by his father.

As an illegal alien, Nesto makes a habit of being unobtrusive. Downcast eyes and a bit of a slouch usually serve as a cue that this is a person not to be noticed. Among his friends, though, when there is no great fear of capture and deportation, Nesto is bright-eyed, passionate and fun-loving.

Background

Nesto came to the United States illegally at the age of 19, travelling through Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his brother Cesar. They have since separated to minimize the risk that both might be captured and sent home at the same time; thus they hoped to ensure that their family back home would have a steady income from at least one son. Nesto has worked a variety of odd jobs in the U.S., drawing on the skills his family passed down to him. Mostly he has been in auto shops and construction sites, making the best living an illegal alien can hope for. He has worked hard to learn English, too, both in the hopes of better jobs and of eventually becoming a legal American citizen.

About the middle of 2006, Nesto started noticing strange things happening around him. Machines began behaving in unexpected ways – sometimes playful, sometimes helpful, always odd. He was saved from a nasty accident on the jobsite when a forklift somehow interposed itself and deflected some equipment that would have fallen on him. An old pickup truck that Nesto had been trying to repair suddenly roared to life and became, in its fashion, his devoted companion. It didn't take long for Nesto to realize that around him, machines became living beings. How such a thing might happen remains a mystery to him.

People around Nesto generally chalk up these strange occurrences as coincidences or the vagaries of machines and computers. And the awakened machines usually seem to have an intuitive or instinctive understanding that they should be seen only as machines, so they don't typically act strangely when anyone other than Nesto is watching. He is grateful for this, for he fears that if anyone ever discovers his mysterious ability, he might have to go on the run. He has no idea how right he is.

Dangerous elements within the Magnific Order of Rambaldi have learned of Nesto's existence. The Order is dedicated to collecting and safeguarding the arcane Rambaldi artifacts, but criminal elements within the Order believe that Nesto's ability to awaken machines could lead them to a greater understanding of Rambaldi's works and his prophecies. They have not yet approached Nesto directly, either because they are being prevented by some sort of resistance or because they have not yet found the right moment to act. In any case, once they have brought Nesto in and then finished with him, it is unlikely that they would see any reason to let him live.

Notes on Powers

Awaken Machine

Nesto projects an aura that can awaken any machine to sentience, usually a temporary effect. These awakened machines seem to have animal-level intelligence. They are aware of their surroundings, especially of Nesto himself, and they seem universally to consider him a friendly figure, much the way a loyal dog might view its beloved master.

Almost any mechanical device with moving parts could be affected by this ability, even something as simple as a ballpoint pen. However, if a machine is controlled by an integral AI built into it, then Nesto's power will have no practical effect upon it. In academic terms, Nesto might well awaken the machine, but he can't affect the AI, nor can he wrest control of the machine from it. Machines controlled from a distance by external AIs do not enjoy this immunity, though, any more than do those controlled by humans.

An awakened machine gains the ability to control its own functions but, aside from intelligence and some basic senses, it does not gain new functions. An awakened ballpoint pen, therefore, could reasonably click and unclick itself, and could perhaps control its ink flow if someone was writing with it, but it could not get up and move around, and it certainly couldn't write by itself, because an ordinary pen can't move itself.

Awakened machines have all of the Characteristics of a human or animal, such as INT, EGO, PRE and COM. Since they gain a REC score, they are capable of healing damage to themselves over time. This has the effect, however, of healing the Transform damage that awakened them in the first place, so they eventually revert to nonliving machines. However, if the same machine is later awakened again, it might still have the memories from the last time it was awakened, just as though it had simply gone to sleep in the meantime.

Awaken Computer

Nesto's aura can also awaken common Computers to full sapience, turning them into AIs. This aura does not affect computers that are already AIs, however. Awakened AIs maintain their former INT scores, but they are still simple creatures, like brilliant animals or perhaps idiot savants. Like awakened machines, they are aware of their environments and of Nesto in particular, and they are friendly toward him.

Unlike standard AIs, awakened Computers have a REC score. This primarily serves as the path by which the Computer reverts to a mundane machine, but it could serve other purposes as well, such as repairing burned out circuitry or purging a virus.

Repair Machine

Nesto is able to make almost any broken machine function again. He has to be actively working on the machine at the time, but he can squeeze function out of any device, no matter how hopeless. The repairs aren't very durable, however. If the machine suffers enough damage to disable it again, regardless of whether it was disabled in the same way as it had been originally, Nesto's repairs will fall apart and have to be begun again. (Note, however, that if Nesto stays with the machine for long enough, it will awaken, gain a REC score, and might heal the original damage.)

Influence & Inspiration

Machines view Nesto as a natural leader. Even AIs that he did not awaken recognize him as a powerful personality deserving of devotion. His desires are taken as commands, his wishes as imperatives, and his safety and well-being are worth sacrificing for. Humans, however, don't see even the slightest hint of any of this.