Freedom Force: Dr. Midas

[LemmingLord]

Freedom Force: Dr. Midas Character Sheet and Notes 1 of 4

Character Sheet
Rafael Blanco aka Dr. Midas

1) Occupation and History
Rafael figured out the basics of his power at a fairly young age -- too young to really hide it well, even as his father's solid salary as a researcher. His mother is fond of telling stories (to those in the know) about feats as a child, from trying to turn his floor into a pillow (he ended up copying the fabric and just turning the hardwood to plastic) to the time he turned a spoon into gold (thus earning his nickname). After one of his brothers was kidnapped for ransom, a group in the brazilian government took a fairly active role in protecting his family, ensuring he had a good education, a safe dwelling, and that the wealth he generated stayed firmly in Brazilian hands. Their role eventually became somewhat contentious, and Rafael's father managed to cut several deals between the transmuter and the group.

With help from their government friends, the Blancos created a series of companies. Many have been completely spun off, and operate without the touch of midas -- this is particuarly true of mining companies. Their core company (in terms of involvement, at least) is abrigo blanco inc-- meaning roughly "White Coats". Raphael has a decent amount of publicity, both as a chemist, and as a job creator -- several companies they have spun off are due to 'discoveries of refining processes'. As a general rule, most of the profitable discoveries were transmuted into existence, while the non-profitable ones are the scientific problems he tries to solve. He find this a little irritating.

2) Physical description

Thin, medium height, able to change hair, skin and eyes, but not facial structure.

3) Attributes and skills (exceptional ones only)

Physically fit but actually fairly clumsy. Strong swimmer. (not exceptional, but worth noting)
Expert at chemistry. Both theory and practically (the stuff they described actually sounded relevant to him).

His involvement in research is mostly guided by others who direct his talents to answer unknown questions (should I stat an NPC for this?)

Tries to be a good social scientist -- history, economics, and so forth.
has quite an artistic streak. His favorite, of course, is sculpture.

Incredibly wealthy. Gives a lot away, but he can always get more -- though he tries not to enjoy anyone's livelihood, which is always tricky.

Well-known figure in some sectors of Brazil and in chemistry

Multi-lingual: Fluent in Portugese and English, Speaks Spanish, Italian, and French with a very thick accent and portugese idioms, is studying mandarin and making slow progress-- right now can carry on very slow and basic conversation.

4) Values and motivations

Rafael has a strong urge to help people. Its not really a code of ethics, he just gets enjoyment (and an ego boost, if he's being honest with himself) from bettering people's lives. He's not sure that materialism is the best way to do this, but he's no good at the other ways. He can wax philosophical, but is likely to fall back to helping people in the same old ways again and again.

He is the third of nine children. the first six are boys. His siblings play a large part in his life, and he occasionally feels guilty for sticking them in a state where they have to be surrounded by guards much of the time and can't really live a normal life. The family are active Catholics.

He's wrecked the demand for at least one metal, and took the hand off of a younger brother by accident , giving him a sense of caution about his powers. He's cautious about doing big things.

He is receiving pressure to find a wife from his family. He wants to, but has little idea how to go about it and isn't sure how to find someone who will look at him as a person.

5) Interactions with others

Dr. Midas is somewhat arrogant, though friendly enough. While a child of wealth and privledge, his pride rests on his behavior, not his resources. He mostly avoids saying this to people's faces, but when presented with a problem by a third party he's likely to say something like "Most people are idiots". Or "Are we supposed to expect more of them"?

Dr. Midas is fairly friendly when face to face with people, and interested in their lives. As long as they are on good behavior.

6) Useful knowledge



7) Distinguishing feature

Fidgets with things chemically. He tries to keep it to worthless objects or a few well loved pieces of matter. his hands always seem to be full of something. He habitually wrecks his cell phone this way.

8) Powers!

Mass-conserving transmutation. he turns one substance into another. He can accomplish some movement of items via their shrinkage or expansion to satisfy the mass requirement. The transmutation has great range (miles) under ideal circumstances but requires physical contact with a bit of the homogenous substance (so three miles of asphalt won't stop him, but a layer of carpet will). He has an innate sense of what he's touching (any body contact works, though hands are the favoured focal point) and how far it extends. The mass requirements make him struggle with transmutations of air to solids or liquids-- they are possible but slow. He is limited to fairly mundane elements -- unubtainium is off limits

9)NPCS
Personal Staff

Lima: one of Raphael's body guards. Native brazilian with old ties to the Blanco family.

Adams: one of Raphael's body guards. Experienced top rated professional from overseas.

Spoiler:  

1) Occupation and History
Adams has been someone's "body guard" since his best friend from primary school led a silly gang of little third graders against big bad sixth grade bullies. Adams has worked mostly in the civilian and government sectors with a keen instinct for reading situations and seeing threats and weaknesses before they can exploit and be exploited.

2) Physical description

3) Attributes and skills (exceptional ones only)

4) Values and motivations

5) Interactions with others

6) Useful knowledge

7) Distinguishing feature

8) Powers!

9)NPCS

Family Business

Father (Carlos Blanco): Chemical researcher with good people skills, Carlos Blanco is Idealized by his son. He keeps his son hard at work learning and performing tasks, and manages the companies he works with and his son's secret powers.

Scientist Liason (Breno von Grandt): A brazilian of german decent, von Grandt is Raphael's personal assistant at Abrigo Blanco. He is a chemist skilled at understanding others, and the last of a long line of tutors. His main duties are figuring out what Raphael can do to help the latest experiments, and explaining concepts to him. He is very involved in his work -- which in his view is research, though almost all of what is does is facilitate communication.

Brothers: He has a lot. There is always another one. Not bothering to distinguish at this point. More may happen.

• Miguel, PR Guy, Researching Ways for Abrigo Blanco to break into medical radiography. Girlfriend Alene is a professional surfer; Miguel's mom does not approve.

Government

Vitor Costa (Government Contact): Long time associate of the family, relationships with Mr. Costa have always been cold and business oriented. Its unknown how large of a organization he represents, but it's well funded and fiercely Brazilian. Mr. Costa is the government's conduit to make requests, but he's also the guy in on the secret that they trust the least.

Santos Gomes Laboratory Work



10) Places!
Rafael has offices and homes in Salvador and Rio De Janeiro.

[LemmingLord]

Freedom Force: Dr. Midas Character Sheet and Notes 2 of 4

[SPOIILER]1) Occupation and History
Adams has been someone's "body guard" since his best friend from primary school led a silly gang of little third graders against big bad sixth grade bullies. Adams has worked mostly in the civilian and government sectors with a keen instinct for reading situations and seeing threats and weaknesses before they can exploit and be exploited.

2) Physical description

3) Attributes and skills (exceptional ones only)

4) Values and motivations

5) Interactions with others

6) Useful knowledge

7) Distinguishing feature

8) Powers!

9)NPCS
[/SPOILER]

[LemmingLord]

Freedom Force: Dr. Midas Character Sheet and Notes 3 of 4

[LemmingLord]

Freedom Force: Dr. Midas Character Sheet and Notes 4 of 4

[LemmingLord]

Many years ago there lived a king named Midas.

A fairy with a wonderful shining boy's face with wings on his cap and wings on his feet and a wand with wings of its own came to the king.

"Midas, you are the richest man in the world, there is no King who has so much gold as you."

Midas said, "That may be.. but I should like much more, for gold is the most wonderful thing in the world."

"Are you sure?"

"If I had but one wish I would ask that everything I touch should turn to beautiful yellow gold,” said King Midas.

A visiting fairy prince with a wonderful shining boy’s face with wings on his cap and wings on his feet and wings even on his wand replied, "Your wish shall be granted, at sunrise tomorrow morning your slightest touch will turn everything into gold. But I warn you that your gift will not make you happy."

"I will take the risk..." said the King!

What the fairy prince said came to pass. The King awoke with gold pajamas. His royal pillow cases and sheets were made of pure gold as well at the touch of his hands.

He had a bit of a fright when he had a trouble eating his breakfast. His pancakes turned to inedible gold the moment it touched his lips with his golden fork! He had his servants put on gloves, cut his meal into bite size pieces and then drop them into his open mouth so they would not touch his skin. Hazah!

The King was so happy, and his servants so relieved, that they did not see the princess approach from her side door and kiss her father on the cheek. She bellowed and screamed and was flesh no more. And that is how he lost his dearest daughter.

In his grief the King called for his courtesans, but they would not touch him with gloves or without them. He called for singers and lute players, but when they saw the golden statue that was his daughter stuck in horrifying scream forever they would not sing for all the gold in the kingdom.

As no one would or could comfort him, King Midas held his chin in his hands and no one knows if he turned himself to gold by accident or purposefully to join his daughter.

[LemmingLord]

Dr. Midas is up in his office talking with Vitor Costa, a man with youthful features but for premature balding and wearing a poorly fitting suit befitting a man involved in government work, where stress weigh loss and gain are standard fare. The sun glints off his face and head from the window with the beatiful view of Rio. So he squints.

"Mr. Blanco... Dr... Dr. Blanco... You have been a hard man to get scheduled for a one on one meeting. I know you prefer to be insulated from the mundane business matters to focus on your work. The administration is very pleased with your work so I want to assure you I have been instructed not to interfere in any way with your good work. I do have an offer, though, for some civillian advisor work, short term... Due to security clearance issues, only you would be directly involved in the project from your organizations, your assistant and body guards would not be allowed on project sites, and you are not to use the research data revealed in this function for private use without written authorization from the project manager."

Vitor takes a long time alternating between buttering up and appealing to Dr. Midas's sense of patriotism. He does make it clear that this would be perhaps twenty hours of work in June and, if it is a good fit on both sides, perhaps twenty more each month after. Vitor alleviates any social pressure by not asking for a follow up meeting but dropping his card with the name of a new restaurant in Rio and saying "I'll need to take you out to this place sometime for a business meeting!"

At a lunch with his brother, Miguel, discussion turns to some research he has been doing.

"There are amazing things we could do for any university in Brazil if we provided uranium, einsteinium, plutonium... do you think you could do that without irradiating yourself? Maybe you could touch a big block of lead....and then just change the inner core to uranium.. what do you think?"
And later, “oh, mom’s been trying to get ahold of you…left several messages. I think she has someone she wants you to meet, another blind date setup perhaps?”

[ericthered]

And this is why I prefer staying in salvador. Yes, Rio de Jeneiro was bigger, and you can't just stay away from it, but when he went to Rio, it seems trouble always waited for him. Maybe he'd get Mr. Costa to come to him again. His town, or course, not his building. You couldn't get away with being this big in brazil without having offices in rio. And yet in Raphael's mind, this was were he always met with Mr. Costa, and office somehow belonged to Mr. Costa, not him.

"Vitor, Vitor. What do I have to tell you to find out what this job actually is? Sign nondisclosure agreements? agree to a minimum of five days? break into your office?" Vitor's office is probably more secure than anything I have "And why are they insisting on complete isolation? I'd like at least one of my people to come along."

Lunch with Miguel is much more interesting. "We want to try the unstable elements again? The real trick is getting me a sample to base my copies on. I do best when I've felt the substance before, particuarly with elements. And there's worries about getting the critical mass wrong too much of the substance and we have a real problem. Is there a reason they wanted lead instead of a water tank? I think I'd prefer one of the transmutation tanks. The water should protect me, and full immersion helps with these things. But if they need it surounded by lead I can probably work with that. Radioactives just make me nervous."

"Another one? you'd think she'd set you up for once."

Raphael figures he'd better call his mother up and see what she wants. But not until checking how hard it is to get his hands on some uranium discretely. given that the brazilian government controlled brazil's nuclear power, Vitor was his best contact. Which had two drawbacks. First, he wasn't so sure he wanted the government of brazil to know he was working on radioactives again. He'd sworn such things off a few years ago. He didn't mind being helpful, but people just don't think strait about radioactives. And second, getting it from Vitor would give the man yet another thing to hang over him.

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Vitor, Vitor. What do I have to tell you to find out what this job actually is? Sign nondisclosure agreements? agree to a minimum of five days? break into your office?" Vitor's office is probably more secure than anything I have "And why are they insisting on complete isolation? I'd like at least one of my people to come along."

Vitor laughs trying to keep Rafael's jokes to keep things light. "The project coordinator is the paranoid type. Tell you what, give me three names and I will see which one of them I can get temporary clearance to accompany you. I can't tell you anymore for now except that the job requires a doctor with your very specific kind of experience."

Originally Posted by ericthered

Lunch with Miguel is much more interesting. "We want to try the unstable elements again? The real trick is getting me a sample to base my copies on. I do best when I've felt the substance before, particuarly with elements. And there's worries about getting the critical mass wrong too much of the substance and we have a real problem. Is there a reason they wanted lead instead of a water tank? I think I'd prefer one of the transmutation tanks. The water should protect me, and full immersion helps with these things. But if they need it surounded by lead I can probably work with that. Radioactives just make me nervous."

"I know the government said they have no interest in weapon grade radioactives... But medical grade or research grade radioactives would be a boon for the universities.

Could you FEEL a single atom, my brother? Could a single atom be placed on your toe or something? Just think if Brazil could become the leader in laboratory research for this hemisphere?!"

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Another one? you'd think she'd set you up for once."

"Don't tell her that. My girlfriend Aline would go crazy! I can't believe mom has always been too busy to meet her."

Originally Posted by ericthered

Raphael figures he'd better call his mother up and see what she wants. But not until checking how hard it is to get his hands on some uranium discretely. given that the brazilian government controlled brazil's nuclear power, Vitor was his best contact. Which had two drawbacks. First, he wasn't so sure he wanted the government of brazil to know he was working on radioactives again. He'd sworn such things off a few years ago. He didn't mind being helpful, but people just don't think strait about radioactives. And second, getting it from Vitor would give the man yet another thing to hang over him.

The government might be the most discrete way, but it would have the other issues you mentioned.

An ex girlfriendonce suggested Raphael consider undergoing some nuclear medicine... There are cardiac stress tests that use Nitrogen-13 and Thallium-201. There are Gallium-67 scans that look for some tricky diseases to find..

[ericthered]

"Paranoia is fine. Manipulation is another. You don't know or you won't tell me? those are two very different things. His paranoia is making me paranoid"

"Three Names -- I'll give you four. Von Grandt, my research partner. two of the security guys -- either Lima or Adams. My father and business head, Carlos Blanco."

Lets see which option they pick -- it will tell me a lot about what they're afraid of. I might insist on a second choice just to be sure. Which body guard -- the native brazilian with old ties to the family and little ties to anything else, or the experienced top rated proffesional from overseas?

--------------------------------------------------------

"Mother thinks Aline is beneath you and is hoping you'll break up before the two of them end up in the same room. I wouldn't put it past her to point other girls at you." she probably won't. probably.

"Right now? no, I don't have that fine control. I might be able to work up to it, but really, a single atom? do you have any ideas how fast individual atoms vibrate? masses and patterns are so much easier to work with. And what would I do with a single atom? Anything rare enough to be worth it would have a half life of 'do not touch me', unless you're talking about the theoretical transuranic island of stability. And someone else has to build those first. Or I have to figure out how to make new elements. Research environements -- how to get my hands on a rare unstable element. That's a trick. I suppose we could just fund a grant to the university and pop in one day."

The thought about the medical isotopes lingers in his mind, stewing. At the very least, such a project is good practice for working with radioactives. Get the basics down before he starts playing with uranium or some artifical monstrosity with a half life in miliseconds and an international debate about its proper name. He'd need to talk with someone about a good testing scheme. Perhaps a test chamber with a lead plate on one side and radiation sensors on the other

OCC: I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I've intentionally made Raphael less experienced with his powers. Developing tricks and abilities is expected to be part of his arc.

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Paranoia is fine. Manipulation is another. You don't know or you won't tell me? those are two very different things. His paranoia is making me paranoid"

"You are right.. You deserve to know more information."

Vitor tugs on his collar, clearly trying to sort through his thoughts as to what might be privileged information and what he might be able to divulge.

"I will level with you, Mr. Blanco, because we have a good relationship... because you have a good relationship with the government agencies involved in this job... and because you have already signed non-disclosure agreements regarding the very special nature of your contributions to the world stage."

He pauses again, realizing he's gone into legalize again. Vitor must be a lawyer. Probably one reason Rafael likes to keep him at bay with a proverbial 4-meter pole.

"Boa Vista appears to have its own very special contributor.. Who needs our help. I hope you can appreciate why we would want to limit the number of people who would be in on her secret..."

"Three Names -- I'll give you four. Von Grandt, my research partner. two of the security guys -- either Lima or Adams. My father and business head, Carlos Blanco."

"I will get back to you this week about who we can get."

Lets see which option they pick -- it will tell me a lot about what they're afraid of. I might insist on a second choice just to be sure. Which body guard -- the native Brazilian with old ties to the family and little ties to anything else, or the experienced top rated professional from overseas?

OOC: Yes indeed. They will end up picking Carlos as their number 1 pick and the top rated professional from overseas as second pick. Rafael's father is a busy man... It should be interesting to see your conversation with him regarding how much of his time he is willing to commit to.

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[QUOTE]"Mother thinks Aline is beneath you and is hoping you'll break up before the two of them end up in the same room. I wouldn't put it past her to point other girls at you." she probably won't. probably.[QUOTE]

Miguel is hurt, "I knew it!!! Mother thinks everyone is beneath me.... except for those she picks for you who are above me!!!"

Miguel looks up and sees Rafael as a shining VIP brother now, "Aline thought you seemed like a good guy. Maybe we could do more stuff together the three of us.. and whatever fourth you might want to join us... and then you can talk her up some to mom... Your opinion means a lot to her. And if mom ever says anything about her being just a surfer, could you slip into conversation that words 'professional surfer?'"

"Right now? no, I don't have that fine control. I might be able to work up to it, but really, a single atom? do you have any ideas how fast individual atoms vibrate? masses and patterns are so much easier to work with. And what would I do with a single atom? Anything rare enough to be worth it would have a half life of 'do not touch me', unless you're talking about the theoretical transuranic island of stability. And someone else has to build those first. Or I have to figure out how to make new elements. Research environements -- how to get my hands on a rare unstable element. That's a trick. I suppose we could just fund a grant to the university and pop in one day."

Miguel: "No, of course I don't know all of that stuff. I'm just in the communications department, getting my paycheck. I work on the speed of ideas... I'm just shooting them at you rapid fire in the hope that one of them works!"

"A grant.. not a bad idea! That would be some good press! Is that something you'd have dad come up with or would you privately fund that? The Rafael Blanco Medical Radiography Building. I like the sound of that!"

The thought about the medical isotopes lingers in his mind, stewing. At the very least, such a project is good practice for working with radioactives. Get the basics down before he starts playing with uranium or some artifical monstrosity with a half life in miliseconds and an international debate about its proper name. He'd need to talk with someone about a good testing scheme. Perhaps a test chamber with a lead plate on one side and radiation sensors on the other

Breno von Grandt can get people on it right away.

OCC: I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I've intentionally made Raphael less experienced with his powers. Developing tricks and abilities is expected to be part of his arc.

OOC: I like it. If we are getting too focused on all these tricks just now, we can put them in the background for awhile for other pursuits too.

Originally Posted by ericthered

I kind of want to see a specific ex-girlfriend with a minor power set and either a grudge or wants to get back with him -- or maybe both.

OOC: Would you like to write your own scene that introduces her? If you do the seven sentence NPC thing for her in OOC, I can add her to your NPC list too.