Cape and Cowl Application (NOTE: the original)

[monopolyonsnark]

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: the Negotiator
FANDOM: DC Comics, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes Edition)
CHRONOLOGY: The end of Blue Beetle #24.
CLASS: Villain
SUPERHERO NAME: Negotiator
ALTER EGO: The Negotiator has no known name, however may pick a human one to go with his disguise, so he can slide under the radar. His job's are "attempting to screw over Earth" and "destroy Jaime Reyes".

BACKGROUND:
In a universe sort of like our own only with a ton of superheroes and a multitude of extra cities that we do not have (such as Gotham or Metropolis – El Paso we got, though), there is space. And space is really, really big. Huge. And in the galaxies of the DC Universe are many planets and star systems and what have you filled with alien races and empires, space cops and world destroyers.

One of the most powerful groups in the universe are the Green Lantern Corps, providing an intergalactic police service powered by willpower and green light that can basically do whatever the plot demands. Eventually the Lanterns will win, it’s what they do.

Millennia ago, the Reach fought the Green Lanterns. It ended in a draw.

Thousands of years ago, the Reach sent a scarab to earth. A little blue object that looked like a bug, buried in a tomb for years upon years. Dan Garrett found that bug, and used some of its power to become the first Blue Beetle. Ted Kord took the bug, and without it, became the second Blue Beetle. Stuff happened. Eventually the Scarab ended up being exploded all the way to El Paso, Texas, where a high school boy named Jaime Reyes picked it up and took it home. It crawled onto his spine and gave him the full access to its powers, and Jaime became the third Blue Beetle.

And then the Reach came. Led by one particular member of the Reach, who would be the face of the species, talk to the local humans, be all smiles and play by all the rules. The Negotiator. Oh no, he’s not here to subjugate the planet and turn humankind into a slave race, what are you talking about. Look at him smile, play nice, talk delicately, deal with politics.

But there was a problem. The Scarab is supposed to create an Infiltrator, an agent of the Reach that would do their bidding and help them bring a world into their power. But Earth was different, something went wrong. Dawur, the second-in-command and the Negotiator’s right-hand-bug suggested that they kill Jaime Reyes as he was a danger. WHY DID NOBODY LISTEN TO DAWUR, SERIOUSLY. But oh no, the Negotiator disagrees. He decides to test Jaime, see his capabilities, figure out what happened, and in the meantime, put forth the plans the Reach had in place to take over the planet Earth and turn humankind into a – oh.

The Negotiator first meets Jaime Reyes in person after Jaime destroys a Reach Probe, at which point Negotiator apologizes, introduces himself, and claims to be there to save the Earth. After a polite conversation where he learns Jaime’s side of the story and gets to analyze the boy, he decides to “study” Jaime by implanting a bunch of people with semi-functioning scarabs, causing them to attack people and Jaime to act. Jaime won. But that incident opened hostilities between the Blue Beetle and the Reach, although the Reach were still playing nice to the rest of the world.

From that point on, Jaime thwarts many of the Negotiator and the Reach’s schemes, some of which are more subtle than others, some of them involving penguins, and some taking advantage of other villains who happen to be screwing with Jaime. But Jaime can’t prove anything. He continues to investigate, finding the Reach’s strategy guide (short story), and eventually stumbling onto TOVAR THE LAVA KING (capslock necessary), one of the creations of the Reach’s that would direct the blame of Earth’s eventual destruction onto magical beings. The Reach would then offer to help the humans, and the humans would agree because Mind Control Drugs Are Awesome. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for that meddling Blue Beetle.

So Jaime decides to take the fight TO the Reach, and things start to go really bad for the Negotiator. Jaime attempts to bring three of the Reach’s World Rippers (bases that would help tear the planet apart) into plain sight. The Negotiator stops him by quickly powering up the dimension shielding! Hurray for the Reach! Oh wait, all he did was allow Jaime to triangulate the position of the Reach’s spacecraft. WHOOPS.

And so Blue Beetle infiltrates the hive ship! Negotiator responds by trying to kill Jaime’s entire family by blowing them up. While they survive due to hijincks, it sufficiently distracts Jaime enough that the Negotiator pulls his scarab from his spine with his own claws. Negotiator links it up to the ship in order to study it.

Jaime escapes his prison cell within like, ten seconds after being thrown in. Stuff happens. Negotiator sends in troops to kill Jaime’s friends and family since evidently exploding didn’t work, and does some pretty drastic stuff in order to figure out and stop whatever Jaime was doing (hint: distracting the Negotiator from the Scarab linked up to the ship). And just as Negotiator recaptures Jaime and almost head-shots him, Jaime recalls the scarab and reveals he hacked the mothership and unmasked the Reach and the World Rippers for all the world to see, ruining their nice guy image and all of their precious little plans.

NEW PLAN: BETTER DESTROY THE EARTH THEN. Negotiator activates the World Rippers. Because he is petty. Jaime reacts by exploding the mothership, although he’s nice enough to attempt to rescue the now-falling-apart Negotiator before he does - except for the part where he doesn’t, and the Negotiator explodes along with the ship. THE END.

For his pull-point, I’m taking him from just as he aims a gun at Jaime’s head, before Jaime reactivates the scarab, at the end of issue #24.

PERSONALITY:

Jaime once described the Reach as Uptight Control Freaks, and while that isn’t necessarily true for all Reach, it is certainly applicable to the Negotiator. He is the one in control. For those he works with, he demands obedience. Panic is not an option (he once squished an underling’s head with one hand in order to get them all to pay attention). On a smaller scale, it means he does not tolerate anyone questioning his orders. On a larger scale, it means that everything has to be in his control, unless he doesn’t deem it important.

When his control starts slipping, the Negotiator rapidly loses his temper, and he has a very nasty, violent temper. When he gets angry he gets vicious, he goes for the kill. As long as he believes he’s in control, he’ll play along for as long as necessary, but when he looses it, his temper causes him to act rashly and harshly. He’ll stab you. He’ll attempt to kill your family. He’ll attempt to destroy your entire world if he has to. This also means that when mad enough, he might lash out at anyone expendable, even if they’re an ally.

For all his appearance of calm and complying, he is a very emotional creature. You can tell when he’s smug, when he’s shocked, angry. He’s smug a lot, really. Arrogant. He truly believes in the power of the Reach and what they are doing. He underestimates his opponents and assumes that he will inevitably win, despite setbacks, because he is Better Than You.

With authorities and regular people, he plays nice, he sympathizes, keeps his composure. He’s a businessman, here for trading. A politician. A negotiator. He deals. He compromises. And all the meanwhile he is trying to bring you either under his control, or bring you down. When he knows that you know that he’s not a good guy, he is that smug bugger that knows you don’t have proof, the one that acts untouchable. He’ll see his lawyer now, officer. He lies. A lot. He's sneaky, and takes advantage of loopholes and good pr.

Order is very important. Reach society evidently has some sort of caste system (Negotiator mentions once a desire to reach the “ruling caste”), and everything is easily divisible and categorized. The plans have to be enacted according to the Holy Writ. The Infiltrator has to work. The underlings have to gain and analyze information, and the soldiers have to defend and attack, and the Negotiator has to run it all, while being the face of the Reach.

The other important thing is information. Data has to be collected. The Negotiator puts the entire operation in danger because he wants to study Jaime Reyes. Things have to be logical and rational. In a way, he approaches everything scientifically, despite being from a universe where magic is real (“quantum improbability”). He’s keen to process and analyze. But while being very intelligent, there are still some things he doesn’t quite understand (“Heroism is not a scientific explanation”), and will underestimate. Sometimes he out-thinks himself too, and does not account for simpler explanation.

At the very end of things, post pull-point, he finally realizes all of his mistakes. It breaks him. That utter faith in himself and his race fails. Which is why I am taking him from earlier! So he’ll still be a smarmy, manipulative, evil villain who may one day desperately attempt to kill any heroes in his way or destroy the earth.

He will throw away the dog tags almost immediately (a human machine controlling him? No way.) The MAC is mostly out of the question as well, he’ll want to establish a safe hideout ASAP. Being separated from the Reach will take its toll on him – he uses them to the best of his advantage and will NOT be happy to realize he is all alone. However, he’ll probably discover his powers quickly and use them to every advantage, as well as making as many connections with powerful people as possible, both on and off the Network.

POWER:

1) Alien Body (canon)
I’d like to keep him an alien please! He’ll be able to disguise himself as a human (see second power), but I want him to keep his alien biology. The exact nature of the Reach isn’t quite explored, but it includes:
- shell-like stronger skin (but not invulnerable)
- claw-like extendable fingers for stabbing (about a foot or so long - and when not in claw form, they have glowy fingertips, see:)
- bio-lights (small round disks on his body that glow in a soft sort of way on his arms and fingertips. Also, his eyes glow slightly.)
- sharp toes

2) Dimension Stepping - invisibility/disguise (not-canon)
NOT in terms of alternate dimensions, but rather, he can shift people or objects into invisible space, leaving behind either emptiness OR replacing it with a different appearance/illusion. TL;DR Details:
- Can focus only on 1 object/person at a time, but does include any attached objects, clothing and anything inside of it (which means he could presumably hide a vehicle or whole building). For the purposes of ease, 1 person is always 1 person, no matter how tightly they might clutch another.
- Has to maintain concentration (contact is unnecessary) – if sufficiently distracted or knocked unconscious, it’ll come back into sight/original appearance. It doesn’t take a LOT of concentration as long as it is uninterrupted.
- A disguise takes more concentration than plain old invisibility
- His primary use for the power will be keeping up a human appearance for sneaky purposes. (And probably a hideout when he’s not out in the open.)
- As far as delectability goes, it reads as not-there – it’s more than just visible invisibility too, so sounds and smells and things are also gone, unless he wants them to.
(this is of course similar to Reach Technology, but the Porter’s going to cut out the middleman)

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:

VIDEO
[ The video opens to a man. Hispanic. In his thirties. Has a weird goatee. He’s wearing a confident, fake smile. ]

Greetings.

It is not often that one is transported to a different dimension, but I may as well make use of it. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Is there anyone connected to this communications device that can provide me with answers? Any data about these circumstances would be appreciated.

I imagine you’ve made some efforts to understand the technology that brought us here? It would be ridiculous not to.

Thank you for your time, my friends.

LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:

He was so close. So close to winning. So close to finally getting rid of the nuisance that was Jaime Reyes. He could have salvaged the mission, he knew this. Reyes may have programmed something into the system, but at least he would be gone. No longer a problem. A blip in the plans of the Reach, long like the Reach.

And then everything was gone, and he was in the room with a machine. An AI. Alone.

The first thing he had done was attempted to smash those insolent dog tags. He left the building quickly. Whoever was responsible – whoever did this to him – they would regret it a thousand-fold.

And then, daylight. He was on Earth. A city. He was unfamiliar with it. American, it seemed. What a worthless place. Why had he been brought here? “Hero.” This was Jaime Reyes’ fault, somehow.

But no, it was uncharacteristic for Reyes to play such games. Reyes was so naively straightforward. Something else then. A third party. The machine. That could be dealt with.

The panic and frustration was bubbling out, in public. He had extended his claws without being fully aware. This would not do.

He would need to contact Dawur, get a rescue team together. In the meantime, consult this literature and the device he was given, see what information he could gather from it, formulate a theory.

Then he would make them pay.

FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
I think I'm good.