Treachery:Collapse

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Rufus J. Black, Dominus of Collapse

Background

During the Roaring Twenties, all kinds of people made all kinds of money. Nowhere was this more true than Wall Street, borough of Manhattan, New York City, New York County and New York state, where brokers and traders amassed huge fortunes. Then, on Black Thursday, an epic collapse started that sent the United States tumbling into a recession that lasted until the American entry into World War Two. A coin had lain forgotten at the bottom of a sewer on Wall Street - dropped by a banker in a hurry, on his way to the first hundred-thousand-dollar deal in the history of his company. Then, years later, when he staggered out of his office, crying at the loss of his job and fortune, and collapsed in the gutter and died, his tears ran down the gutter and over the coin he had dropped. These were the final touches on the accumulated humanity that had soaked into the coin - it grew into the rough appearance of a human, scrabbled its way out of the sewer, and burst out onto the street in the midst of the burgeoning financial crisis. This only added to the mess as it bulled through traffic, knocking cars aside or causing them to swerve.

He hid in a theatre which happened to be showing the first widely known Marx Brothers film, and his first exposure to humans for longer than the extent of a scream was watching the actors. Due to this he developed an affinity for Marx Brothers films and he readily admits that he lifted his first two names (Rufus Julius) from the Marx Brothers. He made his way out of the theatre as people were informed of the crisis brewing on Wall Street and saw people making runs on the nearest banks, trying desperately to save their savings. For whatever reason, he thought this was funny and has spent a lot of time trying to find other ways of amusing himself. Since his preferred method was to cause things to topple by poking them just the right way, he was plucked out of (relative) mundanity at some point and made the Power of Collapse. There are rumors of him having connection to Entropy and the Locust Court, as his Estate is an important conceptual element of Entropy, but there is no proof as yet.

Appearance

Rufus is stocky and solid - almost round, but not quite. He has black hair, dark eyes, occasionally sports a black mustache of epic proportions and is the only known Noble in Creation to have a sunglass-type monocle. Ordinarily this type of person would not seem particularly intimidating or threatening, but when he smiles it is disturbingly wide and usually with an unsettling lack of concern for consequences written all over his face. Plus, if he rolls up his sleeves or wears shorts he has several metal slashes on his legs and arms, as well as the vicious one that crosses his face.

Attributes

Aspect 2 (5 AMPs)

Domain 4 (5 DMPs)

Realm 0 (5 RMPs)

Spirit 1 (5 SMPs)

Gifts

Durant (1CP) - Rufus' unusual creation and his Estate have combined to render him very tough to injure, particularly by anything related to his Estate - it's pretty much impossible to crush him with stuff.

Wayfinder (1CP) - One of Rufus' more mischievous personality traits was reinforced by enNoblement - his knack for getting into things other people would rather he didn't mess with. A bit of Spiritus Dei got into his brain and fused with his senses, to the extent that now he can see all kinds of hidden stuff - Chancel entrances, false bottoms in chests of drawers, the secret path to Faeryland, and all the drug stashes inside that 1981 Dodge Charger.

Administrative Nightmare (1CP) - Due to the atmosphere of widespread terror in the Wall Street financial bureaucracy at the time he was created, Rufus absorbed a peculiar talent - the ability to change red tape to say whatever he wants. He can't affect the people who wrote it, nor can he affect something he can't actually see, but neither index cards nor medical records nor IRS databases are safe from his gleeful meddling. With computers these days, all he has to do is hack into a server and get a look at the entry website, and he will immediately know the password or how to encode a brand-new password, among other things. Lesser Change of Bureaucracy: +6, Limited: -2, Single: -2, Normal Miracle: -2, Uncommon: +1, Total Cost: 1 CP

Runaway Train (1CP) - Custom Gift. One of Rufus' other odd mental tics that has been fortunately or unfortunately boosted by his rise to Nobility is his predilection for watching things that are about to go calamitously wrong while he, himself, takes no part in them. He doesn't even know that he possesses this Gift, and assumes that he is in the right place at the right time when such things go disastrously awry. This catalytic property is the main reason that sentient Chancelfolk get nervous when he's around - some things just go off the rails when Collapse is in the vicinity. Lesser Preservation of Momentum: +3, Limited: -2, Local: -1, Normal Miracle to deactivate: -2, Uncommon: +1, Total Cost: 1 CP

Limits

The Natives Are Restless: Limit of Realm. Rufus' mental peculiarities and the bizarre trend of things to explode, fall down or burst into flames when he's around cause the sentient Chancelfolk to get serious cases of nerves when he's about. They prefer to have as little to do with him as possible - the sooner he leaves, the better.

Restrictions

Revelatory Trait: Rufus has metal (specifically zinc, copper and nickel) blood - it's not molten, hot, or dangerous in any way unless you vaporize and inhale it, or drink it. He sets off metal detectors even if stripped naked and naturally can't get blood tests.

Revelatory Trait: Rufus also has irregular metallic stripes all over his body. Most of these are across his torso and back, but there are a couple on his arms and legs, and one long, very thin stripe across part of his face and up into his scalp. For this reason he usually wears long sleeves and trousers with sunglasses or something to break up the outline of his face. When Guised these look like vicious scars instead of metal lines.

Visibility: The more Rufus uses his Noble powers, the more metallic he looks. His eyes turn silver, his hair becomes copper wire, and occasionally, the more he looks like he's suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, as it seems that parts of his body are collapsing in on themselves.

Virtue

None

Affiliation

Code of the Wild

Anchors

Tanya Rhoads: An early-30s and very attractive Australian woman who currently resides in one of the richest neighborhoods in Sydney. Not quite all there herself, she's convinced that Rufus is merely a bit eccentric - plus he appreciates her inherited holdings in the nickel mining and high explosives industries. He concentrates on being as normal as possible when she's around - so much so that he even manages to shut off the Runaway Train Gift - and thus far they've enjoyed a quietly private relationship. Probes into Tanya's life from unwanted persons or groups have unusually high odds of ending either in a budgetary crisis or violent murder.

One unassigned

Bonds

The Sanctity of His Estate: 5

Wall Street, NYC: 3

Financial Chaos and Disorder: 3

Anchor: Tanya Rhoads: 3

Following the Spirit of His Imperator's Commands: 2

Preserving the Metals Used in Coinage: 1

Friendship with Ian Kostock, Power of Chaos: 1

Friendship with Redex, Power of Explosions: 1

Annoying John Dzierjowski, Power of Construction: 1

Wound levels

2 Surface Wounds

2 Serious Wounds

2 Deadly Wounds