Starblaze Johnson

Starblaze Johnson/ Alejandro Portillo

Character Concept: Xeno-Archaeologist/ Metacelebrity
Background: Original Space Colonist
Faction: Argonauts
Motivations: + Exploration, + Fame, + Technoprogressivism
Gender Identity: Female (Starblaze Johnson)/ Male (Alejandro Portillo)
Age: 23 years
Languages: English, Mandarin, Skandinavíska, Spanish (native)
Appearance and Demeanor: Starblaze Johnson has a particular appearance, that has been relatively constant through all the vids and other media she has appeared in. As the holder of the rights to the Starblaze metacelebrity, Alejandro makes every efforts to ensure that any human-appearing morph he occupies has this appearance. Starblaze is a white women, both very physically fit and noticeably attractive, even by the bio-sculpted standards of the current era. She has fair skin, green eyes, long, brown hair that is typically tied back in a ponytail. She generally wears clothes that emphasize both her musculature and her good looks. Her general demeanor around other people is brash and confident, regardless of whatever her ego might be feeling.

Background

Character Background:
Alejandro Portillo grew up in one of the many habitats orbiting Jupiter. The Fall happened when he was thirteen and he became subject to the Jovian Junta. As a child, he had watched the adventures of the metacelebrity Starblaze Johnson, an action hero/ xeno-archaeologist in the mold of older heroes such as Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. Many children and adults followed the vids of her adventures, but Alejandro’s interest bordered on obsession. As he grew older, he was inspired to follow in the footsteps and become a xeno-archaeologist. There was little call for such talents though within the isolationist Jovian Junta. The only real need for xeno-archaeologists was among gatecrashers and the Junta did not trust the Pandora Gates or fund gatecrashing teams. Fortunately for Alejandro, a joint team of Autonomists and Argonauts running an underground railroad out of the Jovian Junta decided his natural talents were useful and, at eighteen, they arranged for him to be smuggled out to Titan, where he quickly joined the Titan Autonomous University and pursued his studies with the help of VR-accelerated learning. Despite his gratitude to the Autonomists and the fact that he considers Titan his new home, Alejandro is not very engaged with local politics.

On a recent gatecrashing mission, Alejandro made a substantial discovery, at least in terms of his potential wealth. He deduced from the ruins he was studying that a local plant was a powerful hallucinogenic to the previous inhabitants and tests showed that it had similar effects on humans. He was able to license the discovery and parlay it into a substantial financial reward. He had, however, been feeling despondent, because his exploration has not brought quite the thrill he had been looking for--subconsciously he had been measuring his actions up against those of the fictional heroine Starblaze Johnson, whose adventures he still followed. As the money for the new hallucinogen started to come in though, word came around that the current ego performing the role of the Starblaze Johnson metacelebrity was moving on and they would be auditioning for a new performer. On an impulse, Alejandro took his new fortune and made an outrageous offer to Experia, the media hypercorp owning the rights to Starblaze Johnson. Alejandro would buy the rights to the metacelebrity and bring a new twist on her actions, using her morph to engage in actual gatecrashing and making vids and XP of this available for sale to others, to be distributed by Experia; in other words, move Starblaze from having fictional adventures to a reality show-type experience. Experia had been looking to breathe new life into the Starblaze Johnson metacelebrity and took Alejandro up on the offer, creating a new Ghost morph with Starblaze’s appearance, inserting the augmentations appropriate for an action hero, and using VR-accelerated learning to teach Alejandro the necessary skills he didn’t already know. In addition to the reality-based vids and XP, Alejandro is using Starblaze’s prominence to create documentaries on science and promoting the Argonauts’ goals. Even with the big score he made from the hallucinogenic drugs, Alejandro was unable to buy the rights to the Starblaze metacelebrity outright; she owes a substantial debt to Experia that she is still paying off.

Alejandro has now been on a couple of gatecrashing missions as Starblaze. He has become deeply immersed in the persona, insisting that everyone call her Starblaze--even in private, even among people who have known the ego for a long time. In addition, she has had psychosurgery to insert Starblaze’s fictional adventures into her actual memory, as if they were real. All this has lead a number of people to wonder if Alejandro/ Starblaze has not become somewhat mentally unbalanced.

Starblaze Johnson metacelebrity history:
Starblaze Johnson has been a popular metacelebrity for the past forty years. Before the Fall, Starblaze appeared in a number of movie length vids, as well as two different TV series, each lasting several years. Her adventures took her to the ancient ruins of Egypt, Meso-America and Southeast Asia, as well as to the bottom of the ocean to look for the (fictional) lost civilizations of Atlantis and Mu. She also explored other planets in the solar system, finding (entirely fictional) ruins there as well. In many of her vids, she tangled with ancient alien races, a number of whom were seeking to manipulate or destroy humanity. Drawing on what was then a popular science fiction trope, she even ventured through wormholes in some of the ruins she explored to fight aliens on their home worlds. Some of her recurring enemies included the Atlanteans, an ancient race of human appearance who had once ruled humanity through the Empire of Atlantis; the Saurians, a race of sapient dinosaurs who had abandoned Earth and now sought to re-conquer it; and the Xon, a race of parasites who sought to enslave humanity and use them as hosts.

After the fall, Starblaze’s adventures continued. In a few of them, she broke the quarantine and returned to earth, battling foes in old ruins of places such as Atlantis or in newer ruins, such as New York City. Such adventures did not go over well with many audiences though and, for the most part, she has been depicted as a gatecrasher, going through the Pandora Gates, meeting many of her old foes in the process. Indeed, the wormholes she had encountered before the Fall have been retconned as Pandora Gates. Her adventures now begin a new era, as she begins a phase of reality programming.

Muse: Starblaze Johnson:
Before Alejandro secured the rights to the Starbalze Johnson metacelebrity, he had modeled his Muse on her. Now that he is Starblaze, she sees no need to alter this. Others may see this as somewhat narcissistic, but Alejandro/ Starblaze sees nothing odd about the situation. As a minor concession to others' sensibilities, Alejandro has switched the Muse's appearance to an animated version of Starblaze, from a non-canon children's series.

Aspects

Ego Aspects
• High Concept: “I AM Starblaze Johnson”: This aspect represents both Starblaze’s metacelebrity status and Alejandro’s deep immersion in the Starblaze persona.
o Invoke: 1) When Starblaze could benefit from her metacelebrity status; 2) when she needs to draw on the training Experia gave her to be able to embody an action hero.
o Compel: 1) When Starblaze gets in over her head trying to live up to her action hero persona; 2) when Starblaze’s deep immersion in her persona or the fact that she has had her fictional adventures edited into her memories gives her a tenuous grasp on reality.
• Trouble: Passionate, Possessive, Skeptical Fandom: Alejandro was certainly not Starblaze’s only fan. Indeed, she has a wide, passionate following—something that makes it difficult to keep a low profile. Many of them are skeptical of the “reality adventures” direction the new Starblaze is going in. Some of these skeptics are downright obnoxious about it, seeing Starblaze as “theirs” and having the right to tell her how she is supposed to portray her persona, in some cases harassing her about it.
o Invoke: When her passionate fan following can come in useful, such as in social situations.
o Compel: 1) When the attention from her fans and entertainment journalists make it hard to keep a low profile; 2) when fans try to aggressively police how Starblaze represents her persona, interfering with whatever she is trying to do.
• Overeager Gatecrashing Xeno-Archaeologist: While Alejandro may be in a bit over his head trying to represent an action hero, he is (like the fictional Starblaze) an experienced gatecrasher and xeno-archaeologist. However, even before he became Starblaze, he could be reckless in the pursuit of new discoveries, not always taking proper precautions or paying attention to dangers.
o Invoke: When being an experienced gatecrasher and/or xeno-archaeologist would be useful.
o Compel: To act recklessly in the pursuit of new discoveries.
• Apolitical Argonaut: Aside from her metacelebrity status, the main thing Starblaze is interested in the pursuit of science and technological advancement. She is active with Argonauts in trying to promote this agenda—but tends to be uninterested in the larger social and political issues (despite being a refugee from the Jovian Junta).
o Invoke: 1) When dealing with fellow Argonauts and Argonaut sympathizers; 2) when dealing the knowledge of and promotion of scientific and technical knowledge more generally.
o Compel: When Starblaze’s political and social naivety gets her into some sort of trouble, such as ignoring a major crisis or local political or social sensitivities.

Morph Aspects

Skills

Ego Skills
+4: Investigate, Xeno-Contact
+3: Survival, Will
+2: Civ Rep, Notice, Shoot
+1: Athletics, Cred, Fight, Rapport, Somatics

Muse Skills
+2: Infosec
+1: Investigate

Stunts

Ego Stunts
• Brave: +2 to Will when rolling to resist fear, intimidation and similar manipulation.
• Metacelebrity [Entrepreneur]: +2 to Civ Rep actions when your metacelebrity status is relevant.

Morph Stunts
• Reflex Boosters (Olympian): +2 to physical actions where enhanced neural speed and reaction time come into play.

Additional Stats

Physical Stress: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Mental Stress: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Active Consequences:
Other Active Aspects:
Refresh: 2
Fate Points: 2

Portraits

Starblaze Johnson

Starblaze Johnson Muse