App for mercurycitysupers

[mecanica]

Player Info

Player Name: Mindy
Over 18?: Yosh!
Contact: artoni or DW PM~
Timezone: PST
Characters already in game: N/A


Character Info
Name: Gabriella 'Gabbi' Moreno
Alias: Grease Monkey
Age and birthdate: 16
Home city: New York, New York
Type: Hero [oppa Chaotic Neutral style]
Occupation: Mechanic
Appearance: Gabbi's about 5'3", has brown hair, brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin- as well as a clear Hispanic 'look'. She's not excessively muscular, and while she's not stick-thin, tilts towards the 'skinny' side. She always has a belt on. And always wears pants. Did we mention the oversized ears and tail she wears?

The 'belt' is actually all but grafted on to her- there's direct contact at the base of her spine, and while it can be removed, it's painful at best. That said, it's only that spot that's secured; the belt can come out and wrap over pants and clothing. Usagewise, it stimulates her nerve system, allowing her to use her legs as normal, and more; she's tinkered with it enough that her legs are 'super-powered' at this point, allowing her to make great leaps. As an extra, she also has created a sort of support structure she wears - hence always wearing pants to hide them. The support structure is secured to her legs like an exoskeleton, and allows her to make those leaps and sudden drops without breaking her legs.

The ears are actually secured on via a headpiece that stays hidden under her hair; they're removable, but they also have small grafts, not quite as much as her belt/tail does but enough so that the ears can twitch and such, in order to keep up the pretense of them being real. She can feel them, as well as her tail, and she can feel pain through them.

Her superhero 'outfit' is simple enough - a mechanic's jumpsuit (with no ties to the garage she works at) with a hole in the back for her tail (also for the belt to come out), boots, gloves, and a set of goggles.


Personality: Grease Monkey would have you think that she's little more than a spunky monkey-girl prodigy, one who's absolutely entranced by mechanics of all sort. The kind of monkey-girl savant who can build anything, given time and tools, and who's carefree and just happy to have the chance to discover new things.

Most of this is correct. But there are times that this facade will crack, revealing a somewhat different young lady.

Gabriella has always been confident in her savant-level intelligence, to the point of cocky; however, the fact remains she's very aware of what she can do, and not at all shy to admit it. She isn't, however, afraid to ask for help if there's something out of her grasp; getting a hand isn't a cause for shame, it's an opportunity. Sure, not everybody can do what she can do, but then again there's some things she simply can't. And failure isn't a cause for disappointment, but a chance for learning.

Still, there's some failures that are taken a bit more seriously; things she won't have the opportunity to try ever again, for example. These frustrations can get her snappish and angry, but it's hard to keep her in a poor mood for long. There's something to be said about easily distracted, and while Gabbi can grow more serious and focused, for the most part she lets herself move on to the next thing. With the loss of her father, she doesn't want attachment, necessarily. The only thing she really wants?

Answers. Leading back to her ever-hungry quest for knowledge and more, more, more. Gabbi isn't content with knowing the superficial information; her curiosity could easily be the end of her. She wants to know, and she'll stop at nothing to discover the answer to something once she picks up the trail. It may take her time, and she may get a bit distracted, but you can bet she always keeps it in the back of her mind, and is pondering the next best step to approach the item.

She can seem almost callous in her approach, sometimes, with only so much regard for lives other than her own. That not only ties back in to her unwillingness to become attached to things, but the fact that Gabbi tries hard to look at things logically and scientifically. She may not always succeed, but she tries. Maybe it's more efficient to not try and save someone, especially if she has something time-sensitive that needs to go. Forget if her own hide is at risk; she'll most certainly put herself above others, as addicting as playing the hero can be. But you can't be a hero if you're dead.

Fun to seek out thrill, though. Not always fun to discover death and fates worse than death. If she judges someone beyond saving, she is more than willing to put them down. It's not an act of murder or killing; this is a matter of solving a problem.

Heartless? Hardly. Would you like to live in a malformed state? While Gabbi knows she's not exactly the strongest person (she hates pain, and can certainly try to wheedle her way out of trouble as opposed to directly fighting/defying [good lord don't ask her to endure too much discomfort])...there are times you need to accept something just can't be fixed.

Very much sucks. Very much a discouraging moment for her. But...again. Letting herself be distracted. Indulging that whole carefree-flightly mindset can be good, because then she doesn't have to think. She can just...well. Be.

And sometimes that's all that can keep her going.



Personal history: Gabriella Moreno (Gabbi, or 'GM') is the only daughter of Leandro and Zilla Moreno. Her father was a pioneer in the field of cybernetics & neurosciences, paving the way for advances with artificial limbs to be more natural and more responsive to their owners. It got to the point where he was the head of the company that manufactured and R&D'd the patented technology - though it wasn't a big company by any means, it was still a strong one. He met Zilla while at a science convention while he was still young (20s), and after about two years they married and then had their child.

Growing up, Gabbi drew closer than her father than her mother - even if she saw her mother a lot more. But with her father...Gabbi was a child prodigy, and immediately latched on to the technology that her father worked on. Ironically, it was playing with some of this tech during a visit to their labs that she suffered a terrible accident, resulting in heavy spine damage that denied her the use of her legs. But it could happen to no more fortunate person; she and her father both worked on the device that would allow her to use them once more, and both created the belt/spine wrap that would allow her to walk again. Gabbi herself played with them a bit more, often hiding in her room as Leandro and Zilla got in to more and more fights...

Other than that, though, life was pretty good. At the age of fourteen she was already taking college classes, and continually playing with machines on the side. She dreamed of getting her own motorcycle when she was old enough, and tinkered with them (and the family car) when she wasn't being allowed in Dad's lab to play with what was in there. In it, she designed a support structure for her legs; she noticed that even with the device on she could grow tired, and sought to give herself greater strength, and to do /more/. It worked, at least- though the extra effects she kept secret, wanting to show her father at some point. She also planned on showing her father the fact that through the device's connection with her spine, she could give herself an extra limb - though she hadn't gotten the fine details down such as delicate fingers, she managed to get certain motions to the point where she could have a tail.

Stashing the new appendage away with a number of other items, she went to surprise her father at home with all that she'd done (including a few pieces of material that she hadn't seen before and wanted to ask him about)...only to find the house dead silent. She tentatively moved up to her parents' room to discover her mother over her father holding a bloodied knife - and her father, upon noticing her, rasping out an order to run. don't let her-

At that point GM did turn and bolt and wasn't quite able to make out everything else. She ran and hid in the sewers, numb with what she'd seen until she came across a small community of homeless who were more than welcome to have her 'donate' some cash to them if she could stay with them for a while. (Read: "Here's my ATM card. This is my PIN. Can I hang out here for a bit?") Through their radio she learned of the murder of Leandro Moreno, the near death of his wife, Zilla (who was in the hospital in critical condition, after shooting an armed intruder), and the kidnapping of their daughter, Gabriella.

Confused and not sure what to think (other than it couldn't have been Mom, Mom and Dad didn't get along but it wouldn't have been like that, it couldn't be), Gabriella had one more withdrawal made (read; everything she could) before giving them almost everything but the clothes on her back and the briefcase she'd taken from her dad's lab. She tinkered while with them, eventually building a sort of identity-disguise through the help of her new friends helping to scrounge materials. The result was dirty, ragged, and included an 'attempt' at hiding the oversized ears (of a headpiece) and the hiding of a tail by wrapping it around her waist like a furry belt. Or just letting it lay loose. In essence, a scrungy mutant trying to pass itself off as human - not the other way around. (Because who'd want to be a mutant, especially in a world where superhumans were currently viewed as less than humans?)

Still, her funds couldn't last them forever - especially as she had only been able to make that second withdrawal at so much, and that was risking being found (especially after police were sniffing around the area). The day after her sixteenth birthday GM parted with the group and headed up to the surface, a vague idea having formed in her mind. Running (so to speak) around with them, she'd happened around an auto shop that was in some trouble, and at least somewhat receptive towards the idea of (super/sub/in)humans; she tinkered around with their stuff overnight, and when the owner came in and found someone elbow-deep in a machine that'd been broken for days and that someone cheerfully announced she not only fixed it for you but it should run twice as well, and then proceeded to demonstrate- well, that owner was willing to hear out the sob story GM had come up with. Something about being born with a few mutations, her parents dying and the local orphanage system being rather unkind to someone like her, skipping town to town and winding up here...

Maybe he wasn't outright sold, but he was willing to let her crash in the breakroom at night, in return for pulling her weight in the shop. At her request to stay out of sight for the most part, with most people being rather uncertain of certain elements of her appearance...he said he'd do what he can.

GM, to say the least, proved her worth, rapidly getting on the owner & crew's good sides. As for what she did when she wasn't in the shop...well, suffice it to say she turned a corner in to a work station, where she could keep playing around with tools and tinker and, occasionally, go out and test them. This began to lean towards offensive and defensive gadgetry, which in turn lead her in to needing to get in to situations where they'd be brought out- and Gabbi wasn't too much in a mood to cause outright trouble. So, instead...she took advantage of the ones who did.

And it does kind of feel kind of good to save the day, whether or not the people thank you for it. The family of the garage found out rather quickly that they had a do-gooder in the back, and considering she put her priority on them...decided to overcome what reluctance they had.

Still, when all is said and done, GM knew she couldn't live like this forever. She had to find out what really happened between her parents, and deal with the fact that Mom is now the CEO of the company. From what she heard there's some deals being made with the military, but that's internet rumor at best. She needs to uncover more...and she just can't do it alone. Time to keep an eye out for those who could be useful...
Powers: GM's abilities lie solely in her mind. She is an absolute genius with technology, and it can be summed up in the following exchange;

"What can you do?"
"Anything."

There's always the matter of having the proper tools and materials, but the fact remains that GM fully believes (and isn't that far off in thinking) she can build anything to do anything. Separate her from what she needs to build, though...

Gabbi's only true 'innate' power would be the one that allows her to walk. She's suffered damage to her spinal column, and without her and her father's work, would be a paraplegic. Thanks to an implant that is powered off her own body chemistry, though, she can walk and act as normal, if not more.

She's almost always wearing her 'Monkey' apparel, too, as she goes by 'Grease Monkey' more often than she does her own name. This would be an exoskeleton on her legs that allows her to make extreme feats of leaping, a 'Fuzzset' that consists of goggles and a pair of oversized monkey ears, and finally a prehensile tail. With the setting I understand that these won't exactly work as planned; however, as pretending she's a mutant is an integral part of her character (at least, until some development occurs), I would like to request that subtle functions do work; no giant leaps, but the ears able to twitch, the tail able to move, that sort of thing.

Skills: As mentioned, GM's primary ability is her knowledge; she's incredible with technology, even more so at such a young age. About the only thing keeping her back is her sheer lack of discipline when it comes to doing something she doesn't want to do, but if she's working on a project? She will go for days straight without sleep to work on it.

Now, while Gabriella believes she can build anything to do anything...sometimes things may take her a lot longer than she thought. Or she may have to build a workaround. Or settle for less. Obviously she can't exactly break the laws of physics (unless you count building a jetpack breaking gravity, but all told it's NOT), and obviously there are things still out of her reach.
Weaknesses:
RP Goals:

Third person sample:


In Character Responses


The greater good is… "Bullshit. I mean, sure, it's good to get along and for everybody else to get along, but there's a lot of people who do really stupid stuff in the name of the 'greater good' and you know what? Screw that."

Your greatest strengths are… "Give me a wrench and supplies and I will build you anything. I will build you all the things. I may also need a hammer."

Killing is… "...wrong. But...just, okay? It's wrong most of the time. Sometimes it's better to put a dog down than have it keep going in pain, right? Or if it just doesn't stop biting..."

Teachers and mentor figures would say you are… "Awesome. No, really. I am amazing and spectacular and do not listen to anything they say about me goofing off."

Sacrifice is… "For heroes. I'm just trying to find the truth."

When you were younger you… "Were not quite as awesome as I am now, but that's okay, because I was building up to it."