[ OOC ]Backtagging: I will backtag as long as you need me to! I just might need poking at if I forget to pick something up.
Threadhopping: Check in with me if it looks like a serious thread, and obviously it's not allowed if it's a private interaction, but usually? If it's funny, go for it.
Fourthwalling: I'm not a big fan of being on either end of fourthwalling, so let's not, unless you play from one of those canons that literally anyone who lives in any version of America would know.
Crit: I'm always willing to hear what you have to say if you have issues with my play or suggestions on how to improve! My only stipulation is that it
must come directly from you, no anon or sockpuppet accounts. This includes game-wide HMDs, Dreamwith PM, email, and Plurk.
[ IC ]Hugging this character: He'll probably be a little thrown, but if it's a kid he'll be okay with it. Uninvited contact from adults, however, he's not so into. But, hey, I mean, go for it!
Kissing this character: Again, he's not the biggest on uninvited contact. He'll be a whole lot less polite about it than hugging, and anyone who tries will probably get smacked in the face with a flute.
Flirting with this character: Piper is an out gay man, so if women try to flirt with him he'll politely put them off, but guys feel free. He especially likes 'em tall, dark, and poor life choice-y.
Fighting with this character: Despite having a more hands-off power, he's still a scrappy lil nerd. He's not above punching or kicking someone in the face if they piss him off, but if it comes to a serious fight, he's much more likely to back off and use his flute.
Injuring this character (include limits and severity): For now I'm gonna put a hard limit on injuring him to nothing more than scrapes and bruises. If anything needs to escalate beyond that, I assume we'll be chatting about it anyway.
Killing this character: For now, no. If you really feel like your character needs to kill him, we'll talk.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: He has no defense against it other than hypnotizing people out of it. But let's talk if you wanna go spelunking in there, there's some weird shit going on in that head of his.
[ APPEARANCE ]Age:
Mid-30s. Executive decision: he turned 33 right after arriving in MoM.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 158 lbs
Hair and eye colour: Long, ginger hair. Usually in a ponytail. Blue eyes, sometimes wears glasses, usually green-tinted.
Clothing: He really can't dress himself, oh my god. Band t-shirts, deep-cut v-necks, bright colored suits, genuinely fucking terrible costume choices.
General: Piper's appearance has changed a good number of times over the years, but from the canon point I'm apping him from, he's still rockin' the ponytail and clean shaven look. HOWEVER I have several icons where he has short hair and a soul patch. I need those for expressions, please ignore that that's not what he looks like!
This and
this are shots of his current costume and character design.
Pictures:
who lets this man design costumes,
seriously hartley you're a grown man,
even his formalwear is terrible.
[ ABILITIES ]The Sound of Music - After his parents had his hearing "repaired", Hartley fell in love with all sound, but especially with music. Studying sound engineering from age nine, Hartley's an expert in all things sonic. He has a number of instrumental gadgets that allow him to manipulate sound waves into doing all manner of things, from hypnosis to paralyzing people, to blowing things up. If you can creatively come up with a way for sound to affect something, he can make it work with nothing more than a flute, speaker, or tuning fork.
Piper is capable of using his music to hypnotize anyone who can hear it into doing basically whatever he wants, from emptying their bank account into his to attacking someone, or whipping zoo animals into a frenzy and setting them loose on a city. He can even use it to make himself functionally invisible simply by using his music to brainwash people into thinking they can't see him. While it seems that he can direct who is affected within hearing range, anyone who can't hear his music cannot be affected. He frequently uses devices to amplify his music for this reason exactly. He's also frequently thwarted by the Flash, who can outrun his soundwaves, because comics are stupid.
He also uses his mastery of sonics to create devices that can focus sound for destructive purposes, such as a sonic cannon that blows things up, and tuning forks that are tuned to a pitch to paralyze people's muscles, regardless of if they can hear him or not.
Enhanced Hearing Implants - When Hartley was a child, his parents spent millions to have his deafness "cured". After seeing dozens of doctors, one finally came up with a solution in the form of surgery to replace his cochlea and tympanic membranes with microrobotics, giving him practically superhuman hearing. While not as sensitive as, say, Superman's hearing, Hartley can, in his own words, "hear a cop whisper a block away". These robotics are implanted directly into his head, and are not removable without extensive, damaging surgery.
Ratspeak - In canon, Piper takes up talking to rats after being sent to prison because he was framed for the murder of his parents. That's a really healthy coping mechanism, right? Anyway, he seems to genuinely be able to hold conversations with them after that, but canon never explains how or why. And since he's being apped from a point prior to that, he'll be getting it as a Porter Power. In MoM, if it falls into the order Rodentia, Piper will be able to talk to it, and understand the answering communication. In addition, the longer a rodent spends talking to him and in proximity of his power (living in the same house as him, for one), the more intelligent they become. They won't gain the ability to speak to other people, but they pick up more expanded concepts and can follow more complex directions.
For example, at the lowest level of this, a squirrel he sees in the park would respond if he said hello, but would have a harder time having a "conversation" with him, or at least not one he would be interested in having.
The rats that come and go from his garage can follow most directions given by him and engage in conversation. He could ask them, for example, to scout the area looking for someone and they could report back to him when they see that person, where they were, and basic concepts of what they were doing or saying.
His pet chinchilla would have the most awareness at the highest level of this, since it spends the most direct time with him. Francisco has a greater grasp of higher concepts (though often lacks interest, preferring to talk about when Piper is going to give him treats next). Unfortunately for this example, his chinchilla is also fat and lazy, so he doesn't do anything useful, but he could, say, eavesdrop on a conversation and report back to Piper with reasonable clarity on what was overheard.
[ OPT-OUT ]A big part of Piper's powers are based in hypnosis. He can control people with sound, and pretty much get them to do whatever he wants. He doesn't use it lightly these days, especially since he's reformed, but he'll definitely pull it out in a fight. Or if someone's being an asshole. Or if they really deserve to be taught a lesson.
Anyway, obviously this is something not everyone is cool with, so feel free to use this post to
opt out from your character ever being hypnotized by Piper. I will always, always plan out threads involving hypnosis on plurk or IM, but if you'd prefer to never interact with it at all, let me know here.
As a note, this does
not opt out from his paralysis powers or explosions, as those fall more under fighting abilities than actual mind control.
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