Player/LJ: Bev / beverly_mcintyr
Email: luckofarebel [at] cox [dot] net
AIM: SilvrBevvy
Character Name: Vesper a.k.a. Marcelo Joaquim Alencar da Silva
Character LJ: vesper_verde
Physical description: 5'10" ; 185 lbs. ; athletic physique; black hair in long dreads; brown eyes
Age: 21
PB: Lateef Crowder
Abilities: * master of capoeira
* red belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
* Silent Zone: Can cancel out all sound within a 5' radius
* Silent Self: Can make his movements absolutely silent despite what he is wearing or carrying
* Sound Tolerance: Can keep high-volume noises from ruining his hearing
* Far-Hearing: Can 'bend' sound waves, causing sounds too distant for him to hear to reach his ears
* Part of the richest family in Brazil due to its booming economy
* Uses company resources and inventions to help with his heroic endeavors
Weaknesses and flaws: Psychological limitation that he feels obligated to fight crime; Secret Identity
Character location/Home: Current: New York City / São Paulo, Brazil
Alignment: hero - street level
Relatives: Letícia Marisa Alencar da Silva (mother, deceased), Luíz Adriano Alencar da Silva (father, living)
Backstory:
Marcelo Joaquim Alencar da Silva was born to a well-to-do family in São Paulo. The family owned a company that was on the forefront of Brazilian manufacturing and exports. The company would later have a large stake in the Brazilian discovery of deep-water oil. Marcelo was raised in an idyllic childhood with no wants or worries. His mother insisting he follow typically Brazilian arts, like capoeira, samba, and bossa nova from an early age. This relatively blissful time came to an end at the age of 10 when Marcelo's mother was with her son in the wrong place and the wrong time. Caught in gunfire between gangs due to a wrong turn, bullets riddled their car. His mother and the chauffer were killed outright; Marcelo had been shoved down and covered bodily by his mother in her last act. Added insult to injury came when one of the surviving gang members stuck his head into the car, placed a gun against the young Marcelo's head to keep him still, and looted his mother's body of jewelry before beating a hasty retreat.

At his mother's funeral, he vowed tearfully beside her casket that he would find a way to make sure no other mother had to die for her son. But like most ten-year-old given vows, that fell to the back of his mind as the rest of life came his way. Marcelo's father was devastated at his wife's death, but tried to step into the caretaker role his wife had occupied for her son. As his energies were split between the family business and raising his son, sometimes things did not work out ideally, but Luíz did not stop trying to provide his son with the best life possible. He also tried to groom his son for a place within their company. Initially, a teenaged Marcelo rebelled. He tried to work his way into the underground vale tudo shows. He managed to get into a couple bouts but hurt himself in the process. His fourth bout saw him lose. He was approached by some angry gang members afterward. They had bet on him, and they had lost money. His offer of money from his own wallet didn't appease them. They beat him unconscious and took all the money from his wallet.

When he woke in a hospital, he remembered his vow beside his mother's coffin. His recent experience taught him he was not likely to manage on his own. While he tried to work out a way to make his vow work, Marcelo followed his father's wishes and joined the company. He followed his father in his shadow, consumed by his thought of vengeance without a means of exacting it. Until one fateful day in the labs, his inattention got him into trouble. There was a demonstration of some new chemicals for bio-medical use. Marcelo leaned against a table and knocked a burner with his elbow. In trying to right things before anyone saw, he spilled a different batch of mutagenic chemicals on himself. He was shocked when there were no burns but what had spilled onto his skin was absorbed in. Marcelo had problems the rest of the day with hearing a high-pitched noise that no one else could hear.

Later that night, Marcelo realized he could hear his father's half of a phone conversation from across the mansion. Though the realization got him no closer to figuring out how he could fight the crime that had taken his mother from him. The idea how came to him during one of his father's talks about projects to mimic things about Diphylla ecaudata ecaudata. Once Marcelo figured out what his father was talking about, he thought it was brilliant. By day, he was the dutiful son rising through the ranks of the business and proving himself, in the evening he was seen out and about to have a story about being out all night to party, and in the night he used equipment from the business to hunt low-level gang members. It was done to start stories among the rank and file of a creature stirring in the night. He managed to squeeze in sleep when he could, but he kept up the pace. While he was stalking thugs, he learned of his abilities for silence and his ability to not be bothered by someone blasting an airhorn into his ear.

Sample post:
His bags were already packed at home. Most of his belongings already shipped to New York City. His father was having their first international office opening there, and his choice on handling the business was his newly minted vice-president of international expansion. The man currently crouched on a slanted roof didn't think his pai needed to give him a long title, but the move would be good for him.

The man known as the Vesper on the street tilted his head and focused on a conversation happening two buildings over. It was the usual gang posturing. There was probably some chest-slapping, but he waited. He just needed a name to go off of. Vesper had been hunting this particular gang for months. He had uncovered a large ring he just couldn't break. A couple weeks ago, he found out a reason why. This gang was large and had spread out of the ghetto it started in. Power and influence that was now spreading to America.

He scowled slightly as the bullshitting continued. He wondered if these little boys had any left when they went to the restroom. Someone entered the room and things got quiet. There was scuffling of feet on the floor and then a gravelly voice told everyone to get to business. They had a shipment going to the States in two weeks. Vesper clenched his fist and waited for a name. He got a nickname. Tio Cano.

That was enough for tonight. He rose to his feet and extended the silence wrapped around him out farther. The last thing he needed was a roof tile to go clattering around and give away his presence. He leapt from rooftop to rooftop until he could see the window to the gang's meeting place. Well, that was a good sixteen feet to the window. He could probably jump it and fall right off the building if he didn't break the window or missed and hit the wall. He pressed a button and the wings on the pack on his back extended. This was one way to test the prototype.

He took a few steps back to get enough launching room. Vesper took three quick steps and leapt from the roof. The wings silently extended due to his powers. They helped him glide and steer his way toward the window. He extended his gauntleted hand to break the window. Just before he hit glass, he collapsed the wings and let momentum carry him in through the window.

There were startled yells and scrambling as he rolled silently in. Vesper quick rose to his feet in the center of the room and extended his wings again. Fully to break the lights and plunge the room into darkness. He dropped the silence.

"Vamos encarar o perigo!" he growled before the gunfire rang out. Once it was dark, he collapsed his mechanical wings and rolled out of the way. He came up beside someone firing at where he had been. Vesper dispatched him with an elbow to the throat. The man's gagging brought more gunfire in that direction. He rolled out of there and worked his way around the room. He took care of all with broken bones or concussions but left one man standing.

When the man's gun ran out of bullets, Vesper could hear the gun keep clicking away. The man dressed in green and gray pulled a flashlight out of one of his thigh pouches. He shined the light directly into the man's face.

"Do you know who I am?" Vesper asked with his voice pitched at a rough growl. He did it to keep people from recognizing his voice. He moved closer and watched the man tremble against a wall.

"Ye-Yes! You're the Ba-"

Vesper's hand shot out and grabbed the man by the throat. "I am the Vesper. I'm giving you one chance. Tell all your friends about me. Now go. The police are coming to pick up the rest."

Once the man was released, he dropped his useless gun and scrambled over his groaning compatriots to find the door. Vesper watched the man leave and cloaked his own movements in silence again. He walked to the window and climbed out on the ledge. The wings extended at a press of a button. He jumped off the ledge and the wings with their propulsion unit firing let him swoop up to the neighboring rooftop. It was a bit loud. Like a car without its muffler. That would need some work, he thought idly as he worked his way over the rooftops to where he hid his car.

By the time he went down the fire escape with a large duffel bag, he looked like Marcelo heading in for the night. He just needed to figure out how to get the suggestion sent along to make the wing-pack quieter.