Korps Operative: Slate
Art by DistressedEgg, Rebecca Raptor, and Vosyl.
"Tell me what you see in the dark"
General Information
Name: Yvonne MacStitch
Known Aliases: ‘The Bassist’ of The Strangers
Pronouns: She/Her
Date of Birth: May 27, 1989
Place of Birth: [City, State/Province]
Villain Pseudonym: Slate
Species: Black-Tailed Jackrabbit - Lepus californicus
Height: 6'9" (210 cm)
Weight: 200 lbs (90 kg)
Fur Pattern: Tawny pale, peppered with darker freckles on her face, shoulders and extremities. Much darker colouration along her back with ash browns and the distinctive ‘black’ of her species on the tail tuft
Hair: Honeyed Blonde, cropped short on the sides and black and stylized into a wispy wave to her right side. Turns black when her powers manifest.
Eyes: Dark Amber Sclera with brighter hue on iris, like hair turns black when powers manifest.
Agent Intel
Base of Operations: GCU - Granite City Underground. A Sprawling metro-tunnel system beneath the Grampian Area that links to Korps bases hidden across the UK. All UK subterranean korps bases connect to the ‘KAP’, the Korps Anodyne Platform. The London Medical Facility.
Designation: On-Site Support, Auxiliary Operative
Superpowers: Slate is a vessel to an eldritch power, channelling its gifts into a switchblade of eclectic umbrakinetic powers. Including but not limited to manipulating shadows to cling to her body for flight, wrap around her to absorb force, and fire shadowbolts from her fists that disrupt enemy morale. Her powers are enhanced in low-light environments, and are virtually nullified by daylight. She has influence over metaphorical darkness: The Unconscious Mind, Dreams, and Hidden Desires. Leading her to joyride within people, walk through their dreams, and read what people want before they know it themselves. Such powers however aren’t given for free, Slate needs to continually prove herself and negotiate with the entity, and resist its ongoing influence that seeks to make her more compliant for its grander scheme.
Modifications: Her claws have been fitted with a self-repairing coating of nanocarbon, with a reservoir running up her forearm that can be relied on to extend her range. A reflexive photon dampener fitted over each retina to dampen flashbangs and muzzle flashes that may blind her due to extreme photosensitivity while her powers manifest. An artificial subdermal layer has been added with anti-conflagration properties, rendering her difficult to ignite with fire and chemical-based weaponry.
Threat assessment: Cunning and can twist the disadvantages her opposition imposes into her favour, Slate is both quick-thinking and adaptable to rapidly changing circumstances, a brain rippled by lapine brawn. Despite glaring weaknesses of her powers, they are unable to manifest in broad daylight, and subdued by artificial sources. Slate displays a callous and highly manipulative attitude towards others - bordering on at least subclinical psychopathy - to come to her aid, if help is unavailable she defaults to the more pragmatic move. Where she can make use of her weakened powers to snatch batteries out of flashlights and crunch the circuitry to disable floodlights. She prides herself as an expert escape artist, and in times of crisis marshalled other korps personnel out of danger (See Chapter Three: “Nightfall”). Taking an almost natural delight - given her species - in evading predators, she remains satisfied by proving her elusive reputation in avoiding the proper authorities more so than direct engagement. On the occasion she is required face-to-face confrontation, her ability to work with shadows make her difficult to pin-down and environments under her preferred conditions disastrous for the ill-prepared vigilante. She retains the same deep-seated sense of commanderie as other korps agents do, and will put herself before them should they come under fire believing herself to be untouchable. A nature team leader that is driven to providing for those under her charge and avoids unnecessary risks - a magnanimous display tempered by her more sadistic streak in depriving those that oppose her of all tactical advantage, playing with her food as she strips them of cover, ground, routes, comms, and supplies. She’ll want it all, and shut down those that seek to harm her accomplices in pink.
Biographical Information
Personality: Yvonne runs counter to the popular stereotype of darkness-aligned superheroes (let alone supervillains) being sullen and full of angst, she is instead extremely extroverted and attuned to others passions. Always keen to impress, she oftens overloads her schedule with events to meet as many new acquaintances as she can. Her drive as a social butterfly led her to the field of psychology to better understand others. Despite her apparent sociability, she is prone to erratic moods, rule-breaking behaviour, and an intense antisocial undercurrent. A vocal proponent of equality, she frequently marks those that will not respect others as her enemy, and drives her oppositional disposition towards the current status quo, and against vigilantes that are sworn to uphold it.
Under the guise of Slate, she becomes more maniacal and boastful of her abilities and nobler ideals. Allowing herself to be caught sneering from the shadows, as a distraction and to delay interlopers. She prizes psychologically tormenting the opposition with whatever is on hand and with intel provided.
In her private life, her confidence can wax and wane, abruptly breaking or surging from nowhere, relying on her RCGs to keep in check her ambitious nature for a cool-headed demeanour. She has grown wary of her bright mood, from various set-backs brought on by megalomaniacal bouts that have crossed others boundaries. Keen to overanalyze her mistakes, she displays a growth mindset and sees herself as always improving as opposed to perfect and flawless some heroes have taken her to believe.
Background: Oblivious to her family’s reputation growing up, Yvonne was unaware of the connections to organised crime or that her family’s influence was in decline necessitating a move from Glasgow to the Northeast with other family members breaking contact and adopting new identities to avoid reprisal from rivals. Disintegration and cutting of ties an all-too familiar theme. Her early life was marked by frequent disruptions to her living circumstances; divorce, drugs, and prison. She was passed between care-givers on who was the most able at the given moment to look after her. The instability pressed on her, as during her teens she had a streak of truancy and vandalism that in a desperate bid to straighten her out, the family staged an intervention and had her agree to military service. After two years of basic training drills, she opted to go into the intelligence corps until she was given an offer: be subjected to an investigation surrounding her family’s up-and-coming criminal connections and recent operations, or be honourably discharged. She took the latter and leveraged her experience in the military to secure a job as a security guard operating CCTV monitors for the Hoo-Poe co-operative chain. Her experience working with the local community changed her. From the simple act of greeting and becoming aware of other people from different walks of life, to intervening in store thefts and giving talkings-to instead of handing over to police juvenile delinquents, to her nightwatch binge-watching of media she was forbidden to watch as a child. She had even found love. Her world expanded on an interpersonal level that awakened a deeper change in her, and her need to connect with others. Once confronted by her boss about her history of stealing from work, she had in panic stuck him out cold and sought her family’s connections to kidnap the knocked-out boss to buy her more time to come up with a plan.
In failing to do so the MacStitch family name was once again hit across headlines. Serious organised crime and suspected rogue superpowers had marked Yvonne as public enemy number one in the eyes of the press and with her first real relationship revealing herself to be an undercover officer, her world came to a heart-aching halt. Scrambling across the country as a wanted fugitive rather than turn herself in, she happened to cross paths with those that know what it's like to be hunted, and found use of her talents (see Known Aliases).
