Destoroyah

Destoroyah
Author	/u/Inksword
Civilian name	Ross Luntz
Alignment	Villain
Affiliation	Noncanon (Ashton)
PRT Classification	Changer 4 (Mover 3 Master 2)
Status	Noncanon

Lizard-like changer has been spotted flying rooftop to rooftop occasional nights for a few weeks, but activity has increased in the wake of the extended quarantine. Robbed one convenience store during which he shed a layer of skin messily and got away.

Character Sheet

Appearance

Ross as a human and his first level of transformation)

Five foot eleven inches. Very clearly athletic but closer to the slimmed-down long-distance endurance type than super muscle-bound. Freckled to the point of looking tan if you squint your eyes. Blue eyes, soft boyish face and handsome but not particularly mature looking. His hair is blond, but he's dyed it black. He’s always changing styles to keep up with what’s popular, fashionable, or fits into whatever sub-group he’s looking to get into. Right now his natural hair has an undercut. He has a few spots for piercings from when he traveled in the goth and punk groups, but right now is going for the safe, clean-cut look that can fit almost anywhere, and so he mostly leaves his eyebrow and nose piercings empty and sticks with the studs in his ears. His expression has been described as cat-like as he usually exudes an amused calm.

For his cape costume, as a changer, he faces problems trying to find a costume that will fit his various forms. Luckily, as long as he doesn't fall unconscious and drop out of his forms, he doesn't need a mask. His costume is made of black stretchy material that clings to his body and is capable of expanding for his more muscular forms. A one-piece that cuts off halfway down thighs and tapers up to wrap around his neck for fastening. Sides and arms left bare. Back is extremely low cut and also exposed, as it has to be cut low enough to allow his tail to sprout from the base of his back in addition to allowing his wings room. Even the parts that are covered have a few vents that show his skin, placed where the lines of his colored scales land so his accent colors change with his scales. For accessories, he has loose fingerless gloves and foot wrappings, padded to allow for better grip and dampen his footfalls, while the fingers and toes are exposed for when he grows his claws and then lengthen. His chest has a ring of “teeth” and he wears elbow and knee pads with black wing-like attachments to echo the design of the kaiju he’s named after. They're not armor but they help him if he falls from a height or braces himself on his hands and knees.

Equipment and Resources

• A newbie who generally doesn't carry items when thrill-seeking/caping in his changer form. Will usually stash a change of clothes and his disposable cellphone somewhere in the area.
• Two loving parents, who his wealth and resources are dependent on.
  • House
  • cellphone
  • laptop
  • Can drive and can borrow car from parents.
• Usually has a second prepaid disposable cellphone his parents don't know about for cape stuff.

Skills and Specializations

• Charming and personable, definitely helped by his good looks on this front
• Lying/acting
• Observant
• Some above basic filming/editing skills
• Film buff, particularly encyclopedic knowledge on b-movies and scifi.
• Athletic and good explosive speed. Is a sprinter on his school's track and field team.

Mentality

• Probably falls under the realm of sociopathy, feeling little guilt over his actions and tailoring his behaviors and actions based on the reactions he wants from other people rather than any internal emotions or honesty. Doesn't really feel guilt.
• Otherwise, laid back, excessively calm and chill, even in rather extreme situations.
• Can be quite charming though not empathetic for obvious reasons.
• Has an intense drive to find an in-group, actually hates being a loner. Tailors his look and personality to whoever he's trying to get in with. Feels slightly uncomfortable with his lack of internal identity, like he wouldn't exist without an audience observing him from the outside.
• Tends to flounder and become unmotivated and restless without clear direction of what he's "supposed" to be or do. Will fall back to his expected social role if lost, and will fall even further back into the black and white fictional tropes and morality in tv and video games if further perplexed.
• Since he’s become a cape he’s seen his power as a clear definition of who he is. The power is him, he is the power, clearly being a cape is something concrete and defined that is undeniably a part of his being. He sees no other way forward than being a cape of some sort, villain, rogue, hero, and being the strongest best, or most destructive at it
• Film and TV buff, loves old b-movies and scifi. One of the few things he seems to hold onto as a solid touchpoint of what he values outside capedom.
• When he gets bored or wants to leave a group, he tends to gaslight and manipulate the group into self-imploding rather than just... leaving. It lets him have an out where he isn’t seen as to blame and allowing him to leave without a perception of guilt by pitting people against each other indirectly. It’s not abandoning a group if the group destroys itself right?
• Follows unwritten rules fairly instinctively.

Power

Trigger type: Natural

Ross has a humanoid reptilian changer form, that progresses through several stages where his mutations increase in potency. His first stage is easy enough to change into, his skin simply dries up and he tears it off to reveal his scaley self underneath, but after that, he cannot escalate to higher tiers unless he's in active conflict or battle.

In the middle of conflict/fights it still requires him to stop moving and focus for about 10 seconds, during which time his attention is demanded enough that he can't move while doing it, and he has greater difficulty dodging or attacking, usually only able to do one or the other at a less effective level than his focused baseline. He cannot utilize his enhanced dodging or special attacks past his claws when attempting a tier transition.

When Ross falls unconscious his form rapidly reverts back to his own, transforming rather than tearing and melting like he does when entering his form.

Tier 1 - Teal

Ross’s skin is changed to slick smooth teal and black scales like a snake’s, and he gains a flicking tongue and vertical yellow reptilian eyes as well as claws and a tail. He retains his general gender appearance (E.g frame/hair) but become more physiologically reptilian.

Benefits:

• Scales are as tough as strengthened leather, providing some reduction of damage versus small knives, dampening punches, and mild mundane forms of damage. Is additionally unharmed by mundane acids (tinker tech/power generated acids up for debate.)
• Exotic movement options (easy climbing, moving on walls/ceilings, leaping, etc.) from their scales and claws and general lizardy lizard body.
• Claws on feet and hands about as sharp and dangerous as knives.
• Tail is about 5 feet long and prehensile. Can hold and lift objects and support the cape's body-weight.
• Running, jumping, general whole-body coordination and dodging improved to be peak human athlete.
• Yellow reptilian eyes come with effective night-vision. Woo.
• Ross's changer form is cold-blooded, and can be made sluggish in cold temperatures, especially if he isn't being particularly active.

Tier 2 - Green

Ross's claws become more jagged, and their scales become green and black. His frame becomes slightly more well muscled.

Benefits:

• Claws are serrated and do messier and more dangerous wounds that bleed excessively. Able to saw through thicker materials now.
• The tail can now effectively grapple people and is about as strong as his main body. 8 ft long
• Non-combat movement speed doubled, can move for long distances very quickly but takes a bit to get up to speed.

Tier 3 - Yellow

Ross’s claws elongate, and their scales become yellow and black, rough to the touch like sharkskin. He grows large wings, and grows about half a foot taller, hitting 6'5".

Benefits:

• Gains wings that are able to have him hover and maintain his altitude, and glide across gaps.
• Can spit gobs of acidic venom from his mouth, causing surface level burns on exposed flesh if it lands. Items made of vulnerable materials or that are particularly delicate may start dissolving under the acid. Both living creatures and objects hit by it are also susceptible to sabotage via physical hesitation. For living creatures, this is just slight hesitation in movements and attacks. This causes items and objects that are scratched to have a failure chance. (E.g. A car might delay to start, or a gun might misfire, etc.) Tinker tech is more resistant to this effect but not immune, and generally should be considered under the effects one step or one tier less than Ross's current tier.
• Becomes lithe and athletic enough to clearly register as parahuman ability. Could, for example, likely jump up to a second-story balcony. Dodging attacks that are unpracticed, clumsy or slow becomes trivial (untrained punches thrown by untrained people or attacks with a heavy or slow weapon such as a sledgehammer.) This only applies to his movements on the ground however, as air resistance and maneuverability make that level of intense movement in the air less possible.

Tier 4 - Red

Ross’s tail becomes something akin to a mixture between a tail and a tendril with one of his claws tipping it. His scales become red and black. He slims out a little but retains his muscle definition.

Benefits:

• Capable of true flight at about 15 miles per hour with average maneuverability.
• The venom causes significant burns to flesh and hesitation is upgraded to straight-up failing to execute the occasional action. It always causes at least minor backfires or jams in equipment with the possibility of a catastrophic failure such as a gun exploding in its wielder's hands.
• The tail is about 10ft long and can be used for attacks in and of itself. Can sweep it around him to knock people over within its range, and other such tactics.

Tier 5 - Violet

Critical form cannot assumed while the cape is physically unharmed at more than 50% health abstractly. Mental and emotional attacks are not considered damage for this.

The cape’s scales pick up a purple glow and begin to shed off to reveal a completely black layer of pristine slick black scales. Their physical appearance looks much closer to Tier 1, as they slim down again and lose height, but the sense of danger and physical modifications remain.

Benefits:

• When shifting into this tier, Ross heals all his wounds.
• Venom freezes people in indecision and mental paralysis for a solid 30 seconds. Non-living objects simply start rapidly dissolving under the acid and are scrap after more than a few seconds pass.
• Flight at 30 mph.
• Gains minor master power capable of influencing emotions. His intimidating and predatory visage is enhanced by a danger aura he can flare by focusing, forgoing other attacks. Inspires intense fear and feelings of inadequacy in those within range, framing Ross as a source of extreme danger.

Backstory

Ross's parents became worried about him when he was fairly young. As a toddler, he hardly ever showed emotion, outside of throwing tantrums to get what he wanted, and eventually, they sent him to someone to see what the problem was. Ross quickly figured out what he was supposed to be doing. He learned how to fake emotions, and that he should be making friends, and so by the time he was nine or so seemed completely well-adjusted on the outside.

His father was in the military and so Ross's family moved frequently. Ross's emotional detachment and frequent need to introduce himself and make friends made him quickly become quite the charmer and social manipulator. Better yet, all his immature classmates were stumbling around through their social interactions without having to think about them (like children), so Ross found it fairly trivial to get what he wanted. They moved frequently enough that Ross considered friendships disposable. When he wanted to leave a group, he'd pit them against each other, burn his bridges, and move onto the kids eager to be his new friends. No baggage no guilt when he left since the group imploded on itself (due to his manipulations.)

Then his parents moved, just as Ross was moving from middle school to high school. Suddenly, there were kids just a few years older that were way stronger smarter and more clever than him that were difficult to play. Everyone was playing the social game and it became much harder for him to break into the world of strangers and find stable footing. Ross burned through clique after clique trying to find his place, spitefully breaking them up when they turned against him and reinventing himself to make himself more appealing to his next target. This continued until he fell in with a mixed group of film buffs, theater nerds, and nerd nerds. Growing up naturally isolated, and without a ton of extra money to spend, Ross had learned a lot from shows and media, finding a particular fondness for the black and white (both visually and morally) era of TV. He actually enjoyed debating about who would beat who in a fight, finding esoteric old films to watch and dissect. It was mentally and socially engaging, he began dating one of the girls in the film-club. For the first time, he found a friend group he actually cared about, and he wasn't getting bored and restless after a few weeks. He spent nearly a year with the club, content.

And then, without thinking about it, he slept with an older boy in order to get his hands on a rare vhs print of an obscure japanese movie series that the club was into. He thought it was no big deal, there wasn't any emotions involved it was a transaction, however, his girlfriend didn't appreciate it. The entire film club turned against him. He had been living here a while and people remembered how he had treated his past friend groups. There was proof of his manipulations. With all his charms and efforts he wasn't able to patch it up once people decided everything he said was poisoned.

Normally Ross would move on and try again, the athletes seemed promising but he had actually connected with the film group. A friend of his girlfriend extended one last olive branch, arranging a meeting between him and her along with the club. Having already considered it a lost cause and making his way to the athletes, Ross was completely off balance, unsure of what to do or who he should be trying to be. He triggered in his sleep over the dilemma of whether he should try for greener pastures or stick it out for once where he was comfortable.

The meeting the next day was a disaster, and though he's had success on the track team he is now acutely aware of just how thin a human mask he wears, cold blooded death lying just below the surface that could be so easy to reveal. He's restlessly and angrily started experimenting with his powers at night, determined that he's meant to be a cape. The additional stress of the plague has pushed him to make his first actual move, and he's robbed one convience store, purely out of cold curiosity of how easy it would be or not.