Known to the public as a cape who makes 'memetic art pieces' specifics are sparse, but has cooperated with the PRT enough to ensure a lack of long-term effects.
Curse is a fantastic multi-disciplined artist, even without the air of Mystery, or his parahuman powers, Curse would be renown in some circles.
The three factors together places him firmly in the celebrity category. Having appeared on a number of prime time talk shows, and was the host of the 2018 Youtube rewind.
Contrary to what might be expected, rather than only the most prestigious art museums getting to show off his art exhibits, Curse prefers to donate and lease them out to a wider variety of institutions, having been quoted as saying 'Art is for the Masses.'
Curse dresses in a somewhat pretentious body suit that conceals all their features, but is made of airy breathable material. With lots of pockets for odds and ends, gear, and art projects.
They themself are about 5'4" and has long dark unruly hair, they have a number of scars foremost among them one that splits her lips, and around her throat and collarbone.
Outside their costume, Curse wears clothes that are somewhere between goth and punk, mostly Black and other dark colors.
Resources
Wealth Level: 8
Curse is quite wealthy, having a significant and hefty investment portfolio, they mostly leave that to the professionals, and just takes his share of the profits.
They donate to a number of charities, foremost among them a charity for the victims of Masters and Strangers, called 'Friends and Equals'.
Their material belongings include a personal property in LA, that sees seldom use. As well as their custom 'Tiny-home' Tour-bus[1] and their mobile workshop[2].
Associates
Curse has two 'henchmen' named Hex & Jinx. AKA 'Astrid Smith & Jorge Avery' The Three of them are in a long-term Poly-amorous relationship, and they live together on the Tour-bus.
Hex (Astrid): A Jock, Astrid is extremely jovial and outgoing, she is the one that makes sure curse eats enough, and keeps Jorge from getting into trouble. She is also the one most likely to crack your head open if you hurt either of the other two.
Jinx (Jorge): Jorge is the smart one, he does computers, and helps the other two in ways they don't even realize, namely fact checking, research, and looking into laws, so they can find loopholes, and avoid being arrested for an exhibit . He has 'small dog' energy, he's not a push over, but overestimates himself at times.
Equipment
Curse, Hex, & Jinx's costumes are all made of relatively durable materials, more breathable than would be expected. Underneath they typically wear Ballistic Vests, knee and elbow guards, as well as white domino masks.
They each carry a small number of power-imbued items, which are featured below.
Curse herself usually carries a small first-aid kit, a phone or two, a taser, some pepper spray, and some misc stuff to keep her entertained (Nintendo switch, rubix cube, some art supplies/notepads)
Skills and Specializations
Curse is an savant, Art is her lifeblood.
Sketching, painting, drawing, sculpting, nearly all her energy has gone into honing herself to be excellent at as many art-forms as she could. Always naturally gifted, practice really does make perfect.
Its doubtful that she'd be as famous without her powers, but she'd have still been an artist of some renown, together she is elevated to new heights.
Her power has helped somewhat with her artistic endeavors, helping her learn quicker, a steadier hand, better memory, to ensure its host can make the best of materials for it to imbue with various effects.
She has some basic first aid skill, though her only combat skills are what she remembers from junior high from Karate class (IE, not much)
Mentality
Curse's mentality is deeply effected by the extended abuse and gaslighting by a pair of masters that lead up to her trigger, and her brain works a little different. Feeling the full range of emotions, but her outward reactions being unnaturally subdued.
She gives off a sleepy disinterested vibe, but is rarely giving anything less than her full attention.
A bit of a savant, Art is the most important thing to Curse. The expression of ideas and emotions, in new and interesting ways. This drive along with her superb skills and her uniquely suited powers have allowed her to accrue the kind of clout to appear on prime-time TV on more than one occaision.
Power
Trigger type: Single natural trigger
Curse imbues Master and Stranger effects into physical objects.
This process takes a long time, anywhere from 9 hours to 10 days on average. The 'strength' of the effect is not what effects the length, rather the complexity. Tweaking existing effects can take shorter periods, depending on complexity and strength.
Once an object is imbued the object is permanently imbued, whereas the effect on people interacting with the object can potentially be quite long lasting, although the effects are themself non-permanent.
Curse themselves are immune to the effects of their art, being able to toggle on-and-off this immunity to experience it as others would. Although she does not realize it, her power has enhanced her skill as an artist: helping her learn quicker, a steadier hand, better memory, to ensure its host can make the best of materials for it to imbue with various effects.
I'd prefer to leave the full variety of effects possible as vague as possible to allow room to experiment, I suspect this shouldn't be a problem since the objects are to be approved as equipment posts.
But I'll Include a number of examples in the comments
(like starting tech for a tinker, though some of these examples are not available, having been leased or purchased by collectors and museums, their inclusion should give a better idea of what she can do.)
LED strips that adorn the Tour-bus, and the Mobile Workshop.
Abilities
When turned on, they make what they are adorned too, 'hard to notice' simply fading into the background as an inconsequential detail. This enables them to drive safely without being noticed by anyone who isn't looking for them in particular.
This effect does not activate if the lights/bus are being actively observing/paying attention too it. And requires the breaking of line-of-sight to activate. (Like the thing where you hide from the video game enemies till they stop tracking you.)
Its difficult to see past the effect, but seeing past it can be aided by enhanced memory or enhanced senses.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a friendship bracelet, has a leather cord, as well as a mix of orange beads, and letter beads that spell 'FEAR'.
Abilities
Anyone actively aware of the wearer (within a hundred feet) experiences a low-level anxiety and fear, making them jumpier, and more likely to lean towards 'flight' over 'fight'
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a friendship bracelet, has a leather cord, as well as a mix of Blue beads, and letter beads that spell 'HUMAN'.
Abilities
When worn this makes the wearer look like someone else, this is purely illusionary. The exact form chosen changes every day or two, as Curse uses this object and its counterpart (below) to practice tweaking their power-imbued objects. Each Illusion bracelet can store 3 illusions at a time.
The act of tweaking this object and its counterpart have a soothing effect on Curse, not unlike stimming.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a friendship bracelet, has a leather cord, as well as a mix of Red beads, and letter beads that spell 'MONSTER'.
Abilities
When worn this makes the wearer look like someone else, this is purely illusionary. The exact form chosen changes every day or two, as Curse uses this object and its counterpart (below) to practice tweaking their power-imbued objects. Each Illusion bracelet can store 3 illusions at a time.
The act of tweaking this object and its counterpart have a soothing effect on Curse, not unlike stimming.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a simple black choker worn under their costume.
Abilities
When worn this makes the wearer sound like someone else. This effect is much much weaker than the Illusion bracelets and can be tweaked in-the field.
Basically this is an adjustable m/s voice changer.
The act of tweaking this object and its counterpart have a soothing effect on Curse, not unlike stimming.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a friendship bracelet, has a leather cord, as well as a mix of white beads, and letter beads that spell 'IGNORE'.
Abilities
When Worn, the wearer becomes 'hard to notice' simply fading into the background as an inconsequential detail. This enables them to walk through a crowd without being paid much attention too, unless someone is looking for them in particular.
Its difficult to see past the effect, but seeing past it can be aided by enhanced memory or enhanced senses.
There exist three instances of this object, one each for Curse, Hex and Jinx.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
Resembles a friendship bracelet, has a leather cord, as well as a mix of clear plastic beads, and letter beads that spell 'NOTICE'.
Abilities
When Worn, the wearer becomes 'Easy to notice' simply popping into the foreground as an important detail. This enables them to more easily become the center of attention.
Its difficult to ignore the effect, but seeing past it to others things can be aided by enhanced senses of some variety.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
A variety of cheap knickknacks you could get for a couple hundred tickets at chuck'e'cheese.
Abilities
Distraction Trinkets are designed to be thrown and draw the attention of others away from something else. They aren't all that powerful, but lots of them can be a pain in the ass, and one deployed at just the right time can be a life saver. Typically these are just annoying and distracting, and make it a bit harder to focus, imbued to draw the eye to them more easily.
There are two 'inoculation bracelets' that see through this particular effect, one each for Hex & Jinx.
The frame itself gives off a hallucinatory smell (fresh flowers and linen) to any with the frame in their field of view.
The painting itself changes if the viewer is a parahuman, into a picture of Curse in-costume giving a thumbs up. As well as the text "Thanks to you funky parahuman's for visiting my Exhibit, and for keeping life interesting."
Each brick is individually imbued with an illusion, so that they appear like a crisp one-hundred (100) dollar bill. This effect lasts for as long as its in your possession, and 48 hours after its left your possession.
Each brick has a different criteria for seeing past the illusion, someone who has seen through the illusion can then tell others about it, to help them break the illusion.
Nicknamed 'Brick Bucks' ~ 732/1,000 are accounted for.
A step stool made of Epoxy bricks and planks, the internal structure of each brick/plank containing multiple printings of 'Dante's Inferno'
Abilities
Stepping up the step ladder will grant 'religious visions' of a distinctly christian variety, while spectacular and phantasmal, everything said amounts to gibberish that sounds vaguely Latin.
Stepping down the step ladder will make you hallucinate Dante Alighieri standing before you, where he will proceed to insult you childishly, and beg god to cast you down into the pits of hell.
both effects last several minutes before fading, and can be cut short by going the opposite direction you went the first time (up or down)
A collage of pictures of dead plants and animals, smog, barrels of toxic waste, the great pacific garbage patch, and starving children (the last one being painted, rather than actual pictures of starving children)
Abilities
Makes you alternate between hysterical laughter and uncontrollable sobbing, for up to 5 minutes after exposure.
A life-size stainless steel flexing gorilla, its head is that of a Bronze Tarantula.
Abilities
This one is actually 2 imbued objects.
The statue itself is mundane in its ugliness, but people who have seen it, are unable to directly say anything negative about the statue.
The raised concrete slab it rests on fills people with an extreme reluctance to approach it. This effect kicks in withing 10 feet, and increases exponentially with every foot closer to it, to the point that its nearly impossible to get close enough to touch it.
When looking in the mirror, you feel a feeling of reassurance about your appearance, finding yourself more quickly able to find postitive features about themselves or what they are wearing.
a 5ft by 5ft tarnished bronze statuette of Gregor Samsa laying in his bed.
Abilities
Upon touching the statuette, you perceive everyone as a giant bug, with the exception of yourself, who are still normal. Touching the statue again can toggle the effect back off, although it wears off in 24 hours on its own.
~Appears to Cis Males as a roman-style statuette of a man.
~Appears to Cis Women as a roman-style statuette of a woman.
~To anyone who doesn't identify as Cisgender, its true form is revealed, a Roman-style pillar, bearing the inscription "Gender is in the eye of the beholder."
Located in a Museum in New York City.
Backstory
Ginger has always been decent in her studies, but it was in her electives that she learned Art was how she wanted to live her life.
It took some work, but she'd managed to get accepted to one of the most prestigious Art schools, and the first two years went amazing!
She'd learned so much, she'd improved in her skills, and had made friends. It wasn't until after the fact that she realized things went down hill when she moved in with her two roommates.
Her mental health deteriorated sharply, her studies falling behind, her creativity failing her. After a year of suffering she received diagnosis from a slew of doctors.
Thats what it appeared to be at least. The despair she felt was difficult for her to put into words.
Things came to a head however. A woman pulled her aside after her classes. A private detective, a thinker, she didn't consider herself a cape, she didn't do the glamor of a costume or cape name.
She explained things, she'd been working on a long term case. A pair of criminals, they didn't like the spotlight either, but the PRT had names for them regardless. 'Pavlov' and 'Gaslight'... Their MO was to break people, slow and steady. They'd narrowed them down to this college because of the unusually high rates of suicide and self harm.
It made sense.. they were her roommates.
Her world came crashing down around her at this point. things made sense, she'd gone down hill shortly after moving in with them, those devils had driven her nearly to the point of ending her own life, and what? it was just some game to them?
Trigger.
Things were a blur past that point, the fact that she'd triggered had been more than enough for the Detective to confirm her suspicions, and call the PRT to deal with the villains.
The LA protectorate doing a fine job of catching them, they were powerful masters, but they worked incrementally, not all at once.
In the Aftermath, Ginger sought help with support groups for Master victims, Ironic given her new powers, but they helped.
It took some time, but she found her place in life. Free from what had kept her from her full potential, she excelled in her studies. Quickly rising into the spotlight for her 'unique' parahuman powered art exhibits. Things weren't easy, but she was happy.