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capeandcowl
[WARNING: spoilers for Ex Machina abound; forewarned is forearmed! ]
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Kytha
AGE: 23
JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meme
IM: icier than thou (though an eternally unsteady internet connection means I'm practically never online)
PLURK: [HERE!]
E-MAIL: kyzaboo@gmail.com
RETURNING: If you're already a member of the game, how many characters do you play, and who are they? Just so we can keep track!
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Rick Bradbury
SERIES: Ex Machina (DC Comics, Wildstorm)
CHRONOLOGY: Mid-issue #31: specifically, taken from while he and Mitchell are on that plane ride to meet the Pope!
CLASS: Heroic Sidekick/Bodyguard/Chauffeur
BACKGROUND:
The world of Ex Machina is a world not too far removed from our own, meaning it's resolutely magic- and superhero-less (except for one, but we'll get to that later). Most of the pop culture artifacts and historical events are the same; comic characters, for example are as well-recognized and beloved there as they are now! It diverges significantly from history as we know it from 2001 onwards, largely due to the events of the series itself. It's the story of Mitchell Hundred, formerly the superhero known as the Great Machine, recently elected the Mayor of New York City... and, well, everything about how he got there and what happens next.
Some would say this is where the story begins: Mitchell Hundred, an otherwise ordinary civil engineer with a healthy fondness for superheroes way past the point where he should have (probably) grown out of them, gets called out to examine a glowing device spotted by a patrolman at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. Rather unfortunately, while he's attempting to get a better look, said device chooses that rather inopportune moment to explode, taking off a good part of the left side of Hundred's face and granting him the oh-so-fantastic super power of being able to hear every. Machine. In New York City.
Hundred is far from thrilled about this development, and his subsequent freak-out shuts down a fairly large part of the city's power grid.
But Hundred's not the important part of this story. The guy who's in the boat with him, holding his hand while waiting for the paramedics to arrive? That's the one we're interested in.
Rick Bradbury's life, for the most part, was painfully ordinary. He lost his mother at a young age, and his father left him to be raised by his (presumably maternal, since that's the surname he's kept) grandmother, who lived on Long Island. His grandmother died shortly thereafter, and it's implied that Rick spent the rest of his childhood in foster homes. He got married shortly out of high school, but has since separated from his wife (who worked as a stripper at some point, classy), who retained custody of their twin daughters. At some point, he became a Marine and was subsequently deployed overseas (it's not stated explicitly where, but the Gulf War is a reasonable inference to make), finally coming back to New York City to spend the rest of his days working quietly for Harbor Patrol. It wasn't the best life story, but it wasn't the worst one, either: even living alone, he got to see his kids, and it didn't seem particularly important or practical to keep a whole lot of friends with his kind of lifestyle. Bradbury could have happily lived out the rest of his retirement in peaceful mediocrity if he hadn't called in the strange light at the Brooklyn Bridge on that one night...
Peaceful pretty much goes out of the window after that.
While Hundred (who insists on Bradbury calling him Mitch) is a total stranger, Bradbury's compelled to stick close to the guy while he's recovering -- first out of feeling at fault for him getting hurt, and eventually just because he likes the company. Somehow this leads to things like letting the guy sleep on his couch during Halloween when he apparently doesn't have anywhere else to go. At some point Bradbury's actually not all that sure about, Hundred becomes Mitch, and Mitch becomes his friend, his best (and at that point in the story, probably his only) friend. By all rights, that should be all kinds of pathetic, since the guy's obviously seriously damaged -- but he seems harmless enough, even if he does keep hallucinating that he can talk to machines.
Except Mitch isn't hallucinating, and his powers are real, with dreams and visions spurring him to build an ever-increasing array of mechanical equipment and his ability to speak with machines slowly becoming something he can now control at will. Bradbury eventually finds himself part of a three-man-team to launch Mitch's career as the world's first real superhero, the Great Machine (the third man being Kremlin, a Russian immgrant who's known Mitch probably since he was still in diapers), and he's not entirely sure how he got there, but he doesn't have any better ideas either. Turns out that being a superhero is harder than they make it look in the comics (which Bradbury doesn't read, but which he hears enough about from Kremlin and Mitch not to need to read them).
The Great Machine's career is, frankly, a bit of a hot mess, less a crime-fighting vigilante and more a public health hazard. Still, Mitch manages to actually rescue one or two people and even acquire an archnemesis (who, thankfully, dies without too much trouble), so he must be doing something right, right? Anyway, Bradbury's job during this time is mostly confined to attempting to get Mitch up to shape in close combat (a futile task if there ever was one, the man's got muscles like overcooked pasta), and be handy with a fire extinguisher in anticipation of Mitch's many, many crash landings.
One can only put up with being a mediocre superhero for so long, so Mitch eventually decides to retire the Great Machine persona and run for Mayor of New York City instead, much to Kremlin's disgust and Bradbury's shock. While Kremlin believes that being a superhero is what Mitch should be doing instead of trying to court the electorate, Bradbury apparently decides to throw in his lot with Mitch -- even if he has his misgivings about politics in general, and not a lot of faith in the system. Anyway, noo one's that keen on voting in the supernuisance into office until he pulls off a miracle: on September 11, 2001, Mitchell Hundred prevents the south tower of the World Trade Center from collapsing by stopping the plane about to crash into it.
(Of course, the idea of a grateful voting public is a nice one, but there's reason to think that Mitch probably rigged the vote, creating a "white box" that he asked Bradbury to take around the city while the voting was going on. The white box is later revealed to have the power to influence humans, but the real question is whether or not it could do so while it was in a static form instead of being actively used... but that's nothing Bradbury knows about right now! Also there's more stuff about how Mitch's "super powers" are actually just part of a larger part of a parallel universe's desire to take over our own, but that's something Bradbury doesn't know about either.)
Does Bradbury's job get any easier once Mitch finally becomes Mayor of New York City? Like hell it does. As Mitch's head of security, Bradbury's responsibilities tend to get juggled between being bodyguard, personal chauffeur, and occasional tank. Unmasking himself means Mitch has people out to get him politically and from his days as the Great Machine; Bradbury has his hands full trying to thwart assassination attempts, foreign governments taking an unhealthy interest in his boss's abilities, and keeping Mitch's secrets. He gets one day off a year, which is bad enough, but even on his days off he can't get away from the job.
Bradbury looks out for Mitchell's ass in more ways than one, though, and not always in ways that Mitch is aware of. When a 'hero' impersonates the Great Machine, it's Bradbury and Kremlin (still more or less estranged from Mitch since his decision to run for Mayor) who put a stop to him and figure out his identity. When a German (presumably) secret agent who's been conducting surveillance on Mitch approaches Bradbury with an offer for information, Bradbury refuses -- and reveals, in the process, that he's painfully aware of a sad fact of life: even if he's got Mitch's back, he's pretty sure Mitch doesn't give all that much of a shit about his. Apparently, he's pretty resigned to this, and it clearly doesn't get in the way of him doing his job.
At some point in 2003, Mitch gets an invitation to visit Pope John Paul II himself -- and what would a goodwill trip be without his personal bodyguard? It's from this point in canon that Bradbury is going to be pulled from, though of course the story goes on beyond that.
Although later events aren't directly relevant to what Bradbury will know coming into the City, there are a few key events and developments it's necessary to touch on as an indication of the potential directions he might head in in the future. The first is when Bradbury voluntarily swaps places with Mitch, donning the Great Machine's costume in order to take the fall when the police arrive to arrest him (as a culmination to a series of events that basically boils down to "BEINGS FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE TRIED TO STAGE A HOSTILE TAKEOVER BUT GOT THEIR ASSES SORT OF HANDED TO THEM BY MITCH SUITED UP AS THE GREAT MACHINE AGAIN"). From what we see, Mitch doesn't have to try particularly hard to talk Bradbury into doing the switch. Bradbury willingly goes along with the plan, and in fact asserts (loudly) that he was the Great Machine all along, not that the police commissioner believes that for a second. While Bradbury's done a lot for Mitch both on and off the record, being willingly incarcerated is arguably a first.
He's released about a year afterward because of the lack of evidence against him, but that event is just part of the catalyst for the rift in their friendship. See, at this point, Mitch is dreaming of a position a lot bigger than just being a Mayor, and hanging around with alleged super heroes, even fake ones, is a stain on his rep he just doesn't need. While we don't know what exactly happens to Bradbury in the years afterward, we do know he spends time after his imprisonment traveling around the USA as the Great Machine, making the rounds of state fairs and generally falling into a spiral of self-loathing and depression. When we finally see him again, in 2007, he looks like he's aged decades, and he tells Mitch that he hit his ex-wife before coming to see him, because she threatened to keep his children away from him. He's quite possibly drunk, very much desperate, and his conversation with Mitch has the air of a man confessing his sins in one last-ditch attempt at finding salvation.
Bradbury also tells Mitch that he loves him, and apparently always has! Mitch promptly ducks away from his truly sad attempt at a kiss and tells Bradbury to turn himself in to the police. Bradbury doesn't take this well, and slugs Mitch a good one before leaving his life, and that's the last we ever see of him.
In sum without something that keeps him grounded, Bradbury is apparently pretty liable to fucking up his life. Ideally, in the City, he'll find more than enough to keep himself busy, but the rather bleak future canon holds for him is a point of reference for how bad things can get for him and how deep his self-destructive urges can actually go. As for the whole "kind of maybe possibly being in love with Mitchell Hundred" thing, suffice to say that's the farthest thing from Bradbury's mind at the point he's taken from, and any feelings beyond friendship -- if they exist -- are well and truly repressed.
PERSONALITY:
Bradbury likes to think of himself as a pretty uncomplicated guy: he likes beer, he likes women, and he occasionally likes shooting things. You'd think that would be simple enough, but he's already tried his hand at living an ordinary, apple-pie American life, and that didn't work out so great. You could blame it on his upbringing, but for whatever reason or another, Bradbury just wasn't ever a good fit for normal. He puts a good face on it with his easygoing attitude, but the truth is he's the kind of guy who's most comfortable when he's in action than kicking in the backseat, though he's definitely not someone who likes taking point. Bradbury's just not made to be the leading man type, and he figures he knows it, considering he hasn't had much in the way of role models. He's the follower, the steady, the backup, the guy you always take for granted.
It really isn't much of a surprise that his wife dumped him. Bradbury's so steady that he's almost boring. He operates on his own relatively straightforward code of morality, which can make him seem almost laughably simplistic in a world with so many shades of gray. He values his family, his friends (what few of them he has) and his job. Bradbury takes all of his responsibilities seriously, and there's not much that gives him more satisfaction than a job done right. Once he commits to a cause (or a course of action) there's not much that can make him waver. It's up to debate whether that's because his convictions are that strong or because he chooses to stay willfully blind.
At one point, Mitch refers to Bradbury as the "heart" of the Great Machine, and in the way jokes sometimes are, that isn't actually far off the mark. While he would never consider himself to be a hero, there's something about the way Bradbury throws himself into everything that suggests that for all his self-professed cynicism, a part of him still really believes that the world can be a better place. The unspoken assumption, though, is that he'll never be the one to make it so: at heart, Bradbury thinks of himself as something of a fuck-up and a wash-out, and probably the worst choice to be any kind of hero.
Still, he's had a long time to grow out of being that kid who wears his heart on his sleeve, and he's more than aware of the shit people are capable of doing to each other. He's fought in one and a half wars and he knows there's a difference between the political rhetoric to make something sound good, and the dirty work to make it happen. He's done a few things he isn't proud of for love of God and country, but he doesn't spend a whole lot of time angsting about it -- if he had to go back and do them again, he probably would, because he's realistic enough to recognize that he just has to live with those choices.
It isn't like Bradbury's stupid. He just isn't all that fond of things being complicated, which is ironic considering his best friend is a politician.
When push comes to shove, Bradbury's the guy you want to have on your side, because you can count on him to have your back. He's loyal to a fault, even without the object of said loyalty having necessarily done anything to earn it. If one had to look for an explanation as to why that is, the reason would be simple enough: despite everything, Bradbury's actually a pretty lonely guy. There's a tendency for him to believe that he might not actually be fit to have normal relationships with other people anymore, an insecurity that manifests in keeping just about everyone else at arm's distance. He's the guy who laughs the loudest and jokes the loudest at the bar, but at the end of the day, he knows there isn't anyone waiting for him at home.
All he's got is himself.
POWER:
Since Bradbury is a 100% certified ordinary human being, having any powers at all will be new for him! The powers I'll be giving himare ripped off of a minor Marvel character can generally be classified under the umbrella of system disruptor -- whether that system is organic, inorganic, or something else tangible, like an energy field. Regardless of what he's disrupting, the power will work in largely similar ways: Bradbury will have to be in physical contact with whatever he's trying to disrupt, and it has to be with his bare skin. The technobabble explanation would be that he generates a personal force field that can upset small charged particles, meaning anything with an electrical current (or something comparable) can be affected.
An active disruption can be maintained as long as he's touching something and actively willing it to occur, but he won't be able to maintain it this way for a period of more than thirty minutes without getting wicked headaches -- trying to go for any longer, at least initially, will result in epic nosebleeds and passing out. A remote disruption, where he disrupts something and leaves it that way, will last depending on whether he's targeting organic/energy systems or synthetic ones. Over time and with practice, he'll be able to improve how long his active and remote disruptions last. Theoretically, the process should be able to work in the reverse (that is, he can improve the way something runs instead of scrambling it) but that would require a control over his abilities he'll never be able to accomplish on his own.
For a more specific/tl;dr breakdown of what his power allows him to do:
Organic Disruption: Bradbury can choose to either affect individual parts of the body to cause temporary paralysis, or target the central nervous system to stun or cause someone to fall unconscious. In case of superpowered beings, he can also cause temporary power loss (though not concurrent with any paralyzing effects he may attempt). In cases of power disruption and immobilization, it can last as long as he's holding on to them. Once they shake him off, it shouldn't last for more than a few seconds to a few minutes, as their body will naturally recover. The longer he spends actively disrupting someone, or the more deliberately, the longer it may take them to recover; in some cases, the aftereffects may last much longer than anticipated, and trying to use powers may not work as expected for some time afterwards. Actually knocking someone out, of course, means they could be unconscious for any period of time, entirely depend on their own resistance to
Synthetic Disruption: Bradbury wouldn't consider himself an expert on electronics, but he did work in demolitions for nine years -- so he knows a thing or two about explosives. The practical effect of this is that he could probably manage to short out an electronic door lock but not get into a computer mainframe to 'hack' it (though he could probably fuck up the contents of a hard drive pretty good). He could also pull off things such as disarming/stopping the clock on bombs with any kind of detonation device, though how well that would work out depends on the given circumstances. As far as mechanized armor, robots, or any complicated electronic devices go, he'll have less success trying to take them out unless they're running on any kind of recognizable energy/power source that he can easily target. Any busted equipment can be repaired conventionally, but will otherwise probably stay broken. The power wouldn't work on machines that don't use electricity (or anything similar).
Power Disruption: Aside from actually physically preventing someone from using their powers by touching them, Bradbury will be able to disrupt energy-based powers he encounters -- he can make force fields, lightning bolts, and other similar powers thrown at him to fizzle out, though obviously his odds of success are going to depend on how hard he's thinking about it, and just how powerful the power in use is.
Of course, whether or not these powers actually work on individual characters will be on a case-by-case basis, and subject to the ever-changing vagaries of plotting needs! I'll put up an opt-in permissions post, and generally just ask if/when I'm unsure whether or not his power can or would kick in.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The voice feed comes on to the sound of someone muttering to themselves ("what the fuck is with all thesebuttons") and apparently not hip enough with technology to realize it's already on until a few beats (and some more cursing) later. ]
Sh-- uh. Hey, is this thing working? It is working, right? [ Yeah, he doesn't sound too sure about that. Not that it keeps him from going on: ]
Life can be seriously fucked up. I mean one day, it's 2003, and you're supposed to be heading to Italy, then the next thing you know you're waking up and you've got some machine yapping at you. And then you find out it's actually 2012, and you're in some kind of, what, fake New York? [ He pauses. ] Still not sure I buy it, but I'm getting the feeling that's as good an explanation as I'm gonna get.
I really hope this isn't the future -- my future, anyway -- because this city looks a hell of a lot uglier than back home.
[ There's an almost audible hesitation, and he draws a breath like he's about to say something else; he changes his mind halfway, though. ]
Anyway, I'm not exactly the hero type, so... what else do you usually do to kill time around here?
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
"I said hold it!"
Of course the kid wasn't going to stop. They never fucking did, Bradbury groaned mentally, shoes pounding the asphalt as he chased after the rapidly-disappearing silhouette of the pickpocket who just had to pick today to go after his boss. At least it didn't seem like the kid had any superpowers that could make catching her really difficult, like levitation or super-speed, but it wasn't like Bradbury was in the best shape to be running down dark petty thieves to begin with. Maybe it was time to cut down on the hotdogs -- getting to save all the money he spent on those would be a nice incentive, too. Maybe he could use it to buy the boss a Christmas present, assuming he was stuck in this city that long.
Ahead of him, the kid nipped sharply into an alleyway, and Bradbury cursed under his breath, putting on speed. Keeping them in your sight was half the trick; once you lost eye contact, it was pretty much a lost cause. He turned into the alley just in time to see the kid scrambling over a wire fence, only to be brought up short when one of the chains dangling off her pants got trapped.
Looked like it was Bradbury's lucky day. He could feel a stitch knotting up his side already, and he gritted his teeth against it. Forcing himself to one more burst of effort, he lunged, managing to wrap a hand around one leg even as he dodged the foot trying to kick him in the face.
"Hah! Gotcha!" Fingers clasped around the bony ankle (seriously, didn't anyone wear socks these days), Bradbury huffed in triumph, skin tingling with the exertion of running. "Give it up, kid, you're not going--"
The kid, who'd been halfway to working herself free from the fence before Bradbury got a hand on her, suddenly froze up like she'd been hit with an electric current. Then, just as abruptly, she went limp as overcooked spaghetti, sliding free from the fence and right into Bradbury's arms. It was about the last thing he expected to happen, to say the least, which meant Bradbury nearly let the kid's face crack open on the pavement before instinct kicked in and he caught her instead, breath wheezing out of him sharply when the teenager's weight hit his chest.
Yeah, definitely no more hotdogs.
"What the fuck...?" Bradbury squinted down at the kid in his arms in confusion, but there weren't any answers to be found there, obviously. As far as he could tell, she was knocked out cold, and he still had no idea of what did that to her. Carefully squatting down so he could prop her against the fence, Bradbury dug around in his pocket until he could fish out his phone, hitting the number on speed dial without looking.
"Hey, uh, boss? Yeah, I could use a little help..."
FINAL NOTES:
I'd like Bradbury to keep his gun (I don't know enough about guns to ID what he uses in the comics, but for the sake of specificity, I'll go with the standard Beretta M9 pistol) and of course, he'll be wearing his super-swanky bodyguard uniform when he comes in, earpiece and all!
Regarding his powers, let me know if you would consider them as something that falls under just one power slot or not! I don't plan on giving him any other powers just yet, but it's something to keep in mind in case the opportunity or inspiration comes up in the future.
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Kytha
AGE: 23
JOURNAL:
memeIM: icier than thou (though an eternally unsteady internet connection means I'm practically never online)
PLURK: [HERE!]
E-MAIL: kyzaboo@gmail.com
RETURNING: If you're already a member of the game, how many characters do you play, and who are they? Just so we can keep track!
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Rick Bradbury
SERIES: Ex Machina (DC Comics, Wildstorm)
CHRONOLOGY: Mid-issue #31: specifically, taken from while he and Mitchell are on that plane ride to meet the Pope!
CLASS: Heroic Sidekick/Bodyguard/Chauffeur
BACKGROUND:
The world of Ex Machina is a world not too far removed from our own, meaning it's resolutely magic- and superhero-less (except for one, but we'll get to that later). Most of the pop culture artifacts and historical events are the same; comic characters, for example are as well-recognized and beloved there as they are now! It diverges significantly from history as we know it from 2001 onwards, largely due to the events of the series itself. It's the story of Mitchell Hundred, formerly the superhero known as the Great Machine, recently elected the Mayor of New York City... and, well, everything about how he got there and what happens next.
Some would say this is where the story begins: Mitchell Hundred, an otherwise ordinary civil engineer with a healthy fondness for superheroes way past the point where he should have (probably) grown out of them, gets called out to examine a glowing device spotted by a patrolman at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. Rather unfortunately, while he's attempting to get a better look, said device chooses that rather inopportune moment to explode, taking off a good part of the left side of Hundred's face and granting him the oh-so-fantastic super power of being able to hear every. Machine. In New York City.
Hundred is far from thrilled about this development, and his subsequent freak-out shuts down a fairly large part of the city's power grid.
But Hundred's not the important part of this story. The guy who's in the boat with him, holding his hand while waiting for the paramedics to arrive? That's the one we're interested in.
Rick Bradbury's life, for the most part, was painfully ordinary. He lost his mother at a young age, and his father left him to be raised by his (presumably maternal, since that's the surname he's kept) grandmother, who lived on Long Island. His grandmother died shortly thereafter, and it's implied that Rick spent the rest of his childhood in foster homes. He got married shortly out of high school, but has since separated from his wife (who worked as a stripper at some point, classy), who retained custody of their twin daughters. At some point, he became a Marine and was subsequently deployed overseas (it's not stated explicitly where, but the Gulf War is a reasonable inference to make), finally coming back to New York City to spend the rest of his days working quietly for Harbor Patrol. It wasn't the best life story, but it wasn't the worst one, either: even living alone, he got to see his kids, and it didn't seem particularly important or practical to keep a whole lot of friends with his kind of lifestyle. Bradbury could have happily lived out the rest of his retirement in peaceful mediocrity if he hadn't called in the strange light at the Brooklyn Bridge on that one night...
Peaceful pretty much goes out of the window after that.
While Hundred (who insists on Bradbury calling him Mitch) is a total stranger, Bradbury's compelled to stick close to the guy while he's recovering -- first out of feeling at fault for him getting hurt, and eventually just because he likes the company. Somehow this leads to things like letting the guy sleep on his couch during Halloween when he apparently doesn't have anywhere else to go. At some point Bradbury's actually not all that sure about, Hundred becomes Mitch, and Mitch becomes his friend, his best (and at that point in the story, probably his only) friend. By all rights, that should be all kinds of pathetic, since the guy's obviously seriously damaged -- but he seems harmless enough, even if he does keep hallucinating that he can talk to machines.
Except Mitch isn't hallucinating, and his powers are real, with dreams and visions spurring him to build an ever-increasing array of mechanical equipment and his ability to speak with machines slowly becoming something he can now control at will. Bradbury eventually finds himself part of a three-man-team to launch Mitch's career as the world's first real superhero, the Great Machine (the third man being Kremlin, a Russian immgrant who's known Mitch probably since he was still in diapers), and he's not entirely sure how he got there, but he doesn't have any better ideas either. Turns out that being a superhero is harder than they make it look in the comics (which Bradbury doesn't read, but which he hears enough about from Kremlin and Mitch not to need to read them).
The Great Machine's career is, frankly, a bit of a hot mess, less a crime-fighting vigilante and more a public health hazard. Still, Mitch manages to actually rescue one or two people and even acquire an archnemesis (who, thankfully, dies without too much trouble), so he must be doing something right, right? Anyway, Bradbury's job during this time is mostly confined to attempting to get Mitch up to shape in close combat (a futile task if there ever was one, the man's got muscles like overcooked pasta), and be handy with a fire extinguisher in anticipation of Mitch's many, many crash landings.
One can only put up with being a mediocre superhero for so long, so Mitch eventually decides to retire the Great Machine persona and run for Mayor of New York City instead, much to Kremlin's disgust and Bradbury's shock. While Kremlin believes that being a superhero is what Mitch should be doing instead of trying to court the electorate, Bradbury apparently decides to throw in his lot with Mitch -- even if he has his misgivings about politics in general, and not a lot of faith in the system. Anyway, noo one's that keen on voting in the supernuisance into office until he pulls off a miracle: on September 11, 2001, Mitchell Hundred prevents the south tower of the World Trade Center from collapsing by stopping the plane about to crash into it.
(Of course, the idea of a grateful voting public is a nice one, but there's reason to think that Mitch probably rigged the vote, creating a "white box" that he asked Bradbury to take around the city while the voting was going on. The white box is later revealed to have the power to influence humans, but the real question is whether or not it could do so while it was in a static form instead of being actively used... but that's nothing Bradbury knows about right now! Also there's more stuff about how Mitch's "super powers" are actually just part of a larger part of a parallel universe's desire to take over our own, but that's something Bradbury doesn't know about either.)
Does Bradbury's job get any easier once Mitch finally becomes Mayor of New York City? Like hell it does. As Mitch's head of security, Bradbury's responsibilities tend to get juggled between being bodyguard, personal chauffeur, and occasional tank. Unmasking himself means Mitch has people out to get him politically and from his days as the Great Machine; Bradbury has his hands full trying to thwart assassination attempts, foreign governments taking an unhealthy interest in his boss's abilities, and keeping Mitch's secrets. He gets one day off a year, which is bad enough, but even on his days off he can't get away from the job.
Bradbury looks out for Mitchell's ass in more ways than one, though, and not always in ways that Mitch is aware of. When a 'hero' impersonates the Great Machine, it's Bradbury and Kremlin (still more or less estranged from Mitch since his decision to run for Mayor) who put a stop to him and figure out his identity. When a German (presumably) secret agent who's been conducting surveillance on Mitch approaches Bradbury with an offer for information, Bradbury refuses -- and reveals, in the process, that he's painfully aware of a sad fact of life: even if he's got Mitch's back, he's pretty sure Mitch doesn't give all that much of a shit about his. Apparently, he's pretty resigned to this, and it clearly doesn't get in the way of him doing his job.
At some point in 2003, Mitch gets an invitation to visit Pope John Paul II himself -- and what would a goodwill trip be without his personal bodyguard? It's from this point in canon that Bradbury is going to be pulled from, though of course the story goes on beyond that.
Although later events aren't directly relevant to what Bradbury will know coming into the City, there are a few key events and developments it's necessary to touch on as an indication of the potential directions he might head in in the future. The first is when Bradbury voluntarily swaps places with Mitch, donning the Great Machine's costume in order to take the fall when the police arrive to arrest him (as a culmination to a series of events that basically boils down to "BEINGS FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE TRIED TO STAGE A HOSTILE TAKEOVER BUT GOT THEIR ASSES SORT OF HANDED TO THEM BY MITCH SUITED UP AS THE GREAT MACHINE AGAIN"). From what we see, Mitch doesn't have to try particularly hard to talk Bradbury into doing the switch. Bradbury willingly goes along with the plan, and in fact asserts (loudly) that he was the Great Machine all along, not that the police commissioner believes that for a second. While Bradbury's done a lot for Mitch both on and off the record, being willingly incarcerated is arguably a first.
He's released about a year afterward because of the lack of evidence against him, but that event is just part of the catalyst for the rift in their friendship. See, at this point, Mitch is dreaming of a position a lot bigger than just being a Mayor, and hanging around with alleged super heroes, even fake ones, is a stain on his rep he just doesn't need. While we don't know what exactly happens to Bradbury in the years afterward, we do know he spends time after his imprisonment traveling around the USA as the Great Machine, making the rounds of state fairs and generally falling into a spiral of self-loathing and depression. When we finally see him again, in 2007, he looks like he's aged decades, and he tells Mitch that he hit his ex-wife before coming to see him, because she threatened to keep his children away from him. He's quite possibly drunk, very much desperate, and his conversation with Mitch has the air of a man confessing his sins in one last-ditch attempt at finding salvation.
Bradbury also tells Mitch that he loves him, and apparently always has! Mitch promptly ducks away from his truly sad attempt at a kiss and tells Bradbury to turn himself in to the police. Bradbury doesn't take this well, and slugs Mitch a good one before leaving his life, and that's the last we ever see of him.
In sum without something that keeps him grounded, Bradbury is apparently pretty liable to fucking up his life. Ideally, in the City, he'll find more than enough to keep himself busy, but the rather bleak future canon holds for him is a point of reference for how bad things can get for him and how deep his self-destructive urges can actually go. As for the whole "kind of maybe possibly being in love with Mitchell Hundred" thing, suffice to say that's the farthest thing from Bradbury's mind at the point he's taken from, and any feelings beyond friendship -- if they exist -- are well and truly repressed.
PERSONALITY:
Bradbury likes to think of himself as a pretty uncomplicated guy: he likes beer, he likes women, and he occasionally likes shooting things. You'd think that would be simple enough, but he's already tried his hand at living an ordinary, apple-pie American life, and that didn't work out so great. You could blame it on his upbringing, but for whatever reason or another, Bradbury just wasn't ever a good fit for normal. He puts a good face on it with his easygoing attitude, but the truth is he's the kind of guy who's most comfortable when he's in action than kicking in the backseat, though he's definitely not someone who likes taking point. Bradbury's just not made to be the leading man type, and he figures he knows it, considering he hasn't had much in the way of role models. He's the follower, the steady, the backup, the guy you always take for granted.
It really isn't much of a surprise that his wife dumped him. Bradbury's so steady that he's almost boring. He operates on his own relatively straightforward code of morality, which can make him seem almost laughably simplistic in a world with so many shades of gray. He values his family, his friends (what few of them he has) and his job. Bradbury takes all of his responsibilities seriously, and there's not much that gives him more satisfaction than a job done right. Once he commits to a cause (or a course of action) there's not much that can make him waver. It's up to debate whether that's because his convictions are that strong or because he chooses to stay willfully blind.
At one point, Mitch refers to Bradbury as the "heart" of the Great Machine, and in the way jokes sometimes are, that isn't actually far off the mark. While he would never consider himself to be a hero, there's something about the way Bradbury throws himself into everything that suggests that for all his self-professed cynicism, a part of him still really believes that the world can be a better place. The unspoken assumption, though, is that he'll never be the one to make it so: at heart, Bradbury thinks of himself as something of a fuck-up and a wash-out, and probably the worst choice to be any kind of hero.
Still, he's had a long time to grow out of being that kid who wears his heart on his sleeve, and he's more than aware of the shit people are capable of doing to each other. He's fought in one and a half wars and he knows there's a difference between the political rhetoric to make something sound good, and the dirty work to make it happen. He's done a few things he isn't proud of for love of God and country, but he doesn't spend a whole lot of time angsting about it -- if he had to go back and do them again, he probably would, because he's realistic enough to recognize that he just has to live with those choices.
It isn't like Bradbury's stupid. He just isn't all that fond of things being complicated, which is ironic considering his best friend is a politician.
When push comes to shove, Bradbury's the guy you want to have on your side, because you can count on him to have your back. He's loyal to a fault, even without the object of said loyalty having necessarily done anything to earn it. If one had to look for an explanation as to why that is, the reason would be simple enough: despite everything, Bradbury's actually a pretty lonely guy. There's a tendency for him to believe that he might not actually be fit to have normal relationships with other people anymore, an insecurity that manifests in keeping just about everyone else at arm's distance. He's the guy who laughs the loudest and jokes the loudest at the bar, but at the end of the day, he knows there isn't anyone waiting for him at home.
All he's got is himself.
POWER:
Since Bradbury is a 100% certified ordinary human being, having any powers at all will be new for him! The powers I'll be giving him
An active disruption can be maintained as long as he's touching something and actively willing it to occur, but he won't be able to maintain it this way for a period of more than thirty minutes without getting wicked headaches -- trying to go for any longer, at least initially, will result in epic nosebleeds and passing out. A remote disruption, where he disrupts something and leaves it that way, will last depending on whether he's targeting organic/energy systems or synthetic ones. Over time and with practice, he'll be able to improve how long his active and remote disruptions last. Theoretically, the process should be able to work in the reverse (that is, he can improve the way something runs instead of scrambling it) but that would require a control over his abilities he'll never be able to accomplish on his own.
For a more specific/tl;dr breakdown of what his power allows him to do:
Organic Disruption: Bradbury can choose to either affect individual parts of the body to cause temporary paralysis, or target the central nervous system to stun or cause someone to fall unconscious. In case of superpowered beings, he can also cause temporary power loss (though not concurrent with any paralyzing effects he may attempt). In cases of power disruption and immobilization, it can last as long as he's holding on to them. Once they shake him off, it shouldn't last for more than a few seconds to a few minutes, as their body will naturally recover. The longer he spends actively disrupting someone, or the more deliberately, the longer it may take them to recover; in some cases, the aftereffects may last much longer than anticipated, and trying to use powers may not work as expected for some time afterwards. Actually knocking someone out, of course, means they could be unconscious for any period of time, entirely depend on their own resistance to
Synthetic Disruption: Bradbury wouldn't consider himself an expert on electronics, but he did work in demolitions for nine years -- so he knows a thing or two about explosives. The practical effect of this is that he could probably manage to short out an electronic door lock but not get into a computer mainframe to 'hack' it (though he could probably fuck up the contents of a hard drive pretty good). He could also pull off things such as disarming/stopping the clock on bombs with any kind of detonation device, though how well that would work out depends on the given circumstances. As far as mechanized armor, robots, or any complicated electronic devices go, he'll have less success trying to take them out unless they're running on any kind of recognizable energy/power source that he can easily target. Any busted equipment can be repaired conventionally, but will otherwise probably stay broken. The power wouldn't work on machines that don't use electricity (or anything similar).
Power Disruption: Aside from actually physically preventing someone from using their powers by touching them, Bradbury will be able to disrupt energy-based powers he encounters -- he can make force fields, lightning bolts, and other similar powers thrown at him to fizzle out, though obviously his odds of success are going to depend on how hard he's thinking about it, and just how powerful the power in use is.
Of course, whether or not these powers actually work on individual characters will be on a case-by-case basis, and subject to the ever-changing vagaries of plotting needs! I'll put up an opt-in permissions post, and generally just ask if/when I'm unsure whether or not his power can or would kick in.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The voice feed comes on to the sound of someone muttering to themselves ("what the fuck is with all thesebuttons") and apparently not hip enough with technology to realize it's already on until a few beats (and some more cursing) later. ]
Sh-- uh. Hey, is this thing working? It is working, right? [ Yeah, he doesn't sound too sure about that. Not that it keeps him from going on: ]
Life can be seriously fucked up. I mean one day, it's 2003, and you're supposed to be heading to Italy, then the next thing you know you're waking up and you've got some machine yapping at you. And then you find out it's actually 2012, and you're in some kind of, what, fake New York? [ He pauses. ] Still not sure I buy it, but I'm getting the feeling that's as good an explanation as I'm gonna get.
I really hope this isn't the future -- my future, anyway -- because this city looks a hell of a lot uglier than back home.
[ There's an almost audible hesitation, and he draws a breath like he's about to say something else; he changes his mind halfway, though. ]
Anyway, I'm not exactly the hero type, so... what else do you usually do to kill time around here?
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
"I said hold it!"
Of course the kid wasn't going to stop. They never fucking did, Bradbury groaned mentally, shoes pounding the asphalt as he chased after the rapidly-disappearing silhouette of the pickpocket who just had to pick today to go after his boss. At least it didn't seem like the kid had any superpowers that could make catching her really difficult, like levitation or super-speed, but it wasn't like Bradbury was in the best shape to be running down dark petty thieves to begin with. Maybe it was time to cut down on the hotdogs -- getting to save all the money he spent on those would be a nice incentive, too. Maybe he could use it to buy the boss a Christmas present, assuming he was stuck in this city that long.
Ahead of him, the kid nipped sharply into an alleyway, and Bradbury cursed under his breath, putting on speed. Keeping them in your sight was half the trick; once you lost eye contact, it was pretty much a lost cause. He turned into the alley just in time to see the kid scrambling over a wire fence, only to be brought up short when one of the chains dangling off her pants got trapped.
Looked like it was Bradbury's lucky day. He could feel a stitch knotting up his side already, and he gritted his teeth against it. Forcing himself to one more burst of effort, he lunged, managing to wrap a hand around one leg even as he dodged the foot trying to kick him in the face.
"Hah! Gotcha!" Fingers clasped around the bony ankle (seriously, didn't anyone wear socks these days), Bradbury huffed in triumph, skin tingling with the exertion of running. "Give it up, kid, you're not going--"
The kid, who'd been halfway to working herself free from the fence before Bradbury got a hand on her, suddenly froze up like she'd been hit with an electric current. Then, just as abruptly, she went limp as overcooked spaghetti, sliding free from the fence and right into Bradbury's arms. It was about the last thing he expected to happen, to say the least, which meant Bradbury nearly let the kid's face crack open on the pavement before instinct kicked in and he caught her instead, breath wheezing out of him sharply when the teenager's weight hit his chest.
Yeah, definitely no more hotdogs.
"What the fuck...?" Bradbury squinted down at the kid in his arms in confusion, but there weren't any answers to be found there, obviously. As far as he could tell, she was knocked out cold, and he still had no idea of what did that to her. Carefully squatting down so he could prop her against the fence, Bradbury dug around in his pocket until he could fish out his phone, hitting the number on speed dial without looking.
"Hey, uh, boss? Yeah, I could use a little help..."
FINAL NOTES:
I'd like Bradbury to keep his gun (I don't know enough about guns to ID what he uses in the comics, but for the sake of specificity, I'll go with the standard Beretta M9 pistol) and of course, he'll be wearing his super-swanky bodyguard uniform when he comes in, earpiece and all!
Regarding his powers, let me know if you would consider them as something that falls under just one power slot or not! I don't plan on giving him any other powers just yet, but it's something to keep in mind in case the opportunity or inspiration comes up in the future.