Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin

The Noasha Outreach Laboratory was a truly international project consisting of several Marked and human researchers from around the globe interested in the studying the power of the Mark. They wanted to research the Mark, improve the life of Marked inflicted with debilitating attributes, and to present the positive potential of cooperative Marked integration. Progress was fantastic – the Labs found several willing participants: Barrow, the protegée of the head researcher; Kouma and Malik, two Marked seeking improvement for their condition; Cloudburst, an emissary from a Marked community and Juarez, a survivor whose powers gave the researchers an excuse to offer them an escape from the streets.

Initial experiments showed great promise and drastically improved the lives of one of the participants; public response was highly positive, with front-page news about this bright new future the Labs was building…

…and suddenly things went wrong, safe experiments backfired and the news was leaked, misrepresented, slandered, and the nations that were backing Noasha Outreach began slowly, one by one, to withdrew their funding.

It was Juarez and Kouma who discovered the truth: someone inside the lab had been sabotaging its mission. Investigation revealed that one of the scientists was a plant from the Beacons of Purity here to sabotage the lab, though who was a mystery. On the advice of the head researcher, they fled the lab and scouted out ahead to Mistry Academy and led the rest of the labrats there after Noasha was shut down and before other Government ministries could snap them up.

Note: Mailk knows who the infiltrator was but hasn’t told anyone because they feel everything’s their fault. The saboteur was Malik’s favourite scientist, the one sympathetic to their frustrations with their power and the Marked. They were manipulating Malik into doing their bidding, and Malik inadvertently facilitated the sabotage. Malik feels guilty and responsible for the sabotage and has not told the others about the lab scientist, nor about their own involvement.

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09: M. Juarez // Crucible

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Tempest /

Power: Metal Manipulation

Kicked out of their home at a young age due to their family’s fear of their Mark, Juarez developed several survival strategies. Their naturally fancy personality – foppish, femme, flamboyant – made them an unthreatening joke or weakling to most, and hid their ruthlessness until it became necessary to use. A near-deadly altercation that occured between Juarez and trigger-happy corporate security forces after Juarez snuck into a corporate R&D department brought them to the attention of Noasha Labs, and the Labs were intrigued by their power of control over metal and offered them a place to stay. Juarez viewed this as blatant mercenary attitude on the part of the scientists, but considered it a fair trade for meals, education, company and safety – until the lab got sabotaged, from the inside. With the one place they thought they could trust betrayed, Juarez retreated to the Mistry Academy they’d heard the researchers mention and tried to plot a grand plan for the safety of all Marked. The lab’s failure had already shown that thinking small was not enough…

Content warnings: Homelessness, abandonment and assault

09: M. Juarez // Crucible Read More »

19: L. Kouma // Livewire [Reserved]

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Blizzard /

Power: Static Electricity

Inflicted by seemingly incurable and constant pain, Kouma’s Mark was both what paralysed them and unlocked a new life for them. That, and Noasha Outreach Laboratory. Kouma’s Mark generated immense amounts of static electricity that set their nervous system into painful lockdown. However, under Noasha’s careful attention, the excess electricity powered several cybernetic enhancements and replacement limbs that gave them freedom of movement and abilities even other Marked lacked,- though the problem of chronic pain and maintaining the prosthetics remain constant. With Noasha Labs shut down, they’re cut off from any backup for their high-tech body – but, lustful for freedom, Kouma now has no oversight that can tell them just how flesh or how machine they’re allowed to be, and they plan to take advantage of it.

Content warnings: Debilitating disability and significant body replacement/modification

19: L. Kouma // Livewire [Reserved] Read More »

29: C. Barrow

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Biological Manipulation

The protegée of the head researcher of Noasha lab, Barrow’s life could be described in the phrase ‘laboratory conditions’: up until now, they’ve only operated in controlled, sterile environments. They grew up with trusting parents who encouraged their Mark and sent them to prim and proper private schools. Their parents also inducted them into Noasha Laboratory where they learned of the sheer potential of their power and how they could best use it for the good of all humankind. Their ability to alter and control biology could cure all diseases just as much as it could wreck the human body. But when the lab was sabotaged and the group forced to Ministry Academy for their safety, Barrow is left in a dangerous new world where they’ve had to learn very quickly how to gain some field experience. They know they have the power to change the world – they just need to work out the what and the how…

Content warning: Body modification

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34: T. Malik

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Drizzle /

Power: Electricity (Power Broken)

Some Marked get to be superpowered supermodels. Malik wasn’t so lucky. An avid martial artist until their Mark activated, Malik was hoping that they’d still be able to follow their Olympic dreams – and then it turned out that they shocked themselves whenever they touched someone too hard, so that became a no-go. Their condition was of interest to Noasha Labs, which was working with a similar power with Kouma. The lab promised to make a cure for Malik. Malik agreed, joined the lab and spent their time there trying to make up for their lost passion with new ones, gaining quite an aptitude with the high-tech items lying around the lab and becoming an accomplished technician, but it wasn’t the same. There’s not much hope in Malik that Mistry Academy can cure what the Labs couldn’t, and they’re trying to face up to living the rest of their life with this condition.

Content warning: Malik’s powers are a disadvantage to them

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39: V. Cloudburst

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Heatwave /

Power: Water Control

The hydrokinetic Cloudburst comes from a insular little Marked community that lived in peace along the coastline of Britain. There, Marked chose their name after their powers revealed themselves, an occasion which Cloudburst also used to come out as transgender. They lived happily there, occasionally trading their services with the nearby pure human communities. These trades caught the attention of Noasha Labs, who thought that Cloudburst’s water-manipulation powers had great potential for global benefits, and convinced Cloudburst to sign up as a show of goodwill from the community. After the collapse of Noasha Labs the community is being picketed by hateful Beacons of Purity supporters. Cloudburst, who is very used to living alongside like-minded individuals, is been kept at Mistry Academy for their safety. They’re worried about these strangers, even worried about the lab, and most of all they’re worried about home…

39: V. Cloudburst Read More »