RJ Cool

Varaxas

AKA “R.J. Cool”
 

Ever since their uuvok coalesced in the jhatar of Dazraan, Varaxas has always felt a sense of wanderlust deep in their tlaq matrix. Even though they were a cosmic energy being residing in a reality that they could remake to their whim, they craved more. After timeless aeons of ennui, Varaxas learned of the material planes, a realm containing crude biological intelligences.

 

Contact with the material planes was tantalizingly forbidden by the Code of Arzon. In defiance of this non-interference stricture, Varaxas squirmed and slithered their way between iterations of existence. They finally reached a dimension closely bordering the one populated by humans. They would come to call it the proximal interplanar region, or more casually, "the phantom zone." Varaxas realized they could only extend small impulses across the dimensional barrier, and even if they did cross over,  the physics of the human dimension would restrict them to manifesting as an amorphous plasmic cloud. Luckily, they needed only to wait and watch as computers reached a level of sophistication they could manipulate.

 

Varaxas released a semiotic nanite swarm to absorb and digest human thought patterns, and feed back to Varaxis the psychic output. This allowed their more advanced mind to accustom itself to their alien and barbaric modes of expression. They marveled at human stupidity, the ease with which they were manipulated. As Varaxas watched their petty empires rise and fall, they resolved to show these imbeciles how to run things properly. They would show these meat beasts the glory of a perfect and eternal tyrant.

 

Varaxas knew they would need a patsy in the human dimension to build a gateway for to cross over. They selected the one called Raleigh Kane, sending transmissions to his computer that played on his sympathy, claiming to be his future descendant, a tender youth curious about his forebears. Later, he cranked up the pity by claiming to have had his body destroyed and been trapped in limbo. Of course, time travel is impossible, but these cretins were fascinated by the idea. When Raleigh was skeptical, Varaxas offered to prove it to him with a gift of knowledge. Varaxas chose to bribe him with designs for a miniaturizer. To their chagrin, Varaxas found their own understanding of the processes was too multifaceted to translate, and they were reduced to simply plagiarizing schematics from an obscure data archive collated from a lesser civilization a few dimensions over.

 

Once Raleigh had taken the bait, Varaxas lead him along step by step. Varaxas constructed the arch in the Phantom Zone, and told Raleigh how to build the arch on their side to complete the Vortex Generator. He enduring the agonizing slowness and thickness of his minions' minds as they constructed a body to specification. Three months ago, Varaxas crossed over. The sensation of existing in this new realm was intoxicating! Varaxas reinvented themself as R.J. Cool. They had been patiently plotting long enough, planned to take a decade or so to party down before getting around to global conquest. Annoyingly, Raleigh still believed that "R.J" was a youth needing supervision. Raleigh hired Mr. Cicero Lemon to be R.J.'s bodyguard and chaperone.

 

Cicero was a tedious tattle, blabbing to Raleigh every time that R.J. committed assault or property damage or arson. Cicero was getting in the way of jet-setting around with R.J.'s new paramour, pop star Heather Hart. Cicero had to go. In fact, Raleigh himself had long since become tiresome, but it would be inconvenient to part with access to the Apex Vector tech empire. R.J. would simply have to inherit it.Having obtained enough forged documentation to make themself a real boy in the eyes of the state, and establish themself as Raleigh's heir, R.J. hurled Mr. Cicero Lemon out a window in Monaco. Raleigh called to see what had happened to Cicero, and the suspicion was clear in his voice. R.J. feigned ignorance and headed back to Mauch Chunk to finish the job.

 

The night before the party, R.J. slipped into the Planar Phase Dynamics lab and through the Vortex Generator to the Phantom Zone, laden with caramel sauce. R.J. carefully sabotaged the Phantom Zone arch, filling crevices with sticky sweetness and laying out trails to lure the glaarvok larvae that lair nearby. R.J. knew that after he crossed back, the glaarvoks would come sniffing around and pry loose the orbs he had coated to get at the caramel inside, wrecking the psychoresonance field array. The vortex would be rendered one-way, and anyone passing through would be trapped in the Phantom Zone. R.J. worked quickly that night. They could see that their Progenitors had noticed their absence and had placed a glowing beacon in the Phantom Zone demanding their return. They could feel the beacon pulling on them, and it filled them with dread.

 

At the start of the party, R.J. slipped into Raleigh's suite and then flowed in plasmic form down into the Planar Phase Dynamics lab. There, to the gasps and screams of the research team, they flowed into the very controls of the Vortex Generator and cranked it to maximum power, sucking them into the Phantom Zone. Only Raleigh managed to find any traction against the vortex pull, clawing at a bundle of wires and clinging as he dangled halfway through the howling vortex. That's where Raleigh was when R.J. abruptly shut the vortex down, leaving Raleigh's top and bottom halves in separate dimensions.

 

Given Raleigh's suspicious tone, R.J. thought it best to grab Raleigh's personal logs on his way out, in case there was anything incriminating there. R.J. flowed back up to Raleigh's room and into his android body, grabbed the three discs, and hurried out to rejoin the party. Immediately upon returning, you recognized a psychic presence somewhere in the building. Such an ally would be valuable, especially in this vulnerable time when you have slain your main human pawn, and your progenitors are watching the Phantom Zone.

= Goals =  
 * Get away with murder.
 * Find the psychic, and convince them to join forces

= Starting Cards = Item: 1988 Log Disk

You'll need a computer console to play it on. Ask a Secret Keeper to reveal its contents.

Item: 1989 Log Disk

You'll need a computer console to play it on. Ask a Secret Keeper to reveal its contents.

ANDROID SHELL FORM
Ability: Biological Immunity

 

You are immune to poison, paralysis, and parasites. Medical inspection betrays your inhumanity.

 

Ability: Brute Force

 

These robot limbs have tremendous strength. If you are the target of an attack with this ability, you have been killed by a crushing blow.

 

Ability: Assume Plasmic Cloud Form

This entity can abandon whatever mechanical shell they occupy and reveal their true form of a glowing, crackling cloud of semi-solid energy.

PLASMIC CLOUD FORM
While in plasmic cloud form this entity cannot physically manipulate objects, but unlocks additional abilities.

Ability: Malleable Form

Unless otherwise specified, this entity is invulnerable to conventional weaponry.

This entity cannot be held by the Overwhelm action. This entity can flow through small spaces.

 

Ability: Plasmic Possession

This entity can flow into and possess electronic machines, causing them to activate any function within the bounds of their design, such as open, close, activate, move, display images or sounds. This ability will not restore function to machines that have been manually disabled. Possessed machines can be targeted by attacks, and attacks that would be lethal to a human generally disable a machine.

PHANTOM ZONE FORM
The form this entity assumes in the Phantom Zone is significantly more tangible than in the human dimension. While still amorphous, hovering, and crackling with bioelectic pulses, the entity possesses discernable pseudopods and tentacles.

In this form, the entity cannot use malleable form or plasmic possession, and as a result cannot effectively operate, or even comfortably fit within, an android shell.

In this form, the entity can manipulate material objects that have been brought into the Phantom Zone, including weapons. The entity can also be targeted with physical attacks.