I’ve recently taken up online role-playing games, and am having lots of fun!
After time spent in the Cthulhu Mythos world of the Call of Cthulhu gaming arena, my friends and I have turned to the Cypher System uh, system. You can choose from a myriad of worlds (fantasy, science fiction, post-apocalyptic and many more) and create one-of-a-kind characters using the many attributes suggested by the “rulebook.” In our current game, we all have superhuman powers (which may or may not be registered with the government) but are willing to cooperate with each other—at least at first. My character is Adelaide Farr (below).
Adelaide Farr is a professor in the History Department at the University of California at Berkeley. She’s known as an expert in ancient and obscure languages and cultures, so museums and other academics come to her for translation of texts, evaluation of artifacts, and the like. Her unusual talent is that she can call up fire with her hands; she’s also learning to throw it. She’s always been able to do this, but quickly learned to hide it as a child. Her superpower is under the radar, as far as she knows; the cops and government don’t suspect that her abilities greatly surpass her academic expertise. She has a beloved cat, Hektou (see below).
Lorraine Toussaint is Adelaide’s wife. She’s a brilliant Frenchwoman of Algerian descent and also a professor at Berkeley, but in Physics. She varies between bemused and infuriated that Adelaide’s abilities aren’t explainable by any current scientific theory of energy.
In her spare time, she runs an after-school program for “BIPOC Girls in Science” that attracts cis and trans girls from all over the Bay Area.
Mohammed Sa’id is a former grad student/TA of Adelaide’s, now a colleague and trusted friend. His expertise is in dating artifacts from Predynastic Egypt. When Adelaide revealed her unusual fire-related abilities to him, he was taken aback, but is now supportive. Sparked by this, so to speak, he’s currently writing a book about fire demons in ancient Arab writings.
Amira Sa’id is Mohammed’s 12-year-old daughter. She’s Adelaide’s goddaughter, and the bond between the two is strong. Amira loves math and science but hates history, which amuses her dad. She loves to visit Adelaide and Lorraine’s home, particularly with Lorraine’s in-progress research and experiments everywhere.
Hektou is Adelaide’s cat. He’s a large breed, like a Maine Coon, but short-haired. He’s been with her since grad school—he showed up, fully grown, at the off-campus house she lived in, picked her out of the group of friends staying there, and just moved in. Adelaide has no idea how old he is but she can’t imagine life without him. He provides emotional support and encouragement and she swears he brings her good luck too. She does some of her best work explaining her analyses to him.
Ok, ok, here’s a better rendering of Hektou, who is not as imperious- and forbidding-looking as he’d like to believe, nor is he able to crush empires with one swipe of his paw. This is what he actually looks like: still oversized and sleek, but really only able to swat the occasional fly or moth that gets in the house, and a sucker for a belly rub.