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[Age of Heroes] Stable Loop [ready]


Windwright

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Roleplay Type:  Age of Heroes
Name: Mouser (Stable Loop)
Sex: Male
Age: Young? Adult
Species: Diamond Dog

Appearance: Covered from tip to toe in shaggy Charcoal grey fur, Mouser is a mountain of muscular Diamond Dog defying depictions of wizards the world over. He towers over most creatures when he doesn't slouch, and even then is taller than most ponies. His eyes, dull purple with an olive starburst, are distinctive in that they bear a ring if faintly glowing ice-blue pigmentation next to the pupil. When actively using his gift, this expands sharp spikes that flare outward and he gains a limbal ring the same colour, giving his eyes the appearance of clock faces. He sports a fluffy tail that curls up once unless he's in a dour mood.

He's inherited his father's old long coat, which is normally all he wears in his civilian persona. He also carries a wizardly staff for the look of the thing and because it's a sturdy piece of oak about five feet long.

And how can anyone with Mouser's build possibly maintain a secret identity? The answer is in an object of power he retrieved roughly a week before the expedition that would have discovered it anyway, leaving in its place an IOU. The Amulet of the Scales is rumored to do a lot of things. Ancient accounts claim "ye ameyulette, beynge used bye a neophyte who knowwes notte that whyche she hunttes, bestowes powerr withe whyche she despenseth justyce." but scholars generally agree that it's magics primarily dealt with tracking and flight. In the paws of someone who knows the proper activating phrases however, such as Mouser, it transforms the wearer into an adolescent dragon. Combined with his goggles and various other occult (but entirely mundane) pieces of jewellery, this gives Stable Loop the perfect disguise: a dragon pretending to be a gremlin. The draconic scales are a silvery gray, and he wears an oversized cotton cap with 'ears' over what are ostensibly his horns.
Residence: Canterlot
Occupation: Hero and sometime wizard. Not on par with his father or siblings of course, but he can play with the toys.
Unique Traits:
Mouser is a massive breed, a Caucasian Mountain dog, who normally weigh in well north of 150 even without being Diamond Dogs. He moves with an alarming amount of power and grace, especially for something his size.

 

Powers:

Temporal Review: Mouser has the ability to look forward or backward along the timeline with absolute clarity. When looking backwards he can see what has happened to a person, place, or thing as if he had been there. Looking forward presents a unique set of challenges though, as he sees nearly all possible outcomes and must decide for himself which of those is likely to be the timeline he'll be in when that junction arrives. It's dangerous to be down the wrong trouser of time after all.

Momentary Reprieve: Mouser is able to shift his true self outside the boundaries of Time, effectively pausing the world to give him thinking space. With some effort, he can occasionally pull others into this realm as well, depending on the individual in question and how firm their sense of self is. In this realm, time does not flow, the mind needs no rest, the body no longer matters. Emotion, language, and thought are all that exist. Mouser normally uses this in conjunction with his power of Review to allow him to not only see, but analyse the timeline.

Window Between Worlds: Mouser can keep tabs on more than just alternate timelines, he is able to step briefly across the boundaries that sperate worlds, allowing him to see and interact with alternate realities. This is one of his few powers that he cannot share with others in any capacity.

Deja Faisant: Those who know Mouser will note that he's nearly always where pain and trouble isn't. He never stumbles, trips, or falls when he doesn't intend to. Things don't fall on him, ignite him, or hit him. He never runs into anyone or is run into by anyone. Without knowing about his powers one would suspect he was just uncommonly lucky, but in truth he just generally knows where to be in the next couple of seconds.

Temet Nosce: As a matter of course, Mouser knows where his physical limits lie, and what it would take to transcend them.

Recursion: What most think of as Stable Loop's primary power, this allows him to designate a number of participants who then experience a given stretch of time that repeats itself until either Mouser releases it or they hit a predetermined condition. Mouser can only have one such loop active at any given time, and only his chosen participants can even remember that the loop happened at all. Random events tend to turn out differently in each iteration, and events will always finish playing out and then reset one more time when he stops the loop. It is from this power that his codename is drawn.

Hopeless: Not a power per se but Stable Loop was, perhaps luckily, never officially a member of the Hopesguard, and as such Marionette contains no more information on him than any other prominent citizen.

Strong like the Mountain: Again, not exactly a power, but Mouser's size gives him a certain amount of strength, which he retains even when in dragon shape.

Diamond is Unbreakable: Like all Diamond Dogs, rocks and gems offer little resistance to his paws, claws, and jaws.

Occultist: Mouser can use magical artifacts and implements as if he were a full Wizard, though raw spells elude him. This makes him the least magically talented of his siblings who have any knack for it at all.

Prime Weakness: Temporal manipulation is a Prime power, and as such comes with its own drawbacks and a specific weakness. For Mouser the two weaknesses are random events, like lottery drawings, die rolls, raffles, etc, which completely flummox his predictions (the more even each possible result the harder it is for him to choose an outcome, and the more results there are the less likely that outcome is to be correct), and secondly the more people know about his powers the less he'll be able to manipulate and control the outcome. His outright weakness is that if he intentionally breaks his word, his powers become limited in scope to events within a dozen seconds for the next dozen hours.
History:
Never what one might call the runt of the litter, Mouser was named somewhat ironically. From a young age he was precocious and far more aware of the world than he ought to be, avoiding the big troubles all puppies get into with a deftness that was uncanny. His wizardly father suspected temporal shenanigans immediately, but as the Diamond Dog was unable to manifest even the simplest of spells, he shrugged it off as just one of those things that happen some practitioners. It started as vivid dreams of fantastic places little Mouser swore were real. But since by this point his sister was strolling some the house like walls and doors were mere suggestions, his family again wrote it off as youthful imagination. Then the headaches started and stopped almost immediately, and the pup's considerate little gestures started being unsettlingly prescient.

Finally his father pulled him aside and got the talk from Mouser, who quoted it verbatim before he'd had time to actually say anything. He Gazed upon the soul of his son, then nodded with satisfaction started helping the boy keep his secret.

 

His siblings eventually drifted to the Academy or their personal pursuits, but Mouser never did, electing to isolate himself instead in the foothills of the Griffonstone range, always just missing any would-be visitors not sent by his family. Often by visiting his family. And so he was one of the best kept secret allies of the burgeoning hero scene. He was an active and staunch ally of his sister and her friends, though when Marionette was built he started to withdraw, saying the team didn't need him as much.

 

Then the Guard fell. When Rosetta came by, he had her favorite meal waiting for her, though he himself was nowhere to be found, along with a note apologising for everything and encouraging her not to give up. He kept himself busy after that tracking down and subduing or redeeming fallen heroes, always one step ahead of anyone who knew him as Mouser. It was during this time frame he earned the nicknames "The Gray Ghost", and "the Untouchable".

 

The next time anyone who actually knew him saw Mouser was when he just happened to be at an outpost near the Hesperian desert. He'd cooked Rosetta's favorite meal again for her and caught up over dinner, though he seemed distracted by something he refused to talk about. And that was it. He all but vanished after that, hiding in his mountain fastness and refusing to see anyone by dint of simply never being there when other people came.


Character Personality:

A tough nut to crack, Mouser is both self-reliant and self-effacing. He has the low grade Atlas Complex nearly all oracles and seers develop, with a side helping of absolute self assurance that comes from literally being able to see in real time the consequences of decisions he hasn't made yet.

 

Notable Allies:

The former members of the Hopesguard, to varying degrees:

Rosetta, his sister whom he supports wholeheartedly and without question any time she would have asked. He's more than a little overprotective of her, when she lets him be.

Bahamut, begrudgingly. He blames Bahamut nearly as much as he blames himself for Rosetta's condition.

Marionette, he claims to like her, but was more or less retired by the time she was constructed. He certainly likes that she had very little information about him.

 

Enemies:

Court of the Winter Queens, Mouser has inherited some bad debt from his grandfather, who didn't think he'd have children, and runs afoul of the debtee from time to time. He owes them a favor they aren't keen to call in. Yet.

 

Black Haze, Mouser avoids the Hopebane at all costs, and has gotten pretty good at it. He claims any meeting between them will only end badly for everyone involved.

 

Senor Caballero, the bandit whose fateful meeting with Bahamut and Rosetta crushed his spirit before that meeting even happened. Mouser makes a point of keeping him in prison.

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