Putnam
| Josiah Putnam | ||||||||||
| Player: @Stormfall
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| Character Build | ||||||||||
| Origin: | Mutation
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| Archetype: | Arachnos Widow
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| Security Level: | 50
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| Biographical Data | ||||||||||
| Real Name: |
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| Known Aliases: | Putnam, Night Widow Putnam, Operative Putnam, The Jumping Spider/Kelly Simmons, Roger Garies (Longbow), Daniel Blacklock (Bodyguard), Jimmy Smith, Tyler Kaprusiak, etc.
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| Age: | 28
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| Gender: | Male
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| Species: | Human Mutant
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| Ethnicity: | Estonian and British-Indian (Punjabi)
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| Birthdate: | August 7th
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| Birthplace: | Toronto
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| Relatives: | Unnamed father and mother (deceased), Timo (Uncle), Unknown cousin (not identified)
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| Characteristics | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6'3
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| Weight: | -
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| Eyes: | Greyish
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| Hair: | Lilac Mauve, lesser Dark Brown (Formerly pure Dark Brown)
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| Complexion: | Light brown/off-beige/tan, Healthy
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| Physical Build: | Toned
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| Physical Features: | Lilac Hair duh
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| Status | ||||||||||
| Alignment: |
Lawful Evil | |||||||||
| Reputation: |
Big-time | |||||||||
| Identity: | Secret
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| Years Active: | 12
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| Base of Operations: | Mobile
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| Citizenship: | US American, Dual Canadian-US American (Officially officially)
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| Education: | Graduate
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| Occupation: | Assassin, Arachnos Operative
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| Marital Status: | Never Married
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| Known Powers and Abilities | ||||||||||
*Superhuman Leg Strength and Durability; *Psionic Stealth/Disguise, Telepathy, Mental Resistance; Enhanced Agility; Reinforced Skeleton; Honed Reflexes, Balance, Coordination, Stamina and Recovery, Melee Combat Training
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| Equipment and Paraphernalia | ||||||||||
Protective Wear, Extendable Barb Claws, Smoke Grenades, Image Inducer, Communications Tech, miscellaneous, etc.
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| Attributes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Fighting |
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Projectiles |
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Resistance |
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| Intelligence |
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Psyche |
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| Intuition |
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| ReldinBox Template | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(HEAVY WIP - TO BE EDITED - MIND THE CLUMSINESS/MESSINESS!)
Background
Once Upon a Time
| Spoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within. |
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| Born in Toronto on August 7th 1996, Silver Põder spent the first few years of his life in relative happiness. His common law British-immigrant mother and Estonian-immigrant father managed to do well before deciding to have a child, and Silver was privileged to live in a condominium in the city that was small for its price even by 90s standards. His father particularly made it a habit to speak his own first language in the home for his son to learn organically, and maintain a touch of his culture in general. Just as quickly the events of life told a promising future, they changed for the worse and took everything away from Silver.
The six year old boy lost his parents in a fire the night he was at a friend's for a sleepover (2002), which also claimed the lives of three others and hospitalized a dozen more. With no prospective local, or even national relatives able to take custody of Silver, arrangements were made for him to be sent to his uncle Timo - an immigrant with an address in Paragon City, despite never even knowing of his existence. The reason why his father and uncle were deeply estranged didn't come to light until after the first few honeymoon months of Silver's new life. At first his uncle seemed nice, though this soon morphed the instant they relocated to the Rogue Isles and Timo's ties to Arachnos were no longer obscure. Signs of emotional and mental abuse began, which snowballed into verbal expressions and physical acts. Through all sorts of dubious means and connections, his Uncle Timo successfully erased what little past Silver had in place of a new identity: Josiah Putnam (playing on a moniker of a late friend). In a cruel twist of fortune for those who didn't deserve any good of it, Putnam started to exhibit various early signs of psychic potential at the age of nine (2005), in which Timo was already experienced in determining to some degree. This prompted his uncle to immediately hand over Putnam to Arachnos for a little remuneration, and suffer the same fate all the other early victims of the terrorist army suffer. As a product of the times that stagnated boys and girls into specific Spider and Widow lanes, with an even more pronounced psychic split of Bane Spiders and Fortunatas, Putnam was educated as such... doomed to have his future potential streamlined into terrorism. |
| Spoilers end. |
Widowmaker
Blooming into the start of his teenage years (2009), the early onset of some puberty features such as the strange change in hair colour didn't amount to any particular success in the psychic development department. Putnam was failing to show adequate results during early conditioning, even through the intensive program that tested his limits. This was especially disappointing while confirmed to have the mutant gene. Worst still, he also carried the burden of ridicule and torment involving the first discoveries of his sexuality; from minders and other victims alike, from those first few years in the program. His lack of interest in the opposite sex, the inability to relate to his peers, growing fascination with Ghost Widow and the insistence of wanting her to aspire to in whichever way alienated him.
However, as one door closed, another opened. The true latent nature of his mutation manifested over a night of restless leg syndrome, which caused an obscene amount of damage to his cell. Through initial intrigue over anger the nature of this occurrence was explored, and Putnam started to finally impress superiors with powerful and durable feats. He was encouraged to channel his anger and resentment against others through combat, and soon delighted in kicking the shit out of his former bullies (and in a couple of cases, killing them).
This newfound and increasing confidence started to have a positive effect on his mind and psychic aspects, despite his circumstances - his psyche long twisted and shaped to come to terms and survive his inescapable trajectory, though also adapting and solidifying his individualistic tendencies. He became more focused and relished in education. Putnam's protests and determination, sometimes physically expressed, then came with perfect timing. The dawn of a more modern Arachnos saw the mixing of sexes and genders into various roles that were otherwise almost exclusively set in stone, and Putnam was chosen from his program to be inducted into the Widow Corp world he wanted to be a part of from the very beginning.
"This is my true Faction. I can feel it in my legs."
This suited his most prominent skills and interests much better and made him a particularly promising asset with his semi-unique mutation. Consistent impressing and apparent shows of obedience earned him various freedoms and perks, in which he took advantage of to connect better with the normal teen-hood that passed him by and get what he wanted: specific magazines, discovering specific shows, music artists, pop culture oddities, game consoles, fashionable clothing and even brushing up and continuing the study of Estonian to at least have one anchor into the past he couldn't even recall anymore. He also made a conscious effort to completely forget (but not forgive) his uncle, even if he sold Putnam's soul to Arachnos and completely fucked his life up forever.
By 2012, at the age of sixteen, he graduated into the equally harsh outerweb of Arachnos as one of the first male Blood Widows of his particular age group. Putnam became a rather irregular element in the Arachnos ranks from the start; he teetered on the edge of being despised like a Destined One or a potentially stand-alone villain with his mutation that made him exceptional in his role (compared to his common comrades). And yet, he insisted on excelling as a Widow with head down and obedient when necessary while injecting his unique methods and personality into his work when superior eyes weren't upon him. A year into his occupation saw him gain a reputation for his eye-catching combat prowess, and particularly social and intimate methods of getting close to his intended targets while taking missions with increasing complexity.
It became common for him to kill others with his legs opposed to just the other usual methods of assassination involving sharp things, whether through asphyxiation or crushing. Much in the same way he leapt over his comrades and enemies, so too did he leap over the competition and climb his way up quickly, successfully and efficiently. This, paired with his desire and willingness to further his professional training and craft in combat, espionage and infiltration tactics, even in his free time, enabled him to grasp onto the Night Widow's leg that he worked so hard to reach... sooner rather than later. Along the climb he refused any hint of Destined One status thrown his way, and experienced a couple moments of considered defecting before he was set straight again through threats.
Operation: Rainbow Spider
The years only increased Putnam's skill, efficiency, reputation and social leadership capabilities. Some named heroes would've feared him if they even knew who he was, and his resume grew longer and longer with the higher profile individuals and organizations he successfully managed to terminate and/or exploit. One of these higher profile missions resulted in the opportunity to become a more unique operative among the ranks, or more specifically an opportunity he finally accepted - Operation: Rainbow Spider. Putnam became the overseer of Arachnos's first major twofold infiltration and propaganda operation involving the LGBTQ+ community. Rainbow Spider officially launched in 2017, which aimed to: develop and initiate a campaign to drastically increase the recruitment rates of those within its various communities, establish relationships with and infiltrate various LGBTQ+ specific organizations and registered "super groups", and identify, develop and or update a database of closeted individuals from substantial enterprises and avenues, while gathering consistent intelligence for potential exploitation and blackmail.
The operation yielded satisfying results over a five year period alone, where Putnam also took advantage of his position to increase LGBTQ+ protections and education within the Arachnos youth conditioning programs, much to the dismay of many pigheads and critiques of such being pointless in a terrorist organization. In 2022, Putnam relinquished his position to promote a comrade he grew very fond of during their time together in Rainbow Spider, opting to remain an adaptive operative while also still being quite involved in the operation and retain his identities (and to indulge more in his personal interests, too). Up until 2024 once a specific opportunity crossed his fate, he spent the majority of his time building important relationships, committing to a handful of missions with no choice in the matter, taking up ballroom dancing, and destroying the lives of phobes through very illegal means.
Personality Profile
Putnam is a man that blends his masculinity perfectly with the icing that is his more "feminine interests", and makes no apologies for loving what he does. He is a comfortably social and sensual creature that has been described as mild-mannered and difficult to legitimately piss off. Even when he's throwing out sassy zingers or snarky remarks, he's always prepared to deal with the results.
At times his tolerances can come off as eccentric, though he lacks the crippling self-consciousness he suffered from prior to coming into his own. Putnam is a firm believer of being kind and sympathetic, even to his potential future victims, and ensures that his deadly actions hold with them a merit of pizzazz and grace.
The fact that his "good" qualities seem to have no bearing on his terrifying efficiency can come off as eerie to many. As a leader, Putnam offers those under him the "three strikes you're out" rule. He also isn't anywhere near cold-blooded or cutthroat as some of the other desperate edge lord sycophants of the Arachnos numbers, and unless specifically ordered, ensures his victims are dealt a swift death. Messy torture makes his eyes roll.
Like many of those involved with the spiders, his past is marked with tragedy and abuse... but you wouldn't know it upon first impression. Beyond all the fun and games, Putnam is planted in reliable common sense, and whatever trauma his being is holding onto is locked away deep inside. It is very rare, though he possesses a few specific triggers that cast a glimpse into this part of him. He is generous, but fair. Curious, but focused. A kind heart, but conditioned mind.
Identities
Active Identities
- Not to be confused with alternate names of his own identity.
Kelly Simmons/The Jumping Spider
Purpose: Private identity unaffiliated with any particular association or organization. Ongoing as of 2017. No other information available.
Age: 29
Date of Birth: March 11, 1995
Place of Birth: Presumed Etoile Islands
Occupation: Adventurer/Vigilante
Items of Identity Confirmation: N/A
Physical Profile: Medium skin-tone. 6'0.
Description: An unregistered vigilante that operates around both Paragon city and the Rogue Isles. Does enough to earn the favour of "heroic" figures and organizations without doing enough to outright piss them off/draw too much attention to himself.
| Spoiler warning: Details about a player-created storyline, or information currently unrevealed about a character, within. |
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| Officer Roger William Garies
Purpose: Ongoing as of 2019. Long-term infiltration, espionage and disruption of Longbow forces across the Nerva Archipelago. Joint identity assumption with Night Widow -----. Timeline of information available within the associated encrypted dossier. Age: 28 (29 this year) Date of Birth: November 10, 1995 Place of Birth: Paragon City, RI, US Occupation: Longbow Officer Items of Identity Confirmation: Birth Certificate, SSN, Driver's Licence, Paragon University Records/B.Sc.F.S (Founders' Falls Campus) Physical Profile: African-American, black hair, brown eyes. 5'11. Description: Joined the Longbow at the age of 25 (2020) after his wife (Eva Garies) and two children (Aisha and Samuel) were killed during an Arachnos confrontation gone awry. Prior to being affiliated with the Longbow, worked as a Coast Guard for a few years (2016-2019) after earning a bachelor of forensic science (2013-2016) and not doing too much with it. Possesses a light "Paragon accent". Roger is known to be serious and a hard worker, though was held back from being promoted too quickly for mental health-oriented reasons. As of August 2024, Garies has been promoted to Longbow Officer.
Purpose: Identity repurposed for Operation: Rainbow Spider. Ongoing as of 2017. Timeline of information available within the associated encrypted dossier. Age: 28 Date of Birth: September 4, 1996 Place of Birth: New York City, NY, US Occupation: Bodyguard/Bouncer/Security for Hire Items of Identity Confirmation: Birth Certificate, SSN, Driver's Licence, Library Card Physical Profile: Caucasian. blond hair, green eyes. 6'1. Description: New York City-born high school dropout. Had issues at school around 13 when his unknown-to-him mutation manifested as telepathic mind reading. Was kicked out of his home when he was 17 (2014) from his mentally-ill mother due to coming out with both sexual identity and special gift identity, who insisted Dan had been using his powers to spy on her for years. Lived on the streets for almost a year until he made a friend that introduced him to the underground LGBTQ club scene... using fake I.D.s to get inside all kinds of bars and clubs. Dangerously dabbled in drug use that calmed his mind until he was 22 (2017-2018), where fitness became the focus that drove him back onto a more stable path. Worked odd jobs for years as a bodyguard, bouncer, security and even an exotic dancer to pay bills - using his mind reading abilities to really help this career (2018-2023). Subsequently found his way to Paragon City in 2023 to live with his father that reached out to him for the first time in around fifteen years (walked out when Daniel was 11-12), where Ethan Liverpool died in 2021 while DUI. Daniel has been trying to get more into the Paragon scene of things, especially to help him through his mild mourning. He has no interest in becoming any kind of heroic figure. |
| Spoilers end. |
Inactive/Retired Identities
- Prominent identities only, not including one-offs.
Jimmy Smith
Purpose: Arachnos affiliation. Identity created for Operation: Rainbow Spider infiltration of appropriate communities. Inactive as of 2020. Timeline of information not available/deleted.
Age:
Date of Birth: April 1, 1997
Place of Birth: Manchester, UK
Occupation: Club Promoter
Physical Profile: Medium skin, red hair and green eyes. 5'9
Description: A club promoter that made initial connections with various LGBTQ+ entities in and around RI throughout the late 2010s. Has since returned to England.
Affiliations
Organizations
- Arachnos
Allies
Rivals
Foes
Capabilities
Powers
Note: In case it's not clear, certain attributes included in the reldinbox template above refer specifically, or are directly related to his legs (He can't bench press 10-50 tons with his arms).
Superhuman Legs - The primary and defining feature of Putnam's mutation is his superhuman leg strength and durability. His leg muscles are capable of lifting/supporting up to 50 tons of weight with maximum effort (20-40 on average), enable him to leap incredible heights and distances, and possess superhuman durability from the skin to the bone. To biologically compensate his advanced leg muscles, other parts of his body including but not limited to his bones, are naturally reinforced enough to prevent self injury, albeit not to the same magnitude of the lower half of his body. This indirectly also grants him enhanced agility compared to the average man.
Psionic - Putnam is a formidable psychic that has seemingly plateaued in potential, though still possesses a well-rounded set of capabilities due to the marriage of his mutation and intense conditioning. He can telepathically communicate long distances, scan the minds of others, limitedly emanate offensive telepathic attacks, possesses strong mental defenses and can even fortify the minds of others with his own psychic willpower. His mental fortitude also extends to the more natural boons of his thoughts, emotions and physical results thereof, an example being his ability to easily pass polygraphs.
The most prominent aspect of his psychic-based powers and the secondary defining feature of Putnam's mutation is his ability to achieve stealth psionically and/or limited illusionary shape-shifting by manipulating the perceptions of others pertaining to focus upon his immediate proximity. Used as a simple method of stealth, he can render himself or anything in his personal space unable to be perceived by any means of physical sensory, including but not limited to: basic senses, chemical detection, temperature perception or energy emanation. Alternatively, Putnam's presence masking can instead alter the perceptions pertaining to the focus of himself or anything in his personal space as a form of "illusionary shape-shifting". This manifests in an ability to alter his scent, voice, etc. To a slightly lesser degree of stability, he can outright alter the way he looks.
Though his presence masking is also effective against inferior or amateur psychics, more powerful psionics may still be able to sense his presence with varying degrees of detection. Regardless of these capabilities, Putnam is always keen to also incorporate technological methods to mask his presence or alter his appearance in order to offset any personal faults. This ability also doesn't appear to have any particular magical protection elements.
Abilities
Physical Conditioning - Intense physical training has rendered Putnam in virtually peak physical health. This is maintained through consistent cardio, toning, healthy eating (though cheat days are a thing) and limiting the consumption of toxic substances.
Combat Training - Putnam combines and builds upon the basic combat training from the earliest days of his Arachnos excursion, which incorporates basic offensive, defensive and evasive techniques. Across his development over a period of several years, his skills in combat have drastically improved and remain unique in their combination of stealth tactics, acrobatics, superhuman leg strength and primary elements of taekwondo.
Marksmanship - Basic training in the use of firearms, especially small to medium. He also bares knowledge of the use of other less common/more specialized long-ranged weaponry, depending on the circumstances.
Weapons/Equipment
Uniforms - Putnam's protective Night Widow uniform, from voice-distorting helmet, to extendable, poison-injecting barb claws, to toe, is slightly (but subtly) modified from the standard male version. The Widowform can also retract into the rear spider emblem (or badge depending on the version) for easy removal and recovering. In addition, he also possesses at least two other permanent unique uniforms with differing levels of armor and utility depending on the situation.
Gadgets - Putnam makes use of various standard and situational gadgets and utilities, including but not limited to image inducers to assume disguises short-term or long-term (usually in the form of a wrist watch/brace of some sort - sometimes reinforced by his perception manipulation for extra protection), smoke grenades and cloaking devices that work in unison with his perception masking abilities to achieve disguise, camouflage or complete stealth, and teleportational beacons.
Communications - Equipped with standard and situational/specialized communications technology of varying origin and purpose, and the support of such.
Other Skills/Talents
Espionage and Infiltration - As a Night Widow Putnam has acquired extensive training and practiced application in various aspects of espionage, infiltration and even counterintelligence both short-term and long-term. He is adept in adapting different identities and specializes in "positive social infiltration and subterfuge" - establishing and maintaining social connections with both individuals and entire organizations for his, and by extension Arachnos' benefit.
Technology and Computing - Putnam is trained in basic practical computing and data management skills. He can also effectively utilize and understand most modern technologies. Applications include but are not limited to: implanting, hacking, negating security grids and data cover up.
Medical Training - Basic knowledge of first aid and field medics, resuscitation, Heimlich!, etc.
Identity Shifting - In relation to his love of long-term infiltration, Putnam is highly skilled in various areas involving the assumption and maintaining of alternate identities and their various different aspects. This includes but is not limited to being ambidextrous, a master of forgery and ability to pull off tweaks of fake accents and vocal inflections.
Multilingualism - Putnam can communicate fluently in English, Estonian and French. After a recent Arachnos-supplied ancestry kit came back with his results, he discovered (or confirmed, really) the Indian of his mother's side, and has decided to start learning Punjabi as his next language of interest.
Ballroom Dancing - After only two years of really getting into it, it turns out he has a coordination talent beyond the work world that doesn't involve fighting! This has also recently encouraged him to explore other styles of the art.
MISC
Disclaimers
- Reminder: Currently, most information contained within this profile is for OOC purposes/situational IC access only and is not common knowledge. Please interact accordingly (whatever is available in his Arachnos dossier can normally only be accessed by authorized personnel, whether superior or specialist.
Trivia
- In his free time, he's either doing ethically sound things under his vigilante identity, going to more underground social scenes, taking dancing lessons or just being a homebody.
- He doesn't have a particularly keen sense of fashion despite it all, but doesn't care.
- He has a huge crush on Luke Thompson, and is a big Bridgerton fan.
- His favourite colour family is orange.
- His favourite comfort meal is spaghetti and milk.
- His favourite queens are Ghost Widow, Kylie Minogue and Bjork.
- His absolute favourite music artist is Carly Rae Jepsen. She is also in fourth queen place.
- His favourite band is Men Without Hats.
- He is a big fan of John Waters movies.
- His personal taste in genuine romantic relationships actually steers more toward quiet/mysterious/introverted men that he can nurture. This is opposed to the party atmospheres and people within he has to indulge for professional reasons.
- He is weary of the religious.
- He hates animal abusers with a passion.