| Introduction
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xxxxxFrank Zeller, unremarkable S.H.I.E.L.D caught in remarkable circumstances of his volatile X-Gene. Walking a tightrope through life and half blindfolded; Will he open his own eyes or will they be opened against his will?
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| Description
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xxxxxFrank Zeller appears at first, and most, glances to be your typical thirty-year-old brawler of a Shield Agent; 6’4” of dense muscle, with a square jaw offset by the long scar cutting from the right corner of his mouth down to his neck, and unremarkable brown hair cropped close to his neck and kept constantly slicked back from his tall forehead. His green eyes are almost always hidden under the shadow of his heavy eyebrows, and very few people have ever gotten close enough to him to notice the flecks of gold in them. His left eye drifts slightly outward when he looks straight on at something, giving him a slightly dazed or unfocused appearance when he’s really concentrated. He walks with his back straight and his shoulders pushed back in an almost military march, and this carries an air of purpose whenever he moves.
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| Reputation
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xxxxxFrank is a social paradox around Shield; he is intimidating to new recruits and students, having a quiet demeanor and “resting bitch face”, yet he makes a point to learn everyone’s name and says hello to them as often as he can. Among the Operations department he’s well respected, most people know about his international skills and Navy background, but only a few senior agents know about the actual disaster mission that landed him in New York permanently and with Shield. He eats alone in the training rooms or his office, though whenever Grant Ward is in New York they’ll go to a bar and catch up for lunch. Outside of work he has a few friends, the owner of the noodle shop he lives above and a few positive acquaintances from poetry nights at local cafes, as well as being on good terms with every local librarian in his area. He is not known at all in mutant communities, but he has visited the Evolve Cafe once.
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| History
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xxxxxHaving a child to fix a broken marriage is a terrible solution to an unavoidable problem, and Frank spent the majority of his childhood steeping in the constant reminder that it was he who was the failure, and not his parents. Divided between living with his CEO mother in Baltimore, and line cook father in Terlingua, Texas, Frank grew up alone, divided, and angry. His parents officially separated when he was twelve years old and finalized the divorce when he was fifteen, and Frank was supposed to be given the choice of which parent to live with. His mother refused to take him, stating that he was too much like his father already, and he was transplanted into Terlingua permanently. His father worked late constantly and almost never interacted with Frank, leaving him alone in their trailer home for hours on end whenever he wasn’t in school. Frank spent that alone time vandalizing broken down cars and hauling junk in the town’s dump; along with getting into various states of trouble with whatever manipulative assholes were burning through town that week. His only healthy habit was the library; devouring half their selection in afternoons spent tucked away on the roof with gas station food and nothing but time to kill. Puberty and resentment boiled over in Frank through those years, and by the time he was seventeen he had become involved in multiple small crimes, facing trial as an adult for being an accessory to grand theft auto. His father cashed in a favor from a family friend and managed to keep him from being sent to jail; and kicked him out the night he got home from the holding cell. Frank snuck onto a bus and spent the next four months on the streets of Austin, Texas, until he was caught stealing money from a dive bar’s payphone. The man who caught him happened to be a recruitment officer, and gave Frank a choice. Walk out of the bar in handcuffs, or walk out of the bar enlisted. He spent the next four years becoming one of the United State’s best Navy Seals; rising through the ranks with his formidable physical strength and frighteningly sharp mind. He was trained in international affairs; learning several languages and foreign political structures along with diplomacy and cultural knowledge that allowed him to easily adapt to his environment on missions. He specialized in covert operations and strategy, eventually being given lead of international missions with a small team of his own. By his thirtieth birthday Frank Zeller had made something of himself, until a mission gone awry left him partially deaf, with impaired vision in his left eye and more than a few scars that will never fade. That mission was to assassinate a high ranking political official in Hungary, but Zeller’s team was ambushed and half of them were killed on sight. The overwhelming fear and stress at losing his team, and the threat of being captured or killed himself, triggered his dormant mutant abilities and unleashed an electrical energy blast that knocked him unconscious, injured the rest of his team, and killed their attackers. The official cause of the accident was an electrical malfunction of the power lines near the area; and Frank's secret remained undiscovered. He spent six months recovering in a New York hospital, and during that time he was approached by an Agent of Shield and offered a cushy desk job with “opportunities for advancement” while he continued to heal. Those opportunities, once taken, revealed themselves to be immediate fieldwork not unlike Zeller’s previous employment, and he once again firmly established himself as a dependable and reliable Shield Agent who prioritized his team above all else, except on rare occasions, the mission. Now at thirty four he lives permanently in the Midtown East of New York and balances his life between fieldwork, paperwork, and a very poorly constructed “civilian” life that he aches to one day stop acting at. He is constantly trying to hide and fight back his volatile and difficult to manage new powers, and every new attack on mutants and government response further isolates him from both his life at work, all he’s ever known, and the pantomime of “human” life he privately longs he had.
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| Powers
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xxxxxQuintessence Force: Frank can generate, absorb, and conduct a blue white lightning made of pure life energy from his body. This energy can be used to power electrical devices, harm others, and create large-scale electrical surges capable of destroying his surroundings and those within it out to a 10-30 foot radius. His power could eventually have the capabilities of creating / manipulating electrical storms or creating massive surges of larger radius and intensity. (e.g. leveling a few city blocks or disrupting the power grid of a large grid). Frank has suffered from chronic fatigue and pain from constantly suppressing his powers, and has very little control over when and how strong it manifests. He has destroyed countless electrical appliances in his home due to his inability to control his power, along with having hurt himself on multiple occasions resulting in burns or other injuries. Using his power, or “surges” as he calls them, will result in him becoming exhausted, hungry, and he needs to eat and sleep extensively after his power surges.
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| Skills
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xxxxxHand-to-Hand combat training with an emphasis on Krav Maga and Boxing, he is also significantly skilled at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Firearms training with a specialty in rifles, his sniper aim has been impacted by his injuries. Extensive strategy training and experience running and executing covert operations, infiltration and stealth are his areas of expertise. Highly observational and keen minded, Frank keeps track of every bit of information he receives and knows when and where to apply it. He is multilingual and speaks fluent English, Russian, Mandarin, and Spanish. He is conversationally skilled in Japanese, ASL, and Maori. He is a hobbyist photographer and poet, and has been anonymously published in both areas for small local publications.
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| Connections
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Friends
Foes
And everything in between
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| Trivia
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- Random facts you think are worth knowing about your character.
- And more random facts!
- And more.
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| Gallery
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| RP Hooks
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| Surge - Frank has a difficult time controlling his powers, and he may cause outages in buildings or city blocks if he can’t find a safe way to control or exert his power away from people. He goes to rooftops or big parks to calm down, but sometimes he doesn’t isolate himself in time and something, or someone, feels the force of his power firsthand.
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| Soldier, Poet, King - Balancing the stressful work of S.H.I.E.L.D with the constant pressure of volatile mutant powers means Frank has few ways to destress after a long day. Poetry is one of his few comforts, and he can often be found at poetry nights at local cafes or hunched over a journal (or three) penning his latest free verse poems. He’s hesitant to share his work, but always willing to chat about the art with any artist who asks.
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| Bookworm - Public libraries are the perfect place to go to avoid people, and avoid the noisy crowds of New York’s streets. Tucked behind narrow shelves or even sitting on the roof is where Frank could be found on a drowsy afternoon, a pile of books at his side and thermos of chamomile tea tucked away to protect whichever book he’s face first in. He may look completely occupied, but he never lets his guard fully down and keeps his eyes and ears to the ground as he devours another novel or manual.
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| S.H.I.E.L.D in the Field - No plan survives first contact, and plans B through C usually fall to similar disorganized fates. When in doubt, Frank has mastered the delicate art of improvisation and making the best of whatever sparse resources he has available; whether that’s a fully equipped S.H.i.E.L.D team or a discarded baking tray from a bakery’s dumpster. These haphazard situations often get him into more trouble before he gets out, and who knows who will get swept along the currents with him.
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