nadia, who's that dumb boy you're always drawing??
TJ / REfactor: (he/him, later she/her as JJ)
Reckless guy with ADHD who lives in Portland, OR and works as a dishwasher. He gets superpowers in his late 20s and proceeds to not be super interested in vigilantism/superheroism except for emergencies in his vicinity. He just wants to chill but instead he keeps getting in trouble for reckless endangerment :/
Is disappeared by the feds in his early 30s and experimented on to test new power controlling technology. Escapes by inadvertently exploding with the force of a 1kt nuclear bomb (subject to change; not actually sure the payload equivalent here) and proceeds to become an actual vigilante and relocates to Seattle (also transitions)
Powers: molecular (and atomic) transmutation and manipulation, misc. passive resistances to various chemicals and energy sources
REfactor's story intersects with Scratch's—
Seth / Scratch: (they/them)
Seth is a professional ballerina/danseur in their mid-20s who gets superpowers around the same time as TJ (from the same geomagnetic event), but located in Seattle, WA. They start acting as an unlicensed vigilante fairly quickly, albeit sparingly and mostly in the summertime when they aren't as busy with ballet.
They're already an established vigilante in Seattle by the time REfactor relocates, and they work with some other local vigilantes off and on as well as dealing with their own personal nemeses, brushes with the law, and inner fears regarding their powers.
Powers: incorporeal pyrokinesis (soulfire) and various related manipulations of the soul/spirit/anima (sleep and death induction, etc.), plus short-range teleportation
more info (and links):
TJ and Seth also interact with:
Kala / Veritas: (she/her)
A double agent who works as an inspector for the D4R (metahuman licensing) by day, and acts as a vigilante assassin by night, targeting corrupt officials and those abusing their positions of power. She uses her role as an inspector to help less above-board metahumans and their allies pass scrutiny and assists TJ/JJ in acquiring a new identity in Seattle.
Powers: cat-like reflexes and equilibrium, enhanced senses, nine lives (currently on Life 1)
Sonam / (several aliases): (they/them)
A professional black market tailor for metahumans, and also a veterinarian for exotic pets (it's mostly a front for the atelier, but they do genuinely have the qualifications to be a vet, so... they do have a few animal clients lol) Works with both Scratch and Veritas and by extension REfactor, and allows JJ to share their living space as needed.
Powers: shapeshifting (typically animals, always albino), as well as a Hulk-like ability to increase in size and strength, with blue skin and often additional eyes, limbs or other unusual changes to their body
Lilith / The Psykopomp: (she/her, though when she first meets TJ she is pre-transition and not yet out as a woman)
Keyboardist and synth artist of a mediocre nu-funk band in PDX, Lilith is also a jewel thief and bank robber as the Psykopomp, using her powers to seek independence, luxury, and freedom from the system. She and TJ are also in an on-again, off-again situationship and—despite her self-proclaimed supervillainess status—The Psykopomp is an ally to REfactor when push comes to shove.
Powers: nervous system manipulation, most prominently used to induce hallucinations, illusions, and dreams, etc. with potential to interfere in various nerve-related functions such as equilibrium, blood pressure, heart rate, pain processing, and so on
The Zodiac Project / Syntaxis Teletronics: (corporate super cops)
Meg / Black Taurus (she/her): Guardian of her much younger sister, their parents having passed some time ago. Meg is mostly with SynTel and the Zodiac Project out of desperation and is ready for a heel-face turn. Powers: super strength, velocity-based invulnerability (exponentially more durable to higher speed impacts and projectiles)
Tiffany / Pink Gemini (she/her): An engineering graduate who failed to find a position in her field due to various systemic factors. She works as a Zodiac Subject with enthusiasm but is not exactly "loyal to the company." Where Meg goes, she follows. Powers: skill mimicry (within the limitations of her body) and psionic doubling/cloning
Meg and Tiffany work as a duo in Seattle.
Noah / RC (he/him): Ran away from home as a teen and joined the Zodiac Project as a way to be "productive" with his newly intensified powers. Acts as a solo superhero in Portland, and is the one to arrest TJ prior to his disappearance. Powers: force fields and hard light manipulation, mild telepathy (empathic connection)
Daniel Saint-Fleur / The Harvestman: (he/him)
Taken from his home in Haiti at a young age, Daniel was relocated to the United States under false pretenses and recruited to work for SynTel—years before the Zodiac Project is conceived—and is essentially an indentured hitman, working personally with CEO Geoff Rust to harvest and stockpile the energy that drives superhuman abilities. Also ready for a heel-face turn.
Powers: anima/spirit stripping and manipulation — similar in some ways to Scratch's soulfire, but the Harvestman uses twin psionic revolvers to "harvest" an individual's incorporeal spirit and by extension metahuman abilities, and can strip the soul of powers before returning it to the body, as well as later recombine souls with various powers. The guns are not strictly necessary but they help him control, amplify and focus his abilities, and the chambers are battery packs that can be used to store anima.
Some civilians include:
Kent (TJ's older boyfriend, professional daddy dom)
Dr. Augustine (TJ's evil therapist, a psychic vampire)
Cassia (Kala's BFF, and a legal tailor for metahumans)
Casey (Seth's love interest and fellow dancer)
Deacon and Mei (Seth's besties who work at an autobody shop)
Lilith's bandmates: Nash (ex), Max, Chester and Ronnie
TJ's dad and baba
Seth's parents
and so on
okay Dr. Augustine is not technically a civilian per se but they are also not a vigilante. They're an antagonist and villain who uses their civilian persona to take advantage of poor and under-insured people struggling with their mental health... such as: TJ
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A relationship breakdown:
some character relationship notes / how some of these characters are connected...
text transcript under the cut:
TJ/REfactor:
Relationship w
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If you would like to keep up with my scratchverse art and characters and have a comicfury account or RSS feed reader, I also post all of it on CF here:
it is not a webcomic, just an image dump organized with some tags and chapters.
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You can find much of the same art plus extra info about the characters in the following places:
Toyhouse (For profiles and art of all of the characters involved, stat breakdowns, etc.)
A community for collaborative character creation and trading, worldbuilding and roleplay.
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Vgen:
Hey, I'm Nadia! I like superheroes.
(for the time being, my vgen only has TJ, Seth, Kent and Lilith; info on other characters can be found on toyhouse and art fight)
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My sideblog: @flamesbetween
(mostly inspiration, posts i find funny or that remind me of characters, etc.)
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TJ's blog: @man-i-love-frog-hunting
(semi in-character but not a roleplaying blog
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My art blog: @hoardlikegoldenirises
(specifically the scratchverse tag)
(and my scratchverse tag here, on this blog (softgrungeprophet), which is mostly the same plus some writing stuff)
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artfight: ~goldenirises
An art gifting game
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the scratchverse feed on my bsky
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Also here's a longer masterlist of misc. scratchverse OCs:
💬 0 🔁 1 ❤️ 0 · Scratchverse characters is like... a bunch of vigilantes and a bunch of anti-villains...
SOME of the villains are actually
Most of them are just me having fun designing and coming up with characters, not actually me planning to do any kind of extensive multi-character crossover plot blah blah blah— I just like to draw superhero costumes and make up pretend little guys lol
As it stands, TJ and Seth are the main vigilante characters and their combined stories are the main plot I am toying with, though currently with emphasis on TJ, partly because I just think he's neat and partly because his chain of events is a little more complicated than Seth's. (Though whether that remains the case, who knows...)
