Dr. Pain
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| "Let me end your pain." | |
| Dr. Pain | |
| Player: Jooknar413 | |
| Origin: | Science 
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|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind 
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| Security Level: | 50+ |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Dr. Nikola Pavel Nosek |
| Known Aliases: | Dr. Pain, The Good Doctor, The Doctor, Pain, Dr. Nosek, Dr. Nikola, The Old Doc |
| Species: | Human (formerly)/Bio-Synthetic Magi-Tech Cyborg |
| Age: | 119 (DoB: Sept 21st, 1900) |
| Height: | 244cm |
| Weight: | 120kg |
| Eye Color: | green |
| Hair Color: | none |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Czech |
| Occupation: | Pain Specialist |
| Place of Birth: | Kroměříž, Czechia |
| Base of Operations: | Prague, Czechia |
| Marital Status: | Widower; Zora Běla Nosek (née Krejči) (deceased 1972) |
| Known Relatives: | Father: Bořivoj Dan Nosek (deceased 1932); Mother: Agáta Slavěna Nosek (née Navrátil) (deceased 1940) |
| Known Powers | |
| Super-Science Healing/Restoration; Psi-Empathy Healing/Manipulation; Core Sorcery; Mu Mastry; Incarnate Power | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Natural Genius; Top-Tier Medicine; Leadership | |
| Equipment | |
| Devoted Veteran Soldier Followers; Military Surplus; Interchangable Artifical Bodies; Magi/Psi/Sci/Cyber-Android Servitors; Immobilizer Ray-Gun | |
| ' | |
"Dr. Pain" is just what the media and the more unkind or uninitiated heroes call him. He much prefers his given name. Dr. Nikola Nosek. Or better yet, just Nikola. He spent his long life as a doctor, specializing in ameliorating pain, especially in disabled war veterans, earning him from among those a respectable number of loyal, devoted followers. But when age, ill health, and the specter of death that comes with it came for the good doctor, he panicked, and in a moment of desperation, enacted a gruesome plan with his most trusted aids to remove and preserve his own brain in a jar of nutrient bath, free of his dying body, and afix it to a bio-synthetic replacement of his own design, that could work his medical wonders all the more efficiently. But untethered from mortality, he was unhinged from morality as well, and now saw it as his life's work to 'cure' all the world of all forms of pain and suffering forever, whether they asked him to or not. And he would allow no one to get in his way. And if anyone did try to stop him, well... what's an army of fearless, veteran soldiers immune to pain for, anyway? Thus, "Dr. Pain" was born.
Contents |
Affiliations
The Conclave: Nikola makes every effort to appear to be an independent agent. For good reason. His primary association is with a secret cooperative, after all. What even fewer guess is that he's not only a member, but the Grand Arbiter of said cooperative. He takes pains to keep that tidbit obscured even from the general membership itself! Nikola is but the latest leader of the long and storied lineage of the Conclave, inheriting it from the previous Arbiter, Jackal. He guides with a light touch, keeping his involvement to advice and only mild intervention where absolutely necessary, largely keeping his active duties to paperwork and welcoming new members when possible, describing himself as little more than an old, smelly Wal-Mart greeter vaguely smiling and waving people in. Though he never hesitates to lend his Conclavite associates a helping hand with their ambitions.
Personality
Nikola is all but unfailingly humble, kind, respectful, jovial, affable, and genuine with everyone he meets. His good nature is hardly feigned and he genuinely likes nearly everyone. His only true rancor is for willful, flagrant sadists who violate consent egregiously. He would prefer to get along with everyone. What especially stands out is his over-powering humility. He's very free with his self-deprecating sense of humor and loves to laugh at himself, no matter who made the joke. Not only will he tell you that he's nothing more than a foolish old man with a foolish old dream, that's how he honestly prefers to think of himself. He's never been comfortable with power, and is increasingly at odds with the abilites he wields, especially since awakening incarnate abilites. Hence, he uses them sparingly, when he does at all. The most pride he feels for his personal resources are directed to his soldier followers, who he supports with effusive praise, respect, and care, treating them as though they were demi-gods or Ancient Greek heroes on the scale of Achilles or Heracles.
Powers
Super-Science Healing/Restoration: Beyond basic medicine, Dr. Pain has pushed his own medical toolkit well into the realm of super-science, allowing near-instant healing from several meters distant, visually taking the form of a red, diffuse, tendrilous mist emanating from the thick, red, unnatural veins on his bio-synthetic hands, either to be directed at a single target or a close aura around him. He can even apply this healing to revive those on the brink of death in seconds, or in more desperate scenarios, hyper-charge the adrenal systems of his allies and render them immune to pain for some time, making them supermen. Even just standing relatively near him and the residual vapours of his misty super-medicinal aura can soothe pain and boost recovery.
Psi-Empathy Healing/Manipulation: Unsatisfied with curing only ills of the body, Dr. Pain made a foray deep into Rikti territory to learn the secrets of how they’d mutated the Lost and put that knowledge to work for himself, altering the process to specifically give himself empathic pain-manipulation abilities focused on ameliorating emotional distress and trauma. He now uses those same abilities freely in conjunction with his medical skills to soothe pain all the more effectively and quickly, getting people into fighting shape in moments when they should be on the brink of death. More sinisterly, he can use his abilities normally used to negate trauma to mask other memories as well, and has been known to make people forget about secrets he feels they shouldn’t know, for instance, about his Conclave, or his position of leadership within it. He can also use his empathic manipulation to instil even greater loyalty in his followers. Not that he would, right? (wink).
Core Sorcery: Despite coming to magical study late in life, and after a brief existential freakout, Dr. Pain eventually approached magic with the same curiosity, energy, and studious thoroughness that he does all topics of learning. And while his lacks the long familiarity of a life-long wizard, his talent is undeniable. He’s mastered many basic tricks of core sorcery, including self-motivated flight, short-range teleportation, and a few defensive and reactive wards and runes, among other utility powers, though he tends to avoid the otherwise overt.
Mu Mastry: With Scirocco’s tutelage, he unlocked and mastered sorcerous Mu Lightning, though initially focused less on overt blasting and much more on incapacitating and draining his adversaries, and warding himself
Abilities
Natural Genius: Dr. Pain is a genuine, natural genius and a very quick study. He loves to learn and he absorbs knowledge like a sponge, blessed also by lateral thinking and can combine ideas from various subjects well.
Top-Tier Medicine: His core medical skills are duly earned and well-practiced over long decades, even the more mundane sort not enhanced by super-science. He specializes in pain management, but is well-versed in nearly all general medical fields.
Leadership: He’s a brilliant multitasker, and practiced tactician and strategist, and has honed his leadership skills over long decades. First in academia and medical situations, and then in more extra-legal, para-military scenarios.
Equipment
Devoted Veteran Soldier Followers: His healing has earned him many followers over the years, including many ex-military veterans who came to him disabled and in crippling pain. He cured them, and some were so grateful that they pledged their service to him, eventually amassing to him a small private army of devoted, experienced soldiers immune to pain and fear. Some footmen, others medics in his footsteps, some canny and cunning spec ops, and some few deadly and nigh-indestructible commandos.
Military Surplus: He keeps them all well armed and armored with donations from other non-military followers he’s similarly gained, some of which were very wealthy.
Interchangable Artifical Bodies: Being a brain in a jar, Dr. Pain has always relied on artificial bodies to get around and interact with the world. The first four generations of such were bio-synthetic, but still increasingly impressive marvels of bio-engineering. But around the fifth generation, he began to experiment much more with direct cybernetics as well, even weaving in some of his mystical studies into magi-tech solutions. Dr. Pain built his own artificial bodies to be immune to pain, unsurprisingly, giving him a great tolerance for damage. They also quickly recover endurance and are very durable.
Android Servitors: Being so used to building bodies, though, it was a natural step to begin to build full bodies as tougher servitors that were less vulnerable than his all-too-mortal followers. Starting his research into AI with simple shield drones and the like, he quickly progressed to full androids, building them for a number of functions, including infiltration, defense, and self-replication.
Immobilizer Ray-Gun: He very deliberately never uses guns or conventional personal weapons himself, keeping with his insistence that he’s a healer, not a warrior. But he does carry one weapon-like device. Unsurprisingly, an Immobilizer Ray, designed to incapacitate, rather than destroy. A device he ‘found’ along his way that he decided to keep with him. Perhaps the one ‘gun-like’ tool he tolerates in his own two hands.
Incarnate Power
Hybrid Support: When he awoke his Incarnate power, his ability to inspire his followers and allies reached epic proportions. The pride he feels for his people and the encouragement he gives them, the sheer power of his conviction and belief in his warriors, spurs them on to fight like demigods.
Alpha Vigor/Destiny Rebirth: Not only did Dr. Pain’s awakened Incarnate power boost his native abilities as a healer, it taught him how to spread that healing so far and so broadly that with a single powerful burst of energy, his healing aura can cover a vast area at once, centered on him, mending grievous injury in moments, while the lingering aura eliminates all pain for several minutes at a time.
Interface Paralytic: His ability to dampen emotion has also been used offensively, now that his Incarnate-boosted power allows him to insidiously affect the minds of otherwise belligerent combatants at a distance. Even as a battle wears on, he saps his opponents’ will to fight and injure him or his followers, all but paralyzing them into impotent apathy.
Judgement Ion: Tapping into Incarnate power super-charged the Mu energies he had access to, and though he avoids needing to do so, he can call down a truly massive, devastating, chain blast of Mu lightening that would make even Scirocco flinch, though he does his best not to overdo the damage, as is his idiom, and instead focus on incapacitation.
Lore Clockwork: Another breakthrough was when he managed to combine his other disciplines into a small number of a particularly advanced set of androids. Some he managed to grant a measure of his super-powered healing, and others could approximate his Mu blasts, despite both being entirely synthetic people. He now keeps a few of these ultra-advanced hybrid androids on call for emergencies.
Essence of "Mot": Oh yeah. And then there was that one time he killed a literal god of suffering and pain (Other than Mot. There are plenty in the multiverse) with his own bare hands and absorbed its power. There’s that. Heh. Dr. Pain utilizes that stolen divine energy to empower himself by keeping himself going when he should otherwise have been long since exhausted, recovering superhumanly quickly, and can even ward himself in that power to resist and deflect damage on top of his other defenses in a pinch.
Character History
Nikola Pavel Nosek was born in Czechia near Prague at the turn of the 20th Century, and thus lived through (and remembers vividly) a great many of the modern horrors of the present age, including both world wars, the Cold War, and beyond.
But his part in all of that was as a doctor. A caretaker. A soother of pain and injury. He threw himself into the study of pain even as that field of science was just in the beginnings of its modern incarnation, and swiftly transcended 'orthodox' medicine, aspiring beyond the strongest analgesics, ascending over the gold standard pain-killers into something bordering on the supernatural, true super science.
His specialty was in treating wounded veteran soldiers, especially in the frequent conflicts that rocked the politically stormy region of Czechia in which he lived. Some fraction of his 'miraculously' cured patients were so overwhelmed with gratitude and inspired by his cause that they swore their service to him, and without intending to he amassed a small private army of fanatically devoted formerly disabled veteran warriors, among other skilled and able henchpersons.
But then in his mid 80s, and old, frail man, after treating the many lives threatened by the Chernobyl disaster, he came to a horrible realization. He was dying. And quickly. And the world would go on suffering, all the more so without him to heal it. So in a fit of desperate panic, he and his most trusted minions embarked on an insane operation to remove and preserve his brain from his dying body and install it in a jar of life-giving nutrient bath, that he then set atop a bio-synthetic artificial body of his own design that could work his medical wonders all the more efficiently.
But untethered from mortality, he was unhinged from morality as well, and now saw it as his life's work to 'cure' all the world of all forms of pain and suffering forever, whether they asked him to or not. And he would allow no one to get in his way. And if anyone did try to stop him, well... what's an army of fearless, veteran soldiers immune to pain for, anyway?
That was thirty three years ago.
Since coming to the Isles, his ambition has only grown. Seeking to cure emotional pain as well as physical pain, he reverse-engineered Rikti artifice used to mutate the Lost to mutate his own brain into psychic empathic pain manipulating powers. With some mild brainwashing thrown in.
Then he encountered magic, and after a brief existential freakout, approached it with scientific curiosity, analyzed it, and so thoroughly investigated it that he acquired not inconsiderable magical power himself, including Mu Sorcery.
And if that wasn't enough, he further took it upon himself to learn what was necessary of cybernetics and machine learning to develop several android servitors to perform all the tasks that his own all too human minions were too vulnerable or limited to undertake.
And in mastering all five origins, as a man born with no powers who gained everything by force of will, mastery of science, magic, tech, and late-life self-guided mutation, he awoke incarnate-level power within himself..
And inspired by his friend Lotus Slaying Lights, a literal god-slayer, he sought out and murdered a literal god of suffering and pain in furthering his ultimate quest.
And all the while insists to everyone he meets that he's nothing more than a foolish old man that no one should be bothered to pay attention to and carries himself with an overabundance of humility and self-deprecating humor.
