LogFAQs > #967861080

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38. Half-Life (Byron Stark)

I need to do more with Half-Life, because this is a character that is very much tailored to Pepper right now, and I feel like Ive been neglecting him. He has a lot of potential, and I just need to unlock that through continued RP scenes and nurture that NPC/PC relationship that weve already established. I think he kinda falls victim to my mentality of being drawn towards more damaged and chaotic personalities, because those lend themselves really well to continual storylines and new things to happen. Half-Life, despite his appearance, is just a normal, stable guy. Extremely rugged and reliable. And thats not a bad thing, but its also something I think that I need to work on as a player to focus more on than I do at this time.

Anyway, the Convoy storyline is one where I wasnt in on the ground floor, but my character is from Texas, so she wound up taking a vested interest in the goings on. The overarching plot is that you have La Dama in El Paso, who is a drug queenpin who controlled the city prior to Darkseids takeover, and you have La Llarona in Juarez, who is a revenge-driven water spirit who has it out for La Dama. Despite being diametrically opposed, these two women are forced to work together due to the overwhelming third party influence of Darkseid/the Society, and our party wound up brokering peace to bring everyone together and make a trek down through all of Central and South America to get over 50,000 refugees safely to our Antarctica base.

Half-Lifes role in all of this is that early on, La Dama was very much the villain of this storyline. This was while El Paso was still technically a free city, and of course the criminal drug lord has a negative influence over goings on in the region. As such, a coyote system began operating to ferry people out of La Damas influence, to the safety of La Llaronas territory. Half-Life was one of the primary scouts working as a kind of runner for La Llarona, and at first, that was his main role. He had a motorcycle, so he was useful in getting our small group quickly and efficiently from El Paso into Juarez. However, I think he (and Peacemaker Chris Smith, who served a similar purpose) became more prominent once the convoy started moving, and it became increasingly valuable to have someone who could lead a motorcycle battalion and scout ahead to keep the convoy safe.

As for why Half-Life makes it onto my list in particular, that largely has to do with his role in connection to my PC, Pepper. I hate to make this write-up revolve around my PC, rather than the NPC being ranked, but it is important to explain why I personally enjoy Half-Life. Now, as you can see from Half-Lifes picture, hes fucked up. His body is at LEAST 50% (I know the name is Half-Life, but pictures from the comics make it seem like more than just half) a mess of acidic and chemical slime, as a result of some alien abduction bullshit that also killed his pregnant girlfriend. Dude got absolutely whacked by the bullshit stick in his lifetime, and that sucks. And aside from like, three NPCs weve met at this point in the campaign, Half-Lifes physical make-up isolates him from contact with other people, because a single touch could cause severe and disfiguring chemical burns.

Pepper, however, before this campaign began and we had any concept of what expect, was designed with a similar drawback. She was a pretty, young Christian girl who was big into chemistry and got caught up in a lab explosion while she was prepping some illicit substances for her side hustle. As such, she has metahuman abilities now, and her body can alter its chemistry to produce acidic fluids (blood, sweat, tears, etc.). So, when we first met Half-Life, it was very early on in the campaign, and Pepper is one of the most rookie members of the party (at BEST shes ninth out of ten when it comes to having, and understanding her powers). And for someone who was normal before her accident, her brand of powers is not great. She often worries about accidentally hurting people because she cant control herself, and has developed a nervous habit of constantly wiping her hands dry, just in case of acidic palm sweat.

These two characters met for the first time as we were attempting to flee a wave of scarab beetles that threatened to consume El Paso, and we had a party of five players and a limited number of motorcycles with which to make our escape (plus not everyone had the driving skill). So Pepper, perhaps overjoyed to have found someone who she could touch and who could touch her without fearing for anyones safety, wound up riding with Half-Life. And given that Half-Life is a 1950s greaser-style biker (perpetually kept young by his affliction), this created an interesting pairing as the aesthetic bad boy and the aesthetic good girl kinda recreated that classic dynamic from a lot of old school fiction.

This sort of relationship continued for quite some time, since the Convoy was a long storyline, and Half-Life filled a very prominent support role as both our teleportation contact, and as a scout to safeguard the convoy against external threats. Whenever we had situations that required Half-Life to join us, either in scouting or just traveling to a location to make first contact, Pepper would eagerly hop on the back of Half-Lifes bike, scoot in close, and hold on tight. And together, Pepper and Half-Life make for a solid combat duo, since Half-Life is really skilled at maneuvering his motorcycle, and Peppers got an array of ranged attacks she can execute (even beyond just spitting acid).

Needless to say, Pepper slowly began to grow close with Half-Life and generally liked going on Convoy missions specifically to hang out with him, on top of helping the save world and all. This all culminated with the final escape from South America, where the majority of the Convoys fighters and civilian population managed to avoid getting slaughtered by OMACs, and to celebrate their survival, Pepper and Half-Life finally shared a first kiss aboard their ship en route to Antarctica.