Santiago Gutierrez

## ♤Physical Appearance

Tigo is much the same as any number of Southern California surfers/ skaters, both in his relatively muscular build and his incredibly tanned skin. Standing at a decent 5’9, he seems to blend into a crowd of locals. Of course, that suits him just fine. He prefers to be one with the crowd, it makes his life easier. He makes an exception for his hair, which he carefully maintains himself. He likes the way his locs make maintenance of his curly hair easier, and the shaved bottom keeps his already voluminous hair from being too difficult to manage. When he’s feeling particularly frisky, he even shaves some designs into the lower half of his head, usually basic lines. Unlike most dark- skinned mexican boys, he was lucky to be blessed with a set of golden- brown eyes, which almost turn into liquid gold when the sun hits them just right. To combat this uniqueness, he’s seen wearing sunglasses most often while he’s out and about. For his daily wear, it’s a lot of beanies or snapbacks and basic tees, with relaxed fit jeans and some of his beat up sneaks. He often either has a set of earbuds peeking out from the collar of his shirt, or else he has a pair of earphones casually worn around his neck. One of his favorite colors to wear is red, since he feels it just makes him look a little better. He can usually be seen wearing a ratty- looking backpack and carrying one of his boards, or else in his beater car cruising the strip or making the long drive back to his favorite California beaches.

## ♤Personality

Tigo initially comes across as an incredibly laid- back individual, with a deep voice that never really comes above his ‘inside voice’. He has a tendency to mumble if he’s not paying attention, and he only has two conversational modes: silent, or rambling. He’s the type slump down in his seat in class or stare out the window, and has even been caught nodding off at his desk at one point or another. However, this is not a sign of a less intelligent individual, as multiple teachers have learned when trying to ‘catch him out’ and stump him with a question. He just gets incredibly bored when he’s sitting still, whether in be in class or just lazing about in the dorms. Once he’s outside and able to work with his body and his hands, he becomes a much more attentive, almost excitable individual. He still retains his generally soft- spoken ways, but he becomes more animated, and tends to begin talking with his hands once sufficiently hyped.

This is where the true Tigo shines through- a smug, sarcastic, but still incredibly likeable individual, with a heart almost as big as his brain. He’s a shameless flirt, a bit of a amateur bad boy, and happy to laugh and share lewd jokes with the proper group of friends. He fully endorses the “stoner science” brand of Macgyvering, and has been known to use said science for his own nefarious purposes. A bit of a prankster, and while he has been known to take it a touch too far on more than one occasion, he’s immediately back again with an offering of apology food and one of his trademark puppy dog pouts. When it comes to his friends, there are very few things he won’t do in order to help out. It was this helpful nature that lead to him learning most of his hobbies, since they all began as favors to his homies back in Cali. He’s happy to follow in the lead of others, but able to take the lead if absolutely necessary. He can easily adapt himself to most any casual situation, though being in rich, classy places make him feel incredibly nervous.  Overall, he’s a bit of a goof, a ride or die that enjoys the quiet evenings staring at the stars just as much as planning a theoretical bank heist or the next big prank.

### ♤Speech Pattern

Deep and low, with a changing pace depending on how excited he is. He has a tendency to mumble. Despite appearances, he doesn’t know much Spanish, since his grandmother wanted all her children and grandchildren to be ‘true and proper Americans.’

## ♤Quirk

He can take two objects of the same or similar mass and switch them, if they're already linked. He can only link two objects together, and if one object already has a link, it cannot have another one. He most easily forms links with metal and porcelain. He forms his links by touching both objects at the same time, and the links can stay active for up to 24 hours. His upper limit is the amount of weight he can comfortably carry, doubled. He can carry up to 135 lbs comfortably, or 150 with some strain. The quirk feeds off of his muscular endurance, so the longer he goes with the links, the more tired he becomes, like if he was carrying the weight.

## ♤Costume

His costume as of now is pretty basic, since he's not one for gaudy clothing. His costume base is a set of cargo pants tucked into a pair of durable boots, a grey or black moisture- wick shirt with his red swap logo on the chest, and a weight vest on top of that. He usually carries metal plates of various weights in the weight vest, but on extra special occasions he also has some gauntlets that have removable metal plates too. His weight vest has one big red plate sewn into the back, which is connected to a massive first aid bag. His load out varies the amount of pouches and holsters on his costume, since those swapped weapons and equipments have to go somewhere once he has them.

### ♤Assets

♦ Item One a-z: Various metal and porcelain plates of different dimensions and masses, of various shapes and colors. His main plates are metal, mostly black with one red plate and one blue plate.

♦Item Two: one 50lb big red first aid bag. It's packed to the brim with every emergent medical supply you can think of, along with a small pouch of medications (OTC).

♦Item Three a-h: Assorted weapons, including a few small- caliber handguns, sandbag shotgun, knives, and blunt beat sticks

♦Item Four a-d: A grappling hook/ rope, a foldable shovel (E-Tool), a multi- tool, and a firestarter.

♦Item Five: Whatever small objects his team needs him to bring.

## ♤Background

### ♤History

Santiago Gutierrez’s life began bright and early in a small Pomonal hospital in Southern California, across town from where his mother called home. Those early few days were the quietest he'd ever experience in his life, and he was too young to appreciate them! You see, like a lot of other hardcore old school Buelas, Señora Martá Guadalupe Gutierrez insisted she have her family close at hand, so she could properly take care of all her brood. You see, it was a goal of Marta’s to have her entire family living in one giant villa, and eventually owned six houses, either directly or through her children or in- laws. Every new property she bought had the dividing walls torn down, the shared backyard ended up being massive. It was here where Tigo grew up, knowing only noise and ruckus. He liked having all his cousins and siblings close at hand, since that meant there was always something to do, some game to play, some story to hear, or some food to eat. His young life was filled with laughter, especially once the kids really started getting used to their quirks.

Tigo especially loved how he could impress his younger cousins and siblings with his quirk, and frequently performed magic shows for the younger kids. His favorite thing to do with his quirk early on was steal Buela’s food as she was cooking, especially since children who wandered into the kitchen during preparation time either got saddled into working, or else were met with whatever was close at hand that could be thrown or swung. Often, it was small things like the fresh bacon, or boleos, but one memorable day Tigo managed to swindle an entire flan from the fridge, and became a one- day legend to his assembled relations. This was Buela’s last straw though, and he ended up being tasked out to help out in the kitchen as punishment for his childhood thefts. He ended up not minding in the long run, as it jump- started a fascination with cooking, and a love of creating delicious things out of many little parts. Especially since he was always rewarded for his help by getting first dibs, and being able to lick the bowls and utensils clean before they were washed.

As he got older, he was tasked with more and more responsibility, especially since the adults were outnumbered by the children, and working most of the day anyway. While he knew that it was out of necessity, it didn’t stop him from resisting every new task he was given in an effort to preserve his sense of freedom. He ended up rebelling and hanging out with a crowd of rowdy neighborhood troublemakers, and counting them as his extended family. He grew especially close to a kid a little down the street from him, named Miguel Hernandez. The two were quickly inseparable, with Miguel being the more outspoken leader of their friend group, and Santiago happy being his main supporting man. They ended up being known as Migo and Tigo, and to see one without the other was rare. Together, they lead their friend group on adventures around the neighborhood, the pack of boys only really coming back home late at night, well after the streetlights came on. The world was their playground, and they spent those long summer days playing soccer or basketball or football in the street, practicing their parkour in the local playground, begging Tigo’s older cousins to take them down to the beach and teach them surfing, and taking over one of the boy’s houses for movie nights. At least, all the houses except for Tigo and Migo’s. Tigo’s house was simply too packed and loud to let the boys gather comfortably, and Migo’s was too small to hold all the boys.

Of course, like most young street teens, they also ended up challenging each other to snatching things from the local stores and mall. Most of those early scores were just candy and other snack foods, or else small toys from the quarter machines. Tigo, or course, was the best at nicking stuff, and would regularly help the others. This string of petty theft came to an end during the 5th grade, after Migo approached him and begged for help boosting a game system. Migo’s mom was short on rent, and he wanted the game system so he could sell it and help her out a little bit. Tigo, of course, complied with his friend’s request, and they set out to find an object that would be heavy enough to get the job done. After finding an appropriate- sized brick, they dressed in big hoodies and marched into the closest big- box store with barely a plan aside from ‘touch and run,’ like they usually did. However, Tigo didn’t expect the alarm on the box to go off after it had left the store, and the boys panicked. Fearing for his friend, Tigo quickly made a new link between the brick and the gaming station and told Miguel to run back home before sprinting away, hoping he would be the only one in trouble for the theft. Of course, Tigo ended up caught, but still managed to send the gaming system to his friend before they took it away. Unfortunately, that action served to link him to a few of their earlier thefts, and he ended up having to serve some time in Juvenile Detention.

He hates everything about those few months of his life, though it ended up putting things into perspective for him. Once he was released, finally realized the toll his actions took at home. The other kids his age weren’t able to wrangle the younger ones as well as he was, which had caused a lot of stress among the adults in the family. Not only that, but his mother had been worried sick about him for the entire time he was running the streets, and his younger brothers were beginning to follow his example. His Buela had been the most affected, as he was one of her favorite grandchildren, and his backsliding and incarceration had really worn on her. Ashamed at the pain he’d caused, he pulled away from the pack of boys he ran with and focused strictly on helping out as much as he could at home. He spent the next three years helping out as much as he could, focusing on his studies, taking extra classes on heroism, and volunteering as much as he could so he could get into a good Hero School and make his family proud. He hopes his glowing example will be able to pull his younger family members away from their backsliding ways, and maybe even inspire others. If he could do it, he was sure others could too.