Masquerade

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## Personality/Mentality

In general, Arthur is rather chaotic and treats everything as a performance. He is extremely destructive, and his history of arson is enough to classify him as a villain. He suffers from Frontotemporal Dementia and Psychosis which has shattered his former personality, leaving him without any resemblance to his past. He may also suffer from other mental diseases, but these are the most prevalent.

Total Retrograde Amnesia - Arthur completely forgot all experiences before waking up in his secret lair. He still keeps his skills and habits, and various emotional triggers may give him brief flashbacks. He also subconsciously many songs, speeches, plays, dances, and parts of books that he studied in the past. This means he can act the plays or perform the dances naturally but he can’t actually remember the exact moves without doing it.

Frontotemporal Dementia - A form of dementia rare in those as young as Arthur, but somehow gained through the mysterious conditions of his past.

-It is difficult for Masque to talk normally, often replacing nouns with words like “thing” or “it”, or, in his unusual case, replacing words, phrases, or entire speeches with theatric quotes from plays, songs, movies, etc. he has memorized, often only vaguely relevant. Although he was a theatric genius in the past, he keeps some of the lingo but has lost much of his quality.

-Dementia also gave Masque a constant state of apathy. He never sees things in the long term anymore, almost everything he does is on impulse. This gives him the hedonistic part of his personality and also makes him rather unpredictable.

-While not a sociopath, Arthur has reduced empathy for others. To fill in this gap, he analyzes others as he would analyze a fictional character. Everything someone does must be for a reason, and this makes him very awkward in social interactions. He understands emotions only as they are displayed in theatre or on screen.

-In general, Arthur just doesn’t understand morality. He judges his own and others actions based on how they affect the “plot”, not on any moral grounds. He, however, won’t take another’s life without very good reason.

-Frontotemporal Dementia often comes with an obsession, somewhat similar to OCD. For Masque, that obsession is theater. He sees everything as a stage, and imperfections in the frame bother him. In addition, he’s obsessed with the number 4.

Psychosis - A common mental disease known for its hallucinations and delusions. Arthur suffers from a form of this.

-While delusional hardly means anything to someone as mentally disturbed as Masque, when playing a character in one of his “performances”, sometimes he will completely lose sight of reality and actually believe he is someone else temporarily. When this happens, he will also experience hallucinations to accompany the character, normally the character’s greatest challenge in the work of fiction (When playing Juliet, he will hallucinate Romeo. When playing the narrator of “The Raven”, he will often actually hallucinate a raven talking to him.) In conjunction with his impulsive nature and compulsive obsession from Frontotemporal dementia, he will often start playing a character to put on a show in front of someone, and a few minutes later he’ll actually BE the character.

-Psychosis also comes with general confusion and disturbed thoughts, even when not hallucinating. Arthur will frequently lose his train of thought mid-sentence and will switch to another idea. When reciting a speech from Romeo and Juliet he might switch halfway through to reciting The Raven.

## Backstory

Artura Wick was once a young prodigy known for her skill as a master of nearly all theatrical performances. Although only 21, she had already gained a large fanbase across the world. She was a serious workaholic and traveled the world for her performances, and was included in some cinematic pieces too. She lives a rather prestigious life, and it seemed like her life was destined for becoming a celebrity. However, Artura wasn’t even a real person.

It was Arthur. Arthur grew up in Northern England as a rather normal kid, but part of a small family. Arthur only ever knew 5 members of his family including his sibling and late grandfather, and all questions involving the rest of his family were generally brushed off. Arthur never knew his origins. For some reason, the topic of family was never brought up.

Arthur had developed a rather feminine body early on in his life, and suffered for it. While it may be silly to take teasing in elementary school seriously, it anguished Arthur. In 5th grade, he started dressing up as a girl out of frustration. This only increased the teasing, however, that would soon come to an end. For business reasons, his family moved to the US. Arthur entered the first day of school as a girl, and, to his surprise, no one could tell his real gender. From that point on, after significant discussion between the school staff and his parents, Arthur took on the identity of Artura.

Artura’s normal reclusive and hostile nature seemed to completely flip. She started enjoying being the center of attention. She became popular quickly in middle school. She became the student president and was soon a local celebrity. In 7th grade, she was introduced to her first theater class. She seemed to grasp the subject instantly, falling in love with the roleplay. Her teachers all called her performances stunning, and she participated in city opera performances as young as 12. From that point on, she continued to pursue everything involving theatre.

As she entered college, taking theater major, of course, only her family and various trusted people, including some former teachers from middle school, doctors, and government workers, knew about her true identity. They agreed to hide this fact from the world, as Artura was gaining popularity rapidly. There was a small coalition of people using their quirks to help prevent the leaking of information. It wasn’t known how it would affect her career if the secret got out, and that secret was guarded zealously.

Artura lived a prestigious life, gaining a following all across the world. She was also considered rather mysterious. Her family, academic history, etc. was kept hidden from the public, causing some people to form conspiracy theories about her. It didn’t bother her, after all, being mysterious couldn’t hurt a theater career. For a while, she was happy.

That all ended in one tragic hour. However, not in the way everyone feared. While flying over the US for a performance in New York, her shuttle’s engine overheated and detonated for unknown reasons. The plane had gone off the radar prior, causing people to think it was sabotage of some sort. The crash site wasn’t normal either. It was in a desert area, far from civilization, and when the recovery crew arrived, they had to call it off due to excessive radiation coming from the site. It’s unknown what caused the radiation, but it’s almost certainly a quirk of some sort. When they finally got the crash site through the use of various quirks, no bodies were reported found.

n reality, an unnamed villainous organization with unknown intents had captured Arthur and brought him to Acropolis. They had no relation to the plane crash but showed up before the search party when the bodies were still there. His body was in bad condition, and he suffered permanent brain damage as well as quirk mutation due to radiation. They had him stationed in a well hidden underground crypt in the slums. He was in a coma for 2 months, but the organization treated him well. It seemed his captors treated him as their son. His room was supplied with all sorts of props relating to music, theater, literature, and the arts. However, before he woke up, the people taking care of him had been killed in action in a skirmish with another gang.

When Arthur woke up, his memories had been gone, and he was alone in a place he didn’t know. The world still has some memory of Artura, but the world has yet to link Masquerade to Artura, or Arthur for that matter. His backstory remains untold.

His altered mental condition causes him to be a dangerous individual belonging in an asylum, but his previous habits have lasted.

He now exists as a mysterious villain with hedonistic, compulsive, destructive, and flashy habits. His existence perplexes others just as much as it perplexes him.

## Resources

Despite being completely insane, Arthur Wick has more money in a pile than the average worker makes in a lifetime. He has a well-hidden and well-kept hideout in the darkest parts of the slums hidden in a secret door that leads to a staircase and eventually his lair.

## Equipment/Weaponry

An oil lamp. Has various stage props, costumes, disguises, and instruments at his base. He also has cans of gasoline and some small Molotov cocktails that wouldn’t work as a weapon save for his quirk.

## Specializations

Arthur Wick was an extremely intelligent child prodigy that seemed to be bound for success before tragedy struck him. This lasts through the amnesia. He is a good actor, a master of disguise, a good singer, dancer, magician, and musician, but only when acting on impulse.

## Quirk

### Type

Emitter.

**Flame Overload.**

By stalling and amplifying a point of flame, Masque can cause a flame to detonate with great power. To do this, he must first link himself by touching the flame, touching the fuel, or creating the flame himself. The fire he sets himself he can freely sense and use his quirk on. He then charges the fire, accompanied by a loud sizzling noise, for 4 seconds before the actual explosion.

The explosion’s radius is inversely proportional to the power of the explosion, meaning the bigger the explosion is, the less power it has. His maximum explosion radius is 2 meters, which will spread weak fire and be flashy but does 0

kN of force. A 0 meter blast radius would be 20 kN of force, but would, of course, only affect the point at which the fire was at. A 1 meter explosion would be 10 kN of force. Regardless of force, the fire created is 400° Celsius. Between explosions, he has a 1 turn cooldown.

Masque is immune to fire he sets himself and to the explosions caused by his quirk. The force, flame, and heat moves 1 inch away from his body, so he remains clothed.

### Weakness

After 4 consecutive uses of his quirk, his mind goes haywire and he must wait 4 turns before using his quirk again. In addition, during this cooldown, his psychosis kicks in and he babbles meaninglessly (normally reciting some playwright or poem), only able to run away and not physically attack anyone for 2 turns.

If the fire he charges up is snuffed out before he releases it, the explosion is subverted and he must wait for 2 turns before using his quirk again.