Anti-Claus

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Powers & Abilities

First and foremost Mick is a highly skilled cat burglar. He is able to break into highly secure areas and steal with near impunity. But while he’s certainly no slouch at B&E and other forms of thievery he is no where near a legendary world class thief as his alter ego’s reputation would suggest.

He is greatly aided by the Powers that The Light has bestowed upon him.

• His main ability to see into the future greatly aids him when on the job of “procuring” mystical artifacts (in DC Heroes RPG terms, Precognition).
• He can also remotely incapacitate or wound and distract anyone who might stand in his way while in the field (Voodoo).
• And finally his ability to rapidly heal from serious injuries makes him extremely difficult to kill and also hints that perhaps he is destined for something greater (Regeneration).

History

Mick was born on Christmas Day. His was a family of con artists that primarily made its money through seedy fortune telling scams. His family would routinely move from place to place. Then they would as much money as they could by reading tarot cards, gazing into their crystal balls, or any other means of “reading the signs” to extract cold hard cash from gullible marks.

Unlike the rest of his family he showed a keen and genuine interest in all things occult at a young age. By the time he hit puberty he started making actual accurate predictions. His cynical family was skeptical at first, but his predictions were able to at first keep them a step or two ahead of the police and other trouble.

Eventually, they were able to gain them a reputation as the sort of “real deal” fortune tellers that actually make television appearances.

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The previously shy bookish Mick then morphed into a sort of TV mentalist with a flair for the dramatic. This of course caused friction with his siblings as his parents gave him far more attention, respect, and gifts. They actually started to treat him more like an equal rather than an exploitable asset.

While he was never able to mend relations with his siblings they did know better than to bite their goose that lay golden eggs.

A little light in the dark

The family had taken some time for vacation in Oregon which coincided with Mick’s birthday. Leading up to the vacation Mick had been having some very strange dreams in which he was guided by a white light. In the months leading up to Christmas they became more and more clear.

Finally on Christmas Day Mick simply wandered out into the woods to pursue the mysterious white light that he had been chasing in his dreams. He wandered for what seemed like forever in the snow until he finally came upon a giant evergreen with a brilliant white light at its peak.

It was at this point that light explained to him that he hailed from a long line of mystics. These had since turned their backs upon their spiritual heritage in favor of earthly gains. He who was pure of heart would once again take up the mantle and safe guard the world from mystical threats by retrieving dangerous artifacts that had fallen into the wrong hands.

At this point Mick felt his entire being brim and glow with a warm light. The revelation made total sense to him. It was almost as if it were restoring a part of his soul that he never knew he had lost. Mick then returned to the cabin where his family had slept. He took all the money that he had earned and set out on his own to do as the light had instructed him.

What’s more he could now see into the future to better aid him with his mission.

Contingency Claus

Given the nature of his revelation and what the light had tasked him to do he fashioned a costume. He then set out to procure many dangerous artifacts that the light had spoken of.

Due to the nature of his revelation he chose to become the Anti Claus. It was a parody of Santa Claus who would break into residences and steal dangerous mystical items. His costume would reflect this by being a parody of the traditional Santa Claus outfit.

Since then he has traveled the world in order to do the light’s bidding. Often the items he is to acquire and hide are presented to him in dreams. But more recently cryptic letters with instructions have also been finding their way to him in the form of dead drops and such.

His family has of course tried to locate him with little success. While he does occasionally get recognized as a former TV magician/mentalist no one knows his true identity as the Anti Claus.

Description

Mick is a short and thin young man with an athletic build. While he isn’t considered conventionally good looking his face does have certain characteristics which are memorable namely that he has a sharp nose, prominent chin, and extremely dark brown eyes which have been described as bottomless pools that one could fall into.

He is always clean shaven and keeps his dark hair close cropped. He usually sports a pretty healthy tan as well.

Costume

His costume is a complete opposite land parody of the traditional Santa Clause costume. It’s a skin tight navy blue body suit with black fur trim. The traditional Santa’s sack is actually an ergonomic backpack.

He wear a vest over it and the belt and the rest of the suit actually has quite a few pockets where he keeps his various tools of the trade such as lock picks and other gear used for breaking and entering.

The hat is basically the same as Santa’s with the same color scheme as the rest of the costume. He wears a false black beard with steam punk style goggles to obscure his identity.

Contrary to conventional wisdom his boots are actually white polished leather with several glitter stones embedded in them. He wears these with the rest of his outfit as he feels it’s the only way to give his victims a “sporting chance.”

Personality

In many ways Mick is still very childish. He doesn’t fully realize that stealing is wrong. He never for a second even thought to question the mysterious white light that has been guiding him these last few years.

He sees himself as a sort of hero that brings joy to the world by hiding dangerous mystical items and by demoralizing evil doers out to harm people by stealing their stuff. In reality a lot his undertakings are suspect.

Generally his heists are carried out with a sort of precise professionalism that greatly emphasizes stealth and cunning. But if he is discovered (which is rare) he immediately switches to a very flamboyant sort of thief that is there to put on a show.

True to the nature of his theme he greatly enjoys making bad Christmas humor and puns. However, he doesn’t even finish or horribly mangles many of those. Furthermore, he has more than once been known to bust into some God awful hip-hop while on the job.

Winded by the Light

The Light that guides Mick is deliberately left open to interpretation. Whether the light is a benevolent or malevolent force or another third party manipulating Mick is best left up to the needs of the story.

The more recent mysterious letters and dead drops are also a bit suspicious and could be yet another individual or faction that has tricked him into doing their bidding.

Quotes

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Piss on you all and get out of my sight !”

“Dashing through the snow on a one… engine snowmobile… meh, I’ll come up with something later.”

“Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Everyone was sleeping even that louse,
I snuck in the house with oh so much,
What did you expect ? I’m robbing them bare !”

By Tom Eilers.

Source of Character: Christmas Contest 2016 (Homebrew).

Helper(s): Darci, Sébastien Andrivet.

Writeup completed on May 16^th, 2017