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Heroes Role Playing Game

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McKiernan, Roarke

The Linguist

Age 26

Location Belfast, Ireland, UK

Moral alignment Self-serving

Physical attributes Known to always be seen in winter attire, it is speculated that Roarke McKiernan suffers from thin blood and poor circulation. While he has no defining features or scars, he has remained virtually unchanged in his appearance for nearly three years now. Caucasian male, blond, with blue eyes. Lithe of stature and seemingly slight in build, many would not consider him to be of any threat. However, it is advised to exercise caution when dealing with Roarke as he is known to have left a trail of bodies in his wake when anyone gets in his way.

Powers Accelerated linguistics competence. Due to the rapid growth and prowess of the left side of his brain, specifically his Heschel's gyrus, Roarke is capable of learning new languages in a short, and sometimes almost instantaneous, amount of time. The process is similar to that of the Rosetta Stone, wherein a language is comprised of various patterns and has it's own specific code. Upon cracking that code, the possibilities are endless.Though his powers are seemingly non-threatening, they have allowed Roarke to access government secrets from foreign nations which make him just as deadly as any terrorist. While it's unclear as to how far his power can extend, Roarke is currently trying to accelerate his ability by learning binary coding, sign language and is even branching out into ciphers and encryptions.

Past To understand Roarke, it is important to know where he came from. And not just where he spent a majority of his childhood, but the family he lived with. Born to Joshua and Molly McKiernan, a young couple just starting out, Roarke spent most of his life in poverty. His parents were quick to fall in love and even quicker to fall out of it and the stress of not having money kept the family tension high. His father was a devout Catholic and his mother a budding Protestant which caused some undue stress when it came to which religion Roarke would be brought into. Though they ultimately agreed that Roarke would join the Catholic church, he remained uninterested in a god who wasn't there and focused more intently on his studies. The McKiernan family moved frequently, a direct result of outrunning debt collectors, and despite the many schools Roarke was transferred into, he remained at the head of his class. His outstanding performance got him noticed by several scholarship foundations and by the time he was sixteen, he'd secured his spot at Oxford University and had the first two years of his college paid for in grants. If there was anything he learned from his family it was the burden of money and how it only seemed to affect those who didn't have it. His unyielding drive for success had him independent shortly after completing school and the second he stepped foot onto the Oxford campus to study ethology, he came out to his parents as a closeted Atheist. Alarmed by their son's blasphemy, the McKiernans shut their door to their firstborn and never looked back. Neither did Roarke and he went on to earn his bachelors degree in Biology, primarily focusing on Darwinism and its direct correlation to ethology.

During his final years of college and halfway into his masters program, he encountered a stunning discovery about himself. When his power first surfaced, it was something new and fascinating to Roarke, something he brought up to his fellow classmate, Laura Richie, who took an equal interest in his new ability to learn new, foreign languages. This gift however led to a horrifying accident as Roarke stumbled across plans of an assassination attempt for a UN leader. The conspirators took note of his discovery and confronted him. While Roarke pleaded ignorance, it seemed as though the terrorists weren't convinced. The scuffle resulted in Roarke's current inability to speak after waking up days later in a hospital bed. Though the doctors were not able to pinpoint the reason behind the loss of his voice, some small part of him believed it to be linked to the new mutation found in the human genome that he and Laura had been studying.

The handicap of being unable to speak seemed to dampen the effect of his ability considerably and though he could understand every language that he came across, he could not translate it verbally. This frustrated Roarke to a large extent, so much so that he became obsessed with finding a way to reverse the symptoms of his muteness. In his efforts he stumbled across a man named Ronnie Goodman, a man with enough wealth to make Roarke just the slightest bit more ambitious than he already was. Ronnie's curiosity over Roarke's ability led to him eventually hiring the man to come work for him. At first, Roarke was limited to strictly translating ancient parchments and manuscripts, however as his brain began to accelerate and foreign languages became as fluent to him as English, Ronnie decided that it was time to up the ante.

His first job was in Iceland located in a small facility just outside of Reykjavik. There he was able to infiltrate their base as an undercover agent. It seemed as if the mutated gene in his own body was something similar to the DNA the intelligence group was studying. All the information they had on the subject was stolen, his ability easily allowing him to navigate through their database. What was left of their research was destroyed and in his escape, he killed his first man. Justifying it as a necessity to survive, Roarke pushed the murder aside and returned to Goodman with promising information. Every mission after that was equally successful and the causalities became more common and with each one Roarke grew a little more indifferent towards taking a human life.

Present
With such a success in his reconnaissance and sabotage, Roarke is well known for his skill and ability to get a job done. This has led him to multiple clandestine jobs aside from those that Goodman assigns.

Last stationed: Riverside, California, US. Mission status: Complete. Casualties: One; Sgt. Colin Gryffth
Objective: To obtain the research of a small genetics group which is speculated to have information on cloning the mutated gene sequence found in the newly dubbed "meta-humans". Egypt is paying handsomely for the information, but no doubt Roarke will only give them the bare essentials like he's done for many other countries before this. The core of the data he retrieves is always kept for himself and Goodman so that they can continue their own research in an attempt to recreate the mutated gene from scratch. For him it isn't considered as greed, but merely tactics. If they have the heart of the information, it makes for little competition down the road. It is also significant to note that while on the mission, Roarke encountered his first meta-human aside from himself: Sgt. Colin Gryffth who has the ability to ressurect himself twenty-four hours after death. Though unable to make a connection to Gryffth and his mission, Roarke disposed of the man for the time being so as to buy himself time to get out of the country.

Currently stationed: Belfast, Ireland, UK. Mission status: Pending. Casualties: None so far.
Objective: Now with a good chunk of research developing in their favor towards recreating the genetic sequence found in meta-humans, Roarke and Goodman are doubling their work efforts tenfold in order to crack the X-agent found in the DNA of anomalistic abilities seen in those with the mutated gene. Though their data is flawless and systems up-to-date, with Roarke distracted by the newly fueled desire to find someone who can heal his damaged vocal chords, it is straining their prowess significantly. If they plan on excelling in their field, Roarke will need to surpress this urge or find a way to make it happen.

Future It's unclear as to what exactly Goodman has in store for the research they're gathering, however Roarke has a very specific plan up his sleeve. It is his vision to recreate the mutated gene and clone it until it is merely a control in which variables, such as a variety of different abilities, can be applied to it. Roarke plans on marketing these abilities to anyone willing to pay a steep fee. Of course the most dangerous and powerful abilities will be kept for himself, but again, it's not greed. . .merely precaution.

	Latest page update: made by Anonymous , Jul 22 2009, 1:37 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited anonymously view changes - complete history)
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