Alex Mercer is, and always has been, cold. His initial instinct when meeting someone new is to be at least somewhat suspicious of their motives; a childhood spent in foster care, as well as several recent weeks of being hunted like a dangerous wild animal, almost losing his sister, discovering the unpleasant nature of his affliction, and betrayal have taught him that anyone, absolutely anyone, might turn around and stab you in the back for their own gain.
However, this isn’t to say that he shuns all human contact. There is no one he cares for more than his little sister (even going so far as to risk his life tracking the monster that kidnapped her). There were three others he trusted as well: his ex-girlfriend Karen Parker (who later betrayed him and nearly got him killed), a doctor by the name of Dr. Ragland who’d been given the blessing of his sister (who saved his and his sister’s lives) and a Blackwatch agent named Robert Cross who’d turned to him in an effort to both take down Blackwatch and to end the Blacklight plague (this, unfortunately, did not end well, but not through any fault of the agent). Thus, although Alex is typically at least somewhat paranoid, once someone has earned his trust he can be an invaluable ally.
A combination of Alex’s amnesia (and re-discovery of his identity/history), his epiphany of the true nature of his condition, the actions he’d been forced to take in order to survive and the get his revenge, and the memories of the hundreds of people and creatures he’d been forced to consume has given him something of an identity crisis. On the one hand, he does have a very strong moral compass as evidenced by his disgust with Blackwatch’s actions and his own actions from before he became infected with Blacklight, as well as some reluctance to reveal how he was getting top-secret information to his sister. On the other, he is a predator in a very literal sense, and is reminded of his actions by the final memories of his victims every time he closes his eyes. Compounding this is the fact that he isn’t exactly human, and has capabilities far beyond that of both humans and machines. This has left him with the dilemma of either trying to fit into society again despite knowing all too well just how flawed all human beings really are and having to constantly keep himself in check; or embracing his new, more violent nature to alter the world to better fit his own ideals even though this would result in the extinction of the human species.
Finally, Alex is gifted in a number of fields thanks to the memories he’s acquired from his many victims. He is an expert in genetics, possessing the memories of many of the field’s best and brightest, and has extensive knowledge in US military doctrine, techniques, and equipment.
Abilities/Powers:
- Shape-shifting (primarily to turn his body into a weapon or to take on the physical appearance of another person) -Extreme physical strength (“cutting through tanks” strong) -Infrared vision, instant healing (only if he’s well-fed; making new, healthy tissue costs energy and mass) -Extreme durability (via instant healing) -Enhanced speed and jumping -The ability to consume living organisms in order to add to his mass and to absorb their memories (the latter only works if the brain is intact).
Essentially, he’s about the greatest security threat ever; he can steal an employee’s identity and memories to slip right through even a heavily guarded entrance, or he could just tear his way through the door. There’s also the possibility that he’s fire-proof, although the lack of fire damage in-game could have simply been a pragmatic choice to prevent near-constant fire damage during fights and can thus be cut from role-playing. The nature of the Blacklight virus means that he has a natural aversion to water, as evidenced by his tendency to leap high into the air to try to escape it if he becomes submerged rather than simply swimming to dry land.
It is important to note that Alex is not immortal; he was infected with a parasite that undoubtedly would have eventually killed him, and Blackwatch did manage to create a gas that would have killed him as well with enough exposure. Conventional weapons do not seem to be able to kill him, but they can weaken him to the point of being completely unable to defend himself (he can survive a nuclear blast, but reconstructing himself from puddles of goo took some time and some additional biomass from at least one unlucky crow.)
Sample Entry One:
[Alex scrutinizes the phone for several minutes, turning it over in his hands as he considers it and his situation. Alright. So, he has no idea where he is, how he got here, or why he’s here. Just a room and a phone. Still...at least it’s better than the morgue with two scientists in haz-mat suits about to cut into you. He punches in a random number; he’s not expecting it to really do anything, but his choices aren’t exactly varied. Either use the phone or take to the streets; at least the phone is at hand.]
Hello...? Is anyone there?
[Probably not, but it’s worth a shot; he waits for a moment, then starts to put it away when he hears something on the other end.]
Sample Entry Two:
[Alex sits on the roof, watching as the lights in the city around him turn on in the overcast twilight; not as many lights as there used to be. Not enough to turn the city into a brighter imitation of the night sky. At least there are more than there would be otherwise; it’s a small comfort, but with the quarantine still in effect, well...you take what you can get. The screams had mostly died down, too. It was strange to think that someday, the infection would just be a memory, just another catastrophe in New York’s long history of tragedies. Likely the worst, yes, but eventually it would just be a bad dream.
Would they learn anything from it? Would they learn not to take everything they hear at face value, or would they ignore the evidence of the past several weeks and continue to believe that the government had stepped in to save them, that the man on the news was an indiscriminate killer?
Something small hits him between the shoulders, like a small bullet; he cringes, then shakes his head and regains his composure. Right. Focus. There’s someone he missed, one of the few surviving Gentek scientists who’d escaped both the purge and his wrath. The others remembered her hiding here, just outside a former red zone. He can see her apartment; assuming she hasn’t altered her routine, she should be out any mo-
--Another small impact. He attempts to shake it off, then notices a dark spot on the cement beside him. And another. And another. Within a minute, the drizzle turns into a downpour, pounding against him, forcing him to leap from the roof to seek shelter from the onslaught. She can wait until the storm has passed; it’s not like she can get off the island, anyway.]
Alex Mercer | [Prototype] | No Reservation
Contact info: maskdt_one (AIM)
Other Characters: none
Preferred Apartment: none
Character Name: Alex Mercer
Canon: [Protoype]
Canon Point: Just after the end of the first game
Background/ History: http://prototype.wikia.com/wiki/Alex_Mercer
Personality:
Alex Mercer is, and always has been, cold. His initial instinct when meeting someone new is to be at least somewhat suspicious of their motives; a childhood spent in foster care, as well as several recent weeks of being hunted like a dangerous wild animal, almost losing his sister, discovering the unpleasant nature of his affliction, and betrayal have taught him that anyone, absolutely anyone, might turn around and stab you in the back for their own gain.
However, this isn’t to say that he shuns all human contact. There is no one he cares for more than his little sister (even going so far as to risk his life tracking the monster that kidnapped her). There were three others he trusted as well: his ex-girlfriend Karen Parker (who later betrayed him and nearly got him killed), a doctor by the name of Dr. Ragland who’d been given the blessing of his sister (who saved his and his sister’s lives) and a Blackwatch agent named Robert Cross who’d turned to him in an effort to both take down Blackwatch and to end the Blacklight plague (this, unfortunately, did not end well, but not through any fault of the agent). Thus, although Alex is typically at least somewhat paranoid, once someone has earned his trust he can be an invaluable ally.
A combination of Alex’s amnesia (and re-discovery of his identity/history), his epiphany of the true nature of his condition, the actions he’d been forced to take in order to survive and the get his revenge, and the memories of the hundreds of people and creatures he’d been forced to consume has given him something of an identity crisis. On the one hand, he does have a very strong moral compass as evidenced by his disgust with Blackwatch’s actions and his own actions from before he became infected with Blacklight, as well as some reluctance to reveal how he was getting top-secret information to his sister. On the other, he is a predator in a very literal sense, and is reminded of his actions by the final memories of his victims every time he closes his eyes. Compounding this is the fact that he isn’t exactly human, and has capabilities far beyond that of both humans and machines. This has left him with the dilemma of either trying to fit into society again despite knowing all too well just how flawed all human beings really are and having to constantly keep himself in check; or embracing his new, more violent nature to alter the world to better fit his own ideals even though this would result in the extinction of the human species.
Finally, Alex is gifted in a number of fields thanks to the memories he’s acquired from his many victims. He is an expert in genetics, possessing the memories of many of the field’s best and brightest, and has extensive knowledge in US military doctrine, techniques, and equipment.
Abilities/Powers:
- Shape-shifting (primarily to turn his body into a weapon or to take on the physical appearance of another person)
-Extreme physical strength (“cutting through tanks” strong)
-Infrared vision, instant healing (only if he’s well-fed; making new, healthy tissue costs energy and mass)
-Extreme durability (via instant healing)
-Enhanced speed and jumping
-The ability to consume living organisms in order to add to his mass and to absorb their memories (the latter only works if the brain is intact).
Essentially, he’s about the greatest security threat ever; he can steal an employee’s identity and memories to slip right through even a heavily guarded entrance, or he could just tear his way through the door. There’s also the possibility that he’s fire-proof, although the lack of fire damage in-game could have simply been a pragmatic choice to prevent near-constant fire damage during fights and can thus be cut from role-playing. The nature of the Blacklight virus means that he has a natural aversion to water, as evidenced by his tendency to leap high into the air to try to escape it if he becomes submerged rather than simply swimming to dry land.
It is important to note that Alex is not immortal; he was infected with a parasite that undoubtedly would have eventually killed him, and Blackwatch did manage to create a gas that would have killed him as well with enough exposure. Conventional weapons do not seem to be able to kill him, but they can weaken him to the point of being completely unable to defend himself (he can survive a nuclear blast, but reconstructing himself from puddles of goo took some time and some additional biomass from at least one unlucky crow.)
Sample Entry One:
[Alex scrutinizes the phone for several minutes, turning it over in his hands as he considers it and his situation. Alright. So, he has no idea where he is, how he got here, or why he’s here. Just a room and a phone. Still...at least it’s better than the morgue with two scientists in haz-mat suits about to cut into you. He punches in a random number; he’s not expecting it to really do anything, but his choices aren’t exactly varied. Either use the phone or take to the streets; at least the phone is at hand.]
Hello...? Is anyone there?
[Probably not, but it’s worth a shot; he waits for a moment, then starts to put it away when he hears something on the other end.]
Sample Entry Two:
[Alex sits on the roof, watching as the lights in the city around him turn on in the overcast twilight; not as many lights as there used to be. Not enough to turn the city into a brighter imitation of the night sky. At least there are more than there would be otherwise; it’s a small comfort, but with the quarantine still in effect, well...you take what you can get. The screams had mostly died down, too. It was strange to think that someday, the infection would just be a memory, just another catastrophe in New York’s long history of tragedies. Likely the worst, yes, but eventually it would just be a bad dream.
Would they learn anything from it? Would they learn not to take everything they hear at face value, or would they ignore the evidence of the past several weeks and continue to believe that the government had stepped in to save them, that the man on the news was an indiscriminate killer?
Something small hits him between the shoulders, like a small bullet; he cringes, then shakes his head and regains his composure. Right. Focus. There’s someone he missed, one of the few surviving Gentek scientists who’d escaped both the purge and his wrath. The others remembered her hiding here, just outside a former red zone. He can see her apartment; assuming she hasn’t altered her routine, she should be out any mo-
--Another small impact. He attempts to shake it off, then notices a dark spot on the cement beside him. And another. And another. Within a minute, the drizzle turns into a downpour, pounding against him, forcing him to leap from the roof to seek shelter from the onslaught. She can wait until the storm has passed; it’s not like she can get off the island, anyway.]