This is Bette Bellwether, of the Liberty Group.

Concept and Art: Thom Chiaramonte
Abilities and Origin: Thom Chiaramonte

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Bette Bellwether

Name: Bethany Brook
Affiliation: Liberty Group

Melee: 20
Reflex: 30
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 10
Acumen: 30
Observation: 10
Will: 30

Life: 80
Influence: 70

Abilities:

Force Field: Bellwether’s chestplate hides a low-frequency vibration modulator, which dynamically adjusts the harmonic frequency of physical impacts. This, combined with the armor’s natural physical protection, allows her to deflect most strikes with considerable success, making them appear to glance off of her body with little or no effect. In all but direct hits (Orange Attacks) the damage inflicted in physical attacks is halved. Her armor does not carry it’s own body armor value, and any damage is applied directly to her Life. If she takes more than 75% of her current Life in damage in a single attack, the modulator will malfunction and will require repair in order to restore this functionality.

Suggestion: Bellwether’s abilities are latent, not a product of enchanted objects, as advertised. She harbors a powerful suggestion ability [50 IV] which is normally utilized in close, personal contact, affecting individuals one-on-one. They must make a Will Action vs. her Power’s Intensity Value or become strongly susceptible to her manipulation: sexual, intellectual or emotional. Her instruments were developed to help her channel her suggestive capabilities, which travel with her voice, into an aural-based area-effect weapon. There is nothing significant about these specific instruments that allows her to use them effectively, other than extensive training. She could theoretically use any non-electronic sound-projection tool to accomplish similar, if less acute, results. It should be noted that Bellwether’s abilities have no effect if electronically recorded or amplified.

Flute of Freedom: this is an ordinary flute, gold-plated, through which Bellwether channels her latent abilities. When using this medium, they manifest similar to an area-effect pheromone attack, requiring all within earshot to make a Red Will Action or be susceptible to her suggestion. Troops will follow her into harms way (but will not act irrationally at their own peril) associates will favor her suggestions and advice artificially, and hostile or agitated crowds will be calmed considerably, undermining the natural tendency towards mob mentality behavior.

Horn of Heroes: Again, an ordinary ceremonial horn, through which Bellwether channels her latent abilities. When using this medium, they manifest as negative reinforcement and anxiety inducement in targets in aural range, and facing the direction of her attack. Targets must make a Red Will Action or be routed for 1-10 turns, making every effort to flee or escape aural range of the instrument.

Origin:

Bette Bellweather was the first member of the Liberty Group, the U.S. government-endorsed posthuman team, to be leveraged as a solo entity in a marketing initiative intended to foster goodwill and national support for the posthuman program in a startled but gradually obsessive populace. Her persona was used extensively in nationalist propaganda, at home and abroad, as a beautiful, charming, driven and idealistic symbol of the American dream, with emphasis on her costumed identity’s imagery of exploration and inspirational historical references. She wielded two seemingly non-threatening tools, a flute and a horn, each with enchanted properties (the flute, when played, allowed her to rally the spirits of her teammates and civilians, boosting morale and encouraging them to follow her lead in battle; the horn, when blown, caused her enemies, and on occasion rioting protestors, to recoil and rout, as if heralding the voice of freedom itself; so went the marketing, anyway.) And she escaped virtually all of the Liberty Group’s early encounters unharmed, appearing to be either extremely lucky, or more popularly, blessed.

Having been positioned as a symbol of American ingenuity and exploratory enthusiasm, she was often represented in the press as team leader, despite not actually being part of the Liberty Group leadership structure. What the public didn’t know, however, was that she was from a very different mold than the rest of her teammates. While she was trained in combat techniques and skilled in the use of her enhancements, she pre-dated the government’s more ruthlessly combat-based training and development program, from which her teammates graduated. As a result, she was an outsider in terms of team dynamics. In addition, her considerable popularity, while allowing the government to spin certain difficult PR complications the group faced more favorably, also encouraged her to be cocky and somewhat entitled in dealing with the team, which ran considerably contrary to her public persona. Her manipulation of team dynamics soon pitted one member against another, upset the balance of leadership, and would eventually lead to a boiling point of team instability during the onset of one of their most serious threats, the United Nations hostage crisis, a disaster which not only lead to the first Liberty Group casualty witnessed on live television, but allowed team in-fighting and disorganization to be caught on live feed, shattering the public perception of the Liberty Group as an invincible symbol of American superiority, and of Bellwether as the living spirit of American spirit.

Though her days with the team ended poorly, for the most part, her membership is widely considered to be the primary reason the public accepted the Liberty Group propaganda in the media so readily.

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You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Universe Gallery.

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Related posts:

1. TRDL Character Factory, No. 71: The Liberty Group
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 13: Libertine
3. TRDL Character Factory, No. 73: Rampart