Real Name: Stephen “Showtime” Slick (Unverifiable)
Aliases: Showtime, Main Event Mafioso, Slick-Talking Superstar, Five Star Man, Mr. Wonderful, Million Dollar Man, Gold Standard Godfather, Platinum Pimp, God’s Favorite Gangster, Diamond Dealing Don
Height: 6’3
Weight: 201 lbs
Age: 33-36
Rank: SL (Street Level)
Hair Color: Lime Green
Eye Color: Emerald
Species: Metahuman (Secret)
Gender: Male
Alignment: Irredeemable Villain
Orientation: Heterosexual
Birthplace: Queens, New York, United States of America (Unverifiable)
Occupation: Mafioso, Crime Lord, Leader of the Main Event Mafia, Owner of Silk
Base of Operations: Silk, Mobile
Affiliation: Main Event Mafia, Silk
♔ The Main Event Mafioso—Origin/Background ♔
Although few records of the Gold Standard Godfather exist, he claims to be a man named Stephen Slick. His accent implies a fundamental connection to Queens—either being from there or having at least spent his formative years there—that it shaped his speech patterns. Regardless, very little is known about Stephen’s life prior to his sudden ascension in the world of organized crime; an ascension which began almost immediately after his emergence in New York. Furthermore, how and exactly when the Five Star Man founded the Main Event Mafia—his organized crime syndicate—remains a point of contention among investigators.
Despite their best efforts, identifying an exact origin point or even unearthing a direct connection between Stephen and the Main Event Mafia proved elusive. Only Silk—a chain of upscale nightclubs based in New York City—was, beyond a reasonable doubt, attributed to him. Through means including, but not limited to Silk’s social prominence, Stephen extended the Main Event Mafia’s tentacles beyond New York’s borders to international hubs of wealth. In Europe and South America, criminal affiliates helped skim off state contracts, lending the Main Event Mafia their aid in a range of industries. The combination of Stephen’s unique metahuman powers and silver-tongue made for a deadly combination, enabling the Five Star Man to further deepen his influence wherever it propagated.
Yet, as the world population underwent a surge in metahumans, Stephen’s concern over the globe’s growing number of superheroes potentially meddling in his affairs heightened to paranoia. Thus, the Gold Standard Godfather took it upon himself to reinforce the Main Event Mafia’s power and take preemptive measures. Chief among them was his decision to fund the campaigns of anti-metahuman politicians in as many countries as he could reach. Alas, his other methods relied on gore and bloodshed.
Affiliate factions like violent street gangs were rewarded handsomely for their persecution of costumed vigilantes and day-one superheroes, making elaborate art exhibitions of their murders as warnings that the criminal element will not tolerate interference. Yet, this was only the beginning of Stephen’s silent stranglehold on society, for the Five Star Man now aims higher than he ever has.
♔ The Five Star Man—Psychological Profile/Personality ♔
Beneath Stephen’s smooth-talking façade lurks a devious, manipulative, hyper-sexual, and ambitious man who values pedigree over character. He often uses a mask of superficial charm to disarm others, pairing it with layered emotional manipulation to persuade them into behaving in accordance with his wishes. The strength of these manipulations is such that even Stephen himself falls prey to them, fooling himself. He, for example, has a deep need to be admired and regarded as a high-ranking member of society.
These classist and narcissistic tendencies render him self-delusional, and his exaggerated sense of self-importance manifests as him viewing himself as the poster child for success and greatness. Thus, he must drive an impressive car, he must be wealthy, he must be handsome, he must be charming, he must be sexually appealing, and so on and so forth. Stephen sets out to cultivate all of these qualities to the extreme, even wearing makeup to conceal any perceived physical imperfections, be they real or imagined. However, as Stephen possesses a low tolerance for slights or anything he can regard as such, constructive criticism rarely garners anything but cold rage from him.
When his imperfections are pointed out, he silently plots his revenge on those guilty of slighting him. As previously mentioned, the Five Star Man wears makeup to maintain a “gorgeous” visage. Women, he reasons, use makeup to enhance their beauty and magnify their sex appeal. So, Stephen feels within his right to do the same. His vanity and hyper-sexual behaviors do not end there, however. Stephen is also always impeccably dressed, claiming that he’d rather be described as overdressed than underdressed. He often pairs his suits with jewelry (rings, bracelets, etc.) and watches from premier brands. In his words, “My best dressed day won’t be spent in a casket.”
The Diamond Dealing Don
He dyes his hair in fear of noticing any grey hairs that might sprout due to the stress of running the Main Event Mafia in a world with a rising number of superheroes. His vanity and need for attention run so deep that he not only dyes his hair, but dyes it a vibrant, attention-grabbing color like green. Stephen chose green specifically for it being the color of the American dollar. As one of the world’s most valuable currencies, it denotes wealth and prestige in his eyes. Beyond its shade, his hair is often impeccably styled and he is always flawlessly groomed.
Because he values physical beauty and youth to so great an extent, he refuses to grow a beard, claiming that as Apollo and Adonis—figures often described as embodying the very peak of male beauty—are both beardless, he shall be as well. This obsession with his physical appearance frequently manifests as Stephen constantly looking at his own reflection to ensure that nary a strand of hair is misplaced. For this reason, he always carries a pocket watch with him. As arrogant as he is vain, the Five Star Man considers himself above others and accepts nothing less than the finest of luxuries, never settling for less than what he considers the best.
As a hyper-sexual individual, he prides himself on his self-proclaimed high level of sex appeal. Furthermore, Stephen frequently pursues sexual conquests, charming and seducing women he finds attractive. Curiously, given his need to be regarded as perpetually successful, he pours an enormous amount of effort into sexually satisfying every woman he beds, even using his metahuman powers to elevate their physical pleasure. Despite his devious nature, he also, for the same reason, treats every woman he engages exceptionally; all to cultivate the image and reputation of a flawless charmer in-line with his exaggerated self-perception.
The obsession he exhibits with sexual escapades extends to fantasies about finding the perfect woman, or more accurately, in his mind, the “perfect sexual partner.” Besides of this, the Five Star Man possesses truly dark inclinations. Plagued with very low empathy, he is more prone to committing acts of shocking violence because of the absence of remorse. Additionally, Stephen places no value in the ethics or morals adopted by society. Instead, he describes them as fabrications designed to hold back men of superior stock like himself.
His low empathy has led to cold, stone-faced reactions to the gruesome deaths of even longtime allies, and even amusement at the suggestion that he is “supposed” to feel guilt and sorrow. This renders him a violent killer when he needs to be, an instinct further enhanced by his fixation on fantasies of power and his belief that few things express more power than determining who lives and dies. Regardless, he often relegates killing or “grunt work” as he calls it, to his cronies while he masterminds plots of greater significance.
This is further reinforced by his self-perception of being unique and deserving of association with the high-status figures often encountered through the aforementioned plots. This, when combined with his low empathy, enables Stephen to exploit others for personal gain, as he views most people as chess pieces. He is not, however, ignorant of the feelings, wishes, and needs of others, as he frequently weaponizes them when engaging in manipulation. So while pompous and callous, the Five Star Man can be unnervingly calm and cunning as he dissects others through observation.
Still, his violent intolerance to disobedience or anyone challenging his “right” to special treatment can shatter his composure as he grows enraged. Although this does not happen immediately. Instead, it emerges through the absurd and cruel lengths Stephen goes to in order to exact his revenge on anyone guilty of even minor slights. Lastly, the Gold Standard Godfather is secretive, recognizing the power one wields when armed with information. Thus, the background he claims is his own is dubious as no record of a Stephen Slick, born to Salvo Slick and Nicole Maguire, in Queens, New York exists on any database. The less his enemies know, the better.
♔ The Slick-Talking Superstar—Intellect & Skills ♔
High-level Intellect
While he is no scientific genius, or perhaps even a genius of any sort, Stephen possesses frightening intelligence and cunning. He is well educated in fields of study from which he derives the most practical uses, e.g. economics, corporate finance, psychology, political science, and more. Furthermore, he is capable of balancing long-term plans against the unpredictability and chaos of his life in the organized crime world, fine-tuning his plots to account for any unforeseen variables. He is a patient schemer and shrewd opportunist with a strong insight into the thoughts and motivations of others. As there are no records of his claimed New Yorker background, Stephen also recognizes the power of information.
He either fabricated the tale of his origin or did not not. Regardless, the absence of any verifiable records leaves his enemies directionless when hoping to trace his roots as both options misdirect investigative efforts. There is no way to verify any of the available options. Why the Five Star Man shrouded his origin in mystery remains unknown. However, it is likely because it bears some important connection to how he managed to accrue so much power in so little time. While his speech is accented, Stephen articulates himself clearly, even in the face of legal scrutiny, as law enforcement desperately tries to pin anything about the Main Event Mafia on him.
His ability to run the wide range of highly diversified businesses under the direct or indirect control of the Main Event Mafia reveals Stephen’s skill in designing tight controls to keep money from leaking out. His economic and corporate finance knowledge enables him to maximize profits while minimizing distractions and costs. Despite his instinct for monopolizing conversations he is in, he’s an exceptional listener, partially because of his desire to capture and wield any valuable information. But this also allows him to filter good ideas from poor ones when suggested by others, as well as pinpoint the most pressing issues to either reduce the impact of said issues or implement new ideas.
Social/Emotional Manipulation
Because of his mafioso experience and his manipulative nature as a devious schemer, Stephen is skilled at wielding the emotions of others to achieve his own ends. The foundation of his emotional manipulation is his understanding that influence does not revolve around convincing others that their desires differ from what they already want. Instead, the Five Star Man understands that influence relies on showing others that the best/easiest path to realizing their desires is by following him. To unearth the desires of others, Stephen employs a range of skills, the first of which is simply asking people what they want. This allows him to put the strength of their desires directly in line with his goals.
By using cold reading, he pays attention to the clues others give him during brief interactions. He pays attention to every grain of information they give him about their backgrounds, focuses on what they say, and observes their reactions to certain things in order to determine the exact nature of their desires. This enables him to recognize that people are only ever concerned with their own desires, and that they do not actually care about the desires of others. Stephen, therefore, never tries to convince anyone to do anything by suggesting that it’s what he wants. Additionally, he listens to conversations because people frequently reveal their desires. As a result, he listens carefully to people engaged in conversation to identify the keys needed to influence them. However, because Stephen possesses low empathy, he takes his observation a step further by asking people for their life stories.
The Slick-Talking Superstar
As a low empathy individual, the Five Star Man doesn’t care to consider that others live lives just as complex as his own. To circumvent this, he simply feigns interest and asks people to tell him their stories so he can, through their tales, identify the experiences that led them to the very different worldviews they possess. Stephen does so to understand the minds of others without having to step into their shoes, as it is extremely difficult to persuade someone one doesn’t understand. Once he gains the information necessary for persuasion, Stephen digs deeper. He matches his word choice and speech patterns to his target to better communicate his message and appeal to their desires in a language that resonates more closely to them. Another facet of Stephen’s emotional manipulation is his ability to cycle through different possibilities quickly. He appeals to varying potential desires in the same conversation, never sticking to a single angle.
Instead, he looks for whichever angle will work best in any moment, exploring a high volume of options. When engaging combative conversationalists, the Five Star Man purposely misinterprets their demands/questions with humor and wit to disrupt their worldviews. By amusing them enough, he interrupts their previous mood pattern, forcing them to adopt a more favorable one. And in those moments, people are most vulnerable to being persuaded by him. When need be, he also uses insults to paint targets under a certain light because fighting the assumption behind an insult renders the person resisting it seem unfavorable as their reactions are subtly dictated by him. Alternatively, when Stephen’s insulted, he does not resist. Instead, he reframes the insult, embracing and using it to make his target look poor by comparison, using their own words against them.
In addition, when negotiating, the Five Star Man uses an arsenal of tactics to achieve a preferred outcome. First, he chooses when things occur, determining when meetings start, when to break silence, etc., all to clarify that he is in control. Stephen also weaponizes the power dynamics between predator and prey. Predators move slowly and assuredly, while prey animals are more fidgety with constant, jittery movements. He mirrors this by using silence and other tactics to unnerve people, moving with slow self-certainty. Furthermore, he makes it a point to almost never accept the options given to him, responding by inserting an additional option that others don’t see and is more favorable to him. Ultimately, the point to this is to deny others the chance to control him. However, as he is not always in a position of such obvious power, the Five Star Man has alternate means.
He elevates his status when the roles are reversed, framing the situation into one focused on whether the other party in question deserves his time/talents. He doesn’t answer people’s questions on their terms either. Instead, he tells stories with mystery to spark their interest, slowly revealing them as the subject of his tales. Alternatively, he controls the agenda by teaching the other party something they were unaware of. Lastly, Stephen almost always schedules meetings, etc., in locations where his status is highest; Silk.
♔ The Platinum Pimp—Powers & Abilities ♔
Nervous System Manipulation
The root of Stephen’s terrifying metahuman abilities is his bizarre genetic makeup. His superhuman genes manifests as the ability to manipulate not only his own nervous system but the nervous systems of others. His nerve clusters produce and act as receiving and transmitting devices for an invisible, finely tuned, 20 foot wide interactive energy field that is uniquely sensitive to the interrelated components of nervous systems like the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and ganglia, to name a few. By interfacing with his own nervous system and those of others, the Five Star Man can manipulate them to achieve a variety of effects.
He, for example, fine-tunes his nervous system for maximum performance. As strength is neural because it involves motor recruitment dictating the amount of muscle fibers used for strength-related actions, Stephen has optimized his nervous system, enabling him to recruit the maximum number of muscle fibers available. This grants him borderline superhuman strength at the risk of suffering from injuries like muscle tears. However, given his ability to manipulate nervous systems, he suppresses his pain receptors to enable him to perform while injured to a degree. Stephen can similarly alter the nervous systems of others by severely limiting or altogether deactivating the neural management of muscle fiber recruitment, rendering foes of world-shattering superhuman strength physically weaker than a human infant.
Alternatively, he can induce torture through a variety of means, ranging but not limited to heightening a victim’s pain receptor response, viciously contracting every muscle in their body to their absolute limit, altering the heart’s ability to contract, etc. As with his ability to enhance his own strength, Stephen can induce somatic improvements to his nerves and other nervous system cells, enabling faster processing, information flows, increased reflexes, improved cognition, and more. He can apply the same mechanism in reverse to render his foes slower, dumber, and so on.
Because he can interface with the nervous systems of others, Stephen can also link the brains of surrounding people, using them as information-processing sites in an interconnected network to heighten his own brain’s information processing efficiency. Additionally, as the nervous system consists of several subsystems, the Five Star Man exerts control over those as well. For example, beyond the central nervous system (consisting of the brain and spinal cord), he can control the peripheral nervous system (consisting of neurons, ganglia, etc.) which is divided into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.
The somatic nervous system manages not only skeletal muscles but senses, e.g. smell, hearing, sight, etc. The autonomic nervous system, on the other hand, manages various internal organ functions, like the stomach and circulatory system. It is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for increasing blood flow, pupil dilation, sweat, ejaculation, etc. Stephen often uses his ability to control this sub-division of the nervous system to humiliate rivals and foes in public by causing them to ejaculate in response to utterly humiliating stimuli like animal pictures.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system manages abdominal viscera (stomach, liver, etc.), urination and defecation, sexual arousal, and more. Thus, Stephen also uses his powers to humiliate foes in other ways, such as making them urinate or defecate in public. The wealth of torture options at his disposal render him capable of severely dehydrating an opponent by forcing them to sweat out most of their body fluids, and all if he intends to kill them. Alternatively, he can prevent them from sweating, causing their bodies to overheat, leading to aggressive heatstroke.
Given his hyper-sexual nature, his ability to manipulate sexual arousal renders him capable of inducing overpowering orgasms in his sexual partners, which he prides himself on. Stephen specifically interfaces with the nervous systems of his sexual partners to combine their respective arousal and orgasms into an inimitable sexual experience, causing the women with whom he sleeps to not only feel the highest possible amount of physical pleasure simply by heightening their orgasms, but also simultaneously allowing them to feel the different sensation of his male orgasm.
Because the nervous system’s core purpose is enabling communication among other parts of the body, Stephen essentially wields the power to control his targets to a frightening extent. At his fingertips, he can render himself a euphoric, addicting presence to others or wreak total havoc on their lives by disabling parts of their nervous system to achieve several effects including, but not limited to, rendering foes unable to walk, unable to move, unconscious, unable to see, hear, feel touch, and more.
Should he desire it, a gust of air brushing against one’s skin can be made into the single most painful experience of a foe’s life or he can directly control a target like a puppeteer with a marionette, forcing them to commit acts they never intended. He can heighten his own sensory perception beyond an ordinary human’s range or cause neurotoxicity in his foes by negatively and destructively affecting their nervous system. Despite the deadly extent of his powers, Stephen rarely engages in true physical conflict, intending to defeat his opponent.
That responsibility is left to his underlings in the Main Event Mafia. Occasionally, to gain favor with others, the Five Star Man can undo the effects of neurodegenerative diseases, enabling him to “heal” people if he deems the outcome beneficial to him in some form. Lastly, because of his powers, Stephen is immune to the effects of neurotoxins, able to resist any assault targeting his nervous system.
♔ God’s Favorite Gangster—Paraphernalia ♔
Weaponry
As a mafioso, Stephen possesses a wide range of weapons, like various firearms, blades, and explosives. However, as the undisputed boss of the Main Event Mafia, he arms himself with custom weapons of heightened lethality. The first of these weapons is an ultrasonic gun. With the correct frequency applied, sound alone can shatter glass. Thus, Stephen’s ultrasonic gun is built around this principle, designed to liquefy a target foe. So as not to risk liquefying him, the Gold Standard Godfather’s ultrasonic gun does not harness regular sound waves.
The Neurotoxic Revolver
Instead, it uses aimable ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic transducer to send sound at fatal pounds per square inch of overpressure in a specific direction and nowhere else. Another firearm of his incorporates one of the world’s most neurotoxic compounds; dimethylmercury. This gun uses a water soluble delivery system which releases after impact, as dimethylmercury is easily absorbed through the skin, even seeping through latex. His final custom gun similarly shoots liquid. The bullet in question is a plastic encased liquid. The VX nerve agent is filled in it, rendering the weapon akin to a paintball gun that fires neurotoxic rounds of VX that ensure death within 10 to 15 minutes.
Poisons & Toxins
The Five Star Man owns a multitude of chemical substances, compounds, toxins, etc. In particular, he and the Main Event Mafia use a poison designed around facilitating negotiation. The poison in question varies. However, its mechanism is highly specific. The poison must be ingested in order to kill, but remains harmless until a radio signal is broadcast close to the victim, triggering death within seconds. This enables the Main Event Mafia to time their victims’ deaths or negotiate mercy for vital information.
The poison is deposited with a radio-activated pill roughly 15mm long by 5mm in diameter. The human body is fairly transparent to 100MhZ radio signals, and the speed of light in human tissues and fluid is approximately 1/6th that of it in free space. Because of this, the wavelength of a 100Mhz signal passing through human digestive tissues and fluids is roughly c/100Mhz/6 = 50cm as opposed to 300cm in air. The broadcaster’s receiving antenna is 1/4th the wavelength and 12.5cm. The radio-activated pill features an inner enclosure and the antenna is made of 12.5cm of a 30 gauge enameled spring wire and a gelatin outer coating.
The antenna spring wire is coiled around the inner chamber, held in place by the gelatin coating. When the victim ingests the pill, the gelatin dissolves, and the spring extends to its naturally straight position. The human stomach is roughly 12 inches long, rendering it spacious enough for a 12cm antenna to extend. The inner capsules feature two electrodes; one made of aluminium and the other of copper oxide. Once the gelatin outer coating dissolves and the electrodes are exposed to stomach acid, they form an aluminium copper battery that powers the receiver.
Prior to this exposure, the battery will have no electrolyte, remaining inactive. The inner chamber is sealed and contains a small low-voltage ASIC chip, a small charge of gunpowder, and whichever poison Stephen chooses. Upon receiving the signal, the ASIC chip uses the battery charge to ignite the gunpowder, releasing the poison. Because the body might digest the components prior to the poison’s release, various indigestible plastics and coatings are used.
The enamel on the antenna and the sealed part of the inner capsules are made of such materials. While stomach acid can dissolve the metal in battery terminals, it only does so in more hours than the pill requires to be in the digestive system. And as the antenna is made of 30 AWG wire, while its free-floating in the fluid, trying to straighten, the 30 AWG spring wire easily bends if pushed by anything.
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