Trickster

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Trickster</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox> Francis Krouse, known publicly as Trickster, is the leader of the Travelers.

Personality

Even his own teammates hated him, he allegedly does this intentionally to unite his team. If it unites them in hate of him so be it.<ref>“It’s how he operates. I’m not saying this is usual, or that this wasn’t an extreme case, but… it’s always how he dealt with things, big or small. The worse things get, the more stubborn and cocky he gets in going up against them. It worked when we were just messing around together, just playing around. But we were never suited to be… I dunno, a family?” - Colony 15.10</ref> He was a smoker.<ref name="17.7">Migration 17.7</ref><ref name="17.8">Migration 17.8</ref>

Appearance & Equipment

Francis has light brown skin, long dark hair, and a hook nose. He has an intense, piercing gaze.<ref name="12.3">Trickster unmasked as well. He definitely didn’t remind me of one of the jocks. His hair was longer than many girls wore theirs, he had light brown skin and an unfortunate hook nose. Combined with his intense stare, he gave me the impression of a hawk or some other bird of prey. - https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/plague-12-3/ Excerpt] from Plague 12.3</ref><ref>Trickster stood in the doorway, unmasked.  His skin tone was darker in a way that left his ethnicity ambiguous, to the point where the boy could have been a darker skinned Caucasian, biracial, Middle Eastern or Eastern Indian.  His dark hair was long, hanging to his shoulders, and a hook nose coupled with a widow's peak gave him something of a severe appearance.  His eyes, normally sharp, were bleary with sleep. - 8x (Interlude; Coil)</ref>

As Trickster, he wears a black costume with a red mask and a top hat. His mask had a mouth-hole that he would sometimes use to smoke.<ref> The Travelers were outside the pub now, but they were taking their time leaving. Trickster was smoking a cigarette through the mouth-hole of his mask. - Hive 5.2</ref> His jacket had a pocket he kept cigarettes in<ref>All eyes turned to Trickster.  He didn't hurry to reply.  He reached into the fold of his jacket, found a pack of cigarettes, tapped one out, placed it inside the mouth-slit of his mask and lit up.  He placed one hand on his hat to keep it in place as he rolled down the window to blow the smoke outside. - Tangle 6.8</ref> and a cellphone capable of recording video.<ref>There were capes at the far end of the hallway, staring at the scene, kept out of the main triage area by a set of PRT officers.  Trickster leaned against a wall with a cell phone raised, recording video. - Extermination 8.7</ref>

Abilities and Powers

Francis' power is to switch at will the places of two objects of similar mass, including himself.<ref name=":0">"And Trickster, their leader, is a teleporter.  Not just himself.  He can make anything he can see teleport.  Except there's a special rule to his power, a restriction.  He has to swap the places of two things with roughly equivalent mass.  The bigger the difference in mass, the slower the swap and shorter his range." - Tangle 6.1</ref>

Trickster’s powers are sight dependent, requiring him to have both of his targets in view at once.<ref name="17.7">Migration 17.7</ref> His speed/ease of being able to swap is dependent on distance (although not as much as one might suspect) and difference in mass – too much of one or the other and it’s not doable in any reasonable amount of time.<ref>Trickster’s powers are sight dependent, and his speed/ease of being able to swap is dependent on distance (not as much as one might suspect) and difference in mass – too much of one or the other and it’s not doable in any reasonable amount of time. The problem here is both awareness (he doesn’t necessarily know what’s happening) and sight: He can’t see Noelle (who is at Coil’s base with Oliver & Genesis) or the Slaughterhouse Nine (who are upstairs, while he’s downstairs talking with Noelle via. webcam). - Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.3</ref><ref name=":0" /> He needs to even out any differences in mass by sucking in surrounding air, which takes time.<ref name="17.6">Migration 17.6</ref> He has a sense of how easy it would be to swap two objects at a time.<ref name="R1">Trickster - Line of sight, swaps everyone and everything, comingles swapped matter - person + mailbox = two mashed together abominations of flesh and mailbox, slowly dying as organs fail. PRT van + PRT van = two mashed together heaps of metal with people crushed inside, very possibly setting fire or exploding given friction of metal on metal and leaking gasoline. Size/mass/density sense that normally allows Trickster to gauge how swappable things are is extended to give knowledge of everyone and everything within a one-mile radius. Reflexes amped up. Effectively navigates a battlefield by swapping himself instantly and repeatedly, mapping out routes in advance, leaving mangled destruction in his wake, flanking and hiding. - Characters as S-Class Threats Comment by Wildbow on Reddit.</ref>

History

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Background

Krouse was a competitive gamer from Earth Aleph. After being transferred to Madison Wisconsin on Earth Bet. There he would gain his power from a Cauldron vial, like all the Travelers.<ref name="17.6">Migration 17.6</ref>

Story Start

He and his team began working for Coil in exchange for a promise to help Noelle. He acts as the defacto leader of the Travellers, making decisions.

He attended a meeting of the super villains in Brockton Bay to discuss how to deal with the ABB.

Post-Leviathan

He would begin gaining territory under Coil's direction. His plan to take on the Slaughterhouse Nine wound up getting Grue captured.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Sided with Coil when he turned on the Undersiders. When the tables were turned against his benefactor and only hoped trickster tried to save Coil but could not. He came to only to see evidence that the man he had put all his hope in had been murdered.<ref name="17.8">Migration 17.8</ref>

When Coil died, he joined Echidna and faced off against the most powerful parahuman in the world.<ref>Trickster, for his part, didn’t even flinch as she closed the distance between the two of them, stepping within a few feet of him.

It would be all too easy to just snap her tongue at him. Catch him, swallow him.

She held off. Instead, she faced Eidolon and the other flying cape. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z</ref>

Post-Echidna

He wound up in the Birdcage.

There he told the residents of the impending end of the world.<ref>No, packbat’s right. My answer was originally that Amy got the info from the Undersiders, but I was in the middle of getting ready to watch Game of Thrones when I said it – a mental slip.

Apologies to those who went looking. I meant to say the Travelers; Trickster specifically. - comment by wildbow on Interlude 22.y</ref>

Gold Morning

Krouse was seen as one of Teacher's students.<ref name="I22.y">Interlude 22.y</ref>

He was killed by Zion while controlled by Khepri, erased alongside a number of capes including Othala and Ash Beast.<ref name="30.5">Speck 30.5</ref>

Fanart Gallery

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  Image by Lonsheep.
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  Image by pabelandnine.tumblr.com
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  Illustration by Kingduame on tumblr
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  Image by pabelandnine.tumblr.com.

References

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