Finale
<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Finale</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>
<label>Status</label><format><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> Finale, real name Bella<ref name="II17.x">Sundown 17.x</ref> is a young woman trying to be a hero with her friends, the Major Malfunctions.
Personality
Finale acts younger than she is; Withdrawal said that she had been immature when they were young, and didn't grow up with the rest of them.
Bella seems to have a strong case of hyperactivity and self-control issues, often not being able to predict the consequences of her action in a moment<ref name="series"/> or grasp things on the fly.<ref name="8.8 2"/> She has a hard time staying idle, which leads to her power quickly becoming incontinent, yet still often becomes overwhelmed during the intense action.<ref>She didn’t have the constitution for this. She didn’t have the constitution for not-this, when the long, quiet stretch without anything to do had seen her power start to act up and trigger from even unintended sounds and triggers. He hadn’t connected the dots on that until Antares had brought it up.- Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref> She gets annoyed when things are not done in a specific order.<ref> - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref>
When using her power she produces gimmick sound effects, despite her power providing more than enough sound.<ref name=9.4e3/> Similarly she has a childish enthusiasm for things.<ref name=9.4e2>“How was your stakeout?” I murmured, [...]
“Cold, wet, strangely exciting for there being so little happening for hours. We kept each other company.” Withdrawal said. “Listened to music when we weren’t watching out.”
“Withdrawal has recordings of a really funny radio musical,” Finale said, suddenly effuse, just over the mention of this thing she’d enjoyed. I smiled a bit, seeing it. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref>
Victoria raised the possibility that this was case of a power influencing its host mentally, but was wary about putting all the blame on the power.<ref name="8.8 1" />
Finale looks up to her teammates, and does not think very highly of herself.<ref name="8.8 2">“Cary’s smart like that,” Finale said. She walked over to Caryatid, stepping on a rigid crag of dress hem to get close enough to give her teammate a one-armed hug.
[...]
“If you’re confused about any of it, I’ll explain after,” Withdrawal said, again, his voice muffled slightly by his mask.
“I think I got it,” Finale said, with a smile. She gave Caryatid another hug before hopping down. Behind her, her teammate resumed a more mortal form, everything about her relaxing and transitioning to its regular variant. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref><ref>“I don’t even know what we’d do with a favor,” he said. “Just give us a chance to get put on the map. We’ll show the world how awesome Finale is.”
“No, don’t.” Finale was suddenly self conscious. “I’m lame and stupid.”
“No,” Caryatid said. “No, Finale.”
“But I am.”
“We’ll talk it out,” Caryatid said, gentle and firm. “But we’ll do it away from company. If you’ll excuse us?” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>
Relationships
The Major Malfunctions
Finale has a very strong relationship with her teammates, to the point where Withdrawal freely admits that he could never be mad at her because he cares about her so much.<ref>“I thought you’d hate me.”
“Can’t. No room for hating anyone,” he said. “Not good for me. And you’re the person I’m least able to hate.” - Excerpt from Interlude 17.x II</ref>
Appearance
Finale wears a costume that looks like it was adopted from a marching band, comprised of a glittery baby blue military uniform and a flat-top cap. She wore a simple domino mask, and had her reddish-brown hair free. In addition, she wore stylized music notes on the front of her top and her cap.<ref>The third member of the group, at least, seemed a little bit more sane. She wore a flat-top cap with a brim that overshadowed a simple domino mask, her auburn hair was wild, and her costume was a cute variation on a military outfit, all in glittery baby blue and a fabric with some stretch. I suspected it was something like a dance uniform for a particular number or event that had then been claimed from thrift. A stylized music note sat on her breast and the front of her cap where badges or medals might otherwise be.
Which wasn’t to say it wasn’t cute or cohesive. These guys had apparently spent years without much luck on the villain hunting front, but they’d at least spent the time to find costumes that were pretty darn good for the slapdash sort. That her costume was simple and effective was a point for her, in particular. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>
Abilities and Powers
Finale creates sonic orbs by pointing and shooting or with throwing motions that concussively detonate when they connect. Victoria described these as "soft" explosions which imparted kinetic energy without heat or damaging shockwave<ref name=9.5e1> The explosions weren’t true heat, fire, shockwave-that-liquefies-organs kind of detonation. They got sloppier toward the end, as more people fell free and some landed far enough away that their own detonations affected only them, making them flop once or twice like fish on dry land. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.5</ref>, and they affect both humans and inanimate objects.<ref name=9.5e2>“I didn’t do that right,” Finale said. “I took too long to set up and I didn’t finish it right.”
“You did good,” I said.
“I practiced on balls and sandbags, but humans fall in weird ways.”
“They absolutely do,” I said. “You did good.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.5</ref> The more she uses them the stronger her blasts become.<ref name=9.4e3>“Bam. Bam. Bambam, zaap!”
Finale. She used her blaster power to less effect than even the tinker-one ray guns and rifles. The air distorted in front of her hands every time she fired- with more distortion each time. The ‘zap’ was characterized by a distant sound of a whipcrack or thunder. Her mouth moved and she made sounds as she used her abilities, even though there should have been zero need. It put me in mind of people who could read, but who moved their lips as they did.
[...]
Finale dropped as she took a shot.
“I’m okay!” she shouted, as she got back to her feet. She swung her arm like she was throwing a fastball, then threw a sphere of distorted air. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref> Once she has tagged a series of targets, she can unleash a "finale" of coordinated secondary detonations that launch all previous targets in a cascading chain reaction of collisions and further detonations.<ref name=9.5e3>A blue light shone at one of the thrall’s shoulders, then detonated with a musical intonation, like a gong being struck. He was thrown to one side, as was everyone in his immediate proximity. The movement was slower than it should have been, glittering particles surrounding them.
More lights shone, one after another, with a rhyme and reason that likely only made sense to Finale.
Another detonation, throwing people in another direction, toward the group that Byron was working on incapacitating. One of those people was illuminated with an imminent explosion. As the flying bodies drew into range, the detonation that was waiting for them came down, a higher sound, a faster roll-out, sending them the opposite way.
Juggling them. Herding them together, so people crashed into each other, were thrown into waiting explosions. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.5</ref>
The onomatopoeia she makes helps her shape and regulate the initial strength of the blasts.<ref name="kay">“‘Kay!” Finale drew out her voice and moved her hand at the same time. The ‘kay’ became a general wedge shape, like a triangular see-saw hanging in the air, ready to slam forward. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref> E.g. the proper imitation of a gunshot can put a hole into the gunsteel even at down-low of the overall charge.<ref>“Peeeew,” she said, before hurling the gun itself skyward.
The impact wasn’t as great. It was best if she gave her power time to breathe. But it was a hole in the center of the gun’s outside. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref> It also extend to her regular speech,<ref name="kay"/> which starts triggering power-effects when her power is restless.
She prefers to delay using the finale as long as possible, as it takes her time to build up a new one,<ref>“If there are any more-” Finale said. “I don’t want to use my power if there are more coming.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.5</ref> but the finale seems to become less precise as the number of targets and the setup time increase.<ref name=9.5e1/> Some skill is apparently involved in controlling the finale, and she is less experienced with throwing people than with inanimate objects. She is self-conscious and highly critical of her own mistakes with this aspect of her power.<ref name=9.5e2/>
She may have some innate durability.<ref name=9.4e3/>
History
Background
Bella grew up as isolated child, often rejected by other people due to her lack of self-control and developmental issues. At some point, music and her drum-set became one of her sole passions.<ref name="series">Yeah. Finale couldn’t help but agree. Her entire life had been a long slew of accidents and fuckups that she hadn’t been able to see coming. Her entire life, it felt like everyone else had the ability to put on the brakes or see the bad stuff coming and steer clear, while she stumbled into it. She was getting better. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref> She triggered after an important concert, where she was manipulated into going off-script after her part, and was admonished and faced with a possibility of losing her drum-set.<ref name="II17.x"/>
Bella had her trigger event a year later than Withdrawal and Caryatid. She eventually got in touch with her friends online.<ref name="8.8 1">We got in touch online. All of us got our powers young- it was Caryatid and me at first. Finale a year later. We had different names then, obviously,” Withdrawal said.
“Yeah.”
“We were fine, got along great, she was a bit immature when we were ten, eleven, twelve, but we grew up and she… didn’t. Not mentally.”
“Because of her power?”
He was startled by that, and the sudden shift in position forced one of his legs to take on additional strain. It wobbled precariously, metal straining on each flex to the extent that I could hear it creak and pop.
“That’s a thing?” he asked, once he’d found his stability.
Geez. These guys needed to take a powers 101 class.
“Could be,” I said. “I guess it doesn’t make sense as a thing powers would do. Powers tend to steer clear of the suicidal, the helpless, the invalid, or people who are limited. I wouldn’t rule it out one hundred percent, but I wouldn’t blame the power either.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref> She dropped out of school to become a hero, and wandered the Midwest with her team for around four years before Gold Morning, though without much success.<ref name="8.8 3">A painfully slow search online brought up some images of kid heroes with terrible costumes. They’d been small timers before Gold Morning, small town ‘heroes’ who’d rotated between three middle-of-nowhere towns in North Dakota looking for villains or criminals. Four years of activity and they hadn’t found any.
It would have been easy to dismiss them, or to disparage them. They had dropped out of school to be heroes and had no wins. The lack of education was clear in the spelling errors. It worried me a bit that their referral had come from ‘Super Magic Dream Parade’, the loopy team from Boston, who had apparently heard about what we were doing and passed on word. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>
Gold Morning
Finale survived, but was presumably forcibly recruited like everyone else.
Post-Fallen fall
The Major Malfunctions had settled near a tent city following Gold Morning.<ref>My destination was a tent city. Most in the tent cities had already departed for more secure accommodations, but new people were coming in regularly, and there was a stubborn holdout. As I flew over, I could see the efforts that were being made to patch the problem. Rigid black sheets of insulation were being laid against the sides of tents with yellow fabric, tents were being moved together and connected, and equipment was being brought in- truckloads of what might have been heaters or furnaces. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref> When Breakthrough contacted the team and offered them to work within their network of hero teams, Finale was present at their in-person meeting with Victoria.<ref name="8.8 3" />
Fought against an army of Teachers thralls that protected The Pharmacist.
Post-Attack on Teacher
She was on the guard duty at the Cheit-portal, when Contessa passed it with captured Teacher.<ref name="II17.x"/>
Post-Ice Break
Finale was alongside The Undersiders and Breakthrough during the oversight duty of Titan Oberon and Eve. Once the battle started, she insisted on accompanying Lookout together with Withdrawal, and evacuated shortly after than was done.<ref name="II18.4">Radiation 18.4</ref>
Finale participated in the battles against The Simurgh together with her teammates.<ref name="II20.2">Last 20.2</ref><ref name="II20.7">Last 20.7</ref>
Fanart Gallery
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Art by Uberpigeon
References
<references/>
| Members | Caryatid • Finale • Withdrawal • Fume Hood {{#switch: former | deceased=† | noncanon=≠ | former=‡ | unknown=* | #DEFAULT=
}} • Limerick |
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