“ | “You lost control of one of your creations. It caused a stir.” “My dog ran away,” Blasto said. “It was only part dog, and it caused a stir. You deal drugs, and people who are under the influence create messes.” |
” |
—Accord to Blasto, Eclipse x.3 |
Rey Andino,[5][6] known publicly as Blasto, is an independent villain operating in the Boston area.
Personality[]
Blasto is very anti-establishment and withdrawn from society, although he does not hate it. He even had aspirations of meeting a woman who appreciated his "art" (his creations), settling down and having children.[6] He is quite laid-back; this may be due to smoking marijuana regularly.[7]
He is wary and skeptical of others, expecting traps at any moment from Accord, confident in his abilities and appreciates the work of other tinkers, such as Dragon. However, he had grown used to substandard equipment and was excited at the prospect of a real lab.[6]
He has no problem with dutifully executing those of his creations which are doomed to fail.[6] Regardless he was still ambitious; his attempt to create the Morrígan was something that Bonesaw later admits that "she's not even crazy enough to do".[6]
Relationships[]
Applesauce[]
He was in a long-term on-again/off-again relationship with Rotten Apple; his disappearance and death affected her deeply.[8]
Accord[]
They have a rivalry that has lasted for years.
Reputation[]
While he has the potential to be a major threat he was effectively cowed by the authorities to be content with his current lot.[9]
Appearance[]
Blasto was of presumably average height, being taller than Accord, with frizzy brown hair.[10]
Abilities and Powers[]
Blasto is a "wet" tinker, specializing in creating life-forms, minions, using raw materials.[3] Detailed below; this includes but is not limited to a lab assistant, a pseudo-endbringer and other, non-specified hybrids. He often works with plants, fungi, and animals to create weaponized hybrids, which he uses to wreak havoc upon his enemies.[2][5] He can use tissue samples to create his minions even from things that don't contain DNA.
Blasto has been operating for a long time and as such greatly expanded from his original tinker repertoire thanks to scanning other parahumans and researching into his power.[11] Additionally, he deliberately makes his creations sterile, as he was warned that self-replicating beings would constitute an S-Class threat which would mean a kill order for him.[1]
Equipment[]
Tinker Creations | |
|
History[]
Background[]
Rey Andino was gifted and/or fortunate enough to attend medical school. It created a rift between him and his family and friends. He was too 'uppity' to belong anywhere at home and too much of a welfare case to get acceptance from school peers or professors. Caught between the two, he saw both realities crumble. His father was sent to jail, his brother targeted, his sister at risk with no one to protect her, while the doctor he was interning for ignored him and effectively sabotaged him. He triggered.[27].
After Blasto triggered, he completely dedicated himself to life as a Tinker, leaving everything else behind.[27]
Boston Games[]
Blasto and his girlfriend, Rotten Apple, started growing their own 'green'-themed faction, Blastgerm, for the sake of increasing their influence during the power vacuum.
They quickly made an enemy out of Accord by rudely declining his plans and being generally distasteful.[28]
Blasto's HQ was the second target of Damsel of Distress. After installing some much needed ventilation in the building, she agreed to keep the pairs messy secret about Blastgerms true team numbers in exchange for a share of their assets.[29]
Sometime later he released the Woad giant, which scared at least a half of the city, without doing much of anything.[30] It caused the other powers of Boston to dedicate resources to understanding and preparing for it.[21] Blasto explained that it served mostly as a symbol of his claim on South Boston.[31] It was destroyed by Damsel of Distress on her way out of Boston.[32]
Story Start[]
Blasto was the crime lord of East Allston since April 2009. He had committed second-degree murder and was noted for mass property damage during his crimes. He was enemies with Accord,[9] Spree and Chain Man.[6]
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]
After remnants of the Empire Eighty-Eight ostensibly destroyed his lab,[33] Blasto met with Accord[34] and agreed to his deal. In exchange for giving half of his territory to Accord after dealing with the white supremacists, Accord gave Blasto the opportunity to get back on his feet and eliminate their mutual enemies while being careful to avoid any damage or criminal activity within Accord's territory.[35] Accord allowed him to use a fully equipped laboratory[36][37] and various samples of highly classified material.[38][39][40][41] Believing he could create a game-changer via Endbringer tissues,[42] Blasto started working on the Morrígan, a megaproject to replicate an Endbringer.[43] Although he suspected Accord had ulterior motives,[44] Blasto was unaware that Accord always planned on framing him and would never have allowed him to finish the Morrígan.[26]
Several hours into the creation of his latest project, disaster struck. Bonesaw and Damsel of Distress showed up, trying to weaponize the tinker's works, in order to move armageddon along. Defiant then tried to kill Bonesaw and did kill Damsel. Bonesaw then took control of Blasto's body, gathered all the various DNA samples from past members of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and left, still in control of his body.[6]
He was used as part of the nines assault on Toybox and helped operate their technology.[45]
The Timeskip[]
He finally died under torture in the Slaughterhouse 9's private world.[46]
Chapter Appearances[]
|
Trivia[]
- Blasto, as stated in the story, comes from the prefix 'Blasto-' relating to plants it usually means bud, germination or seed.[9] However, it can also be seen in Blastocyst, a mammalian blastula in which some differentiation of cells has occurred.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 :Crime lord of East Allston since est. date of April 2009. No subordinates. No past history as a subordinate. Criminal history indicates cap of second degree murder, tendency to mass damage to property and persons. Produces uncontrolled lifeforms that are incapable of replication. Adversarial relationship with Accord (#13151), Spree (#14755) and Chain Man (#14114).
- Note: High risk of Class-S classification. Should creations self-propagate, kill orders are pre-authorized.
[...]
No big surprises on the possible kill order. He’d been made aware of it some time ago, and had grumbled, groaned and grudgingly avoided making any lifeforms that could breed in the years since. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x
- Note: High risk of Class-S classification. Should creations self-propagate, kill orders are pre-authorized.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Blasto, Real Name Unknown
Classification: Tinker 6 (sub: master 5, blaster 2, shifter 2, brute 2); plants.
Disposition: Villain (B)
Last Known Location: Boston (Allston area, east). - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Blasto is an Alchemist. - Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ Controller Tinker
[...]
The Alchemist Tinker
[...]
Blasto (grows minions in vats) - TINKERS 2.0, document by Wildbow. - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Playtest Capes
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Interlude 19.x
- ↑ Blasto
There’s a joke to be made about this tinker liking his ‘weed’. Blasto is the archetype of the tinker struggling to get off the ground; he doesn’t want to lead, but seems doomed to be at odds with the gangs that exist, given the lack of Latino gangs in Boston and his messy, easy nature. - Playtest Capes - ↑ “As a villain, she went by Bad Apple, Poison Apple, Pomme De Sang, probably called herself Applesauce, I don’t even know. I guess she wanted to corner the market on apple-related names so nobody would have something similar. She spent a lot of time palling around with a biotinker called Blasto. She kept going back to him to pair up. Might have been boyfriend-girlfriend, even. That ended when the Slaughterhouse Nine passed through Boston. We don’t know what happened to Blasto, but we can guess it wasn’t good. Poison Apple got a little reckless after that, even though she hadn’t met up with him in over a year at that point.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.1
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 “Before you do, let me make you an alternate offer. You do mercenary work?”
“We do.”
“I’d like to hire you for a task.”
“What task?”
“I’d like certain items stolen from a rival. I can describe them to you and show you photographs. Do this for me, and we’ll waive the fee for entering my territory. Also, I’ll concede to have my share cut down to a mere ten percent.”
“Which rival?”
“Blasto. A tinker. Not quite the destructive personality his name implies.”
“I read up on him. Blasto from the latin prefix, meaning bud, germination or seed. Tinker botanist, grows walking, sentient plants in giant glass tubes.”
Accord gave Trickster an approving nod. “Yes. Tinkers are… bothersome. Tinkers who work wet are especially bothersome. They build, they learn from past research and past projects, each thing is created more elegantly or faster with the tools they’ve designed and amassed over time. A tinker designs a better welding torch, to use an analogy, and that allows him or her to build a better power drill. And so the cycle continues. Steal Blasto’s tools for my trophy case, it will set him back weeks or months. I’ll give you a further bonus if you destroy any other projects of his, as well as any computers or blueprints.”
“Dangerous, to attack a tinker in his lair.”
“Ah, you want more than just the waiving of your hospitality fee?”
Trickster was careful to be diplomatic. “No offense intended. If Blasto was that easy to handle, I’m sure you would have dealt with him already.”
"Agreed - Excerpt from Migration 17.8 - ↑ 10.0 10.1 There were three capes with a plant theme. A guy with frizzy brown hair sticking out over the top and sides of a mask that looked like it was made of the softest rubber, all in oval-shaped nodules. More mushroom-like nodules stood out diagonally from his shoulders. A man sat on a rock beside him, foot propped up on a creature that looked like it was made of driftwood, a snake with two forelimbs and no rear legs. A woman stood in the shadows behind them. She had no name for them. - Excerpt from Eclipse x.2
- ↑ Note: Blasto’s list has been extended considerably from its starting point as he gained experience and researched over the years. - Playtest Capes
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Vats. A row of them against one wall, dirty and smeared enough that the contents weren’t immediately obvious.
Humanoid figures, each one different from the others.
[...]
There was something else at the far end of the room. It looked like a boiler, but it had the same rushed, improvised feel that the vats did. Metal, welding, tubes winding around it, and a glass aperture, showing a sea of what looked like green moss on the other side.
“Step away from that,” Rotten Apple said. She was breathing hard.
Ashley extended a hand out toward a vat. The intention was to threat, but her power sparked out. It cut into thick glass, into water, and into the figure on the other side. She flinched back, holding her arm against her chest as she stumbled away.
She stood up straight, forcing a smile she didn’t feel. The remains of the body were tipping forward as the fluids emptied from the vat, and they were breaking apart like wet toilet paper as they brushed against the edges of the broken glass.
Rotten Apple wasn’t acting like Damsel had just killed someone. - Excerpt from Eclipse x.4 - ↑ “No mask?” Accord asked.
“Yes,” Rey replied. He folded one corner of his face back. “It’s a fungus. Same texture as human flesh.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Rey kept his creations in line with pheromones, spraying them liberally around his lab and the surrounding neighborhood. They would move to the nearest unaffected location as soon as they were free. Once he did that to Accord’s home, the place would be rendered immune to his own attacks, at least for a little while.
[...]
It wasn’t as though the method of control was that difficult to master. One set of pheromones would make the creation feel fond of something, the other would have an negative effect, drive them away from a person or area. Still another would provoke feelings of anger or hatred, useful if he wanted to bid them to attack.
If Accord found the pheromones, he could be rid of Rey, and he’d have whatever creations Rey had put together in the meantime.
[...]
Rey took the opportunity to brew and spray himself with a set of pheromones. His creations would be more favorably inclined towards him now. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Interlude 19.x
- ↑ Eclipse x.4
- ↑
A sedated monkey plus a sample of his own tissue and one seed, and he had a homunculus in the works. It would be roughly as intelligent as a very stupid person in most respects, but it would share his own understanding of chemistry, biology, science and botany. It would serve as a lab assistant, and he would need one for a lab this big.
turning his attention to the homunculus. He calibrated the signal, pressing two electrodes to his own forehead, then sent the readings out to his creation.
When it was done, he drained the fluid and vented the chamber. The glass sank into the floor, and the homunculus crawled out, using its knuckles to walk. Its skin was peeling, more like loose bark crossed with scar tissue than flesh.
“You retain any English [...] Spanish?”
Another nod.
“Go dispose of the slides. Consider everything a top priority biohazard.”
The homunculus found a pair of rubber gloves and began cleaning up the mess from the early experiments. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ He went through the contents he’d unloaded from his pockets until he found a piece of paper he’d folded into an envelope. He tore it open and tapped out the contents.
Each seed was about the size of a pea, tapered at each end, a mottled white-brown. He hurried over to one of the large glass tubes and fiddled with the controls until it started flooding with water.
[...]
“These seeds,” he raised one hand, a seed pinched between index finger and thumb, “Are like stem cells. They harbor the potential to become virtually anything. Wherever information is missing, they fill in the gaps.”
“Like using frog DNA for dinosaurs.”
“Like using frog DNA for dinosaurs, right. The way I worked it, they’ll decode the information in a very brute force way. The seed starts by forming two bodies, attached by a central hub. I kill the least viable one, it buds and splits again, with copies that are derivatives of the survivor. Usually two to four. Kill all but one, repeat.”
“Until you have something viable.”
“Exactly! Takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Then I have what’s essentially a plant-animal hybrid, and I nudge it in the direction of my enemies. Or give it simple programming that I can use. Training half-plant rodents to fetch shiny objects, for example.”
“How?”
“Trade secret,” Rey said. “I’m not dumb. I won’t give away the essentials.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Boston Games - Survived and made her mark during the Boston Games arcs, killing the Woad Giant and the Gem, earning some attention in the villain community. - Damsel of Distress Character Sheet BACKGROUND
- ↑ In Boston, the original Damsel had faced off against Blasto’s big project. - Excerpt from From Within 16.9
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 “-And they have thinkers. You worked the genetic material of people with powers into your giant, to give it the strength to stand despite its own weight. It’s tougher than it would appear.” - Excerpt from Eclipse x.7
- ↑ Eclipse x.6
- ↑ Eclipse x.7
- ↑ “And who’s this?” Bonesaw asked. She approached the glass case with the Morrígan inside.
“Morrígan.”
“Looks like the Simurgh.”
“She is. In part. The other half of the genetic base is from Myrddin’s tissue. Everything that bridges the gap is a really complex fungus.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ The water finished pouring out, and the Morrígan took its first steps. Five or six years old in apparent age, a vague replica of the Simurgh. It would have some blend of her powers and Myrddin’s.
[...]
The Morrígan flopped to the ground. Dead. Dumb. Not viable.
[...]
Just as the crystalline feather and Leviathan’s blood had been, it wasn’t capable of sustaining life. A failed experiment. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ 26.0 26.1 Reveen: Well, atleast we dodged the attack of the Endbringer clones bullet. If you really wanted to end the world… that’d do it. I really hope Accord’s dead, that amount of crazystupid concentrated in one person is almost as dangerous as the nine.
wildbow: In Accord’s defense, he was planning on framing Blasto, and not letting the tinker get to the point where he really finished a dangerous project; let him start working, get caught up in things, and then disappear, leaving a message for the heroes so they can stumble on the guy with piles of classified material and a possible Endbringer-in progress (note how the place is nice, but it’s not Accord’s real headquarters, as they were described in the last chapter of Migration).
I was going to have something like that in there, but couldn’t find a place for it at the end that wouldn’t kill the tempo. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 19.x - ↑ 27.0 27.1 Blasto was one of the only kids in his town to go to med school. It created a rift between him and his family and his friends. He was too 'uppity' to belong anywhere at home and too much of a welfare case to get the acceptance of school peers or professor. Caught between the two, he saw both realities crumble, with his father jailed, brother targeted, and sister at risk with nobody to protect her, while the doctor he was supposed to intern for ignored him and effectively sabotaged him (though sabotage implies paying attention)
He triggered while cut off from both paths.
Broke away and just left both lives behind, throwing himself into his work. He's not so much a crime lord as a scientist of ill repute - he creates his work, studies it, and trades the research info gleaned for parahuman studies, in the hopes of figuring it all out.
He's very independent and because he threw himself into his work, he's pretty driven and single-minded about it. - Comments for WildBow - ↑ Eclipse x.3
- ↑ Eclipse x.4
- ↑ Eclipse x.6
- ↑ The territory is on lock. South Boston is ours, with some office space given to some other villains. - Excerpt from Eclipse x.7
- ↑ Eclipse x.7
- ↑ “I’m still not sure about this, given our history,” Rey said. He accepted the invitation into the front hallway of the house, carefully removed his shoes and set them on the tray to the right of the door.
“I’ve given you my word that you’ll be safe, provided you cooperate.”
“Damn Nazis,” Rey said. “My whole lab, gone.”
[...]
“The individuals in question are Menja, Stormtiger, Cricket, Rune, Othala, Niflheim and Muspelheim. I’ll see you have all available records. Best to enter any confrontation with your eyes wide open.”
[...]
The computer was fast. Rey started to empty his pockets and smooth out the papers with the few blueprints he’d been able to salvage when the white supremacists had come storming through his old lab, and the computer was already idling at the desktop screen by the time he’d finished. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Rey hesitated at the door. He cast a wary glance over his shoulder, but life elsewhere in the city continued as normal.
If he touched the doorknob, any number of things could happen. A pit underfoot, a guillotine blade from overhead.
It took a measure of courage to raise the door knocker and slam it against the front door of the old Victorian-styled house.
The door opened right away.
“Blasto,” Accord greeted him. “We finally meet.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ “No,” Accord said. “Truth be told, I fear you could never meet my standards, and I’m going to do my level best to ignore the fact that you exist. You’ll want to keep to the areas I designate and use the back ways out of the building, so that I never see you.”
“You’re not going to imprison me, are you?”
“No. This is a business transaction. I will give you the opportunity to get back on your feet, you will do what you can to eliminate our mutual enemies, being careful to avoid any damage or criminal activity within my territory, and in exchange, you will give me half your territory when all of this is over. Following such an event, I hope we can avoid any further aggression between us for the future.”
“Sure,” Rey said. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ “Here. Into the basement,” Accord said.
Accord led the way, and Rey hesitantly followed.
The basement was expansive. There were no walls – only pillars. The floor was concrete covered in a no-slip perforated rubber mat, the various desks were stainless steel, each on wheels that could be locked in place. Each desk, in turn, had glass cabinets or drawers. As far as Rey could see, they were fully stocked. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ A glance told him that everything would be here. There were neatly ordered bins of chemicals, tools laid out in neat rows. Everything was pristine. The cages on the other end of the room with the captive animals, even, were clean, with none of the animal scent or vague smell of waste that accompanied such. There were troughs filled with rich smelling earth, thoroughly mixed and free of clumps.
[...]
Faced with this laboratory, he felt small, insignificant. He knew he would soil it, that things would break as he used them. It was wrong. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ “It will. Now, I’d like you to know that I recently acquired some samples and records. I’d intended to hold on to them as a bargaining chip at a critical moment, or something I might offer you as incentive to leave this city.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll find them in the far corner of the room. The computer contains the database and the attached machine arm will withdraw any samples on request.”
[...]
Rey nodded. He was already heading to the computers, to find what Accord would feel was so powerful or valuable that Rey would leave the city to get his hands on it. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ He backed out of Chevalier’s data until he was at the original screen. He checked the samples Accord had provided him with.
- Select sub-database:
- A) PRT (Protectorate, Wards) samples
- B) Non-PRT (evidence database) samples
- C) Misc samples
- ↑ He selected C, expecting little. His eyes widened.
Many were samples from lifeforms that various tinkers and masters had created. His own were in there. That wasn’t the surprising fact.
He selected the last option on the list. To the right of the computer, in a hermetically sealed case, a robotic arm extended and deposited a microscopic sample on a slide.
A fragment, so small as to be nearly impossible to see, of one of the Simurgh’s feathers. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Was it just the feather? Was it dead tissue, on par with the keratin of fingernails or hair? He used the computer to access a sample of Leviathan’s ‘blood’, and let the hands handle the arrangement of preparing the slide. Being liquid, the blood was easier than the feather.
[...]
There were more tissues. Flesh. More blood. Hair. Damaged tissues and intact ones. He went through each. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ If it was even half as powerful as the real Simurgh… well, this would be a game-changer.
And Accord had to know that. Had to be aware that Rey would be working with the Endbringer tissues on this level. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ “Okay. So what’s today’s project?”
“Oh, I’ll have a dozen projects in the work before I let myself go to sleep. But the big one is that I want to replicate an Endbringer.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ “No need,” Rey said. “I suspect he already knows. He gave me these samples, no doubt with the idea that I’d use it.”
“And you can’t even control it? Or he can’t control it? It doesn’t sound like him,” Citrine said.
Rey paused. It didn’t sound like Accord. Was there another explanation?
[...]
But it still seemed too reckless for the perfectionist. Was Accord that eager to kill the white supremacists? Or was there another plan in the works? - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Interlude 20.x
- ↑ Interlude 25
[]
Members | Blasto • Poison Apple |
---|