"There was no long-term, and trying to cling to one would only spoil it all."
This article contains spoilers regarding the ending of Worm and plot of the sequel.
Capricorn, PHO username Cap, real name Tristan Vera[1] is a member of Breakthrough, and a Case 70 with his brother Byron, a power expression phenomenon where two people share a body after the trigger.
Together, they were members of Team Reach pre-Gold Morning.
Personality[]
Tristan is a twin of Hispanic origin.[2] His family is Christian and he continues to attend Church with them.[3]
Tristan and Byron take two-hour shifts in controlling the body, while the other twin is conscious within.[4] Tristan has a proclaimed interest in becoming a super-hero again for the money..
The twins have contrasting personalities. Tristan is more positive overall and more of a go-getter. Byron is more passive and is known for complaining about things without offering concrete solutions.[5] Tristan is buoyed by conflict while Byron is drained by it.[6] They even have different ways of speaking.[7]
Relationships[]
The twins live with family in The City.
Byron Vera[]
The twins relationship with each other is highly fractious though they do still love each other. Prior to their trigger event, Byron felt that Tristan's competitive nature was squandering his own relationships, while Tristan felt that Byron was too passive.[10] This unhealthy dynamic was exacerbated by their situation as a Case 70 throughout their time on Team Reach.
Following Gold Morning, their relationship had improved significantly. Byron had forgiven Tristan for what he had done, although Tristan continued to be confused by Byron's attitude towards him.[11]
Team Reach[]
Tristan was close with Furcate before leaving.
Moonsong[]
Tristan and Brianna have an antagonistic relationship with one another.
Reconciliation[]
Tristan's crush.
Parents[]
Tristan has strained relationships with his parents, due to his previous run-in with the law.[12]
Rain[]
Out of the Breakthrough Rain is the closest to them. Rain goes out of his way to hang out with both of brothers.
Weld[]
Tristan knows Weld well enough to defend him on PHO.[13] He is a long term fan of his.
Appearance and Equipment[]
Civilian[]
Tristan has brown skin and curly black hair.[14]
Tristan tended to dress well with some changes to distinguish himself from Byron, such as painting his rolling hair (cut short at the back and sides) magenta.[14] Tristan took to wearing goat themed jewelry to work with his theme.[15]
Cape[]
Tristan wears an armored metal costume that is a little heavier then normal thanks to his increased strength. Tristan has an orange goat theme with multiple spiraling horns.[16]
Abilities and Powers[]
Capricorn is a matter creator; both Tristan and Byron generate and shape glowing energy that they then transform into their respective element. These start out as motes that then have lines link up between them which then become their respective element. Tristan makes rock, Byron makes water.[17] The rock can be used to create tools or something as big as a wall. These are never wholly what they want to be however. They can swap identities rapid fire if they have to.[18] The swapping had mixed results as anti-master measure.[19][20] But it has been known to affect physical forces, granting some maneuverability.[21]
They are able to create enough material for things like a fort.[22] And can shape the material around single objects and people. It is unknown if it can be safely carried out on living objects. What they can do is for Byron to spray people with water and then switch to Tristan to turn the water into rock and encase the subject.[23] This switch can only happen if the shapes are "alive" with more energy to back it up. If they let it die a switch can not happen. Water evaporates and the stone easily crumbles.[24]
Tristan and Byron possess different moderately enhanced physical abilities. Tristan has a 1.3 to 1.6 multiplier on the average strength of a human man his size.[16]
Interestingly, their powers took on its present form after they had fully assumed their cape identity from the previous holder.[23] Previously, Byron could create ice[25] or suffocating gas rather than water, and Tristan initially formed metal. During Byron's imprisonment, Tristan created chains of spikes which moved of their own accord, lashing out at their surroundings.[26] The properties of the matter they create seemed to be related to the brothers' relationship with each other.[27]
After things were damaged in the Firmament during the battle against the Titans, Tristans power changed. Now instead of using orange motes to form stone constructions, Tristan uses red motes that result in ruined buildings being born. His constructions now come in surges, with a second and third surge pushing out from the first, in a destructive manner. However, his constructions are now significantly more flimsy than before, crumbling under their own weight.[28]
History[]
Background[]
Had an extremely rare trigger event, based on their sibling rivalry coming to a dangerous head. Byron was catatonic for several weeks following the event but Tristan was able to be functional and keep them going.[29]
Roughly a month later they were recruited into Team Reach.[30] The team set them up with the Capricorn identity after they came on board. Brothers were able to achieve some degree of interpersonal balance and shared goals while being on the team, with Tristan quickly assuming leadership position[31] and Byron discovering his competitive side and enjoying hero teamwork. However, it did not last for long.[32]
The situation was detrimental to both brothers' mental health, with Tristan losing weight and not sleeping well, and Byron resorting to self-harm.[33] Team Reach began to confront the supervillain Paris, who had a habit to target queer heroes.[32] In one altercation, Tristan framed Paris for Byron's death, while imprisoning Byron; he later explained it as result of his natural desire to perform his best at all his roles while having only half of the time. Tristan's guilt weighed heavily on him, but fearful of the consequences of telling the truth, maintained the ruse for 72 days, only freeing Byron when his team interfered.[34] This incident alienated Tristan from his family, leaving him without a team and pretty much anything else.[12] He, likely, would have been charged with attempted murder if the trial was not interrupted.[35]
Gold Morning[]
The proceedings for Tristan's murder charge were interrupted by Gold Morning, and Byron did not press for more punishment.[36] Capricorn was "dragged into" the event.[37]
Glow-worm[]
Talked to Team Reach on the newly-revived Parahumans Online. Tristan hired some shady enforcers online for purposes of maintaining fair time-sharing.[38] Participated in a group chat on PHO with several groups including his therapy group and members of his old team.[39]
Early-Ward[]
Tristan wants to become a hero again while Byron does not agree with this. Byron was worried that Tristan would fall into the same patterns he had before.
Tristan hit it off while Byron was not as happy with things. The mistakes of their past continue to dog them.
Was part of the initial forays into Cedar Point
Were major factors in their teams actions against the Fallen. Byron was able to handle Valefor's taunts better then Tristan.
Post-Fallen fall[]
Were part of the action against Trial and Error where their powers proved ineffective.
Tristan took point in the interview to deal with the allegations leveled by Kenzies parents.
They were put into a dangerous position by the realignment caused by Goddess. Byron was the only member not to be mastered, and as a result, he was forced to shut Tristan in. Eventually Byron was mastered, and Tristan was let back out. He participated in the takeover of the prison.
After Goddess was killed, Tristan and Byron met up with Barcode and started a new deal.
Post-Goddess' Takeover[]
Tristan went on the shopping trip with the team.
Capricorn assisted in surveilling Love Lost and her group in the Lyme Center.
While investigating the attack on the Navigators, the group of heroes was attacked and Tristan was shot. Byron had to stay out until he could get treatment.
Capricorn and Tress joined Tattletale and some of the Heartbroken in attempting to track down Cradle. The group was ambushed. After a long fight, Tristan was bisected by Cradle, forcing Byron to take over until they could get him fixed.
The Ice Breaks[]
Tristan was alongside The Undersiders and Breakthrough during the oversight duty of Titan Oberon and Eve. During the battle he was counteracting the flow of the gas from Eve.[40] Later in the fight he was making safe pathways through torn-up terrain.[41]
At the night he was assisting other capes during the defense of the Shardspace entry-point, and the battle against the Fortuna's Titans in similar ways.[42] He was visibly frustrated by his power change, and eventually insisted on staying in the battle to protect Furcate and Moonsong. Sveta Karelia stayed with him.[43]
Getting involved in a fight with the Nemean Titan, Tristan joins the Shepherds in fighting it off, and they successfully manage to force it into one of the cracks in reality.[44] From there, they ventured into the Firmament and got into a fight with Skadi. A miscalculation on Tristan's part sees Tribute killed with Byron's power, and the guilt is enough that the cracks in reality begin to make their way towards him. Noticing this, Tristan decided to kill himself instead of becoming a Titan and putting the rest of heroes, and his brother at risk.[45]
Tristan's shard-ghost was immediately contacted by Kenzie Martin, who used the same tech to communicate with Contessa. Tristan confessed that he retained some power-connection to his brother, but was unwilling to risk Byron's wellbeing in an attempt to recover him from the Shardspace.[46] It played a part in Kenzie's breakdown.
Tristan remained disconnected during the plague dream and had not visited anyone from Breakthrough, intentionally or not.[47]
Ward Epilogues[]
Kenzie managed to establish a connection to Tristan in the Firmament, and found that he has still retained a connection to Byron even in death.[48]
Tristan returned to the real world in the form of a hologram.[49] He appeared to hit it off with Withdrawal.
Chapter Appearances[]
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Trivia[]
- Capricorn, literally "goat-horned", is the tenth sign in the Western Zodiac. It is known as the sea-goat which the Twins divide up between them with their Fish and Goat costume motifs.
- Tristan and Byron are at least the second Hero named Capricorn, the one before them was a women who gave up the identity after a career ending injury.[23]
- Used the disposable alias Enki,[2] which seems to be a reference to the horned Sumerian god of water and mischief.
- Byron is the older twin, by minutes.[50]
- An early version of Capricorn was briefly considered to be the protagonist of Ward. Originally, Tristan was a female and had a personality reminiscent of March.[51]
Fanart Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Glare 3.6
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 3A::u@T_Enki: can we maybe not talk about commemorative plates? maybe action figures? plates make me think of my abuela - Glow-worm P.2
- ↑ Cap: shoot. would love to chat but am being asked to go to church.
Heart_Shaped_Pupil: at noon?
Cap: family is asking. church gets overcrowded these days so we attend during certain blocks of time. - Glow-worm P.7 - ↑ Tristan was strong, and he spent half of his life locked away in a lightless, motionless prison, only a window that looked out through his brother’s eyes and listened through his brother’s ears. It would be so easy for him to go off the deep end. - Excerpt from Glare 3.5
- ↑ Tristan’s face was at an angle that saw him looking down at the ground. At first I thought he was trying to keep the water out of his face. Then, as he changed the angle of his head a little, I saw his face.
“For the record,” Tristan said, “If it’s my two hours and I ask you a question and then pass the baton, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t take up extra time and use it to try and sabotage me.”
“I did say hi to him,” I said.
Tristan shrugged. “He didn’t have to say all that. He’s quick to say there’s a problem but he doesn’t suggest alternatives. He whines about the circumstances but he won’t attend the therapy and he doesn’t want to work on figuring out better courses of action. It pisses me off sometimes, especially when he elbows into my time to make what I’m trying to accomplish harder.”
His tone was hard. Pissed off seemed like an apt description. I’d seen Tristan, casual and smiling some before he’d changed, and now this felt like a complete, sudden shift.
It was easy to forget that he was in there while Byron was out here, feeling things, thinking, his mood changing during that short conversation. - Excerpt from Glare 3.2 - ↑ Shade 4.4
- ↑ I was bewildered on two counts. That I heard Tristan’s voice but it sounded off, in a way that made me think someone had died or something had gone wrong. The other half of it was that I thought he meant the villains. Tattletale. Here somehow at the same time they were clearly elsewhere, on the video on my laptop.
It wasn’t Tristan speaking oddly, but Byron speaking normally. His armor was the same general style as Tristan’s, but it had a blue tint, and it was scale, not plate, with fins and conch spirals instead of spiraling horns. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.7 - ↑ “Look me in the eye,” Tristan said. “Say something like, ‘hey Tristan, I used to be the kind of guy who’d call you a faggot or look down on you because you really like the dick.'" Excerpt from Interlude 4a II
- ↑ Shadow 5.6
- ↑ “I’ve been trying to make a point! You need to walk your own path!”
“You’re the fucking parasite! You’re the one who follows me! You’re the one who’s walking on my path and calling me the copycat! You’ve been doing it for years and there’s nothing left for me! That’s what’s destroying me!” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.x II - ↑ Byron shook their head. “You punished yourself enough. I don’t want to dwell in that time, so I’m letting it go. I forgive you, little brother.”
“Little? Don’t be that fucking cliche, By. Minutes.”
“I thought it’d get your goat.”
“Uuugh. Torture, torture. How is it that we get along best when everything’s gone most thoroughly to shit? Gold Morning and we reconcile. You decide to give me this weird pseudo-forgiveness. Tonight, prison breakout, mind control, and we have a nice chat.”
Tristan swapped. There was a moment of thought before Byron shrugged their shoulders, then switched back.
“So vague,” Tristan grumbled.
“It’s not pseudo-forgiveness, Tristan. I have days when I’m angry and days I’m not dealing at all. You know I have nightmares, I freak out. But that doesn’t make it pseudo. It’s forgiveness, little brother. I might have hated actually going to church, but that doesn’t mean I hated the lessons.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II - ↑ 12.0 12.1 “It goes back to what happened with Reach. I tried to do it all and when I couldn’t do it anymore I let something slip, I became a villain and didn’t even realize it. I got arrested, I lost most of my friends from back then, my team, my academic record, and I lost my family. My dad doesn’t want to do dad things with me. My mom is really careful around me, like it’s all forced. They don’t call me, it’s always me calling them.” - Excerpt from Torch 7.3
- ↑ Glow-worm P.8
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Beside him was a guy, brown-skinned, with the sides and back of his hair cut short. The hair on top had to have been painted rather than dyed, because it was magenta, and I couldn’t imagine getting black hair dyed magenta without bleaching it to the point of destroying it, and the rolling curls retained their shape despite the droplets of rain that clung to it. He was smiling, but more because he looked like the type that very much enjoyed others being happy. The magenta-haired guy’s shirt was form-fitting to his upper body, showing off lean muscle, and looked like a surfer’s rash guard. He wore black shorts and sandals. - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
- ↑ “Yep,” Tristan said, as he straightened up. He pulled off the v-neck long sleeved shirt he was wearing, undid the necklace with steel beads and a metal ram’s horn, and dropped them into a corner of the plastic bucket. He had his non-armor costume on under his clothes, form-fitting and covered in patterns that gave some character to what was visible in the gaps between the individual pieces of armor. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.3
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 His costume was armor. It struck a balance between function and appearance, but it looked like it was a pretty good quality. Each segment was framed with goat’s heads and horns, spirals and ridges. Where it wasn’t brushed metal, things were painted or tinted red or light red. He saw me looking and smiled.
“Byron is the fish theme, then?” I asked.
“Water as much as fish. Yeah,” Tristan said.
“You have some kind of superstrength, right?”
“A very small amount. Helps when you’re wearing armor as heavy as this, or when you’re using a power that can make heavy things.”
“Seems like a good place to get us started,” I said.
Tristan turned around, seating himself firmly on the sloped ground, his armor partially unpacked and arranged beside him. Some bits were already fastened into place on his arms and legs, over a bodysuit that seemed designed to go between him and his armor. - Excerpt from Glare 3.2 - ↑ Glare 3.2
- ↑ “He’s enduring because he’s weird,” Capricorn said. “What can we do here? These people-”
“You don’t do anything,” Valefor interrupted. “They’re ours.”
“Yours!?” Tristan-as-Capricorn asked, voice raised, blurring. Byron-as-Capricorn shook his head, and offered a more sedate, “No.”
[...]
Capricorn was… it looked like he was changing forms rapidfire to switch identities, so no one self heard a single whole utterance referring directly to them. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12 - ↑ “Tristan couldn’t switch to me, I don’t think,” Byron said. “When we were talking about capes we might run into last night, we theorized it was a thing we could do, that if he switched to me I might not be compelled, but he didn’t switch.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “We knew there were a half-dozen things we could maybe do, and some worked, some didn’t.”
“I hate- I hate losing control. I only have control over half my life to begin with,” Byron said. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.10 - ↑ Tristan blurred. In frame and the color of the clothes he wore, he changed. The momentary blur faded.
I saw Byron with his eyes wide, like the deer in the headlights. I knew, with the same certainty that I’d known she had us. He was unarmored and unarmed, and wholly his usual self- which was also the self that would look most alarmed by the status quo.
She didn’t have him. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.3 - ↑ Once again, Tristan created the spike, a fist-encompassing growth of rock laced with metal veins. Once again, Byron felt his nonexistent pulse pounding out its diffuse alarm into a darkness without bounds or perspective.
Tristan broke into a run to close the distance. The sudden movement drew Paris’ attention. Needles were thrown.
Tristan swapped out for Byron. The spike broke apart into water and ice shards, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that momentum didn’t carry over one hundred percent. Byron could pivot, run another direction, then swap again.
This is what I had in mind.
Their more unpredictable movements upped the pressure on Paris. Tristan materialized, created his spike. He had to abandon it a moment later, but he was a few steps closed by the time they’d swapped and changed direction twice in five seconds. - Excerpt from Interlude 9.y II - ↑ Glare 3.3
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 “Yeah,” Tristan said. He looked away. “I can keep my shapes ‘alive’. If they’re still alive when I change, they become water. If they aren’t, they’re there to stay. Same for Byron’s water. It’s effective if he makes water, sloshes it over someone, and then changes, to make it solid. We’ve tagged a good dozen villains that way.”
“A dozen is a really good number for a teenage hero.”
“Yeah,” Tristan said.
“You’re pretty lucky, getting a name that fitting for a power like that.”
“Constellations forming rock and water?” Tristan asked. He snorted air through his nostrils. “Want to know the hilarious thing?”
“I do,” I said. I wasn’t sure whatever he was going to say was ‘hilarious’, given his tone, but I’d hoped today would be a lighter endeavor, and any humor would help.
“We weren’t even rock and water, originally. Reach bought the name from the last Capricorn. She got wounded in battle and she retired. Win-win. We got settled into the role, got our name, our armor, our brand, and… power changed to match.” - Excerpt from Glare 3.2 - ↑ Beacon 8.5
- ↑ “There was a time I made ice.”
“Really.”
“Uh huh. There have been other things.”
“Can you change back? Is that a thing you could do if you tried, or could you change to something new?”
“I could,” Byron said. “But I don’t want to go back, and I’m worried about how I’d get somewhere new.” - Excerpt from Pitch 6.6 - ↑ Spikes, jagged, like pyramid-shaped triangles drawn out long, some connected as one triangle after another to form the angular breaks where the lines had drawn curves. Some were connected in chains of three and four. All black, with crimson material visible through gaps, where one connected to another or wedded the spikes to a surface.
The chain of spikes moved- the red bonds acting like muscle, the black spikes rigid, spearing, stabbing, and scraping at floorboard.
All through the arena, the spikes moved, scratching, reaching, stabbing in the direction of people they couldn’t reach. - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II - ↑ “It changed based on our relationship to each other,” Tristan said. “I did- I did something.”
“No. That was your power, and powers can be cruel.”
“I- it’s my fault.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II - ↑ I found red motes. Red sparks that danced through the air and left lines behind them. Tristan was on the offensive against Titan Ophion, who was slowest to recover. Someone had hit the Titan rather hard.
The red lines solidified, becoming the edges of ruins, destroyed building and a bit of metal fencing, like a damaged building that didn’t have any inherent logic to it, sitting at a forty-five degree slant, a hundred feet tall. It came in waves, the second surge of building thrusting up through the first, destroying it while extending just a bit further. The third wave extended further still, maybe two hundred feet long, punching through the second construction with enough force to send chunks soaring into the Titan.
Stronger?
No, not quite. The construction sagged, and then crumbled, leaving little more than ten feet standing out. Tristan ran up and through the rubble. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.3 - ↑ Yes, Tristan was mentioning that, but Tristan had gone days with even less happening. Days of silence, when Byron had been almost nonfunctional in the first weeks, the two of them trying to find their way. Tristan had given up control at their Papa’s orders. Byron had spent hours just staring at the television, at repeats, nothing going on. Then Tristan had retaken control and without comment he’d taken care of the eating, resumed his day with only the periodic freakout. - Excerpt from Interlude 9.x II
- ↑ Years. It was horrible to think about. A month had been hell. - Excerpt from Interlude 9.x II
- ↑ Interlude 9.x II
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Interlude 9.y II
- ↑ “I had to,” Tristan said, to the photo and to his silent company. “We were both- we were going to pieces. I was miserable, losing weight. I know you noticed I couldn’t sleep.”
[...]
“And you…” he continued to whisper, out of a concern for bugs, because he wasn’t willing to rule anything out, not when the stakes were this high. “The self harm, By? The repeated, escalating self harm, starting with the pen? I’ll assume that was self-harm and not you trying to hurt me. But it was scary, By. One of us was going to lose it eventually. Do something stupid. The way you were going, I wasn’t sure you were going to last the rest of the year.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II - ↑ Interlude 9.z II
- ↑ It was in files. Tristan had taken life in only a loose sense, murdering his brother, and charges of attempted murder had been considered, because that was the closest equivalent they could find in the law.Excerpt from Heavens 12.2
- ↑ “Not satisfying ones. Why? Why didn’t you push for harsher punishment? Why… let me go? Why not press charges? They wanted to arrest me for attempting to murder you. If it hadn’t gotten snagged in the courts, interrupted by Gold Morning…”
- ↑ [A18 11:08:11] Moonsong: Were you there?
[A18 11:08:44] Cap: was dragged into it. glad I was though. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.2 - ↑ Gleaming 9.7
- ↑ Glow-worm P.3
- ↑ Radiation 18.4
- ↑ Capricorn was bridging gaps and making the shattered landscape easier to traverse. I could see evidence he’d shored up a building nearby. - Excerpt from Radiation 18.6
- ↑ Infrared 19.1
- ↑ Infrared 19.6
- ↑ Interlude 19.d II
- ↑ Interlude 19.e II
- ↑ “If you all try and fail then By has to live with knowing I’m half-buried in here. Half in dreams, but I can look through his eyes and hear through his ears if I try. I know him. I know he’s too considerate of me, it’ll change how he lives his life. He won’t be free." - [1] from Last 20.e5
- ↑ Last 20.11
- ↑ Last 20.e5
- ↑ Last 20.end
- ↑ Byron shook their head. “You punished yourself enough. I don’t want to dwell in that time, so I’m letting it go. I forgive you, little brother.”
“Little? Don’t be that fucking cliche, By. Minutes.”
“I thought it’d get your goat.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II - ↑ Word of God by Wildbow
[]
| Leader | Mr. Vaughn |
|---|---|
| Members | Capricorn Red ‡ • Capricorn Blue ‡ • Moonsong ‡ • Tribute ‡ • Figurehead ‡ • Boundless * • Steamwheel * • Coiffure † • Furcate ‡ |
| Leader | Antares • Capricorn Red • Swansong † |
|---|---|
| Members | Lookout • Cryptid ‡ • Tress • Precipice • Capricorn Blue |
| Associates | The Wardens • Natalie Matteson • Damsel of Distress III • Advance Guard • The Undersiders • The Chicken Tenders |