"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.
Tempera was a hero who joined a nascent team operating in the Norfair span.
Personality
Crystalclear described her as being a skilled cape who "needed" to go out in costume.[1]
She sometimes helped with construction, half-joking that she liked getting her hands dirty.[2] She may just dislike inaction.
She was the member of her team who seemed to understand Longscratch the best,[3] and Victoria judged that she was very in tune with her team.[4] She further believes that Tempera could have been a major hero keeping a large team together.[5]
This quality was seemingly recognized by other Parahuman leadership.[6]
Relationships
She was briefly the leader of the Norfair Neighborhood Heroes, a group that consisted of herself, Fume Hood, Longscratch, and Crystalclear, based in the Norfair span of the City.
Tempera was the one who suggested to Longscratch that he should join the team[1] and seemed to have a better grasp of his psychology.[3] She likely worked with him before.
Appearance
Tempera is muscular with short-cut hair. Her eyes are pure black, with no whites,[7] and her skin is light brown.[2]
In costume, she wears overalls, and has what looked like thick paint forming a "mask" around her eyes and covering her arms to the elbows. The paint is mostly white, but around the edges it was black and noticeably thinner than the rest.[7] She sometimes varies the design of her painted-on "mask". On one occasion, it resembled a bunch of vertical stripes painted on with her fingers, each bleeding into the next.[8]
Abilities and Powers
Tempera generates a paint-like substance from her body, primarily her hands, and in large quantities if she needs to. This 'paint' has a variety of applications and can be controlled after it is deposited.[9] These applications included hardening, which can be used to seal up a door.[10] It can be used to trap opponents; if an enemy is strong enough to shatter it, it can harden and be broken and harden again.[11]
She seemed to leave paint on things she touched even if she didn't want to, but her ability to control the substance made cleaning it up easy.[12]
History
Background
Her full history is unknown, but she was more familiar with Fenrir's Chosen and the clans than Empire Eighty-Eight so she may have begun operating after The Timeskip.[13]
Gold Morning
Was just as instrumental in ending the event as any other run of the mill parahuman.
Post-Gold Morning
She invited Longscratch to join a team that was forming.[1]
Early-Ward
She was present at the Norfair Neighborhood Heroes aborted debut, helping to fight off the team of mercenaries who attacked. They were allegedly there to abduct her teammate Fume Hood but Tempera was having none of it. She acquitted herself well against the group.
After the team dissolved, she was offered a place in the Attendant, but decided to reserve judgement until she could see the effects of their merger with the Shepherds.[14] The Wardens helped the group get in contact with her, and she got the impression they were pushing her to join a team.[6]
She later got a call from Victoria about a boy, Sam, who said his friend Hunter had had a trigger and needed help.[12] Tempera went back to the hospital to collect Sam and drop him off with the Wardens, before heading off-world to deal with a situation that could lead to war.[15]
Post-Fallen fall
Her team prevented sabotage of G-N portal station.[16] She later attended hero rally alongside Fume Hood,[17] she met Victoria and her new team there and had an amicable conversation.[18]
Post-Goddess' Takeover
Tempera was present during The Wardens attempt to stop March from reaching Brockton Bay time-bubbles. She managed to save the wounded Withdrawal, but was left by March to die herself.[19][20]
Trivia
- Tempera refers to a 16th-century type of paint using an egg base, and its associated technique. It was widely used prior to the introduction of oil-based paints.
- In fact, paints have had an egg base for roughly 10,000 years.[21]
Fanart Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “It won’t come together again like this later. Tempera is pretty good at this whole thing, and she needs to do the cape stuff, so she’ll find a team to join. Crystalclear will get poached because decent thinker powers are in demand. Longscratch… I don’t know why he’s even here. Tempera suggested it to him, for some reason, he accepted for some reason. He’s upset it fell apart. Next time, he’ll just say no. He’ll steer clear so he doesn’t have reason to get upset again.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 “I am keeping an eye on things, but mostly by accident. I’ve been helping with the construction. I like getting my hands dirty,” Tempera said. She smiled as she held up one hand, which was covered in wet white ‘paint’ down to the elbow, the paint turning black before transitioning to her light brown skin. “Look at you, though. You look tidy.”
Tidy. It was an amusing choice of words, when Tempera looked anything but. I smiled. “Looking around to see if any teams are looking to fill positions.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.2 - ↑ 3.0 3.1 “How is Longscratch?” Tempera asked Crystalclear.
“He’s fine. Stalked off. He’s keeping an eye out for trouble,” Crystalclear said. He pointed up and off to one side. On an upper floor, it seemed, or on the roof.
“That’s how he is. I won’t bother him. I’ll go talk to the district representative, instead, if that’s alright,” Tempera said, looking my way. - excerpt from Daybreak 1.3 - ↑ Tempera had said Fume Hood was hurt on an emotional level, but I didn’t see a sign of it. I could remember how Tempera had acted on my first meeting with her, how in tune with her team she had been. I was willing to put a lot of stock in her take on things. - Excerpt from Flare 2.2
- ↑ “It’s fine,” I said. “You were never officially Looksee, really. Even if you were, it really doesn’t matter. I think the mentality only really applies if it’s twenty-twelve, you’re in the Protectorate or an up-and-coming team, and you really want to rise in the ranks.”
“Was that you?” Fume Hood asked.
“A bit,” I said. “Yeah.”
“Is it you now?” Tempera asked. A change of wording and tense, and Tempera had a good way of sounding thoughtful, serious, and kind all at the same time. I could really believe that prior to Gold Morning, if her aspirations were different, she could have been great. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.2 - ↑ 6.0 6.1 “I think I’ll be okay, whatever happens. The Wardens facilitated Attendant’s contact with me, and from their tone, I think they’d push to get me on another team if I didn’t go with that one.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.2
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The last was a woman in overalls, muscular, with hair shorter than most of the boys in my troupe, something that looked like thick paint slashed across her eyes and nose, and covering her arms up to the elbows. The paint was black at the very edges, where it was thinner, but pure white elsewhere. Her eyes were black from corner to corner. - excerpt from Daybreak 1.2
- ↑ Tempera ducked through, and put the tacky sides of the plastic back together. She was dusty from plaster and streaked with paint that wasn’t from her power. She wore overalls, a black t-shirt for a top, and had a different pattern to the paint she’d applied over her eyes with fingers, more like she had applied it to her fingers and pressed them to her eyes as a series of vertical bars, each bleeding into the one beside it. - Excerpt from Flare 2.2
- ↑ “Wait,” Tempera said.
Longscratch flickered, appearing momentarily at two of the points on the far side of the crowd where the furrows ended, before finalizing at the third.
“Help him,” she told Crystalclear, touching his shoulder, leaving white fingerprints. “Fume Hood, stay close. They’re still targeting you.”
Tempera moved her hand, and deposited what looked like fifty gallons of the white paint with black edges on the street. We spread out as it appeared. She moved her fingers, and it spread out.
“Tempe!” Crystalclear shouted. He extended one hand out to the side, pointing.
The paint moved, a tidal wave, leaving a streak where it went. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6 - ↑ Still, it let him move in the direction of the roof. He paused, circling, as Snag raised one long arm and pushed at the door. White paint leaked around the doorframe.
Sealed shut. - excerpt from Daybreak 1.4 - ↑ He landed in the streak of Tempera’s paint, and he lost traction, falling to one side.
The paint rose up and over him, then solidified. He shattered it, lurched to his feet. The paint liquified and rose up and over his legs, and he shattered it again.
Was it more easily than he’d shattered it the first time?
Actions he repeated were supposed to be stronger.
To give Tempera a hand, I threw myself forward at Lord of Loss. Flight, forcefield up. He twisted around and raised the shield, blocking me. I still hit him hard enough to cost him footing. Paint covered him, hardened.
He broke the paint, swung his lance around, hitting me with the broad side.
Forcefield down, impact dampened but not entirely broken. I hit the ground and it hurt.
He broke through the paint yet again, found his feet, hit me again, this time while my feet were planted on the ground. My forcefield came back up just in time to be broken again.
Yeah, that hit had been harder.
Fume Hood shot him, hit him in the face. The paint crawled up to his upper body and joints, hardened there, trying to limit his movement, and he broke it again. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6 - ↑ 12.0 12.1 Flare 2.2
- ↑ “Only one was actually posting any openings, a corporate team, Auzure. Foresight and the Attendant were open to interviewing me. There are two other big teams; one gave me a hard no, and the other is folding into the Attendant and won’t exist soon, they didn’t give me a response yet, and with how the talk with the Attendant went, I don’t think it’d work out.”
“They’re pretty conservative. In a lot of respects. A lot of the religious capes went to the Shepherds and will be part of the Attendant. I’ve been paying close attention to that.”
“Yeah,” I said. “One or two of the sketchy people from Empire Eighty-Eight, too.”
“Empire Eighty-Eight? They sound familiar.”
“They had a presence for a while. A few years back they broke up into two other groups. The Pure and Fenrir’s Chosen.”
“Ah. I know the Chosen. They were linked to the Clans, I think?” - Excerpt from Flare 2.2 - ↑ “It’s good,” Tempera said. “I think Crystalclear already accepted the offer from Foresight, though.”
“It was a very promising offer.”
“And I’ve been contacted by Attendant. I don’t know what I’ll do with that. And Victoria-” - Excerpt from Flare 2.2 - ↑ Flare 2.3
- ↑ Torch 7.7
- ↑ Beacon 8.1
- ↑ Beacon 8.2
- ↑ Heavens 12.all
- ↑ Heavens 12.x
- ↑ Because knowlege is Power!