Mannequin a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine and is all that is left of the benevolent tinker known as Sphere.
Personality
Mannequin appears to be an exceedingly intelligent and oddly playful individual. He toys with Armsmaster when he goes to 'recruit' him and purposefully brushes up against Skitter's insects several times to show her that he could get around the sensing part of her power. He injures Armsmaster just enough to make a point.
It should be noted that "like other serial killers, Mannequin favored certain types of people as victims. His prey of choice included rogues, those individuals seeking to make a profit from their abilities, especially those looking to better the world… and tinkers."[1]
He had something of a deathwish, which led him to attack powerful opponents.[2]
Although he was unable to speak, Mannequin had a variety of methods for communicating. He could spell out words, or use simple sign language. His teammates knew that when he drew an "x" over his mouth with one finger, it meant someone was lying.[3]
Appearance & Equipment
It is unknown what Mannequin looked like before he cocooned himself in his new 'Mannequin' body. Now, however, he survives in an ecosystem of his own creation. His body is made up of several 'pieces' which seem to be able to operate independent of each other. They are attached with chains or ball joints, his shoulders and hips are ball joints, his lower arms and, presumably, lower legs are attached with chains. These chains are capable of extending and retracting, to devastating effect.
He is 9 feet tall, his head scrapes the ceiling of an average sized room. Furthermore, his head has "no eyeholes, no earholes, nor any vents for air intake. There was only a head as white and smooth as an eggshell, with shallow indents where the eyes and mouth should be and a small bump for the nose."[1]
It is noted that anyone who looks at Mannequin before the two halves of his chest come together can see the organs that are inside of him. The right and left side of his body, which appear to be able to work independent of each other are "cut cleanly down the middle"[1] and the organs inside of him "pulsed with activity, throbbing wet against the glass or glass substitute.[1]" It is also noted that there is a substantial amount of technology keeping him alive, "regulators and filtration systems, and other gear that was designed to fit into the gaps between the most vital systems.[1]"
It is mentioned that each part of Mannequin's new body is "a self-contained system."[1] Furthermore, "everything nonessential stripped away and replaced."[1] This appears to also include Mannequin's voice as he uses keys from a keyboard to communicate with Armsmaster.
He is also bristling with 'weapons' and 'tools' however they seem to 'seamlessly' flow into his body making it almost impossible to see the number of weapons he has. Among other weapons he has a "telescoping blade" that comes out of the center of Mannequin's hand that can be 'speared' forward as well as retracted so quickly that it causes a recoil in his forearm and hand.
This ability has served him well in the Slaughterhouse Nine, with it's high member turnover rate. It was mentioned several times by different people that Mannequin is one of the Nine's longest serving members. Bonesaw mentioned once that she could count the members of the Nine that lasted more then a few years on one hand with fingers to spare, with Mannequin being one of them.
Every one of Mannequin's joints is too flexible, "capable of moving in every angle"[1] and his fingers are described as " like worms, each knuckle bending in impossible directions."[1]
His armor was durable enough to resist his own blades[4].
Due either to the trauma he suffered or his own body modification people who sensed emotions had a hard time tracking him.[5][6]
Abilities and Powers
Mannequin's ability is described as a "tinker who specialized in sustaining life, sheltering it from outside forces; forces that included water, weather, space… and bugs." After the death of his children and wife, he changed from trying to protect others and now "was using his power to help and protect himself and himself only."[7]
As a tinker, Mannequin retained the benefits of his technology even without his power, but grew noticeably less coordinated using it.[8]
Due to being mostly modular, his fighting style is never quite the same twice, and his flexibility and many weapons give him a lot of options.
History
Background
After his rebirth Mannequin would start travelling the world as a serial killer, emphasizing individuals, predominantly tinkers and rogues who seek to better the world with their powers as his targets. Eventually he joined the Slaughterhouse Nine and has been with them for an unknown amount of time, though it has been several years.
Story Start
When the group they came to Brockton Bay to 'recruit' a ninth member for their team. His recruit is Armsmaster, who he visits in holding by climbing through the air vents, and injures just enough to make a point.[1]
Post-Leviathan
Mannequin came with the Nine to Brockton Bay, recruiting. He nominated Armsmaster. a fellow tinker.[1]
Possibly spited by the unusually low death count of Shatterbird's attack as a result of Skitter's involvement, Mannequin sought the young villain out[9][10]. He found her in her territory, engaged in providing medical treatment to those with glass shards in their bodies, a remnant of Shatterbird's recent song. Skitter said she would make him pay for hurting people.
She did.
Fleeing he later met up with the other 7 members. Ambushed the Undersiders and maimed panacea while she was meeting with the villains. He would attack Skitters territory again with a gas attack orphaning several children. Overwhelmed by
He was killed by Bakuda's bombs utilized by the PRT.
Post-Timeskip
Several clones of Gramme appeared as members of the Slaughterhouse 9000, along with a hybrid clone of him and Winter called Snowmann. Though grown and programmed by Bonesaw, they carried out the body modifications themselves.
Golden Morning
One clone of Mannequin survived to Golden Morning, and was captured by Khepri.[11]
Trivia
- Like Andrew Norton was not an intentional homage to emperor Nortan, Mannequin was not given the first name of Alan as an intentional homage to the musician Alan Menkenany, who wrote the song Mannequin Attack.[12]
Fanart Gallery
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References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Interlude 11d
- ↑ Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
- ↑ Snare 13.4
- ↑ Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.6
- ↑ Uphill/doomed project from the start. Shards are situated on Earth, reaching through realities for corona pollentiae. Powers don't really go into space, because, well, you've got the shard situated on the planet, and their reach is stretching, stretching up & out to the person with the shard. Do they exceed the shard's reach?
Broken shards don't care so much, some powers can draw energy in other ways, but by and large, powers stop being responsive or start getting fucky at some point between the upper atmosphere and 400k km out. Many powers are manton limited so they don't actually get out into the vacuum.
When it comes to Sphere, keep in mind that he effectively second triggered, except it wasn't really a true second trigger. In Weaverdice terms, he got the Renovamen/Angel Life Perk. Get taken out of action, come back in another form. So he had a different power, but when he broke, it took on a complete other angle. Best not to compare Sphere and Mannequin too much. If it helps, think of Mannequin as a tinker creation of Sphere, chopped up brain handling the corona differently.
He was an Architect tinker. He could do large scale stuff. He likely had the means of creating the moon bubbles and tertiary systems and life support and keeping it running... but maintenance starts getting tricky. The first option is that the shard goes 'this is worth the effort' because Gramme is giving the shard fuel for something interesting, and all is well except for whatever it is that the shard was so keen about. The second option is that the moon base works fine, the first colony gets out there, and then somewhere along the line Gramme's well of inspiration and his eye for key details in his tinkerings just... stops.-Elaboration from [Reddit] - ↑ “No. Cherish has a hard time tracking Mannequin, and he won’t know how to find us,” Shatterbird said. Excerpt from Interlude 13.5 (Donation Bonus)
- ↑ Plague 12.6
- ↑ Sting 26.3
- ↑ Think of it as punishment. Hypothetical (don’t take this as gospel): Cherish reports that less people died than usual, maybe there’s even something in the collective emotions that points to Skitter’s involvement. Gratitude?
Mannequin volunteers to see what’s up, finds that she’s helping people? Organizing things, on top of what she did to reduce Shatterbird’s casualty count?
Finger wag. No, no, no. Bad girl. Now he has to punish her on behalf of the Nine.= http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/plague-12-7/#comment-3011 Comment by Wildbow on] Plague 12.7 - ↑ More that Cherish maybe remarked "Huh, that's probably one of your lower kill counts, Shatterbird."
"Why?"
"The Worm," Cherish replies, pointing in a direction.
Jack looks to Mannequin, who leaves without a word.=Elaboration by Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity - ↑ I found members of Bonesaw’s Slaughterhouse Nine. Clones who’d fled, or who’d been left behind, lurking in dark corners, or simply hiding. A Mannequin, two Damsels that were keeping each other company, a Night Hag-Nyx hybrid, and a Crawler-Breed hybrid.-Speck 30.4
- ↑ Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 12
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