Luck

Player: @First Player

NAME: Matthew McCrory
ALIAS: Luck
AGE: 28
EYE COLOR: Green
HAIR COLOR: Brown
OCCUPATION: Amateur Boxer, Bartender
PLACE OF BIRTH: Bray, Ireland
POWERS:

1. PROBABILITY MANIPULATION:
   Mystical blessing causes extremely improbable incidents to occur in his favor.
2. EXPERT HAND-TO-HAND COMBATANT:
   Matt is a skilled boxer as well as a superb athlete, also trained in multiple forms of unarmed combat.

Matthew McCrory, the bruiser who would come to be known as the superhero Luck, was born in Bray, Ireland, to a seamstress and a dockworker. Stricken by poverty, most of the family’s income came from Matt who, at a young age, started hustling as part of a street gang called The Sinners. His younger brother Patrick idolized Matt and would eventually follow him into the gang a few years later. Tough and scrappy, Matt held his own and thrived in the gang. His brother? Not so much. Patrick was more of a fast-talker than a fighter and Matt often found himself having to protect his younger brother and bail him out of the messes he made. Some time after his sixteenth birthday Matt discovered The Sinners were really just part of a recruitment scheme for the Irish Republican Army, a dissident paramilitary organization. Unwilling to get tangled up in something as dangerous as the IRA, Matt left the gang before it was too late and forced his younger brother to as well. The two went on to work legitimate jobs, eventually managing to keep the family afloat in those tough times.

Having grown to be six-foot-five and over two hundred pounds by the time he entered college, Matt began working as a bouncer at a pub called The Brew Ha Ha. Though he insisted he’d remained on the straight and narrow since leaving The Sinners, Matt discovered his brother had begun gambling and scamming tourists at pool as a way to earn money. Though Matt urged him to get out of the life before it killed him, Patrick resisted, claiming it was what he was best at. One night, while working the door, Matt watched as two drunk guys accosted a spindly old beggar across the street. Without thinking, the burly bouncer leapt into action, shoulder-checking one of the assaulters so hard he flew six feet away, then he flattened the other with a solid right to the jaw. While they groggily dragged themselves away, Matt dropped a five into the old man’s cup. The beggar reached in, pulled out a coin and offered it to Matt. “What’s that?”

“Change.” The old man answered. He flipped the coin high into the air and Matt reached out. It felt like time slowed for a moment before he caught it. After he did, he looked back down, and the old man was gone, his blanket and cup of coins too. Dumbfounded, he looked around to see if anyone else had just witnessed what he did. Unfortunately, there was no one else around.

Three weeks passed and things were going great. Too great. While his life wasn’t exactly terrible before that night, he definitely noticed the moment it took an upswing. A few days after that night, he purchased a lottery ticket and won a hundred euros. Later that same day he averted a collision between a clumsy waiter and a very cute redhead, which ended up with Matt scoring a date. He went a whole week without catching a single red light and found anything he was looking for almost immediately. Everything was swinging his way. The next time he went out for a pint with his brother he told him the entire story. Naturally, he was skeptical. Matt decided to prove it. He took out a quarter, flipped it and called heads. It was heads. He did it again. And again. And again. He did it ten more times and called it correctly every single time. Patrick was incredulous. “Ya’ oughta’ be careful playin’ with that, boyo.” Matt was confused. Patrick had the exact opposite reaction he thought he would. “Ya’ go around tempting fate like that, fate’s gonna’ come knock ya’ down.”

Matt waved it off. “Ah, yer just bein’ superstitious.”

Patrick grabbed his brother by the arm. “Ahm not coddin’ ya’ brother! I’ve heard tales ‘bout things like this. It’s bloody dangerous, I tell ya’.” Matt just laughed and told him he’d be careful to assuage him. A month later Patrick rang him up in the middle of the night, obviously panicked. Apparently he tried scamming the wrong people. True IRA members. Now he was in debt. But he owed more than he could pay. Matt told him to calm down, he’d come and make things right. He didn’t have enough money either, but he had an idea. He headed to the pub they were holding Patrick at and challenged them all to a game of poker. If he won, Patrick’s debt would be cleared.

Naturally, he won. In spectacular fashion too. He and Patrick had a pint to celebrate and left the pub. Matt hugged his brother and began singing loudly about how nothing could touch him. The pair took a shortcut down an alley and because Matt was singing so loudly, he didn’t notice that two of the foot soldiers had followed them. They accused Matt of cheating and angrily demanded their money. Matt stepped in front of his brother and told them to go to hell. One of them pulled a gun and fired at Matt and just as he expected, he missed. The bullet went wide and ricocheted off a fire escape. A smug Matt smiled at his would-be killer before they ran off. He turned to gloat at his brother before he realized that he had been hit by the bullet meant for him. Matt held his brother in his arms as he listened to him speak his last words.

“Be good, boyo. Just… be good.”

After Patrick’s funeral Matt decided to leave the country and travel to America. Both to avoid any IRA members that might come looking for him and to meet with Dr. Samantha Connelly, an expert in Irish folklore he’d been corresponding with on the internet, on the off chance she could help make sense of what happened that night with the old man. After arriving in America, Matt met with Dr. Connelly and told her his story. She speculated that the old man he met might have been a ‘’‘’’Pooka’’’’’, shape-shifters from Irish mythology that were said to bring either good or bad fortune to those who saw them and since Matt acted selflessly, he received its blessing of good fortune. In the case of Patrick’s death, she theorized that Matt’s use of this blessing may backfire if he attempts to use it selfishly and for his own benefit. The bigger the deeds, the bigger the repercussions.

Settling into his new home, Matt found work as a bartender at The Pour House, a regular haunt for the heroes of the city. Leaving work one night, Matt bumped into a young woman who was being chased and harassed by two drunken men. Matt heroically stepped between them and challenged them to a fight. After roundly defeating the two men, Matt made the decision to put his blessing to good use. Inspired by his brother’s words and the heroes he spent his nights serving to, Matt created a costume and decided to fight crime as the serendipitous superhero known as Luck!