[attr="id","hydracol"]TOBY MCNAIR

[attr="id","hydracol"]description

The thing about having an alter ego is, sometimes you forget which one is the real you.
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The magic comes easily enough: a flick of the fingers, a twist of the hand, and your hair changes color, your eyes shift a shade. Nothing major: no new limbs or powers, same generalized body shape (lithe and lean), same height. It doesn’t make you more charismatic, or move faster, or hit harder. But there’s… an aura, almost, like when people look at you, they can’t nail down your edges. They have to really squint and peer close to find the details and by that time they’re either grievously wounded or you’re gone.
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Maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s just that no one can pair the heinous and foul deeds you do with what they perceive you to be. Maybe they can’t believe that Toby McNair-- good ol’ Toby, who loves his baby sister, slings espresso in the morning and booze at night, helps old people cross the street, volunteers at animal shelters-- can do such terrible things.
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But that’s the thing about Hydra, right; they got you by the balls, doing some pretty nasty things, and you can’t really say no-- not if you want to keep on keeping on, being a part of that big Hydra family… even if, you know, you don’t really have an idea of who is in charge of this big Hydra family. But they’ve given you a roof over your head, for you and your sister, and food in your stomachs, and some premise of an education. You just have to keep doing what they tell you to do.
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And honest to god, if you looked back and thought, you couldn’t really tell how you ended up here in the first place. Dead parents, for sure, though that’s less of a confirmed kill and more of just an absence in your life. You hope they’re dead because the alternative is, they just didn’t want you-- either of you, and you don’t think Remi can handle that. Poverty, for sure; the kind that’s got you wondering how shoe-leather would taste, if it would make the hunger pangs stop. And, maybe most importantly, an indomitable will to live.
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So you got dead parents, no money, a kid sibling to look after, and the desperate need to stay alive, no matter the cost. Because there’s always a cost-- so you gotta keep on keeping, or else those checks won’t clear.