Sad Nice Guy

Sad Nice Guy is a character in the City of Heroes MMO. He was the founding member of the supergroup Scorned By Fate, but was such a loser that he let the group be shut down from negligence.

Character History

“There is nothing normal about James Normal”

That is what people have been saying about him since he was a child.

Born to a single mother, James was teased by the neighborhood children continually. He was considered a “pest” by his older sister, who hated watching him while their mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. He was always in fights in school, always the subject of bullying, and always was the one falsely blamed for causing it.

But eventually the “bad behavior” began to disappear. It was around that same time that “accidents” would happen to certain people.

His older sister’s boyfriend was the first to fall victim to these “accidents”. They used to torment him. He called James "a retarded retard" and even threatened to "punch him in ways that would hurt but not leave a mark". Strange how a car buff like him would not notice a leak in the brake lines of his “prized possession”. They say "live and learn", but he didn't live to learn about that.

Other “accidents” would happen to people who cross him. The prissy cheerleader that he had a crush on and once played a trick on him would suddenly develop a severe allergic reaction that would send her to the hospital. Her cheerleader friends would be mysteriously injured as well in various ways. The neighbor that looked at him funny would one day be visited by the police for child abuse allegations and then arrested when child porn was found on his computer. Funny how that was never there until that "anonymous call" was made.

But even though Karma seemed to work for James, he still was quiet and reserved and had a hard time dealing with women. He was still considered “creepy”. He still kept to himself, using his Internet skills to make a living, and only interacting with women that he could subscribe to online.

Then James met Jenny Star, the Glam Bunny centerfold model who became the crime-fighting hero J-Star. The realization that a Glam Bunny model could live in Paragon City and be someone that he could actually meet in person made her someone that he could desire in ways he never could before.

Unfortunately, Jenny had no interest in James, whom she thought of as being “a little creepy”. This did not sit well with James, but still was deeply in obsessive love with Jenny. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her, but he could make life difficult for those close to her.

Eventually J-Star found out who was stalking her and terrorizing her friends and family members, but by then James used his resources to flee from Paragon City. She let the legal system deal him a restraining order while he took his sorry life to the Rogue Isles and his new career as a professional stalker.

For a while, James - aka that “Sad Nice Guy” - was in charge of his own hero group called “Scorned By Fate”. The notoriety helped him get some respect and he eventually could afford to undergo plastic surgery to change his appearance. But, as with all things that James had his hands in, this did not last for very long. “Scorned By Fate” soon disbanded due to neglect. The former members still hold a grudge against him for that, even though they will admit they only used it for the resources.

Desperate for work, James took a job with LexieTech. Unfortunately the only position for him was in the archives, where he worked in the basement of the Aeon City office. It’s grunt work, but for the most part he is left alone and he continues to get paid.

But he did have one asset there he never realized… Jenny Star’s rival in Glam Bunny, Jen Glamour also works for LexieTech in media relations.

James and Jen worked together for one assignment. James helped Jen get the “Glamourall” drug that transformed her into the eternal “model” she is now, supposedly in exchange for Jenny Star’s home phone number (which he never got because she knowingly overdosed on the drug). Jen knows the potential that James has as a professional stalker; all she needs is her boss’s approval to use it. She was the one that made sure James got the job, and she is the one making sure he still has that job, even when caught using the company’s computers to search for porn.

Powers and Abilities

Sad Nice Guy's primary weapon is his Ninja Sword. He loves that sword. He saved a lot of money to get that sword and he paid for lessons on how to care for that sword and best use that sword.

His secondary ability is Ninjitsu... or, more accurately, the self-taught "secrets of the Orient" that he learned from the Internet and from books in the library and a few books he bought online. It's amazing how he could learn so much and be so effective and yet still be a loser.

He is a stalker, a predator. He knows how to sneak up to people. He is a master of camouflage and sabotage. He knows how to get into the heads of his victims and manipulate things.

Personality

James Normal suffers from avoidant personality disorder, largely through his years of torment and social ostracization. He is unable to function in social situations and prefers to spend time by himself.

He has an obsessive fixation on Jenny Star. He knows (now) that what he feels for her is really not love. For him it is a fixation on actually “conquering” her for all the years of failure that he has endured. This is made even worse when he discovered that she retired from the “hero biz”. That still does not sit well with him.

James is very dangerous. He sees other people as threats and treats them accordingly.

Related Information

James first appeared in the text-only story "Battle of the Jens".