PRT Threat Assessment Report: Tone Deaf Bard (Patreon)

[2003, May 10th, Venti Performs live at Eurovision Copenhagen]

Series: Genshin Impact

Cape Name: Barbados

Civilian Name: Venti Luft

Alias: Tone Deaf Bard, Lord of Anemo

Disposition: Musician, vagrant

Location: Varies, usually in Central Europe. Venti lives out of a Volkswagen Van, 1985 model, various color schemes and license plate numbers.

Note: This article will predominantly use masculine pronouns for Venti, despite evidence that Venti is capable of changing his gender on what largely appears to be a whim.

General Information: Very little is known about Venti Luft before his appearance in Munich on the 7th of October 2001. His first known activity involved getting into a bar fight against a group of thugs affiliated with the Land and Social Labor Reform Party, a German far right-wing party associated with the former Gesellschaft. He is believed to be the first member of the Anemo Cluster (disputed, see the [Vision vs. Parahuman] documentation), and is perhaps the most powerful of that group. Much like everything else about Venti, this is extremely hard to pin down.

What is known is that his two most frequent associates, [Capri Lakatos] and [Naomi Cohen] formed a new band with Venti, known as the [Tone Deaf Bards], or Tontaube Barden in German. They began to play at various venues in Munich, and later throughout Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. These locations were also, as it happened, strongholds for the Gesellschaft, and became hubs of activity of the new cape group called the [Knights of Favonius], headed by Venti under his cape name of Barbados.

Invariably, the Knights of Favonius would clash with the [Gesellschaft], though not always publicly and frequently in very odd ways. Often there would be instances of vandalism, petty theft, pranks, and public humiliation of various members of the Gesellschaft and their affiliated capes, along with more serious actions such as arson, kidnapping, and open cape battles. This would coincide with concerts performed by The Tone Deaf Bards, and probably use of Venti’s Master powers to incite the local audience to political action against the LSLR.

This culminated in the [Battle of Munich], which ultimately involved the death or imprisonment of most of the remaining Gesellschaft capes, as well as the revelation of Barbados and his full powers. After this, Venti vanished for several weeks, only to pop up with his band at Eurovision, where they made it all the way to the finals and won, despite performing in disguise and under a pseudonym. It is still uncertain exactly how Venti got his band in as a last minute substitute for Michelle, but it seems there was support from the Meisters and German public officials.

Despite achieving international fame both for his musical prowess and saving Munich as well as the complete dismantling of the Gesellschaft, Venti is apparently destitute. All of the Tone Deaf Bards music is in the public domain thanks to Venti selling the copyright to all his music to an open license distributor for the price of “a case of beers” in perpetuity. He and his band frequently perform in disguise, helped by Venti’s skill with both regular makeup and his Changer, Stranger, and Master powers. Often no one will know the band's identity until the time comes to collect their pay, which is usually barely enough to pay for their bar tab. Venti also continues to lead attacks on Gesellschaft capes, or groups with an ultra-right wing bent, AKA, “Nazis.”

It should be noted that while several religious groups have recognized Venti as an angelic being or divine spirit of some sort, Venti himself has repeatedly acted embarrassed at their overtures, and seems to avoid them as much as possible. The one exception is if meets them in a bar, in which case, he will attempt to get them to buy him drinks.

ADDENDUM, MARCH 5th 2011:

In recent months, reliable sources have indicated that Venti has started to operate within Protectorate Territory in the vicinity of Brockton Bay. PRT Troopers and capes should make themselves familiar with this document in preparation for a possible clash between Venti and certain refugees from the Gesellschaft in the [Empire 88] cape gang.

Classification - Changer 2, Trump 4, Mover 5, Brute 5, Master 7,  Breaker 9,  Shaker 10+, Blaster 10+,

Changer 2: Venti appears to be able to change his form to, well, her form, along with minor modifications to facial features and hair color that makes it extremely hard to identify them at a glance. The typical form is a young man, somewhere in the late teens or early 20s, with girlish features and dark hair formed into twin braids with the tips dyed green. It is reasonably certain that this is an actual, physical change, and not employment of physical disguises or other powers to baffle the senses.

Trump 4: Use of Thinker Powers on Venti lead to inconclusive results. Venti is often able to be viewed remotely or analyzed, but it will later be revealed that the image was completely wrong, or the analysis fatally flawed in some way, usually in a way that ends up being very embarrassing for those attempting to come up with a model. At other times, accurate views are possible, and no clear pattern has been able to be formulated as the strength of the Thinker attempting to use their powers on Venti appears to have little to no bearing on success.

GAMMA BLACK CLEARANCE REQUIRED TO VIEW:

Trump 11+: Venti has proven to be completely unreadable to Thinker powers at will, and seems to be aware on some level whenever a Thinker attempts to read him. A notable incident where asset “Tyche” went to Disneyland Paris when attempting to locate Venti, only to end up stuck on Big Thunder Mountain for several hours when the ride suddenly broke down.

A note was found taped to her seat, which consisted of a crude drawing of Venti mocking the asset. Venti, at the time, was in Prague.

Brute 5: Venti has taken blows that a normal human simply could not survive, though such hits do appear to have wounded him. He typically uses his Breaker state or Mover abilities to dodge such strikes, though with sufficient foes he can be beaten down. Venti does have regenerative abilities, which he can also confer upon others, as is standard for his classification group. His seems particularly potent, able to heal from serious injuries in seconds and minor wounds nearly instantly.

Physical punches from Venti can be infused with winds and can break bones, though he prefers to fight from a distance.

Mover 5: Venti can ride upon the winds, either in his Breaker form or simply to grant limited flight. He can also use gusts of wind to enhance his movement speed to a high degree, though thus far observed speeds cap at distinctly subsonic levels with a maximum measured flight speed 400 mph, and combat speeds being significantly slower at only about 60 mph. There is evidence to suggest Venti is sandbagging and staying at speeds slow enough to taunt his opponents, but even then he has been outsped by other Movers.

Master 7: Venti is able to influence the emotions and thoughts of large groups through his music. This is far beyond the standard response to performances by skilled artists, though by all accounts Venti himself is a true virtuoso. The exact extent of Venti’s influence is hard to gauge, but it has a profound effect on people. The only reason that such a high master rating has not immediately resulted in a coalition of European capes hunting Venti down is that thus far, uses of his powers seem to mostly inspire feelings of hope, confidence, and joy in those who hear it. The application of these powers to bolster morale and inspire large groups cannot be overestimated, though one needs to be present and physically hear Venti’s performance. Radio and Television broadcasts have severely diminished effects, if one at all.

The one exception to this is when Venti’s music convinced several Gesellschaft capes to reverse their previously white supremasist and authoritarian beliefs, though whether this was his Master Powers or just the emotional effect of a genius talent performing his heart out is up for debate.

Breaker 9: Venti has the ability to turn into a gust of wind, with a distinct green tint. This wind can pass through any membrane or medium that is not airtight, resulting in Venti being able to escape from almost any situation as well as gain access to facilities that would be otherwise impenetrable. While in this form, Venti can only affect the world in the same ways a stiff breeze could, but he’s largely invulnerable as no known powers have been able to damage or hinder him while in this form. It also seems he can stay in this form for an unlimited duration, and he can use it to travel great distances in a short period of time.

Blaster 10+: Venti has the ability to conjure up a tinkertech bow (see article: [Skyward Harp]) that he uses to fire arrows capable of inflicting gale force winds on his opponents, as well call up winds that can immobilize individuals. He can also create vacuums of wind to suck people into an enclosed space, or remove all the air from a room and cause people to pass out. He has been observed to call up tornadoes of EF-5 intensity, though typically he limits himself to much less extreme winds. The range of his abilities seems to be beyond line of sight, if reports of him calling down a tornado to ruin a Gesellschaft executive retreat from several kilometers away are to be believed. It is extremely unlikely that a natural tornado caused that damage, but Venti never claimed responsibility. Still, it is best for PRT troopers and capes to assume that if Venti is in the vicinity he can summon incredibly damaging winds. In addition, there are similar powers that have been classified as Shaker.

Shaker 10+: Identical to Venti’s Blaster rating, he has demonstrated the ability to call up windstorms of at least 100 kilometers in diameter, though he has only demonstrated the peak of this ability once during the Battle of Munich. Still, this highly destructive ability combined with the wide area his tornadoes can grow to cover mean that Venti is one of the most dangerous capes known when it comes to wide area damage. The winds were clocked in excess of 300 MPH, greater than any natural wind storm known and completely flattened buildings.

CLASSIFIED: DELTA GREEN CLEARANCE REQUIRED TO VIEW

Stranger 12+: In addition to his infiltration abilities granted by his Breaker state, strong evidence suggests that Venti is able to hear conversations held in the open air that he has zero business being able to. Conversations that were held in private when Venti was hundreds if not thousands of miles away were repeated verbatim by Venti. It has been observed that no conversations held indoors have been overheard, and Thinkers theorize that Venti can only hear words spoken outdoors. The suggestion is that he hears “whispers on the wind,” and it has also been demonstrated that Venti is a polyglot to the point that no known living language is outside of his ability to speak with native fluency. Extreme care must be taken when speaking about Venti or discussing secrets he should not overhear.

It should also be noted that it is suspected that the infamous internet troll GreenTwink is Venti’s online alias, and explains why so many embarrassing secrets of people who insult or disparage Venti or promote an authoritarian ideology end up spread all over various websites.

Recommended Strategies: Venti is nearly impossible to contain and harder to surprise. The answer is immediate and overwhelming firepower from multiple capes with long range abilities. The average PRT trooper should attempt to disengage and call for backup: engaging Venti in combat by an average human is going to be an extremely frustrating venture, with ordinance frequently returned (often disarmed) to sender on a gust of wind. Typically, confrontations with Venti should be avoided, as he is a largely heroic cape and his crimes typically amount to no more than public drunkenness or petty vandalism.

If direct combat is inevitable, it’s best to seek sturdy shelter and to attempt to force Venti into a situation where his Breaker powers would not be as useful, such as an underground bunker. Note that if this is done, PRT troopers should wear well secured breathing masks as Venti has removed all the air from an enemy's underground stronghold more than once. This has never resulted in fatalities, only unconsciousness, but this is more due to Venti’s usual antipathy towards lethal force than anything else. This is strictly for those he perceives not to be fascists or villains who have committed atrocities, as Venti has proven he is willing to take the gloves off and employ lethal force in extreme circumstances.

NOTES: Something odd has happened in the past between Venti and [Raiden], who he calls “Shogunator”. This is evidenced by her chasing Venti through the streets of Berlin for several hours in a rage, though later they were witnessed drinking at a bar together. Further study on this is merited, though not at the expense of public safety.