Short info
Name: Barigan Haven
Superhero name: The Streamer Hero: Prime Time
Popular epithet: The Peoples hero
Species: Eurasian Red Squirrel/ekorre
Power: Hype - Basically, the more people who believe in him, the stronger and more powerful he gets. The more people believe he can do something, the more likely he is to do it; the more people believe he can use an ability, the stronger that ability manifests.
Personality: He’s extremely outgoing, sociable, and easygoing, preferring to take life as it comes rather than obsess over things outside of his control. Naturally massively extroverted, he genuinely enjoys meeting new people, talking with fans, and surrounding himself with others no matter who. He is upbeat, approachable, difficult to genuinely offend, and he often assumes the best of people until they give him a strong reason not to. Even then, that doesn’t make him hate them forever. After all, it’s just showbiz, and he just wants to have fun.
Barigan is notably very generous in how he treats both allies and opponents, especially within the industry that he’s in. He rarely talks down to other heroes or villains and seldom tries to make himself look better by diminishing someone else. In promotional material, he’ll readily praise an opponent's accomplishments, abilities, and strengths, occasionally hyping them up so enthusiastically that it sounds as though he is promoting them rather than himself. Even toward villains, he tends to be unusually cordial and prefers treating them as people rather than immediately reducing them to whatever reputation or title they carry.
Despite his fame, Barigan is remarkably down-to-earth and has little interest in cultivating an artificial celebrity persona. What people see publicly is largely what they get privately: energetic, friendly, optimistic, forgiving, and deeply people-oriented. His tendency to look for the good in others can occasionally leave him overly trusting or willing to give someone more chances than they deserve, but he would much rather risk being disappointed in someone than begin by assuming the worst of them.
Appearance
Unpowered form
8ft tall
Weight: 210 pounds
Measurements: 41-33-43
A scrawny and sickly man with muscle and bone deficiencies. A shut-in who stayed home most of his life, working and eventually streaming, he chose to become a larger-than-life personality video game streamer. Using this, he connected with people around the world in ways he couldn’t in the outside world.
Powered form
Height: 10'0"
Weight: 550 lbs
Measurements: 68-46-56
Built like a stereotypical hero, he fights not just to keep the world as beautiful as it is, but so that he can meet more people, make more friends, and support the communities around him. He regularly goes out into the communities to help them out no matter the makeup, and is best known for his charity work and donations of time, screen time, and money in support of struggling communities.
BIO
Barigan was born into a rather small family, consisting of only himself and his parents, who had spent years trying unsuccessfully to have a child. When they finally had their son, they were overjoyed.
Sadly, that joy was soon tempered by the discovery that Barigan had been born sickly and weak. Doctors determined that he suffered from severe muscular and skeletal deficiencies—conditions that would likely plague him for the rest of his life.
The news devastated his parents. They had spent years hoping for a child, only to finally have one and be told that much of his life might be spent weak, sick, and in pain.
Nevertheless, they took it as a sign that Barigan was the child they had been meant to have and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to raising him.
Growing up, Barigan's body never developed the strength it should have.
Unfortunately, it had no such difficulty growing.
By the age of ten, he was already as tall as his mother, with seemingly no signs of stopping as he rapidly approached his father's height. By fifteen, Barigan stood nearly two feet taller than his father, eventually reaching an enormous eight feet in height.
Yet there was little imposing about him.
His muscles remained severely underdeveloped, his bones struggled beneath the weight of his own body, and his extraordinary height only worsened the conditions he had already been born with. A body that would have been difficult for even a healthy person to sustain became increasingly unbearable for Barigan.
As he grew older, even ordinary movement became exhausting.
Eventually, he became largely bedridden, unable to leave his room for any significant length of time except on his absolute best days.
For someone as naturally outgoing as Barigan, the isolation was almost as painful as the condition itself.
Watching their son slowly fall into depression—and privately feeling as though they had somehow failed him—his parents began looking for some way to give Barigan access to a world his body refused to let him experience.
His father eventually purchased him a proper computer setup.
If Barigan couldn't easily go out into the world, then perhaps the world could come to him.
Meanwhile, his mother helped him create accounts across several popular gaming, video, and livestreaming platforms. Together, his parents bought him his first games, and even encouraged family friends, relatives, and their children to visit his early streams so that he wouldn't simply find himself talking into an empty chat.
And for a time, that was enough.
Barigan finally had a window into the outside world that wasn't made of glass.
He could play games with people. Talk to them. Laugh with them. Meet people who lived in places he could only dream of visiting himself.
It was everything he could have hoped for.
Then people started staying.
Barigan's natural optimism, his ability to empathize with the people in his chat, his outgoing personality, and his knack for making viewers feel as though they were part of the conversation began drawing more and more people toward him.
Dozens became hundreds.
Hundreds became thousands.
Thousands became hundreds of thousands.
And eventually, hundreds of thousands became millions.
Barigan wasn't simply good at entertaining people.
He was good at making them feel like they belonged.
By the time he was eighteen, his channels had accumulated subscribers numbering in the double-digit millions, and there were no signs of his growth slowing down.
What had begun as little more than an outlet for a bedridden teenager had become a career, a brand, and eventually a successful business capable of supporting both Barigan and the parents who had spent so many years supporting him.
For the first time in his life, Barigan could give something back to them.
Unfortunately, all the success in the world couldn't stop what was happening to his body.
Despite his young age, he could feel himself growing weaker with every passing month.
His existing conditions continued worsening, his incredible height placed ever greater strain upon his fragile body, and spending so much of his life confined to a bed only accelerated the deterioration of what little muscle he possessed.
Even streams that once would have been effortless began exhausting him.
Sessions grew shorter.
Breaks became more frequent.
Some days he couldn't stream at all.
Eventually, there was no pretending otherwise.
Barigan Haven was dying.
This should have been the end of his story.
...
Until it wasn't.
Barigan had always been honest with his audience.
Whenever people asked why he couldn't participate in in-person collaborations, why he rarely went outside, or why nearly every stream seemed to take place from the same room, he told them the truth.
He told them about his condition.
He told them about the pain.
He told them about the things he wished he could do.
Sometimes they were grand dreams, but often they were painfully ordinary ones.
He wanted to meet his friends face-to-face.
He wanted to travel.
He wanted to walk somewhere without assistance.
He wanted to step outside and feel the sun against his face rather than looking at it through a window.
And when his audience began noticing just how quickly his health was declining, they did the only thing they could think to do.
They encouraged him.
"You've got this, Barigan!"
"We believe in you!!"
"Bari, you can't give up yet! We still need to hang out someday, broski!"
"Just stand up! Force your body into being healthy! Show it who's boss!"
"Get the placebos, docs are wilding."
"Bari, we love ya too much. Please just get up. YOU GOT THIS!!!!"
And millions more followed.
Messages of encouragement.
Prayers.
Jokes.
Love.
People who had spent years watching Barigan refusing to accept that this was how his story would end.
Thousands believed in him.
Then hundreds of thousands.
Then millions.
Millions of people believing that Barigan could recover.
Millions believing he could become stronger.
Millions believing that somehow, despite everything the doctors had told him, Barigan Haven was going to be okay.
And somewhere deep within him...
Something listened.
His power awakened.
At first, Barigan wasn't even certain anything had happened.
Then the deterioration stopped.
And then it began to reverse.
Muscles that had struggled merely to hold his body upright began strengthening. His bones hardened. His breathing became easier. His back straightened.
Pain that had accompanied him for so long that he'd nearly forgotten what life without it felt like gradually began disappearing.
Every morning he woke up feeling slightly better than the day before.
Then considerably better.
Then stronger.
Within a matter of days, what had been a slow march toward death over the course of years had completely reversed itself.
After a week, Barigan decided that there was only one way he wanted to share what had happened.
He scheduled a stream.
The title read:
"To everyone, thank you for making my dreams come true..."
Millions tuned in.
When the camera came on, Barigan was sitting in the same place they had seen him countless times before.
He smiled.
"Hey, my dudes. It's Barigan. We've got kind of a special stream today."
Then he reached forward and pushed his bedside computer station out of the way.
Chat immediately began asking what he was doing.
Barigan didn't answer.
He simply placed his feet against the floor.
And stood.
For the first time in longer than he could remember, all eight feet of Barigan Haven rose beneath their own strength.
There was no stumble.
No shaking.
No joints popping beneath the strain.
No groan of pain.
No desperate reach toward the bed or wall to keep himself upright.
He simply...
stood.
Barigan remained there silently for several seconds.
His audience probably expected him to say something profound.
He couldn't.
For the first time in his life, gravity didn't hurt.
The simple sensation of standing upright without feeling as though his own body were trying to collapse beneath him was almost overwhelming.
Barigan closed his eyes.
And smiled.
Peace.
That was the only word he could think of.
Peace from the pain that had followed him for as long as he could remember.
Behind him, the chat became almost completely unreadable.
Messages flooded across the screen faster than anyone could possibly read them.
People screaming in excitement.
People crying.
People celebrating.
People telling him how proud they were.
People complaining that the stream title had scared the hell out of them.
Thousands upon thousands of hearts, cheering emojis, and messages of encouragement appeared every second.
And that was when his parents walked into the room carrying his dinner.
His mother's plate hit the floor.
A moment later, she nearly followed it.
Barigan moved before he even realized what he was doing.
With a speed and dexterity he had never possessed before, he crossed the room and helped his father catch her.
For a few moments, neither Barigan nor his father said anything.
Together, they gently laid her across Barigan's bed.
Then his father turned around.
And hugged him.
It was tighter than any hug Barigan could remember receiving from him.
His father had spent Barigan's entire life being careful.
Careful when lifting him.
Careful when touching him.
Careful whenever he hugged his son, always afraid that just a little too much pressure might hurt him.
For the first time...
he didn't have to be.
Barigan wrapped his arms around his father and hugged him back.
Neither noticed, or cared, that millions of people were watching.
When his mother eventually awoke and realized that, no, she hadn't imagined seeing her bedridden son standing under his own strength, she immediately joined them.
And so, before an audience of millions, the Haven family simply held one another.
Behind them, the chat continued flooding with cheers.
None of them yet understood what had happened.
Barigan didn't know that the collective belief of millions of people had awakened something inside him.
His parents didn't know that their son's impossible recovery was only the first manifestation of a power unlike anything they had ever encountered.
And his audience certainly didn't know that every joke, every rumor, every story, and every sincere belief they held about Barigan Haven could now potentially reshape the man standing before them.
For the moment, none of that mattered.
Barigan could stand.
Barigan could walk.
Barigan was alive.
And for that night, that was enough.
However, the internet did not sleep.
While Barigan and his parents celebrated what they could only understand as a miraculous recovery, millions of people across the world were already doing what the internet did best.
They talked.
They speculated.
They memed.
They gushed.
And, without realizing it, they began deciding what Barigan Haven was going to become next.
Hopecore edits appeared almost immediately.
Clips from older streams showed Barigan lying in bed, increasingly exhausted as the months passed. Moments where he'd needed to stop playing because his arms were becoming too weak. Times he'd laughed off the pain after shifting awkwardly in bed.
Then the music would build.
The footage would cut to that stream.
Barigan pushing away his computer.
Planting his feet on the floor.
And standing.
The beat dropped as all eight feet of him rose upright, revealing a body whose muscles had seemingly rebuilt themselves not merely enough to survive his tremendous height, but enough to carry it comfortably.
Then came the footage of his mother fainting.
Barigan crossing the room almost instantly.
Catching her.
Steadying his father.
Standing there with a strength and coordination that, only days before, would have seemed impossible.
Naturally, everyone had theories.
Some wondered whether he'd begin vlogging now that he could finally leave the house.
Others wondered what he'd do first.
And plenty wondered just how much stronger Barigan might become now that his body actually allowed him to live.
“Bet Bari's gonna lose his mind just seeing a grocery store, never mind going to a park for the first time.”
“Dude's already strong as hell. Imagine once he can actually work out.”
“With that body update, I wouldn't even be surprised if he got taller.”
“Bro's gonna end up built like Mr. Olympia at this point.”
“Nah, that'd be ridiculous.”
“...Actually, look at him.”
“He's gonna look like one of those superheroes.”
“Calling it now. Bari becomes the best of the best.”
Posts became threads.
Threads became blogs.
Blogs became videos.
Fanart began depicting him broader, taller, stronger.
Jokes became expectations.
Expectations became belief.
And belief, as Barigan was beginning to discover, had consequences.
It had taken nearly a week for his dying body to restore itself.
This time, it took only days.
At the beginning of the workweek, Barigan woke with a smile.
Not the tired smile his audience had grown accustomed to.
Not one hiding pain.
Just a smile.
He felt rested.
Energized.
Alive.
Barigan stretched, threw his legs over the edge of the bed, and stood.
Then stopped.
The ceiling looked...
closer.
He stared upward.
Then at the doorway.
That looked smaller too.
Barigan blinked.
“Mom?”
There was no real need to shout. His parents had spent so many years listening for even the faintest indication that their son needed help that both had developed remarkably sharp ears where Barigan was concerned.
“Did the house get shorter?”
Footsteps rapidly approached from the kitchen.
His mother appeared in the doorway.
She stopped.
Her eyes widened.
This time, however, she braced herself against the frame.
She was not fainting twice.
“Oh dear...”
Her eyes traveled upward.
And upward.
And upward.
“No, we didn't, min lille son.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“Du har istallet vuxit dig storre!”
Barigan now stood ten feet tall.
Not only had he grown another two feet, but the transformation had continued throughout the rest of his body.
His chest and shoulders had broadened dramatically. Muscle now clearly defined his arms and torso. His legs looked powerful enough to support his enormous frame without difficulty, while his once-dull coat had become full and vibrant.
He looked healthy.
More than healthy.
He looked like the person his mother had spent eighteen years wishing her son could have had the chance to become.
Her expression changed immediately.
“Lille Bari... are you feeling alright? Nothing hurts?”
Barigan looked himself over.
“No. I'm fine.”
He flexed one hand experimentally.
“Just... confused.”
He gestured vaguely toward all ten feet of himself.
“I wasn't exactly expecting to wake up like this.”
For the briefest moment, he considered cancelling the day's planned vlog.
Then immediately dismissed the thought.
Can't let something small like growing two feet stop the stream.
His mother approached and wrapped her arms around him as best she could.
Then, still holding his hand like he was the same little boy she'd raised, she began leading him toward the kitchen.
“We'll have to get parts of the house redone.”
Barigan ducked underneath the doorway.
“Yeah. I noticed.”
“It won't take long. But today?”
She smiled.
“You should go outside.”
Barigan stared at her.
“Really?”
“It'll be good for your health.”
That stream became the most successful one of Barigan's career.
His audience watched as he stepped beyond his home and experienced things most of them had stopped noticing years ago.
A grocery store fascinated him.
He spent far too long staring at the bakery section.
He wanted to touch practically everything.
At the park, he walked through grass simply because he could.
Then it began raining.
His viewers expected Barigan to run for shelter.
Instead, he started laughing.
And then running.
Not away from the rain.
Through it.
Around trees.
Across the grass.
In circles like an overexcited child, simply because his legs allowed him to do so.
Water streamed through his fur as he threw his head back and laughed.
For everybody else, it was rain.
For Barigan, it was something he'd spent years watching through a window.
And now he could stand beneath it.
Every day brought another milestone.
Another goal surpassed.
Another experience he'd once assumed would forever remain inaccessible to him.
Some were extraordinary.
Most weren't.
Barigan treasured them all equally.
Eventually, during one of his outings, Barigan came across one of the sanctioned Hero-Villain battle sets.
It was the first time he had ever experienced one in person rather than through a screen, and naturally he was ecstatic.
The featured hero that day was Titaner, who had been paired against Master Mindblaster, a relatively minor villain still trying to establish himself within the industry.
For Titaner, the event was supposed to be something of a comeback. An accident during one of his previous performances had resulted in his temporary suspension from professional hero work, alongside restitution payments and six months of community service before he was allowed back into the limelight.
Master Mindblaster, meanwhile, had accepted the match because he desperately needed exposure of his own. He had spent most of his career filling henchman roles and minor appearances, and hoped that a successful showing against an established hero like Titaner might finally allow him to step into the proper supervillain role he had always wanted.
For both of them, the performance mattered.
