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Broken Heroes | An original superhero mystery RP [R]

Minteh

It's so shiny!
RP thread: tba

Premise
August 11th 1999 started off as any normal day. The only unique thing about it was a solar eclipse set to happen on that - not that that was unusual or unheard of either. What was unusual was what came after. A mere hour after the eclipse had passed, the first of what would many similar cases were reported.

In Glasgow, Scotland a woman was reported to have given birth to a healthy baby boy. What was unusual about this was that the woman had not been pregnant before that. And she was not the only one to have such an event happen. By the time the day had passed, a total of 86 cases had been reported all over the world.

In the months that followed, a new branch of the British Government opened up and began to go around covertly with the aim of gathering as many of these children as they could. By this point, nobody really knew how talented they would become, but due to the unique circumstances of their birth, many suspected that these children would be far from normal. Including the Scottish boy, the government succeeded in acquiring twelve children altogether. Some of their parents were happy to get rid of them, whereas others gave up their children at the promise of more wealth. The twelve children were eventually spirited away to a tightly guarded mansion in the British countryside where they would spend their upbringing. They would come to know it as The Institute.

As suspected, the children were far from normal, and from the age of five many of them began to develop unique abilities. Some possessed powerful and even dangerous abilities, whereas others possessed weaker and somewhat niche abilities. From the age of seven, the children began an extensive and quite brutal training regiment, which helped them to get a better grasp of their powers, as well as being taught other offensive and defensive skills so as not to always rely on their powers. They were trained by their ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’, who weren’t in fact related to them at all, but merely two semi-retired spies sent in to fulfil a parental role, alongside a small army of android caregivers and human servants.

Their training would prove to be useful, when, in a staged rescue the world was re-introduced to the children as a superhero group known as ‘The Rangers’. Despite the range in powers, they would take (or rather, were assigned) their aliases from the Greek alphabet.

For four years they operated as the Rangers, primarily dealing with issues as a group, but occasionally being sent out on their own to individual missions. To the public, they seemed like a happy group of teenagers and were often paraded around in publicity stunts to act as a perfect family. But behind closed doors, they were anything but that. Years of brutal training, and years of seeing some harrowing crimes, eventually took its toll and in the months leading up to their eighteenth birthday cracks were beginning to show. Private arguments were beginning to spill out into their work life, leading many to question what was really going on and if they were about to go solo. Ironically, the children were set to go solo - just not in the way people thought.

After turning eighteen, all of the children effectively cut ties with the Institute, pointing out that as adults now, they were free to do what they want. Whilst initially opposed to the idea, their parents would soon come around, if only out fear that the children would use their powers to retaliate against them. Of the twelve only one of the children remained behind, ‘Alpha’ was found himself unable to forego the attachment to the life they knew and the parents who had raised them.

Twelve years have passed since then, with the eleven remaining children going on to live varied lives, doing their best to escape the memory of their time at the Institute. And then one day they receive a strange letter in the post, and suddenly it seems they are set to return to the home they said goodbye to twelve years ago.

Plot and setting

The plot of this RP is heavily inspired by a number of things, primarily The Umbrella Academy, Fallen Hero: Rebirth, and When There Were None. As you may have guessed from the title, this is a mystery RP...specifically a murder mystery.

This RP will take place entirely at the Institute and the surrounding grounds, though your intro posts will take place at the meeting point first. The goal of this RP is to find out what happened to your mother, father, and brother. There will be action in places of course, but the main goal is to solve the mystery.

Sign-Up information

Before we get to the Sign-Ups, there are a few details to clarify first.

For your characters, I would like it if their personality was based around one of 12 archetypes (see HERE). They can take up any archetype save for ‘The Ruler’ as that belonged to Alpha.

Powers can literally be anything but I would ask you to be wise and know your limits so as not to make them too OP. For possible suggestions use this link!

Despite coming from all over the world, our characters will have all shared the same last name. Their forename may be whatever you so please (be it assigned by their birth parents or our adopted parents), but as they were raised as a ‘family’ they must all share the same last name which is Caswell.

Another thing to note is what your character did after leaving the Institute. Pretty much anything is down. From wanting to live a semi-normal life to working as a vigilante, or perhaps using their powers for more nefarious purposes.

Sign-Up

Name: (First, and any nicknames)
Age: 30
Gender: (Male, female, other?)
Archetype:
Alias:
(What was their superhero alias working as The Rangers. Names should be taken from the Greek alphabet)
Ability: (What is your character’s ability? Please go into a little detail about it, and clarify any limitations)


Appearance: (A well-sized paragraph or two about your character. Include the general details about the appearance and their usual outfit. You may use images if you want, but an image does not substitute for writing.)

Personality: (Give me an idea of what your character is like. At least two paragraphs. 10+ sentences.)

History: (Give me a history for your character. At least two paragraphs. 10+ sentences. Where did they come from originally, how did they end up at the Institute, what were their feelings on the Institute and the way they were raised, what sort of life did they live after leaving?)

Other: (Anything else you think will be important)

Rules

  • All standard forum rules apply.
  • Please, no bunnying/god-modding without permission. I will allow you to do it to my characters, but only in response to non-violent interactions, and nothing that would seem out of character.
  • Post as often as you can! I know most people have their own thing going on in their personal lives, but this is one of those RPs that is fun if you keep up with it.
  • Swearing is allowed as this is rated 'M, but please don't abuse it. I know some characters will swear, just don't use it as an excuse to have them swear in every sentence.
  • Also, and I can't stress this enough, please make it appear realistic during fight scenes. I know that since there are powers involved, it isn't going to be exactly identical to real life, but don't make it so you character gets punched and is barely affected by it.
  • Don't ask for multiple characters.
  • If you're going to be away for a period of time, please let me know in advance.


NPCS


  • Lucas Caswell ‘Alpha’ - One of the twelve children acquired by the Institute. The golden boy who could do no wrong in your parent’s eyes. Your character may have been resentful or envious towards him. Despite any misgivings, he was genuinely nice to his siblings and was saddened but understanding when they opted to leave. His ability was Light Generation. Deceased.
  • Marron Caswell 'Omicron' - One of the twelve children acquired by the Institute. Quite a friendly girl, until the brutal regime inflicted on her by the Institute took its toll. Despite her at times erratic behaviour, she was generally well-liked by the children.Was one of the most vocal to leave when the group turned eighteen. After leaving she went on to rise through the ranks of a notorious nationwide crime syndicate. Is currently in jail, convicted of murdering one of your other siblings. Her power was Sound Nullification.
  • Garret Caswell ' Epsilon' - One of the twelve children acquired by the Institute. A brash and somewhat foolhardy young man, Garret was always very eager to please, usually with some very mixed results. Despite leaving the Institute at eighteen, he couldn't quite let go of the hero lifestyle and worked as the vigilante 'Polarity' for many years until he died five years ago. Your other sibling, Marron, was convicted of killing him. His power was Metal Mimicry. Deceased.
  • Renata Caswell ‘Mother’ - Renata was your ‘mother’, or at least who they assigned to be your mother. To the public she kind and doting, everything a perfect mother should be. In private she was cruel and overbearing, very nitpicky who showed little love to her children except for when they demonstrated extreme skill with their powers. Deceased.
  • Matthew Caswell ‘Father’- Matthew was your ‘father’, or at least who they assigned to be your father. Like Renata appeared to be the perfect father in public, but in private was harsh and strict, if somewhat abusive. Keen for the children to keep to their stick schedule and was especially hateful towards their decision to leave. Deceased.
  • The Janets - The Janets is an umbrella term used to describe the androids who took care of you in the place of your parents. Warm and very bubbly, they were programmed to be loving. It should be no surprise that many of the children latched onto them during their time at the Institute. Most were destroyed after the children left but a few remain at the estate.
  • Nathan Wicke - Head butler.
  • June - Head maid.
  • Pedro, Carolyn, and Penny - Servants working at the Institute.

Player List

  1. Ginevra Caswell ‘Omega’ (The Creator) - Played by Minteh
  2. Jared Caswell 'Chi' (The Sage) - Played by Tangy (ACCEPTED)
  3. Devin Caswell 'Sigma' (The Lovers) - Played by Yasha (ACCEPTED)
  4. Cameron Caswell 'Iota' (The Innocent)- Played by Mon (ACCEPTED)
  5. Morgan Caswell 'Psi' (The Magician) - Played by Mace (ACCEPTED)
  6. Gale Caswell 'Xi'(The Rebel) - RESERVE FOR JEAN GREY
  7. Evelyn Caswell 'Tau' (The Jester) - Played by Vern (ACCEPTED)
  8. Lilith Caswell 'Rho' (The Caregiver)- Played by Skillfulness (ACCEPTED)
  9. Theodore Caswell 'Zeta' (The Orphan) - Played by Goldenhouou (ACCEPTED)
 
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*Jean Grey*

Night Triumphant
Can I reserve The Rebel in particular? Thanks!
 

Schade

Metallic Wonder
Reserving Lovers and the number Sigma. (Σ)
 

Minteh

It's so shiny!
My sign-up (W.I.P)

Name: Ginevra 'Ginny' Caswell
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Archetype: The Creator
Alias: Omega [Ω]
Ability: Papyrokinesis (Paper Manipulation) - Ginny can shape and manipulate paper and/or paper-like substances, such as papyrus and parchment. Ginny's powers require a source of paper/paper-like substances to work. Her ability is also weakened by the typical weaknesses of paper too i.e. fire burns it, water softens it.


Appearance:
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660334.png
660340.png

Ginevra is not the sort of person most people look at twice. Besides an interesting scar under her left eye, she is quite plain looking. Not ugly by any means - in fact, she's rather pretty - she's just not the sort to draw attention to herself. Which works out perfect for her, in an effort to forget her former past. She is fair skinned, and relatively blemish free, save for a scar under her eyes, and some smaller scars elsewhere on her body from her time as a Ranger. Her hair is ginger and wavy, and she styles it in a small shoulder-length bob for the most part. Though working on some larger art pieces she finds it easier to tie up in a small ponytail or something. She has a slightly upturned button nose, and plump lips. She has a slight overbite, causing her mouth to constantly be slightly parted when not speaking.

In regards to style, Ginny is pretty varied. For the most part, her wardrobe could be described as pretty varied, ranging in style from high-quality designer clothes to own-brand clothes of slightly lower quality. Ginny's typical outfit is a plaid dress, over a black turtleneck, and dark tights. She usually wears a bear of dark brown ankle boots with these, but sometimes swaps them out for more comfortable shoes depending on where she's at.

Personality: Ginny is not a woman who stands out much in regards to personality. Especially in comparison to some of her siblings. She is a calm and collected individual the majority of the time, preferring to take a step back and seeing how events unfold rather than taking an active part in them. Of course, during her time as a Ranger, she often forced herself into helping out more, so as not to leave the brunt of the work on her siblings.

Ginny is a creator at heart. From a young age, she used reading and painting as a way to escape the rather unconventional upbringing she had. In many ways focusing on these talents and hobbies is probably what kept her sane, and prevented her from being consumed by some of the horrors they had to endure. In part due to how she was raised, she is something of a perfectionist and hates making mistakes or errors. In her youth making a mistake or not getting something perfect the first time around would often lead to punishment from her parents. In an effort to avoid their ire, she pushed herself to do things to the best standard the first time around, where she could be commended for her efforts. The drive for perfection has given her something of an ambitious streak, and she's always hungry for more difficult editing jobs or more detailed commissions to further her skills.

Few people would know Ginny as a Ranger today, but regardless, that part of her past is deeply ingrained in her memories. In many ways, when Ginny left the Institute, she saw it as her chance to break free and make a name for herself outside of the family. Her job as an editor might not leave much room to work with on that front, but her paintings har garnered her a little bit of fame and recognition, something which she hopes will last long after she's gone.

History: August 11th 1999 started off as any normal day for Siobhan Wallis of Galway, Ireland. She had woken up, showered, had breakfast and had gone to work. Besides an eclipse, nothing out of the ordinary had come to her that day; in fact, unlike most of her colleagues, she wasn't very interested in the eclipse, instead opting to focus on her work and make some notes for the upcoming Christmas party. Things would take a notable change during her commute home. Siobhan didn't drive, but she took the train to and from work every day. Whilst reading on the way home, she felt a sudden sharp stomach cramp. At first, she thought nothing of it and ignored them, but when they became more frequent and severe, she knew she could no longer ignore them Her fellow commuters came to her aid, seeing that she was in visible pain, and by the time the train pulled up at the next stop a beautiful baby girl had been bought into the world.

After a short stay in the hospital, a rather bewildered Siobhan, and her newly named daughter Ginevra made their way home. Not having planned for a baby, due to not even being pregnant until she gave birth, she was completely unprepared for a baby. In fact, she didn't even want a baby! Unable to afford many of the items herself, Siobhan had taken to asking family and neighbours for baby supplies and was preparing for a life with a child she did not want. That was until one day, roughly seven weeks later, she received a knock at the door. Outside were two suited individuals who came to inquire whether Siobhan would consider parting with her child.

Most parents would have refused, snapped at the suited individuals for such absurd ideas and kicked them out. But Siobhan was not most parents. The prospect of having her baby taken away no questions asked was simply too good an offer to pass up, and so she readily passed Ginevra along to them, not even asking where it was she was going.

Like eleven other children, Ginny was spirited away to a tightly guarded mansion in the British countryside. She never knew a word about her birth mother, not that she ever wanted to for much of her life. At the Institute she had two adoptive parents but was primarily cared for by an army of android nanny's known as Janets. She and the other children were raised as siblings, and she enjoyed all of their company, though at times would clash with them in that way that all siblings do.

As with all the children, Ginny's ability kicked in when she was five. She had been drawing with some of her siblings when a tantrum broke out, and suddenly paper was flying around the room. At first, it was unclear what exactly her power was. Her parents assumed it was telekinesis or something, the prospect of which excited them greatly. However, when she was shown to fold a piece of paper into an unusual and complex shape, with only the slightest of touches, it became clear what her real power was. Although she does not recall it, her parents both commented on how it was "disappointing", having quietly hoped she was developing more useful telekinetic powers.

Years passed and alongside their education, Ginny and her siblings were given extensive training in fighting, subterfuge, and how better to control their abilities. Many of the children, Ginny included, assumed this was simply done to help them have better control of themselves, but their parents had ulterior motives for the training. At twelve, they were formally introduced to the world as 'The Rangers', with their superhero names coming from the Greek alphabet. The mission had been completely staged, but the public, of course, did not know this but were quickly enamoured by the idea of this group of super-powered teens.

After formally being introduced, their training was ramped up to include weapons training and they were put on a tighter and more brutal training regiment. They were expected to wake early, have breakfast followed by four hours of lessons, a small lunch, followed by combat training for five hours afterwards. What they focused on varied from day to day, but it was all equally as difficult. As for their missions, they could take place at any time, and there were many occasions when they had to forego lessons or were woken late at night to fulfil their duties as the Rangers. With the more brutal training regiment, their parents became even harsher and more unforgiving. Even the slightest slip up would be enough to get punished. To the public, the family appeared happy and stable, but behind closed doors, cracks were beginning to form. Their parent's true natures were becoming more obvious, and as the years passed, dissent rose among them. Dissatisfied with how they had been treated and the lives they had been forced to lead many of the children advocated to split up the team and leave the Institute. Despite Alpha attempting to reconcile the group and keep them together, he could not stop them and was forced to concede defeat.

At eighteen, Ginny gladly said goodbye to the Institute, disappearing into the night never to be seen again. Her name disappeared for a few months, before she popped back up in Edinburgh, having applied for a creative writing degree at the university there. Whilst studying, she spent a lot of time pursuing art as well, a talent of hers which had been squashed for the most part, as her parents deemed it useless. Not that it had ever stopped her from drawing little pictures or making origami animals to cheer her siblings up though. Although she was keen to forget her upbringing and past, Ginny did miss her siblings greatly and did her best to try and keep up with them. Although she did not attend the trials, she was shocked to hear of what happened between her siblings Marron and Garret and kept up with it via the newspapers.

In recent years, Ginny has begun working as an editor for a big publishing company. It pays well and she enjoys her work, but her real passion is art. She takes commissions on the side when she had the time. She has also had her artwork shown in galleries all over the county. Around six years ago, Ginny also gave birth to a child, a young daughter she named Mira. She flitted around relationships for a long time after leaving the Institute, her perfectionism and notoriously high standards making it hard for her stay in a relationship for very long. When she fell pregnant, it had been unexpected, especially since she had only recently reconnected with the father and had been adamant against bringing a child of her own. The father, a man named Jordan, was one of her old roommates from university, who she reconnected with when her former flatmate and she invited him round for a catchup. Despite getting on well with him, she had been nervous about telling him the news, perhaps fearing he would leave her or not want the child. But to her relief he did. And despite only having been in an official relationship since learning of the pregnancy, the two of them got married in a simple ceremony seven months after their daughter was born.

When she received a mysterious letter one day, she was taken back at its contents. Her parents and brother were dead and her presence was required at the Institute to hash out inheritances. Now, Ginny did not care much for her parents at that point, nor the promise of money if she was being honest, but the death of Alpha struck a blow to her. Purely for his sake, she found herself, arranging to meet again. Although a part of her is interested in seeing her siblings again, she is nervous about the bad blood between them which might get drawn up.

Other: - Works as an editor at a fairly well-known publishing house. Read a popular book recently? Ginny probably edited for it.
- She's a decent cook and enjoys experimenting with ingredients in the kitchen.
- As mentioned she has had artwork shown at galleries before and even once did an anonymous exhibition about the Rangers. The exhibition likened the group to fallen angels in a sense and might light of the many flaws surrounding their foundation and training. Although never officially confirmed as her, many of her siblings were familiar enough with her style to know she had been the artist.
- Ginny is bisexual. She had flings with both men and women before marrying Jordan.
- She can speak English and fluent French, as well as some small phrases in German.
 
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GoldenHouou

antagoonist
Ngh OK you know what, gimme Zeta and Orphan after all bc I'm weak

Name: Theodore "Theo" Caswell
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Archetype: Orphan
Alias: Zeta [ ζ ]
Ability: Lie Detection - be it in spoken or written form, he can tell when people are being insincere. Though Theodore can pinpoint the exact part they're lying about, he cannot tell what the actual truth is unless the matter is binary (i.e., "did you do it or not"). His power only extends to lies told on purpose; if a person says something untrue because they don't know better, he does not pick it up as a lie.

Appearance:

sdasds-2.png

Theodore givers off the impression of being a prior straight-A student - one who graduated with honours and now earns a six figure salary. He stands at a rather unimpressive 5'10'' with a body type that belies his actual strength. His bones are light, shoulders narrow and face narrower, giving him a slim look. Though his skin is tan, it's due to genetics rather than excessive time in the sun. His dark brown hair is always combed back neatly, and never allowed to grow past his temples. Large, thin-framed glasses frame his eyes and serve as an outlet for anxiousness; he tends to adjust them when needing time gather his thoughts. No one knows how bad his sight is without them, but he claims it to be quite poor. Despite this, perhaps thanks to his ability, the look in his cobalt eyes is sharp and scrutinizing, almost as if he could see right through you - and your lies.

When it comes to clothing, Theo is rarely if ever caught in anything that isn't prim and proper; that is, suits, dress shirts, straight pants and matching shoes and ties. He prefers to dress formal whenever he can get away with it, and casual formal when not. Some of his coworkers have joked that he even sleeps in a suit, which isn't all that different from the truth - his pajamas do look pretty stuffy, as well. The only place where he dresses drastically differently (for obvious reasons) is the gym - a place where he becomes almost unrecognizable. He abandons the glasses and the formalwear, doesn't mind if his hair gets messy, and even his actually muscly physique is given a chance to show. Theo doesn't much care for accessories, save for one specific exception; he really loves pocket watches. He collects them, and chances are that if he has to tell the time, he reaches for one of those rather than a wrist watch or a cellphone.

Personality: Though Theo has a knack for reading people, it is quite difficult to read him in turn. Even when among those few that he considers himself close to, he isn't really the type to open up or talk in excess about himself. In general, feelings aren't really his forte; yes, he has them just like everyone else, but he finds talking about them awkward at best, detrimental at worst. Though generally well-meaning, he has a hard time putting himself in other people's shoes, or knowing what to say or do to comfort someone, for example. Instead, he tries to approach every problem from a more logical, pragmatical angle that some might find odd or even cold. But though his lack of expressiveness and words of comfort may make him come across as aloof at times, he's anything but.

Deep down, Theo is a worrywart - more so when it comes to others than himself. He's always been somewhat self-sacrificial when it comes to people he cares about, putting their needs before his own without hesitation or a word of warning. Lately, though, such behaviour has diminished somewhat; while he would still do anything to protect those closest to him - such as his children - he doesn't extend such courtesy to everyone. In his line of work, he's had to let criminals go and convict innocent people - and that has forced him to grow tougher and more distant. Doing things he knows are wrong still hurts, but he's reasoned that he has no choice; that it's just how the world is. He feels disillusioned, and it's clear that he has grown very cynical over the years.

Even so, Theo is responsible and dependable if you do decide to place your trust on him. That is, as long as you don't expect him to be quite as honest as he once was. Though he would much rather tell the truth - and continues to do so, even bluntly, when he can - he has learnt to convincingly and begrudgingly lie when the situation calls for it. Mostly to protect things; people, secrets and, perhaps above everything else, his own bonds with others. After all, at the core of Theo's personality is his desperate need to feel like he belongs somewhere. It's a goal he's chased after his entire life, only to have met with failure after failure. So whenever he does feel like he has a place to belong to and people to hold dear, he's willing to protect them fiercely at any cost. Not through violence, if he can help it - there are other far more effective ways - but if push comes to shove, he is surprisingly strong despite his appearance.

History: Adelaide Bianchi was a lonely woman at the end of her rope. She had no family or job to occupy her, and most of the friends she used to spend her evenings with had long since gotten married and started families of their own. First she'd only been able to see them few times a month, then once in two - until, eventually, she could no longer remember the last time she'd sat down for tea with someone. Worse, though she loved seeing pictures of her friends' joy on social media, she never could look at the cooing babies in their arms without feeling an ache in her chest. Her biggest regret in life was not being alone, or poor, or jobless; it was not being a mother. She was a woman of almost forty now - the chances of that ever changing were growing slimmer with every passing day. Soon, it would be too late.

Then, one morning in early August, she woke to a miracle: she was in labour. Hours later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She did not understand how or why, and could only rationalize it as her prayers having been answered at last. She cried the rest of the day. Not from pain, or even exhaustion from hours upon hours of labour, but of pure, profound joy.

Adelaide knew that the upcoming years would not be easy. She was not financially stable and had no partner to share her burden, but she was determined to make ends meet at any cost necessary. He had given her life meaning again. Now, she would make sure her baby could live a meaningful life in turn. Feliciano, she planned to name him, for the joy he'd brought her.

Her bliss was not to last.

A few months later, strange men came knocking at her door. They offered to take care of her problem, to relieve her of the burden of a child she had not planned, and to give him a life elsewhere. Adelaide was as shocked as she was insulted, and slammed the door shut before the men could get in another word. It did not deter them. They broke in moments after, their intentions clear; they were here to take her baby away. She fought. She fought with words, fists, and whatever she managed to grasp at in the struggle that ensued. She fought like a mother bear protecting her young, relentless and uncaring of her own state of injury.

In the end, even a mother's love could not best a bullet.

When the men carried the crying baby outside, Feliciano Bianchi, the miracle child that once saved a woman from loneliness, ceased to be. The baby would grow up as Theodore Caswell, far away from his mother's home, under the watchful eyes of parents that held no love for him. He wasn't alone, though. Eleven other children shared his fate, and they would be brought up as one big 'family', if one could call it that.

As was the case with his siblings, Theo's powers first manifested around age five. However, unlike most of the others, the manner of his powers was not apparent for the longest time - not to him nor those around him. When he first started to detect lies, he didn't even realize he was doing so. He just always knew when things were not quite the way someone said them, but he figured it was normal. Certainly more so than controlling light, or paper, or turning things into gold, or shrinking in size.

Due to his continued lack of clear powers, the Caswells started to wonder if some kind of a mistake had been made with the boy. Perhaps he wasn't one of the miraculous children after all. In which case, they were wasting their time. Frustrated by the thought, they tried to bring out his powers through various means, many of which were not pleasant. Perhaps he just had to be sufficiently scared, or hungry, or maybe he had to be isolated for a bit, or it could be that his powers only manifested if he was in actual danger - or in enough pain.

None of it produced any results, of course. All they managed to do was make Theo more distrustful.

Ironically, it was ordinary interactions with his siblings that eventually made the nature of his powers clear. Cameron was particularly helpful in this regard; the parents were aware of his powers of suggestion and its effects, and over time noticed that the cutesy excuses he made never quite worked on Theodore the way they did on the others. No matter how cute Theo found his brother, he could always tell when he was not telling the truth. It was confusing for Theo himself, and it took quite a bit longer until he was clued in to what was happening.

In retrospect, his life would've been much easier if he'd never understood his powers.

Once he knew he could detect lies, Theo could no longer ignore them. There was no way to shut his ears from the truth, no matter how painful it might've been - and so, phrases that had once brought him momentary joy turned hollow, even cruel. "I'm proud of you", "Father didn't mean to hurt you", "This is for your own good", "Of course we love you."

Lies, all of them.

To this day, he vividly remembers how, after learning he was adopted, he locked eyes with his 'mother' to ask if his real mother, the one he never knew, was doing well. Renata's smile was convincing, and her tone soft - but to Theo, the words felt like daggers. "Of course, dear."

He knew, then and there, that he would never get to meet her.

Throughout the years, it became obvious that Theodore was not the favourite child of either of his adaptive parents. Perhaps it was because his power had little combat utility, or because his parents felt uncomfortable talking to him, knowing that no matter what they did, they could not hide their true nature from him. He was quick to realize that something was going on with the training they were put through, and that it wasn't quite normal. Nothing about their situation was.

Disillusioned, he tried to let his other siblings know the truth as well; that they were not loved, and that the training they were put through was not for their own good. That there was something more afoot. But whether it was out of fear or simply due to a child's natural instinct to trust their 'parents', many of his siblings - like Cameron, Devin and Lucas - did not believe him. And while some, like Morgan and Gale, did believe him, the knowledge didn't seem to be beneficial to them. On the contrary, in some cases it seemed to only fuel the fear or anger they felt, and that just led to more trouble.

The truth did not set them free - it backed them further into a corner.

And then, someone told on him - Lucas, to be precise, though Theo did not know it at the time. His parents were furious to learn of Theo's secret pursuits, and the punishment he received was severe. He was warned never to try and turn his siblings against them ever again, or the next time it would not be only him that suffers for it. This was a happy family, and he was not going to ruin it. Terrified, for both himself and his siblings, Theo decided to keep quiet. He was not going to give up on helping his family, though. He had to do something, yet he couldn't figure out what. He wasn't as brave as Gale, standing up and fighting for the others, nor was he as nurturing and sympathetic as Lilith, who could soothe anyone with a few words. All he had on his side was the truth - and it clearly wasn't wanted. Yet he could not ignore it and join the other half of his siblings in their ignorant bliss, either. He felt like he didn't really belong anywhere. Like he was watching the family from the outside, knowing too much, daring to do very little.

Then, one day years later, their parents came and blamed Theo for a recent candy theft Morgan had committed. They insisted that they remembered him taking the sweets, and Theo's powers did not pick their words up as lies - which led to a very confused Theo. He'd seen Morgan do it - what was going on? Was it... had Morgan used his powers to...? No, it didn't matter. Without skipping a beat, Theo nodded his head - and admitted to a crime he had never committed. He suffered the following punishment, and Morgan got to walk away without a scratch. It was then that it all clicked, that Theo found a way to help. If truth would not help, then perhaps... lies would.

Over the years, Theo had seen many people lie - and so, one by one, he had also become familiar with all the little tells they showed when doing so. With some, the tells were clear as a day once you knew to look for them; darting eyes, covered faces, beads of sweat rolling down red-hot skin. With others, like Matthew, the tells were more subdued; a single glance elsewhere, a misplaced pause between words - a barrier that separated the truth from lies. Then there were those that that showed no signs. They were the most terrifying of all, people who wielded words the way a surgeon would a scalpel; precise and unwavering. If they had a conscience, they had long since suffocated it. Such people were rare, but they existed. One of them, he was forced to call mother: Renata Caswell.

But though seeing Renata lie with so little effort was terrifying, it was also undeniably educational. By observing people's tells, Theo could learn to avoid them - and eventually, even mimic the almost inhuman conviction with which Renata told her lies. One lie at a time, Theo slowly became a master at the very thing he loathed. Yet, no matter how convincing he was, there was one thing his lies could not escape from; his own powers. Every single time he knowingly told a lie, he felt the same unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach that he did with others. At times, it felt even stronger when the words were his own - as if reminding him of the wrong he was doing.

It was a feeling he had to get used to over the years.

With his newly discovered knack for deception, Theo begun to lie to try and get his siblings out of trouble whenever he could, often by taking the blame for their actions. He was already viewed in a disfavourable light by their parents, so it wasn't all that difficult to make them believe he was the culprit behind most given actions. And so, for a few years, things were good - or at the very least, as good as they could be in such a twisted household. Theo took on punishments for others, but in exchange, he felt as though he was useful - part of something, no longer just an outsider.

Then came the big reveal.

At twelve, Theo and his siblings begun to be paraded around as heroes, and both their training and punishments became far more severe. Taking the blame for someone no longer meant less food, verbal berating, a slap or solitary confinement in their stead; it meant taking on a full beating, time and time again. Theo's resolve threatened to falter. Enduring extensive physical and psychologically violence for days on end was difficult, especially when he had such an easy way to stop it at his disposal: all he had to do was stop taking blame.

Time and again, he did indeed think of stopping - yet found himself unable to. During their time as superheroes, it had become obvious that he was... not the most useful person for the squad, at last when it came to ensuring everyone's well being. At times, he felt downright useless; while his siblings were risking their lives, either on the frontlines or in covert operations, he sat in the safety of a distant location, looking at the world through the scope of a sniper rifle. Sometimes, he was even more detached from the action, used simply as a remote lie detector, able to hear everything going on in his siblings' location, but unable to offer any other form of help than words. The least he could do to make up for his uselessness was to suffer in their stead when he could. "It was me; I did it" - he repeated those words so often they seemed to lose all meaning.

Throughout it all, Marron was the one that worried for him the most. The two had been close ever since young, and her power to nullify sound had been a godsent whenever the house had been too full of lies for Theo to bear. Perhaps it was due to that, but she seemed to always know when something was up with him, even if he didn't say a word - especially as of late. So whenever she saw him with another bruise and asked him if he was alright, Theo gave her a small smile and the biggest, most painful lie of all: "I'm fine." He couldn't let her know; and yet part of him wanted someone to know. The juxtaposition was confusing, annoying, and it made him bitter towards the very people he purposefully didn't tell his problems to. It made no sense, and he knew things couldn't go on like that for long.

They did go on - for another few years.

And then, one day, the Caswell children were children no longer.

Free to do as they pleased by law, Theo's siblings chose to leave their old life behind and set out to find happiness away from their abusive 'parents'. Though it was no doubt the smartest thing to do, Theo couldn't help but hesitate. He'd suffered so much just to feel like he was part of a family, like he was useful to his siblings. If the family he'd worked so hard for broke apart now, what would he have left? Nothing, it seemed like, and it scared him.

In the end, it was Marron that convinced him to leave with the rest of them. She promised to stay in contact, and it was her that planted the dream of a law career into his head. It would be a perfect way to keep using his powers for something good, and ensure that evildoers would not be able to walk free. He agreed, and with one final glance behind him, left behind everything he'd known for the past eighteen years. But though he was anxious, he was also hopeful. Finally, he could leave behind all the lies and deceit, and embrace a world where people did not break each others' trust on a whim. He could finally stop lying, too, and return back to the honesty he'd always valued.

Looking back, even at eighteen, he was clearly still a child with the naivete of one.

As it soon turned out, the outside world was no less insincere. It was a fact he learnt quickly; whether he was walking the streets or sitting home watching TV, his powers kept picking up untruths. The world around him was filled to the brim with lies, and it made many a place and situation much more difficult. For the longest time, Theo did his best not to contribute to it. Throughout his first few years at law school, he made sure to be honest come what may, hoping that it would inspire others to do the same. It did not. All it did was alienate him from his peers, pushing him into a place he feared the most; isolation.

Once he realized that, he did everything in his power to escape it. He tried joining clubs, going to parties, striking up conversations with strangers - all things that did not come easy for him, but nothing lasted. Even Marron, who he had been in frequent contact with for a few years, eventually moved away and grew distant. Eventually, he decided to focus solely on graduation, and his future career thereafter. If he just endured a few more years, he'd finally be able to work his dream job - and then, maybe then, he would find his place among fellow lawyers.

Ironically, it was once he'd already given up on trying to connect with his fellow students that he met Caitlyn - a girl as lonely as him, and his future wife. They met at a party neither of them had wanted to attend, and had ended up finding common ground on that fact. They grew close, and married soon after graduation. It was difficult to say whether it was a marriage out of love - or mutual desperation for acceptance. Either way, there were feelings involved. Strong ones, real ones, and that was enough to carry the couple for a few years to come. And when Theo landed his dream job and found himself at the top of the world for a few court cases, their marriage blossomed.

But like everything in his life so far, that bliss, too, was not to last. As it soon turned out, trials weren't really about who was right and who was wrong, who was guilty and who was not - at least for the lawyers involved. No, it was about two opposing sides being hired to prove each other wrong, irregardless of what the truth might've been. There came a time when he had to defend someone he knew to be guilty - and there came a time when he had to prosecute someone he knew to be innocent.

And it was devastating.

It felt as though the very ground he'd built his life upon had been stripped from underneath him. Yes, he'd seen people lie to each other throughout his life, but the courtroom had always seemed somewhat of a sacred place to him. A place where justice prevailed and lies were laid bare; just like Marron had described it, so long ago. If he wasn't safe from lies even there, then where could he go? What could he believe in? Truth be told, Theo wanted to quit. He thought of doing it many a time, but there were two good reasons as to why he could not; his twin babies. Caitlyn was a stay-at-home mother, and the two could not afford to provide for their children without a well-paying job. And so, just like many years ago, Theo found himself returning back to the lies he used to tell. When Caitlyn asked him how things were, he answered, almost mechanically, "I'm fine."

But for the first time in his life, his lies could not fool someone. She saw right through them.

From there, their relationship started to eventually grow sour. Theo became more bitter and cynical, his trust in the world broken. And in an attempt to hide at least some of it, he lied - and he knew she did, too. Of small things, at first; things he could ignore, even if they did cause him discomfort. But then the lies became bigger and more important, until years later, he felt a familiar drop in his stomach when she gave him a kiss in the morning and told him she loved him.

And yet, Theo could not even bear the thought of a divorce. Even a loveless marriage was better than none at all. He could not bear to be alone again.

She thought otherwise. Unlike him, she was no longer alone; she'd gotten friends, acquaintances, a whole network of people that cared for her and that she cared for in turn. So, a year later, she left - along with their kids. She did not leave with bad blood, however; or at the very least, Theo believed so. She said she harboured no ill will towards him, and he could tell she was being genuine. They agreed on a shared custody, and Theo is allowed to see his kids every other weekend to this day. For the longest time, the two of them were what kept him sane.

Then came a trial that threatened to take that sanity away. The trial of one Marron Caswell, standing trial for the murder of Garret Caswell.

Theo was assigned to be the prosecutor, and for the first time in his career, he was prepared to lose on purpose. Carefully, surreptitiously, but still on purpose to ensure she would not be wrongly convicted. He had put enough innocents in prison. He could not do it to his own sister.

Marron had... changed, since the last he saw her - and yet, she had not. There was something dark and heavy behind her gaze, yes, but she still had the same smile when she looked at him. Perhaps that's why it hurt all the more, when that smile parted to utter the words "I did not do it."

Because she did. That realization was the worst of Theo's entire life, and it took all the willpower he had to keep standing with a straight back. He wanted to run up to her, grab her shoulders and shake her until her lies turned to truth. But he could not. And so, a few hours later, Marron Caswell was sentenced to prison for the murder of her adoptive brother. For Theo, the case was won - yet it certainly did not feel like it.

He met another sibling soon after, walking up to him once the trial had concluded; a sibling he barely recognized at first. Jared asked whether it was true - whether Marron really had really done what she was accused of. In an instant, Theo felt like he was a kid again, standing in Renata and Matthew's shadow as they demanded to know what had happened and who was at fault.

'It was me, I did it', 'It was me, I did it'.

Perhaps he was protecting what little remained of Marron's reputation. Perhaps he was protecting Jared from the knowledge that his sister was a murdered. Perhaps he didn't think at all, the lie slipping out before he could think it true. It's not like he didn't know what lying entailed; if she wasn't guilty, he wrongfully convicted her. But it would - should - be easier to hate than to grieve.

"No, she didn't do it."

He hasn't seen any of his siblings since those words.

At least, until an unassuming letter changed it all.

Other:

- Though he doesn't look like it, Theo is quite buff underneath the fine suits and shirts. Going to the gym is one of the only ways he has to unwind; there, people don't really talk, falsely or otherwise. They just train. It's nice and peaceful.

- Used to be quite a skilled sniper back in the day, but has since lost his perfect 20/20 vision. He also hasn't touched a gun since his superhero days.

- Likes animals, since they're unable to lie. Owns two cats, named Law and Order. Corny, yes, he knows. Even his kids make fun of him for it.

- Has two children, twin girls, Selena and Stella, aged 5. They mean the world to him, and stay over at his place every other weekend.

- Shuns all social media due to the immense amount of lies there. He tried to follow Devin once - it did not end well, and he deleted his account soon after.
 
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Monster Guy

Fairy type Trainer
Name: Cameron Caswell (Also called Cam, Cammy, or Cap'n Cute)
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Archetype: The Innocent
Alias: Iota (Ι)
Ability: Absolute Cuteness: Cameron possesses a level of cuteness above all others. His powers don't effect his appearance, it's more like he is able to charm his victims. Those who gaze upon him become enamored by him, and have a desire to do things for him and protect him. (Within reason, people won't intentionally kill themselves for him if it's not in their personality to throw their lives away for someone they think is cute.) It can even effect people that see him on film, which has helped his career. He can use his overwhelming cuteness to manipulate others by giving them suggestions. Sometimes, the victim may not carry out his suggestion in the way he wants. Thankfully, he has learned to turn his power on and off at will.

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Appearance: Even without the aid of his powers, many people still find Cameron adorable. When you see him, you would never believe he's thirty. He has fair skin, and big blue eyes that reflect his child like enthusiasm. He has a round babyface that makes him seem younger than he is, along with a button nose, and a mouth that is often in a smile. He is short in stature, standing at exactly five feet tall. He is not embarrassed by his small size in the least, saying it adds to his appeal. He has a slim build, but he has toned muscles. Much to a lot of peoples surprise, he does in fact have abs underneath the clothes he wears. He has short blonde hair that curls a bit at the ends. He has no body or facial hair whatsoever. His earlobes are pierced so he can wear earrings.

Cam loves pink and cute things, and that extends to his choice of clothes as well. He enjoys floral patterns, stars, hearts, smiley faces, basically anything cute. He also enjoys wearing cute dresses from time to time, and doesn't think it's fair that only girls should wear them. His adoptive father never let him wear the kinds of clothes he wanted to wear, so now he takes advantage of his freedom. He currently wears a pink sleeveless top with a white vest over it. He also wears a white tie around his neck that has a light blue brooch attached to it. He wears a pair of wide pink trousers as bottoms. The trousers are decorated with light blue accents, including little stars on the pockets. They are also held up by a white belt that has a light blue buckle. On his feet are a pair of light blue boots. He accesorizes with pink star earrings in his earlobes. He also wears a pink cap on top of his head that is intentionally worn to the side. The front of the cap is also decorated with a light blue star, as well as a stripe around the visor.

Personality: Cameron is innocent, carefree, and seemingly always happy. He is a cheerful man who doesn't like to let bad things bother him. He always has a smile on his face even during the mort dire of situations, and is often in a good mood in general. He is an eternal optimist, and likes to see the good in every situation. He believes that if you focus on the positive, and ignore the bad, the bad stuff will just go away.

His optimism is most prevelant in his dealings with other people. He does his best to share his positivity with others, and tries his best to comfort other people who are sad. He likes to believe that everyone is ultimately good, and always gives people the benefit of the doubt. However, he can be quick to trust the wrong people because of his optimism. He rarely ever gets mad at others. Even if he does get mad, he gets over it very quickly. He openly expresses affection through touching in the form of hugs, holding hands, as well as stroking and grabbing shoulders.

He is easily exciteable and hyperactive. It is difficult to get him to sit still and focus on a single subject for too long before he gets bored and move on to the next thing. While he is able to think quick on his feet during intense situations. he often acts impulsively, and jumps to conclusions without thinking first. Even in conversations, he tends to go off on tangents. He is also quick to apologize for anything he regrets doing, even if he hasn't done anything wrong. His parents punished him harshly for any little mistake, so he is constantly concerned about displeasing others.

He really enjoyed his time as a Superhero. While the violent aspects were something he could live without, he liked it because he brought joy to others. He also enjoyed the attention and fame being a superhero brought. After he left the institute, he became an actor for the purposes of getting attention and fame. He has no problems using his powers to get attention when he starts feeling lonely. Cameron knows he is adorable, and he does use it to his advantage if he knows if it will benefit him somehow. He’ll use his cheery personality, and childish behaviors to manipulate others, He’ll play dumb, and act like he doesn’t understand the other person’s request, to avoid rejection, or just get out of situation he doesn’t like. He is also very good at acting, and knows how to say just the right things to get what he wants. It's the way he was raised, and he was heavily encouraged to be this way.

Cameron has a passion for cute and pretty things. Most of his possessions are pink, he has a collection of plush toys and fashion dolls, and has many other childish interests. So many people have a problem with a thirty year old man liking such things, but Cam does not care. Due to his upbringing, he missed out on his childhood, so now he's making up for lost time. Ultimately, Cameron not only wants to be happy himself, but also to make others happy.

History: Cameron’s birth mother was Luana Mason, an up and coming actress who’s career was on the rise. She was at her home in Hollywood California during the eclipse when she suddenly gave birth to a baby boy. She did not go to the hospital, because she believed if word of this got to the press her career would be over. Luana and her personal assistant delivered the baby at the house. She hadn’t shown any signs of pregnancy before. Luana wasn’t prepared for a baby at this point in her life. Sure maybe later on, but right now, her film career was just getting started, she couldn’t possibly settle down to raise a baby now. So, she gave the baby to an assistant, who left him at the orphanage. Some time later, the baby was adopted by mysterious men in suits, and flown back to England.

Cameron was taken to a tightly guarded mansion in the British countryside. He never knew who his birth mother was. At the Institute he had two adoptive parents but was primarily cared for by an army of android nanny's known as the Janets. He and eleven other children were raised as siblings. Cameron was a sweet and Innocent child. He loved all of his siblings for different reasons in different ways. Even if they were prone to normal sibling disagreements. He was particularly close to his brother Lucas. He did the most to protect him.

One particular day, the Janets were trying to dress his sister, Gale, in frilly pink dresses, but Gale wasn't having any of it. Cameron came in the room one day, and tried on one of the dresses Gale threw out. He loved it, and even the Janets thought it was cute. So, the Janets stopped forcing the pink dresses onto Gale, and dress Cameron instead. Eventually, Matthew caught wind of this and punished Cameron for wearing a dress. He apologized profusely, but every now and then, one of the Janets would let him wear dresses behind his father's back.

All of the siblings started developing powers when they turned five, and Cameron was no exception, even though his parents didn't know what his powers were at first. His brother Lucas was very protective of him when he was around Cameron, and it seemed like it was more than just sibling instincts. They didn't realize what his powers were until they put him into training, and both parents found themselves enamored with him, that they realized what his ability was. He was heavily encouraged to use his powers for anything. He even worked with his brother Morgan and used their powers together to get them out of training for a day when they didn't feel like it.

Even though both parents found themselves being charmed by Cameron, they still put him in the same training routine as the other siblings. In addition to his education, he was trained to better control and harness his abilities, as well as training in hand to hand combat, gymnastics to make use of his small stature and agility, and was given acting lessons to better put his powers to use. He didn't understand why he was being trained like this, but went along with it, believeing in his parents good intentions.

At the age of twelve, Cameron learned why he had been put through all of this training. He and his siblings were revealed to the public as a superhero team known as "The Rangers" with their aliases coming from the Greek alphabet. Cameron was given the name Iota. After that, their training was ramped up to include weapons training, and they were put on a tight and brutal schedule. Even the slightest slip up was enough to get punished. However, due to his powers, Cameron was often punished less harshly than some of the others. A few of the other siblings often helped to shield him from violence, and preserve his innocence. However, he wasn't completely immune to punishment. For example, he did once get grounded for trying to dye his Iota suit pink to make it reflect his personality better.

Despite the harshness, Cameron found himself enjoying being Iota. It gave him a sense of purpose. To bring joy into people’s lives. Iota had a number of fans. On the days when things were difficult, he had to remind himself that he was making people happy. He also enjoyed all the fame and attention he got from being a Superhero. Whenever they were paraded out in public, Cam was the one front in center, the center of attention. The one most willing to interact with fans and pose for pictures when his father allowed it.

In public, the family seemed like the perfect family. Behind the scenes though, they were anything but. The children were not happy with the lives they had been forced to live. When the kids turned eighteen, everyone agreed to leave. Even though Lucas tried to convince everyone to stay, they did not. In the middle of the night, the children fled the institute, and never came back. Even though Cameron still believed his parents had good intentions, and he loved his siblings, he also wanted to start his own life, and pursue his own dreams.

After leaving the institute, Cameron tried to live a normal life for a while. He would live at a homeless shelter, and work odd jobs to support himself. He quickly got bored of that. He missed the fame and attention he got when he was Iota. He wasn't interested in being a vigilante without his siblings though, as the violence was his least favorite part of the job. He decided to fly to Hollywood to make it as an actor. (He could afford plane tickets from money he saved up. Both from his work, and because there were people out there who were more than willing to help a cute boy who had escaped an abusive situation.) Actors got plenty of attention, and also brought joy to people. He got acting lessons when he was a child in order to better manipulate people, and he figured he could use them in a better way now that he was free. It worked out because he discovered he had American citizenship when he applied for a passport. After arriving in America, and finding somewhere to live, he went on a bunch of auditions. He had to work as a waiter for a while in order to support himself until his big break came through. Cameron had a lot more freedom now than he did back with his family. He could dress the way he wanted, which meant wearing pink head to toe, as well as wearing dresses. He even went out on dates with fellow aspiring actors, both male and female. Eventually, his big break did come through. He managed to get the lead role in a Superhero movie as the character Cap'n Cute. With some help of his powers, he became a famous movie star, and gained a large fan following. He managed to score other roles, he even filmed a movie with his birth mother once, playing mother and son. Although, neither of them knew they were mother and son in real life. However, Cap'n Cute remains his most popular role.

Cameron was so busy with his film career, he sort of lost touch with his parents and siblings. The last time he saw any of them was at his sister Lilith's wedding. He's heard that one of his siblings killed another, but he didn't attend the trial because he was busy making a movie, and he really doesn't want to know the sordid details anyway.

He received a mysterious letter one day, that said his parents and brother had died, and his presence was required at the institute to hash out inheritances. Cameron was sad to hear about his brother dying, and though they weren't the best parents, he still believed his parents loved him in their own way, and was sad about their deaths too. Thinking it would be nice to see the rest of his siblings again, he made arrangements to return to the institute.

Other:
- He has a major sweet tooth, and enjoys all kinds of sweets and desserts.
- He never swears, not even hell and damn.
- He is attracted to people of all genders, but has never had sex yet. He's also dated a few people, but has never had a serious relationship, even though he would like one.
- He can cry on command.
- I've already mentioned it a couple of times, but if you didn't catch on, his favorite color is pink. His second favorite color is light blue.
- He still has retained some of his superhero training, having played a superhero in a movie.
 
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*Jean Grey*

Night Triumphant
WIP!

Name: Gale Caswell
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Archetype: The Rebel
Alias: Xi [Ξ]
Ability: Aerokinesis - True to her name, Gale has the ability to manipulate the air and wind around her, and as her tempestuous nature suggests, she tends to use it in violent forms such as conjuring up violent twisters (up to two at a time - one big one or two smaller ones) that she either launches at her targets or pulls them into as she engages them in physical combat, whipping up fierce tempests, shaping the air into sharp, bladed weapons which she uses to attack up close, and manipulating air pressure and wind speed to power up her own physical attacks. Her power, of course, do not work over an extremely wide area, and is limited to a 50-foot radius at most, and the stronger the winds and the further the range of her attacks, the more energy she uses up. This control over air also means that Gale herself is capable of flight.

Gale is also capable of using her ability in a finer more subtle way, thanks to her brother, Jared, who taught her in order to help her let off some steam in a good way. Using her aerokinesis, she could finely manipulate air currents as she breathes, allowing her to manipulate airflows in order to control her vocal cords in different ways. It took years of honing, but Gale is now an excellent singer because of this, being able to access her whistle register, as well as perform metal screams and growls with relative ease compared to most people.
Appearance:
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Gale has very striking looks that tend to make people look twice. She is far from a soft and elegant beauty, in fact, she is very rough around the edges, but she still has a certain allure that makes people want more - a rough diamond. She's tall and muscular, standing at 6'1", and weighing about 155 lbs. She has very fair skin and black hair worn in a unique cut - long for the most part, reaching nearly to her waist, save for a shaved area on the left side of her head. Her bangs are long and cover one eye, and a thick section of her hair is dyed silver-white most of the time, though she has been seen having a different coloured streak such as red or steel blue on occasion. She tends to leave her hair down, or occasionally, in some sort of braided hairstyle. Her face is angular, her cheekbones rather sharp, and her eyes are a stormy blue-gray, with long, thick, dark lashes and typically rimmed with black eyeliner. A couple of scars run down her left eye, though eye itself is unaffected. Her brows are fairly thin and angled, and her right brow bears a couple of piercings. Her nose is long, straight and pointed, and her lips are fairly thin. She occasionally wears black lipstick. Gale has strong, well-muscled arms covered scars accentuated by black-inked tattoo sleeves, as well as rough, strong hands. Her legs are long and similarly muscular as well. Her breasts are very ample and her torso is toned, with visible abs, but what stands out is the large, healed scar smack-dab in the middle of her abdomen. She doesn't mind it though, and often wears clothing that shows it off rather than covering it up, seeing it as a badge of courage rather than something to be ashamed of. Her ears have several piercings.

Gale particularly hates clothing that are girly, frilly or in pastel colors. Do NOT try to put her in a pink dress unless you have a death wish. She loves black, torn clothing, and dark styles in general, with a preference for leather. Gale gravitates towards shirts that either have skull prints, fishnet, rips and tears in them (with or without safety pins) or any combination of them, and they tend to be cropped to show her abdomen. She isn't at all ashamed of her cleavage either, and she shows it whenever she feels like it. She's also one to wear black leather jackets and vests (often with spikes) almost all the time. For bottoms, she favors pants and shorts rather than dresses or skirts, as they are more comfortable. She's most commonly seen wearing tight, black pants or shorts, in either leather or sturdy fabric, often with numerous rips, studs and/or zippers, and accessorizes with a gunmetal-coloured bullet belt. For shoes, she generally favors heavy, sturdy black lace-up combat boots, decorated with sharp, black iron spikes. She wears black leather fingerless gloves almost all the time, and her piercings are decorated with various black iron bars and studs. At times, she wears either a black leather choker, or a thick, gunmetal chain with a similarly-coloured padlock around her neck.

Personality: Gale is a fierce, tempestuous woman with a personality that could be best described as headstrong, rebellious and difficult. She's not one to take advice from people generally, and has clear issues when it comes to authority. She doesn't trust authority or people in power, even moreso after her own childhood experiences. She hates being bound by rules, especially those that she doesn't agree with, and prefers to do things according to her own set of principles, punishment or consequences be damned. Thus, she regularly disobeys instructions or orders that she disagrees with, and doesn't bother with the concept of "respect" and titles, instead choosing to call people by first names, or nicknames she specifically chooses for them. Neither is she a fan of institutions in general, and relies on herself to make her own decisions, rather than rely on the advice of others, sometimes foolishly at that - she does land herself into trouble a lot after all. This stems out of her desire not to be anyone's tool or pawn, and thanks to what she experienced ever since her childhood (or rather, lack thereof), she often lashes out badly and violently against those whom she perceives will try to use her or manipulate her, without caring whether they're bigger or smaller than her or whether they hold an important position, among many things.

Gale is an independent woman who would much rather rely on herself to take care of and deal with things rather than choose to lean on others. No, she has no issues helping others (far from that actually, despite her gruff nature), she has issues with others who think she can't handle things on her own, leading her to push people away even when she shouldn't. For her, her issues are her own to deal with, and, knowing that she can handle a lot of things by herself, hates it when people impose on her and try to help her out, having the impression that needing help is equivalent to being helpless, powerless and weak. Couple that with an awfully short temper that makes her prone to picking fights (most of them physical) with just about anyone, as well as her foul-mouthed and ferocious nature, and you get someone who's harsh, prickly and difficult to get along with. Practical, street-smart and confident in her abilities, she knows her way around many things and how to take care of herself in general. She is also proud, and doesn't like admitting outright whenever she's wrong, or takes things too far. She isn't shy, reserved or unsociable actually, and is in fact open, bold and upfront - often one to party hard, strike conversations first or challenge people she barely knows. Of course, this also means that she's inclined to initiate fights with them when things turn ugly...and she's been known to break jaws and ribs, as well as give blowout fractures. Her intense hatred for being controlled does also, however, reflect in her relationships. While she's always up for a good one-night stand or sleeping around, she DOES NOT want a committed relationship, as she thinks that they're restricting and impose too much on her.

Gale is rough around the edges, tomboyish and crude - the furthest thing from a feminine girly-girl, with interests and preferences that most would call unrefined. She's is naturally drawn to the dark side and the dangerous - her music taste consists of death metal, black metal, doom metal and most other heavy forms of metal, as well as harder types of punk rock and the like. She enjoys riding fast on her motorcycle, daring others to race her at dangerous speeds often, and she continues to do so, especially after leaving the institution. Her wardrobe is very, very black and she loves macabre motifs. Not to mention, she has a penchant for getting into brawls, and is actually a skilled cage fighter. For her, trying to be obedient and a "lady" would only cause her suffering and headaches, hence, she chooses to just be herself, without compromising anything and prefers living the way she wants to - daringly, freely and dangerously. Perhaps it was partly because of the way her adoptive parents tried to control her, but she was always one to get rough, sneak out almost every night, smuggle forbidden items into the mansion and speak her mind. Among her siblings, she is by far the most aggressive and has the foulest mouth. She's not affected by what others think about her tendencies, either. She's very outspoken, swears a lot and isn't ashamed about it, and her foul language extends towards everyone, even if she considers you a friend...she doesn't mince her words at all, though at least that means she can be counted on to be honest, and is probably the furthest thing from manipulative. A brave, confident and fearless individual, she believes in her own capabilities, and never backs down from a challenge, not even when the stakes are high enough to scare others off. Hardly anything scares her, come to think of it.

Under Gale's rough exterior, most would find that she isn't entirely heartless. She might be difficult to get along with, violent, easy to piss off and she hardly listens to advice, but she's someone you'd be proud to call a friend if you manage to get through to her. She helps those she considers important to her in her own way, protects them the best she could, and stands up for them without hesitation, if her scars say anything about her. She might be intimidating, cynical and difficult, yet she does have a tender, if hardened, heart somewhere in there. She might be moody and easily angered, but she definitely has a better side, though it's rarely seen and manifests in less-than-gentle ways. She isn't the type who would sing lullabies, or brew a cup of hot cocoa to comfort someone, but she will fight for anyone she considers important to her, and she'll get in ANYONE'S FACE for them. She is, however, also is one who holds grudges - she's unforgiving and never, ever lets go of these. Just as she could be loyal to those she trusts, she's equally (if not more) cruel to those who betray her or try to use her.

History: Murmansk, Russia. The worst of the strange news from around the world related to the solar eclipse that occurred the previous afternoon seemed to have passed. Once the clock struck midnight, and August 12 rolled around, women from all over the city breathed a sigh of relief, certain that nobody surely was going to show the strange signs of seemingly spontaneous pregnancy that was all over the news. Sure, a summer storm raged, but that was normal - unlike what was happening elsewhere. They were wrong. At two in the morning, a drenched woman named Natalia Voronova stumbled into the emergency room of one of the city's hospitals. She was one of the city's leading scientists, forty-three years old and had not slept with anyone for years, let alone married anyone, but her bulging abdomen spoke for itself. She had started experiencing signs of pregnancy out of nowhere, half an hour after midnight, and not being able to take it any longer and fearing someone would find out, she rushed to the hospital by herself. Natalia begged the doctors to get rid of the child and to shut their mouths, but the child was a fighter, and at 3:00 in the morning, a baby girl was born. Much like the winds that howled outside, she cried loudly and flailed her limbs in a wild frenzy.

Faced with a child that she did not want to keep or let anyone know of (as people would start speculating and talking behind her back), Natalia refused to leave her house for a month, not wanting to show her face at work, or face any questions that the people she worked with at the laboratory would ask. She could hardly get herself out of bed, and was very reluctant to even hold the baby. She knew nothing about raising a child of her own, and she feared that if she asked her neighbors any questions, nothing good would come out of it for her own reputation - the one she worked so hard to achieve for twenty years. There would inevitably be whispers, rumors and accusations. She had to get back to work, however, as she was receiving more and more phone calls, and if she dreaded anything, it was to have one of her coworkers knocking on her door and finding out about the child. So, after a month, she dragged herself out of the house and feigned illness as an excuse for her long absence and attributed her slight weight gain to bloating as a side effect of her medications. She wanted to do anything that meant that she didn't have to deal with the baby all day, after all.

Fortunately for her, her suffering ended a month after she returned to work. When she arrived home, two mysterious strangers in suits greeted her, and asked for the still-nameless baby. She demanded how they knew about the baby's whereabouts, seeing as she forbade the doctors to issue a birth certificate, and bribed them for good measure. They showed her a suitcase full of cash, saying that it was hers if she was to give them the baby - the burden that she clearly did not want to deal with. She did so without hesitation, and provided the details they needed - the girl's birth date, where she was born, and her general health. They also asked for a name, and only then did Natalia seriously think of one. The name Galina momentarily crossed her mind, but noticing the British accents of the strangers, and not wanting the baby to be associated with her any longer, she instead uttered another name. Gale.

Gale Caswell, thus, grew up in a mansion tucked deep in the British countryside, along with other children who were born under similar circumstances as her own. It soon became apparent that the little girl was not the easiest child to deal with. From a young age, Gale was a rebel from the get-go - a rough and tumble tomboy who always picked fights, answered back, tore the dresses she was given and hardly ever followed house rules. She often made Matthew lose his temper often and he hit her physically, to which she would usually retaliate by biting and kicking him. Renata found her difficult as well, and tended to ground her more often than her other siblings because of her antics (not that it scared her into being more compliant or obedient...quite the contrary actually).

Her powers manifesting when she was five did not make things any easier. In fact, they only served to further highlight her stormy disposition. It started out as a normal day in the middle of winter, and Gale thought that a snowball fight was in order...mostly to get the opportunity to throw a snow-covered rock at Garret for ratting out on her giving Cameron the frilly pink dress that she didn't want to wear earlier that morning. She gathered some of her siblings, Garret included, and they went outside to play. During the fight, she targeted most of her snowballs at Garret and Lucas, and the both of them decided to gang up on her as a result. As the two pelted her with snowballs, the young girl instinctively stepped back to launch her own with enough force. As she threw her snowballs, however, she felt something lift her from the ground, and push the snowballs from her hands with more force than her five-year-old self could muster, judging from Lucas' reaction. She looked down, and saw that she definitely wasn't on the ground - something that some of her siblings noticed as well. "Are you...flying?" Cameron asked innocently. Gale smirked, before she decided to experiment by leaping higher into the air. It worked, and this did not go unnoticed by Matthew and Renata, who were rather fascinated by the fact that they had a flyer on their hands. They immediately put her through difficult training, which included physical training and hand-to-hand combat that everyone else went through, gymnastics to further hone what they envisioned could be a unique aerial combat style, as well as special individual sessions for her outdoors - which Matthew oversaw for himself and took place no matter the weather (be it in the pouring rain, a thunderstorm or on very warm days), in order to hone her aerokinesis. Now, fighting, she particularly enjoyed, but what she didn't enjoy was the way Matthew ordered her around and yelled, especially during their outdoor training sessions. He would require her to stay in the air for a certain amount of time (sometimes hours), conjure up a certain number of twisters and destroy a number of targets before she would be allowed back inside (even under some pretty bad weather conditions).

If her brother Lucas was the golden boy, then Gale was quite frankly the exact opposite. Matthew and Renata's cruelty towards her led her to call them by their first names, as she refused to call them 'mom' and 'dad', and unlike most of her siblings, she had no illusions about Lucas, viewing him as an annoying ass-kisser who would side with their "parents" when push comes to shove. Thus, she was often at odds with him, to the confusion of some of her siblings. He tried to make her behave (he would often point out that she was beautiful, and such a beautiful girl should act accordingly), but she wasn't going to have any of it, and she clashed with him more often than her other siblings. While he was often regarded as a big brother or team dad by some of her siblings, she did not feel the same way. Neither did she get along with Garret, whom she referred to as "the rat" - as he often snitched whenever he felt like it, to receive better treatment. She would shamelessly fight with him in front of everyone, and didn't hesitate to use her powers to mess with him, be it punching him with a wind-powered fist, or throwing him at the ceiling with a strong gust. She wasn't the easiest to get along with in general - she tended to be rougher than necessary whenever she played (even with the likes of Cameron), she started swearing from a young age, and often spoke her mind on just about everything.

As rough as she was, however, she was also a joy to be around at times, and was particularly protective over most of her siblings, Lucas and Garret notwithstanding. While she was the furthest thing from tender, and her fierce, combative personality would sometimes cause her to be at odds with one sibling or another, she had her own way of taking care of them. Cameron's naivete and the way he admired Lucas might've gotten on her nerves sometimes, but she was actually surprisingly close to him, often giving her the dresses she did not want to wear (she was more of a trousers and shorts person), and even covering for him and taking the blame whenever Matthew or Renata caught him wearing the dresses. She was also very protective towards Jared, and was one of the few who still enjoyed playing with him after his powers manifested, her fearless nature never stopping her from doing so. In fact, she willingly got herself hurt to protect him. She was eleven at that time, and knew very well that Jared had certain words that would trigger his powers, and there was a time when Garret was feeling like a jerk and trying to wind him up. Gale went over to him and decked him in the jaw with a wind-powered punch, knocking him out and cracking the jaw. This did not go unseen by Matthew and Lucas, and she was thus, punished for it. Matthew was fed up with her difficult behaviour and decided to teach her a "lesson", as Lucas held her still and soothingly told her that she could've avoided it had she not involved herself in something that wasn't her business. Gale made the knife fly out of Matthew's hand, however, and she ended up scarred, but with her pride intact.

Other:
- Naturally, her favorite color is black.
- A diehard Gooner from a young age. This makes her very prone to initiating bar fights especially during the season, and most especially when the North London derby rolls around.
- Always thought of Garret as a "fucking rat" and was not at all upset that he died.
 
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VampirateMace

Internet Overlord
Name: Dr. Morgan Caswell
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Archetype: Magician
Alias: Ψ (Psi)
Ability: Memory Manipulation
Morgan has the power to manipulate a person's memory, but only of the past 24 hrs. Therefore he cannot make it seems as if he's been your best friend since second grade, but he can make you think you went on a date with him last night. These memories do have to be realistic things the person could possibly have done during that time, otherwise their mind will instantly reject them. The memories he creates are very real and clear in the mind of the person he's manipulating, and remain so for 24 hrs or until he reverses them. After 24 hrs, if he has not reversed them, the memories will fade a little and begin to overlap or blend with the person's true memories. This can lead to self-doubt, confusion, suspicion, and anger depending on the subject's temperament. Morgan's powers do not work on those with powers for reasons he doesn't fully understand, nor do they work on artificial beings' memories.

Appearance:
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The most striking thing about Morgan is his amber colored eyes, though these are unfortunately obscured by slightly long red-brown hair, and red wire frame glasses. Morgan does not actually wear glasses because he needs them, but rather because they make him look smarter and more sympathetic, as well as are useful for hiding his tick when he uses his powers.

His skin is a lighter tan, he is around average height, and a bit on the thin side, though his bulky clothing often make him look closer to average weight. He is not particularly strong or muscular, but the muscle he does have is nicely toned. He has let his exercise regiment slide some since leaving, but not to the point of being unhealthy or sedimentary. His upper body is littered with faded scars from training, missions, bullies, and their adoptive father.

His dark auburn hair is well cared for, though he does tend to go a little long between haircuts, and the bangs therefore often fall over his eyes. His face is a soft rounded shape, with a small nose and a wide thin lipped mouth. He also has distinctive canines, that protrude a little from the upper lip when he smiles.

For clothes, well, Morgan can be a bit of a fashion disaster. He kind of just wears things he likes without considering how well the colors go together. His casual outfits aren't too bad, but his formal wear looks like Sixth Doctor Who picked it out. It consists of a white long sleeve button-up shirt, under a molecule print t-shirt, and a tacky carpetbagger blazer. Along with this a bright red bow tie, matching red slacks, and striped dress socks with dark brown dress shoes.

For casual clothes Morgan tends to dress in plain blue jeans and layers of brightly colored shirts, his favorite being a comfortable red and yellow sweater. He wears very similar shoes to his dress shoes with these, and almost always has his green backpack with him containing a pile of notes and whatever books he is currently reading.

Personality:
To the casual observer, Morgan is kind, polite, and a little shy. This isn't entirely true, but it's not all an act either. He really does want what's best for others, but he has a selfish streak too, and being kind, polite, and shy does often help him achieve his goals (kill 'em with kindness'). That is, he is manipulative when he wants something, and has become good at hiding it. He'll use his powers if he feels he needs to, but since they can backfire, he tends to be cautious about using them for anything he considers big or important (smaller things like tricking a coffee out of a busy barista when he's broke are easier to hide). He also has a tick that gives away when he uses his powers, nothing big or obvious, just an involuntary twitch of a muscle under his right eye. He usually hides this by adjusting his glasses while using his powers. Really, he feels it's best when he can achieve his goals simply by being charismatic and devoted to his studies. His adoptive parents considered him lazy, but the truth was that Morgan just wasn't interested in physical training or being a superhero, he wanted to do science. He may still step in if he sees someone in danger, but now at least it's his choice.

Morgan has a real struggle with fear, a lot of which stems from being taken from his grandmother's apartment, and the subsequent horrors of being raised as a superhero. He was particularly afraid of Matthew, though he's mostly let that go since leaving the mansion, and still is afraid of causing or otherwise winding up in particularly unpleasant situations. He often suspects Matthew didn't even see them as people, just weapons and tools. Morgan knows he was technically adopted by them, and he was supposed to be their father, and Renata their mother, but he just doesn't see it like that, especially not in light of the constant verbal abuse from Renata and beatings from Mathew. The Janets were much more like parents to them, but Morgan didn't even like them. They acted sweet, but as he got older he realized they were just cold unfeeling machines, plus his powers didn't even work on them, which he found very frustrating. This in turn made him wonder if his siblings were even real for a bit, since his powers don't work on them either.

As a result he'll go out of his way to avoid confrontations, crowds and being entirely alone with someone, athletic events, and loud noises. But the worst is the existential fears; the confusion as to why he was put on this planet, what was the point of being tortured as a teen hero, what's the point of life, what's going to happen when they die, if anything, is any of this real, and what is the true implication of using his powers in the grand scheme of things? Sometimes he lies awake at night, feeling like his head might explode as he remembers his past and ponders the nature of existence. Other times he wakes in a cold sweat, with only the memory of a familiar stranger leaning in on him as he cries for an explanation.

He feels a lot better when he distracts himself with work, which he is very good at doing, even if that work is examining the very nature of the universe, and designing experiments to run on with subatomic particles. Sometimes if he's having trouble sleeping he'll jut pull an all-nighter study session instead. Honestly, despite his anxieties and bad memories, he's not miserable. He's happy with his current job and situation, and excited to see if any of his experiments pan out. He likes being invited to give lectures about quantum mechanics to students. Maybe he can change some lives and set some brilliant young minds onto the path of science. And of course, he really hopes he can visit CERN someday.

He's a big fan of causal puzzle and simulation games, though platformers and fighting games too often remind him of his past. Like studying, he can also spend the whole night shifting brightly colored blocks or raising digital chickens.

History:
The evening of the eclipse, Molly Tailor was out on the same sketchy balcony of the tiny worn-down apartment she shared with her disabled daughter Sarah, that she'd watched the eclipse from. She did not yet know of the mysterious births happening not only across Europe, but across the world. She was only out there long enough to get a couple breaths of fresh air, before she heard a horrible noise. He daughter was screaming in pain. She rushed inside to find, to her horror, her daughter was giving birth. This was immensely confusing as her daughter was socially challenge and with her almost 24/7, so she was quite certain she'd never been with a man. She only learned of the mysterious births after paramedics arrived.

Though circumstances were bad and money was tight, Molly chose to see the child as a blessing, god had given her the grandchild she'd never thought she'd have. She named him Morgan, Morgan Tailor, and did her best to take care of both him and his mother. It was three months later that an Agent Smith and Agent Duger arrived. They tried in vain for a solid thirty minutes to convince the grandmother to release Morgan into their care, explaining he'd be well taken care of and given the best education possible. Then they left empty handed, with Duger silently motioning to Smith not to use force.

Back in their black nondescript car, Smith asked why. Duger stretched, putting his hands behind his head and explained, “I've seen this kind of thing before. She's emotionally attached, but you saw the flat, at some point, something is going to give. And when it does, we'll be there to help her out, taking the burden of caring for the child off her hands, and offering her the pounds she clearly needs.”

And that time did come, it was not quite three years later, when a crying toddler was carried out of the apartment by Agent Smith, into a nondescript black car and whisked away to the Caswell's mansion. Morgan retains only the vaguest memories of this traumatic event, he knows he was taken from his home, and the image of Smith's frustrated face as he tried to buckle the child safety seat is seared into his mind.

Morgan was a rebellious handful from the get-go, earning lots of time-outs and scoldings, and even the occasional slap in the face when Matthew finally lost his temper with him. It didn't help that he knew he wasn't their child, and remembered a few nightmarish details of his 'adoption', but Morgan also wasn't really interested in being a superhero to begin with. He would much rather read or experiment for hours on end then go for a ten mile run and spar with the other kids because he 'needed to be in top physical form'. There are so many other ways to be useful in the world. He wanted nothing more then to tear the mask off nature and stare at the face of God. Was that too much to ask?

As Morgan's powers developed, so did a habit of manipulating people for his own benefit, be it getting out of training for the day or avoiding getting in trouble for something he'd done. Once after stealing some candy Morgan quickly place the blame on Theo, who though he could detect lies was not incapable of lying, and therefore was the perfect target. To Morgan's astonishment, Theo accepted the blame and was punished by Matthew. Morgan felt horrible, but never said anything due to his fear of Matthew. Instead, he never blamed his siblings again, and always felt like he kind of owed Theo.

Eventually due to a combination of his siblings who were unaffected by his powers for some reason and the Janets being androids, Renata and Matthew caught on. Matthew punished Morgan severely, which did not help his fear of him, and he was treated with suspicion by them from then on. After that if Morgan used his powers on the parents, it was for all his sibling's sake, not just himself alone. Even though he did not consider the adults his parents, he did consider the other kids his siblings.

That isn't to say things were always smooth with his siblings. Morgan often found himself jealous of Cam for getting out of things just by being cute, and afraid Jared would go off in a violent explosion at any moment. Jared's early explosions are burned in Morgan's mind, especially since he was still emotionally attached to the Janets at the time, and the effect the explosion on their android bodies was particularly devastating.

As time went on personalities and ideals within the group would clash even more, until it was almost unbearable at times, and Morgan, like most of his sibling, resolved to leave the group and the mansion as soon as he turned 18. And he didn't look back.

Free to forge his own path, Morgan was finally able to do what he'd always wanted to, pursue science! It did take a little bending of the truth and use of his powers for everything to work, but he managed to get into a very prestigious college and take several science courses, finally declaring quantum mechanics as his major. A hard subject to be sure, but very rewarding in Morgan's eyes. He continued on with his education, eventually earning his PhD. He now works for a rival university, with grant money funding the bulk of his research.

Socially Morgan didn't get around quite as much. He did make a few friends and attend small get-togethers, but he actively avoided actual parties and one-on-one activities like dates. Those that know him just consider him a quiet quirky introvert, which isn't entirely untrue, but it was probably better that they never knew of his past anyways. Talking in front of groups wasn't to bad either, the crowd as over there, and he was over here.

He eventually he tracked down his birth family. Unfortunately his mother had passed by then due to her multitude of health problems, really some said it was a miracle she'd lived long enough to birth him. But he did get to spend some time with his grandmother, who now needed a caretaker of her own, and reassure her that he'd turned out just fine. He didn't shared the horrors of his past with her, or retake his birth surname, since he wanted to make sure she never became a target. He of course does wish he could have been raised by this sweet old woman, but dwelling on the past like that doesn't change anything.

Speaking of dwelling on the past, Morgan had mixed emotion upon learning his adoptive parents and big brother had died. As indifferent as he felt about Renata and Matthew, Lucas had always been a good big brother so losing him was devastating.

Other:
- Morgan does not have a favorite color, but being the man-child he is, he loves also sorts of bright colors and bold shapes.
- Morgan has not had a lot of deep or meaningful relationships. Despite being technically pansexual, he's been protecting himself emotionally for so long people just assume he's asexual.
- Morgan's sense of right and wrong is pretty skewed. While he believes in not doing any harm, and may go out of his way to keep someone from harm, he also feels justified in manipulating people to get things he wants, even if it's considered stealing.
 
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Schade

Metallic Wonder
Name: Devin Caswell. (Goes by Devin Pichard)
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Archetype: Lover
Alias: Sigma [ Σ ]
Ability: Chrysopoeia.

- Devin has the niche, yet extremely practical ability of changing any kind of material he comes into contact with into solid gold by altering their molecular structure at the subatomic level. If he activates this ability while touching something, he can then change the item into a golden version of itself. The speed of which the material changes depends on its size and structure, with smaller items taking shorter time to change than bigger oned. He also has the ability of transforming anything he's changed back to its original state, though if he chooses not to, the object in question will be golden forever.

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Appearance: Devin is a tall young man standing somewhere around 189 Cm tall. He has an overall slim physique with very toned muscles due to his active past, as well as his current pastime which includes a lot of physical activity. His skin is also slightly tanned because of this, and is generally blemish-free save from the occasional outburst of freckles. He has medium long, vaguelly sun-bleached blonde hair which he normally keep in a bun, or a ponytail. He also has a light stubble, as he's not that insistent on shaving every morning or so. His eyes have an unnatural warm golden color, and emits a certain friendliness, which together with his neatly trimmed eyebrows give his smile an open and inviting look to it. He has high cheekbones and a neatly framed jawline, and is almost always seen with a certain smirk which makes you wonder if he just thought of a funny joke, or if he's up to something..

For clothing, while he can definitely afford it, Devin prefer to dress minimalistically. Comfortable workout clothing are his main go-to casual wear, while almost all of his other categories of clothing consist of designed brands and golden accessories. He prefers not to flaunt his wealth on the regular, which is why he dresses the way he does. His main attire consists of about a million and a half plain white low-cut tank tops he use for both workouts and general casual wear. He also wears a pair of worn light blue jeans, paired with comfortable orange sneackers. . He doesn't normally accessorize too much, despite his vast collection of both wristbands, necklaces, earstuds etc, but keeps it simple. He wears simple metal earstuds, and a colorful collection of bracelets on his right arm. He also wears a golden beaded necklace with a silver cross on it. While he's not the religious type, he doesn't really have a valid reason to wear it rather than thinking it looks good.

Personality: Levelheaded and down to earth, Devin was always the child that would do as he was told and try to make his parents proud by bettering himself and his skills, be it his power, academic prowess or his physical combat skills. He would stay up late and relentlessly hone any flaw his parents saw in him, and cheer his siblings on in the process. A reliable leader-type, he would often take pride in aiding the financial situation of the institute under the guise of honing his skills, even though it would later become clear to him that he had already reached the limits of what he could do. That being said, he was always the stalwart little solider ready for action.

He's also an intelligent young man. Though he struggled at first with the academic stuff, he would push himself to show that he was no setback or hinderance to the others, and would eventually progress in a way that made him feel like his parents would be proud of him. There was definitely a big part of Devin that wanted his parents approval above all else. He was a reliable young man that would often put the needs of others ahead of his own, and just be happy that he's helping.

While he wouldn't always get along too great with his siblings due to his views of their parents, he always got their back. Talking them out of situations or taking blame if they did something wrong, he would be there for them in need, without expecting too much in return. He just wanted to prosper in the place he felt the safest, and would often turn a deaf ear to complaints or critiques from anyone but his parents.

This all changed when he became a late teenager, however. As tensions grew within the family, it would become clear that their parents really only saw them as weapons and not as actual family. This took a great toll on Devin, who had always believed he was their favorite. (Some light narcissism in here). He tried to confide in Alpha, who he was closest with of all the siblings, but was met with distrust and accusations. Being unable to confide in his best friend, Devin then decided he had enough, and he waited until the kids 18th birthday. Tensions were already high in the family, and as the other siblings decided to go their seperate ways, Devin slipped away from under their noses, never to be heard from again.

Devin changed after that. Becoming much less outgoing and outwardly emotional, he would begin keeping things to himself, relying only on himself. He would try to shut the others out and not think about them after he moved, and even though it was difficult for him, he would throw away his phone and get a cheaper one, without any of their contact info, in order to make it easier on him to get over them. While he felt bad for leaving like he did, he justified it in the light of their parents true motives, and deciding he wouldn't be their pawn anymore. While he was sad he had lost his comfort zone after all these years, he would wander aimlessly for a few years, trying out new things and meeting new people, before he would start molding his new life.

He would start to look at physical exercise differently. While he was used to strict training regimens, there was something different in doing things at your own pace. He rediscovered his love for fitness in a way that made him happy, without having to think about anyone else. He would become more social as the years passed, getting new friends here and there and slowly build up a social circle based around a love for life. It was almost therapautic for him, as he had always only known strict rules made by someone else. He would quite simply start dancing to the beat of his own drums for once, and he enjoyed every second of it.

"The lover seeks harmony in everything they do. They find it hard to deal with conflict and may find it difficult to stand up for their own ideas and beliefs in the face of more assertive types."

History: Devins story starts in Germany in 1999. A normal august day in Germany in 199. Yep, nothing out of the ordinary happened. His mother's name was Anna, and she was a busy career woman with a lot of things going on. Having chosen a career over a family, the woman was strict, disliked children and probably wasnt much fun at her family gatherings, if they even bothered to invite her due to her busy schedule. She had a reputation for being cutthroat, and she could land you that business deal, or get that promotion, and her advice was golden. She would always speak her mind and people both hated and loved her for it. It was a bit confusing at times, but her coworkers knew to respect her: A strong woman in charge of her own fate.

Or so she thought. It was one unspecified day in August when Anna was preparing to hold a board meeting with investors from Beijing, and while many people would be nervous in her stead, Anna knew what she was going to say, do and sell in order to land that deal. She took a deep breath and entered the room, ignoring the sceptical stares from all the men in the room. She was a woman and she was good at what she did. Until the stomach pains started. It started slowly, as if she had eaten something bad. She made a mental note to send a stern letter to Sushi Sushi Sushi down the street, but it wuickly grew worse, until she couldnt stand up anymore. The investors all panicked and rushed up to her, and then the screams of a baby could be heard?

Without going into too much detail, Anna lost her job after this... whatever this was. She hadn't been pregnant to begin with, and loathe her newborn son for costing her her job and basically her life, even though he family reached out to help her. She was even considered for an episode of "I didn't know i was pregnant: Germany". NEedless to say, she failed to save her career, as many of her opponents had taken this to force their "Women in the workplace is trouble" agendas. It was all very disheartening, and the freaky golden eyes of her hated son didn't make it any better.

When Devin was picked up to be sent to the institute, he was found playing in his crib in his bedroom, clearly not having been tended to in a while. His mother was found out in the livingroom, dangling slowly in the solid noose she had cast over the roof beam. No words were exchanged as the baby was retrieved, and nobody ever spoke of it since. Regardless, another of the freaky babies had been collected, and that was really all that mattered.

He was tended to by a small army of similar-looking women named Janet for the first few years of his life, and was well taken care of. He loved his parents, as he never learned of his birthmothers fate, and they seemed to love him back, even though they didnt spend too much time with him at first. He would also get siblings, and he would then begin to forge his comfort zone, and establish himself as an older brother-kinda figure to the others, despite their age being exactly the same. He was a slow learned though, and fell behind when it came to learning basic things humans do to human properly, though he managed to reel himself in during the later years.

When he became 5 years of age, he began showing displays of what would later become his quirk. His hands would sometimes dimly sparkle in a golden color. It was cute and all, and his parents thought he might have showed similar symptoms as Alpha, who had developed light-based abilities after a similar showcase. Alas, their suspicions were deemed false as they once entered his nursery only to find it completely decked out in gold. From walls to the ceiling, every piece of furniture included, and even one of the Janet-bots, who was sitting on a chair holding a golden book, smiling eerielly for all eternity. Devin was paid closer attention to after that.

Turns out the key to controlling his powers lied in his concentration. He would later learn to not turn everything around him to gold when touching, but rather limiting it from object to object, managing to cancel it before it would his another surface. The question on his father mind was then "How does one weaponize gold?" While his mother literally just stood there with cartoonish dollar-signs for eyes.

As the years passed, Devin would recieved both combat training, education and guidance in controlling his abilities, all while supporting the family economically. It was somewhat of a hustle, but no one questioned it. His main goal was to please his parents and show them that he was just as good as Alpha was. Alpha was also very helpful, picking Devin up where he lost himself, acting like a real brother would do. The two became very close, and even to this day, Devin would consider Alpha to be his best friend, despite their falling outs.

Speaking of falling outs. During the siblings late teens, some cracks started appearing in their seemingly perfect facade. it would be subtle, but then obvious, that their parents didnt think as highly of them as they thought they did, and only viewed them as potentially dangerous and unstable warmachines. Many of the siblings reacted poorly to this, Devin included, as this challenged the mindset and views he had lived with for his entire life. Refusing to accept it at first, the pain and worry gnawed on him until he opened up to Alpha about it. Alpha reassured him that he was just being silly and that their parents always had their best interests in mind. It would get heated after going on for a while though, and the two started to grow apart. It was when they had their official falling out where everything crumbled to dust, and in the midst of the family drama and secrecy, once he turned 18, Devin was the first to go, never to be heard from again.

He would move to a different city at first, taking an online economics class while trying to build up a solid bank account through abuse of his power. He was almost put under investigation due to his vast amount of gold that he sold, but managed to evade it by forging a story about his background, somehow. He would be much more careful after that, using multiple different sources to rid himself of his gold in exchange for money. After he had collected what would easily be a mans lifetime salary at an actually decent job but without a good dental plan, he decided he would simply move to a different country. After word had gotten out that the family had split up, there were many people that were looking for him to fulfill their greedy needs.

Despite that though, he managed to land a flight to France under a false name he had made for himself. He did, however, have to forge a passport in order to do so, but anything is possible if the bribe is high enough, and it went off without a hitch.

Voila, he's in France now. Taking on the name Devin Pichard, he would quickly establish himself in a small remote town where he would move into a sizable apartment. He would live there in seclusion for about 2 years, all while paying close attention to news regarding his family back in England. While he didn't particularily want to care about them after the falling out, it was too difficult for him to stay away, as the news also covered his own disappearance.. At this point though, he had grown out his hair, so his appearance was pretty off from what people would expect him to look. He was cautious nontheless however, and always had a backup escape plan in case he was figured out. He would continue to hustle the bank, building up his fortune on faux gold, all while maintaining a relatively modest facade as an instagram celeb doing yoga and exercises as an excuse to flaunt his very very attractive body to the masses.

He was pretty much living the high life now, getting to spend his time as he himself wish for, while satisfying his need for social acceptance through his content creating. Life was good for Devin, and he had no plans to change that.

Literally the next day he got a letter in the mail stating that members of his family had passed and that his presence was requested. He didn't care much for his parents, but the death of his brother felt like a dagger hitting an old sealed off place in his heart, which is also what prompted him to leave for England to partake in the aftermatch, as well as fixing the financial business regarding potentiall wills, funerals etc.

Other:
- He moved to Europe after leaving the family behind, more specifically to France.
- In Europe, he took on the last name Pichard to avoid affiliation with the family.
- Devin is rich. Like... Filthy rich, from abusing his power. He doesn't have to work, and is pretty much set for life. He doesn't flaunt his powers, however, and keeps them to himself. If anyone asks, he says he's from a wealthy foreign family in England.
- Devin is bisexual.
- Due to the vigorous training he recieved throughout his childhood and teenage years, Devin is highly adept at hand-to-hand combat
- He's also very acrobatic and quick in his movements because of this.
- He is #InstaFamous, as he has an Instagram profile with a large follower base. He mostly do exercise videos and yoga routines. shirtless exercise videos and yoga routines.
- He hasnt spoken to any of his siblings after parting ways with them at the age of 18.
- He was especially close with Alpha as kids, but the two had a big falling out which led to him leaving the family.
- He speaks fluent french.
 
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Skillfulness

Well-Known Member
Hopping on the WIP train!
EDIT: All done!

Name: Lilith O'Neil (Lil, Lily, Shrinkydink, Mom, others; almost one for each of her siblings) (Butterfly or Blossom by her spouse)
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Archetype: The Caregiver
Alias: Rho
Ability:
Shrink and Grow - Lilith can grow up to 30 ft tall and shrink down to 2 inches, roughly. All of her body parts and features scale appropriately as well as her density. She will become incredibly light when small and become heavy when tall. In order to grow or shrink, she loses a bit of physical stamina relative to how much she changes in size. Losing a certain amount of energy or going unconscious will cause her to revert back to her normal size.

Appearance:
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Lilith has a pink skin tone with undertones of red. Sitting in the sun too long will get her burnt and physical exertion brings a prominent flush to her face. Her nose is small and straight, lined by two dark blue, narrow eyes. Smiling makes it look like she’s squinting, but it’s natural due to her high cheekbones on an otherwise rounder face. Those eyes are usually behind a pair of half rim glasses, though she does have contacts she will occasionally wear. Atop her head is a mop of silky, thick blonde hair. She has bangs that hang to one side and usually has it cut around the nape of her neck. Her body has a relatively muscular physique and she has smaller hands with nimble fingers.

Her style of clothing reflects a casual and comfortable look. Lilith prefers to wear something that is easy to handle, but still looks cute. She wears loose and baggy tops, typically in bright blue tones. Her bottoms are usually in neutral colors like blacks and browns, but vary in length and casualness. While she needs to be dressed nicely for her job, she doesn’t exactly need to be formal which makes her happy. Her favorite thing to do with her outfit is to wear something in her hair. She has a collection of barrettes and headbands to go with nearly every outfit she has. Occasionally she puts her hair up with a simple hair tie and ribbon, but it’s a bit short and doesn’t stay up very well.

Personality: Lilith is the kind of person to offer help no matter what. She has an overflowing heart for serving others and she also has a knack for understanding others. Given a short time, she can pick out a person’s likes and dislikes easily which allows her to treat them in the best way possible. On the other hand, she is highly in tune with other people’s emotions, a strong empathizer. This leads her to frequently mirroring how others feel and becoming an echo chamber of emotions for what others are feeling around her. This is good when those around her are happy or relaxed, but around angry, sad, or stressed people Lilith will express those same feelings. She doesn’t have to ask how a person is feeling because she will instinctively know and begin showing signs of feeling the same. After years of work though, she’s learned to control her own emotions more and can bring herself to a stable place. It requires concentration, so she can’t always be very engaged or think through something complicated, but at least she will be able to keep her emotions in check around others.

Along with the desire to care for others, Lilith adopted many maternal traits. She learned a lot of skills to help her siblings such as cooking, sewing, basic first aid, and others. If it involves helping those around her, Lilith will become encouraged to learn a new skill and her passion will show. Currently, she really puts herself into her work. Children are difficult to handle, but she is determined to help make their lives better with her education and rearing.

On a more vulnerable note, Lilith can be easily manipulated. She isn’t the best at detecting bad intentions or maliciousness, so she will be quick to help people even if they don’t want what’s best for others. When she realizes she’s made a mistake that hurts others, she will feel incredibly guilty. It takes her back to her time growing up and letting her siblings down and in this guilty state she will just kind of shut down and retreat from people. She will take the blame for things that aren’t directly her fault too, if she felt she played a role in it or could’ve put a stop to something bad but didn’t.

~Those who identify with the Caregiver archetypes are full of empathy and compassion. Unfortunately, others can exploit their good nature for their own ends. Caregivers must pay attention to looking after themselves and learning to say no to others’ demands sometimes.~

History: On the afternoon of the eclipse, a dreary, unemployed Canadian couple were sorting through their bills and filling out job applications online. Both had just recently been fired nearly a week apart from each other and they were desperately looking for a source of income. Most of their families were either unwilling to help or deceased leaving the pair in a tight spot. Fortunately for them, Lilith Park was about to be pregnant and fall into the group of women who gave a magical birth. It was terrifying at first, and Nathanial and Lilith were worried about funding a child, but they were both extremely grateful, naming the girl after her mother. Later that month, they were approached by the men in suits and offered a large sum of money for their mysterious daughter. Having not grown too attached yet, as they never even planned on having children, they were willing to give her up and it solved many of their money issues. All in all, it worked out the best for everyone.

Growing up at the institute was a tough time for Lilith in ways different from her siblings. When her powers first manifested, she had very little control. Her size would change based on her emotions, which were also closely reflected by the emotions of those around her. When her siblings were angry or excited, she would begin to feel the same and would grow in height. If they were sad or scared, she would shrink as she felt as they did. Her empathy made it difficult to learn how to control her ability and being surrounded by her abused siblings furthered that difficulty. The Janets learned that in order to get her to behave they needed to isolate her. Much of Lilith’s training was in private and often nights she was kept in a separate area, away from the rest of the children that were swept away. After a few years, she was able to control her own powers even if she still had trouble controlling her emotions and she was allowed to interact with her siblings on a regular basis again. Considering the parents wanted to make them into a team, she would have to join them again eventually and fortunately, she was able to do so on her own terms.

Once Lilith felt like a normal child again with her siblings, she immediately filled in the role of caretaker. Sure they had the androids to take care of them, but a robot could only do so much to improve their lives. Lilith had experienced all the same types of hardships her siblings had so it was easy for her to learn ways to take care of everyone. She learned what everyone’s favorite meal was and would make them often. If there was an activity that one sibling greatly enjoyed, like coloring or playing tag, she would do what she could to make time and join them, sometimes talking other siblings into joining as well. Overall, it was fairly taxing on Lilith. There were twelve of them that were constantly abused and she couldn’t help herself from doing everything she could to help. She hated seeing her siblings in pain and often put the blame on herself, wishing she could do more to help.

As they aged and started their team, Lilith couldn’t afford to take care of everyone as often as she used to. She still did what she could and even tried taking on important roles on the team to spare the others. It was at this time she realized she wouldn’t be able to take care of her siblings if she couldn’t take care of herself. As the anger grew within the group of heroes, she retreated more into herself in order to avoid all the negative emotions around her. If she reached out too far, she would start mirroring what everyone else felt and would only cause more harm. She grew distant until at eighteen, when most of her other siblings decided it was time to leave, she did as well. Secretly, she had been applying to colleges in England and was ready to move out and live there, studying psychology and education. Though sad to leave her family, she was ready to live for herself for a change.

Even while she studied at college, Lilith could not forget her siblings and frequently sent letters. She always asked how they were doing, what they were up to, and asked if they ever wanted to meet up. While not everyone took up the offer, she was able to meet up with some and it was wonderful for her. Part of her still felt guilty about growing distant at the time, but she still deeply cared for everyone and wanted them all to know that. Still, she was doing her best to better herself in classes. She worked a few side jobs with kids, nannying and daycare, and she had to take an extra year to finish, but she got through. After college she found a lot of nanny and schooling gigs to keep her afloat. At one daycare, she fell in love.

Melissa was one of her coworkers, a curly haired redhead with the most adorable freckles. She had a way with kids that made Lilith truly appreciate what she had been through with her siblings. Melissa knew how to calm them down and she kept steady no matter how many tantrums were thrown in tandem. After a few months working together, they grew closer; first as friends and then later as girlfriends. It was a supportive and thriving relationship. Melissa was a solid foundation for Lilith’s emotions and Lilith was able to help her girlfriend open up and enjoy her life some more. In reality, Melissa was an engineer who was originally having trouble finding a job in her field, but Lilith helped her find the right connections and they were an official couple shortly after. At twenty five, the two got married and found a home in Ireland where they could work together happily; Melissa as an accomplished engineer and Lilith nannying for multiple higher up families along the coast.

The two were happy, but Lilith still kept in touch with her former siblings. She invited them over when they were nearby and continued to meet up with those that were interested. She had been avoiding using her powers unless extremely necessary, though her wife is aware and accepting of her wishes. The mysterious letter pulled her out of her ideal life and Lilith knew she had to go. Part of her was terrified at them all being together again. She remembers all the arguments and strong, negative emotions, but she knew she needed to be there for her siblings. It would be hard, but she knew she had a loving, understanding wife to come back to so she could tough it out. She had grown to have more control over her emotions as well and genuinely looked forward to seeing everyone again.


Other: Eh? Nothing I guess? All important stuff should be above ^
 
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Vern

Why not both?
WIP coming right up

Name: Evelyn Caswell (Sometimes called Eve, or Lyn, by siblings) (Some of her acquaintances call her Cassie)
Age: 30
Gender: Originally female, but she can shift at will.
Archetype:
Alias:
Tau (T). She is also known as =), which people have chosen to pronounce as 'Smile'.
Ability: Shifting — By absorbing particles from whatever she is in contact with, Evelyn can integrate those particles into her body and use them to change shape. Her basic skeletal structure must remain the same. She can also use the absorbed particles to change colour.

Only when absorbing flesh-like material will she be able to move her extensions like she would a part of her own body — otherwise, they are typically static, lifeless structures that extend her reach or serve as protection. She can also use them to alter her own body, as a sort of ‘frame’ upon which she stretches her muscles and organs. Needless to say, doing so is quite painful, especially if the modifications are major.

While she is able to expel particles she takes in, the process isn’t reliable and often leaves residue behind, which makes her shifting quite harmful to her body. When she was with the Rangers, sophisticated medical equipment made it easier to deal with, but now that she’s on her own, she no longer has that benefit.

Appearance: Being a shapeshifter, Evelyn doesn’t really have a fixed appearance — in fact, she doesn’t even remember what her ‘original’ form was, not even knowing if she was born male or female. The form she currently defaults to, which appears when she isn’t using her powers, is that of a (fairly) young girl with a fairly boyish physique, standing at slightly below average height. She isn’t particularly curvy, and can easily pass for a boy if she wishes to, even without shifting. Her skin is a little tanned, but over the years it also seems to have faded, becoming more and more pale.

Her hair is wavy and cropped fairly short, and is a faded grey colour that seems to hint at having been vibrant in the past. Her eyes are heterochromatic, with one being purple and the other being gold — and just like her hair, they give the impression of having faded a little. Her skin is dotted with dark red patches — all things like infections, or not fully healed skin, a by-product of passing so much foreign material through her body constantly. Some of the more serious ones are patched over with band-aids of varying size. You’ll often find dark bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, and she wears a perpetual half-smile that doesn’t seem to have any substance behind it. You'll often find her chewing on something, typically some sort of snack. She tends to walk barefooted so she always has something to shift from if it’s necessary — a side effect of her paranoia.

Her ‘casual’ outfit is a simple loose, short-sleeved jacket and a pair of loose pants — she prefers to wear baggy clothes, in order to minimise contact with her damaged skin when possible. She tends to opt for muted browns and oranges, with some grey and black thrown in. As Smile, she wears a fully black outfit with neon yellow highlights that covers every inch of her body. Inside the baggy clothes, she keeps a small container of various substances to draw from when she needs to shift during her shows (typically the majority of the substances were hidden beneath the stage). Her face is covered by a black mask, which is lit up by neon lights in the pattern of a pixellated smiley-face.
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Personality: Evelyn is someone who is fixated on one thing, perhaps too much so — helping people smile and laugh. Even after her not-so-great experiences in the field as a superhero, a world where everyone could simply just be happy remains her dream. She feels a deep disillusionment with her life as a hero, feeling that she caused much more harm than good, and is obsessed with the idea of making up for it somehow. You could say that she has a somewhat warped version of the ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ mindset: she views it as her duty to use her unique talents to bring about that world of smiles and laughter she dreams of. Because of this, she is incredibly driven and stubborn, caring about very little other than being able to put on a good show for her audience, and bring smiles to their faces — even if it means breaking a few laws, or destroying her own body with her power.

Her inner world is very vibrant, and she tends to swing wildly between extreme emotions, feeling everything to a greater extent than what may be considered normal. Evelyn is deeply sensitive and perceptive, often picking up on the pain or unhappiness of others, sometimes to an even greater extent than the people actually experiencing those emotions. However, she finds it difficult to show this empathy, not being good at expressing herself — especially the more negative side. So she lots to make up for these shortcomings with her own talents: namely, a wry sense of humour, a talent for sleight of hand, and a flair for the dramatic. She’s learned to use her humour as a crutch, a sort of substitute for having to express herself emotionally. While others may give a crying friend a hug and slowly talk them through their problems, Lyn opts to cheer them up with a snappy joke and a card trick instead. She’s fully convinced that these jokes and magic tricks are her only merits, and the only way she can help people the way she wants to (for a while her superheroism was part of that list, but not anymore). Thankfully, she’s very very good at what she does, and many of the siblings have fond memories of the secret performances she used to put on in defiance of their parents strict rules. Conversely, though, she’s not very good at expressing sympathy or care, and her jokes and attempts at lightening the mood can occasionally seem frivolous or even downright disrespectful. Because of all this, she's never really been able to connect with her siblings in the way she wanted. That distance between them only added to her hesitation to approach them, as well as her sense of awkwardness and not-quite-belonging.

Despite the richness of her emotional world, she hasn’t really had much opportunity to grow and mature. You could even say that she’s developmentally stunted somehow, having never quite grown out of the mentality of a teenager. Despite her incredible drive and intelligence, she often feels almost like a child at times. She’s very stubborn and has a very black and white worldview, seeing things as either wrong or right, good or evil. You’ll find that she sticks very strongly to her positions to the point of ignoring logic, often getting defensive when criticised. Even if she ends up realising she’s in the wrong, she’ll often refuse to admit it anyway (although she will change her actions to accommodate). She’s not really good at talking through problems and will often choose to simply do something against someone’s back rather than have a conversation about whatever the problem is. She’s often reluctant to change the status-quo even when it’s for the better, and has a hard time stepping outside her comfort zone doing anything but her magician-comedian performances. Sometimes, this makes her quite frustrating to deal with.

Perhaps as a result of all her childhood trauma, Evelyn has an incredibly high pain tolerance. Moving about as someone of a drastically different body type (i.e a giant muscular hunk) causes her great pain, and despite that she often remains in those guises for days on end. You’ll often find that it’s near impossible to tell when she’s in pain — she’s just that good at ignoring or hiding it and pushing on regardless. She’s unafraid to work long and hard to get to her goal, no matter how much she has to suffer in the process. Conversely, this causes her to push herself past her limits quite often, and especially without someone to rein her in she’s begun to destroy her own body. You’ll hardly ever know when she’s in pain, either emotionally or physically — both ways, she’ll hide it behind that typical smile and joking laugh, and unless you’re especially perceptive you’d be none the wiser.

Because of her stubbornness and tendency to just grin and bear the pain, she has a hard time opening up to people and arguably never has. Because of this, she’s quite lonely, and often finds herself feeling consumed by despair and hopelessness. Especially after her body started falling apart and her stint as Smile began to near its end, she’s been feeling more and more helpless and directionless, not knowing how to deal with the sympathy of others and her newfound inability to just shrug off her own pain — not because of any mental weakness but simply because her body can’t keep up anymore. A future in which she can no longer perform like she used to fills her with dread, and even though she knows it isn’t her fault, her deteriorating physical capabilities leaves her with a strong sense of guilt. She's also developed a strange sort of paranoia, always feeling slightly unsafe and in danger when she's out in public. It wouldn’t be correct to say that she’s become depressed, but she’s certainly found herself overtaken by a newfound sense of weariness and apathy, and a strange feeling of emptiness, that she isn’t sure if she likes or not.

History:
Like everyone else, Evelyn was born on the 11th of August, 1999. Her father was a failed comedian, who despite his talents had failed to receive any recognition, and her mother was a businesswoman who had recently found a great job for a game company in Japan. Only a few months after they settled down in Tokyo, their life was overturned by the sudden and totally unexpected arrival of their daughter — much to the surprise of them both, as her mother had fairly recently been diagnosed as infertile. The sudden birth caused incredible harm to her mother’s body, preventing her from going back to work, and that, on top of the medical bills, caused them no end of financial trouble. Even though they’d both dreamt of having a child, they knew they weren’t capable of raising one, and reluctantly gave her away to the men in suits when they arrived. Evelyn doesn’t know this, but they used the compensation money well, and went on the lead a relatively normal, average life.

In her earlier years at the institute, Evelyn was plagued with health problems. Unable to fully control her power, she frequently damaged her body while unintentionally shifting, and it wasn’t uncommon for Renata and Mathew, or even her other siblings, to burst into her room at midnight to find her screaming in pain, her body distorted into pretty gruesome shapes (this is probably a fairly nasty memory for some of them). She spent a majority of her early years heavily sedated to prevent her from harming herself, which not only stunted her emotional growth (perhaps permanently), but also created a strange distance between her and her other siblings.

The only one she felt reasonably close to was Jared, who’d spent a lot of his time in the medical bay with her after his explosions. Having another person there with her as she was lying half-asleep made the otherwise boring, lonely days almost a fond memory. When she was sedated and couldn’t do much, she would lazily listen as he talked about all sorts of things, about himself and about the world. And when he was looking down, she’d crack a joke or make one of the smaller toys lying around ‘disappear’ (although back then, she failed just as often as she succeeded) and he’d smile even if he was too tired to respond. That smile would always fill her with an odd sense of warmth. As she grew older she would often look back on those days, and use them as proof to herself — that with her talents, she really could make people happy. He started calling her Lyn, and she eventually began asking everyone else to call her that as well. It brought back nice memories. She also began calling him Jar-Jar, although he didn’t seem to like that as much.

As Evelyn grew older and learnt to control her powers, she tried her best to make up for lost time. If Lilith was the team mom and Lucas the team dad, then she was the cool aunt who showed up at family gatherings and entertained the kids with cool gadgets and magic tricks. As the abuse got worse, she found herself feeling more and more powerless to help her siblings, not knowing how to comfort them in the way that Alpha and Rho could. She often found herself feeling jealous of the way Lilith could integrate herself into everyone's lives even though she too had spent a lot of her time in isolation, but made sure never to express it (although she probably noticed). Lyn did what she could, though, using her talents to entertain her siblings with jokes and increasingly elaborate magic tricks that became rehearsed performances. Their parents forbid this, considering it an unnecessary distraction, but she found ways around it, often doing so in the dead of night. But even so, she found that sense of helplessness eating away at her.

It wasn’t just the abuse that she hated, though. Due to the nature of her powers, she was often used as a spy, and the majority of her years as a hero was spent lying to, and betraying other people. Sure, they were ‘bad people’ — but that didn’t help erase their faces of shock and anger and fear and sadness and disappointment from her mind. She hated all of her espionage missions, and grew to despise nearly everything about the Institute. The only saving grace was that she was allowed to help plan and script the team’s public appearances, and she threw herself into that task, making sure that each one was as entertaining and inspiring as possible.

When they turned 18, Evelyn left with all the others, escaping from the life she hated and finally putting all those haunting faces behind her. Unlike many of the others, though, she did not try to seek a normal life. For the next three years she seemed to disappear entirely, and many assumed she’d used her powers to integrate into society and leave the past she hated behind. They couldn’t have been more wrong — at least, about that first part. In reality, Lyn had spent the years using her superhero reputation to get in touch with some very influential, wealthy people, primarily in the tech and entertainment industries — a few of whom shared her vision, and a few of whom she managed to win over. She wanted to use her skills to create something of a modern legend, a semblance of magic in the real world — and in doing so, bring a sense of wonder and happiness to people all over the world, in a way she couldn't do before.

Three years after the Rangers disbanded, the climax of large concert that involved multiple beloved rock and pop stars was interrupted by someone who’s face was hidden by a strange, glowing mask emblazoned with a :) symbol — and all the lights went out. Nobody outside the venue knew what happened afterwards because the broadcast was cut, but almost immediately after the lights came back on the figure was gone. Articles soon popped up all over the place, describing feats of magic that seemed almost impossible — things like turning entire couches into water and then into sand, or flying in the air while dancing through loops of fire — and what’s more, almost everyone said that the whole thing was outrageously funny. Nobody was able to record a proper video, but a few snippets of footage were released that seemed to confirm the legitimacy of the event. A few days later, a HD recording of the entire event was uploaded onto a video streaming site by a user named ‘:)’, who was found to be untraceable (not for lack of trying). It confirmed everything the articles said. The mysterious nature of the unknown magician seemed to send everyone into a frenzy, and soon enough the figure had already been dubbed ‘Smile’, after the final line of their performance (which would soon become quite famous): ‘I hope I managed to make you smile’. Smile, of course, was Evelyn.

Over the next year many efforts were made to track down Smile, but were met with little to no success. Evelyn used her own powers and the influence of the many benefactors she’d found to hide herself completely from the public eye, and also, discretely, for more personal matters, such as attempting to track down her birth parents in Tokyo, trying to find Jared in India, and locating some of her other siblings -- of which, only the last was halfway successful. In the next seven years, she and her benefactors would organise three more appearances, the first at the opening ceremony of major sports cup, the second within one of Mumbai's slums, and the third at a seemingly random bar in the streets of Tokyo. Each one was totally unannounced, and most of not all devices in the area would appear to malfunction spontaneously — there were never any good recordings except a single one that captured the entire event in exceptional quality, always uploaded under that same name — :). Each show was as fantastical as the last, and also just as illegal — after all, its generally not within the bounds of the law to appear out of nowhere and temporarily break every electronic device in the general vicinity. Soon, ‘Smile’ became not only a legendary magician known almost all over the world, but also a wanted individual.

By the time her fourth show was finished, Lyn's health had taken a serious nosedive. The tricks she performed, many of which involved abusing her powers and pushing them to (and sometimes beyond) their limits, left all sorts of foreign material in her body that even the technology that used to be used to heal her could no longer do so effectively. She was beginning to have trouble using her powers as much as she used to, and seemingly incurable welts, scars, and bruises were appearing all over her skin. The doctors who worked on her began to worry about the possibility of cancer, or other increasingly harmful, perhaps incurable, infections. Her benefactors were already looking for a possible replacement for her, knowing that she would not be able to continue for much longer. There were talks of putting on one final show, using techniques that focused more on technology and were less strenuous for her, and ending the whole act before it all fell apart.

During that period, Lyn stopped putting as much effort into remaining hidden, knowing that the act was up soon anyway. Part of it was her making a conscious effort to push herself less (the only reason for that being she needed to make sure she was alive for her last performance), and the other part was simply her getting tired and sloppy. Eventually, she was found (more accurately, allowed herself to be found) by Lilith, who informed her of what happened. Learning about the death of yet another of her siblings, as well as both her 'parents' (who, despite their shortcomings, she was still oddly attached to), was enough to convince her to take a break from the whole 'Smile' act, and return to the place where she grew up.

Other:
  • Eve is asexual. She suspects she actually shifted gender biologically as a child, but has very little proof. She is not aromantic, however.
  • Apart from English she is fluent in several languages, mainly French and Spanish, as well as having a working knowledge of Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese. She has a natural knack for languages that her parents made sure to make the most out of.
  • Compared to her other siblings, her physical training was less about combat and more about utilising her powers to take varied forms, and many mobility based exercises to aid in infiltration and escape.
  • She is a natural acrobat and feels comfortable in the air, a talent she has capitalised on during her stints as Tau and Smile.
 
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Tangeh

Well-Known Member
Name: Jared Caswell
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Archetype: The Sage
Alias: Chi
Ability: Self-Detonation: When Jared's emotions reach their peak, he will literally explode, unleashing a force of sheer energy. The resulting heat and intense shock waves can cause harm to anybody or anything inside of a roughly 8 meter (~25 foot) radius. The damage level is higher the closer to Jared you are, and can shatter glass, destroy solid walls, and cause severe injuries and burns to those in the closest blast vicinity. Outside of the eight meter radius is generally safe, except for a deafening noise and a rush of hot air.

There is a "warning period" before the explosion - the time of which isn't set in stone, but usually lasts between fifteen and thirty seconds - where Jared will collapse to his knees and begin glowing bright white. It is impossible to stop the explosion once it reaches this stage. Jared himself is immune to the actual explosion - as are his clothes and anything he can shield with his body - but unleashing so much energy at once is extremely painful and exhausting. Multiple explosions in one day are therefore unusual, but if he can accomplish subsequent explosions they would be significantly weaker than the original.

Appearance:
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Jared is of Indian descent and stands at about 5'7" (171cm). He is physically fit but has a thin physique, due to a combination of losing muscle when he stopped being subjected to intense training and a vegetarian diet. He has a golden tan complexion and thick, fluffy black hair. It's a couple of inches long, yet still defies gravity and swooshes (mostly) upward due to how thick it is. Though hair gel would help ensure it stayed neatly in one direction and out of his face, he just lets it do its thing. He kind of likes the messier look anyways. His hair partially obscures his thick eyebows. He has an oval shaped face with a smooth, pointed jaw, and a patch of facial hair on his chin that he keeps neat but allows to stay. His eyes are a deep brown, and he has a prominent nose. He has a really beautiful smile when he allows others to truly see it, but usually it's hidden under a neutral stare or, if you're lucky, an upcurve of his lips. Jared has spent so much time learning to suppress his emotions that he doesn't show them at all a lot of the time anymore, even the positive ones. This makes him seem calm despite whatever he's truly feeling. He's especially prone to acting this way around his siblings, as he doesn't want them to be afraid that he's prone to exploding at any moment.

Jared doesn't own many articles of clothing, and most of what he does own is at least a few years old. He has better ways to utilize his meager income, though he wouldn't wear anything to the point of it falling apart. He wears white trousers which are snug around his abdomen and lower legs, but loose around his thighs. His sandals, though clean, have browned from overuse and rest at a sandy tan. His shirt is purple and fairly plain, though it's faded due to how often he's worn it. It opens a bit at the chest.

Personality: Jared today is a far cry from how his siblings remember him as a teenager. He is no longer anxious and withdrawn, no longer terrified of himself. The feeling of being a ticking time bomb has been left long behind him. It's been completely replaced by a calm maturity; in fact, he rarely shows emotions at all. Perhaps the odd smile or an embrace, but not much beyond that. A scar from his past, he's now less afraid of losing control of his emotions and more afraid that others - particularly his siblings - will worry that he's not in control of his emotions. This can be a dangerous facade in the event that his emotions do become heated, as it doesn't give anybody the opportunity to back off or calm him down - he just dissolves straight into a mental breakdown. Thankfully, that hasn't happened in a long while - but he also hasn't been forced to confront his past in a while. He's still sensitive to many particulars about his past, including the trigger words his parents instilled in him. He can't honestly say he's sad that they're dead - nor can he really say that about Lucas, though Jared pitied him in adulthood - but the mysterious circumstances summoned him home anyways.

Jared has endless patience when he's trying to teach somebody a new craft, and is good at making complicated concepts easier to understand. He believes strongly in learning via experience, and prefers to merely act as a guide, not an instructor. He's quite a perfectionist himself, being the type to spend so long preparing a meal that it's cold by the time it's actually served. He can also be indecisive on decisions that need to be made on the spot, as he prefers having time to carefully weigh each option. He doesn't instill this meticulous behaviour upon his students nor his fellow volunteers. Really, he wishes he could be less nitpicky with details; he supposes it's yet another remnant of his time at the Institute.

Ironically, given his upbringing, Jared is great at being an emotional rock as an adult. A bit on the quiet side, he's a fantastic listener and often brings up good points to comfort and guide distressed friends. That said, his own opinions are pretty rock solid and difficult to change, considering they were probably made with a lot of thought.

Underneath his calm demeanor, Jared has a lot of swirling thoughts about the Institute, his parents, and siblings that he's repressed for over a decade now. He feels that his parents' deaths should bring some closure, but not until he knows exactly what happened. Their mysterious births have always puzzled him, and his inability to do a lot of research or seek out other children born on August 11, 1999 has always bothered him. He doesn't let this get in the way of his everyday life, as he does not have the means right now to do a lot of research, but hopes to have a chance in the future. Certainly returning to his childhood home will bring back all of these questions and negative emotions that he's spent so long trying to push away...

History: Jared, like all of his siblings, made his entrance quite dramatically in the evening of August 11, 1999 in a rural area of Chhattisgarh, India. His birth mother was only fifteen years old, and set to be married off the very next day for as much of a dowry as the family could afford. His first few moments on Earth were filled with frantic arguing and yelling and sobbing until his grandfather snatched him away, put him in the basket of his bike with a few blankets, and set off to Raipur. Jared had cried instinctively for his mother most of the way there, attracting a lot of attention from the neighbours. It was over an hour before they'd reached Raipur - Jared's tiny vocal cords still somehow protesting against the journey - and his grandfather handed him unceremoniously over to the first orphanage he could find, ranting about how his teenaged daughter had given birth despite not being pregnant the day before her wedding. He was convinced the child was a curse upon their family from the Gods, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. He left to return to his family, and would go on to pray every single morning to ensure something like this never happened to his family again.

Jared lived at that orphanage for the first month of his life. The institute was poor and overcapacity, so it was a blessing when the British government followed the rumours circulating through Raipur and came to collect him. The workers were more than happy to throw most of their lengthy adoption protocols out the window for a large sum of rupees, and Jared left the orphanage that same day to live in The Institute. The name 'Jared' was given to him when he'd arrived in Britain by his appointed caregivers.

Over the next couple of months and years, Jared gained several new brothers and sisters, though in his earliest memories they were all together, and he's never known it to be any other way. In his early years, Jared was outgoing and full of energy. He loved to roughhouse with his siblings and his surrogate parents were oddly encouraging of this behavior, so he learned limits through trial and error. Cameron didn't much like being jumped on, while he needed to keep an eye out for Gale, who didn't care about limits quite as much. He was also a very curious and inquisitive child, and from the moment he learned to speak he constantly asked questions about the world around him. He could read early on and was very curious about India and all of the places his siblings were from. Given different circumstances, he probably would have turned out to be an excellent student.

Unfortunately, Jared, like all his siblings, wasn't destined for a normal childhood. His first trigger was so petty in hindsight; Lucas had taken a picture book that he'd treasured and had begun ripping out the pages. The intent wasn't malicious; Jared didn't understand that Lucas just wanted to watch the pictures fly around via Ginny's newfound papyrokinesis powers. He'd gotten along very well with Lucas until this point, and felt utterly confused, betrayed, and angry. The adults didn't mediate the situation, and Jared wasn't mature enough to know how to do it himself, so his emotions spiraled out of control. Maybe it was Lucas's connection to light generation that drew him closer to Jared as he began glowing bright white, or maybe it was guilt over hurting his feelings, or maybe even at age five it was in his nature to take control of situations - Jared never knew, but as one of the Janets flocked him in concern and the others shooed the rest of the children away, Lucas drew closer.

And then Jared exploded, emitting a blinding flash of white light and a deafening rumble. All he was aware of for several excruciating seconds was searing pain through his entire body and absolute terror. He lay on the ground sobbing and trembling afterwards - he felt like he'd been hit by a truck. But another cry caught his attention. He weakly looked over and his heart plummeted. Lucas was also on the ground crying, his skin turned grossly red and blistered around his cheeks and hands. Jared's breath then caught as he saw the Janet who had bravely gone to him. Her synthetic flesh was burnt and melted, and her wide eyes stared motionless at the ceiling. The smoking remains of other toys and books lay littered around him, and Jared still remembers the horror in his siblings' eyes as they stared at him and the deceased Janet from a safe distance away.

His parents came down shortly afterwards to collect him, saying they needed to "run some tests". Looking back, they had been lucky. His first few explosions were not as large or devastating as his teenaged potential would one day show, else most of the room would have been incinerated. It was only the Janet immediately next to him that took "heavy damage". Lucas healed fine after a few days. He had no major injuries outside of some bruises, and the burns were superficial and looked worse than they were, but Jared still felt very guilty that his anger over something so small had hurt his brother. Jared remained in quarantine for five days - he'd spent the majority of the first two sleeping, his small body struggling to recover from the event. What Jared remembers most was that this was the first time his parents had paid any real attention to him, even though it was more like they were scientists studying a new species of animal rather than parents tending to their son. They documented his recovery and forced him to answer questions about the event, which Jared really just wished he could forget.

When he was finally allowed back to play with the other children, there was a marked difference in how they treated him. Nobody wanted to play fight with him anymore, and Lucas's face - which just looked sunburnt by this point - kept making his stomach queasy. Jared couldn't blame them - he was just as afraid of himself as they were of him, and he kept his distance. He was no longer the happy outgoing child he was once - he lapsed into himself and stayed away, afraid that interacting could make him explode again. He'd quickly made the association between high emotions and violent explosions, and though his first trigger was anger, his most common trigger quickly became fear. He would feel nervous about feeling nervous, and this would quickly snowball out of his control. His explosions became more frequent and less predictable, to the point where they had a "safe room" installed in the house that was completely Jared-proof. There was nothing in that room he could destroy, so he was sent there whenever he became emotional. Usually he went there on his own accord, unless he began glowing before he could make it there, then the responsibility fell to a Janet to hurriedly carry him.

He spent a lot of time in the medical bay recovering, as when he was younger he became so exhausted after exploding that he couldn't even feed himself or get up to use the bathroom. A Janet served as his 24/7 nurse during these periods. More often than not Evelyn was in the room with him, sedated from the pain of her early transformations. In fact, her screaming in pain one night was enough to set Jared off himself, which made it a dramatic and stressful night for the entire house and landed them both in the medical bay. Jared pitied her - sometimes he just stared at her scars while she was sleeping and thought about how painful they must have been. As painful as his own abilities were, they at least didn't leave any lasting damage (...on him, anyways). But when Evelyn was alert she was constantly cracking jokes, even when Jared was too weak to respond. Jared took to calling her Lyn - one syllable was a heck of a lot easier than two when he was too tired to properly form words - and was happy to have somebody to talk to. Sometimes he'd chat to her even when he was pretty sure she couldn't hear him - his views on life, his fears, his dreams for the future. It at least made him feel less lonely, a prevalent feeling in his early years when the others were wary of him.

That's when his parents started giving Jared regular operant conditioning sessions. The first word he learnt was "serenity". His parents taught him to associate this word with peace, happiness, and safety. He was given food he liked, fun games to play, and some of the braver children were recruited to play with him, all in a quiet and private environment without the stress of the others looking at him warily. Jared began looking forward to these sessions, and the word "serenity" became an effective tool to calm him down. This reduced his number of explosions and made his siblings more confident being around him.

It wasn't until he was a bit older, about age ten, that they started using operant conditioning in the other direction. He didn't realize why at the time, but needed to make sure they could utilize his superpower at will for when they would eventually make their debut as heroes. The sessions were held privately, and most of his siblings didn't even know they were happening, as he kept quiet about it. His parents used a countdown system, but in Greek, to reduce the possibility of him hearing a trigger word in normal conversation.

Pente
- Fear. Jared was subjective to horrific simulations designed to frighten him. This ranged from being dangled at the top of a tall building to seeing his siblings dying before his eyes - all simulated through virtual reality software, of course. Tessera - Anger. Mostly this was triggered from simulations of a masked stranger hurting one of his siblings - often Cameron, as like many of the others he felt incredibly protective over Cameron - the frustration of being unable to help quickly escalating into anger when the simulation allowed him to attack. Tria - Loneliness. Sometimes Jared was placed in a completely white room for several hours with no stimulation - he wasn't even allowed to hear himself speak, as if he'd gone deaf. Sometimes the simulation took form of Jared watching his siblings play but not being allowed to join them. They would often laugh and discuss how happy they were that Jared wasn't around, and how they wished he didn't exist at all.

Dyo -
Guilt. They replayed scenes of real destruction Jared had caused at the Institution - deformed and dead Janets and, most prominently, Lucas with injuries beyond what he had actually sustained. Sometimes his other siblings were injured too, but Lucas was most prominent, as Jared had looked up to him. They even took Jared out of the simulation and brought Lucas in to describe the pain and fear he felt when he was younger, to describe how their siblings were all afraid of him and that he made everyone in the Institution feel unsafe. Jared didn't know that Lucas had been instructed by his parents to say these things because "it was in Jared's best interest, so he can control his powers" - but this instance in particular replayed in Jared's mind over and over and over.

And finally: Ena - Pain. This was straightforward - Jared was tortured with various methods, none of which left any scars or actual physical trauma; only mental scars. The word Ena itself was usually enough to set Jared off, but his parents preferred to keep it as the last number in the countdown, to ensure it remained an effective way to set him off when needed.

Needless to say, Jared became anxious and withdrawn. He felt less like a human, and more like a living time bomb. When his parents forced them to begin training, Jared complied. When they became superheroes and he was forced to wear a suit with a giant white X on the back that looked more like a warning than a Greek letter, Jared complied. Lucas was always the one to initiate the countdown on missions. Pente... Tessera... Tria. He never made it to Ena. When their parents ramped up training to inhumane levels and his muscles burned and his mind was fogged and anxious and his siblings were breaking down around him... he complied. Punch, kick, dodge... Serenity, serenity serenity...

Practically the moment they turned eighteen, his siblings - save for Lucas - disappeared. Jared was terrified to leave the institute for fear he would hurt somebody, and had his siblings not made the decision for him, he wasn't sure if he would've gotten up the bravery to do it. But there was no way he could stay at that place with Lucas and his parents, so he left.

He didn't make it far. Petrified that he would hurt somebody, he found an empty parking lot and exploded from the anxiety of leaving the only life he'd ever known. He woke up some hours later in the hospital - he'd been found unconscious and taken immediately to the emergency room. They didn't recognize him as 'Chi' since he wasn't wearing his uniform, and Jared wasn't about to make that change. A hospital, however, was the absolute last place he wanted to be in. It was filled to the brim with the most vulnerable of the population, not to mention expensive medical equipment. He begged them to let him go, that he was dangerous and needed to be by himself. He couldn't give much of an explanation, and his utter panic and insistence that he was going to hurt somebody was enough to land him a stay in the psychiatric ward.

The situation ended up being a blessing in disguise - the head doctor, Dr. Lang, was able to coax Jared's real identity and situation out of him, and his high-profile scenario was enough to grant him a place to stay and daily intensive therapy. His situation was thankfully, somehow, kept confidential, even from most of the hospital. Dr. Lang was very selective in who she chose to give care to Jared, and his explosions were able to be contained within a highly reinforced padded cell.

As the weeks went by, Jared started to gain more and more of himself back. He began wondering about where his siblings ended up, worrying over whether his parents were looking for him, even thinking about what he would do when he would finally leave the hospital. The outdoors was the first overwhelming obstacle he overcame. He very rarely left the Institute except for missions, especially in his teen years - there were so many colours and scents and noises in nature and in the city. His recounts of his experiences to Dr. Lang became more and more detailed, and he started becoming more and more curious about everything he saw. He learned to control his fear, though the trigger words his parents had drilled into him would never cease to have an effect on him. He still had a long way to go, but the prognosis was positive: he would be able to function in a normal society.

When he was finally discharged, he took up a job as a labourer at a landscaping company. It kept him busy and distracted during the day, and left him exhausted so his mind could be still at night. It was odd socializing with people who weren't his siblings, and he shied away at first, but gradually opened up. He worked as many extra hours as he could and spent his free time tracking down his siblings. This was a harder task than he'd expected, but figured out at least a handful of them were attending local colleges, and that Cameron had gone overseas. Some of the others - including Evelyn, whom he worried about - he would need to wait over a decade to see again. He'd met up with Lilith, excited to reassure her that he was doing alright, and told her his next plan; he'd been in contact with the customs agencies and, thanks to his month-long status as an Indian baby with Indian parents, had been granted status as an overseas citizen of India.

He scraped enough funds together for a one-way plane ticket and truly felt free for the first time in his life. India was big and scary and new, but it felt right. He moved first to the city of Bilaspur and got a job doing labourer work, similar to what he'd done in Britain. He opened a P.O. box in the city, so that he could receive mail from Lilith and the others.

Though it was mostly for social reasons at first - wanting to feel more connected to his coworkers and his community - he converted to Hinduism, and became a devout Hindu. The new religion gave him tools that he'd been missing; self-control, inner strength, and a purpose to life. Likewise, he became a lacto-vegetarian, and abstained from eating eggs and meat. He also picked up the Hindi language slowly, getting most of the basics down after a few months and being able to speak it comfortably after about a year. He formally studied it a little bit, but most of his knowledge came from being immersed in it on a day-to-day basis.

As he began feeling more connected to the country and culture he was originally born into, he became curious about his birth family. He followed the information trail to Raipur, but that tiny orphanage he'd been brought to had long been shut down due to lack of funds. A lot of inquiry and research led him to being shown a database with information from the old orphanage that showed his adoption date (September 12th, 1999). It lacked most of the formal documentation required, just some hastily signed off documents by a representative of the British government. Oddly, he had a name documented on file: "Kapil". He'd always been told that he'd been unnamed until adoption, but it seemed that this was what the orphanage had been calling him. The information on his birth family was pretty slim, just a document signed off by his grandfather handing him over on August 11th, 1999. Though his did use this information to track down his family, he never met them. As far as he could tell his mother was married the day after he was born, went on to have five more children, and never thought about him again. Whether she understood he became a part of the Rangers - or if she even knew about them in such a rural part of India - he wasn't sure. Not wanting to disrupt the life his family was happy to lead without him, he stayed away.

He returned to leading a life as a labourer, and began going by the name Kapil. It was certainly easier for his coworkers to pronounce, but it never quite felt right to him. He eventually moved out of the city and into a more rural area maybe forty minutes outside of Bilaspur, but he has kept the same PO Box in the city to this day, wanting to ensure his siblings would always be able to contact him. He went back to using the name Jared - he realized that changing his name wasn't how to be accepted into this new world. Only time and dedication would make that happen. As he learned more and more about the language, culture, and religion of his birth land, he began to give back to the community. In small ways at first, helping set up for morning rituals and programs. As the months went on he quickly became a leader, and established many new programs. He taught English in an informal weekend program for children (free of charge, though he accepted the gifts he was often brought), which evolved into volunteering at the local orphanage on a regular basis, which evolved into cooking meals for the orphanage and for the homeless and underprivileged. He also began teaching Hinduism and devoting himself more permanently to the temple. He stopped working his job as a labourer because he knew his time was better spent elsewhere. He was given a place to live free of charge near the temple, and though food was really a day to day uncertainty, he always managed to get by on very little. He devoted himself to helping others with everything he had - which was how he met his first and only love, a woman named Ruhi.

The two quickly became a power couple in the community, running many volunteer programs side by side. The orphan kids sometimes joking called them their mom and dad (ma and pitah). Though Jared had nothing material to offer, he gave Ruhi his whole heart, and that was always enough. Well, enough for her, anyways - her family, on the other hand, were not pleased. Ruhi was a few years younger than Jared, and her family thought she could do better than a penniless British man. Her father was especially disapproving of Jared, but Jared was always calmly optimistic that he would be able to win her family over the same way he won Ruhi over.

It didn't happen. Ruhi's father came to visit Jared privately one day and said he was going to relocate his entire family to a different village, and if Ruhi wanted to stay with him, then they would no longer speak to her. Jared wanted to be selfish so badly, but he knew in his heart he couldn't do it. He wrestled with his emotions for most of the night, eventually leaving to somewhere safe when he knew nothing he could do would restrain them. It was the first time in years he had exploded - it was still nowhere near as painful as the next day when he broke up with Ruhi, firmly insisting that she needed to be with her family, and that he would never forgive himself if she didn't go with them.

He's abstained from romance since then. Jared knew he'd never find another woman like Ruhi, and wasn't willing to go through the pain to try. He spent every day of the next few years devoting himself to his community instead, and though he felt bittersweet happiness at the marriage announcement of Lilith, he couldn't afford to attend. He did mail her a pair of handmade Rudraksha beaded bracelets, which he claimed contained blessings of fortune and prosperity.

Years later, Lilith reached out to inform him of Garret's death and Marron's arrest. Desperate to find out what really happened, his many friends and colleagues scraped together enough money to ship Jared off to England. He'll never forget catching Marron's gaze and watching her mouth pull into a wry grin. Maybe she was hoping he would blow up the courtroom so she could escape - he'd never know, as she was sentenced guilty by her own brother, Theo.

Confused and desperate for closure, he cornered Theo after the trial and asked if she really was guilty. He was expecting the answer to be yes. He expected to accept the loss of two siblings and move on with his life. But instead what he got was: "No, she didn't do it."

Jared was so stunned by that response it took him a moment to react - as if expecting Theo to announce he was kidding and it was just a sick joke. But he didn't, and Jared's expression turned into pained confusion and utter betrayal. He had words he wanted to say, but all of them would escalate into a yelling match and he already wanted to punch Theo in the face for not doing everything in his wide range of power to avoid putting their sister in jail. Jared turned and left without a second glance. He didn't lose two siblings that day: he lost three.

He returned to India to grieve and slowly returned to a normal routine. That is, until a letter announcing more suspicious deaths rolled in...

Other: - Jared is a lacto-vegetarian, meaning he does not eat meat or eggs (which he considers meat). He does eat dairy (and enjoys it muchly).
- Jared is fluent in the version of Hindi spoken in his town. He's lost some of his British accent in favor of an Indian one, due to living in India for nearly twelve years now.
- It has been five years since the last time he exploded. He's certain he's still capable of it, but he has far greater control and understanding of his emotions now.
- Jared has very, very few possessions or money. He survives quite happily and healthily on very little.
 
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Minteh

It's so shiny!
All those finished forms are ACCEPTED!

I look forward to the rest of the finished SUs. And hopefully if we're mostly finished by next week, the first post can get dropped soon after!

I can't update the first post at the minute but as soon as I'm on my laptop next I'll make sure to do so.
 

Darth_Nox

Custom Title
Name: Caldarius


Age: 30


Gender: Male


Archetype: The Everyman


Alias: Delta [Δ]


Ability: Photographic Reflexes - He can watch another person's physical movements and duplicate them without any practice or training, no matter how complex. Caldarius is able to duplicate almost any physical activity after seeing it done by someone else only once. He can use this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of rivals and expert martial artists from around the world. By reviewing recordings of movements periodically, Caldarius can retain duplicated moves indefinitely. When facing an opponent, he has already studied countless martial arts, and can virtually predict his enemy's attacks. His abilities do come with certain drawbacks. For one thing, he can be caught off-guard when battling unfamiliar opponents or someone whose fighting style is chaotic and unpredictable. And his photographic reflexes come at a heavy cost. The more he relies on his abilities, the more his brain literally overwrites old memories. Because of this, he remembers very little about his past and family.


Appearance: The armor consisted of a standard black tactical combat suit, to protect against impact force from all sorts of ammunition. Accompanying the suit is a skeleton motif helmet with a visor to cover up Caldarius’ facial scars and serve as an intimidation tactic by instilling feelings of fear and dread into those that oppose him and his family. A camera is seen above the visor of the suit, which he uses to record and replay footage. A hood is attached to the outfit to place up and down as he sees fit. A holster in the suit located on his right thigh carries a handgun that he uses as a sidearm. Any other weapons he utilizes have been stashed away at the moment.


Under the mask, Caldarius looks like an ordinary southern Latino man. He has messy black hair, almond shaped brown eyes, and a somewhat trimmed black beard. A nasty scar is plastered over his nose, with another one grazing his right eye, but no damage to his sight is present. Caldarius’ skin has been deeply kissed by the sun, but the time in his armor has been draining a bit of that color. His eyes never stay in one place, always scanning around, why he prefers having the mask.


Personality: Most people think him as impersonal, Caldarius is very inclined to disagree with that sort of notion. He was actually a very personal person, but his memory prevents him truly investing in that personal feeling of finally being rooted and well grounded. After all, how can someone stay personal after they can forget your name in a couple days, maybe in a couple hours? He finds himself constantly teetering a thin line between being distant for good reason, and a constant need of validation of others as well as himself, of wanting a healthy as well as personal relationship. To his family, he’s deathly loyal, even suicidally so when in comparison with others. Against foes and any odds, he’s as cold and distant as he needs to be, those same enemies being forgotten in minutes helps contribute to that matter. Despite such, underneath the mask is a man who wants to live his own life, but is physically and mentally incapable of doing such. They got their weapon, he lost almost everything in the process, and it for certain shows.


When allowed to open up a bit or perhaps significantly, although he’s a very driven person, he’s also a very gentle soul. Although he prefers a mutual decision making amongst groups, more specifically his team, there’s an understanding that a leader must rise and make the harder decisions, something he feels like he’s incapable of. He doesn’t utilize pretense and is normally genuine with his statements, even if he doesn’t have all the information available. To emphasize his extensive loyalty, Caldarius advocates for supporting and encouraging those he sees as his family and friends. And despite his shoddy memory, he can be a very reliable individual and very respectful to others. The best way to describe him is that loyal brother who never lets you down.


History: Like 86 other children, Caldarius was born under strange and unusual circumstances following the solar eclipse of August 11th 1999. Texas… Texas is where he remembers being born. His mother’s name was Azucena, a teacher… if he remembered correctly. She was always loving to him, from what he remembers. His father was… Herberto. He was a gun store owner, and he remembered his father’s kind eyes. He couldn’t remember their last names. He remembers little of his youth, beyond the occasional flash of distorted memory, much of that time has long since been lost to him after his powers became more prominent.


Caldarius does not remember when his powers came, but like the others, his abilities would have come in at around the age of five. However, due to the nature of his powers, he remained dormant for many years, to the point where no-one would have assumed he had them.


His adolescence is where things become more muddled, where memories overlap or are gone completely. What little he does remember are clearer than the memories of his childhood - perhaps because they hold relevant information to his powers and his history with the Caswells. He remembers a family - his family - four others like him. He remembers Matthew and Renata, observing them, taking notes. A name, his name - Delta. He remembers their disappointment, being separated from his family, being told he wasn’t good enough to be with them, but that he still had “his uses”. One day his brother goes missing, and then the next he loses his home and his family. He roamed for some time, trying to be a force of good. But he quickly realized, being a hero didn’t necessarily pay the bills. He had to balance being a champion with mercenary-like tendencies to make end’s meet, taking up the mantle of the name ‘Rogue’, considering in those times, he could be on either side of the law. It was more of a cover name than anything, he still considered himself Delta after all. All the while, he never stopped looking for his brother, Pi. His brother always treated him fairly, despite the clear line difference between the two individuals.


He did try to reach out Garret, imploring him to help find his brother, but the man was reluctant. He didn’t understand him, thought he was some crazy fan making a joke, especially when he introduced himself as “Delta”. Caldarius persisted, visiting him again and again, until finally, Garret relented, promising to help find his brother.


But that never came to fruition. He does not remember when he last spoke with Garret, only that one day he was there and the next he was gone. At first he thinks he’s just gone missing like Pi, but then the news came in. He doesn’t recall the details, just a high profile case, and several sources confirming he had been killed.


The next few years are hazy for Caldarius, and after a while time seemed to blend together. He spent his time looking for any clues he could find on his brother, desperately trying to cling to some hope that he was out there somewhere and that he could reunite his family. In his search for clues, he carried on with the duties he was trained for; a fighter, a killer, a weapon in human form.


And then one day he is approached by a woman he does not know, telling him he has been summoned to the Institute to discuss matters of a will following the deaths of Lucas, Matthew and Renata. He does not know why he was summoned, nor what happened, but the names of his parents stirred up memories for him and he felt compelled to go.


Maybe finally he’ll get the answers he’s been looking for. Maybe finally he’ll find his brother and reunite his family.


Other:
  • Adept marksmanship with various types of firearms, semi-automatic and automatics.

  • Adept swordsmanship, adept shield user, adept archery, exceptional unarmed combatant.

  • Adept athlete, adept acrobatic, adept parkour artist, adept escape artist.

  • Once ate a deep fried scorpion on a dare from Upsilon, it didn't taste so bad...

  • Is a fan of Kappa’s humor, can be heard often chuckling at whoever’s expense.

  • Only listens when Beta speaks, as he still acknowledges them as the family’s leader.

  • If you gave him a fun fact about yourself, expect it to be forgotten within the hour.
 
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