Marvel Revolution Staff (mrev_staff) wrote in revolutionmuck, @ 2008-02-20 14:17:00 |
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Current mood: | working |
Entry tags: | info, oc, sample app, student |
Sample Application: OC Student
Students. Ah, yes. Young, untrained, uncontrolled, new mutants seeking out a place to belong, be taught or call home (or... being sought out, however it goes).
IC Information:
Name: Elliot Daniel Wescott
Gender: Male
Race/Species: Mutant
Age: 16 years old
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Code Name: Backlash
Affiliation: Xavier Institute
PB: Boyd Holbrook
Background:
Elliot, it could be said, had bad luck. His mother, Maggie Hayes, deeply believed that she was going to bear a daughter, but she had a son instead. Strike One. When Elliot's father caught Mrs. Hayes dressing his son in girl's clothing, he stepped in. Or rather, he stomped out. Divorce was a fierce battle, but in the end, Rich lost the custody war and a fair portion of his savings to a woman he couldn't believe he'd married three years ago. Like any good businessman, Rich cut his losses and disappeared to better, less crazy pastures. Without the support of her husband and shaken by the divorce, Maggie turned to her consolation prize - Elliot and the money from the settlement.
Because of her long hours as a Registered Nurse and a caretaker of senior citizens, Maggie could only give her son as much loving care as she could when she had the time. According to his mother, Elliot had a weak constitution, always getting sick and then some worse. Leftovers from his father, really. From Attention Deficit to Post Traumatic, by the time doctors realized Elliot was a victim of his mother's Munchausen By Proxy, the boy was on Death's doorstep and jabbed him with one last dosage of drugs to pull him out of a chemical induced coma just before his mother was dragged away by hospital security. Strike Two. In short order, 10-year-old Elliot was spirited away by the government, much to the distress of his mother who staunchly believed that something had been wrong with him. Perhaps in the long run, she was right; his mutant nature would later manifest in an extraordinary incident. Elliot, in the meanwhile, felt he understood what happened to him. His mother had betrayed him. The doctors and counselor explained to him that she was the sick one, not him. He completely agreed.
Still, Elliot lashed out at his caretakers. With two years of foster care, and none of them particularly successful in rehabilitating a delinquent child, he'd been in and out of four different homes. The first time, his mother had finally tracked him down and tried to take him back in a heated struggle resulting in restraining orders being issued. The second time, he'd simply run away far too many times from a somewhat weak-willed pair of parents of the fosterhome for the courts to deem it a match. The third was a general in-between home, and at one point, Elliot took off with a stolen stash of money, seeking out his biological father. Rich had made his business ventures work for him yet again, but Elliot's arrival on his doorstep was a most unexpected surprise. He had already remarried, and his two children by his second wife were the new loves of his life. The reunion was shortlived as his father called the police on his own disowned son. When his biological father refused to take him in, the confusion and betrayal pushed Elliot towards retaliation rather than quiet acceptance. The boy assaulted his own father, managing to cut him with a kitchen knife before taking off. He was caught by the officers who'd come to the rescue, and in an extremely disciplined kindness, Rich leveled no charges against Elliot. Placed in his fourth and final home under a last warning (at least, that's what the judge had told Elliot), he was under stricter watch than what seemed like maximum security prison. But it was under this strong discipline that he blossomed.
Under another two years of routine room checks, bag checks, and at times forced labor ("This is breaking the child labor law!" "Boy, if you don't get your ass out there and weed that garden, I'll show you what 'breaking the child' really means!"), Elliot received decently high grades in school to qualify for testing for honors classes. But on the day of the exams, the boy was nowhere to be found near the exam room. It was raining hard with lightning crackling through the blackened skies. That was one reason Elliot attended school - the periods in between classes gave him a chance to escape the draconian authority of his foster parents. The time between afterschool practices for the soccer team and his walks home allowed him just that bit of freedom. He was out on the soccer field, reveling in the power of the storm. And five minutes before the exam was to commence, Strike Three hit Elliot with 300 kilovolts from the Powers That Be.
A small group of umbrella-wielding passerbys saw the lightning strike down, thinking it to be way too close for comfort. Some of them jumped at the crack that followed. One of them had been attentive enough to point out the boy that was standing in the middle of the field without any form of protection from the storm, having pointed him out to her friends earlier. Chaos followed as they noticed the boy no longer standing in the middle of the field, and instead unconscious on his back with his clothes burnt to a crisp. Paramedics rushed to the scene.
In his umpteenth brush with near-death, Elliot had dreams. Within them, delusions of grandeur and visions of vengeance. He realized he could read minds in fleeting seconds, but there was more to it. There was energy to this act, and it flowed into him like power he hadn't felt before. This energy was not released in the form of psychic power, it was almost immediately converted into an electricity that fired within him. He was a mutant - like those advertised on TV to be so hated by the 'normal' human populace. And best of all, he was free from feeling beaten - free from feeling... human. When he woke from that dream under bright lights and masked faces, the doctors claimed it to be a miraculous occurrence. Though he had been hit with a tremendous amount of voltage (and the school authorities were baffled to why the taller objects hadn't taken the hit), Elliot suffered minimal damage to his body and only minor burns. He was discharged only hours after he was brought in, returned to his foster home with a bill of good health.
But Elliot formed other plans as he discovered his dream to be real. The boy found himself able to quietly drain the anger from his foster father and others in the house. Soon, they couldn't do anything but watch with a certain residual void of thought - a blank in the spot where they had been yelling at him for something not more than a minute before. Without being able to control this newfound power very well, however, Elliot realized the downside to this new development. He found himself accidentally destroying his radio or shorting out a light, or at times taking in too much for him to process at once. The resulting overload often frustrated him, made him nervous or paranoid, and followed often with him shutting himself in his room with his head underneath his pillows for long periods of silence. Because of the additional x-factor to his relationship with his foster family, he could no longer truly predict what his routine would be.
As his powers continued to grow, he took to stealing from the medicine cabinet to suppress them. Few things worked, but mental suppressant drugs had a mild dulling effect. In the next months, his school performance and grades took a hard fall, tanking into the below average danger zones. Worried teachers thought it might have been due to the traumatic experience at school with the lightning, but they were hardly spot on. No one could do anything to stop it, but Elliot. One night, simply unable to handle the pressure, he shorted out the alarm system covering his fosterhome and ran off into the dark night.
Elliot learned that living on the street was no easy job at all. Despite his thin veneer of toughness, he'd still only been a city boy raised in the comfort of a home that at least tolerated his presence, and a smartass within school grounds. On the street, he learned how rough life was, and how Real the danger of being killed, or simply dying from some random act of misfortune, really was. But still, he knew he had indescribable abilities that allowed him to do much more than anyone he'd previously known could think of. Using this, he knew he could turn it to an advantage.
He'd ran away before, but there had always been a specific purpose why, or a place he could go. This time, he'd wandered away without a reason. Eventually, he managed to hitchhike into the next town, where it didn't take long for him to discover other mutants. It was through coincidence when he passed by them, that he could steal from their immediate thoughts and gain an idea of who was who.
Eventually though, he was caught. It happened fairly quickly as well - the streets had eyes and ears everywhere, and it didn't take long for word to reach the locals that there was a new kid in town. A small gang of young mutants like himself approached him, words were exchanged, and a brief scuffle ensued. Brief, because Elliot was promptly beaten down by the group's much more experienced leader, and then the group afterwards. It was hazing, and it wasn't long before Elliot joined them.
He found much use in them, and the benefits were often mutual. When it was discovered that he had the ability to manipulate electricity, a rash of robberies plagued the area. They were mostly small time ones, often of breaking into a house with an alarm system or jacking a old car. When there was a security guard to put down, Elliot could suck the suspicion right out of him, and then deliver a nasty shock to put him out. It was a perfect setup, and one that he appreciated thoroughly. The gang's philosophy matched up with his as well - humans were 'so last generation', and this was the coming age of the mutants. Mutants were superior, to say the least, and though it was a young and foolhardy group that followed it, nevertheless they did so with serious fervor. He strained under overlording authority, roamed far off the territory quite often, and boasted often too much for his own good (leading to more than one fight). Either way, Elliot was a force that grew with freedom to do as he liked, and tempered with self-training, he was one of the young mutants in town not afraid of confrontation.
Yet, for all the practice and training that Elliot underwent, there were still times when he simply couldn't control himself. Those times, once more, were abated with substance abuse and other destructive tendencies. Or worse, when the memories of others stayed in his mind for longer than he would've liked and integrated into his own, only the stronger (and subsequently more expensive) substances would get him the fix he needed to ward it away. Those were dangerous times when he found himself coming to in places he didn't remember. It was a wonder how he'd managed to stay alive that long.
Then as every high was fated to crash, Elliot fell hard too. The gang's growing violence escalated into a battle between the young mutants and human law enforcement authorities. Though they had clashed time and time again, in one particularly nasty battle, Elliot's luck (which had not been strong in the first place) gave out again and he was arrested. Though charges were minor against the minor, they went on record. The police had him on their list, and that was not something he wanted. Not that they hadn't had him watched before, but Elliot had been fortunate to avoid arrest until that day. He was lucky to not be charged with assaulting an officer, but when they discovered his identity, Elliot determined one final thought.
He'd rather die before he went back to his foster home. Except, he preferred life to death, so there was but one logical course of action. He would escape from juvenile detention, when the opportunity struck. And, he would run free again.
Elliot broke out of his juvenile detention cell in Trenton and took off to New York City, where he originally planned his return to Trenton after things cooled down. However, it was in the Big Apple that he met an old friend and fellow gang member, Eira, and discovered she was enrolled in a school for mutants - Xavier Institute, home of the X-Men. In a reckless show of powers that ended up landing the two in a holding cell while their guardians were called, Leo met his soon to be new guardian amongst many: Emma Frost.
Personality:
Elliot was never too sure about himself when he was a child. Despite lavishing "care" on him, his mother was definitely messed up and that transferred into her child. The ordeals Elliot has had to deal with when he was younger has left him with pretty much a dead heart towards true love and sympathy. He's turned out to be the kind of child who demands materialistic proof, hard evidence, that someone is supportive of him rather than just words and transient feelings. He is someone who needs reminding of who he should support, or else he will degrade into simple self-motive.
Now, he's a miscreant, a punk, a rogue, a deviant, a self-serving, self-righteous bastard with a mouth on him. He will heartily claim mutants as superior to humans, though he has yet to believe it wholeheartedly; mostly it's just the philosophy that serves him best. To him, it's natural for humans to hate mutants, and vice versa - you hate what you hate, and you do what you do to get rid of it as soon as possible. He believes pitted in a war against each other, the mutants will ultimately win, and plans on being alive to see that. He will run if he must to stay alive. Revenge is not something he plans, though if he's reminded of being wronged, he could followthrough with it if given the chance.
Most of the time, he doesn't give a damn what others think unless it's useful for him to know. Deep down, he despises those with sympathetic views towards humankind because of the feelings he harbors about his parents and foster parents. Having a rather irreverent nature towards respect, he sees it more as a version of fear of those higher or more powerful than he. He is very much a "Winners change history; Losers get stuck writing underground newspapers" type of guy. He really is a lot of bark, but his bite can be painful. He isn't afraid to use his powers in public, confident that it allows him to get away with a lot more than he should get away with.
If there were good qualities to be said about Elliot, they would probably be limited to the fact that he can be charismatic if he chose to be. Granted, his motivations might be more sinister in nature, but outwardly he can act as happy-go-lucky and confident as he chooses. He can be generous when he wants to be, hardly knowing the discipline of moderation. If he gives, he gives big. If he takes, he takes big.
Because of his lust for freedom, he's largely independent in nature and lacking in the discipline department unless it's forced upon him. The most valuable thing he has is his freedom to act and do what he wishes, and taking that away is most devastating to someone of his personality. If such punishment is leveled on him, he would react strongly and badly, and most likely do something that would incur harsher retribution.
Resources:
Having lived on the street, Elliot has very little money of his own that isn't about to be used in some kind of purchase of junk food or drugs. His fortunes have taken a turn for the better, however, with a part-time, under the table 'job' at a local salon (David's) in Salem run by Christopher. Though it isn't enough to be living on his own, the pocket change amounts to enough for the occasional splurge of movies and food, or entertainment. Otherwise, Leo's expenses are covered via Xavier Institute.
Powers:
Leo has two powers: electrokinesis and psionic vampirism. The powers are tied to each other, in that they are supportive of each other, but can be independently active.
* Electrokinesis: the formation and manipulation of electricity. His body acts as a generator, storage vessel and conductor of electricity, allowing it to be built up before discharge, or simply pass through.
Leo's abilities to manipulate electrical energies largely remain outside of the body, meaning he doesn't have the control of electricity within a biological form outside of his own... yet (might evolve in the future, via power upgrade application). This external manipulation also extends at some degree to electromagnetic fields. Leo can generate focused electrical blasts in the form of lightning-like discharge at varying strength and distance. These "bolts" travel at virtually the speed of light, depending on whether or not the discharge is manipulated to be slower. His high powered discharges range from several hundred (electric eel) to a few million (lightning strike) volts, able to be fine-tuned for certain desired results such as a stunning shock versus a potentially fatal one.
An extension of manipulating an electrical field is the power to form a temporary "shield" of electricity. The shield is only protects from physical objects about as well as average body armor. It fares much better against energy discharges, acting like a shock absorber or force field in that case. Touching the shield gives off a nasty shock.
Leo's electrokinesis also can reach the point where his body mutates into pure electrical energy. The resulting form retains a vaguely humanoid shape, and is extremely bright to look at - literally like looking at lightning. In this electric form, he automatically absorbs electricity from outside sources; he also constantly discharges energy and reabsorbs it in a recycling current of energy. In this form, Leo is able to travel through electrical lines and machinery, though this may cause damage to circuitry. He can also fly with this form, traveling through the air at extremely high speeds (up to the speed of light). The conversion lasts indefinitely as long as there is no major drain of energy. If the drain happens, he reverts to his normal form. In this form, pathic manipulations are extremely difficult due to the nature of his being in this state; though his mind works at supercomputer-like speeds, his actual sentience is reduced to basic instincts and iron will. High-powered pathics are still capable of affecting him at their own risk.
By virtue of being able to operate the power circuits of a machine, Leo could potentially manipulate a machine. Doing so requires expenditure of the amount of power required to run said machine. This power doesn't cause the machine to do anything else but the functions that it's been designed for.
Leo's electrokinesis is naturally weak to things that weaken electrical charge. Water, EMP, non-conductive materials, and more can all harm the stability of his power. Leo is not immune to electrical shock from outside sources, but he can potentially absorb or redirect electricity based attacks from doing him more harm. He is not harmed by his own produced electricity, but producing the electricity takes away from his own energy. Though he could technically replace food with electricity for energy, doing this too often will lean towards a loss of control over his powers and a strong feeling of withdrawal.
* Psionic Vampirism: the power to drain psychic/telepathic energies from another being. This power plays its role in connection with his electrical power, being augmented and affected by Leo's control of his electrokinesis.
The main effects of Leo's psi-vampirism is an energy drain through the psionic vein from sentient sources to convert to his own power. The ability can be created in a field effect with a range of 100 feet, or it can be limited to one or a few targets at a time. The power drain is strongest if he is able to establish physical contact, though contact is not necessary. The victim will feel nothing at first but experience minor forgetfulness or absentmindedness. If the absorption continues, then they start to lose short term memory and feel a headache coming on. At its strongest and longest duration (surpassing five consecutive minutes), the victim experiences heavy migraine-like pain within the skull and physical energies are brought to a low, with risk of possible unconsciousness.
The energy drained from the source is converted to stored electrical energy. Like the other power, Leo could technically substitute food energy for a short while via this power, but doing so is definitely not recommended.
A side effect of the psi-vampirism is that Leo retains the memories of his victims from the time he establishes contact to the time the link between them fades. Though most of the memories are forgotten over time, some linger like psychic residue. Immediately following the initiation of a psychic drain is a telepathic link from Leo to his target, wherein he can read their thoughts and emotions and send his own back. The link fades thirty seconds after the end of the drain, like an aftertaste. Once the memories are transferred from the target to Leo, the target does not regain those memories. So far, Leo's power has been shown only to affect short term memory, and not long term, but his power is geared to affect the memory centers of the mind.
Leo's psivampirism also gives him a passive ability to detect outside telepathic contact. He can't reach out to others telepathically a la Charles Xavier, but he can instinctually tell if someone is trying to read his mind. Another innate ability of this power is a psionic backlash of energy. If there is a psychic attack on Leo, his own power will reflect the power back at the psychic attacker in equal force.
Leo's power to drain psychic energy has its limits. The power is stopped quite effectively with defensive mental blocks, which prevents him from draining energy at anything but a very minimal rate - too minimal to be worth it. If he absorbs too much psychic energy with this power, his mind will overload itself and this often results in epileptic symptoms. Mind-altering drugs can be used to suppress this power. Besides directly drawing from an electrical energy source, he uses psychic vampirism as his other main source of energy for creating electricity.
Skills and Talents:
In school, Elliot's best subject was English, followed by General Science. He was somewhat average at mathematics, and showed little inclination towards the arts. He was briefly on the soccer team at his last school as a forward, but wasn't a standout athlete.
Having lived on the street for just a year, Elliot learned most of the basics to shoplifting, pickpocketing, carjacking, and the usual teenage boy brawling. He has handled handguns before, but not been in any serious firefight. Later on as he received more formal training at Xavier Institute, his abilities in athleticism have improved at least by a little in conjunction with his self-control over his powers.
Overall, Elliot has a bright mind and an eye for value, and also the usual foolhardy feeling of invincibility that comes with being a young teenager. Coupling that with his powers, he truly has a superiority complex. However, that is backed up with some powers training he's done before, and that alone is enough for him to stop most normal people from harming him or getting him in trouble. For his skills and talents, Leo's equipped with everything a teenager growing up fast and furious would need.
Possible NPCs:
Margaret Hayes - Relationship: Mother - Maggie is Leo's biological mother, whose custody over her child was taken away when he was 10 years old. The courts ruled that she had Munchausen's By Proxy disease, a mental disorder wherein she believed her son to be ill all the time and would attempt to cure him to an extreme and dangerous degree. After Maggie lost custody of Leo, she attempted to get him back with all her might. At the first foster home, she was handed restraining orders and served minor jail time when she didn't follow those orders. Since then, she has been trying to find Leo again. She loves Leo a great deal and still doesn't understand why her son was taken away, but it doesn't stop there. Maggie wanted a daughter much more than she wanted a son. She wanted a daughter so badly, that she would dress Elliot up in girl's clothing and often referred to him as a her. It was this extreme eccentricity which lead to Maggie's divorce, setting the ball in motion for the relationship between mother and son to go downhill fast. If there were a reunion between the two, it would be very tense and likely end very badly. And it is possible, as Maggie has not stopped searching for Leo to take him back under her wing.
Richard Hayes - Relationship: Father - Rich realized after Maggie slipped too far into pretending their son was a daughter, that he had to end the farce of a normal marriage he had with her. Though he loved his son and fought extremely hard to earn custody, he lost the battle in divorce court. In truth, he couldn't face his son after that loss, and hence took his leave to Buffalo, New York, where he met his second wife. They had two daughters together, Jessica and Jennifer, both human. When Elliot escaped from his foster home and managed to find Rich with his new family, Rich didn't have the heart nor will still to face his son. The lash out resulted in Leo cutting Rich with a kitchen knife and running away again. Rich's last act as Leo's father was to not press charges on his own son. The two haven't seen each other since that day, and neither are looking for each other any longer.
Joseph and Patricia Wescott - Relationship: Leo's last foster parents - The Wescotts are part of the state of New York's child adoption services program. Their household is one for children who are considered problem cases for whatever reason, and they take the children in, in attempt to reorient their lives. Despite their very loving and friendly personalities, both of them are very firm on discipline and have taken steps to make sure their home is safe both inside and out. The Wescotts try to run as typical a household as they can with the number of children they have. At any one time there are at least three children in their home. Joseph, being a former police officer before he retired early (injured on the job), currently works at a nearby car and body shop while Patricia stays at home to run her own home-based internet business. The pair of them have had no children of their own, and Leo was the first confirmed mutant they had in their home. It was his mutant status that convinced them to give custody of Leo over to Xavier Institute.