James Neilson
Dec 6, 2013 9:35:13 GMT -5
Post by James Neilson on Dec 6, 2013 9:35:13 GMT -5
The BasicsName: James Matthew Neilson
Nicknames: Jim or Jam
Age: 18
Orientation: Homosexual
Desired Rank/Job: College Student (University of Vermont)
Powers: Hypnotic Suggestion.
The people James touches may be subject to having a few suggestions placed in their mind. His influence is limited to direct actions, and the more convoluted the suggestion, the less precise the outcome. (For example, telling someone to walk to the end of the block would be simple, but telling someone to go find a missing object would just leave the other person fumbling around until the effect wears off.) He can keep up the suggestion for a few minutes up to an hour or two with his current skill, depending on the length of touch and how much effort he put into attempting to control them. Side effects include skin itching and dryness with whatever he used to touch the person (most often, his hands), drowsiness, and potential migraines depending on the strain of the suggestion. People like telepaths would be able to hear his suggestion and understand where it was coming from, making it easier to resist any of his commands. For the most part, mental shields would either make the source of the suggestion obvious or weaken its effect by making the thought quieter.
Play By: Thom MorellThe DetailsHair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green-Hazel
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? “None yet”
Any Scars? Minor scars from various bike accidents and roughhousing, but nothing significant
General Appearance:
More than anything, James likes appearing as small as he possibly can. At 6’2”, it’s a bit harder than he would like to admit, but he does thank his metabolism for keeping him slender. The combination of a common hair color – brown – and a common enough eye color – green bordering on hazel – help to keep him unassuming. He’s usually got a little bit of scruff, left there less out of laziness and more for the sheer fact that he looks too young without it and hates getting mixed up with younger people. (It isn’t that he dislikes them, he claims. In fact, he adores kids and just about everyone younger than him – he just wants to be taken a bit more seriously than how people tend to treat teenagers.)
His sense of fashion is rather non-existent. He has a habit of adapting himself to whatever the people around him wear, if only to blend in a bit better. Lately, thanks to college, he’s fallen into plain jeans and t-shirts – nothing extraordinary. He does rather like jewelry, even if he won’t openly admit that. More often than not, James has a necklace or some woven or leather bracelet on, just because it caught his eye at some point.
Personality:
James is charming. It’s not the sort of charming that could sweep a guy off his feet and make him swoon, but it’s the sort of charming that moms and grandmothers see and immediately prod their daughters to go have a chat with the gentleman over there. It’s mostly born of a combination between his inherent belief that everyone is interesting as well as his odd quirks. (His book collection takes up almost every bit of usable space he has, and he collects writing utensils – quills, fancy pens, whatever he can get his hands on. And anyone who gets him started on Ancient Egypt or history is bound to be lectured to death.)
He’s intelligent as well. His common sense has a habit of being not-so-common as he has a habit of overanalyzing everything around him and trying to make sure of certain outcomes become he makes a move, but when it comes to reading and processing theories and facts? There’s a reason he’s always managed to keep top grades. James is especially handy when it comes to the social sciences and writing, but he could always slip through math and science courses well enough, just without the same passion he has for other subjects. More often than not, his family asked why he didn’t go for something a bit more prestigious, and his answer has always been that he’d rather enjoy himself.
Third, James is a bit of a doormat. Or so he’ll insist, but his friends know he’s more than a bit. If it’ll keep his friends close to him, he’ll do just about anything for them and tolerate just about anything from them. He likes company, plain and simple, and even if strangers do tend to like him, he’s never considered himself charismatic enough to be worth properly befriending.Your VicesLikes: Writing of any kind (particularly journalism), nonfiction books, keeping up with newspapers, trashy romance novels, anthropology, comic books and science fiction, mindless sitcoms and humorous movies, being around people
Dislikes: Lack of control over his power/touching strangers, rude people, uncleanliness, disorganization, being the center of attention
Strengths: Schoolwork and memorization, finding information especially in libraries, getting along with most people, writing
Weaknesses: Constantly trying to please other people, nervous in social situations with too many (or too few) other people, taking breaks from work
Fears: Sticking out from the crowd, spiders, being alone, relationships
Secret: For the most part, his ability. He prefers not divulging it to people for as long as possible, unsure if the manipulative aspects of it will scare them off.Family TiesFather: Lucas Harrison (biological father): English professor
Mother: Emily Keegan (biological mother): unknown
Justine Neilson (adopted mother): lawyer
Siblings: Regina (28 years old)
Any Other Important People: N/AHistory
Whenever James tells people he was adopted, he has to bite his tongue and not add, “But I’m not some sort of sob story.” Really, the only difference he’s noticed in his life is that he’s got some memories of different people and he doesn’t look a thing like the blondes in his family – which, as little as he wants to admit it, probably has something to do with his need to blend into the crowd and not stand out. Once people start to put two and two together, they get curious and start asking too many questions: Why was he placed for adoption, who were his parents, all of those things. He's got vague answers to some of them -- his parents were young, apparently, and just not ready. Apparently there's a chance to find them and contact them, too, but that curiosity only arose for him once he discovered he was a meta-human, and maybe he has a small interest in looking around to see if his parents could explain that fact.
He was raised in Arizona (a fact that he only came to be thankful for after moving to Vermont for school, given that he could explain the dryness in his hands from using his abilities on the severe weather down there), adopted at five years old by a single mother who spent most of her time working but still had plenty of love to share. His older sister has enough years on him that she was already deep into school with her own friends by the time he came along and, not being particularly great with people, James found his comfort in schoolwork.
His abilities didn’t occur to him early on. James had merely assumed that when it started, it was merely a sign of growing up and that people were listening to him. However, people seemed to be listening a bit too well and following directions that he hadn’t said aloud, and by the time he started to piece together what was ‘wrong’ with him, he was on his way to the Institute.
Learning to control his ability ended up giving him what he considers a healthy fear of it. He avoids brushing up too close to people or getting close enough for sustained physical contact out of fear that people will start acting the way he wants them to rather than acting independently. It’s most of the reason why he managed to survive up to university without ever having been in a relationship, but it works for him. He’s entirely in love with his major – anthropology – and his part-time job at a cafe. One day, he wants to do something to help out his fellow meta-humans… his only issue is figuring out what.Roleplay Example
Green-hazel eyes began sliding shut as he stared at the computer screen for the… what was it, fifth hour in a row? Hardly the longest amount of time he had watched the flickering of an animated ad wrecking the site’s layout, but after coming off a double-shift at the bakery, it felt just a bit too long for comfort. James pursed his lips, giving a soft sniff as he reached out a hand to grab for the cup of coffee beside him, jumping when he managed to knock it over.
Definitely time for a day off.
Not that one was coming anytime soon. He didn’t even need to turn around to glance at the calendar to be aware of the fact that he had promised to cover for a friend on Saturday, and then Sunday was his mum’s birthday. Couldn’t miss that. No, that meant he had another ten days before a break, and as his gaze began sliding towards his bed, he began questioning how much anyone would truly care if he just lied down instead of finishing up the new graphics for the online paper. How many people had even read it that week? Surely not enough that they would care that absolutely none of the links across the header were clickable thanks to some obnoxious formatting that advertised some online game. (Who even advertised that on this sort of site?)
He needed a break. The ads could wait. Not even sparing a second glance to the screen, James got up off his chair, his mind racing with the possibilities: He could go out to the club, phone someone up, spend the whole night out and come home so exhausted that he’d immediately fall asleep –
But, like usual, he ended up taking the dog for a walk. It was still a break, wasn’t it?What About You?Name: Chris
Age: 21
Experience: Three years on one other RP board
How Did You Find Us? RPG-Directory/suggested by Lance Anderson
Ready To Play? Booyah! I’m in!
