Truman May

[Truman May]

The Basics

Name: Truman Fitzgerald May
Nicknames: None that he responds to.
Age: 17
Orientation: Bisexual, though if people ask he tells them he's heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: Student
Powers: Perfect Recall -  Truman has the ability to remember and recall everything that he has ever experienced, encountered, or learned since his manifestation. He only needs to read, hear or see something once and he will never forget it. 

The remembering part of his ability is involuntary and Truman is unable to forget even in cases where he might want to (such as with painful, stressful, and/or other unpleasant memories). The recalling side of his ability is becoming more voluntary with training, though sometimes if he is experiencing extreme emotions he will remember other times he felt that way without trying to. may be constantly present in the user's conscious mind.

Just because Truman can remember everything doesn't make him a genius. He still has to work hard to put what he knows into application in the classroom and elsewhere. 

Truman gets migraines from recalling either too much information at once or something that he read, heard, or experienced longer ago. If he tries to push himself he will start to feel nauseous and physically exhausted as well. 

Play By: Kibum Kim AKA Key from the band Shinee

The Details

Hair Color: Black at the moment, though it does change it up from time to time.
Eye Color: Very dark brown, appear black in most lighting
Any Piercings? Yes, three holes in his right ear and two in his left. But he never wears earrings in every hole at the same time.
Any Tattoos? No, he prefers piercings, but maybe one day...
Any Scars?  Nothing major

General Appearance: Truman takes pride in his appearance. It is the one area of his life that the enjoys being colorful and spontaneous. Although he got some teasing about it when he was younger, he really does enjoy fashion. While he no longer dreams of being a designer, he still keeps an eclectic collection in his wardrobe. And he’s often doing something different with his hair. Sometimes he worries that his love of fashion will clue others into his sexuality, but it's really his only creative and fun outlet so it's hard to let it go.

Truman thinks about everything before he does it. Sometimes this makes him seem a bit slow, even robotic. But it also usually makes him seem smart as well. Every gesture and sentence is throughout and often calculated from something as simple as the way he sits in his chair or how he says hello in the morning to how he confronts someone who has wronged him. He tends to sit still for long periods of time simple because there is no reason for him to move. 


That said, Truman always tries to look happy and well adjusted. So even if he's sitting still quietly, he always has a smile on his face and looks people in the eye when they are speaking to him. Of course without his need to blink as often, this can get a bit disconcerting for others when it seems he's having a staring contest all the time, so he has to remind himself to do so. He also has to remind himself to breathe more regularly. Though he mostly does this out of habit, if he's thinking hard he often forgets to blink or breathe. 

Personality: It's hard to pin down Truman's personality. This is because he tries his hardest to mold into any current situation. For example, when he's in class he's the note-taking teachers' pet who always has his hand raised to answer the question. But after class, he's hanging out and complaining with the other boys about how lame classes are and how all the teachers are dweebs. When he's with one group of his peers he might act completely different then when he's with another group. Basically he tries his best to be liked by everyone, even if that means lying completely about who he is.

Of course all of this acting gets hard. And he's not perfect at it. He still finds it hard to get along with people who really annoy him. More importantly, he has no idea who he really is inside. The only time he feels like he's not acting is late at night when the rest of the world is sleeping. Even then, his idea of relaxation and fun is to either study, or re-think every decision and interaction had the day before. For example, did he look like too much of a nerd in class? Should he joined in when the other guys were talking about the new girls butt? Questions like these haunt Truman all of the time.

Truman doesn't deal well with criticism. He is also his own worst critique. He will hold onto comments and grudges for way longer than he should, often over thinking them and warping them out of a healthy perspective. But even then he tries to keep it all in and act like everything is perfect and fine.

Truman also doesn't understand the concept of 'forgive and forget'. He can't forget. So he'll hold onto a grudge forever and it takes a lot to make him every trust a person again. Of course, depending on the person, he will attempt to act like everything is okay even when it isn't.

Your Vices

Likes: 
Politics - he wants to get involved in politics as a career
School/Office Supplies - partly because he loves school, partly because he loves the organization
Fashion - though this has been pushed to the side as a career, he still enjoys it
Reading - mostly non-fiction, but he'll ready just about anything he can get his hands on
Soap Operas - his guilty pleasure, he used to watch them with his mother when he was younger

Dislikes:
People assuming he knows karate, speaks an Asian language, has an accent etc. - like most of his family Truman is very proud to be an American and feels that people making these assumptions are second guessing his patriotism 
Metas - he's not to fond of them and their potential power, especially those with mental powers
Messiness/Germs - he's not OCD, he just prefers to be clean
Sports - he doesn't mind watching them, but he's never been all that athletic

Strengths:
Debating - Truman is very good at thinking before he speaks
Writing - he's also good at putting his thoughts down on paper
Organization - he keeps his notes better than some of his teachers
Keeping a level head - or at least putting on the act that he is, he always waits till after to let his emotions out
Shaping himself to fit into the situation/crowd he’s in - Truman tries his best to mold his personality to fit with his current group

Weaknesses:
Speaking about his feelings - while Truman debates and talks well, he's horrible if it comes to a personal issue
Art - he can handle stick figures, and that's about it
Creative Writing - he'd much rather write a 10 page paper for history class than write a short story
Knowing himself - you wear a mask for too long and you forget who you are underneath

Fears: His grandfather dying. He knows it’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

Secret: Truman hides a lot about himself. Even though he has no huge secrets, he doesn’t really like anyone knowing things about him, even if it’s something as simple as his favorite color. His biggest secret though is that so far no one besides his grandfather know the truth of his sexuality.

Family Ties

Father: Lincoln May
Mother:  Lane May
Siblings: Kennedy - older brother Eleanor - older sister
Any Other Important People: Theodore May - grandfather

History

Truman’s great-great grandfather immigrated to America just before World War II. Even though he was Korean and not Japanese, he experienced a lot of racism. In an effort to prove his patriotism, he not only Americanized his last name and joined the military, but also named his children after American Presidents. This last tradition was still in effect in his family when Truman was born. His mother, a lover of American novels, was the one who gave him his middle name.

Both of Truman’s parents had full time jobs and it was left to Theodore, his grandfather who lived at home with them, to do much of his upbringing. A retired veteran, Theodore, was very organized and his version of child-rearing was based highly on rules and routine. Truman was the baby of the family, but his grandfather made sure he was never spoiled too much. He hated the thought of his grandson becoming one of the many screaming, tantrum throwing children he saw in the supermarkets and throughout town. So Truman was giving his share of the chores at a young age and expected to entertain himself when possible.  He did this most of the time by playing dress-up with a combination of his older siblings and parents clothing. Though most of his family had never really considered how they would deal with a homosexual member of their, they would rather have a member of their family be homosexual than un-American. And so they let Truman explore his own sense of fashion and figured if he ever wanted to tell them something about himself they would deal with it then. 

Truman's history with metas began at an early age. On his first day of kindergarden, one of his classmates pushed him down. When Truman got up to go tell the teacher, the other kid told him that if he tattled his dad would use his major powers, turn into a monster, and eat Truman. Now Truman had never heard of metas, so he didn't make the connection. He had however heard of monsters. This bullying when on for a while and Truman started to complain about having to go to school. He claimed he was sick or stupid, anything he could come up with that might get him out of having to go. Finally Truman's grandfather pulled the truth out of him. He, the school's staff, and the other boy's parents had a nice little sit down. It came to light that the boy's father was a meta (an animal shifter). Even though the bully was punished and stopped messing with Truman and the father was a nice man, Truman was still weary of both of them.

A few years later, when Truman was in the sixth grade, he brought his dog to school for show and tell. It just so happened that another student in the school manifested with fire related powers that day. There was an accident while he was trying to show off to friends and part of the school went up in flames. Though there were no human injuries and only two and a half classrooms were even damaged, Truman's dog got lost in the evacuation of the building and was trapped in the fire. He listened to all the staff and parents tell him how it was an accident and they were sorry. But he could only think about how unfair it was for anyone to have power. And how it would always end up being used for something bad, not matter how good the intentions were.

At age thirteen, Truman was in science class and the teacher called on him to give a summary of what the class was supposed to have read the night before for homework. Truman instead answered with the word-for-word entire chapter. The teacher had thought he was trying to play a joke. And while Truman tried to explain that he hadn't meant to be funny, and didn't even have his book open, he started to get a migraine. Throughout the rest of the day, Truman continued to answer all questions with direct quotes from the text. Most of the teachers were more annoyed with the boy than concerned about his health as Truman's migraine only got worse. After school, Truman told his parents about his day in great detail and then got sick to his stomach as well. Worried and confused, his parents took him to the doctor. A blood test was given and his meta status was revealed. Truman was devastated. Even more so when he was told the doctor would be contacting a place called Hammel where he would be sent and learn to control his ability, surrounded by even more metas.

The first year at Hammel was rough. He hated the students. He hated the staff. He hated himself. He tired quickly of everyone thinking he was a nerd or a genius just because of his ability. Or wanting him to help with their schoolwork. And being able to remember each and every time they had annoyed him only it worse.

Everything started to change during civics class his third year at Hammel. He was assigned a project to make laws that would make a better world. Afterwards there was a debate in the class to see which laws would work and help the best. Though Truman's anti-meta laws didn't go over well in the debate, it was then that Truman discovered his two great loves. Politics and debate. That class also taught him another important lesson. Just because he believed in something or held a grudge against someone didn't mean he had to be so vocal about it. Maybe it was better to keep is secret, act like everything was fin, and pull people slowly to his side instead.

Since then, Hammel has been easier. He does more work, trying hard to make everyone like him. And works well in class so he can go on to college after he graduates and make some real changes in the world.

Roleplay Example

Please see my extensive horde.

What About You?

Name: Abi
Age: 27
Experience: Since I was a fetus
How Did You Find Us? I went looking for a pot of gold beneath the rainbow and found you instead, I think I got the better deal.
Ready To Play? Yes. Always yes.

[Truman May]

finished and ready for inspection

[Admin!]

Accepted!

You know what to do! Have fun!