Ghost

by teaand29cats November 30th 2015, 1:23 am

Ghost
"I was there. All along your life, I've followed, a shadow you've never seen. I'm the ghost that lurks behind you in photos. I'm the movement you see in the corner of your eye that isn't there when you turn around. I'm the extra shadow that walks behind you when your real one is in front. I've seen it all: all you have ever done, all you have ever been. I am a ghost in the nights you've passed by, but I will not go gently and I refuse to be silenced."

Basic Biography

Real Name: Thomas Casper Weard
Renegade/Hero/Villain Name: Ghost
Title: The Man Who Wasn't There
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Race: Meta-human
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs
Blood type: O -

The Looks

Photo:

Thomas wears jeans and a black leather jacket over a long-sleeved turtleneck. He wears leather fingerless gloves that held him keep from inadvertently touching anyone but allow him the chance if he needs to without having to remove them. He wears sneakers that are good for running and moving about. Short for his age, he has pale skin and a young face, but his eyes often make him look older and weary. They are hazel and shift color from grey to green to brown depending on varying factors. His hair is naturally blonde but he dyes it brown and spikes it to keep himself from appearing familiar to anyone who might be watching.

The Legacy

Personality: Thomas hates people. He's seen enough of their past deeds that he's aware they're all scum. He doesn't like being around people, he doesn't like interacting with them, and he sure as hell doesn't like touching them. There are two exceptions to this: his sister and little kids, both of which are considered innocents in his eyes. He views everyone else with suspicion, waiting for them to do something that will prove they're as self-centered and ill-intentioned as he's come to expect.

He doesn't have a very fond view of himself, either. He believes he's just about as filthy as any other living person and only the fact that he has a mission that's more important that the sanctity of the human race keeps him from holing himself up somewhere he can't hurt anyone and they can't hurt him. He doesn't believe he can trust anyone and tries not to get close to people, but he's also very lonely. He's taken the name Ghost both because his powers allow him to see into their pasts as though he were a fly on the wall for them, as well as because he is coasting through life without making any great effect on anyone - so far as he believes, in any case. He often falls into morose moods and suffers from depression and has more than once considered suicide as a viable option once he deals with what needs done.

History: Thomas' father was an abusive man who beat his first wife near-to-death when she was seven months pregnant with Thomas and his twin sister, Theresa. She died but doctors managed to save both Thomas and Theresa, although they both suffered medical conditions when they were young due to being two months premature. Due to a lack of proper evidence and witness accounts, their father was not convicted for the death of his wife or battery and permitted to raise his children. He remarried shortly after their birth, and again after his second wife left him.

Thomas and Theresa were rarely apart as children, feeling much more comfortable in each others' company than anyone else's. Theresa was known to be the one who often spoke what the both of them were thinking, leaving Thomas to be the quiet, observant one. Theresa remained small and frail through her childhood, and while Thomas was always thin and short for his age, he was physically stronger than his sister.

When his fourth wife left him after he'd beaten her repeatedly, their father turned his ire on his children. Thomas allowed his lack of speaking to annoy his father to the point where the physical punishments were given to him, to avoid his sister being subject to them, as she wasn't physically capable of withstanding them. When they were fourteen, their father punched Thomas in the face, triggering his Touch Awareness power. Thomas was bombarded with the traumatic memory of his own mother's death and the influx of information down a new passage in his brain triggered a grand mal seizure. His sister reacted violently to him being hurt, her own empathic powers triggering. The end result was the ambulance and police arriving to find Theresa having a panic attack in the middle of the kitchen while her brother lay unconscious on the floor and their father hid in the closet, screaming and crying.

Thomas and Theresa were put in foster care and their father was sent to a psychiatric facility, as they were only able to stop him crying and screaming for short periods of time. He existed in a constant state of complete terror. After a year of being in foster care, both of them were adopted by a woman who worked for an organization that trained people with powers to control them. She was known only as Mother and took them in with promises to train them to use their powers for the good of the people. The people of her organization, that Is.

Thomas and Theresa were separated immediately. Thomas was tested and studied to determine the extent of his abilities, then forced to take classes that they determined necessary, utilizing his increased brain capacity and knowledge retention to force him to learn a vast amount of information very quickly. Then, he began to be used as an interrogation tool. He was forced to hold physical contact with people Mother was interrogating in order to find information that their organization needed to know. The people he was forced to touch were often murderers and mercenaries and truly disgusting members of society who had done awful things. He was forced to witness their past deeds, traumas, and all that came through, until Mother and her superiors were satisfied. He often suffered ill-effects from constant use of his powers and was kept locked in a cell masquerading as a room when he wasn't being utilized. He was forbidden contact with Theresa and had no idea where she had been taken or what they were doing with her.

He gained a lot of information while "working" for Mother, including some knowledge he failed to reveal he knew, such as how to pick locks, pockets, and hide in plain sight. He revealed what he learned that was necessary to keep suspicion off him, but nothing more. When he gained his chance to grab hold of one of Mother's minions, he took it, learning enough of the layout and workings of the building he was in to attempt an escape. It failed, but he never stopped trying. He was seventeen, three years a prisoner of Mother, when he managed to successfully escape. He was unable to find out where his sister had been taken, only that she wasn't where he was. He took to the streets, doing all he could to survive and avoid Mother's detection, while trying to find Theresa. Two years he's been running, living however he can, and he still can't find her, but he won't stop until he does.

He has altered his appearance through hair dye and style-alteration, as well as attained a fake ID that declares him twenty-one. He goes by the name Casper Elliot - Casper being his middle name and Elliot being the name of his abusive father and thus something he hopes most people won't expect. He never stays in one place very long.

The Powers and Weaknesses

(All characters can be as powerful as they want, as long as they are balanced with proper weaknesses.)
Powers

Touch Awareness: Touching someone skin-on-skin allows him to absorb knowledge of their past. He is able to see what they have done in the past and the things that make them who they are. The transition lasts as long as physical contact is kept, but the transfer doesn't occur chronologically except for those mentally disciplined and prepared enough to guide the transition through a chronological process. Knowledge tends to start with most recent or most affecting incidents first - either those that have just happened which are still on the mind or experiences that are either very good and therefore being focused on (ie: getting married, falling in love, finding $5000 on the roadside) or those that are very traumatic (ie: death of family/friends, their first kill, etc). Other than the initiation and reluctance of touch itself, Thomas has no control over the ability.

Mental Capacity: In order to support his Touch Awareness ability, Thomas' brain has the capacity and capability of storing vast and incredible amounts of information, both those gained through his first power, as well as those gained through normal abilities, such as study. This increased mental capacity allows him to both gain and retain massive amounts of information, as well as process it quickly. For this reason, Thomas is very intelligent, simply because he consumes everything he reads.

Weakness(es)

Over-Stimulation: Despite his ability to process quickly, absorbing mass amounts of information utilizing his Touch Awareness ability bombards his brain with information. The more information he absorbs, the less time he has to process through it before he is overwhelmed. He suffers almost constant headaches from his power, but using it induces migraines which can become debilitating. Too much absorption of information can induce blackouts that cut the connection, seizures, or worse.

Identity Absorption: Holding onto a person for too long and absorbing too much of their past knowledge, or absorbing enough traumatic experiences, can trigger a loss of personal identity. This can cause Thomas to forget that he is Thomas and instead fall into the belief that he is the person whose past experiences he holds in his mind. This can cause him to suffer his own emotional reactions to the past of the person he has touched, which can induce sorrow or rage, causing him to either mourn a loss or go hunting after someone in revenge. It also causes him to bounce back and forth between sympathizing with heroes and villains, because he has absorbed knowledge from both sides. Once he has had time to properly process the information and catalog it in his mind, he is better able to deal with it, but immediately after absorption his reactions can be unpredictable.

Trance: While he is utilizing his Touch Awareness ability (touching some skin-on-skin whether intentional or not), Thomas is unaware of what is going on around him. He cannot defend himself, cannot hear what other people are saying, and is completely absorbed in the knowledge he is accumulating. His ability to move is limited to reducing contact, with a great amount of effort and concentration, and passing out/having a seizure, neither of which are usually intentional.

RP Mechanics

RP Mechanic(s):

Items/Minions

Physical Priority
(You are to put these physical attributes in order from 1 to 4. 1 is the highest priority, 4 is the lowest.)
1 - Endurance
2 - Agility
3 - Reaction
4 - Strength

by **Chellizard** November 30th 2015, 4:39 pm

This is excellent, however: The power is a permission based thing.

So, if you're not adding anything else to this application, it's ready for approval.

Ghost

Ghost

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