The Overlooked
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| The Overlooked | |
| Player: @Protocol 9 | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | James Calendar |
| Known Aliases: | See-Through |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 18 |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Weight: | 190 |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blond |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | US Citizen |
| Occupation: | Part-time hero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City, RI |
| Base of Operations: | Same as above |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Evan Calendar (brother, 13); Alica Calendar (mother, 37), William Calendar (father, deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| Telepathy | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Short-duration jump jet pack tied to teleport recall matrix | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
Young Sentinels (supergroup)
Personality
James is, for the most part, a typical teenage male. He has a tendency to let his hormones lead him around, and one of these days someone's probably going to hit back on him - literally.
Despite that, though, he is more than willing to jump into the fray if it means saving someone else. With some time and training, he is likely to grow into a decent hero.
Powers
Telepathy
James is a human-origin telepath. While reading other's people's thoughts is still beyond him, he can effectively (though temporarily) scramble their patterns, leaving them vulnerable in combat (this is his preferred MO when on the clock).
Empathy
A side use of his telepathic powers is the ability to convince his teammates and fellow heroes that they aren't really as wounded as they thought they were. Although this doesn't actually repair the wounds (such as a mystic-based healing spell would), it allows others to keep fighting until they have time to catch their breath.
Invisibility
James' first manifestation of his power was to briefly cloak himself and an injured hero from view as a Hellion patrol wandered by. He has been refining this ability, relying on his telepathy to convince onlookers that "there's really not anyone here. Honest." He can also extend this effect to others, although it can be taxing if kept up under long term or arduous conditions.
Hand-to-Hand
Although not professionally trained in any particular fighting style, James does know a few boxing moves shown to him by his uncle. Though limited to a few jabs and cheap shots, James is more than willing to wade into a fight, using his mind to put his opponent off-balance, and his fists to keep him that way.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Relative Baseline
Aside from having an active mutant gene, James is still a base-line human. While his months of heroing have left him far fitter than a lot if civilians his age, leaping tall buildings, etc. is still very far beyond him.
Limited Telepathic Skill
When it comes to telepathy, James is practically a one-trick pony. He is unable to perform deep telepathic scans of individuals, though he can perform surface scans if someone is thinking very emphatically about something. His shielding is not the best, although it has improved over the past several months. For the most part, his power is the mental equivalent to a sledgehammer to the brain, either paralyzing an opponent or simply whiting out their perception of him and others. While this has more utility than might be expected, it is still a limiting factor.
Psychological Issues
James has definite cases of PTSD and survivor's guilt stemming from the Second Rikti War. Exposure to the Rikti is likely to paralyze him with a mixture of fear and loathing, limiting his responses to either full-out attack or finding someplace to hide. Unfortunately, professional help is not covered by his part-time job, which means treatment will be a long time in coming.
Equipment
Jump Jet
James owns a short-use jump jet backpack, which he can summon from base via the City teleport network. This was a Christmas gift to him from Protocol 9, as an unspoken "thank you" for their first meeting.
Raptor Pack
Due to his lack of inherent travel powers, James has managed to improvise using what skills he does have; he is a frequent (though never remembered) visitor to the Sky Raiders base near the Overbrook Dam. Every so often, a Raider will "accidentally" walk away from his flight pack without realising it; although aerobatics are beyond him, James has mastered the basics of maintaining and operating his Raptor.
Character History
James Calendar is a typical male adolescent, growing up in the City of Heroes. His father was killed during the Rikti War, while making sure his family escaped their then-home after it had been hit by stray weapons fire. Despite the chaos of the War, James still grew up idolizing the city's hero community.
It was during a trip to Icon's to cape-watch that James got a first-hand taste of the life. After taking the mother of all wrong turns, he somehow ended up in south Skyway City - not a safe place for anyone, much less a teenager with no clue how to defend himself. As he was trying to quietly find a way out, he found an injured hero crawling out of an alley. Torn between escaping, or becoming a target by dragging an injured hero out in broad daylight, he (to his own surprise) elected to help the hero out. When a passing patrol wandered by, he unconciously forced them to ignore their presence, and they made their escape from there.
James took his hero name from that incident: during the slow trek to the train station, the two could see a number of heroes in the distance, flying, running, etc., but not one bothered to look around them and see if someone needed help. Slightly embittered by the experience, James chose his code name to reflect that fact, and tries not to repeat the mistakes made by others.
Razor's Edge
His hero career went fairly smoothly, if not exactly spectacularly. Then the Rikti came back.
After months of keeping his "hobby" a secret, James revealed himself as a hero to a Longbow patrol, just after shepherding his mother and little brother to a civilian shelter in Galaxy City. He tagged along with them for the first few days, and then struck out on his own as the scope of the latest invasion became clear.
Despite some of what he had seen, the shine hadn't quite come off the idea of being "a hero". The War took care of that. James saw firsthand the brutality of combat, including what death looks like close-up. That rude awakening, along with the fact that James could feel them passing away thanks to his telepathic gift, has left deep scars on his mind. Because of the chaos surrounding the battles, James was unable to render aid to those who fell, and a part of him blames himself for their deaths.
Though these deaths were enough to push him towards the brink, one more incident has left him teetering on the edge.
Shortly after Vanguard declared that the bulk of the invasion had been put down, the Rikti made an assault on Galaxy City, as if trying to put paid to Vanguard's boast. While James assisted in the defense of Freedom Corps HQ, a lone hero decided to vent some frustrations and lobbed a few stray shots at a bomber from atop an apartment building.
Although the attack wasn't enough to even scratch the paint, a Rikti gunnery officer apparently took insult, and returned fire with the ship's linked plasma beams. 27 people were killed in the resulting devastation, along with another 56 wounded.
One of the wounded was James' little brother, Evan. He was transferred to the hospital in Galaxy, and is currently in intensive care.
As a result, James now teeters on the edge, spending most of his time between sitting vigil for his brother, and beating the hell out of street punks in an attempt to relieve frustration. His relations with his fellow Young Sentinels has hit a low point, with him being brooding and snappy at the best of times.
"Fragile" was probably the best place to start to describe his psyche; he wavers between quitting the hero business altogether, becoming something to be feared, or simply ending it with a weapon confiscated from a Hellion. Only time will tell which path this young man takes.
Back From the Edge
After several months of James being very difficult to find (and even more difficult to deal with when found), fellow Young Sentinel Glyphe finally managed to confront James over what had happened. After hearing the story, she offered her help; later that night, the two teens snuck into the long-term care ward of Galaxy hospital to visit Evan.
Whie the boy's body had started to heal, his soul had been knocked so off-balance by the trauma that it wasn't able to effectively "reconnect" to the shell. Using her knowledge of magic, Glyphe was able to strengthen the bond, and then told James to let time take it's course.
On Christmas Eve 2007, Even regained consiousness (after a bit of telepathic coaxing by James). Glyphe had done it: she had given James his little brother back.
Budding Romance
It was rather inevitable at that point that James fell in love with Glyphe. Luckily for him, she had already thought he was cute. The two began dating, and seemed to get along well enough together. (Although the reflexive blush brought on by anyone mentioning their relationship was a source of great amusement to the rest of the YS.) So, naturally, it had to be broken up.
In early May, Alica Calendar accepted a position with a company in Washington state. She had never really been fond of Paragon, and seeing the effect it had had on her sons finalized her decision. The acceptance of the job and their move were only a week apart; James barely had time to tell his new girlfriend goodbye. As a gift, he gave her the grey trenchcoat that was the most distinctive part of his "costume", and she gave him a small charm that would conjure a small image of herself in return. The pair still keep in contact via e-mail, neither wanting to let go of what they had.
The Boy is Back
After spending the summer and early fall in Washington, James came to the conclusion that, despite his mother's wishes, he would do more good in Paragon. After promising his brother to keep in touch, James ran away from home and snuck back to Rhode Island, draining most of his savings in the process. Taking a part-time job (though not with the same mechanic he had been employed by during his breakdown; James knew that would be the second place the police would look), James used the Young Sentinels' base as a crash pad and re-enrolled in school. Although he did feel a bit of guilt over it, his telepathic ability of persuasion helped smooth over the questions of his living and parental status.
The subterfuge worked; James finished his previously-abandoned junior year, turned eighteen during his senior year (thus removing the hanging threat of being arrested as a runaway) and graduated from high school.
Gap Year
James is as of yet undecided what to do with himself. Both Longbow and Vanguard have their draws, and James specifically went back for his diploma because both organizations required one. Until he reaches a decision, he steps in and lends a hand where needed in his new costume, consisting of an uparmored trench (Glyphe still owning the original) and a face-concealing cowl; while he had previously relied on his telepathy to "jam" others' perception of his face, that trick didn't work so well on cameras.
To date, James has managed to avoid conflict with the Rikti, mostly-unconciously finding someplace else to be when the bombs start dropping. His pride will never let him admit it, but he still carries deep emotional scars from the Second Rikti War.
Miscellaneous
Identity
James had attempted to keep his identity a secret, but his mother unconciously began to suspect something is up. What James didn't know is that his father had been an unlicensed vigilante until his death, and that little things like unexplained limps, late-night exits, etc. were sounding an alarm in the back of her mind. Unfortunately, once James revealed his identity during the War, the two haven't had a chance to discuss the matter much further.
Costume
Currently, James simply wears civilian clothes under a grey trenchcoat he received from his family for Christmas. After also receiving his uncle's and father's old collection of pulp adventure novels, he is toying with the idea of patterning his official costume after the old-style men of action.
Scars of War
James reacts very badly to the infrequent harrassment raids kept up by the Rikti, losing his composure easily and fighting in a near-blind rage whenever he faces them. He is usually somewhat shocky for some time after a raid, to the point where he almost decked Young Sentinel leader Stellar Flair in reflex when she tapped him on the shoulder after one such raid. While time away from Paragon should help smooth the edges a bit, his responses point to probable PTSD, stemming from the chaos of the Second Rikti War; professional intervention will undoubtedly be required sooner or later.
Stories
The Long Walk (origin story)
Rain (Post-War angst piece)
Trivia
James was originally going to be named "Osu", in a (now that I look back) overly-complex joke/reference. (The word is the Japanese verb for "push", and was used in an old X-Files episode about someone who nudged people's minds to his benefit.) The name was either taken or tripped the filter, and the current name stands on it's own.
