#forwardintro

[jules-douglas]

( aneurin barnard, cis male, he/him) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that JULIAN BEAU DOUGLAS is a THIRTY TWO year old UNEMPLOYED that’s been in Chicago for TWELVE YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 3 with the power of PHOSPHOROKINESIS. That must be why they’re CREATIVE and ERRATIC. If you ask me, they remind me of fingertips stained with a rainbow of ink, a cheeky grin brightening a bloodless face, and the scent of acrylic paints half dried. They are affiliated with THE KAPPA RUNAWAYS.

QUICK FACTS

full name: julian beau douglas age: thirty two gender: cis man lite (like, amab and doesn’t disagree with that but he loves a bit of gender fuckery) personality: creative, sarcastic, erratic, short tempered height: 5′6 (support short king rights AND WRONGS) star sign: pisces sun, scorpio moon, taurus ascendant (born 26th february) fc: aneurin barnard notes: although aneurin has blue eyes, i’ll probably be using gifs mostly from the goldfinch and 1899, both of which he wears brown contacts in. so jules has brown eyes, and if you see me using a blue eyed gif, no you don’t < 3 also has a tattoo of a stylised moon on the inside of his right forearm with jd’s time of birth. and due to the haemophilia which is currently untreated, jules suffers from anaemia, joint pain, and general lack of energy. always cold.

TWs for illness, kidnapping + general ammo torture

TL;DR; aspiring children’s book illustrator + chronically ill individual gets kidnapped by ammo, torn away from his twin and his ambitions. years in the kappa facility with invasive experimentation left him confused, uncertain, and moody. his twin got themself kidnapped too, but managed to escape, only to return with a crack team to bust him out. this was done against jules’ will, and he is now being HELD HOSTAGE at the mercer farm where he will stay until he stops being a flight risk! the audacity :/ he’s pretty sure kappa were just trying to help him... TL;DR;TL;DR; the poorest most absolutely sopping wet little meow meow, and he’s mad about it.

Jules -- never Julian -- was always a bit fragile. He was born with haemophilia, so he never got into sports and didn’t even really like playing with the other kids. Even something harmless like a game of hopscotch could cause bleeds that would leave him feeling faint, or even hospitalised.

Consequently, he spent a lot of time in bed, off sick or going to hospital appointments. In that time he developed a love of reading. Any time he’d been off school, he would be so excited waiting for his twin and best friend, JD, to come back so he could read them excerpts from whatever book he’d fallen in love with that day -- his parents weren’t really interested, they just left him to it. He was bitter at all the potential JD seemed to have, able to run and jump and play, so sometimes he was sharp and moody with them, but it never lasted long.

Eventually went to college on a scholarship. He was studying English lit. and illustration: Jules wanted to make children’s books, so he could bring comfort to a generation of kids the same way his books had comforted him.

He’d always been quite open about his mutation. It brought him joy, and using it didn’t exhaust him like physical things did. While he doesn’t know exactly when AMMO took notice of him, he’s pretty sure it was at a small event at a local book festival where he and a few other students had been invited to share their projects with a few classes of kids. Jules delighted in creating rainbows and dancing lights to entertain them and make the story more real to them. A few weeks after that, he was kidnapped by AMMO.

The worst part, even among all the horrors, was being away from JD. Even when he moved away for college, he still called and emailed all the time, so to be totally cut off from his twin hurt terribly. He very quickly gave up on everything: Jules had never been energetic, and he simply didn’t have the capacity to fight back. He didn’t hope for rescue, he didn’t hope for companionship, he just hoped the next day wouldn’t hurt quite as much.

When JD first arrived, he thought he’d lost his mind. But they were really there, and then he was mad that they’d put themselves at risk for him, and then he was pathetically grateful that they were there, and then he was despondent that their lives were both wasted. He did take strength from his twin being there, though, and Jules grew a little -- or a lot -- bolder.

That boldness left him in isolation a few times; he’d always been moody, and strengthened by JD’s presence he acted out against staff a few times, which is why he was in solitary during the first escape.

Later, he is left profoundly unwell by an experiment on his brain. The electrodes were hooked up to stimulate his amygdala, to see how that might impact his ability to create light, but they delivered too high a shock. They hadn’t just been experimenting with his mutation: they also wanted to try and do a bit of old fashioned electroshock therapy to subdue his moodswings, which had been getting more and more unpredictable. They hadn’t accounted for his haemophilia, and the shocks caused some bleeding, which in turn caused him to fall into a coma for several days.

When he woke up, he was confused, and his memory was impaired, and he wasn’t even really sure where he was. A childhood spent in and out of hospitals compounded his confusion, and so his instinct in those first days after waking was to trust the doctors. Sometimes he seemed to get it, and panicked and thrashed and screamed, but sometimes he was docile and compliant, letting the doctors do what they wanted and trusting that they knew what they were doing.

It broke his heart when JD left. He didn’t understand at all, and he was equal parts enraged and despondent. In the following months, he slowly began to collect himself and understood a little better what had happened, but it was a day-by-day thing, and some days were more confusing than others, and he still struggled with headaches and moodswings -- and worst of all, light sensitivity -- which makes his mutation a little harder to wield. By the time JD, Samson, and Kayla returned to bust him out, he was confused enough that he fought against them, albeit weakly.

Having just recently returned to the outside world, he’s struggling to adjust. Being legally dead is a hurdle to just about everything, and he’s got no medication to help with clotting, so he’s particularly sickly, and the lack of energy makes it incredibly hard to even think about getting a job even if he did have ID. He also has to rely wholly on others for support, which he finds embarrassing and infuriating. He’s pissed off at a lot. Some days he’s mad they left him there for so long; some days he’s mad they took him out. Can’t win with this guy!

@forwardintros

[suremonty]

i. “the tide is turning” - roger waters // ii. “two suns in the sunset” - pink floyd // iii. “four minutes” - roger waters

( nyle dimarco, cis man, he/him ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that MONTGOMERY “MONTY” ROMANO is a THIRTY-TW0 year old RADIO DISC JOCKEY that’s been in Chicago for TWO YEARS, OFF AND ON. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL ONE with the power of ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION + TIME TRAVEL. That must be why they’re DEDICATED and OBSESSIVE. If you ask me, they remind me of morse code desperately tip-tip-tapping, the sole with no eyes, the desolate confines of a busy wasteland. They are affiliated with NOBODY.

QUICK FACTS:

full name: montgomery “monty” romano

date of birth: december 5th, 1934

zodiac big three: sagittarius sun, scorpio moon, libra rising

gender & pronouns: cis man & he/him

sexual orientation: straight gay bi queer

ethnicity: white ( may loves italians :\ )

nationality: american

religion: christian (protestant, very loose in his practice), starting to lean agnostic

languages spoken: english (5), asl (5), morse code - technically an alphabet (5)

enneagram: 3w2

mbti: enfp

temperament: sanguine

alignment: neutral good

ability: time travel + electronic communication

affiliation: n/a

alias: sonny/sunny

BACKSTORY:

triggers: war, nuclear wasteland, nuclear tensions, institutionalization ( very brief mention ), VERY brief mention of suicide

monty’s world was silent from the moment he entered it. he would never know it any other way. teachers tried to force him into the mold, deaf educators in the dime-a-dozen oralist schools teaching him English, speech, and as-good-as-it-could-be lipreading, all while restricting the usage of ASL at best, forbidding it at worst. 

and, though it made socializing with his peers, understanding his lessons, and connecting with his family much more difficult... in the end, maybe it’s for the best. there would be so many disastrous things to see and smell and feel -- adding one more sensation would tip him over the edge.

despite his parents and hoard of siblings, his eldest brother, jack, was the only one who put time and effort into learning ASL with monty. for that reason, they connected well. his brother would go on to have his first and only child at eighteen, leaving monty an uncle at only six. but it was absolutely poor timing...

because the usa could no longer just sit on the sidelines in silent support of the allied powers. in 1941, his eldest brother enlisted to join the army in the war effort, leaving his wife and family with the baby -- but promising he’d be back.

monty spent much of the time his eldest brother was gone connecting with his brother’s girlfriend, mary, who let monty teach her ASL. so those next three years were spent with her, with baby, and keeping up with the news.

1944, jack was sent to the frontlines in the normandy landings. the story went that he went out blazing, that he at least had that much to his legacy, but who could tell any of the thousands of d-day bodies apart ?

monty didn’t need to hear to know that silence fell over his family. he could feel it, even when they were talking at dinner. life only returned in 1945 as a broadcast celebrating two nuclear bombings played ! and monty... he didn’t know what to feel. this meant the war was over, right ? finally, a sigh of relief ! but how many innocent people had died in the fallout of it ? how long would those effects last ?

he did not wake up in his bedroom the next morning. he woke up when a piece of rubble blew against his forehead. and he was surrounded by complete and utter waste. it was hot -- no, it was cold. he assumed it was loud -- no, he assumed it was quiet. there were a few fires burning in the snow, and there was plenty of rubble to spare. nothing was standing. it was completely empty, completely desolate. 

he didn’t know where he was or how he got there. the more he explored, a terrified young boy trying to get home, the more he wondered when he was. 

a few weeks in, unsure of how he was still alive -- but not questioning it -- he came across a tunnel that led underground. already figuring he was going to die if he didn’t find something fast, this was the first sign he’d seen of any life since he’d woken up -- he kept going, past extra doors until he reached one that was bolted shut and looked to serve as some kind of vacuum. 

he did not know it. he could not know it. but, on the other side of that wall, a radio picked up the first broadcast it had heard in ages -- some sort of morse code. a few hours of sitting against that final door that he could not even begin to open, it opened with a gust of air. he dragged himself in. it was shut with that same gust of air.

a man peered through a slit and, after hours of trying to communicate when all monty could see were his eyes, a sentence of 1s and 0s... he stripped himself of his clothes, scrubbed himself with the water and sponge that sat in the corner, and was swiftly let into that final room and tossed a pair of clothes that were a few sizes too big for him. but he wore them, of course.

he was given half a can of uncooked sweet beans, half a bottle of water, and half of some... futuristic chip that he was prompted to sit on his tongue. and half of his nutrient requirements were met.

the man would point viciously to the radio, tap on it... all sorts of insanity that meant nothing to monty until he took a sheet of paper and wrote out a cipher: morse code and the related letters. he, the man, couldn’t risk losing paper to the amount of letters in a word -- a few dots and lines were a quicker solution, and, as he told monty, he could hear him over the radio... which would be cause for concern later.

what year is it ? ive stopped counting. i thought every1 was ded. where am i ? used 2 b canada. what happened ? the east. the east ? yes. what do you mean, the east ? ur not from here. no. where? illinois. america.  u dont know? i don’t. do u know what yr it is? it was 1945, last i checked.

he and the man spent the next four months together underground, the man eventually coming up with a way to express morse code without the paper. tap monty on the shoulder, make him watch him tap the wall in morse code. but it was far from paradise, and, more than that ? their supplies were running out faster than expected, what with the man only having prepared supplies for himself.

he volunteered to go look for supplies aboveground, but monty realized that he was the one who was communicating through the radio. if something happened to the man, monty would have no way to know ; if something happened to monty, however ? so he left with a walkie-talkie, an extra coat, and half a canteen of water.

it grew colder and the conditions grew worse. by the time he finally found a few non-perishables locked away in a safe, he didn’t know where he was. he couldn’t find his way back to the man. and the signal only worked one way. so he had two options of what to tell the man: he was going to stay where he was, or he was going to keep moving and hope for the best.

if he did the former, there was a good chance the man would have to leave and try to find him. if he did the latter, he was diving further into the possibility that he’d never see that shelter again... but there was also that slim possibility that he’d be saving them both if he could find him... so he sent a signal that he was lost, but he was going to keep moving and hope for the best. the walkie-talkie wave seemed to tap against his mind, to offer the only description possible: ‘goodbye, ed.’ ‘goodbye, monty.’

he was thirteen when he hopped again, this time quick as a flash. hopped just far back enough to watch the missiles fall from the sky, cars ‘screeching’ to a halt, mothers holding their children close, and pulled forward just in time to survive the blast. this time, a different country. this time, closer to the fallout. 

there was no one for him this time, though. he was on his own. he sent out frequencies, but saw nothing. felt nothing. 

certain his streak of good bad luck had finally run out, turned to simple bad luck, he was only days away from succumbing to his hunger or his dehydration or the elements or all three... but, instead of dying, he woke up in his bed. in 1949. four years after he went missing.

his family had been certain he, too, had died. perhaps ran away first, gotten lost, then gotten himself killed. it had been four years after they woke up and didn’t find him in his bed, after all ! was it a miracle ? yes ! did it also feel like some kind of abomination, like something ungodly ? yes ! 

after the initial many-a-hug, they grew... frightened ! he connected to the house radio and morse code played, explaining his unbelievable absence... but no one there knew morse code ?! and no one there knew asl ?! and speaking took more effort than he’d like to put in, especially after all those years completely shut up ?! where was mary to translate for him ? where was baby ?

that much, he could express. chicago. as ed taught him how to say in morse code: what a goddamn shithole !

but, only moments later, everyone’s attention snapped to the radio. they understood what he was trying to say. after the initial shock, they were mouthing: we can hear you. with vicious points: the radio. we hear you.

the story he told was completely unbelievable. but so was being able to hear his speech through the radio, so... live and let live...

they did take note of how he began to draw more into himself. he became obsessed with this nuclear apocalypse he claimed to have witnessed, he drew a strange man with dots and lines underneath and hung it up in his room. he couldn’t focus in school and his grades suffered terribly. at 17, seeing he was still as distant as ever, still writing in morse code, still drawing that man and trying to tell everyone who it was and what was going to happen and no he didn’t know the year or the details or- they had him institutionalized.

before he could undergo more than two rounds of electroshock therapy, he was an 18y/o in 1962. just in time for the cuban missile crisis. and this time ? not only had he seen the after effects of nuclear bombings, he understood the magnitude of this threat. and this time ? they were not fighting to free concentration camps and prisoners of war, they were fighting just to prove who was more powerful. they were building walls and sending dogs into space because they had to prove one was better than the other... and if they had to press the button to really show who was who, then they had to press the button. 

was this the wasteland monty had witnessed ? he didn’t know. he didn’t want to find out. he could put a stop to it somehow, right ? he was the only person who’d seen both, as far as he was aware...

traveling to the 70s, the country was still together -- and tensions were still high. without any other ideas, he began doing what only idealists would think would work: sending false reports over radios and broadcasts. but instead of bringing people together through shared fear -- and shared gratitude that they were still alive when they learned that the report had been a hoax -- he just scared them, then brought them back to their regular lives (those who didn’t kill themselves or run to their shelters, that is).

he continued moving back and forth within the timeline of the cold war, relentlessly trying to stop the crisis... but he only had so much he could do without making it even worse. he could activate it. if he wanted to, he could activate it.

in 1991, when the announcement that the cold war was over was made, something in his timeline glitched. he spent three days in wwii, the first two being... entirely random to him, the final one being right there in d-day... where he got to see that jack didn’t go out blazing. and he was pulled just in time -- but this time, to three days in the trenches of the vietnam war, a useless side effect of the cold war. about to be taken prisoner, he was pulled forward into the year 1999 in the middle of a countdown to a new kind of apocalypse, just to be pulled even further forward into 2020... and he finally had reprieve.

but if wwii wasn’t the cause of the nuclear apocalypse, and if the cold war wasn’t the cause of the nuclear apocalypse, then it still had yet to come. and the doomsday clock was moving fast.

left in actual civilization and... no immediate peril in 2020 chicago, he spent the next two years starting to cultivate a life. every now and again, he would glitch to a different year for a few days, but the power he had never been able to tame... seemed to be beginning to tame itself as he spent more time in a calm, but focused, state of mind.

he took on a job as a disc jockey, using the walkie-talkie he’d always held onto to transmit his thoughts across the microphone. a very standard american voice. and, so long as he had the walke-talkie with him, one that he could transmit from anywhere in the city. as long as he intercepted at the necessary times, it didn’t matter if he was in the station or not... which has been very helpful for his digging.

the end ?

TIMELINE:

BORN - in late 1934, completely deaf. already had three siblings... would have even more later on.

GENERAL EARLY SCHOOL YEARS?: was discouraged from, sometimes punished for, using ASL at school due to oral education being at its peak. he was taught english, speech, and lip-reading, but that only extends so far. his eldest brother, jack, learned sign to communicate and connect with him. the rest of his family was a little bit busy with the amount of kids...

AGE 6: at eighteen, his brother has a child with his first wife, mary. monty becomes an uncle.

AGE 7: jack goes off to fight in wwii. mary takes up his torch when it comes to providing monty with company. 

AGE 10: word is sent that jack died fighting in the frontlines in the normandy landings.

AGE 11-12: atomic bombs fall on hiroshima & nagasaki and everyone is celebrating. this is something that monty both does and does not understand... wakes up in the fallout of a nuclear apocalypse. it’s not 1945 anymore, it’s not illinois anymore.  he hopelessly travels around for weeks, unsure of how he’s alive! and, right as he’s sure he’ll be succumbing to the elements, he finds the passage to an underground bunker. after a whole series of events, he manages to get inside a safe place with a man named ed. ed manages to communicate to monty that he had sent morse over the radio. and when monty doesn’t understand, ed creates a morse-code-to-english-alphabet cipher and begins speaking to him using that as monty communicates over the radio. monty learns he’s in canada, but ed doesn’t know what year it is anymore. the cause of the atomic bomb that had hit was ‘the east.’ they eventually devise a strategy that’ll use no paper at all. ed taps monty on the shoulder and has him watch him tap the wall.

AGE 13: they start running out of supplies. ed volunteers to brave the elements, but, ultimately, monty figures that he’s the one who can communicate through technology. if ed tried to send word to him over the radio, he wouldn’t hear it, but the same wouldn’t be said when it came to monty. monty took a walkie-talkie with him and traveled out. when he finally came across non-perishables, he realized he was completely lost. he decided to tell ed that he was going to keep walking and hope for the best. they exchanged goodbyes. monty felt ed’s morse coming through the walkie-talkie. he hops back in time, just a few years, and watches as the missiles head right towards him -- whatever new country he’s in. disaster occurs all around him as women hug their children and cars come to a sudden halt and the timeline saves him by mere milliseconds, jumping him forward a few months. he spends the next year trapped in this side of the wasteland with no one to talk to.

AGE 14: he wakes up in his home, just barely making it out alive. but it’s 1949. after a few mistrials, he communicates with his family over the radio. and they cannot believe their eyes or ears: first of all, he’d just literally spoken through the radio? second of all, he... had been in a nuclear apocalypse? not just missing? hmm...

AGES 14-17: he is constantly preoccupied with this ‘fallout.’ he’s drawn into himself. he talks about it, he draws pictures of some guy with some symbols underneath... wtf?

AGE 17: his family decides to institutionalize him.

AGE 18: after going through two rounds of electroshock therapy, he is transported to 1962, just in time for the cuban missile crisis.

AGES 18-28: the timeline decides it wants him right in the middle of the cold war. he’s certain that this is what will bring the nuclear apocalypse if he can’t stop it. he goes about it by sending false broadcasts, hoping to unite people under gratitude when they come out with their lives... or maybe fear... or maybe love... but nothing seems to work. everything he tries tends to just make things worse. he could activate it if he wanted to.

AGE 28: he’s in 1991 and the cold war is over. with that news, the timeline fritzed.  he was in wwii for a few days. the final day, he was by his brother and saw that he did not go out blazing. then he was in the vietnam war for a few days. about to be taken as prisoner, the timeline yanked him to a party he was not invited to on december 31st, 1999. it was in a bunker with a group of people counting down to the end of civilization. when the clock was one second away from hitting january 1st, 2000, he was pulled forward to 2020. nothing seemed to be immediately off, unlike his past three destinations...

AGE 29: he decides it would be best to stop relying on homeless shelters -- the timeline has not interfered in a while, so he pools together some money and eventually gets a shoddy apartment in chicago.

AGES 30-32: he builds a life in chicago. he still travels every now and again, but he hasn’t spent more than two days in a different time in years. although he still can’t quite tame his power, it seems to be taming itself. he becomes a disc jockey. due to the main requirement being, you know, working through radio waves, so long as he has his walkie-talkie to communicate over, he can run the job from anywhere in the city. this is in the headcanons section, but it’s important to note that he also uses his walkie-talkie to talk to other people. ever since it started translating morse into direct words, he doesn’t have to rely on sign, and what they say gets translated in his mind through the walkie-talkie. 

HEADCANONS:

I’M GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE AN OFFICIAL REQUEST THAT, IF YOU KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE, IGNORE WHAT HE’S SAYING IN ALL OF THE GIFS.

much like his fc, he is completely deaf. he is familiar with and fluent in ASL, but carries a walkie-talkie to communicate his thoughts and translate the words of others into morse code to ensure the general ability to communicate with anyone he comes across. (yes, it would probably work with other devices. no, he is not going to give his walkie-talkie up to experiment with that.)

identified as straight until he was 15 (...i mean, the 1940s-50s + four years spent without other people, save for a few months with a guy closer to a father figure than anything else...). identified as bi until he was 20. identified as gay until he was 25. identified as bi until he was 27... has always really relied on the decade... doesn’t fully know what to label himself as, simply uses queer.

moving back and forth in the timestream has its pros and its cons. one pro ? he can survive for weeks, even months, after traveling forward without food and water. traveling backwards ? he better get to some water damn fast.

his father had some sort of dormant mutation related to bad luck, hence why monty only seemed to travel to shitty historical events. a secret his eldest brother kept was that he had telepathy... and used that to understand what monty was saying, not ASL. 

his on-air persona is ‘sonny/sunny,’ inspired by the ‘sunshine units’ & project sunshine ; the station is radio KONT - aka, radio contingency (with a ‘k’ because all american radio stations have to either start with a ‘k’ or a ‘w’ and actually chicago is based in the ‘w’ region, but... i came up with that name before i knew that so... pretend with me!)

has also kept the clothes that ed gave him to change into. is not an artist, but does have a picture of a poorly-drawn ed hanging in his apartment with morse code for ‘goodbye’ beneath it.

uses 40s-80s slang like any of it is still applicable. but with most of his childhood spent in the 30s/40s and most of his early adult years spent in the 60s-80s... look at that tubular dish! she sure is groovy!

CONNECTION IDEAS:

relatives ! as i said, he had a hoard of siblings and should, technically, be 88. plenty of time there ! could even have a child ! who’s older than him...

exes/flings/ons/etc ! you have to be careful when you have an untamable power that’ll put you in peril one second and drag you out the next. although he loves the company of others, he’s never gotten very close to anyone due to this... but...

regular listeners/callers ! eye think that could be fun.

people whose relatives he knew ! the 1940s-1990s were a wild time !

plenty of other things ! my mind is just getting fried from my cormac mccarthy novel :\ 

[surelevi]

i. the ballad of the sad café - carson mccullers // ii. “why try to change me now?” - frank sinatra // iii. “comin’ back to me″ - jefferson airplane

( charlie barnett, cis man, he/him ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that LEVI ST. JAMES is a THIRTY-FIVE year old VETERINARIAN that’s been in Chicago for TEN YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 3 with the power of LOVE MANIPULATION. That must be why they’re HUMBLE and CRITICAL. If you ask me, they remind me of the curse of pure dedication, a scratched irma thomas record that skips on the same line, the bright moon falling upside down. They are affiliated with NOBODY.

@forwardintros

QUICK FACTS:

full name: levi joshua st. james

date of birth: september 14th, 1987

zodiac big three: virgo sun, cancer moon, virgo rising

gender & pronouns: cis man & he/him

sexual orientation: bisexual

ethnicity: 1/2 black, 1/2 white

nationality: american

languages spoken: english (5), spanish (4), french (4), italian (4)

enneagram: 1w2

mbti: isfj

temperament: phlegmatic

alignment: lawful neutral

ability: love manipulation

affiliation: n/a

alias: aphrodite

BACKSTORY:

triggers: infidelity

the story of levi’s birth is... an unconventional one. the st. james’ were on an amicable break and, allowed to sleep with others, mrs. st. james unknowingly got knocked up.

eight months later, levi is born a bit premature !

however, despite being the child of another man entirely, levi was welcomed into the st. james family when they reunited. he never really considered who his biological father was -- the fact of the matter was that he felt closer to st. james dad than he could feel with any stranger who simply shared his dna.

everyone in the family had one mutation or another, be it as powerful as weather manipulation ( his dad ), as fun as power mimicry ( his mom ), as outlandish as hair manipulation ( kael just sent this to me as an example of how wild powers could be so i’m going with it ). that wasn’t even to begin with his eldest sister, january, and her reality warping. he always deeply respected all of his family -- of course he did, he was raised right ! -- but nothing commanded respect as much as the ability to warp all of time and space.

that said, it was only a matter of time until levi’s came to fruition (lol sorry lai). 

it was minor, the way it started. he simply started becoming more popular, all the kids in his class seeming to either just naturally like him or have a full-blown crush on him. this certainly seemed odd, as it was only weeks ago that he was a wallflower, but... stranger things, right ?

his mother, however, managed to mimic his power: love manipulation. what had happened ? his general presence had become more alluring, more charismatic, and he could do nothing about that !

the powers he could do things with ? honestly, most were a curse in disguise. you’d think ‘love manipulation’ would only have kind things, but when you’re forcing love on people ? suffice it to say, while he and the other were working out he kinks, he got put in time out a few times for making x fall in love with y. ( r/sweethomealabama (jk, but im hilarious) )

with all of the mutants in his family who were able to give him tips and tricks, he was able to control it -- for the most part -- within a year. and, save for empathy ( lower grade than louis, higher grade than the normal empathetic human ) and the occasional inducement of self-love, he only used his ability if need be -- like if it could stop a violent crime or something ! robber falls in love <3 up until the victim can get away, at least :elmosmile:

in 2008, nearly ten years later, levi met blake while studying to become a vet ( because nothing screams love like the love of a pet ! ). he fell head over heels for them and, without even having to use his ability, they fell just as strong for him.

three years in, levi popped the question and they didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes!’

their was a lovely union. blake was to relocate to oak park, il for their job. levi was already behind the move, looking into job offerings nearby. he found the perfect one in chicago, and that ? well, that made him go from content to ecstatic ! not just because it offered a great salary and seemed, quite frankly, desperate, but because his eldest sister lived in chicago !

the two packed up and relocated and, a few months in, when they felt all settled in and at home, they decided to begin trying for a baby.

a year and a half later, charlotte was born. a beautiful little girl with a bright spirit -- a little girl who woke her parents up with laughter, not sobbing. she was his pride and joy. and he had never been so happy.

but all good things must come to an end.

perhaps levi grew too comfortable with their routine. he always felt safest boxed inside them, a coping mechanism that must have developed from one stressor or another ( honestly ? the man has to put dogs down... that career has the highest suzy side rate for a reason... ). in any case, he followed the same script every single day. spontaneity had left their relationship -- and he saw no problems with it, but they wanted more.

this led to a few arguments... that turned into a few fights... he was all but married to routine. and it wasn’t long before he found a condom wrapper -- that did not belong to him -- in the trash can.

but, instead of confronting them, he let things play out... he would see if they would come clean... and, three months later, they did -- three months later, blake was saying that they needed to get a divorce. they were unhappy, he wasn’t going to change -- so they would make him unhappy, and they didn’t want their child growing up with parents who were constantly fighting.

if he hadn’t gotten blind drunk later that night, maybe he wouldn’t have done what would ultimately be his biggest regret. but he had gotten blind drunk and, when he returned to their apartment, he cast his love spell on them.

the next day, it was as if they had forgotten entirely. blake was so happy to be with him, he was so happy to be with them. sober-minded ? he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but he wasn’t going to question it. and he never grew the spine to bring up blake’s affair.

for the next year and a half, things were bliss. it was like they were in a perpetual honeymoon era. blake loved him so very much, loved charlotte so very much, and they were truly the ideal family unit ! exactly what you would picture the 1950s nuclear family as ( ...but, like... less waspy... ).

however, one day, it was as if the world broke. the family photograph was all wrong... but he didn’t know why. it was warped, but it was not warped. it was blurry, but it was not blurry. it was not there, but it was there. 

absolutely perplexed by this sensation, he broke his own routine to do nothing but stare at this photograph. he didn’t sleep, he didn’t eat. he just stared at the photograph, entering the world’s biggest daze. 

two days in, blake approached him to remind him that their anniversary was coming up... in eight months and seventeen days. and this was more than odd. they loved him, yes, and he loved them... but their life had never revolved around it to the point that they walked up to him, a complete stepford smile on their face, to inform him. and to top it all off, their hand was bleeding. when asked what happened, they shared that bones nipped them -- but it’s okay ! they love him !

“OH SHIT.”

it hit levi like a brick: the past year and a half had been a complete lie. and he was now faced with a moral dilemma: keep his family... but keep blake captive in a spell, or let them go... but lose his family.

it didn’t take as much thought as most of his decisions did -- because he loved them, he had to release them. and he immediately admitted what had happened -- that he had done it blind drunk, had been unaware of what happened, but he had still done it and lived in it and hadn’t questioned it the way he questioned so many things.

he spent the next few nights at a motel and scrounged up the money to get an apartment of his own. they mailed him the divorce papers and, however painful it was, he signed them. 

because he had not done anything to charlotte, he was allowed visits, but blake still gained sole custody. and he knew that that was how it had to be.

he eventually settled into a different routine -- remarkably lonelier, but still something to hold onto. he tries to branch out, he tries to make more friends, he tries to become a healthier version of himself. he swears off his ability, save for his influence ( something he can’t help ), empathy, and the occasional self-love for those who may need it. he will induce love when absolutely necessary again, but he cannot do what he had done ! he cannot slip again !

he knows that he’s lost blake, but there’s still hope for charlotte. if he can just prove himself well enough, he can be a proper father to her again -- and, god, he wants to be that so damn bad !

TIMELINE:

1987: levi is born in the st. james family. although he is not biologically his father’s, he is treated as such by all members of the family filled with powerful mutants.

1997: his ability begins to blossom. when people started flocking to him and finding him charming, it seemed a little strange. what was stranger ? his mother, ability of power mimicry, picked up on his: love manipulation.

1998: through trial and error, levi has gained enough control to not make strangers fall in love. he only uses it when need be ( when it could stop something violent, for example ).

2008: levi meets blake -- aka, the person who will wind up becoming his spouse. they hit it off, no powers needed.

2011: levi proposes and they says yes ! they have a lovely little wedding !

2012: they relocate to chicago, where january is residing, and start trying for a child.

2014: they have a daughter: charlotte. 

2018: things have been... rough in paradise. they’ve been fighting more, a lot of it over his dedication to routine. he finds out that they’d been having an affair. blake figures the best course of action for all involved is divorce. the night they admitted to their affair, he got blind drunk. on a drunken whim ? he cast a love spell upon them. the next day, everything was back to the way it had been... and he wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t want to question it.

2020: everything has been going so well ! they were basically living in a perpetual honeymoon, but with charlotte too !  then he spent days, willingly broken from his routine, staring at this photo in their house that just didn’t look right. he couldn’t pinpoint it, but it didn’t look real. and he became obsessed with it. his spouse, suddenly stepford as he hadn’t talked to them in those past couple days, reminded him of when their anniversary was: eight months and fifteen days! in addition ? their hand was bleeding horribly from a bite bones dished out, but they waved it off and said they loved him. ‘oh shit, we’re under a fucking spell.’ he had a crisis of conscience, suddenly realizing that everything around him was, more or less, fake. he had two options: keep doing this, keep ruling his spouse -- but keep his happy family. or let them go and sacrifice it all. he loved them, so chose the latter. he confessed to what he had done with them already suspicious, what given the sudden shift. they left him that night with charlotte in tow and sent divorce papers in the mail. he hated it, but he signed.

2021: with what had happened, they gained sole custody of charlotte. he was allowed visits, but nothing more.

2022/2023: he’s been trying to get back into the habit of being... a good guy, to say the least. he’s been trying to branch out, trying to make new friends, trying to become healthier so that he may one day be able to have his daughter over for more than a few hours. he knows getting back together with his ex-spouse is hopeless, but seeing his daughter ? not yet... he tries to use his power as little as possible, just as he had when he was a kid. the fact of the matter ? it can do some serious gd damage. he might induce some self-love in others who need it, or induce love in the midst of violent encounters, but... that has to be it, right ?

HEADCANONS:

i want to make it COMPLETELY clear that blake was still fully autonomous until he went two days without giving them attention. the only difference was that they felt like they loved him like they used to. like... their life didn’t revolve around him or anything and i think that is... extremely, extremely, extremely important to note !

also i’m gonna steer clear of talking about what happened with their sex life during that time for right now, but if someone takes blake up, we can talk about it and what would’ve made the most sense but... not have been dubcon... i have ideas, but i just... want to make that clear ALDFHSJ

let me also make it COMPLETELY clear that he did not do anything to charlotte !

the kid he got to keep in the divorce ? their great dane, bones. blake had forgiven bones for the bite -- dogs are too smart, it’s very canon that bones knew what was going on and had to find a way to alert them both! -- but... he was levi’s concern now.

levi does not want to be a creep (or a weirdo), but he does hope to establish a decent rapport with blake again. he knows it’ll be a long time coming -- he knows he did more than fuck up ! he was a year and a half of both of their lives ! -- but they’re the co-parent of their child and he really, really, really wants visitations to go smoothly. hell, he really, really, really wants partial custody, if even just one night every other week ! he wants to be a proper dad.

on a less depressing-adjacent note, he still looks up to january -- and not just because of how powerful she is. that said, her power can make him underestimate himself. between her ability to warp all of reality and his father’s ability to affect the whole world by changing the weather, he’s like “look at this cool party trick!” 

of course, he realized just how harmful it can be when he cast it on blake... but it’s still invisible -- it’s still harder for him to mentally equate.

he can be a little bit tone-deaf every now and again. he grew up as a rich boy, so he’s not... totally familiar with... everything he probably should be. but he is always quick to correct himself, my goodness !

coming from a double virgo (granted, sun and moon whereas he’s sun and rising), he is such a double virgo ! he overthinks the smallest things, he has a critique for everything -- and he’s extremely critical on himself, he finds comfort in routine and repetition. but he’s also so caring and gentle, hence his career path.

takes in every stray that comes to the vet and stays for over three weeks with no takers. he now has three cats and three dogs. cats: froot loop, frosted flake, mini wheat. dogs: bones ( the og! ), green bean, zucchini. 

more tbd !

CONNECTION IDEAS:

his ex-spouse / co-parent of his daughter !!! depressing ! first of all, i genuinely couldn’t decide whether to give levi a husband or a wife... so i decided to make them totally gender neutral ! aka, gender will not factor into this connection ! anyway, name is blake, but that can be changed. as the spark left their relationship, they grew unhappy with how he just couldn’t seem to leave the comfort of his routine. they eventually had an affair, he found out -- but he waited for them to confess. the night they did was also the night they proposed a divorce. blind drunk, he made them fall in his love spell while they were asleep. the two spent the following year and a half in loving paradise -- and they probably felt like an npc during this period. when he dropped it upon realizing what he had done, he immediately confessed, and they immediately made him move out and served him divorce papers. they gained sole custody of their daughter, but he’s been allowed visits. he very clearly wants to be more present in their daughter’s life again, so he’s trying to repair things as much as they can be repaired, but he knows that the broken vase of their relationship will never be fixed.

besties ! there throughout the relationship through the divorce. ‘bro wtf is happening’ ‘bro idk’ // ‘bro i put my spouse under a spell oh my god’ ‘bro wtf’ ‘bro idek!!!’

co-workers ! some more vets or vet techs !

family ! i do believe the st. james family has been established as being fairly large, so... hit kael up first FAHODSUILAJS then me !

new people for him to love ! *eye-roll emoji*

use his powers ! wld luv a reason for him to use the big kahunas in his arsenal... will say that...

brainstorming !

[sexysamson69]

(  PABLO SCHREIBER, CIS-MALE, HE/HIM  )  —  Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that RICHARD ‘SAMSON’ CLEMENS is a  42 year old SEX WORKER/PORNSTAR that’s been in Chicago for 22 YEARS. According to the file, they’re a MUTANT on LEVEL 3 with the power of FERAL FORM (DIRE FOX). That must be why they’re LOYAL and TEMPERAMENTAL. If you ask me, they remind me of PISS YELLOW EYES, BLOOD POOLING IN THE SHOWER, FRESH MEAT. They are affiliated with KAPPA RUNAWAYS.

UNDER THE CUT:  basics / feral form info / currently / timeline

BASICS

FULL NAME: Richard ‘Samson’ Clemens D.O.B: 30 November 1980 [ 42 ] HEIGHT (HUMAN): 6′4″ HEIGHT (DIRE FOX): 3″0

FERAL FORM

In his feral form he becomes a ‘dire fox’ ( fun fact: dire wolves are thought to be linked much more closely to foxes than wolves). I picture him has a fluffier tale than pictured here (because cute!). Samson has two tattoos which, if you were to shave him in wolf form you would see. He also has a slight ‘mane’ similar to his mohawk.

CURRENTLY:

He escaped with the first set of the Kappa Runaways . At first he stayed in the abandoned warehouse with the others, until he was convinced to go find his sister, Hale, and let her know what happened to him. After a little convincing, he moved in with Hale who had, thankfully, been doing well for herself. He stayed for a few months until she began dating Tiff. They’re nice but Samson doesn’t trust humans on principle at this point. Back to work, working a little too hard to give a helping hand to the other Kappa Runaways.

TIMELINE ( DATES SHOULD BE CORRECT)

TW: DUB CON. SEXUAL ASSAULT. MUTANT DISCRIMINATION. PRISON.

1980 [Born] To Sylvie Clemens, a teenage mother. Father an unknown one night stand.

1990 [10] Unable to cope with her feral, shape-shifting mutant son, Sylvie gives up Richard.

1990-97 [10-17] Repeatedly rejected from families, an unpopular child at school, he begins to run away. He’s often found and brought back, but manages to hide away using his shift ability to scrounge for food and survive like a wild animal.

1997 [17] Arrested. After being too starved to maintain his dire fox form, he breaks into a house to spend the night somewhere warm. Misjudging the timing, the family returned home and reacted poorly to a mutant sleeping rough in their home. Things escalated and he was hit with a B&E charge. Spends a few months in juvenile before put into an adult prison a few months before his eighteenth birthday.

1998 [18] Guards take an interest in Samon. He starts sex work to survive prison. ( which means get extra food & privileges such as his own cell).

2004 [22] Finishes his sentence, leaves prison. Begins working on street corners to get by as he looks for stable work. The stable work never arrives, his rap sheet and obviously mutant appearance means he barely gets his foot in the door.

2006 [24] Starts working at a sex club after a client mentions it. It’s safer, even if he takes a bit of a pay cut. Picks the moniker ‘Samson’.

2007 [25] Begins working in adult film, trying to move away from working in a club and only for films. Doesn’t work out, it’s expensive feeding himself.

2012 [32] Cherry, 18, starts working at the Rosebud. Hale becomes the little sister he never had. Things are good. For a while.

2016 [36] Kidnapped by a client where he is taken to Kappa.

2021 [41] Escaped Kappa.

2022 [42] Present Day.

@forwardintros​

[fcllingangel]

[ RAFAEL SILVA, CIS MAN, HE/HIM ] — look who it is! if you take a look at our database, you’ll find that ANGEL OLIVIERA is a TWENTY-EIGHT year old SUGAR BABY that’s been in chicago for ELEVEN YEARS. according to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 3 with the power of TELEPATHY. that must be why they’re CHARMING and HEDONISTIC. if you ask me, they remind me of the last puffs of perfume in your bed, too-red lips after a passionate kiss and the lingering thought of isolation late at night. They are affiliated with NO ONE.

❝ there isn’t anything for me that i haven’t gotten—that swaying hips and batted eyelashes haven’t dangled from the heartstrings of men. i take and i take and i take what is owed; and in the end they would thank me for the pleasure of what i have. of what i am. i have seen the world wanting me, and who am i to deny myself to them? ❞

A SUMMARY OF EVENTS. cw: homophobia. 

there’s always something about being born a wish. and while angel was a wish upon himself, it was hardly his own. his family always wanted the best—in a middle-class household, everything always seemed unreachable, all except when he was born. a child of new possibility.

the only child his parents had, he was doted upon and told good deeds and morals and to never step out of the perfectly constructed plan that they had given him. the son of a political man and his pta-perfect wife, they’d constructed a narrative that was as picturesque as the wish that they dreamed upon.

angel struggled, and his parents helped. but he was never smart enough, not until he managed to put in some effort. and they instead changed tracks to put him in his local football team, which he shone.

he went to church, sang in mass, talked with confidence in his speech, about how he had helped himself become the best man he can be with his father. but all of it, in the end would prove harder to bear, the picture-perfect politician’s son still being picture-perfect and pristine.

in the back of his mind, he always knew what to say, since he had an intuitive sense of people. a whisper in his mind. all until he started learning how to focus that whisper, turning it into a mind’s eye that he can use. always knowing what to say, what to do.

he still remembers hearing his best friend, boyfriend to the head cheerleader, that he thought angel’s ass looked nice.

in for a penny, and in for a pound; he’d started a torrid affair with him, coming to realize that he wasn’t as picture perfect as he’d thought. a mutant. gay. in a place where everyone knew everyone, that was almost a recipe for disaster. but he was careful, he was smart. he had everything under his crown. 

that is, until he got sloppy.

it was one thing that led to another, and he could catch the thoughts growing louder and louder—a scandal, the game, heartbreak. they pressed against his psyche hard enough that a wave of psionic force shot out from him, and made one thing clear: that he was a mutant. they had seen what he was, and while the firewalls were up, they weren’t strong enough to stop broadcasting that he was a shameful little thing.

of course, he had drunk the night before. he was on top of the world. angel had thought that telepathy wouldn’t play well with his migraine; it was just bad how wrong he was.

he didn’t walk graduation, just took his diploma and left with lingering whispers. he had talked to his parents, his eyes looking into their soul as they talked in their heads but not their mouths. a freak. a homosexual. a scandal. he pried deep and he saw shame, a deep shame after all the work that he had done for them.

so he left. packed up his bags, went to college and tried to make it on his own. the dark stain won’t follow him there, and what could he do but use his gifts to his advantage? no more payments. no more fuss. but graduating as a business analyst wasn’t his dream—and with none of his own, he was left astray as he drifted into the next years of his life.

he met a man in a bar, as he did consistently when he felt like shit during his senior year, and charmed him well enough.

then they met again. and again. and again. enough times that he knew to tell him that he was a mutant. he didn’t care—hell, he even gave him money. anything he wanted. corvettes and clothes and costumes for when he came over. a sweet little penthouse all for him. for them. it was there, he learned about his life. the pressures of office. of the upper house.

so he waits on him, and has him when he wants. but he knows something about picture-perfect lives, and now, he squirrels away cash for days on end, just in case everything falls apart. angel is happy—happier than he’s ever been. and happy with the thought that if his parents saw him now? they’d collapse on the spot.

TLDR: politician’s son and former star quarterback in a small town has a great life, until he’s outed as both a mutant and gay. traveling out to college, he uses his telepathy to make them pay for his tuition and whatever he wanted. during his senior year, he meets his married, anti-mutant senator slash sugar daddy and after college, he whisks him off to be his dirty little secret in chicago. you love to see it!

RANDOM.

has expensive taste and almost constantly burns a hole through the side account that his sugar daddy certainly has set aside for him. angel likes expensive things. sue him!

learned how to use his telepathy a lot. most famously uses it when he and his sugar daddy boink. ask about the nut button.

drives a convertible that’s definitely his baby. tuned up to hell and back!

just posts thirst traps on ig a lot

gay as hell

[saintjcmes]

[ LAVERNE COX, TRANS WOMAN, SHE/HER ] — look who it is! if you take a look at our database, you’ll find that JANUARY ST. JAMES is a FORTY-TWO year old SOCIALITE that’s been in chicago for TWENTY-TWO YEARS. according to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 4 with the power of REALITY WARPING. that must be why they’re POWERFUL and ARROGANT. if you ask me, they remind me of the clack of heels on a marble floor, the last drops of blood on a white dress, and the vague fear of something behind you. they are affiliated with THE HELLFIRE CLUB.

❝ it is your folly that you would think that you are something you are not—there is no immutable truth to what you are, except that there is power in your form. you know the way that you will drain them dry and leave the husks. call upon all your skills. of poison, of fire, of magic, and make them see what it means to suffer. ❞

A SUMMARY OF EVENTS. tw: death.

there is something magical around the st. james line—and they’ll tell you that themselves. mutants one and all, and if not mutants, prodigies, the st. jameses are a family built upon the backs of their mutant gifts, one they’re proud to give in service to the family.

uniquely gifted, as a little girl, january always knew what to do to get what she wanted. sweet-talking her aunties or strong-arming her father, there was nothing that she couldn’t get unless she set her mind to it.

during puberty, she had developed a fascination with the world around. walking through the orchards at her auntie’s garden, she had wished for something a little more delicious than apples and in an instant, her mutant powers manifested.

first, they had thought she could conjure plants, then just things, then people. january’s mind thought of more things to do, an open-ended question answered with something just as open-ended. in secret, she practices things herself, and she dabbles in her old childhood fairy-tales. the wicked witches. the evil queens. the glamour of the antagonists’ side.

she leaves for college, and a fast four years goes by, all until she meets archibald. charming, devilishly handsome, almost as ruthless as she is, she meets him during her senior year and is intrigued when he delights her with tales from the high-profile world of business. at the profession of mutantdom however, he’s intrigued.

corporate intrigues suits her well, working up the ladder. she helped her beau advance, a nudge here, a data leak there—an untimed little onset of  traffic? january helps. through the rose-colored lens of love, she helps and helps and helps, burning the candle at both ends.

here, she learns that corporate intrigue not only suits her, but also the odd fairy-tales that she had known to love. an old italian family, one that her own held in regard, had need of her, and she learns to suffer no fool. no person. no disrespect.

it’s unfortunate, then, that after years of love and scheming, her lover breaks it off with her. of course things can never last, but january thought herself the princess in her own fairy-tale. it turns out that she’s the rosaline here. she lives, but at what cost.

she drinks about it, like socialites bereft of love before her. hell, she even takes a bump; it’s definitely not going to kill her.

until january sees an invite to his wedding two months later.

turns out that she isn’t a rosaline—she’s the damn executioner. she is the spurned lover. she is the scylla in the cave. she is medea with the corpse of glaucis in her arms and the head of jason dragged behind her.

an old spell in an old text for a broken heart, one that she gives the bride—she waits until she sees them in her magic mirror, and she watches the happily ever after. up until the vows, and all she can do is launch her power at her. in an instant, she bleeds internally, as if a hand clasped at her heart and crushed it. how odd.

of course she kills him after. given torment, the furies desire blood. and the bride was only part of it, anyway. he lives, of course. tormented by her thoughts, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. he lives by her hand and dies by hers. january wants what is due, and she collects soon enough.

now, with that behind her, she focuses on her enterprise. formally a socialite with too much money to spend and too little time, she builds a network of agents, of mutants and people who owe her so she is never taken advantage of again.

TLDR: socialite comes from a long line of mutants, falls in love and rigs things in favor of her lover. when he has all he wants, he dumps her and she doesn’t take it well. when she recieves an invite to their wedding, she kills the bride, then him! #girlboss move i would say! currently a broker for power and information on the down-low, as well as a high-profile socialite.

RANDOM.

flaunts her power when it’s safe or when she can get away with it; can do almost anything, but knows how to teleport, create, or transform things the best! she can also fly, but she’d rather not.

has a black cat called the duchess aveline du grandpre and yes that is her full name.

a former underboss until she transitioned legally; does odd jobs for friends in new york on the side

has a transatlantic accent!

bisexual ;)

[ofadonis]

( sam reid, cis man, he/him ) — Look what the werecat’s dragged in! If you take a look at our records, you’ll find that ADONIS MOREAU is a THIRTY SIX year old ALCHEMIST that’s been in Cromerth Woods for TEN YEARS. According to this file, they're a HUMAN hailing all the way from CROMERTH WOODS. That must be why they're INTELLIGENT and SELF-SERVING If you ask me, they remind me of the the snap of leather against flesh, the scent of chemicals boiling in a beaker, and the clawing want that comes with ambition. They are allied with NO ONE. ( kael, 25, GMT+8:00, he/him )

[viictorious]

[ MANNY JACINTO, CIS MAN, HE/HIM ]  —  Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that VICTOR ACOSTA is a THIRTY-FOUR year old EX-POP STAR that’s been in chicago for FIVE YEARS. according to the file, they’re a MUTANT on LEVEL 3 with the power of ENERGY MANIPULATION. that must be why they’re JADED and LAID-BACK. if you ask me, they remind me of a vintage guitar on the wall, angry mutterings under your breath and the sincerity of defeat. they are affiliated with NO-ONE.

❝ in the end, what will you have left of adoration, except the hollowed echoes of its song? the half-light combustion of its aurora. leave it be, leave it be, and compose your own song, even as the notes decay around your shattered hand, your empty heart. it will keep the fires lit, for a time—and that is all that you need. ❞

A SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

born in florida, to an absent mother and a former olympic father that constantly wanted the best from him, victor is an only child that lives alone in a house that he never seems to see the end of.

with a knack for singing at the age of eighteen, his father learns that people like his underground punk band, and was whisked away to create a persona that he hardly knows.

dubbed ‘v’ by the record labels, he trains and works between recording sessions and college, trying to keep everything afloat in the span of a few years, with his father’s income diminishing, pushing himself harder and harder until he has a mild breakdown.

late in life, he learns he’s a mutant in a club as the bass and the loud noise turn him into a supernova of light, a small aurora dancing around him. it’s beautiful, until he realizes what has happened. he’s an energy manipulator.

running away, his father tells him to keep it under wraps for the label, but he sneaks it into performances, and grows close with the lighting technicians and crew members to help keep their mouths shut. his concerts are a cavalcade of both light show and singing, with his songs charting high on the hot 100.

then, he’s hit with a scandal—a video of him playing his guitar at home, snuck in through the tabloids and wistfully filled with moving lights. his team moves to salvage the damage and now scrutiny is on him. his career stands at a precipice and victor only needs to leap off and finally choose.

he chooses wrong.

in his los angeles show, he proclaims his mutantdom in the encore’s climax, a full display of mutant power, light cascading into images, the freedom of it all suffusing his bones as soon as he breaks away from the good-boy pop star lineup.

the day after, paparazzi hounds his door, and legal issues soon follow. scandal, breach of contract; the courts duke it out, and while he manages to leave with his investments and his money, his career is over as he knows it. no one will listen to him play again.

he shoves his father away and leaves with the company of strange men with stranger requests and stranger vodka—it’s unhealthy, of course, but this is the audience he chose.

in chicago, he’s no one, not even after notoriety claims him. he’s an ex-something. an ex-star. and the strange thing is, he’s finally learned to skulk around underground punk rock shows and feel the air and wavelength. almost as if he’s learned to pick everything up again.

TLDR: ex-famous pop star learns he’s a mutant late in life and accidentally gets caught using his power, and uses it to publicly come out as a mutant against the advice of his manager and his label. legal battles after, he’s only left with the settlement and his earnings, and his guitars, left to fade into relative obscurity. what he does now is try to evade paparazzi and go to underground shows and wonder if he still has it in him.

RANDOM:

has a guitar collection that he keeps pristine, and can play almost any instruments

lives off his royalties and investments in different companies when he was a pop star

usually parkours away from paps or simply flies off

has not talked to his father for years after the fiasco

likes punk rock and cannot stand synthpop

gay :)

[winsinclair]

[SAVANNAH SMITH, CIS WOMAN, SHE/HER ]  —  look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that WINIFRED SINCLAIR is a TWENTY-FOUR year old PERSONAL ASSISTANT that’s been in chicago for TWO YEARS. according to the file, they’re a MUTANT on LEVEL 1 with the power of LIE DETECTION and PRECOGNITION. That must be why they’re  COLD and HARDWORKING. if you ask me, they remind me of a day-off well deserved, running through the morning commute and a lie that you tell yourself over and over again. they are affiliated with NO-ONE.

❝ the skein of fate drags along humanity along its weave; there is always a choice that is made, a most probable event, and so i observe and observe and observe until i am satisfied with the choices that have happened. there is no destiny. there is no future. there is possibility and people and the eternal struggle of fools. ❞

A SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

born to a loving family, winifred was perfectly middle class. a copy-and-paste girl that would never have stuck out amongst the many, many people in her class, in her neighborhood, in her life. there isn’t much to say about her.

not really.

not at all. it’s odd. as if her presence was mere static until her junior year, a blur of movement and people and events. did she move? was she somewhere else? she doesn’t know, only the fine imprints of anger and whirled emotions are there.

at junior year, she loves a girl. of course it’s always a girl. in her head, it’s always been a girl, nice and smelling a little like flowers. but every time she tells you that she loves you, you feel that it’s not true.

when you ask your mother if it will be alright, you feel that same thing. a lie. a lie, a lie, a lie. will it be fine? will they be fine? will they move? are they angry? all lies, all lies, drowned in a sea of black and white until one night, she gets ill.

it comes in the sea of lies, and she sees answers on a test she hasn’t studied. a gift. then, a car accident. tears. a random ice cream cone on july. you’re a ghost. a ghost. a ghost of a girl.

she passes out in the middle of a test, and she wakes in the hospital with newfound sight, perception of time growing less linear if she chooses it, but she hears the nurses, the patients talk about mutants and AMMO and cuts that cord as it grows.

or so she thinks. it always comes as a discarded thought, a horror. things live and die before her eyes. the myriad threads of fate are her imagination, a comfortable lie she tells herself, even when she knows she can do... better.

she is not a mutant. she is decisively not. even when she sees and excels and knows because of her mutantdom—she is not. emphatically. she even takes a job that makes her emphatically less mutant—personal assistant to an AMMO executive.

she’s a very good assistant. able to detect bullshit and anticipate needs almost as if by magic. a thin line to cross, of course. she is the princess cassandra, the sacrifice iphigenia, the horror of electra waiting as she takes up the axe.

and so she waits, and hopes that the gambit will at least give her something more than what she has now. an apartment. a job. the growing maw of what her life was before, overlapping with the future, pushing out the memories of what is to come.

TLDR: local girl develops mutant powers and starts being in denial about it so much that she turns and runs the other direction and insists she’s just someone insightful and human and definitely not a mutant! so she goes and moves to chicago and gets a job as a personal assistant, working her way up until she becomes an assistant to an AMMO executive.

RANDOM.

likes dogs. likes cats. absolutely loves snakes for some reason.

owns a snakeskin leather bag after her first big bonus; it’s her number one possession.

definitely needs a roommate. like. badly.

a native west virginian, and hides her accent well!

gay as hell!

[jeune-biblio-fille]

( shay mitchell, demiwoman, she/they ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that ESTELLE MANALO TOUSSAINT (alias ESTELLE GIROUX ) is a thirty year old THIEF that’s been in Chicago for TWO YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 2 with the power of INTANGIBILITY. That must be why they’re ADAPTABLE and MISCHIEVOUS. If you ask me, they remind me of candlelight and champagne in crystal glasses, thick stacks of cash held in manicured hands, the scent of the sea carried by a warm breeze, and stacks of old books with gilded spines and worn covers. They are affiliated with NO ONE.

@forwardintros || pinterest under the cut: basic info, appearance, personality, bio, present day

BASIC INFO

FULL NAME: estelle manalo toussaint NICKNAMES: stella, ma petite étoile (to her parents) AGE: thirty BIRTHDATE: june 11, 1992, 6:28am GENDER: demiwoman PRONOUNS: she / they SEXUALITY: bisexual ;) SPECIES: mutant AFFILIATION: no one

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 5’8” / 172cm BUILD: athletic with a fair amount of muscle tone, especially in her arms HAIR COLOR: black EYE COLOR: deep brown ETHNICITY: filipino, irish, scottish, french NATIONALITY: french TATTOOS: ( 1 ) a delicate underbust piece consisting of a cresting wave in the shape of a crescent moon, with smaller moons on each side depicting its various phases. above the crescent is a many rayed sun, and below it hang delicate lines which look like strings of beads ( 2 ) three massive peonies in full bloom that curl over her right thigh and hip, surrounded by their artfully arranged foliage, all richly shaded and rendered in fine, delicate detail PIERCINGS: earlobes and upper earlobes, three upper helix piercings in their left ear, their right nostril — though she only wears a tiny stud, and both nipples SCARS: a little burn scar on her left wrist from a small kitchen mishap while she was distracted, and a perfect circle in the center of her right palm, also found on the back of her right hand, from an experiment with her powers that went wrong OTHER: usually has stiletto nails

PERSONALITY

ALIGNMENT: ZODIAC: sun: gemini, moon: scorpio, rising: gemini TRAITS: friendly, talkative, observant, curious, mischievous, hedonistic, versatile, selfish

BIO

estelle was born bright and early in the morning in her father’s hometown of toulon, provence, france. her name, chosen together by her parents, is the provençal word for star, for she was one of many lights her parents saw themselves blessed with. imelda, their mother, was a level three mutant whose abilities could only be described as a gift — a siren song which enthralled the listener to her will. this gift naturally begot many others. it had absolutely nothing to do with thomas, estelle’s ( human ) father, falling in love with her though, seeing as he was born Deaf

both of her parents loved the sea, imelda having grown up in manila and thomas on southern coast of france. it seemed that estelle had somehow inherited this from them — even as a baby they adored the water, and this never changed. when she was old enough, her father started bringing her and her mother out on his fishing boat on the weekends, which became a well-loved family tradition after a while

if her first love was her parents, and her second was the sea, then her third would have been books .    estelle was a fiend for them from the very beginning, and read them as quickly as she could get her hands on them. but she didn’t love them only for their stories, she loved them for their craftsmanship as well — the smell of ink and paper and the smooth feel of a worn cover under her hands

at thirteen years old estelle discovered her mutation in what was a both terrifying and objectively hilarious experience — she sneezed and this somehow triggered her mutation ( intangibility ) which resulted in her dropping into the living room below – passing through her own bed, the floor, and the chandelier on the way down. luckily, her mother was able to find her a ‘ private tutor ’ who could help her learn to control her powers

soon she took up a new ‘ extracurricular activity ’ — pickpocketing .   her targets were the juiciest and most justifiable ones of all: rich white tourists .    it was the most exciting thing she had ever done. in the beginning she only wanted the money to buy more books, but before long she was doing it for the thrill . still buying books with the cash though, that never really stopped. in all truth though she was itching to go after things other than simple money, but refused to take the risk that her parents would discover her hobby

at eighteen estelle moved out and into her own apartment. she completed university with a degree in historical literature while living by herself, and thanks in no small part to her “ extra revenue stream ” estelle was thriving by the time she graduated. it had also become clear to her that an ordinary life was not something she was interested in. estelle had found her fourth major love in life — stealing .    taking something that wasn’t hers, something she wasn’t even supposed to be able to get her hands on was thrilling . and the money, and all the wonderful things it could buy? oh, estelle liked those far too much to give them up so easily. in fact, she wanted more .

between the time she graduated and her thirtieth birthday just this summer, estelle has spent her time honing her skills, performing heists of various and sometimes dizzying intensity, and developing a taste for all things glittering and jeweled in addition to her ongoing love for books.

while she does have a bit of a selfish streak ,  she’s very free with her money, often leaving behind ridiculously large tips at restaurants and the like. it’s not like it’s hard for her to get more, why not share a little? if you took something from her, though, that’d be an entirely different story

PRESENT DAY:

lake michigan isn’t quite the same as the sea back in toulon, but estelle finds herself spending a lot of time on its shores anyway. the rush of the water is calming and familiar — it helps make chicago feel more like home

brunch is her favorite meal of the day. and if they’re serving mimosas, even better! cute little bistros are a frequent stop for her, and she will drag you out for a bite to eat if you try to befriend her, don’t try to stop it. and no, you won’t be paying

she’s been poking around for information about the ammo escapees, but hasn’t made contact with any of them yet. some of them may have noticed her asking questions, but she’s not too worried

single and ready to mingle ;)

[ripleysxfiles]

( JOE KEERY, AGENDER, THEY/THEM ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that RIPLEY VAN SANT is a twenty-eight year old PHD STUDENT, ENGINEER, AND PART-TIME WEB SHOW HOST that’s been in Chicago for EIGHT YEARS. According to the file, they are FOR MUTANTS. That must be why they’re FRIENDLY and CHAOTIC. If you ask me, they remind me of nasa posters, rainbow flags, an old car covered in bumper stickers, quoting fox mulder. They are affiliated with NOBODY.

character inspo  —  pez (red, white, and royal blue), mateo (911 lone star), shane madej (buzzfeed unsolved), the entire cast of high school musical: the musical: the series (high school musical: the musical: the series), fox mulder (x-files)

trigger warnings for drug abuse/drug mentions, overdose, homophobia (implied)

@forwardintros​

STATISTICS: 

Label:  The Chaos Storm

Full Name: Ripley Daniel Van Sant

Nicknames: Rip (by Pip only)

Birthplace: Asheville, NC

Parentage: Daniel Van Sant, Elizabeth Van Sant & Leslie Van Sant

Siblings: Pip Van Sant, Etta Torres, Louisa Torres (sibling in law), Hedwig Van Sant, Korra Van Sant 

Greek Zodiac: Aries 

Element: Fire

Myers Briggs: ENFP-T / 86% extraverted, 84% intuitive, 86% feeling, 100% prospecting, 57% turbulent 

Temperament: Sanguine

Seven Roles:  The Sage

Alignment: Neutral Good

BIOGRAPHY: 

Trash. That’s what everyone in the town of Asheville said about the Van Sant family. The family of seven lived in a cramped, falling to pieces house on the outskirts of town. Ripley was the middle child of their family. They grew up entirely too poor and Ripley’s father kept two jobs in order to keep the family afloat while their mother worked her own odd jobs when she could. Which basically left Ripley and their four other siblings adultless most of the time, especially since their nearest neighbor was at least six miles away. What the Van Sant family lacked in money, they gained in being a close knit family. Ripley’s mother told them bedtime stories and when their dad was home, he would play catch with his children. 

There were rumors about the family being drug pushers. Ripley’s father was said to be a drug lord and did all his business out of the shed in the back yard. Their mother was said to sell on the side, since she didn’t have another job. The rumors were all over the place from a comment here and there, to there being actual conspiracy theories about it. Ripley can’t count the number of times the police showed up at their door, expecting to finally find evidence of their father’s crimes. But the rumors weren’t true. They were just a below average American family with nothing but each other.

Life was okay with Ripley until they turned six and their parents got a divorce. It didn���t surprise anyone —  they’d been having problems for a while and with little money saved up, tensions in the house had grown high. Ripley was too young to understand what was going on, but suddenly their father was gone, leaving only one parent in the house. It didn’t bother them because honestly it wasn’t much different than before, except Etta wasn’t around as much, babysitting near by kids. 

Almost six months went by before Ripley said their father again. In that time, their mom had started dating someone new, her childhood sweetheart. Ripley’s father was appalled that she had the never to be in a relationship after such a short amount of time after their divorce, and to someone they’d both been friends with in high school. But Ripley didn’t understand the problem, Leslie was a very nice women and they liked her very much. Their father ran out of the house and swore never to return, which is a promise he kept. 

Eventually their momma married Leslie and they moved into a slightly bigger and better house. The seven year old had no idea what was happening, but suddenly, they had a room they only had to share with one sibling, not three. And instead of having a mom and a dad, they had two moms and no dad. It was an adjustment, but they really did love their new mom. 

Things started to change for Ripley when they entered high school. The kids around them started paying more attention to clothing and shoes, things that they knew they could never afford. Despite living in better conditions than before, their parents still didn’t have extra money to buy fancy things for their children, especially when it wasn’t one pair of Converse, it was five. Which Ripley didn’t mind at first. Then other children started making fun of them for their handed down clothing and ripped shoes. They were already younger than everyone there, having skipped two grades. Something in them snapped. They were better than them, even if they didn’t have what everyone else around them had. At first it was little things that Ripley did that got themself into trouble; fights with other students, talking back to teachers, and snapping at anyone that tried to help. When that stopped satisfying them, Ripley sought out other ways to be a little more defiant —   stealing, lying, going to parties, getting drunk. 

It wasn’t long before they fell in with the wrong crowd, where they started dealing and doing drugs. Ripley’s teachers all tried to get more involved with their life and keep them away from the groups of people they’d gotten in with, but the more they tried, the more Ripley pushed them away, refusing help from everyone, including their own family. With a steady income from the drugs they was dealing, Ripley could get anything they wanted. Those people that made fun of their plain clothing, boring sneakers, and handed down cell phone, watched as they suddenly owned the best they were willing to buy. They rose to the top, surrounding themself with the people that used to make fun of them — if only to prove that they had the ambition to do what it took to prove everyone wrong. 

All good things must come to an end however, and things feel fast for Ripley. Senior year of high school, Ripley overdosed on some prescription drugs they’d taken before class — a mix of things they didn’t even know what they were. Rushed to the hospital, the doctors managed to save their life and they were sent to rehab for the rest of their senior year. None of those friends they made visited them. 

When they were released, Ripley ended up redoing their senior year, but rather than finish school off in Asheville, his parents relocated to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, a smaller town, where no one would know what happened to them. And luckily, it helped with the healing process. They managed to get through their senior year with little effort and without doing a single drug, even with temptations at parties. They graduated the top of their class and at seventeen, they had the pick of college. But they did something unexpected: they stayed for two years at community college in a year and a half before transferring to a four year university in Chicago.

They graduated from the Illinois Tech with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Physics before going to graduate school at the same school for a master’s degree from the same college. School has always been something important to them and their goal: space exploration. 

Eight years later, Ripley is getting their PhD in Aerospace Engineering. But it’s their side business that’s what’s gotten them put on the map. Cryptids and Crime is their popular web show they started in their free time when they moved. The show focuses on different crimes and cryptid stories throughout the world, though their main focus is on the supernatural. Space and the unusual have always been a big part of their life, especially after their older brother Pip got them obsessed with the X Files at a young age. 

[thomasxoconnell]

( brenton thwaites, cis man, he/him ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that THOMAS O’CONNELL is a THIRTY year old LAB TECH that’s been in Chicago for SIX YEARS. According to the file, they are (somewhat) against mutants. That must be why they’re INQUISITIVE and NERVOUS. If you ask me, they remind me of wire brimmed glasses with fingerprints on the lenses, open books strewn across a desk, the church like architecture of an ivy league library. They are affiliated with NO ONE.

BASICS

Name: Thomas “Tom” James O’Connell

Nickname(s): Tom, Tommy, 

DOB: September 12th, 1992

Age: 30

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Sexuality: Hasn’t explored that much yet

Traits: (+) Intelligent, self-sufficient, cautious (-) Reclusive, nervous, narrow-minded

Occupation: Lab Tech

Family: William O’Connell - Brother, Stanford O’Connell - Brother

APPEARANCE

Height: 6′0

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Brown

Ethnicity: White

Nationality: American

Aesthetic:

Tattoos: None

Piercings: None 

BACKGROUND

Thomas grew up as one of many children in a small house in a smaller town in Idaho. He was one of the youngest of the bunch, and much smaller than all of them in many ways. Not necessarily in stature, but in personality and attitude, yes. He was more likely to hide in his siblings’ shadows in the hopes of going unnoticed by most. Where the others had something that made them shine, Thomas only seemed dull. 

He never minded being a background character in his family, though. It made it easier to focus on the things that did interest him: Learning. He loved to read and to study. Science, in particular, fascinated him to no end. Any chance he got, Thomas had his nose in a book, trying to wrap his head around a concept far from what his grasp should have been.

But, being so young, it was only a matter of time before there was no shadow to hide in anymore. The more his siblings grew up and moved away, the more attention that seemed to fall on him. The once self-sufficient, silent child, was now showered with all sorts of attention he didn’t know what to do with. It was no malice or anger towards anyone that he had seemed to go unnoticed for long. More than anything, it was just pure awkwardness over not knowing how to suddenly accept the attention and praise he was receiving. 

Thomas did his best to humor the attention, even if he wasn’t very good at it, chugging along towards his goals of working in the medical field, continuing to study and learn more. But, the one thing Thomas could never understand? Mutants. They made no logical sense, and no book could explain their existence away. Realistically speaking, they shouldn’t be able to exist, and some extra chromosomes didn’t feel like a good enough explanation. 

There were countless people through school who wanted to work at places like Kappa or with people like AMMO to get those answers, but Thomas was never drawn to groups like that. Their processes were far too cruel and confrontational for his tastes. While he wanted answers, kidnapping and torture never felt like the way to handle things like that. Secretly slipping straws out of drinking cups at the diner or offering a free screening here or there to run his own, private, tests were much more Thomas’s speed. It was still morally dubious, but a lot less overtly evil than what some of his counterparts were doing.

Thomas moved to Chicago after school, around Six years ago. It wasn’t long after his Brother, also a mutant, had moved there. And, it was in part because he knew his pool opened up more to run tests living in a big city like Chicago. Especially a big city where his Brother was basically making connections to a test pool for him. Whether he knew it or not.

@forwardintros

[valeriareyes]

( MAIA REFICCO, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that VALERIA REYES is a twenty-one year old FLORIST that’s been in Chicago for TWENTY-ONE YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL THREE with the power of PLANT MANIPULATION. That must be why they’re SOFT and NAIVE. If you ask me, they remind me of potted plants, flowers growing taller when she’s around, flower shaped lamps, pastel colored tea cups. They are affiliated with THE KAPPA RUNAWAYS.

character inspo — perfuma (she ra), keyleth (critical role), blake macintyre (yesterday is history), mack (you should see me in a crown), daphne (scooby doo), poison ivy (dc) 

trigger warnings for racism 

@forwardintros​

STATISTICS: 

Label:  The Wildflower

Full Name: Valeria Yamilet Reyes

Nicknames: Ives 

Birthplace: Somewhere in New Mexico

Parentage: Yamilet Maria Reyes & Unknown

Greek Zodiac: Taurus

Element: Earth

Myers Briggs: INFJ-T / 62% introverted , 69% intuitive, 89% feeling, 56% judging, 89% turbulent 

Temperament: Phlegmatic 

Seven Roles:  The Priest 

Alignment: Chaotic Good 

BIOGRAPHY: 

Yamilet Reyes wanted better for her child. So she promised the unborn child. She found a good group of people that snuck her across the border. There was no horror story, no terrible thing happened to her. Yami counted herself lucky. In a small town in New Mexico, the child was born. But Yamilet didn’t stop there. The further away from the border they got, the safer she always believed they would be. That’s how the Reyes family of two ended up in the Chicago suburbs. And maybe Yami had to work multiple jobs to keep them both afloat, but knew this life would be better for her child than any life back in her tiny village back home.

Valeria’s first memory was when she was four, walking through a garden holding her mami’s hand. The flowers seemed to grow towards her, seemed to brighten, seemed to get bigger. She remembers reaching her hand out to a daisy and it almost seemed like it was growing more. Then her mami snatched her hand away from the daisy and took them back to the apartment, muttering quick Spanish under her breath about not doing that in public. Valeria remembers not understanding. But at home there were all sorts of plants, so that would do for entertainment. 

The next memory she has is not a happy one. Maybe she hadn’t been careful in public. Maybe she said something in school. Valeria doesn’t remember why it happened only it did. One day she and her mami were sitting on the couch when [REDACTED]. She was five at the time. Was it really kidnapping if she had no where else to go? 

Valeria woke up at the Kappa Institute. Her mami was gone. Things weren’t great for her — a little girl, alone, with only the vaguest concept of how to speak English. Her mami had only spoken Spanish and rarely let her venture out in the world, although she’d watched some television and had some basic vocabulary, it didn’t help her much. While some people (mostly the other residents) were friendly, some people weren’t. She would like to say that she doesn’t remember much of her time at the Institute, but that would be a lie. 

But she was a bit of a blank slate. And one guard there was nice to her. He treated her almost like a father, was kind, caring, friendly, and even helped teach her English. AMMO knew that if she was shown a little bit of kindness, they could mold her into someone they could control, especially given just how powerful her mutation was. Valeria was too young and unaware of how bad people were to be anything other than susceptible to the manipulation at play with the people AMMO sent to talk to her and train her. 

Valeria didn’t realize that she was being isolated from the other mutants at Kappa until it was almost too late. She didn’t know this wasn’t how the outside world was. That people were free to go and do as they pleased. Her mami had always said that she came here for a better life, but if this was a better life then back where she came from must have been awful. But it was another resident that told her this wasn’t normal, that there was a life outside the Institute, and that AMMO did not have her best interest at heart. 

She was angry. Valeria didn’t know what to do, but she wanted out. Feeling like she had been taken advantage and not even known it was happening. It took a while, wanting to gain the trust of the other mutants stuck at Kappa, but she did over time, only to find out that there was a group planning to run away. Valeria’s chance at the freedom her mami had always wanted for her? She jumped at the chance and escaped along side her fellow friends?

Since escaping, Valeria’s tried to keep her head down, she’s also been trying to remember what happened to her mother. Her memories about that night are fuzzy at best and she does want to remember what happened. Her mami is the only family she has, so she wants to find her soon. 

Valeria spends as much time as she can outside because she didn’t get a lot of that at the Institute without her powers being nullified. After years of not using her power that much, she doesn’t feel as connected to the earth as she once did and being in a city it’s a lot harder to find places that are connected to nature, but Valeria does her best to find the spots that allow her to have that connection. Her job as a florist helps with that as well. People say that her flowers last longer than whatever other flowers they get from other shops. She adores nature and finds that the longer she spends outside, the more powerful she feels. 

[ursiiformes]

@forwardintros || ( michiel huisman, male, he/him ) – Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that ROYAL MERCER is a forty-two year old AUTO MECHANIC that’s been in Chicago for HIS WHOLE LIFE. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 2 with the power of BEAR PHYSIOLOGY. That must be why they’re COMPASSIONATE and TERRITORIAL. If you ask me, they remind me of tight, black leather with silver fastenings, the rumble of a well-cared-for engine, a kitchen bursting at the seams with knick-knacks, and misty mornings beside a shallow river. They are affiliated with THE MERCER FAMILY.  

under the cut: basic info, appearance, personality info, bio, pinterest link tw for mentions of bullying

BASIC INFO

FULL NAME: royal mercer NICKNAMES: roy, papa bear AGE: forty two BIRTHDATE: may 1st GENDER: cis man PRONOUNS: he / him SEXUALITY: bisexual ;) SPECIES: mutant AFFILIATION: the Mercer Family

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 6’6” / 198cm BUILD: one of the best words for him is probably ‘beefy.’ he has the sort of thighs you see in those watermelon crushing videos that go viral, with the arms, back, and chest to match. he’s a big dude. HAIR COLOR: chestnut brown EYE COLOR: warm, rich brown, with a hint of gold reminiscent of sunlight through whiskey ETHNICITY: white jewish (irish + dutch) NATIONALITY: us american TATTOOS: several, many still tbd by mun. currently determined tattoos include: a portrait of his first dog, rosie, with her adoption date underneath on his left forearm; a back piece consisting of the silhouette of a bear staring up at the moon – the bear’s silhouette is filled by an intricate dotwork forest of pine trees, and the moon is just as finely detailed even as the dots of it disperse into nothingness just before curving over his right shoulder; four dates on his left pectoral, just over his heart, arranged in a heart and styled as follows: xx.xx.xxxx – the first two are the day he and aneesa first met and the day he moved in with her, the second two are samin’s birthday and the date royal was officially granted legal guardianship over samin. there is an ornate filigree that surrounds them, completing the heart with a baroque flourish. PIERCINGS: both nipples, a tongue stud, and a prince albert SCARS: a small, difficult to see scar through his right eyebrow, a jagged gash across his right wrist from a bad fall as a kid that ended with a compound fracture, a bullet wound in his right shoulder from a night he doesn’t like to talk about, and a collection of small but numerous ones on his hands from various nicks, cuts, burns, and scrapes accumulated over years of working with his hands. OTHER: very hairy, but well manscaped

PERSONALITY

ALIGNMENT: neutral good ZODIAC: sun: taurus, moon: aries, rising: taurus TRAITS: loyal, protective, stubborn, kind, mistrustful of authority figures, irritable yet also chill

BIO

royal grew up on his family's farm outside the city limits of Chicago. it was a strange but wonderful place to grow up – populated by several branches of family as well as friends, it was more of a commune than a simple farm, though they shied away from that word with good reason.

life on the farm taught him a great many things – how to identify wild plants and animals, or avoid being attacked by an angry goose. eventually, the adults of the farm steered lessons in a different direction, focusing on mutant history and relations, with sneaky additions of conflict resolution and de-escalation tactics. after all, the best way to get kids to learn is to trick them into it with a game.

mutations ran in his family, both of his parents were mutants, and two of his grandparents too. royal was the middle of three sons, all mutants as well. of course, they didn't know this when they were born, but they suspected for some time, and royal grew up with the expectation that he would one day develop a mutation.

school was something of a challenge for royal, and royal was something of a challenge for the school as well. he argued with his teachers, sometimes simply for the fun of it, he played copious amounts of pranks on staff and students alike, and worst of all, he got into many, many fights with other students. it started out with him intervening on behalf of other students, but soon this transformed royal into a target in his own right. unfortunately for the bullies, and the school principal, this little seven year old had a wicked left hook and he wasn't afraid to use it.

after royal's mutation manifested for the first time at age eleven, the bullying got worse. other children were ganging up on royal, who soon found himself facing sometimes up to five other children at a time. after a particular incident during sixth grade, in which a bad fight took a worse turn, royal lost control of his mutation and transformed, and bit one of the kids who had been trying to beat him up. the boy needed eleven stitches to close the bite, and so at this point, the mercers made the decision to withdraw royal from public school and finish his education at home on the farm, with more than a little encouragement from the school officials. 

school on the farm was largely unremarkable for royal, except for the fact that now he actually did his work (most of the time). aside from school, the majority of his time during these years was spent helping his aunt and her wife in the garage – scurrying back and forth with tools and water and other ephemera that they needed. soon enough they discovered his aptitude for repair work, and took to letting him help out, with extensive supervision of course. he adored it.

royal managed to convince his parents to let him go back for the last two years of high school, with some caveats. he didn't want to do classroom learning anymore – there was a vocational training program offered through the school district with an auto-mechanic training course. that was what royal wanted to do. he knew that he would still have to suffer through some of the same old boring shit as before, but he figured that getting to do something he actually liked made up for it pretty well.

for their part, his parents wanted him to pick and play a sport, hoping the activity would provide a good outlet for his emotions and thereby keep him out of trouble. they weren't expecting him to pick wrestling of all things, but it did actually (mostly) work. he loved it as much as he loved mechanic work, so the threat of getting kicked off the team was quite effective. there weren't zero fights but there were fewer and they mostly took place off school property, so that was an improvement. right? more importantly though, royal was able to graduate with his peers and obtain his first certification.

college was similarly uninteresting to royal, at least academically. he got his certifications and everything, and that was what he cared about. the social experience of it though was another story. the people he settled in with after high school were some of the first people to ever make him feel like he belonged anywhere outside his family farm. he fell in love more than a few times, but the only one he ever stayed in contact with was aneesa ofori. though it wasn’t love, there was something special between the two of them.

when royal was about 26 his younger brother, roman, disappeared. he had been moving into his own apartment, a birthday present. but he left the house and simply never arrived at his new apartment. the movers were there with his things for an hour before they called his parents, who had kissed him goodbye nearly two hours before. the following 24 hours were a blur of panicked phone calls, tears, and disbelief. the next three weeks? agony. roman’s entire life sat in boxes, stacked in an empty apartment in rogers park, and there was not a trace of him to be found anywhere else. the police eventually refused to keep looking, and it broke royal.

he pulled away from everyone and everything. already living on his own, he visited his parents and the farm less, stopped going out to parties and dinners and game nights with friends. the only thing he did was work, but even that was only part time. the burden of his grief was too heavy for anything else. it swallowed him, and for three long years he lived half a life.

eventually his parents made a decision, desperate to regain one of the sons they had lost. they got him a dog. a rescue. the way she cowered and shook cracked something open in royal's chest. as he would tell it later, that first night where they sat on opposite sides of the living room, him tossing her little shreds of roasted chicken every so often, was the first night he felt anything at all in three years. at that point, he realized he needed some serious help, much like rosie, his new dog. with a little help from his family and friends, he dragged himself into therapy, and began to heal the grief of his brother’s disappearance.

his relationship with rosie developed into a love for the ages – it was also the start of royal’s volunteer work with the animal rescue. over the years he adopted several dogs, and found safe, happy homes for hundreds of others.

at thirty-two royal finally took the chance and started his own business, mercer automotive repair. it took nearly a year to get the location he had purchased up and running, but when he finally did he couldn't have been happier. soon enough, he had a reputation for honesty and quality work that kept customers both new and old coming in the door.

PRESENT DAY

within the past few years, royal moved in with his long-time friend aneesa, to help her raise her teenage son, samin. while he's fully aware of the fact that he isn't the kid's father, it's definitely the role he plays in his life, and he honestly loves it.

his business is still doing well so he can often be found there, but he also spends fair amounts of time at the gym, out in the woods outside the city, home with aneesa and samin, visiting his family’s farm, or spending time in the lesser known parts of the city – the local kink community specifically.

last but certainly not least – after one of the groups escaped from the kappa facility royal began to have nightmares about his brother. horrible, gut-wrenching nightmares filled with freezing blackness and the echo of his brother's voice calling his name desperately. but it's probably nothing, right?

PINTEREST

[link]

[surejess]

@forwardintros​

( margot robbie, cis woman, she/her ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that JESSICA “JESS” TURNER is a THIRTY-TWO year old STAND-UP COMEDIAN that’s been in Chicago for SIXTEEN YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL THREE with the power of CLOWN PHYSIOLOGY. That must be why they’re THEATRICAL and NONSENSICAL. If you ask me, they remind me of unearned laughter over a killing joke, a permanent stepford smile, mars opportunity’s last message. They are affiliated with BARNUM ODDITIES + HELLFIRE CLUB.

could i leave her behind ? ...too silly to leave behind !

QUICK FACTS

full name: jessica mary “jess” turner

name reasoning: ...jess tur.

date of birth: february 24th, 1990

zodiac big three: pisces sun, sagittarius moon, gemini rising

gender & pronouns: cis woman & she/her

sexual orientation: bisexual

ethnicity: white

nationality: american

languages spoken: english (5)

enneagram: 7w6

mbti: enfp

temperament: sanguine-melancholic moral alignment: chaotic neutral

ability: clown physiology

affiliation: barnum oddities & the hellfire club ( co-founder )

alias: n/a

BACKSTORY

triggers: being sold to carnies?, kidnapping, torture, a white guy complaining because he was fired from the cool torture factory 🙄

jessica was born in brooklyn to two non-mutant parents ( why are all of my muses’ parents non-mutants ). one eye had a pink iris, she was notably paler than other children ( but not to the point of ‘oh my god, is that krusty the clown?’ ) and her hair grew rather odd – naturally platinum blonde, bordering on white, with different colors and slightly redder lips. but her parents always just assumed that the babysitters were harmlessly fucking around with hair dye when they were out. come to think of it she probably just looked albino with a dash of makeup and hair dye ahfdouiladjns

her parents never expressed much of an opinion on the mutant situation, seeming to be impartial parties – very ‘well, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone, it’s fine.’ and that was true! they really didn’t care! they were totes chill! …so long as it applied to anyone but family.

that isn’t to say when jess first just… pulled a card out of thin air, they were like ‘oh my god, sin!’ – hell, they thought it was just a magic trick! but as things like that continued, and as she lost babysitters but kept that strange-ish look with the quite red lips… they were like ‘this is getting weird. she looks like an e-girl, only those don’t exist yet, so she looks like a clown™. i have an idea. let’s send her to boarding school so we don’t have to deal with maybe having a mutant daughter and having to help her with this weird stuff. ugh.’

but, lol, they just said it was a boarding school. they actually found a group of carnies that they… essentially sold her to. obviously she was quite taken aback and hurt at first, but the carnies proved to be very caring – more caring than her parents had ever found it in themselves to be. they taught her so many useful things! like conning, how to fake your death, acrobatics… really all over the board! who needs a typical schooling system when you can just have carnies?! they also took most of her ‘powers’ as talents, natural gifts. hell, they actually did have a few mutants traveling along with them! a wolf woman who just functioned as their bearded lady, a kid with lobster physiology under control enough to just make him look like he had lobster hands, an old man with unicorn physiology under control enough to just show the horn. and, because of the title of the attraction they sat in – ‘freak show’ – everyone just assumed all of the oddities were deformations. it was a safe place. and jess fit in well with her intuitive clown magic.

also i would be aghast to not mention the presence of cordelia yildiz, a genuine connection who she made the mistake of losing, but i wrote this intro over a year ago and i’m trying to make as few changes as possible bc i’m lazy afldskfs

but, as she grew, it became apparent that her differences stretched beyond physical and sleight of hand. yes, she was a natural at cards, juggling, balloon animals, and she was funny! even the things that were maybe .2% funny generated so much laughter and joy! which… they didn’t recognize as a problem…

until she was fourteen. something unexpected happened: one of her jokes – a bad one, a lame ‘chicken crossed the road’ spin – made patrons laugh so hard that they were breaking ribs, gasping for air, and being driven mad by the hilarity. three died, all the others were sent to the hospital. some never left the psych ward.

and something similar happened… and, for as much as the carnies dearly loved her, when she began showing signs that her simple power was actually quite dangerous, they decided that the best plan of action was to keep her at bay whilst they looked for someone or something who/that could teach her. but, before they had the chance to find someone, disgraced ex-ammo scientist william barnum had the chance to find her.

people came and went. with the circumstances, it was concerning... but trying to find someone who easily could’ve just run off wasn’t worth risking themselves for. a week later, the circus marched forth, none the wiser !

barnum & co. presented as respectable individuals. despite his method of kidnapping, it seemed almost pristine at first... then you get shoved inside and find that you’re essentially in a glorified warehouse, surrounded by scientists who did not meet kappa standards or were too impatient to so much as try. thus, think of it like this: kappa’s bear traps are new, shiny, sharp ; barnum’s bear traps are rusted, infested, blunt and in need of chopping.

then the experiments began. and how fascinating they found this ability! how innocent it seemed with its stupid card and balloon tricks, but how threatening it was with its bombs and killing jokes (reference intended). the last thing they expected was for little carnie clown girl to be a real threat! even with the nullifying extracted gene used between experiments, they absolutely gagged her up <3 just gave her a little notebook because they aren’t completely evil <3 over a decade of being able to talk for maybe 30mins a day (just to make sure she still can when need be) and people would WONDER why she has so much to say <3

that said, she likely seemed very quiet to her peers… which she was naturally rather not. it is In Her DNA™.

I ALSO JUST REALLY WANT TO ADD THAT SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTS WERE LIKE. TERRIBLE. BUT THERE’S ON THAT’S JUST REALLY FUNNY IN CONCEPT. LIKE ESSEX HOUSE SETTING UP A WHOLE SLAPSTICK STAGE AT ONE POINT. TO TEST PAIN SUPPRESSION. LITERAL CLOWNERY.

(that said, they were most interested in her brain, limbs/digits, tongue/teeth, and skin……… so do with that information what you will)

other experiments were performed, each worse than the last, and her will was all but broken.. she was barely able to speak, barely able communicate – what was the point in trying? in hoping?

but after a new sub-ability made itself known - miming - and they decided to have fun hacking away at limbs?? SHE WAS READY TO MAKE SOME PLANS AND SPREAD THEM AROUND. (escape can be plotted out ofc! just keeping this sentence from the intro bc im too lazy to change anything i dont absolutely need to!)

getting that gag off, she wasted absolutely no time in letting some of those brilliant scientists finally hear her brilliant jokes! literally laugh themselves to death!

for some months after the escape, she was a classic sad clown, having no CLUE what she was supposed to do. believe it or not, for a whole month, she was even struggling with speech! (i have like… a whole thing about why she talks so much outside of the general ‘she’s a clown’ in my head it’s actually quite sad clown pls do ask if u wld like to hear)… then she saw an ad for an open mic night and a lightbulb appeared over her head! suddenly having the ability to talk for more than fifteen minutes, a day she could be a stand-up comedian… because even when she wasn’t funny, apparently she was really fucking funny! that said, she just uses the pseudonym ‘jester’ to draw less attention to her actual identity in the event that the barnum folks are walkin around.

a few months after the escape, jess was lucky enough to meet january st. james in all her generosity. she has since made her way to becoming january’s right-hand man and even aided in founding the hellfire club!

TIMELINE

BORN – in ‘90 with clear differences, but not enough to warrant scare. (bro replacing “’69″ with “’90″ felt so weird)

AGE 13 – jess is discovered to definitely be a mutant; more or less sold to carnies

AGE 15 – one of jess’s jokes killed various audience members, drove others insane, and maimed even more. happened more than once.

AGE ~15.5 – jess is caught by barnum & co, the poor man’s kappa (which was completely purposeful, as william barnum was an embittered ex-ammo scientist)

AGE ~15.5-30 – jess is tortured by barnum & co. allowed to speak for maybe half an hour each day, if that. depends on them to provide paper/pen, but they can revoke as they please.

AGE 30 – a plan is concocted to escape with four other mutants

AGE 30 – jess is free and on the streets. january st. james helps her get back on her feet. finds a career as a comedian.

AGE 30+ – jess is still hellbent on revenge <3 but also helping establish the hellfire club like it’s all very contradictory.

HEADCANONS

y’all know that i’ve come up with a lot so i’ll just include the two that i put in the original intro. maybe i’ll come back one day and add them all but today is not that day!

 her version of reality can now be showcased by lily allen’s ‘ldn’ mv… only violence is still an option <3

also a lil note for her physiology since margot’s played harley quinn in three different movies and, each time, she’s looked a little different: facial features like suicide squad (2016), always has those lil bedazzled eyebrows she wears in birds of prey, color scheme of the suicide squad (2021) ! ( that said, probs won’t be using many ss gifs because there was like… one pack still available ahdlsaifjsk so just <3 imagine <3 ) the one thing i would add that’s in none of the gifs is one iris being a shade of light pink and the other being the regular blue.

OH BUT ALSO A VERY IMPORTANT IMAGE: jess at barnum

CONNECTION IDEAS

barnum & co oddities ! the blurb will be submitted to the channel momentarily ( tl for kappa/hellfire didn’t add up, so original it is! ), but basically the four other folks she escaped the poor man’s kappa with.

kappa runaways ! okay i’m just interested in the idea of william barnum & co having been like ‘fuck kappa... fuck those bitches... they’re so stupid...’ so like. jess is aware of kappa’s existence -- would love for her to meet/have met some of the runaways and learned about how kappa was actually the chanel to barnum’s walmart

hellfire folks ! she does not even begin to look like she fits in in there and lbr she doesn’t ! could make it funny !

regulars at her performances ! yea

violence is the answer ! yea

peer pressure ! yea

see i just don’t feel like typing all of those out again ! but she has been established enough... for tha vibe !

brainstorming. obvs.

[hollandbryant]

( ELLIE BAMBER, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that HOLLAND BRIGHT BRYANT is a 22 year old WAITRESS  & MUSIC STORE CLERK that’s been in Chicago for 4 YEARS. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL TWO with the power of POWER MIMICRY. That must be why they’re QUIET and GUARDED. If you ask me, they remind me of cassette tapes, stacks of old video games, messy red hair, english accents & brightly colored clothing. They are affiliated with NO ONE.

character inspo — adam hayes (the bright sessions), alyce (malice), vivian greywick (wicked academia), grace foster (crave)

trigger warnings for child neglect, child abuse, gaslighting

@forwardintros​

STATISTICS:

Label: tbd

Full Name: Holland May Bright Bryant

Nicknames: Holly

Birthplace: Surrey, UK

Parentage: Daniel and Morgan 

Greek Zodiac: Gemini

Element: Air

Myers Briggs: tbd

Temperament: Melancholic

Seven Roles:  tbd

Alignment: Chaotic Good

BIOGRAPHY: 

Daniel Bright and Morgan Lee met in college where Daniel was studying to be a geneticist and Morgan was studying biology. The two only met because they both had a work ethic that was better than most of the other students at the college. They quickly found that they both liked to be in the labs at the same time and started hanging out outside of working on their own projects. Though they had few friends, it was no surprise to anyone that the two of them started dating and got married. Both of them landed jobs in their respective fields after graduating with PhDs. Not long after Cassidy was born and the family moved to a comfortable home in Surrey. Three years after Cassidy came their son, Henry. Holland was a bit of an accident, but none the less an excitement to the family. By the time Holland was born, both Daniel and Morgan knew about the existence of mutants, given their respective scientific fields and they were both terrified of anything different. So they sheltered their children. 

While Holland’s childhood was particularly boring and not very interesting, she was mostly raised by her siblings. Until 2003 things in her life were relatively normal. Although the Brights did their best to shelter their children from the news, the two older children were able to pick up on what was going on around them. Holland, being too young to understand, had no idea what her parents were involved with, which was fine enough for her parents. Holland’s life mostly didn’t change, but she noticed her parents pulling away from society more and more. Their Surrey home traded for a house up north in the country. Then things started disappearing: phones, television, radio. The books she had access to, changed to older book, written before her time with no events from the present. She didn't know any better, though her siblings did. When she turned thirteen, her brother left home and her parents became unhinged, opening up their home to other like minded people, creating a community behind closed doors. A humans only society, though Holland didn't know this at the time. 

Instead of going to school like a normal child, the Bright family previously homeschooled their children, then let their community teach them. The people in their community were well vetted individuals. Anything strange or unusual was reported on by other members and then the guilty party was forced to leave, or so Holland was told. If that was actually the case, she wasn't told otherwise. Since most media was banned from their house, so she learned to draw, learned to entertain herself with whatever her parents did allow in the house. Holland grew up hearing arguments between her older sister and her parents about how they were prisoners in their own home, yet they still had more freedoms to leave than Holland ever had. But it was the only thing she’d ever known, so how could she complain? 

Holland always felt like a bit of an outsider among her family members, though she never knew why, nor would she get an explanation for years. Her life was a constant state of not feeling like she could trust or talk to anyone. She grew into a kid surrounded by money, surrounded by people, but isolated and lonely to a point that she was sure other people didn’t live like this. Years and years of asking her parents why they weren’t allowed to leave the house and go into town and why they had to learn from tutors rather than school like some people. She never got an answer.

By the time she was fifteen, her siblings had moved out by then, it was only Holland and her parents. Cassidy did come home often, as she ended up in school not too far away, but Holland never heard from her brother. Holland was told there were monsters in the world. People capable of harming her without touching her. Where she lived, the community her parents created was a safe haven from these monster, since some of them looked like regular humans while others were monstrous beings. Holland was told she was safe at home, safe behind closed doors and away from the general public. “We’re doing everything we can to protect you from them,” her mom said, misty eyed. And who was Holland to distrust anything her mom said? “We want to stop these monsters from hurting people,” her dad told her. Holland believed him. Her parents gave her more freedoms then, more books to read and information about the world around her, even if it was all a lie. Misinformation written by members of the community in order to show her what kinds of people there were in the world. 

Holland believed them, until she was eighteen and found a locked door in the mansion and her parents' Doomsday plan. Their plan to rid the world of the monsters she'd been told about. They'd been working with the American government. They had helped to create a drug that neutralized their power. And soon they'd find a way to weaponize those with powers. Holland's blood turned to ice as she read more. Her parents had blood samples of everyone in the community, including her own blood. Clicking on her own file lead to a discovery that she had powers. Beneath her name: neutralized. But what did that mean? Horrified by this information, she stole a bunch of money from her parents, paid someone to forge documents with a new name, and moved out of the country. If she kept a low enough profile, her parents would never find her. After all, they’d never found Henry. 

She settled in Chicago, a bigger city feeling safer as she could blend in with large amounts of people. That was four years ago. Since then, she has not done much progress on figuring out the mutant world, but he’s still trying to figure out who she is. She’s still very scared of mutants and being one herself. However, she’s trying to be better at it. Holland found out what her power was on accident, by running straight into a mutant. There was a fear response to it and she immediately ran away, scared out of her mind. Now Holland works as a waitress and at a music store, trying her best to stay blended in with her surroundings.