![](http://i.imgur.com/MnVP6Eh.png" "source: imgur.com")
Post by Damian Wilde on Apr 28, 2014 0:27:44 GMT -6
Template made by MEL, inspired by NU
NAME: Damian Gabriel Wilde
AGE: 22
GENDER: Male
ORIENTATION: Heterosexual
POSITION: Grad student
FACE CLAIM: Ben Barnes
CORPORAL COMPULSION: An extreme form of 'persuasion'. Damian can instruct anyone's physical body to obey his commands. They can range from gentle suggestions to full-fledged orders, and depending on the strength he puts into his words, the corresponding reaction will be equivalent. His power is more effective if his target is already predisposed to perform the actions he requests of them (eg: If someone goes to the kitchen for a beer, he'll say "Get me one, too?" and they'll automatically do as he says. If a girl is attracted to him and she's flirting, he could say "Kiss me," and she would find hers lips on his before she could think not to). For the most part, Damian is extremely good at making people think it's their idea to perform his requests, and a small spike of dopamine is experienced in anyone who successfully carries out one of his orders, a physiological response to his power (the dopamine system in the brain is critical in reward-motivated behaviour).
LIMITATIONS: Damian's targets must be within earshot for his compulsion to have any effect. They must also hear him speak, so if their ears are blocked, his power is rendered useless. Also - his power has absolutely no effect on the mind, which means if he tells someone to do something they don't want to do, they'll be aware of themselves doing it, but know they're being externally influenced. He cannot influence what people think/believe/remember... yet. If someone is predisposed to contradict his orders, their actions will likely be sloppy - the command can be fought, but this takes immense self-discipline that most teenagers would not have developed. Adults are more formidable a target, if they're practiced in self-control/denial. If someone is prepared to fight/disobey him, they're more likely to succeed than someone who is not expecting him. If Damian demands his targets do something that goes against everything they believe in/stand for, it is much easier for the target to fight him - Damian would first have to psychologically lubricate his target to the idea of performing something so contradictory for his commands to be successful. Larger groups of people are more difficult to control, if not completely impossible for Damian, since his power needs to be distributed and therefore weakened with every person it extends to (this also means when he targets one person, his compulsion is concentrated and therefore at its most powerful - harder to fend off).
SIDE EFFECTS: Dopamine spikes in response to carrying out the actions he directs - people feel good about obeying him, and this 'reward' makes them more inclined to repeat their behaviour in the future! Damian also experiences an endorphin rush, making him feel good about what he does (which often leads to misbehaviour/misdemeanours). He has yet to experience any fatigue from using his powers too much, but he does get a bit of a 'high' if he over-uses it, which renders him a bit dopey and incoherent (a literal power-high). Should Damian encounter someone who is capable of fighting him off, his body begins to shake with effort, and could lead to more serious repercussions like tremors or seizures if they're especially resilient (provided that he push himself to control them).
APPEARANCE: Damian was small growing up, always too skinny, fragile, and pale. But as he aged, an immense growth spurt caught him and his family by surprise - he is now an admirable six foot two, with a light tan and a bit of facial scruff which he insists on keeping (he believes that he looks like a child if it's shaved off, and childhood reminds him of weakness).
His hair is the colour of burnt coffee, his eyes are even darker, and because their shape is narrow the irises appear to be larger than they really are. He has a long, slender nose and high cheekbones that act as a frame for his well-tamed facial hair. His muscles are slightly underdeveloped; they're still attempting to catch up with his height (and because he is a picky eater, he rarely puts on enough weight to sustain much muscle-growth).
MUST HAVE APPAREL: He prefers to dress in business-casual attire, contrasted with the informal muss of his hair. His nails are always well-manicured, and he does not own a pair of sweatpants. Shoes are always leather, as he believes this is the best material (he is also the owner of numerous leather jackets, gloves, and shoulder-strap suitcases - though he's stylish enough to know not to wear them all at once). Sometimes he'll accessorize with flashy watches or sunglasses, but other than that he keeps the bling pretty low-key.
PERSONALITY: Damian has a superiority complex. Because he was treated differently as a child, all he wanted was to fit in enough so he wouldn't be picked on. Being the smallest boy in his class for a number of years left him physically weaker, and psychologically distraught from the unfortunate bullying incidents he often found himself in. In his adolescence, he was able to attend a new school, where he strived to stay out of the spotlight. This was successfully achieved - a little too well. No one knew who he was. Being invisible was worse than being targeted. Then his powers manifested, and he realized he wanted more than anything to be noticed. This lead to a rather loud and dramatic incident that caught the attention of the Bellefonte Academy…
Upon arrival, Damian had mixed feelings about finding himself lumped with a group of people who had powers just like him. He wasn't special anymore - he was a higher calibre of 'normal'. But he finally fit in. Because everyone was different, they were all the same, creating an equality that he once longed for in his youth. He learned to control his ability, and then refined it, until it became 'special'. Now he strives to stand out among those who stand out. His ambition is what drives him, and he's a firm believer that bullies are a necessary part of life to create strong people, and weed out the weak.
EXTRA QUIRK: He drinks his coffee black, but with three sugars. His friends joke that it's because he's not sweet enough, and needs extra help being nice - truthfully, he's just cranky if he hasn't had his morning coffee. He also has fairly poor eyesight, so he'll squint frequently. He thinks it looks sexy, a kind of smouldering look, but sometimes it looks as though he just hates you, narrowing his eyes in a dark, demonic glower. He hates normal glasses, but loves his aviators, and therefore will often hide behind those to look more mysterious and celebrity-esque.
HISTORY: Damian has Irish roots in his veins, sharing a familial history with the provocative novelist Oscar Wilde, and Irishman who was assimilated to English culture and therefore 'betrayed' his own country and heritage. No one in Damian's family has spoken with an Irish accent since the late eighteenth century. The name 'Damian' comes from the Greek word 'damao', meaning 'to tame', implying that his family intended for him to curb the wildness associated with their blood…
Whilst growing up, Damian exhibited no 'wild' features for quite some time. He was born prematurely, and since then was always so small - unable to do strenuous activities for any length of time, taking extra nutrients pills because his parents never thought he ate enough to support his fragile system. He was coddled from an early age, and learned to take advantage of it - his parents catered to his every whim. Unfortunately, his classmates weren't the same way, and saw him as a weak, whiney, spoiled little boy, and they bullied him. This only served to make his parents more protective, so by the time Damian was twelve, and his father received a lucrative job offer in America, Damian was excited for an adventure and more than willing to move away from the abuse he received at school.
In America he got the fresh start he was looking for. He was still on the shorter, thinner side, and his English accent was entertaining for the first couple weeks to his classmates, which made him feel special until one person began imitating him very poorly, but much to the amusement of the rest of his peers. Being new, and with no friends, Damian felt he couldn't defend himself, and merely retreated into himself, only speaking when absolutely necessary (this also attributes to the strength of his accent now - he never gave himself the opportunity to develop an American accent). It wasn't until another transfer student arrived, from Canada, did Damian make his first friend, and really open up.
This friend was ridiculously polite, and exhibited pretty much all the Canadian stereotypes (always apologizing, incredible manners, adding 'eh' to the ends of sentences…), and therefore made them a target for bullying at this new school, too. They were paired together for a science project, and found they had a lot in common - their fathers were working for the same company, that liked to import skilled workers from outside the country (Damian still has no idea what that company did - he never really cared, and his father was always very vague if Damian ever cared to ask). They also enjoyed the same video games and books, hated gym class, and both thought psychology was the most interesting thing ever (Damian showed his Canadian friend a book on Freud and the two picked apart the 'ancient' psychologist's theories one by one).
This friend was the only person to stick by him in his time of need. Disaster struck Damian's household when he was fourteen. By now, Damian was undergoing his ridiculous two-three inch/year growth-spurt, and he was experiencing many physiological changes that adolescence brings. But what really changed him was when his mother was hit by a car as she crossed the road just outside their house. Damian never learned the details of her death, and this was because his power began to manifest, and he never had an opportunity to question the circumstances. While he and his father were in mourning after the funeral, his father attempted to comfort Damian, whose emotions exploded to the surface with a very, very loud and powerful, "LEAVE ME ALONE."
That was the last he saw of his father. He was left alone, and felt more isolated than ever. Only his friend from Canada was there by his side, and Damian never pushed them away. Grateful for the sympathy, Damian tried to keep his life as normal as possible, but this didn't last long without a guardian in the house. The magical laundry fairies were gone, and his appearance worsened with the lack of food in the house. Eventually he got sick of the way kids at school mocked him, and his anger and pain shot from his mouth once more. The same asshole who made fun of his accent when he first arrived at the school happened to mock him again for wearing the same, smelly t-shirt for a whole week, and Damian lashed out. "Nobody thinks you're funny. Go kill yourself, it'll do the world a favour."
And that's how Bellefonte Academy learned about Damian Wilde, and extracted him from his school before more damage could be dealt. His first year at Bellefonte was the strangest transition in his life - becoming familiar with his power and learning its capacity was the first bizarre thing he learned, but then learning that everyone else around him also had something different about them… that was unsettling, too. Damian was excited at first to learn that he was 'special', but then being thrown so soon into a society where everyone was 'special', with powers that were more visible and cool-looking than his… made him feel like the least-special person of the special people. He was now wonderfully tall, if still slim, but when he learned that he could actually control these special people… Damian felt himself superior. He enjoyed lording his power over others, though he was always moderated. He would claim he was just practicing control if he was ever caught, but gradually he became better at not getting caught. In fact, by studying psychology as religiously as he did, he found that he could get people to do almost anything he asked, without using his power. If they didn't immediately respond to his requests, he'd use his additional talents as a supplemental assurance.
He graduated from the Academy with complete control over his power at the age of eighteen, having actually perfected it into what he calls 'an art form'. Damian now studies psychology, focusing on how the brain responds to bullying, and with the college's funding, he uses his powers to further his research. He thinks of himself now as the most special of all the special people… and he believes those who are considered 'special' are better than those who aren't. Which makes him hypocritical, seeing as how he is still amazing friends with his Canadian counterpart, who is studying psychology at a different school now. No one at Bellefonte knows about his 'normal' friend though...
SAMPLE:Zaac was carrying a large paper bag in his one arm while his other hand searched his jean pockets for his keys. He approached the apartment building and withdrew a jingling set of metal from his denim pants and stuck them in the door, balancing the bag carefully whilst he opened the glass barricade.
The sun was setting behind him, and his skin glistened with a soft sheen of sweat from the heat. It wasn't the hottest day of the year, but it was pretty close. And the package he was carrying was fairly hot too. Heh, heh. A hot package...
He chuckled to himself as he slipped into the air conditioned hallway. He opted for the elevator, having walked from the restaurant to his apartment, and therefore completing his exercise for the day... he knew he shouldn't be getting lazier; he was nearly thirty, and he knew it only went downhill from there. But he promised himself he'd get to the gym tomorrow, so the guilt subsided and he stepped out of the elevator and onto his floor. He flicked the keys around his fingers until he found the right one for his door, and twisted it in the lock. As he walked in, he placed the paper bag, now soaked through with grease, on the kitchen island of his two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.
"Ada! There's a hot treat waiting for you in the kitchen!"He paused, then added, "Oh, and I got Chinese too!" Zaac tried to keep a straight face as he looked up and saw the lovely brunette as she joined him. But his mouth stretched into that easy smile of his, and he remembered why he got the apartment with windows that only opened up to another building. It was because this girl was enough of a view to come home to. Who needed picturesque valleys or tropical screen-savers when you had Ada?
USERNAME: Chance.
AGE GROUP: Twenties.
EXPERIENCE: Dipping my toes back into rping after a couple years off… I was quite experienced before though.
WHERE DID YOU FIND US? It was Fate. Or was it by Chance? Nah, it was definitely Fate this time.
