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Individual
Character's full name: Austin Tyler Matthews
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: None
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Date of Birth: 03/17/1999
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Trenton, New Jersey
Nationality: American
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Caucasian
Appearance
Hair color and style: Short, brown, and messy. Pushed up.
Skin Tone: White
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5’ 10”…normally
Build: Fit and muscular. Not bulky, but the slightly toned build you would expect from a high school athlete.
Visible mutation: Nothing, unless you count occasionally changing your size a visible mutation.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: None
Other features: None
Everyday clothing style:
Austin has two go-to outfits. If it is in the low 70’s or below, he usually wears a pair of jeans and solid colored t-shirt with a jacket and sneakers. If it is hotter than 75 degrees he will almost exclusively wear basketball or cargo shorts and the same basic t-shirts.
Uniform: None
Sleepwear: Boxers
Miscellaneous clothing: None
Character
Personality:
Austin is very much his own person. He doesn’t let society, others, or anything else dictate what he does or how he feels. What he believes he believes, and that is that.
He has always been outgoing and extroverted, not being shy to meet new people or put himself in the line of new experiences. However, ever since his mutation has manifested he has become increasingly wary of opening up with others, and much of his extroversion is to hide how terrified he is on a moment-to-moment basis. He is not quick to talk about himself or spend too much time with a single person. For that reason, if he had any permanent friends, they would know him for being very quick to move on. He seems to know everyone, but no one truly knows him, as he never lets anyone get that close.
Austin began to lie regularly after his mutation first appeared solely to cover up his disappearances. However, as the episodes of his mutation acting up increased in frequency, his lying became borderline pathologic in order to continue covering for himself. Now, he has become quite the expert liar, not only to cover up his episodes, but also to divert away from anything that would make him vulnerable.
He is very intelligent. That one person everyone knows who always seems to have something to contribute to the conversation? That’s him. He isn’t a know-it-all, rather he believes that to a certain extent knowledge is power, and he does what he can to gain it. He reads often and will never turn down an intellectual conversation.
Austin’s personality boils down to fun and determination. When not faced with a challenge, Austin enjoys himself and tries to help others do the same. He likes laughing and making others laugh. However, when push comes to shove, he is no play until the job is done. Whether it be as trivial as a homework problem or as serious as finding a way to survive, when Austin needs to focus himself he does just that.
Hobbies/ Interests:
Austin loves watching sports. He played every sport he could competitively until his mutation surfaced for fear of having an episode while in a game. His time playing sports have developed fitness habits in him, and he will go on runs or lift weights to blow off steam or merely pass time.
Austin also reads anything he can get his hands on. Whether it be a children’s fiction novel or a political article in the newspaper, if he hasn’t read it yet he likely will.
Job or part time job and description: None as of now
Fears/ phobias/ concerns:
Austin’s greatest fear is his own mutation. Specifically, Austin is afraid of his lack of control over his mutation. He is afraid that he might one day dwindle down to nothing at all. It has not happened yet, and deep down he doesn’t think he’s capable of exercising his power to that extent, but nonetheless it keeps him up at night. Not only is Austin afraid of the extremes of his power, the regular exhibitions of his mutation are also major causes of worry for him. Any time he loses height he is terrified by the larger world around him.
Perhaps even more so than the prospect of being injured when his mutation acts up, Austin is terrified of what would happen if someone he knows finds out about the nature of his mutation and the humiliation he is sure would come.
Special talents: He is a natural athlete, and has a memory you would not expect from someone who appears to be a high school jock. He picks new things up very quickly and has always had a much steeper learning curve than most. Consequentially, he is prone to major frustration with himself when he is unable to master something new right off the bat. He isn’t quick to show it off, but Austin is also an exceptionally talented pianist. His mother was a concert pianist and taught him from a young age.
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other:
Austin would land somewhere between good and neutral. He does have a conscious, and at the end of the day would like to see what is best for the world play out, but he is still a kid, and doesn’t always have the piety to achieve what is right by the right means.
Additionally, he is more concerned as of now with figuring out his life and obtaining a mastery over his mutation before he puts too much thought into mapping out where all of his actions lie on the scale of good versus evil.
Mutations
Mutation description:
Austin’s mutation allows him to alter his size. While it can happen in both directions, he has only accidentally grown a few times, and not by much, whereas he shrinks accidentally quite often. Much of what his mutation holds for him he does not yet know, as he is always looking to hide his mutation rather than explore it. However, though he has not yet noticed it, when he shrinks his motions and reflexes increase in speed due to the decreased volume to surface area ratio of his body. Similarly, when he grows, the larger volume to surface area ratio of his body slows him down proportionally to the amount his size increases. Austin also alters the size of anything he is in contact with by the same degree to which he changes himself.
Strengths:
The (limited) strengths of Austin’s powers have already been stated. His powers allow for his reflexes and movements to increase when shrunk, while his strength increases to match his size. When in contact with another object or person, Austin will also alter their size along with his own. Once Austin has altered his size there isn’t a limit for how long he can “maintain” it, as it is not something to be maintained. The only time his power is in effect is during the process of changing sizes. However, to a certain extent this could just as easily be considered a limitation.
Weaknesses and Limitations:
Austin has yet to run into any problems in terms of for how long he can maintain an altered size. As far as he can tell, once he changes his size it will remain that way until he manages to change himself back.
Size changes are almost instantaneous. They do not happen in the blink of an eye, but darn near close.
Austin cannot change his size an endless number of times. If reducing his size a small amount, Austin can undergo roughly 10 size alterations before he needs to take a break of at least a half an hour to ready himself to change his size again. If reducing his size a significant amount, Austin can only make roughly 5 shifts before needing to rest – and for hours rather than minutes. If growing his size a small amount, Austin can undergo only 4-5 sifts before needing a break of a minimum of a half an hour. Austin is not able to grow his size a significant amount as of yet.
When changing something or someone else’s size Austin’s power is limited in relation to how much mass it contains. Something like his clothes wouldn’t affect him at all. An object with more mass, such as a full backpack of supplies would limit how many times he could shift by a factor of roughly 25%, while taking another person with him would cut this ability in half. He is unable to take anything with roughly more mass than that of another human being with him on a size change.
When shrunk, Austin is weak against anything that runs the risk of crushing him to death, which depending on his size could range from a reasonably massive object to a shoe or a keychain. When grown, Austin is weak against speed. Being slower the lager he gets, while he may be getting stronger you can’t hit what you can’t catch.
The farthest Austin has ever shrunk is to roughly half an inch in size, while the most he’s ever grown is only by a foot to roughly 6’10” in height.
When reaching his limit, Austin begins to experience fatigue and finds it increasingly difficult to change his size again. If he tries to push for another size change once he has reached his limit he runs the risk of losing consciousness.
While this will hopefully change soon if and when Austin learns to control his power better, but he does not have perfect command over when and how much he changes his size. This is the cause for much of the fear he has about his power. He could be walking home from school and suddenly be 2 feet tall and unable to return to his normal height on command.
Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities: When normal size, Austin has the physical capabilities you would expect of a high school varsity athlete. His physical capabilities have already been expanded upon as they relate to how he changes his size.
Fighting Style: No formal training. The extent of Austin’s “fighting style” consists attempting to emulate everything he’s seen in Bruce Lee movies, while in reality just throwing wild punches and running away. In a fight against someone untrained he’d be able to hold his own due to his fitness and musculature, but he would have no hope against a trained foe.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Just a lot of obvious cons.
History Of Your Character
Austin grew up an only child in Trenton, New Jersey. Up until his mutation awakened itself overnight as he approached his 16th birthday, he had lived a relatively normal and carefree life. He was popular with all at his high school. He was a three-sport athlete. He would’ve had all A’s if he could’ve only figured out how to graph trig functions in math class.
His episodes of shrinking and growing began subtly with only a few inches in either direction, but it didn’t take long before he was shrinking down beneath a foot in height and growing to nearly 7 feet with enough regularity that he was beginning to fear for his social life. Austin stopped playing sports for fear of shrinking in the middle of a game or practice once he realized that stressful situations made it more likely for his size to change.
Austin only ever had his mother to look after him. His father had died when he was still a baby. His mother had never spoken much on the subject, but from what Austin could gather and infer it was in an accident with a mutant. As a result, through all of the insanity of the recent decades regarding mutant/human relations Austin has seen a subtle hatred for mutants surfacing in his otherwise all-loving mom. It was for this reason that Austin left for New York City over Christmas break when he was 16, and when his random episodes of shrinking and growing became much too sporadic and commonplace to hide any longer. He didn’t want to stick around and see the disgust and heartbreak overtake his mother when she learned that her only child was a mutant.
Roleplay
Where did you learn about this site?: Google
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: None
Sample RP:
It was raining. It was raining and Austin was the only person on the streets of New York City without an umbrella. He was soaking wet; his clothes, backpack, and its contents were all waterlogged through and through. Frankly, however, he didn’t care. He had made it to New York City in one piece and he had just managed to return to his normal size. He let out a soft chuckle, which slowly evolved into unapologetic laughter at the absurdity of his success. He made his way to the overhang created on the sidewalk by the construction scaffolding in place outside the second floor of the building to his right and slouched down against the plywood wall until he was sitting, feeling his legs tingle as if remembering how to rest.
Austin became aware of a homeless man making use of the overhang in the same way he was just a few yards away from him just before he suddenly spoke.
“You a mutant, kid?” The man said in a gruff voice that revealed the man’s affinity for cigarettes. Austin felt the numbness go immediately from his legs to the rest of his body at the man’s words, before taking a short shallow breath to compose himself and turning to look at the man incredulously.
“What?” He scoffed, feeling very confident in his ability to lie. But the man only rolled his head the other direction, looking to see if they were alone under the overhang.
“Oh, don’t worry about it kid. It don’t affect me one way or another. Its just that I just seen you go from 2 feet short to 6 feet tall. That ain’t something a normal person does.” He said with a remarkable nonchalance about him. Austin stared at him, maintaining his disbelief for a moment before he finally realized the man had found him out. His shoulders slouched and his whole body relaxed as his guard was lowered ever so slightly.
“Fine. I’m a mutant. Can’t help it.” He muttered, rubbing his hands to overcome the onset of the shivering slowly overtaking his body.
“Ain’t nothing to be helped. Its who you are, kid.” He said, looking around with a deranged look dancing faintly on his face. The irony of his wisdom was not lost on Austin, who couldn’t help but let out a breath of laughter that he couldn’t imagine the man had heard. “I’m Richard. You got a name?” The man asked. Austin weighed the consequences of telling the man his name and found them negligible.
“Austin Tyler.” He said.
“Well, pleasure to know you Mr. Tyler.” Richard said.
“That’s not my last name. Two first names. Austin-Tyler.” Austin corrected, not that it mattered.
“Huh.” Richard mused, looking at the ground. “I’m just gonna call ya Austin.” Richard said, bouncing his head back up. “So, Austin, I take it you’re here alone. You leave home for the big city in hopes of something better?” He asked. Austin took his time in answering again, still unsure of whether or not he wanted to interact with someone who had just witnessed his greatest insecurity.
“Yeah.” He finally admitted, examining the wrinkles carving themselves into his finger pads from overexposure to the moisture of the sidewalk. “I left Trenton over Christmas and headed straight here.” Richard stopped bobbing his head and locked his eyes squarely with Austin’s in confusion.
“That’s bout 6 months.” He stated. Austin nodded.
“The trip takes a little longer when you’re…” Unable to name his affliction, he motioned with his head down the street to where he had finally succeeded in changing his size. Richard understood.
“Ah. I see.” The silence the followed was thick, strangling the air between them for an uncomfortable amount of time. “You got a gameplan? Now that you’re here?” Richard finally asked.
“No.” Austin replied simply, still looking to where he had returned to his normal size.
“Well, a young kid like you’s still got a lot of opportunity. Make sure you do something. Maybe go to the Xavier School, they probably gots a place for ya. Or you could at least head to the Sanctuary and find bed for the night. They’ll take you nicely enough.” He said with a chuckle. Austin didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean, but he could easily make the assumption that it referred to the fact that the man wasn’t a mutant and he was. Austin thought for a moment about what the man had said. Maybe that was his next move. He could find other mutant at either of those locations and a place to stay.
“I think I will.” He said, turning to look back at the man. “Thank you.” He said as he rose. The man nodded with a crooked smile.
“Don’t mention it kid.” They exchanged one last burst of eye contact and shared a nod, before Austin started walking again. He didn’t know where either of these were, but at least he now had a destination or two in mind, and that was enough to propel his legs forward once again.
“And try to keep from getting tiny again on the street! You’re asking to become a taxi pancake like that!” The man called from behind with laughter as Austin put more steps between them.
“If only I could.” He grumbled to himself as the rain picked up.
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