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Character's real name: Ashley “Ash” Brooks
Codename/Alias: Shadow
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Nationality/Ethnicity: American/Caucasian
Birthplace: Rural Texas
Personality: Ash is rather withdrawn and bitter about a lot of things, but he is close with his family. Well, the family that has stayed in Texas, since a lot of that bitterness has come as a result of Tarin, and how he ran rather than toughing things out like Ash has all these years. Even with his mother and older brother Josh, Ash doesn't open up completely. He believes in good and justice, but knows that at times society isn't able to deal with criminals properly, so has taken it upon himself to help.
Notes (Hobbies, Phobias, Worries, ect.): Ash is worried that his powers, and what he has used them for, will end up hurting those who are close to him. As such, he has yet to tell his family about his powers, and hasn't had any serious relationships.
Karate, which Ash uses to centre and calm himself.
Allegiance (Good, Bad, or Neutral): Independent/Neutral Good. Vigilante.
Everyday clothing: Dress pants, shirt, boots (he is from Texas). Suit jacket when the situation requires. When on the ranch, the dress pants are replaced by jeans.
Uniform (Optional. Required if eventually becoming part of the X-Men): Think Zorro. Cape and all.
Pajamas: boxers
Hair color and style: Brown, short, conservatively cut
Eye color: Brown
Height: 5'10”
Build: Medium build. Somewhat muscular and toned, but not extremely so.
Scars: Various small scars over his body, courtesy of the various criminals and their knives he's come up against.
Tattoos: none
Piercings: none
Description of ability(ies): Ash is able to manipulate the shadows around him, forming them into 'shadow people' that he can make corporeal enough to touch and interact with physical objects around them. The more figures he creates, and the more corporeal he makes them, the more concentration it takes.
Cons (weaknesses) of ability(ies): Ashley's manipulation of shadows is only useful in terms of being able to create his shadow people. He cannot use the shadows to conceal himself (or any object) any more successfully than any other person.
When he is creating his shadow people, the deeper the shadows, the more corporeal he is able to make them, and the less concentration he needs. Ash is able to create his shadow people during the day, even outside as long as there are shadows, but depending on how bright it is, all he is able to do is form them, they are not able to actually interact physically, and it takes far more concentration than it normally would. Thus, Ash tends to only use his power at night.
He is also limited in how many shadow people he is able to form and control. About the most he has been able to form at one time and still be able to make them corporeal is 10. However, this needs his ENTIRE concentration. Ash tends to create only around five at a time, making them corporeal, because this way he is still able to pay partial attention to what is around him. The further away Ash pushes his shadow people, the harder it is to control them and keep them formed. At the moment, Ash has to keep the shadow people within sight.
Ash's shadow people, and thus his powers, are susceptible to light, the brighter the more powerful against him.
Fighting style (if any): Most times, at least when he's acting the vigilante, Ash uses his shadow people to fight. However, when that isn't feasible, or it doesn't work, he turns to his karate knowledge.
History of your character:
Ashley grew up the middle of three boys in rural Texas. He first discovered his powers when he was 14 and his father was sick. His father's illness, coupled with his discovery, caused Ash to withdraw; he didn't want to cause his mother to have even more to worry about, so he kept quiet about his powers. It was the same thing after his father actually passed away; with that and Tarin's reaction to their father's death, Ash was not about to bring it up. He just continued to stay withdrawn, keeping to himself. Everyone just thought that this was Ashley's way of grieving as they thought that Tarin's dreams and seeing 'ghosts' was his reaction to the death.
During his time on his own, Ash worked on developing his powers as he did for the duration of his teen years. Throughout high school, no one ever assumed Ash was a mutant and he never ttold anyone. It hadn't seemed right when the powers had first presented themselves, and Ash didn't see any reason to change that later.
It wasn't like he never slipped at school, wasn't like his powers had accidentally activated in public, but due to the nature of his powers, no one ever really saw anything because of how light everything was when it happened. Ash did slip at home too, during the night in the darkness. The difference there, even though he did share his room with his brothers Tarin and Josh, was that Tarin had claimed to see ghosts from the time of their father's death. If he did ever see any of Ash's shadow people, he never said anything about it.
High school ended and Ash went to college. By this time, Ash had gotten far better control of his shadow people, and no one at school was any the wiser about his powers.
And then things changed. The summer after Ash had finished his freshmen year at college, just after Tarin had graduated high school, Tarin ran away from home with no warning. Obviously, this was hard on the whole family, but it was especially hard on Ashley. He had gone how many years at this point, hiding the fact that he was a mutant so he wouldn't cause their mother that unneeded stress and worry, and then Tarin went and did that. Needless to say, from that point on, Ash felt rather bitter and angry toward his younger brother.
It was during college that Ash started to see that he might actually be able to do some good being a mutant. The crime rate in Dallas was horrible, so much higher than it had been in the town where Ash had grown up, and so much of it seemed to occur at night, when his powers were the most powerful. It was during his junior and senior years that he developed and first tried out his idea of helping to solve the crime issue in the city; he had started taking karate in college to keep in shape, so combining that with his shadow people, Ash went out and became the vigilante known as Shadow, protecting the citizens of Dallas from the criminal underbelly of the city.
But life went on, and Ash graduated, majoring in business administration. And then his best friend from college, Ryan Shaw, mentioned his idea of opening a PI business. Though it wasn't something anyone would have expected Ash to be interested in, he jumped on the idea So the two quickly pooled what money they had left after school, and opened their office, slowly picking up business.
It didn't take long after that, barely six months, for Josh to come to him in trouble. It was while trying to sort things out for his older brother that his secret came out, and Josh discovered his abilities. Once everything was finally taken care of, in exchange for never bringing up the problems that had brought him to the office, Josh had agreed not to talk about what Ash could do.
Eleven years later, at the age of 33, Ashley is still working as a PI, though the business has grown and him and Ryan have hired a few other people to help them at this point, both in the field and in the office. He is also still moonlighting as Shadow. And then Josh brought up the fact that Tarin had contacted him, that he wanted to talk with the family again. At this news, Ash's old bitterness and anger at Tarin came back. Apparently, according to what Josh was saying, Tarin was actually a mutant too, but that just added fuel to Ash's resentment toward his younger brother; here he had toughed it out all these years while Tarin had run, causing their mother even more pain than she had already been forced to bear. And yet, both Josh and their mother seem willing to welcome Tarin back with open arms, something Ash can't comprehend.
Note: Though they are brothers, and Tarin is eager to reconnect with his family, Ash is no where near as interested. At this point in time, because of the bitterness and anger he is feeling regarding Tarin, Ash would do just about anything to avoid seeing Tarin. In the rare cases that it isn't actually possible to avoid Tarin, the resulting confrontation will not be pleasant or easy.
Sample RP:
Ashley Brooks was out looking for evildoers, ghosting through the shadows of Dallas, wearing the black costume he had gathered over 12 years earlier while he was still in college, a black Zorro-looking outfit that he wore to hide his identity while he was out at night. The Shadow was on the hunt.
Then he heard it, a short, clipped cry. And Ash was off, running swiftly through the darkness, feeling the shadows all around him. Something was going on up ahead, something that Ash was sure was not good. Turning, Ash made his way onto the college campus, his eyes alert. He had heard the cry, short as it was, but he didn't know exactly where it had come from. And then Ash heard more noises, a scuffling followed by a strangled, fearful cry, more like a whimper.
Ash changed his course, making his way into the darkness between two buildings. The perfect place for him to work. And then he saw it as his eyes finished adjusting to the darkness of the little alley; a woman pressed against the wall, whimpering and crying, and a man standing close to her, barking something about handing her purse over. Ash came to a stop. He didn't have to get any closer, his shadow people could cover that distance easily.
So Ash, aka Shadow, did just that. He formed four of his shadow people, quickly taking shape surrounding the man. “I'd leave the girl alone if I were you,” Ash called once he had his shadow people formed and corporial around the attacker. It barely took a second for the man to look around, and once he did, he saw the dark figures standing around him. That caused the man to pause, to look around worriedly.
But the man wasn't backing off as quickly as Ash would have liked, so he had his shadow people converge on the man even more, circling around him, reaching out, touching him. That's when the man started to really react., when the shadows started to actually touch him and he could actually feel those touches. Ash could see the fear on the man's face even in the darkness as he started trying to back away, but wasn't too successful because the shadow people were all around him.
“What the hell is this?” The man demanded, his eyes darting around to all four shadow people around him as they pushed at him, moving him away from the girl he had been attacking.
That's about when the man got past his fear and started fighting back. It was about when the criminals normally started to fight back, so Ash was ready for it. But really, how much damage could you do to a shadow? As the man started to attack the shadow people surrounding him, Ash had them start fighting back, the two in front throwing a couple of punches while the ones in back waited for the man to drop; it didn't take long for him to double over, and then the shadows behind him grabbed him by the arms and started dragging him away from the woman even as he continued to struggle.
“You alright, miss?” Ash asked as he slowly took a couple steps closer, his Texan drawl evident far from uncommon in Dallas. Her eyes had been fixed fearfully on the man being dragged away by shadows, but when she heard his voice, she turned to look at Ash. But she didn't speak, just stared at him as if afraid she was going to be dragged off next.
“Are you ok?” Ash repeated, no longer moving forward as he looked at the young woman. Very stiffly, she nodded, looking like she was debating running for it. This was the part that Ash didn't like, or really understand; he had just saved this woman, and yet she seemed more scared of him than she had been of the mugger.
Still, he remained curteous and polite; he had been taught to treat women properly, after all. “I suggest staying out of alleys and keeping to well lit places,” Ash suggested. By this point, his shadow people had moved the man to the far end of the little alley, where the shadows were even darker, and Ash let two of them fade away while the other two held the man there. Raising his hand, Ash tipped his hat to the young woman before taking a couple slow steps away from her. She only waited a couple seconds before taking off.
That just left The Shadow to deal with the man.
Where did you learn about this site?: ...can't remember how we found it now...We needed to find an active site and found this one. If you're really that interested, look at Lee's profile?
Other accounts on MRO: Lee
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