Character's full name: Christopher 'Chris' Berg
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Birthday: March 3 1992
Nationality/ Ethnicity: American/Caucasian
Birthplace/ Place of origin: Wisconsin
AppearanceHair color and style: None.
Eyes: Pale yellow.
Height: 5'1" (he always walks crouched with his knees bent - if he stretched his back and legs he would reach 5'5")
Build: Small and skinny. Broad chest because of his big lungs, otherwise thin.
Visible mutation: Gray skin covered with a thin layer of mucus, (feels slightly slimy to the touch) digitigrade, four fingers on every hand, three toes on every foot, webbed fingers and toes, no external ears, small pointed teeth, long arms and legs, big round eyes.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: The webbing is carved off between his third and fourth finger on the left hand.
Other features: Throaty and surprisingly deep voice, you'd except a small guy like him to have a high voice. He smells strongly of fish.
Everyday clothing style: Loose and comfortable; he mostly dresses in gray, black and dark blue. He never wears tight or brightly colored clothes and prefers to wear layer-on-layer. He never wears shoes, not even outdoors.
Sleepwear: Boxers and a tank top
Miscellaneous clothing: When he has to be in public he wears extra baggy pants to cover his feet, a big coat and a cap.
Uniform: A black and blue wetsuit.
Personality: Chris is a timid and withdrawn person. He tends to have a bit negative outlook on life, and can sometimes be bitter beyond his years. It's hard to make him laugh since he has little to no humor. He doesn't work well with other people and hates to get too much attention, but even though he likes to be alone he wants to be accepted by people around him.
He gets stressed out very easily - when he's under stress he acts very squirrelly and twitchy.
When he's with people he doesn't know he's very shy and nervous; he can even appear to be unfriendly, but that's mostly because he doesn't know how to socialize. He can't handle critique at all and tends to overreact at everything. Chris is also very, very sensitive about his appearance - comments about his looks (even jokingly ones) get on his nerves.
He's very intelligent, kind and loyal - if you're kind to him he'll probably walk through fire for you. He's empathic and are often willing to listen to other people's problems - in fact, he's a better listener than a talker.
On rare occasions he becomes very angry, but normally he just keeps his anger bottled up inside of him. Outbursts are very uncommon for him.
When he talks he unconsciously moves his hand continuously.
Hobbies/ Interests: He loves swimming, and when he's under water he often feels at peace with himself and his mutation. Since he never had any friends when he was young he spent his free time outdoors, so he likes to be out hiking and swimming in forests and lakes.
He normally eats his food raw since his stomach can't handle overcooked food. He's not too keen on food that contains much carbs either - he mostly eats meat. However, if someone offers him something he will eat it out of politeness.
Job: Chris has a part-time job at the Tropic Aqua Lagoon, a small aquarium shop not far from the Sister School.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Agoraphobic. He hates big crowds - if he feels that he's completely surrounded he panics. He's also afraid of drying out - being caught in a hot, dry wasteland with not a drop of water in sight is his worse nightmare.
Special talents: He's very good at card games, especially poker.
Morality: Good/ neutral. Chris is not an idealistic fool - he knows that his powers are mediocre on land and isn't that keen on being self-sacrificing. If he saw someone getting mugged in an alley he would probably think "better him than me" and quietly slip away in some other direction, hoping that the police or someone else takes care of it.
Mutation description: Enhanced lung capacity, quicker reflexes than normal humans, altered physical appearance.
Strengths: His superior lung capacity combined with his webbed hands and feet makes him an extraordinary swimmer. He can hold his breath up to ten minutes. He can not, however, breathe under water and would drown if he stayed down in the water for too long. His special skin keeps him warm. This means that he can swim in ice-cold water or walk barefoot in snow while barely freezing at all.
His reflexes are quicker than a normal person's, but he's not super-quick. He cannot dodge a bullet, for example, unless he starts to dodge before the weapon fires. He's quick enough to dodge regular human punches.
Weaknesses: He's build to be small and quick, not strong. He's actually weaker than most humans. He walks and runs slower than normal humans and is very clumsy on land, unless he moves on all four (and that is something he avoids to do). His slimy skin is very sensitive and has to be kept moisturized; he has to shower, bathe or swim at least four times a day, or else his skin becomes dry and he gets itching red rashes all over his body. If he stays away from water too long, his skin actually starts to crack open. This happens extra fast on hot, dry days. Also, his skin only tolerates fresh water. Chlorine water or salt water stings him all over his body and gives him immediate rashes if he stays in it longer than 4-5 minutes.
Secondary mutation description: Senses enhanced in water
Strengths: His senses (sight, hearing, smell) are much improved underwater. His underwater hearing and sight are slightly better than human hearing and sight on land, and his sense of smell is very good. He's not a shark but he can feel the smell of, for example, a human, if said human is within a 100 feet area of him.
Weaknesses: His sight is diminished on land and he's really short-sighted; this can't be changed by glasses or lenses since his eyes were built to see with under water. (His hearing is normal and his sense of smell is a little bit better than that of a human, but none of them are as strong as they are under water). His short-sightedness gets worse the longer he stays away from water. Also, his enhanced sense of smell and sight only works in freshwater. Salt or chlorine water stings his eyes and after a few minutes in it he's practically blind.
All in all, his mutation makes him pretty worthless on land.
Fighting Style: He has never learned to fight properly.
Explanation: His primary fighting style depends on his quickness - he dodges the blow and tries to escape down into the water as fast as possible.
Pros for fighting style: He'd have a fighting chance if his opponent dived into the water after him.
Cons for fighting style: It's really, really cowardly.
Faction Allegiance: Unaffiliated
History: Chris was born in a small town in Wisconsin. Because of his appearance his mother suffered from a mental breakdown and later killed herself, and his father left the family and never came back. Luckily enough for Chris, his grandfather pitied the boy and decided to take care of him. The grandfather decided that the best way to protect the child was to completely isolate him from humanity, and they moved to a small cottage beside a lake in the deep forests of Wisconsin.
His childhood was a bit difficult. He knew about the outside world and wanted to take place in it, but he was afraid to do so. The only person he knew was his grandfather.
When he was 10 his curiosity got the better of him and he started to take long walks to explore his surroundings; he eventually found a nearby village (the place where his grandfather went shopping for supplies). Chris started to sneak around the village and since no-one discovered him he got bolder and bolder - until one night when a couple of teenagers found him creeping around and gave him a really bad beating. He managed to escape into the forest, but since then his peaceful existence was over. There had already been rumors about the old man who lived deep within the forest and didn't accept visitors - it was generally assumed that he was an unsocial grumpy old man who lived by himself, but some of the townspeople managed to track Chris back to his grandfathers cottage. Now people figured out that the grandson was a mutant and the harassments begun. First it wasn't too bad - people left dead fishes on their porch, sometimes a window got smashed, and their mail box saw its share of threatening notes.
The years went by and people grew more and more afraid of Chris, with all the mutant turbulence going on around the world. His grandfather tried his hardest to protect him, but sometimes people would drive up to the lake and try to catch Chris. He got caught a couple of times and got pretty beaten up, but always managed to escape into the lake before something too bad happened. It was about now he learned about the Xavier's Sister School, and he started to dream about joining them. Oh, to be among people that were just like him! He would be accepted, and maybe even respected, and nobody would throw rocks at him. It was now the isolation really started to get on his nerves.
His grandfather died when Chris was 17, and he was now completely alone. Worse still, there was no-one to protect him anymore and Chris decided that it was time to leave Wisconsin for good. He packed his stuff and went to New York, in the hopes that the Xavier's Sister School would accept him.
Where did you learn about this site? I Googled it.
Sample RP: Chris stepped of the bus with a heart that thumped heavily in his chest and hands that clasped his backpack in front of him like some kind of shield. It hadn't been an easy journey but he was finally here - New York City. He looked in awe at the buildings that seemed to go on and on forever - this was
nothing like TV. It was much bigger, to begin with. And there was just so much going on at the same time - the streets were filled with cars and buses and all kind of vehicles and the walkways were filled with pedestrians, even though it was late in the evening. And the air was literally bustling with noise, and there was so many bright lights and signs and windows...
He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, scolding himself for standing around staring like a dumb yokel. Instead, he walked off the busy street into some calmer alleys. He extracted a map from his backpack and consulted it - one webbed index finger tracked his progress toward the next bus stop where he would take the bus to Xavier's Sister School, and, he hoped, a brighter future.
Suddenly he became aware of a sound behind him - but when he turned his head and squinted the street seemed to be empty. Nevertheless, he quickened his pace and his heart started to thump in his chest again. Now he could hear steps echo down the street. Stupid, so stupid. In how many movies and TV-series hadn't
this happened? Someone walks in alone in a dark alley and get mugged and beaten to pulp. He had just assumed that it would be safe, that nothing so cliché would ever happen to him.
The steps grew louder behind him and he mentally prepared himself to start running. He rounded a corner and found himself staring dumbly into a chest - and it was a very broad, foreboding and intimidating chest. He slowly glanced upwards - the man in front of him was gigantic, surely over 6 feet tall, and his arms were thicker than Chris's legs. The man gave him a broad smile and then looked behind him. The man who had been followed Chris was smaller, but still taller than Chris. The big man nodded towards Chris but addressed the smaller man when he spoke.
"Well well well, Mike. What have you found here?" he said.
"Not sure" Mike replied with a slow grin. "Don't think he has any serious money on him. But he doesn't seem to be all human to me, if you know what I mean."
Chris felt like he died a bit inside.
"Yeah, I'm following you," replied the bigger man; this time he turned toward Chris. "You know, we don't really approve of mutants on our turf. Nothing personal, it's just that with your kind hanging around the streets feel less...safe at night."
"I... I was just..." Chris spluttered, his eyes darting from side to side in a fervent search for an escape route.
"How about we ditch that ugly getup?" the man suggested and stretched out his hands toward Chris's cap and sunglasses. Chris saw his chance and dived beneath the mans outstretched arm quick as a striking weasel, tumbled behind him and started to run before he even had the time to stand up. The men gave up angry shouts and started to run after him. They were faster, Chris's legs were more adepted for swimming than sprinting, and would catch up soon, so he made a quick turn into an even darker street. Before his pursuers had turned around the corner he dived behind a couple of big garbage cans. He curdled up and held his breath - both because of the smell and because he wanted to avoid detection. But the men didn't stop to look for him, and it didn't took long until their footsteps disappeared down the street.
Chris waited until he was sure they had disappeared. Then he warily stood up and sighed heavily. The welcome committee had been hostile, he smelled slightly of garbage and he was pretty sure he'd lost his map somewhere on the way.
"What a
great start on my bright future..." he mumbled for himself.
I like fish.
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