IndividualCharacter's full name: Laurencio Miguel Sandejas
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Lance or Mike
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Date of Birth: July 12, 1992
Nationality/ Ethnicity: American / Mixed Asian (dominantly Filipino)
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Philippines
Appearance Hair color and style: Black; usually kept in a clean boyish cut; rarely without hair wax.
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’8”
Build: Athletically muscular (not bulky).
Visible mutation: None
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: None
Other features: None
Everyday clothing style: Jeans, T-shirts, short-sleeved button down shirts. Comfort is preferred over style...
Uniform: None
Sleepwear: Depends on the climate... boxers/briefs and wife-beaters on warm nights, thicker clothing on cold nights.
Miscellaneous clothing: a set of dress slacks for special occasions.
CharacterPersonality: Lance is often thought of as being aloof, if not outright snobbish. Thus, many acquaintances never take the effort to get to know him more. The snobbish façade is just that... a façade. Albeit a carefully crafted one... he did have a big secret to protect, after all. In truth, though Lance is quite shy by nature, he is an easy person to get along with, once you get to know him. He is more than willing to help those he thinks are in need and he has a strong sense of loyalty to his friends and family, although it has not been put to the test yet, something he hopes will never happen.
He tries to avoid unnecessary violence, but that doesn’t mean he won’t resort to use physical force if left with no other options.
Hobbies/ Interests: His hobbies include dancing, swimming, basketball, cooking and going on nature trips. Some of his interests include music, photography, physics and Girls... =D
Job or part time job and description: None yet...
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Not being able to protect a loved-one / Accidentally taking an innocent life...
Special talents: Cooking. While growing-up, he usually helps his mother prepare the weekend meals and those served during parties. Aside from cooking, Lance is also a good dancer.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: Lance tries a good person at heart and will try to do what he thinks is best in any given situation. He values life and will always try to preserve it when he can. Because of this, he will always try to first subdue the aggressor, unless he proves to be troublesome... But because of his experience with his mother’s death, he might take matters into his own hands if it will save the life of a victim or avenge the death of one.
Mutations Mutation description: Lance has the ability to generate sound waves. These sound waves are infrasonic in nature. Meaning, they are sound frequencies below the normal hearing range of an average adult human. Being infrasonic in nature, Lance can use his power without any auditory evidence.
In humans, infrasonic waves, by its definition, sound waves of a level below 20 Hertz, bypasses our ears but can be felt by our bodies in the form of pure vibrations. And it is these vibrations, dependent upon their intensity that some researchers say can induce a range of symptoms, from nausea, headaches and vomiting, to the rupturing of internal organs and even death. Because of his personal experience with nearly killing his aunt with his power, Lance had always been careful when directing it on other humans. He tries not to unleash its full destructive force when incapacitation will do. However, to save innocent lives, Lance can break his own rule and use his power’s destructive ability even if the target is another human being.
Waves of infrasound are invisible, but they slam into living tissues and physical structures with great force. The impact causes structures to vibrate, flattening objects as the sonic wave strikes. At certain pitches, it can explode matter.
Exposure to the infrasonic waves can cause temporary distortion of vision and even optical illusions, as the eyeballs resonate due to the waves, “The Ghost in the Machine” by Vic Tandy (http://www.skepdic.com/infrasound.html).
Strengths: The foremost strength of the power is that it is invisible, since infrasonic frequencies are below the hearing threshold of the human ear, most people will not know when Lance’s power is in effect and will not be able to determine that he is its origin, with the exception of the Infrasonic Blast ability. The infrasound waves can travel many kilometers and are not blocked by stone, buildings or other sounds. Although at his present capability, Lance is only able to project his infrasound a maximum of 2.5 yards.
Through practice, Lance has been able to perform the following feats with his power:
- Infrasonic Blast. An invisible and “silent” attack that causes blunt or bludgeoning-type of damage. Lance can control the direction of the attack, whether it is a spherical, area-of-effect-type, with a present effective destructive blast radius of approximately 2.5 yards. Although a characteristic of infrasonic waves is that it is not hindered by physical obstructions, at his present level, however, Lance is not yet capable of projecting his waves beyond the 2.5 yards limit, using this form of attack. Presently, the strength of Lance’s attack can reduce a 1-foot thick reinforced concrete wall to rubble at ground zero and sufficiently crack it at the edge of his blast radius.
- Infrasonic Lance. By forming his lips as if to whistle, Lance can send a concentrated blast of infrasonic waves to a chosen target, in the direction he is facing. The lips serve as a means of forming/molding the infrasonic waves. If he is unable to use his lips, i.e. if he is gagged, he can only utilize the area-based attack. With his present power level, Lance is able to punch a hole through a 2-feet thick reinforced concrete wall at a distance of 10 yards. Lance can select the target of this attack. He can affect a specific target without injuring others around it. But this requires Lance’s focused concentration on the target to ensure that he does not accidentally affect by-standers.
- Tremors. By directing the force of his infrasonic power towards the ground, Lance can create tremors that may knockdown the unwary. Similar to his blast attack, this feat may be an area effect or directed/aimed. The pressure waves simulate tremors of a magnitude 5.0 earthquake, at ground zero.
- Nausea/Pain. By sending infrasonic waves towards a person, Lance can induce pain (headaches), nausea and vomiting. “Since, not much amplitude is needed for infrasound to produce effects in the human body, even mild exposures require several hours to reverse the resulting effects” (http://www.slideshare.net/luv4peace/infrasound-ultrasound).
- Optical Illusions. At frequencies close to the resonant frequency of the eye, about 18 Hz, optical illusions may occur caused by the eyeballs resonating. These optical illusions appear as gray, ghostly entities at the edge of one’s vision.
Weaknesses: Lance is not totally immune to his powers. Resistant, yes... but immune, no. He has exhibited several limitations, namely:
- Backlash. Prolonged use (3 minutes or more) of his powers will begin to affect him similar to the power effect he is using... For example, prolonged use of the pain/nausea effect will cause him to feel nauseous as well, progressing to pain as his body start to vibrate due to the infrasonic waves.
- Prolonged emission of the infrasonic waves will cause him to lose his voice for a period of time (from a day to an entire week), depending on how long he continually used his power.
- Since the power emanates from the larynx, any damage to it will have an effect on the power.
Secondary mutation description: None yet...
Strengths: N/A
Weaknesses: N/A
Fighting StyleExplanation: Lance has had basic training in self-defense, namely Taekwondo.
Pros for fighting style: Taekwondo has its defensive aspect, which Lance is more likely to use in situations when he cannot avoid physical combat. Although if there is a definite need to for its use, Lance can utilize the offensive aspect to incapacitate his enemy.
Cons for fighting style: Lance has never really mastered the system. Taekwondo was learned via a summer training program.
Faction Allegiance None yet...
History Of Your Character Lance grew-up in a middle income family in the Philippines. His father, Manuel Sandejas, worked as a program designer while his mother, Josephine Cortez, took the role of homemaker, although she did have a degree in Education. Life was ideal during the early part of Lance’s life. His parents afforded him the best of what he needs, within their family’s budget. But as he grew older, the family’s income can no longer meet their expenses. So, when Manuel’s office decided to send him to work at their mother company in Victoria, Texas, the family welcomed the idea of migrating to the U.S. to seek better opportunities. The move happened within two months and they were settled in a small 2-bedroom apartment, a 1-hour bus ride from Manuel’s new workplace and about 30 minutes walk from Memorial High School where Lance was enrolled as a freshman.
Things were great during the first 2 years of their move. Because of Manuel’s industriousness, he was rewarded with a number of promotions, until he became the head of his own team of program developers. It was at this time that a special project was given to his team. Being the perfectionist that he is, Manuel wanted to be on top of every stage of the program development. It therefore took most of his time and attention. There were even nights, and weekends, that he did not come home from the office. His wife tried to understand his obsession with his work and did her best to fulfill her role as homemaker. However, after about one year of this situation, Josephine suddenly gave-up on the relationship for no clear reason. But more surprisingly, was the fact that Manuel did not put-up much of a fight to keep his family together.
Mother and son left the city of Victoria and moved-in with a relative in New York until they were able to move to an apartment unit of their own. Barely a month after their move, tragedy struck the family. An intruder entered the apartment they were staying in. Josephine was the first to discover the intruder and raised an alarm. The would be robber panicked and shot Josephine, just as Lance opened the door to his room to see what the cause of the commotion was. The shock of seeing his mother shot before his own eyes, triggered the latent mutant gene in him. His scream of rage was joined by his infrasound power, which caused the floor, walls and ceiling to buckle from the force and the windows to shatter.
Lance awoke the next morning in a hospital, unable to talk and with very little memory of what happened the previous evening. His aunt told him that his mother died during the robbery and that according to police reports, the robber might have been a mutant with uncontrolled powers since the apartment looked like an earthquake passed through it. Lance blamed himself for not being strong enough to protect his mother. His father was informed of the incident but he was a no-show during the viewing up to the funeral.
Since his mother’s death, Lance had been spending more and more time by himself. His aunt, assuming that it was all part of the coping process, simply allowed her nephew be. The situation, somehow, worked in favor of Lance. He had more time to himself, the memory of his mother and discovering his new found ability. Also, since he rarely talked to anyone, his voice gradually returned to normal.
Contrary to what he has told the investigators, Lance did remember what happened that fateful evening. How his scream of anger somehow caused the destruction of the apartment they were staying in and the painful death of his mother’s killer. But to his consternation, he could not repeat the same effect. It was after some experimentations and weird meditation techniques (which by the way were totally useless...) that he was able to piece together how his power works. His vocal chords can emit infrasonic sound, unperceivable by human hearing. To keep himself occupied, he would experiment with his powers, trying to do various effects with what he labels “Silent Scream”.
One day, Lance forgot to lock the door to his room and his aunt walked in and got caught in the waves being emitted by his powers. She became nauseous and lost her balance. Luckily, Lance caught her before she fell to the floor. Guilt-ridden, he told his aunt his situation, while she was recuperating from the hospital. To his surprise, she calmly told him that she understood and that she had always known that he was special. Whether she was implying that she knew of his abilities long before or that he was special to her as a nephew, Lance did not bother to clarify. His aunt further told him that she is no stranger mutant activity, having heard of them from news, on almost a daily basis. When she was released from the hospital, she encouraged Lance to consider continuing his studies at Xavier’s Sister School, where he can better learn to control his power.
Roleplay Where did you learn about this site?: Almighty GOOGLE…
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: None
Sample RP: (Please use the character you're applying for, not a character from another site.)
Ever since he was a child, one of Lance’s favorite pastime had been communing with nature, and Central Park afforded him that. Since they moved to New York, he has never failed to spend time within the leafy confines of the park. People watching, bird watching, or simply aimlessly wandering about... any excuse just to spend time in the park.
On one such occasion, his meanderings brought him to a not so often traveled portion of the park. It was nearing nightfall and he was about to go home when faint noises tugging at the edges of his awareness caught his attention.
A short, surprised intake of air...
A menacing snigger...
Muffled pleadings of a feminine voice...
Lance inched closer to the source of the noise. Peering from behind the tree he was using as cover, Lance caught sight of a female jogger being accosted by a man wielding what looks like a knife. The knife was pressed against the female’s neck, making it difficult for her to cry for help.
Knowing that time is of the essence, Lance set out on a haphazard plan to rescue the woman. Pulling the hood of his jacket over his head, Lance stepped out from behind the tree, “Hey you! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size...”
Not the best attention getting line, he chided himself. But somehow, it did the trick as the mugger turned to his direction.
“I’ll teach you to mess with my business, punk!” the man angrily shouted as he charged Lance with the knife.
The woman took the opportune distraction to make her escape.
Lance took one look at the incoming mugger and formed his lips as if to whistle. He unleashed an infrasonic lance towards the incoming man. The resulting force threw the mugger hard against the trunk of a tree, stunning him and, if Lance had heard it correctly, breaking a number of bones in the process.
The mugger had dropped the knife en route to his destined meeting with the impassive tree trunk.
Hearing the sound of a woman’s voice and several running shoes approaching his general direction, Lance wasted no more time... casually walking away from the scene.
