IndividualCharacter's full name:Lumen Collins
Thread ArchiveAlias/ Nickname/ Code name:Lumen
Gender:Female
Age:26
Date of Birth: (mm/dd/year)
2/14/1985
Nationality/ Ethnicity:Irish
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin:Ireland
AppearanceHair color and style:Long platinum hair with light smokey streaks, usually worn in a long braid
Eyes:Grayish- purple, very wide, feathery lashes
Height:5'10"
Build:Slender but good muscular definition
Visible mutation: (if applicable)
Glowing eyes, glowing skin
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings:Regular old earrings, Celtic cross on her wrist
Other features:Moves with the fluidity of someone very aware of their surroundings
Everyday clothing style:Punkish style, lots of layers, dresses and skirts over tights, high boots, the woman loves rhinestones
Sleepwear:camisoles
CharacterPersonality:Lumen can be sceptical, paranoid, and suspicious at times. Though she is a mutant herself she is leery of other mutants. When she warms up to people she is actually quite friendly and bubbly but with her type of work comes great discipline. She can be very refined and also very commanding when she needs to. She may not feel those roles but she can certainly fake it. Inside she feels fear frequently but she's trained hard to mask it on the outside. She's very gifted with technology and works hard to stay up to date on it. While she doesn't outwardly express her emotions often they are represented well through her hobbies. She has a competitive spirit and a never give up attitude that can get her into trouble. At times though she is a very bright and critical thinker, she'll fall prey to "thick headed-ness". She could be accused of having a one track obsessive mind when she sets her sights on something.
Hobbies/ Interests:Photography, the arts, gymnastics, swimming, dance, running, martial arts, computers, meditation
Job or part time job and description: (if applicable)
Lumen puts her photography skills to good use as a free lance private investigator. She is contracted out through a larger firm that occasionally associates with the police for cases of long term missing children and cold cases. Her job generally sees her following suspects, photographing, hacking computers, working 1:1 with other cops and investigators, and a lot of behind the scenes work. Sometimes she gets too personally invested in cases and has gotten herself in situations of confrontation with suspects. She does not rely on her mutation for safety out on the field so she's learned how to run, and run fast. Regular exercise helps keep her calm and focused while fit enough to take care of herself. Lumen received the majority of her training while in Ireland when she went through the police academy and dropped out last minute. (see history)
Fears/ phobias/ concerns:Lumen is afraid of her own mutation and afraid of mutants. While she's met many that are kind she's convinced because of her own personal experience that mutation leads to trouble and no one mutant can control their abilities 100%. She tries not to be bigheaded about it and certainly tries to hide it but inside she feels dread whenever her suspects turn out to be mutants.
Lumens fear of mutation generally takes over long before her will to utilize it in serious situations.
Special talents: (not related to mutation)
Physically very fit for a mutant whose abilities do not affect her physical abilities. Graceful and well balanced both in body and mind. She is able to stay calm on the outside and (mostly) on the inside during stressful situations. She's talented with technology and good at cracking codes. Her photography has developed into somewhat of a talent as well though she doesn't often think of it that way.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: (please explain)
Deep down, Lumen is good. But she is so fearful of the mutants around her and the corruption she investigates that she could be swayed either way.
MutationsMutation description:Light manipulation on a wave level through her eyes that glow when using the ability.
From a very young age Lumen showed a small talent for what her parents thought was telekinesis. She'd easily move objects her parents didn't want her to have but always feel tired afterwards. The trait left her feeling like millions of tiny arms were reaching from her eyes. Her eyes always glowed a faint white when using her ability and her face felt warm. In reality her mutation was distorting the invisible waves of lights often too quick for the human eye to see in an effort to push and pull objects.
Strengths:-Moving objects with your mind can come in handy. (ba-dum ching!)
- Lumen can lift up to 100 pounds max with her ability.
- She can move objects at 5 mph with her ability
-If Lumen hits someone with a blast of light-wave in order to not hurt herself it would only feel like a strong shove. Anything higher could feel like a slam enough to knock multiple people back or down however attacks like that leave her vulnerable to heart failure.
-She only needs to maintain eye contact if she is trying to physically restrain someone with her ability
Weaknesses:-Every time Lumen uses her ability it slows her heart rate down.
-The longer she uses it the slower her heart becomes until it will stop.
-Using great blasts of energy could mean a heart attack. However, since she is very nervous about her mutation Lumen never developed it much beyond moving the odd small object. This works best for picking locks, stopping projectiles (though not bullets- they'd require similar power as a telekinetic blast and risk a heart attack) and occasionally heavier objects.
-She's never been able to move a person and using her ability takes a moment of focusing her energy and feeling it radiate through her eyes.
-She can't easily access it without a bit of focus and her abilities are basically nullified around mutants with strong telekinetic abilities.
-When she doesn't use her ability stress builds up in her head and eyes and she experiences painful tension headaches.
Secondary mutation description:Manifesting light in her body and in objects.
Lumen can "glow" by focusing on distributing the energy from her eyes to the rest of her body. She can also force the light waves in light bulbs and other light objects to turn on and off at her will.
Strengths:Lumen can bring light to the dark. She can manifest it in her body, and occasionally objects around her. It's much easier for her to use her light ability as it only slows her heart to more of a meditative state. Allowing herself to glow will also release the pressure headaches she gets from not using her 'telekinesis'. When her energy levels are high she can occasionally increase her glow to a bright instantaneous flare that could blind and confuse attackers.
Weaknesses:Slows her heart rate. Using a "flare" of light though even for a moment still runs the risk of a heart attack. Sometimes she glows when she doesn't want to. Outside of the "flare" her light can't actually hurt someone.
Fighting StyleRelies more on her agility when confronted than her mutation. She will run- not out of cowardice but self preservation- before she fights. She does have some recreational training in different martial arts that serve to help her stay physically fit. If physically in a fight with nowhere to run she'd fight like your average human but maintain her focus to keep calm and balanced.
Explanation:Lumen wants to live to see another day and chase her own demons. She can't do that if she's dead. So running is better. If she must resort to a standoff she will only use her mutation as a last resort since it drains her and she's plain old afraid of it.
Faction AllegianceThe X-men/ The Order/ The NYPD/ Unaffiliated
Private detective affiliated with the NYPD as needed (or contracted)
History Of Your CharacterWhile Lumen was still a child learning to control her telekinetic energy she'd often feel overwhelmed by the power. She'd get headaches and find her eyes hurt. One day her mother insisted she try a guided meditation to help her relax. Listening to her mother's words Lumen closed her glowing eyes and focused on the energy. She imagined it dispersing throughout her body, taking pressure and heat away from her head and eyes, distributing evenly throughout every limb. Her eyes darted open when her mother knocked over the kitchen bowl. Lumen looked down to see her skin glowing in the same manner her eyes had been.
As she got older being the curious mind she was she read everything she could about the properties of light discovering that light existed in many different forms and dimensions. In fact, scientists have been trying for many years to prove that light was not just energy but its' own substance- its' own molecule. She began to wonder if it wasn't telekinesis she'd been doing but the actual manipulation of light to create a moving force. Experimenting she discovered that through her body and the light objects (bulbs mainly) around her she could bring light where there wasn't before. While this mutation manifested second it is the main mutation she focuses on when she does decide to use her powers.
Lumen was 6 years old when the mutants came for her twin brother. Somehow he knew they'd be coming- Ruari always knew when things were going to happen. He confided in her the night before making her promise not to tell their parents and to hide when the time came.
"Make sure your lights are off sissy..." he told her as he ushered her under the bed. "They need to take me away for a while. It's for the good- you'll see."
"Is it because you're special?" Lumen asked. Ruari nodded. They were both special but she always felt like he was more 'specialer' than her. He knew things, and he could make bad things happen to bad people. Like the time the neighbour boy pushed her down in the mud in her new blue dress. That boy laughed until suddenly he stood on his tip toes gasping for air while his face turned blue. Ruari let him go after only a few seconds. It really wasn't that long but the boy wet himself just the same. He never bothered her after that.
"Where's your sister?" his mother asked as she stepped into the room with a load of fresh linen in her arms. Ruari didn't get to answer because a man with spikes all over his body crashed through the window. Their mother screamed spilling the laundry blocking part of Lumen's view. She covered her little hand over her own mouth so she wouldn't scream too.
"'been searching a long time for you kid." said the spiked man as a glowing red woman climbed in through the window after him. She couldn't see them all but Lumen knew there were more- and she knew they were strong.
"Who are you people? What's wrong with you? Why are you here?" pleaded their mother putting an arm protectively in front of Ruari.
Momma wasnt special like Lumen and Ruari, neither was Daddy but he wasn't there anyway. He always cursed being out fishing when it all happened. Lumen was scared for Momma.
"Lady- we're doing you a favour. If we don't intervene he'll get too strong and you'll attract even worse than us." explained the red woman with no trace of empathy in her voice.
"Hah, but not much worse." laughed the spiked man who gave their mother a hard shove sending her spilling down with the laundry. Her eyes locked on the little bundle of Lumen hiding behind the clothes with her hand still over her mouth. Very slowly her mother raised a finger to her own lips. Lumen needed to be quiet.
"Don't touch my mother." said Ruari calmly.
"Brat!" snarled the red woman. She turned to smack him but her hand stopped in mid air. She stood motionless in that pose like an action figure for a moment before the spiked man smacked Ruari in the back of the head knocking him unconscious. Lumen wanted to cry out a warning but Ruari and her mother had both wanted her to keep quiet.
"He's a brat, but he's strong. Have no doubt." said the spiked man as another man (Lumen could only see his shoes and pants so she thought he was a man at least) reached down and scooped Ruari up. The spiked man gave their mother a hard kick in the back and just like that it was over and they were gone.
It was nearly a year before their mother would even speak again and their father was endlessly depressed. Lumen ached for Ruari and as her parents grew distant she felt more alone than ever. A missing children's case was opened but Lumen would learn later (after stalking a dirty cop) that it didn't go far when the detectives assigned realized it was a mutant kid. Mutant kids went missing all the time- usually as runaways. One went so far as to suggest the kid would find them all on his own no doubt as some super criminal one day. In general with such little evidence to go on most staff concluded Ruari ran away and the parents unable to cope with their loss staged the broken window and fabricated the whole story.
But Lumen knew the truth- and Lumen never forgot.
As life went on and eventually the sadness of the empty house was too much to bear for her folks. They divorced and Lumen went with her father to the country side. She became endlessly fascinated with true crime stories and serial killers. She wasn't a dark kid by any means but she felt like if she just kept reading maybe the answers to who took Ruari and where would jump out of those pages. The coming of the internet didn't help matters either. She spent much of the late 90's at internet cafes and school libraries. Her scrapbooks and journals were filled to the brim with story quotes, newspaper clippings, and internet print outs.
Fast forward to the present day and it's been 20 years since Lumen last saw Ruari. Her fascination with crime and the legal system almost saw her becoming a cop. She went through the program and learned a lot but felt an undercurrent of racism toward her. Everyone knew Lumen was a mutant from the early investigation and the papers. It didn't matter that the worst the young woman could do was maybe throw a book your way or light up a dark room... her peers treated her differently and in the end she left the program- on principal.
She'd always been quite obsessed with finding Ruari and it was generally the motivation behind most of her choices in life. She followed a few of her own leads all over Ireland but never found him. She did however find other people. It became apparent Lumen was talented at finding people. A few adds in the classifieds and Lumen could make a decent living taking 1 or 2 jobs a month- depending on the client of course. Naturally she sent much of it back to her individual parents. Lumen didn't need much for herself, she was always on the move.
At the end of the day everything came back to Ruari and Lumen's recent leads suggested he was somewhere in America. Not all her leads turned out to be complete dead ends it was just as if she'd been chasing his ghost. She wondered if he knew she was looking and if he was at times deliberately leaving clues. More often than not she found evidence of the group who might have taken him than evidence of Ruari. She didn't think he was dead though. At least, she hoped he wouldn't have made her make those promises if he knew he was going to die.
She researched all the mutant groups pro and anti she could find for New York. A few of her leads suggested Ruari may have been or may still be at some mutant finishing school. But underground sources suggested an alternative a little more sinister and unfortunately a lot more probable. With camera in hand and a work visa in tow Lumen has now breached the shores of NYC. Funny enough the cops and parents of New York need help finding some kids and some people. Lumen was always good at finding people.
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?:Originally on google.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who:I am the player formally of Raina, Naveed, and Coraline and the retired mod n00b. I have returned from an extended hiatus for a fresh role playing start
Sample RP:Snap. "Gotchya" thought Lumen lowering the lens and taking a long slow sip of the thermos of coffee by her thigh. She'd been following Mister A for less than a week and already she knew New York was going to be easy money. So many wives wanting to catch their cheating husbands. So many husbands wanting to catch their cheating wives. Cheaters were easy work. Back home she wouldn't take much cheater work though- she had her eyes on bigger prizes. Now in New York she at least needed to establish a strong track record and bank a little cash for expenses. It's not that her reputation didn't speak for itself- but most agencies that contracted her out expected her to be a guy for some reason. It was good to get the locals buzzing, keep them on their toes, show she was reliable despite her chromosomes.
At least here no one knew she was a mutant or if they did they didn't make much of it. The screening process for applying to the collaborative branch of the local NYPD required her to "voluntarily" disclose but as far as she could tell the admin were actually pretty good about keeping tight lips. That or they had their hands filled with this drug giving super special fun powers to your every day Joe. M hadn't made its way to mainstream Ireland, but things were always moving so fast it was difficult to know what the good 'ol rock would look like when she returned. If she returned. That all depended on where she thought Ruari went next.
She pulled out her little flip pad- embellished with rhinestones and all- and jotted down the time and location. Mrs. A suspected Mister A of infidelity but Lumen had to wonder if she had any inkling the man was practically running a brothel. Bagging him was going to do her good. Mrs. A would pay her well for the 4 days work and with her careful acquiring of evidence the NYPD would actually be able to charge this guy not simply arrest him. That should get some birdies talking back at the big house.
Her phone was blinking in its holster on her belt and the annoying little red light caught her eye. She'd call Mrs. A to set up the debriefing soon but the forwarding emails she was getting made her stomach churn a little. Kids were going missing like crazy in NYC. Mutant kids. Part of her hoped it was somehow related to Ruari as sick as she felt for thinking it. Naturally, the other part wanted every parent and sibling to be spared what her own family went through. Was she ready to read yet another desperate plea from terrified parents and greedy agencies eager to collect their hefty commissioning fees for contracting her out? Maybe Mrs. A could wait one more day.
Snap. Mister A was at 'er again
Very cool character 
