IndividualCharacter's full name: Daniel Tyler.
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: The Escapist.
Gender: Male.
Age: 30.
Date of Birth: 09/14/1987.
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: London, England. Now lives in NY, USA.
Nationality: English with US citizenship.
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: White. English with a mixed Jewish, American and Native American heritage.
AppearanceHair color and style: Brown/Blond, spiked upwards (This looks cool and helps him appear taller).
Skin Tone: Caucasian, normal.
Eye Color: Greyish blue.
Height: 5 ft 6.
Build: Physically fit. Dan isn't chiseled like a Greek god or anything, but he isn't over weight and there is
some muscle definition around his mid-section.
Visible mutation: N/A
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Dan has several fake tattoos, mostly on his arms, torso and neck. He often lets his artistic cousin Gillian draw on him too, so though it appears like he has tattoos they are not real. On the same note he wears clip on jewelry and it can appear as if he has piercings, but again they are not real.
Other features: As well as his make up and temporary tattoos he tends to have a 5 o'clock shadow as part of his image.
Dan was born in London within the sound of the bow-bells making him a true cockney, meaning he has a lovely
cockney accent to boot. He has an adorable, cheeky air to him and he looks gorgeous when smiling which helps him get away with a lot.
Everyday clothing style: When dressed to perform, which is most of the time, Dan dresses like an eclectic rock star; cool trousers, waist coat, fashion scarf or loose tie, painted fingernails (another thing he lets Gillian do) and/or a little make up around his eyes, etc, etc.
When Dan is not dressed to perform he favours comfort over style and has no make up, well not on his face at least. Often wears novelty/slogan t-shirts.
Uniform: N/A.
Sleepwear: Ahem...Nude when it's not inappropriate/unpractical. PJ's when it is.
Miscellaneous clothing:Dan has a cool
pirate coat that he mostly wears on stage.
He has a snazzy
suit for big stage acts.
He has a cool
hat that he usually only wears for street performances.
CharacterPersonality: Friendly, trusting and happy-go-lucky.
Dan is a bit eccentric but harmless. He often does things on impulse and randomly blurts things out without thinking. He talks to strangers as if he has known them for years and tends to get in people’s personal space if he has known them for more than five minutes...or maybe five seconds. All this can make him come off like some kind of rum soaked rock star, but it usually just adds to his charm.
Dan is a lot like a duck; On the surface it can seems like he is laid-back, going nowhere...even lazy at times, but that is far from the truth, Dan was raised with a good work ethic and the last thing he is, is lazy. Under the surface those little legs are padeling like crazy! He is always working hard behind the scenes trying to further his career, invent a new act or help make the world a better place. That said however, Dan does tends to leave things until the last minute,
especially when it comes to making life decisions. But he does it in the end.
Dan works hard and plays hard too, he is fun loving and up for anything. He will do anything on a dare providing it’s not illegal or morally wrong and he would (and has) jump on a plain or train for a spur of the moment adventure, providing it will not interfere with work and responsibilities TOO much.
Hobbies/Interests:Trains. His favorite pass time is to jump on a train or subway to just ride around.
Soup. Dan loves soup be it at a restaurant or in a paper cup on the go. But there is noting like eating some of his mothers soup at home, spending time with the family around the table.
Practicing/developing tricks. Dan spends hours practicing classic tricks and inventing new ones of his own. Though it's technically a huge part of his job to him it's also a hobby that he loves.
Carpentry. Dan is a talented carpenter and he spends a fair amount of time developing and making props and scenery for his acts, etc. His kitchen cupboards and dining table are home made too.
Job or part time job and description: Illusionist/escape artist.
Dan makes it clear that he is an illusionist and not a magician, as he is uncomfortable with the idea of real magic and wizardry and he doesn't pretend that his tricks are anything more that entertaining illusions. Likewise he doesn't like hypnoses and chooses not to incorporate it into any of his acts.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns:Anything bad happening to his family and loved ones.
He is not ashamed of his power but he is careful who he let's know that he is a mutant because he has concerns about the bad things that can happen. Not to mention it could ruin his reputation and career as an escapist/illusionist if people found out about his power, which would devastate him.
He doesn't like needles and avoid them if he can, but it's not a full blown phobia.
Special talents:- Carpentry, design and engineering (desiging and makes new tricks and props, etc for his acts).
- Being an illusionist means he is skilled at card tricks, slight of hand, misdirection and all that jazz.
- Getting out of restraints such as ropes or a straight jacket etc.
- He is physically flexible and is able to fit in and escape from small spaces.
- Despite his powers Dan learned how to pick handcuffs and padlocks the old fashioned way. (Given that a lot of his escape acts puts his life in genuine danger he didn't want to have to be totally reliant on his mutation...just in case.)
- Mentalism. Dan is still very much developing and working on this skill and has moderate talent at it, but he can not be called a 'mentalist' at this point.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: Good-Neutral: Raised with a Judeo-christian upbringing Dan believes in right and wrong, good and evil and he stays true to his spiritual roots the best he can. Though he is only human and is the first to admit he is not perfect. He does what he believes is right (even if that is the wrong thing for the right reasons) even if doing the right thing comes with consequences. If he sees someone who needs help he would step in, but he is not the type to go actively looking for someone to help...apart from donating to charity maybe.
MutationsMutation description:Dan has the power to pick locks with his mind.
He doesn't have to be able to physically see a lock to be able to pick it, he just has to know roughly where it is.
For example Dan could walk through a building and see where the locks are, or he could look at photos or a blueprint of the building. However, if a lock is too far away to be seen by the human eye then it is out of Dan's range, so any lock has to be within a 65-80 foot 'seeing distance' range.
He has the ability to unlock anything from a simple padlock to the most complicated type of combination locks, a power that has proved invaluable in his career as an escapist.
In optimal conditions Dan can usually open a
pin tumbler lock (the most common type of lock) in a couple of seconds flat, he can open
warded locks (an older and simpler type of lock) almost just as quickly, where as combination locks (the hardest type of lock to pick) takes a little longer.
Dan doesn't have the power to 'sense' locks. It's like if you see a mug in a room you know it's there but you can't 'feel' the mug, it's not until you pick it up that you actually feel it in your hand. It's the same with Dan and he doesn't 'feel' locks in his mind until he starts manipulating them.
If he chooses Dan can mentally feel around for locks but it would be just like closing your eyes and feeling around for a lock with your hands, if you know roughly where it is then it's not that hard to find but if you don't know the odds of finding one are slim.
Dan's power works by manipulating the mechanism inside of a lock just like an actual key/combination code does. This means he can only manipulate physical locks and has no abilities to get into computers or phones, etc. Those are digital locks and are all down to algorithms and coding and has nothing to do with physical locks.
However, Biometric locks (like the kinds on bank vaults, etc) are still physical lock only a person has to use their fingerprint/retina scan instead of a key, so Dan can still manipulate them. But a person's fingerprint/retina scan usually deactivates some kind of an alarm and unlocks a door simultaneously, where Dan's power can only affect the lock and not the alarm side of things.
Again, the kind of biometric locks found on phones and PCs are all to do with the digital side of things and Dan's power has no effect on them.
This power also allows him to lock as well as pick locks.
Any lock that Dan manipulates isn't affected in any special way and can still be locked and unlocked with it's key/combination as normal. In fact this power doesn't leave any kind of trace so Dan could unlock and re-lock a mechanism without anyone ever knowing.
Strengths:His power works best on locks with a pin tumbler system, maybe because he uses his power on this type of lock the most. The simpler and closer the lock the quicker and easier he can pick it.
His power doesn't leave any kind of trace on locks so nothing can be tied back to him, unless it's caught on CCTV or something.
Weaknesses and Limitations:Locks must be within a 65-80 foot range and he needs to know roughly where they are.
Combination locks are the hardest to pick and the more complicated they are the longer it takes.
Unlocking a lock will not deactivate an alarm!
Likewise unlocking a lock will not push a handle down and make a door open, or take a doorchain off etc, that needs to be done physically.
While he can lock most locks with his mind, he needs to physically touch certain types of locking mechanisms such as padlocks to be able to lock them, that is because the shackle (the U shaped part of the padlock) needs to be physically pushed into the body of the padlock.
Physical AbilitiesGeneral Physical Capabilities:Dan is of average strength for someone his age and size. His reflexes are average to fast depending on how alert or not he is at the time. Thanks to a lot of practice escaping straight jackets and years of contorting to cram himself into tiny hiding spaces so he can 'disappear' and then running like a mad man to 'reappear' in another location moments later means that his speed and flexibility are considerably good. As far as stamina goes Dan can (and does) just keep going, but there comes a point where he will fizzle out and then crash.
Fighting Style:Yeah, Dan doesn't really have a fighting style.
He doesn't like fighting but if he needed to defend himself he'd just throw punches, do some moves he's seen in various kinds of movies and just jump onto peoples backs...like him it would probably be kind of comical and eccentric.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Pffft, it's comical but not necessarily practical.
It works up to a point and has won him a couple of fights over the years, but matched against a stronger and more skilled opponent and it's probably lights out.
History Of Your CharacterDan's childhood was a pretty happy and normal one as he grew up in England, the middle child of an older brother and a younger sister.
Family life was happy and healthy with the normal ups and downs that inevitably come. But no dark tragedies occurred, no life altering dramas and there was no pinnacle moment of distress that suddenly triggered Dan's mutation causing his life to descend into a tale of woe.
Dan was thirteen going on fourteen when his powers kicked in, and at first he didn't even realize it.
It was near the end of the summer school holidays and Dan was spending time with his two best friends and fellow Star Wars fans. After they spent a couple of hours playing video games in Dan's living room they went upstairs to hang out in his bedroom. After talking and comparing trading cards for a while Dan wanted to show them something that he had inside the green cash box he used as a container for various things. Dan got the box out of the wardrobe but when he went to open it the key wasn't in the lock, he looked around his room and was unable to find it.
The boys tested to see if any of the keys they had on them would work the lock but had no luck, so Dan tried prizing the lid open with the first thing he could find. That failing the boys tried prizing it open with various things from around the room until Dan went and got some proper tools from his fathers toolbox, but even with them the lid would not budge.
The boys spent the better half of that afternoon coming up with inventive ways to try and open the box, including using firecrackers and throwing it out of the window. In the end they were having so much fun trying to get into the box they forgot what they were trying to get into the box for, but after a few hours they tossed the box onto the bed and decided to look for something else to do. As they were getting ready to leave Dan did a jump and spin to face the box and pretended to use 'the Force' as a joke. But to everyones astonishment the lid popped open.
Dan stood in stunned silence for a moment as his friends either side of him slowly turned their heads and stared at him, slack jawed. The silence was deep until one of his friends broke the moment of quiet with the cry "That was awesome!"
The three boys grabbed onto one another, tugging each other in excitement. One of them had actually used the force! (Okay, they didn't
really believe that)
Of course the moment was quickly forgotten as Dan's mother shouted up that it was time for his friends to be getting home. It wasn't until school started that Dan unwittingly used his power again, his bicycle lock had jammed and as he was trying to get it open he let go of it and shouted, "Oh, come on!" in frustration and it unlocked. It took a few more years for him to realize he actually had the power to control locks and that these moments he kept having were more than just coincidence. He told his parents about his abilities - in fact he showed them - when he was sixteen but they just though it was one of his magic tricks. After all he had been interested in magic since he was ten.
At that time he had heard rumors about mutants but didn't quite know what they were and it wasn't until he was in his early twenties that he sat down with his family and told them he was a mutant. It came with a bit of confusions at first, Dan was a mutant? But the conversation didn't end in the family looking at Dan any differently than they had his whole life. After all Dan was still Dan and things carried on as normal.
The family moved to the USA to be closer to relatives and the kids started applying to collages.
When Dan finally decided what collage to attend he then had to choose what courses to take. By this time he knew he wanted to be an illusionist so a class in visual and performing arts made sense and he just needed to decide what other classes to take as well, but in true Dan style he left it until the very last minute. It wasn't as if he wasn't taking it seriously, it was just a fairly important life choice and Dan always put those off until the last minute.
Two nights before deadline he knew he couldn't procrastinate any more and had to bite the bullet, so he sat in his room and got the list of available classes and looked over it one more time. Then he literally closed his eyes and pointed, picking out classes in sociology and carpentry.
The three classes seemed totally unrelated to his parents and most everyone else, but with his outside the box thinking Dan saw just how useful they could be in a career as an illusionist, and he was right. In the following years sociology helped him understand people which in turn helped him work audiences, and carpentry meant he was able to start building his own props.
He started out his career preforming on the streets and though it didn't pay much to begin with the joy he got out of it was worth more than the money. He eventually started getting gigs at hotels and events and things slowly grew from there. As he started becoming more successful his venues grew, allowing him to do bigger illusions and he started to incorporate escape acts into his shows. He started to get noticed and ended up with an agent and a manager who helped to give his career a big boost and with their help he soon did his first small scale televised performance.
As his opportunities grew so did his illusions, and his escape acts became more and more daring catching the attention of larger television stations. Though Dan is not quite up there with Harry Houdini or Penn and Teller in the way of fame he is rapidly making a name for himself through his (ever growing) death-deifying escape acts and big stage performances and is on the way to becoming a household name. But despite his rising fame he still performs on the streets regularly, which he truly loves to do.
RoleplayWhat’s your OOC alias?: Dan.
Where did you learn about this site?: I was a member 'bout 7 years ago.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: N/A
Sample RP:"Put your card back in the deck. Now watch carefully." Dan said with a smile to the pretty woman who had selected a card,
"I cut the deck here and put it on top, then I cut it here. Then I shuffle it like this." He said moving his hands and shuffling the deck of playing cards with impressive skill and amazing speed while the crowed that had already gathered watched on with anticipation. He had them completely eating out of his hand about four tricks ago and this last trick was gonna be a home run.
His hands stopped and cut a 1/4 of the deck off the top and turned it over to display the 9 of clubs,
"Is this your card?" He asked with an upbeat tone.
"No." The woman replied with a polite smile.
No? Dan blinked for a moment and quickly tossed the card over his shoulder in a 'that didn't happen' fashion, receiving an amused chuckle from his audience. He quickly cut the deck again, this time displaying the five of diamonds,
"Is this your card?" He asked again as if for the first time.
"No." The woman replied yet again, shaking her head with a sheepish smile.
"Oh." Dan said awkwardly, before looking at the card with a confused squint.
"Hmm." He said thoughtfully.
"Oh, is that the time?." He quickly jested, looking at his watch and taking a couple of steps away like he was leaving. The crowd laughed again and Dan stopped, putting the deck in his pocket as he looked at the womans arm with another thoughtfully squinted brow,
"Before I go, may I just..." He asked pointing to her sleeve, before he gently held her wrist with one hand and pulled her sleeve down with one finger to reveal a three of hearts drawn onto the womans skin in a tattoo like quality,
Is that your card?Dan grinned as the woman's face was completely taken over by a look of shock and surprise,
"How did you do that?!!" She exclaimed in genuine amazement at the suddenly mind blowing trick.
The impressed crowd applauded and Dan took a half bow, bringing his street performance to an end. The crowed disbursed, some putting money in his hat as they left before Dan collected it with his things and moved on.
He stopped at one of his favorite stands and bought a cup of soup before walking to the subway station and buying a ticket for the next train out, wherever that might be. He wasn't going anywhere and was just there for the joy of the ride.
He boarded the train and once he took a seat he looked at his ticket to see where he was heading, then put the ticket back in his pocket and leaned back in his seat.
He took a sip from his cup and a soft
"Mmm." escaped him as the hot, creamy texture slid down his throat.
The train started to pull away and build up speed. Dan looked around at the other passengers before he rested his head against his seat. He thought back on the day and smiled happily to himself. Life was good.
