The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Pharoah Dynasty
An ancient sorceress is on a quest to bring her long-lost warrior-king to the modern era in a bid for global domination. Can the heroes of the modern world stop her before all is lost?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
Posted by Richard Bent on Apr 7, 2015 7:35:28 GMT -6
Delta Mutant
Stright
Single but open
140
4
Jan 21, 2019 12:35:20 GMT -6
Hades
Why thanks Orochi, I must say being a dragon is at least as cool if not more so, and more useful when defending or attacking. Looking forward to some good threads
Posted by Richard Bent on Apr 6, 2015 16:31:39 GMT -6
Delta Mutant
Stright
Single but open
140
4
Jan 21, 2019 12:35:20 GMT -6
Hades
Richard had arrived in New York the night before, had slept well and had risen early to get acquainted with the city that he might well soon call home. He put on a fitted v neck cotton shirt that showed of his fit physique, lose comfortable cargo pants and a hoodie. This was his free running outfit, he had been rocking this combo to free run since soon after he started almost 10 years ago as a high school student in Hong Kong.
It was still mostly dark, the sun not having yet peeked its head over the horizon. Richard was going to catch the sunrise. The streets were mostly deserted, when Richard left the lobby of the hotel and started jogging towards the waterfront. He had a vague idea of where he was going thanks to a little research on Parkour forums and the brilliant gift called Google maps. He jogged up to the top of a 3 story carpark and started his warm up exercises.
He selected Chicane's latest album (a sample can be found here) walked over to the railing and kicked into a series of handstand push ups. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. On the fifth one he held for a minute then let him self fall forward, letting go of the railing performing a mid air somersault and hitting the roof of the adjacent building in a perfect break roll. Then he was off, reveling in the freedom of movement, the feeling of wind blowing past his face. He hit the ground running, moving from rooftop to rooftop. He spied two air conditioning units close together and did a double kong over them, almost laughing out lout with joy. He climbed, jumped, rolled and run. Each movement fluidly joined to the next, like an object constantly in motion with no beginning or end. Finally, he landed on a roof a building with an unobstructed view of the water and where the sun was just about to rise. (for a sample of parkour see here)
Richard rolled into a crouch and stood, stopping to catch his breath. He straightened, running his hand through his hair that was damp with the light falling drizzle. He loved running in light rain. He was happy, he was at peace. He stood watching the sunrise when he heard a sound behind him. He turned to see a stunningly beautiful woman standing there. Turning to her, the sun seeming to rise from behind his shoulders (OCC: sorry I could not resist being a little flamboyant) he spoke. "I hope I am not intruding, if so I am happy to leave. My name is Richard." He extended his hand to her, his grip firm. His voice was deep, his accent british. He awaited her reply.
Posted by Richard Bent on Apr 5, 2015 21:54:10 GMT -6
Delta Mutant
Stright
Single but open
140
4
Jan 21, 2019 12:35:20 GMT -6
Hades
Convention: Italicized sentences indicate Richard’s thoughts. Italicized sentences encapsulated in quotation marks indicate speech.
Richard breathed in deeply, savoring the crisp fresh mountain air. Having completed all of his classes, submitted the final version of his thesis (which by now he was thoroughly sick and tired of) and completed the check out procedure, this was the first time in a long while that he had time to rest and relax, to recharge and creep back from the edge of burnout. After thoroughly enjoying the almost foreign sensation and novelty of sleeping in, he had headed out to one of Colorado’s 14-ers for a relaxing hike. He had nothing on his plate, no duties or obligations to discharge and graduation was 2 weeks away. His job applications were going well and he expected to hear back from various companies within the next few days. This was his time to recharge, to almost re-center himself.
He luxuriated in the smell of pine, the brilliant vibrant deep blue sky that stretched endless as far as the eye could see, the wispy flat bottomed clouds that were so characteristic of Colorado, the joyous sounds of birds singing and leaves rustling in the wind. He reached the summit before lunch and headed back down to a valley with a lake to have lunch. He sat, lost in thought, reflecting on his life to date, he wondered where he would go next.
“To Boston perhaps? To San Diego? I hear there is some good cutting edge research and challenging work being done in New York!”
His mind wandered to and fro and he must have dozed off as he was suddenly and rudely awoken by cold drops of rain falling on his face. Drat it, it was getting dark and there was a thunderstorm on the way. He had gone off trail and did not fancy trying to outrun the fast approaching storm. He headed to a nearby grove of trees to take shelter.
Richard was at a dilemma, he did not want to venture out in the thunder storm and risk a painful demise via extreme high voltage but by the time the storm blew over it would probably be dark. He had not expected to doze off for that long. It has been a long semester/year. He mused. He did not fancy trying to find the trail again in the darkness, where trail markers and signs would be masked by the inky blackness; nor did the idea of spending the night on the mountain top appeal to him. It was then he remembered that he had brought a GPS map device as a backup. Joyfully he grabbed at his slightly scuffed backpack. In his haste to reach the grove of trees he had taken a spill or two, but had avoided any injury by landing on his backpack. His joy turned to dismay however when he observed the cracked casing of the device and the fact it would not turn on.
The trees provided a modicum of shelter and lacking anything better to do he decided to try to see if the device could be fixed. After all, he DID NOT want to spend the night shivering on a mountainside. Having divested the GPS of its outer case he preceded to prod and poke it and examine it for any obvious signs of damage. He could not find any. As he turned over the circuit board in his hand, he thought he felt a niggling, as though he was on the verge of some new revelation or knowledge, something new yet strangely familiar. He pushed with his mind, and felt as though there was a barrier; with nothing to lose he decided to press harder. Now Richard had always possessed a certain stubbornness, a tenacity, a force of will. It was this that he brought to bear, pushing against this “barrier” that he felt in his mind. Harder and harder he pushed, his teeth were gritted, a vein on his forehead started pulsing. Yet harder and harder he pushed, then, suddenly with an almost audible “Snap”, he was through. Suddenly Richard felt this almost heady rush of endorphin, this new level or whatever he had come into, well, it felt Glorious. In his mind’s eye, an image of the circuit board that he held suddenly appeared, but with it can knowledge, insight. He had never studied how GPS devices worked but suddenly as he mentally “reached” for the different components, he instinctively began to understand what each component did, how the circuits were connected. Oh he could not design one, but he could suddenly and with growing clarity and certainty understand how they were constructed and how they worked. But wait, there was more, something felt off about this circuit, hungry for more insight and knowledge, Richard pushed harder.
By this time, Richard had lost perception of the world around him; he no longer heard the rumble of thunder or felt the occasional drops of rain that managed to get through the thick foliage. He no longer felt the cooling temperatures or the increasingly biting wind. As Richard explored and examined the circuit board with his mind’s eye, he increasingly got the feeling that something was not quite right, not quite as it should be. Was it in this corner, no, no, a little to the left, wait, wait, There! There! Hidden underneath a black circuit chip, there was some metallic foreign matter that was creating a short circuit, it looked, felt like some type of metallic foil wedged between the bottom of the chip and two copper paths on the circuit board. But there was more, up a bit, up a bit more, no, not on this side. The other side, There! There! The solder connecting two contacts had cracked, probably by the fall and lead to a break in the main power circuit. That was why it was not turning on.
With a rush of satisfaction, Richard sat back, he knew, he knew what was wrong. It occurred to him that this “ability” was one he had been using often, albeit not to this level of power. This was how he could look at a project or system, stare intently at it, and after a while, days/hours/weeks either he would suddenly gain better insight into the system that would inspire a solution or he would institutively get a hunch or two of where the problem was. With this glowing feeling of satisfaction, the reality of the situation came rushing back. His elation plummeted. It was cold out, it was still raining, the light was almost gone, and he had probably enough clothing to stay alive and survive the night, but it would not be a pleasant experience. The most frustrating thing was the he now knew what was wrong, but did not have the tools on hand to fix the problem. In a fit of frustration and anger he was tempted to hurl the currently useless device far away into the brush. Then a thought occurred to him. Hey! By just focusing my will I was able to understand what was wrong with this circuit board, I guess mind over matter can be true in some cases, the evidence supports the fact. Who knows maybe I can “will” this dumb board to work.
But knowing the problem and fixing it were two different things. How does one “will” something to work? Richard decided to approach this challenge as he would any other problem. Perhaps I can will the short circuit away, maybe I can mentally “shift” that foil. He thought. He once again set his slightly tired mind and body to it. Imagining that small piece of foil in his mind, he willed it to deform slightly, to crumple so that it would fall out. As he did this he was conscious of facing a different barrier. This was different from the last one; it seemed to give more easily. With the first barrier to comprehension, it was hard to break through yes, but once through it was easy to stay in the “zone” and it felt glorious. This one seemed to give more easily but one never knows, so steeling himself, Richard pushed.
He broke through almost immediately but found that he had to keep pushing to stay in this “second zone”. In this new zone he could feel the various parts of the circuit board almost as an extension of him. He focused on the foil and willed/pushed it to move, to crumple. It was hard; it felt as if he was trying to use a muscle that he had never used. He gritted his teeth and poured on the will power. Wait! There! He felt it shift slightly. Come on Richard he said to himself, This is only a puny piece of foil. Come on! He pushed harder, a trickle of sweat then another appeared on his brow and began to trickle down his face. Richard was to focused to notice. With a final heave, the piece of foil crumpled just enough to allow it to fall away. Richard became aware of the world again. He was breathing hard and felt as if he had just run a 400 meter sprint. He downed a cliff bar, had some water to prevent dehydration and took a few moments to rest. “If moving a piece of foil is that hard, I hate to think what it will take to restore that connection again!” He said to himself.
Richard gave himself a few minutes to rest and recover, and then set to again. This time he knew what to expect, it was slightly easier to break the second barrier. It was still hard and took energy but at least he know a little of what to expect. He visualized the cracked connection, the solder that has broken off. To make this work again I guess I will have to try to bend the pin back into place. This might get painful. He set his mind, his formidable will power to it. He only had to bend the small pin back a hairs breadth or two, but to him it seemed a herculean task. He pushed, and pushed, he visualized the pin moving and elongating slightly. He felt it twitch. He pushed harder. His teeth were clenched; sweat was beading on his brow and running down his face. His breathing was ragged. He mentally lashed himself, to use more force. Then, finally, just when he thought he would black out… “GAhhhhhh!” The pin snapped back into place and seemed wedged there firmly enough.
Richard fell back, still holding the circuit board. His hands were trembling, he was shaking. He felt utterly exhausted and mentally spent. With shaking hands and barely cohesive movements he tried to put the GPS device back together. After several attempts, he succeeded. Holding his breath he gently pushed the power button. Sweet Mary! Heavens above! It worked. He had fixed it.
By now it was completely dark. After giving himself ten minutes to recover as best he could, Richard snapped on his head lamp, gathered his things and decided to brave the drizzle and try to head down the mountain. He barely had enough will to fore himself to keep putting one step in front of the other. Blindly trusting the GPS map to get him back on trail and back to his car. After what seemed like decades but was in reality only a few hours, Richard made it back to his car. A very long hot shower, some good food and a beer later, he felt almost human again. Later as he collapsed into bed, as he drifted off to sleep he reflected on his experience. This was something new, maybe he was truly gifted. Could it be that he had just imagined the whole “perceive and fix-it ability”? He could not be sure, but later he might try to run some experiments.
(OCC, this is essentially a closed thread unless anyone wants to tag on a email message/phone call on behalf of a company inviting Rich to NY. If not he will head there regardless)
Character’s full name: Richard Hung Sum Bent Alias/Nickname/Code name: (Has none, would welcome someone in character to suggest one, must be OOC approved) Gender: Male Age: 29 Date of Birth: September 23rd 1987 Birthplace/Home/Place of origin: Hong Kong Nationality: New Zealand Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Half New Zealand half Malaysian Chinese
Appearance:
Hair color and style: very dark brown as to appear black except under direct sunlight Skin Tone: light Asian tan Eye Color: Dark Brown Height: ~177cm Build: compact, lean, athletic Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Scar or left rear of head due to childhood biking accident, usually covered by hair, a birthmark in the shape of an X under left arm.
Everyday clothing style: Functional and comfortable are the goals. T-shirt under a flannel shirt, comfortable jeans and sneakers.
Sleepwear: T-shirt and shorts/sweatpants (pending weather), and if the weather is cold a soft dressing gown. Miscellaneous clothing: He wears a pair of frameless glasses. Having lived in Colorado for a time he usually carries a legally sized flip knife clipped to the inside of his right jean pocket. A ring with abstract dragon motifs resides on his right index finger while a silver looking ring with faint engraved writing lives on his right middle finger.
Character
Personality: Richard is half introvert half extrovert by nature. He enjoys meeting new people and interacting with friends but is also happy being alone and indeed requires a certain amount of “alone/ down” time each day. He is level headed, perceptive and empathic, able to quickly gain the trust of others due to the fact that he is always honest and very genuine. Small talk tires him. He judges people by their character and not by their appearance or quirks and is always happy to offer a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. Values trust and loyalty very highly and is; himself a very loyal person once his trust is gained. He is decisive but not impulsive, and can stubbornly cling to his point of view once he has reasoned through it. He respects that others are entitled to their point of view and opinions whether he agrees with them or not.
In terms of thinking, Richard is an intuitive yet methodical person, always seeking to learn new skills and ideas. His mind takes every new concept, idea or piece of knowledge and treats it almost as if it were a 3 dimensional puzzle piece. Consciously or subconsciously his mind is constantly trying to combine the thousands of puzzle pieces together in new and untried combinations. When a connection is found it is as if Richard is able to see the world in a new light, now ways of thinking are suddenly opened up to him.
Richard is a capable multitasker, and good at managing time and resources, he is most happy where he has one or two “good” challenging problems or projects to mull over and constantly seeks intellectual stimulation.
Hobbies/ Interests: Singing, freerunning/Parkour, climbing, shooting, hiking, cycling, Robotics, multi-rotor vehicle piloting and construction, robotics, cooking, gaming, reading, programming, machining, self-defence martial arts. Job or part time job and description: Mechanical engineer specializing in robotics (mobile and industrial) and industrial automation. Recently finished second masters in Colorado and seeking work. (Has applied to various labs and companies all over the US including the famous Mondragon labs.). Fears/ phobias/ concerns: boredom, betrayal of trust by friends. Trying new things in areas he is not confident in. Special talents: Possessing an engineer’s mindset, Richard is able to learn and apply new concepts and skills quicker than most in the area of technology (mechanisms, programming mechanisms, marrying hardware and software for mechanisms etc). Due to his background Richard is trilingual (English, Cantonese & Mandarin) despite not being good at languages.
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: (Neutral I guess) Richard is loyal to his friends almost to a fault. He can quickly determine and work out the framework and set of rules of his current situation and work with them, but is more than happy to “bend” a few rules now and then. Does he mind designs weapons that can cause massive damage or mayhem? No, to him the problem is intellectual; it is a contract, a job. You pay him, he delivers. What you use it for afterwards, that is your affair. He is not inherently cruel and is not sadistic. To be honest which ever faction gets their hands on him first as long as they can provide him with challenges and are loyal to him and honest in their dealings with him, he will probably side with whatever morality they have except in extreme cases.
Mutations
Mutation description:
Richard’s powers have two aspects. Aspect 1: The power of comprehension Richard is an engineer, he is able to pick up a mechanism, gadget or device and by concentrating (the energy required to “comprehend” depends on the devices size, complexity and the amount of practice that he has had) is able to “see” in his mind’s eye how that device should work, why it is built the way it is, is it worn, is it about to fail in a certain way soon. He is also able to discern where things are not as they should. I should clarify by saying that this ability is generally limited to components that you can easily hold in both hands. He cannot for example walk up to the large Hadron collider and “focus” and then magically understand how it all works. If you gave him a credit card sized circuit board for instance, he would be able to tell you what the individual components do, and if it was not working, most likely where the problem is.
Aspect 2:The power of Manipulation (for the purposes of creating, modifying, fixing or disabling) Richard is able to execute small scale manipulation of inorganic materials, such as metals, plastics, metallic inks, composites, metallic alloys etc. The stronger the bond between particles/molecules the more energy required to manipulate them. i.e. Richard will (in the future) come to realize that shaping plastics is easy (think human 3D printer) but trying to sharpen a blade make of A2 tool steel (what drill bits are made of ) may cause him to black out. Until he has a power growth, don’t expect him to even be able to touch titanium or any of the more exotic alloys unless with a booster such as Muse. It should be noted that the less shaping is requires the easier it would be to do, you cannot give Richard a fist sized piece of aluminium and expect him to turn it into a knife. He might be able to remove the burrs of the scrap metal but certainly not melt it or reform it. He might be able to turn a blank key into a useable one but that would also take a lot of energy. It should be noted that all of Richard’s powers require contact or very close (think in terms of hair’s width) to work. He vaguely knows about the first power and has a little inkling of the second.
Strengths:. Richard’s skill of comprehension would be useful in a number of scenarios. Say a raid was conducted on an enemy base and some gadgets were brought back that had been damaged. Richard could probably hazard a pretty good guess as to how they were meant to work and what was needed to make it working again (hardware only, Richard cannot “see” code). Say an important operation was about to be conducted, it might be useful to get Richard to conduct a detailed examination of each piece of critical equipment, to see if he could detect any potential points of failure.
His power of manipulation is useful in that, say on a circuit board buried under some chips there is a small piece of foreign matter creating a short circuit. After comprehending the problem, with the expenditure of energy Richard might be able to “convince” said matter to change shape a little so that it will fall out of the mechanism. If some solder is cracked leading to a break of the circuit, Richard might be able to force the circuit back together. This power is limited in scale. Say of someone was threatening Richard with a gun to the head, in a moment of duress, Richard might be able to make the mouth of the gun constrict slightly, so that when it is fired the bullet is not able to leave the barrel causing the gun to backfire. However such an effort would leave him feeling like he had run a marathon.
His abilities when combined make for a formidable, fixer, inventor and maintainer. But overall are support powers and are not suitable for use in combat aside from self defence and small scale anti-personal attacks and perhaps acts of sabotage
Weaknesses and Limitations: The weaknesses of his power have mostly been covered in the section above, however overuse would cause varying degrees of physical exhaustion. As Richard is not that experienced in the use of his powers (but will quickly acquire a basic proficiency), something as small as fixing a circuit board will leave him feeling like he has done a 200 meter sprint. Something like modifying a blank key into a useable one will leave him feeling like he has run a full marathon. As mentioned before his powers work best on small changes, the more material that needs moving, the greater the movement needed and the harder the material, the more energy it will consume.
Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities: Richard is into hiking and free running so he has good endurance, also having lived in Colorado for 4+ years he has acclimatized to the high altitude so when operating at sea level will gain a small boost. He has good reflexes and is reasonably flexible (thanks to climbing). In times of duress from his power he may have a little above average general stats but only for short periods of time (think minutes) and will be exhausted afterwards. Strength is a little above average due to the previously mentioned sports.
Fighting Style: Richard has learned a little wing chun here a little tai chi there, a little Mui Thai here. He is capable of self defence, his love of shooting gives him good proficiency with hand guns and rifles and he can defend himself with a knife or balisong.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Will not stand a chance against military or special forces training but is more than capable of running away from (free running) or defending himself against your average thugs.
History of Your Character
Richard Bent was born to a New Zealand father and a Malaysian Chinese mother. He grew up in Hong Kong, in a city of 9 million people. From youth he was immersed in an environment that was a mixing pot of cultures. He quickly learned how to read and assess people and the important lesson that one should never judge a person by their appearance or their quirks. In high school whilst struggling with learning Cantonese and mandarin he started a robotics club that exists to this day. He excelled in robotics competitions leading his school team to national and international competitions. He also took up Tai Chi for 4 years, gaining a basic proficiency as well as becoming highly proficient at free running in such an obstacle rich environment.
Later he attended the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It was there his aptitude for absorbing and applying concepts began to manifest itself. He seems to have a amazing ability to quickly grasp a problem, break it down into manageable blocks and formulate solutions. This ability seemed heightened when he was required to reverse engineer mechanisms or to design or improve new designs. His excelled work ethic, perfectionist nature, inquisitive mind and constant ability to finish projects ahead of schedule were well known there. He also took up Wing Chun for 2 years gaining a basic proficiency.
Whilst doing an internship in Hong Kong he started dating an American from Colorado and when he graduated with his masters he moved to the United States to try to find workand continue the relationship. Alas, in that endeavour and in his pursuit of love both met with failure. He was able to obtain a job as a research assistant at the prestigious Colorado School of Mines and there decided to pursue a Masters degree that would be recognized in the states. IT was while hiking in the mountains of Colorado that he first discovered his powers, they effectively saved his life (See sample RP section below).
He has just graduated from the prestigious Colorado School of Mines with a 4.0 GPA. As Mines students are in high demand in industry, with this and a CV fortified with extensive internships and project work for various industry sectors, Richard essentially has his pick of places to go for work and has applied all over the USA for employment.
OCC: This is where an organization could offer Richard a job and so get him to move to NY. If this does not work I will give him some arbitrary job with some company there. Richard knows that he is “gifted” but would not every connect that to being a mutant. I am open to any potential employers discovering and choosing to inform Richard of this. As Richard would be coming from Colorado, and as you know marijuana has recently been legalized there, it is not uncommon for employers to request potential employees to give urine/blood/hair samples for drug tests. Other than that, there is no way that I can see for a character IC to know that Rich is a mutant. If one did a detailed search you would only be able to determine that he is extremely gifted and good at what he does.
Roleplay
Where did you learn about this site?: I was first introduced to this site by a character known as Hunter Antonescu. I created two characters, Dragonking and Hades.
Sample RP: Richard breathed in deeply, savouring the crisp fresh mountain air. Having completed all of his classes, submitted the final version of his thesis (which by now he was thoroughly sick and tired of) and completed the check out procedure, this was the first time in a long while that he had time to rest and relax, to recharge and creep back from the edge of burnout. After thoroughly enjoying the almost foreign sensation and novelty of sleeping in, he had headed out to one of Colorado’s 14-ers for a relaxing hike. He had nothing on his plate, no duties or obligations to discharge and graduation was 2 weeks away. His job applications were going well and he expected to hear back from various companies within the next few days. This was his time to recharge, to almost re-center himself.
He luxuriated in the smell of pine, the brilliant vibrant deep blue sky that stretched endless as far as the eye could see, the wispy flat bottomed clouds that were so characteristic of Colorado, the joyous sounds of birds singing and leaves rustling in the wind. He reached the summit before lunch and headed back down to a valley with a lake to have lunch. He sat, lost in thought, reflecting on his life to date, he wondered where he would go next.
“To Boston perhaps? To San Diego? I hear there is some good cutting edge research and challenging work being done in New York!”
His mind wandered to and fro and he must have dozed off as he was suddenly and rudely awoken by cold drops of rain falling on his face. Drat it, it was getting dark and there was a thunderstorm on the way. He had gone off trail and did not fancy trying to outrun the fast approaching storm. He headed to a nearby grove of trees to take shelter.
Richard was at a dilemma, he did not want to venture out in the thunder storm and risk a painful demise via extreme high voltage but by the time the storm blew over it would probably be dark. He had not expected to doze off for that long. It has been a long semester/year. He mused. He did not fancy trying to find the trail again in the darkness, where trail markers and signs would be masked by the inky blackness; nor did the idea of spending the night on the mountain top appeal to him. It was then he remembered that he had brought a GPS map device as a backup. Joyfully he grabbed at his slightly scuffed backpack. In his haste to reach the grove of trees he had taken a spill or two, but had avoided any injury by landing on his backpack. His joy turned to dismay however when he observed the cracked casing of the device and the fact it would not turn on.
The trees provided a modicum of shelter and lacking anything better to do he decided to try to see if the device could be fixed. After all, he DID NOT want to spend the night shivering on a mountainside. Having divested the GPS of its outer case he preceded to prod and poke it and examine it for any obvious signs of damage. He could not find any. As he turned over the circuit board in his hand, he thought he felt a niggling, as though he was on the verge of some new revelation or knowledge, something new yet strangely familiar. He pushed with his mind, and felt as though there was a barrier; with nothing to lose he decided to press harder. Now Richard had always possessed a certain stubbornness, a tenacity, a force of will. It was this that he brought to bear, pushing against this “barrier” that he felt in his mind. Harder and harder he pushed, his teeth were gritted, a vein on his forehead started pulsing. Yet harder and harder he pushed, then, suddenly with an almost audible “Snap”, he was through. Suddenly Richard felt this almost heady rush of endorphins, this new level or whatever he had come into, well, it felt Glorious. In his mind’s eye, an image of the circuit board that he held suddenly appeared, but with it can knowledge, insight. He had never studies how GPS devices worked but suddenly as he mentally “reached” for the different components, he institutively began to understand what each component did, how the circuits were connected. Oh he could not design one, but he could suddenly and with growing clarity and certainty understand how they were constructed and how they worked. But wait, there was more, something felt off about this circuit, hungry for more insight and knowledge, Richard pushed harder.
By this time, Richard had lost perception of the world around him; he no longer heard the rumble of thunder or felt the occasional drops of rain that managed to get through the thick foliage. He no longer felt the cooling temperatures or the increasingly biting wind. As Richard explored and examined the circuit board with his mind’s eye, he increasingly got the feeling that something was not quite right, not quite as it should be. Was it in this corner, no, no, a little to the left, wait, wait, There! There! Hidden underneath a black circuit chip, there was some metallic foreign matter that was creating a short circuit, it looked, felt like some type of metallic foil wedged between the bottom of the chip and two copper paths on the circuit board. But there was more, up a bit, up a bit more, no, not on this side. The other side, There! There! The solder connecting two contacts had cracked, probably by the fall and lead to a break in the main power circuit. That was why it was not turning on.
With a rush of satisfaction, Richard sat back, he knew, he knew what was wrong. It occurred to him that this “ability” was one he had been using often, albeit not to this level of power. This was how he could look at a project or system, stare intently at it, and after a while, days/hours/weeks either he would suddenly gain better insight into the system that would inspire a solution or he would institutively get a hunch or two of where the problem was. With this glowing feeling of satisfaction, the reality of the situation came rushing back. His elation plummeted. It was cold out, it was still raining, the light was almost gone, and he had probably enough clothing to stay alive and survive the night, but it would not be a pleasant experience. The most frustrating thing was the he now knew what was wrong, but did not have the tools on hand to fix the problem. In a fit of frustration and anger he was tempted to hurl the currently useless device far away into the brush. Then a thought occurred to him. Hey! By just focusing my will I was able to understand what was wrong with this circuit board, I guess mind over matter can be true in some cases, the evidence supports the fact. Who knows maybe I can “will” this dumb board to work.
But knowing the problem and fixing it were two different things. How does one “will” something to work? Richard decided to approach this challenge as he would any other problem. Perhaps I can will the short circuit away, maybe I can mentally “shift” that foil. He thought. He once again set his slightly tired mind and body to it. Imagining that small piece of foil in his mind, he willed it to deform slightly, to crumple so that it would fall out. As he did this he was conscious of facing a different barrier. This was different from the last one; it seemed to give more easily. With the first barrier to comprehension, it was hard to break through yes, but once through it was easy to stay in the “zone” and it felt glorious. This one seemed to give more easily but one never knows, so steeling himself, Richard pushed.
He broke through almost immediately but found that he had to keep pushing to stay in this “second zone”. In this new zone he could feel the various parts of the circuit board almost as an extension of him. He focused on the foil and willed/pushed it to move, to crumple. It was hard; it felt as if he was trying to use a muscle that he had never used. He gritted his teeth and poured on the will power. Wait! There! He felt it shift slightly. Come on Richard he said to himself, This is only a puny piece of foil. Come on! He pushed harder, a trickle of sweat then another appeared on his brow and began to trickle down his face. Richard was to focused to notice. With a final heave, the piece of foil crumpled just enough to allow it to fall away. Richard became aware of the world again. He was breathing hard and felt as if he had just run a 400 meter sprint. He downed a cliff bar, had some water to prevent dehydration and took a few moments to rest. “If moving a piece of foil is that hard, I hate to think what it will take to restore that connection again!” He said to himself.
Richard gave himself a few minutes to rest and recover, and then set to again. This time he knew what to expect, it was slightly easier to break the second barrier. It was still hard and took energy but at least he know a little of what to expect. He visualised the cracked connection, the solder that has broken off. To make this work again I guess I will have to try to bend the pin back into place. This might get painful. He set his mind, his formidable will power to it. He only had to bend the small pin back a hairs breadth or two, but to him it seemed a herculean task. He pushed, and pushed, he visualized the pin moving and elongating slightly. He felt it twitch. He pushed harder. His teeth were clenched; sweat was beading on his brow and running down his face. His breathing was ragged. He mentally lashed himself, to use more force. Then, finally, just when he thought he would black out… “GAhhhhhh!” The pin snapped back into place and seemed wedged there firmly enough.
Richard fell back, still holding the circuit board. His hands were trembling, he was shaking. He felt utterly exhausted and mentally spent. With shaking hands and barely cohesive movements he tried to put the GPS device back together. After several attempts, he succeeded. Holding his breath he gently pushed the power button. Sweet Mary! Heavens above! It worked. He had fixed it.
By now it was completely dark. After giving himself ten minutes to recover as best he could, Richard snapped on his head lamp, gathered his things and decided to brave the drizzle and try to head down the mountain. He barely had enough will to fore himself to keep putting one step in front of the other. Blindly trusting the GPS map to get him back on trail and back to his car. After what seemed like decades but was in reality only a few hours, Richard made it back to his car. A very long hot shower, some good food and a beer later, he felt almost human again. Later as he collapsed into bed, as he drifted off to sleep he reflected on his experience. This was something new, maybe he was truly gifted. Could it be that he had just imagined the whole “perceive and fix-it ability”? He could not be sure, but later he might try to run some experiments.
