hey hi hello everyone! i’m c, and i’ll be playing this ‘lil problem child i like to call jake -- but he prefers to be called viall.
so jake and his parents don’t speak. he hasn’t spoken to them since his powers manifested when he was 11. he lived with his aunt for a bit while he was a kid, and then his uncle, and was kind of shuttled around the family until he was old enough to legally emancipate himself and get the heck outta dodge. he’s never had a good, stable, family member who didn’t look at him like he was a freak.
for a long time, jake was confused about his powers. the first time they manifested he could control fire. it was out of control at first, nearly burning down the house on more than one occasion, and tended to get worse depending on his mood. it had seemed like a relief the day it stopped happening, when a tantrum didn’t cause flames to shoot up from his palms, but his relieved parents were equally dismayed when he started levitating above his bed in the mornings. with his powers constantly changing, never remaining constant, it was difficult to control. it seemed that once he’d gotten a handle on one ability, it would change to something else. he would later learn, after his aunt took him to see a specialist, that his power was simply mimicking the abilities of others. STEALING, as he so fondly put it, by the simple act of touch -- whether the other person liked it or not. it wouldn’t hurt them or take their abilities, no, it simply allowed him to gain access to them as well. until he came into contact with other gifted individuals.
it took time to learn to control his powers, or to feel that they weren’t a hinderance. he learned to channel his power and be selective -- he could CHOOSE whether or not he stole someone’s power if he bumped into them on the street, or elsewhere. he honestly woudn’t have chosen to go to the academy if the incident hadn’t occurred.
the incident refers to his girlfriend (see also, boss) finding out about his powers in a rather inopportune moment. thinking he could trust her, he’d used telekinesis he’d ‘borrowed’ from someone on the subway months ago to make breakfast in the kitchen while they spent the morning together in bed. she’d screamed and cowered in fear when he brought it in to them and had been floored when she kicked him out of the apartment they shared. by the time he went in to work the next day, everyone knew what he was -- and they hated him. people who’d once been friends, people he hung out with socially, would no longer look him in the eye... or worse. his car was vandalized, his job gone, and were it not for his abilities he was quite sure his ex’s three brothers would have finished him off when they cornered him outside of his apartment. angry, devastated, and with nowhere else to turn... he went where he knew it’d be safe. where he’d have a chance to regroup.
jake has always had his anger issues, but the most recent exposure to mutantphobia was enough to really set him off. he’s tired of being treated like less than human, less than people who can’t do the incredible things that they can, and feels that it’s time they take back the lives that society has tried to steal from them. he doesn’t want to hide in the shadows anymore... and if that means getting rid of anyone who stands in their way, he’s not opposed to the idea. but it’s all about timing...
