Name: Paxton James
Alias: Scion
Age: 19
Date of Birth: Feb 1, 1991
Hometown: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Height: 6'1
Weight: 175 lbs
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Nationality/Race: Caucasian, some Native American ancestry
Occupation: College Student
Personality Profile: Quietly confident and friendly by nature, Paxton doesn't really feel he has anything to prove to the world around him. Rather, he prefers to mind his own business most of the time, looking out for himself and his loved ones and leaving the world to sort itself out. Generally a rather patient man, he was raised with good manners and can get rather annoyed by people who are aggressively rude. He's a studious person by nature, but doesn't neglect his body either, not quite a 'health nut,' but a firm believer in eating right and regular exercise, though he does smoke and drink on occasion, since, as he puts it "Everybody's gotta have vices, and with my heritage, it's either this or robbin' banks."
Physical Description: Paxton is tall and well built, by most peoples' estimation he's pretty good-looking as well. He lets his dark hair grow out into a rather messy mop that he's forever pushing out of his eyes, and is usually sporting a bit of stubble. He tends to dress pretty casually most of the time, favoring jeans and khakis, tee shirts(or flannel shirts in cooler weather), and a nice, worn-in pair of tractor boots. He has a pair of silver, wire-framed glasses that he hates, but can't abide contact lenses, he normally only wears them to read.
Character Picture (Optional):
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Mutation/Powers: Ancestor Channeling
Primary : Incarnation Awareness - Scion can summon the spirits of his ancestors and communicate with them. The ones he's currently aware of that he can summon are: Frank James - Legendary outlaw and bank robber, Bill James - WWII soldier, Three-Bears - Apache brave, "Jolly" Paul Jameson - Pirate, and James, Baron Wharton - Crusader
Secondary : Gestalt - Merges with a summoned ancestor, his physical body transforming into theirs, while they gain his memories, specifically English and the basics of the contemporary world(don't step out in front of cars, that thing that's making the noise at you is a communications device, etc).
Tertiary : Artifact Creation - When he gestalts with the spirit of an ancestor, he automatically summons all their clothing and belongings that they normally carried on their person.
Artifact Lists:
Bill James
Uniform
Steel Helmet
Canteen & Portable Stove
Rations
Flashlight
First Aid Kit
Gas Mask
Tent
Cigarettes
Zippo lighter
German-English and Italian-English phrasebooks
Entrenching Tool
Web Belt with 4 Thompson clips and 2 1911 clips
Thompson Submachine Gun
Colt 1911 pistol
Combat Knife
Frank James
Clothing and boots
Spurs
Bowie Knife
Flask of whiskey
Tobacco Pouch and matches
2x S&W Model 3 Schofield Revolver (.45 schofield)
2x Colt Peacemaker (.45 colt/schofield)
Winchester Model 1873 Rifle (.44-40)
2 bandolier/holster belts (24x .45 cartridges, 6x .44-40's)
Three-Bears
Clothing
Bow
Dried meat and fruit
Lengths of rawhide
Quiver of arrows(obsidian and rusty iron tips)
10x knives(obsidian and iron blades)
3x tomahawks(iron heads)
warclub(stone head)
"Jolly" Paul Jameson
Clothing
2x Flintlock Pistols
Blunderbuss
Cutlass
Boarding Axe
Grenado
Horn of black powder
Bag of bullets and grapeshot
James, Baron Wharton
Full Plate Armor
Shield
Longsword
Flail
Warhammer
Drawbacks/Weaknesses/Side Effects : Summoning ancestors isn't always a sure thing... Or for that matter, a voluntary one. They can pop up at the most inconvenient times, often plaguging him while he needs to concentrate, or bothering him while he wants privacy. He also can't always choose which ancestor he summons, especially when he's under pressure. (In a high-pressure situation, mun will gameserv 1-5, Bill being one, James being 5) Plus, it just doesn't look good in general to be walking down the street amongst the "normal" folk having a conversation, or even an argument, with somebody who isn't there. Gestalt lasts for up to 30 minutes in-game time.
While in gestalt, Paxton's consciousness is shunted to the back of his mind, able to observe what is going on, but with no control whatsoever of his body, incapable of doing anything or communicating with anyone but that ancestor(or possibly some psychics). Worse still, the more often he gestalts with an ancestor, the more he starts to take on their personality traits, he fears that if he does it one time too often, that ancestor may gain the ability to possess him at will... Or worse, he may never come back at all. This is also an extremely tiresome process as well, and usually after regaining control of his body he needs two hot meals and twelve hours of sleep, not always in that order.
Artifact creation only occurs while he is in gestalt, summoning the specific possessions of that ancestor, and is limited to what they would carry about their person(He can summon Frank James' pistols, Winchester and clothing, but not his horse. He can summon Bill James' uniform, Thompson, entrenching tool, 1911 and other gear, but not his jeep)
How do you believe this character's powers will further develop in the future? As he continues learning about his ancestry through the combination of study and using his powers, the pool from which Paxton can summon an ancestor will grow larger. He may also, eventually, realize it's possible to gestalt with other mutants he's not related to, increasing their own abilities or developing new ones, but this will require a great deal of trust and practice between he and the given partner, not something he'll just be able to do with anyone on the fly. In addition, he may eventually learn how to summon one or two objects from a given ancestor without actually gestalting them, however, this will likely be for a limited duration and he won't be able to 'mix and match.'
Background: All children have imaginary friends at some point or another... But most of them have animals, or other children like themselves, or fantastic creatures... Paxton James had a legendary gunslinger and bank robber. Most children's imaginary friends play games with them and keep them entertained... Paxton's taught him about the bible, how to shoot, and how to ride. Most children's imaginary friends go away after a certain age... Paxton's never did.
That last was rather concerning for his parents around the time he reached age 12. While other kids were playing videogames and having sleepovers, young Paxton was content by himself, studying, going out into the woods alone, and constantly asking for trips to the local ranch so that he could ride the horses there. His parents tried gentle persuasion, then threats, then punishment, all in vain as they attempted to get him to admit that he wasn't really spending time with Frank James. His mother blamed his father of course, for filling the boy's head with lurid tales about his great-great-grandfather's exploits. His father blamed his mother for coddling him too much.
Eventually he was sent to a psychiatrist, who started with psychotherapy and ended with anti-psychotics, not a good thing to be putting into a young boy's blood stream. Still, there was no result. For four years he saw varying therapists, and while he eventually learned not to talk about his friends(more had started to appear over time, especially during the 'vacations' he spent under observation, mostly alone or surrounded by catatonics and schizophrenics) to other kids, he adamantly refused to admit that they weren't real. By the time he was 14, his parents had reached their wits' end. His mother left his father, washing her hands of both of them and getting remarried to another man, adopting his family and refusing to speak to the ex-husband who was now drunk most of the time, or the son who she considered to be incurably insane.
The breaking point was finally hit when he was 15. His father came home drunker than ever, to find that Paxton had broken into his safe, gotten out the revolver he kept there, and spent the evening target-shooting in the back yard. Some part, deep in Lucas James' mind couldn't help be a little impressed by the incredible accuracy of the targets, but that was swallowed amidst a drunken rage. He'd had enough, if the fancy head-shrinkers and all this new-age psycho-babble couldn't cure his boy, he'd do it the old fashioned way. Paxton had recieved spankings before in his childhood, he'd even gotten the belt a few times(usually when he'd tried to get the gun for 'real' practice, as opposed to the air-guns he kept getting ahold of), but his father had never truly beaten him before.
When the first punch hit him, fracturing his jaw, he realized that was about to change. He looked up at Frank, where he was standing in the corner, watching in a mixture of horror and sadness, and begged for help, reaching out to the only true friend he'd ever really had as his father drove kick after kick into his ribs. Unthinkingly, the ghost reached out for him, and somewhere in all that emotional turmoil and desperation, the X-Gene ignited. Between one kick and the next, Lucas James suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of a Smith & Wesson model 3. As the hammer cocked back, he looked at the boy behind it... Except it wasn't a boy. It was a man fully-grown, with a hard stare and a mean slash of a mouth. And finally, Lucas James believed.
After that, life in the James household grew a bit more peaceful, if tense. Lucas stopped drinking and found God, trying to understand what had happened in his life. Paxton went back to his studies, and oddly, now that someone finally believed, no longer found it quite so stressful having a steadily growing 'club' of ghosts who visited him at seemingly random times. The drugs cleared out of his system, the unhelpful psychiatry ceased, he found he was rather an intelligent young man, and over the course of his last two years at high school managed to push his grade average up high enough to get accepted into Oklahoma State University.
Life was getting back on track. Once he was clear of his hometown, and no longer branded by everyone around him as "the crazy James kid," he even started to really enjoy life, partying, dating girls, and generally living the college dream. Of course, he kept up with his studies(Now that 'them idiot head-docs wasn't pumpin' him fulla stupid' as Frank put it, his best friend wouldn't have it any other way). That was not to last however.
It was another fight that would be the end of his peace, as the fight with his father had been the beginning. Paxton had gone out for football and made it on the team as the second-string quarterback. In the clutch game that would get them into the playoffs, Paul Mosely the first-stringer sprained his wrist and Paxton had to replace him. He did so willingly, and, to the shock of everyone(including the scout sitting out in the stands), proceeded to throw two touchdown passes and even run 20 yards to score one of his own when his receiver was covered, winning the game 31-20. It should have been a night of victory...
Except, at the party, Paul confronted him with two of his friends. As everyone backed away to watch the beating, Paxton panicked. He was not a fighter, he had never been. He called out for Frank... But Frank didn't come. Instead, it was Three-Bears who answered the call. Frank James understood that a fight between men didn't have to go beyond fists unless the other man pulled iron first... Three-Bears was a proud Apache warrior, and came from a culture that didn't believe in starting a fight you weren't planning on seeing all the way through. Therefore, it was nearly a miracle that Paul Mosely escaped that night with only a smashed knee, a fractured shoulder, a severed hamstring and a slice across his forehead. His other two friends, immediately on seeing themselves confronted by a powerful warrior armed to the teeth and whooping out a war cry had fled, it was only the combined efforts of three security guards with tasers that kept Paul from getting one hell of a haircut that night.
While Paul Mosely chose not to press charges out of terror that he might awaken some night with the baleful stare of Three-Bears being the last thing he ever saw... Oklahoma State is a mutant-friendly college... But maintains a zero-tolerance policy to weapons on campus, even if the weapons in question are a stone-headed club and a dozen obsidian-bladed knives. Paxton James was expelled a week later after a formal hearing of the academic board, but the Dean, a true mutant-sympathizer if ever there was one, suggested an alternative to giving up on schooling entirely, writing him a letter of reccomendation to Cobalt Academy.
Quirks, Extras, Random Character Facts:
Paxton frequently seems to be holding animated conversations with himself, or at least, looks like he's listening to(or trying to ignore) something no one else can hear.
While History is the subject he devotes the most time studying to(for obvious reasons) he also loves science and has a passion for art(if not any real talent).
Paxton collects firearms, particularly revolvers and rifles, and is an excellent shot with everything he owns, as well as being an amateur gunsmith of no small talent.
He also collects old coins, keeping several framed displays of them on his walls, while the more valuable ones are kept in a safe deposit box, though he has a book full of pictures of his rarer ones.
He despises air-travel of any kind, and gets airsick very easily.
Is the owner of a 1937 Plymouth which he is in the process of restoring, in the meantime he drives a 2005 F-150.