Name: Paul Montini
Alias: Revenant
Age: Stated age 43, actual age unknown.
Date of Birth: February 16
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Hair Color: Variable
Eye Color: Variable
Nationality/Race: Italian-American
Occupation: Research Scientist
Personality Profile: Paul tends to speak his mind, regardless of whether or not it's what other people want to hear. He's not incapable of tact; he simply prefers to be blunt. In his own words, he's not a member of the "hugs and cookies committee," but has empathy for the difficulty circumstances most young mutants have grown up in. and is genuinely interested in their well being. He prefers to take a laid back approach when possible, but the more abrasive aspects of his personality surface when he exhausts his limited patience for what he perceives as stupidity, incompetence, or rudeness. He has a marked phobia of telepaths, and has difficulty concealing it. It can take him a long time to become comfortable around a new telepath.
Physical Description: Revenant most frequently takes the form of an adult male of Italian-American descent, 6'3" tall and weighing approximately 200 pounds. He has dark hair and eyes, and his apparent age varies from late 20s to mid 40s, sometimes changing over the course of a few hours. It is not known whether or not this is his "true" appearance, or just a favored form. He has no tattoos, scars, or other identifying marks in this form. His mode of dress tends to be extremely formal or extremely casual, equally likely to be seen in tailored suits or a t-shirt and jeans. His clothes are frequently synthesized from his own body.
Character Picture (Optional):
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Mutation/Powers: Shapechanging
Primary: Revenant has the ability to manipulate his body at the molecular level, and is able to mimic a variety of organic and inorganic substances. Learning how to mimic a new substance or a new organism requires extensive study and practice to master. He can easily change his apparent height, weight, age, appearance, gender, and voice, but mimicking a specific individual convincingly could require weeks of practice to master the nuances of voice, body language, posture, etc. He is not capable of recreating complex mechanical parts or electronic devices; simple hinges or levers such as a pair of scissors or pliers appears to be the limit to mechanical articulation possible for his powers. He is not capable of duplicating mutant powers.
He can change parts of his body to adapt to a situation, and has been observed to grow gills, wings, claws, or armor plating as required. He can also take on a liquid state and slither through small gaps. He cannot disperse into a gaseous state. Mass, volume, and density are variable through a process that he does not himself understand. If a piece of his body is separated from his main body mass, it will lose cohesion, liquefy, and attempt to slither back to rejoin the rest of him.
Drawbacks/Weaknesses:
While quite capable of handling himself in melee altercations, the nature of Revenant's abilities put him at a marked disadvantage against mutants with ranged abilities. He does not possess any special mental defenses, and is vulnerable to telepathic abilities. Drugs and alcohol adversely affect his ability to control his shapechanging.
How do you believe this character's powers will further develop in the future?
Paul has spent the majority of his life refining his abilities as a shapeshifter. He has been attempting to find some way to protect his mind from telepathic attacks, but has been unsuccessful so far.
Background:
Knowledge of Revenant's background is fragmentary because he is often evasive or reluctant to discuss his past. What has been gleaned from conversations with him over time is that he grew up in and around Chicago, Illinois. His mutant abilities manifested at the unusually early age of four, when he sprouted a pair of grey rabbit ears while watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. His mother's hysterical reaction convinced him that he had to keep it a secret so that he didn't get into any more trouble, though in time, he came to consider his abilities an 'ace in the hole.' His mother died in a car accident while he was still young, and he was raised by his grandparents after that.
As he continued to refine his mutant abilities during his adolescent years, he developed at flexible concept of self-identity, experimenting with changing his appearance and trying to pass himself off as a different person. He quickly developed a certain cockiness and disregard for the consequences of his actions, and believed that he could always just disappear and reappear as somebody else somewhere else the following day if any of his personas ever got into too much trouble. This eventually led him to get involved in criminal activities as a path to easy money, using his abilities as a secret weapon.
Attempts to understand the nature of his mutation and further refine his abilities led to his interest in science, and eventually the creation of Paul Montini, a 'clean and respectable' identity with which he could pursue higher education. He did his undergraduate studies at Loyola University Chicago, and his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, earning a PhD in cellular biology. He made a break with his past when he decided to abandon his less savory alter egos, feeling that they'd served their purpose. Paul became his full time identity, and spent a number of years as a researcher at the University of Chicago, and later at Cornell University in New York state.
He has written a number of papers and scholarly articles on genetics and the effects of X-gene expression on the cellular level. Growing ethical concerns about the ways in which his research might be misused led him to resign his position, and eventually, brought him to Cobalt Academy. After years in a laboratory and working exclusively with graduate students, a full time teaching position provided an entirely new set of challenges. His time at Cobalt Academy saw his skillset expand to include forays into xenobiology, virology, and forensics. He voted against the Academy's closure and the adoption of the Sanctum program, and opted not to remain in another capacity when the Academy's faculty were let go. Despite his initial misgivings over working for META, they provided the right mixture of incentives to convince him to take on a research position with them, which has brought him back him back to Cobalt Hill.
Quirks/Extras (Random fun facts about your character!):
X - Paul is an enthusiastic proponent of using the Sims as an educational and research tool, and regularly spends time trying to push the limits of the technology and find new applications for them.
X - Paul has a pet red-bellied piranha named Lemmy in a tank in his office.