Post by marklathan on Dec 4, 2008 17:24:54 GMT -7
The Handler
Name: Lathan, Mark Patrik
Nickname: “The Lathe”
Classification: Human
Gender: Male
Age & Birthday: 24, March 15
Appearance: Mark is slightly taller than average, standing at a height of around 5’11”. He is well built and defined, or muscular to say the least. Mark weighed around 227 pounds last he checked, though he doesn’t check his weight often. His extended legs make up around a third of his overall height, leading up to a long stocky torso. His shoulders are very broad and masculine, leading down to his muscular arms, which are of two different lengths. While both reach just past his waistline, one is in fact 3” shorter than the other. His hands are quite bulky. While his palms are large and sizeable, his fingers are rather slender, like that of a pianist.
Along the side of his left arm, a dark 1” scar can be found from a combat injury he sustained attempting to avoid the blade of an enemy combat knife. Underneath Mark’s chin, on the left side of his face, a small but apparent burn mark reaches down just above his larynx. From a distance, Mark’s torso would appear unscathed, but upon a closer inspection, one would find several scars from bullet wounds, intense fist fights, and methods of torture. On his right leg, a very visible scar reaches from his ankle to his knee which he acquired after a soldier in his platoon stepped on a landmine while Mark was nearby. Though he was able to barely escape the blast alive, he nearly lost his leg.
Apart from the burn under his chin, the area around Mark’s face is completely unscathed. The only distinguishing feature would be his slightly-larger-than-average nose, which is far from noticeable. Some would consider Mark to be quite attractive. His eyes are a faded shade of brown with a surrounding light grey tone that is only noticeable up close. His hair is dark brown. He often keeps it trimmed short, but when it grows out it begins to curl. He never shaves his beard entirely, leaving a sort of 5 o’clock shadow look to the area around his mouth. His teeth are straight and completely white, but he is missing his third molar on the left side of his mouth from a fistfight during which his face was slammed into a porcelain urinal.
Attire: Mark’s attire changes with his mood, as well as the weather. In the warmer months, he is often found in tan, baggy cargo shorts and a short-sleeve brown or black t-shirt. Holding these shorts firmly to his body is a black leather belt that fits him just perfectly. During these times, if Mark is happy, he often wears a red and black headband and a red and black wristband around his right wrist, or a dark brown long sleeve undershirt. If Mark is in any other mood, he often puts on a pair of all black shades.
During the colder times of the year, you can find Mark in a pair of dark-blue baggy jeans. The same black leather belt holds these jeans firmly to his body. He often wears a black or brown long-sleeve shirt, a black or brown T-shirt, a thin dark brown jacket, and a pair of brown leather gloves. Unless he is angry, his black and red headband can be found adorned upon his forehead at all times.
Regardless of his moods, Mark ALWAYS wears a few of the same items of clothing and accessories. On his feet, you can always find a pair of brand-new solid black running shoes. Strapped to the back of his right thigh, Mark keeps a small tan ammo pouch to hold his extra bullets, should he need them. Around his waist are two brown leather holsters for his pistols. Mark NEVER takes off his army tags for any reason whatsoever. Around his left wrist, Mark wears a small analog wristwatch with a black strap. It is always set in military time.
The Creation
Name: Mark
Power List: 1) Rapid Molecule Fluctuation
2) Atom Smashing
Detailed Power: 1) Mark can supercharge the molecules in his body to cause them to spin rapidly, severely damaging anything he touches. This action, while powerful to say the least, requires at least 2 seconds of complete concentration and can only be held for a maximum of 30 seconds; any longer will cause Mark to immediately pass out, with severe risk of permanent physical and/or mental damage. With concentration, Mark can create a 1 cubic foot area of fluctuating matter anywhere within a radius of 3 feet of himself. This action requires at least 5 seconds of concentration but can be held for over a full minute; if held out for longer than a full minute, this will cause little more than extreme exhaustion over a 24 hour period and an inability to fluctuate any molecules outside his physical being. Fluxing the molecules in his body causes damage to him each time it is used. If used for extended periods or too many times in a day, it can cause life threatening or permanent damage. At the very least, an overuse of Mark’s power causes an inability to use any matter fluxing abilities over a 12 hour period.
2) Using the same mechanics as his Molecule Fluctuating ability, Mark can cause two atoms to smash together with extreme force. This action causes a rapid and brief spark of kinetic energy, as well as a sonic boom, in a range of 5 feet in front of the source. The collision emits pushback equaling 8 yards for a person weighing around 125 lbs that varies inversely by two yards for every 25 pounds more, and a small quantity of radiation. At the best conditions, assuming the target is standing directly in front of Mark, this ability causes severe burns, an extreme loss of breath, and the full extent of its pushback. At its furthest range, this ability causes half of its pushback, extremely little to no radiation, and a potential loss of breath and/or balance. Mark cannot create this collision from anywhere but his immediate reach. Mark can use this ability immediately and without concentration. It can be used several times a day with little consequence save for minor exhaustion. If Mark reaches a state of extreme exhaustion, this ability cannot be used.
The Potential
Alignment/Occupation: Member of the BPRD
Weapons: Mark likes to carry around a fairly powerful set of equipment. His two light blue .22 caliber Walther P22s can be found holstered on either side of his waist, with an additional 10 clips in his ammo pouch. His only other weapon is a short 8” retractable gunmetal combat knife which can be found attached to his belt for easy access.
Personality: Mark is a rather strange man, and has been ever since he was a child. He always has had few friends due to his outright blunt and sometimes offensive nature. He enjoys inherently odd things, like reading equipment operation manuals, taking apart random machines; printers, televisions, and garage door openers just to see if he can put them back together. If he can’t, he often proceeds to see if he can combine the parts to make something entirely different. If he cannot, he immediately resorts to creating a mild explosive and destroying the technology all together.
At certain times of the day, he often has strange urges to smash random pieces of glass. After a few years of broken dishes, windows, vases and other items of similar construct, he began keeping a blunt instrument and random expendable items of glass lying around his house. Along with his strange habits, he also has a few normal ones. Every day he enjoys jogging and working out. He rather likes baseball, basketball and football, though he rarely has anyone to play with.
Mark excels greatly in physical strength and speed. He practices two forms of martial arts, karate; the widely known Japanese style, and Capoeira; a Brazilian art that combines the power of martial arts with the smooth flow of dance. He is quite accurate with firearms and can hit a relatively small target from a relatively far distance but prefers not to. He enjoys hand to hand combat far more than shooting a gun because he thinks that guns are for cowards and real men aren’t afraid to kick each other’s asses with their bare hands.
Mark is not an idiot. His IQ ranks slightly above the average of people his age. However, he is impatient. If he is required to wait for more than 10 minutes at a time, he begins to pace. He is unable to stand or sit in one place for more than an hour. It is difficult to get Mark to write, watch a movie, put a puzzle together or simply sit and listen to someone talk. It is because of this that he is often rash, acting on every impulse or saying anything that comes to mind without a single thought. At certain times, this impulse is useful; however, it is more of a detriment than an asset.
Mark’s various strange habits coupled with his impulsiveness often causes him to leave things half finished to go appease his whims. In combat situations, if Mark was sitting in a trench, he would stop firing for periods of ten minutes at a time so that he could see if he was able to take apart his equipment and put it back together. At one point, he smashed his binoculars with his rifle for no reason other than to see if he could. Needless to say, these many occasions not only awarded him severe discipline, but he ended up hundreds of dollars in debt to the government after he was discharged.
Mark also has a problem with effectiveness. Whenever he takes on a task, he always tries to rush through it, creating sloppy work. He is not one for stealth at all, having no idea how to soften his footsteps, control his breathing, attack without creating a ruckus, or disguise himself as someone he’s not. In fact, he has a nervous twitch that is painfully apparent when he lies. The second something untrue leaves his mouth, he bites down on his lip so hard that he bleeds, scratches his left arm furiously, and coughs very loudly.
It is impossible to get Mark to do anything unless there is some sort of benefit for himself. While it goes too far to say he is selfish, he is in no way selfless. He often gives things he wants but doesn’t need, or has and might need later to anyone he deems friendly. He is very eager to help anyone that asks him unless they are rude or unkind to him or any of his friends. At the same time, he is often the one who wants “the biggest cut” so to speak.
Though Mark is very rash and impatient, he is incredibly stern about keeping his space clean. He always has his living quarters spotless, his room completely sorted, his bed perfectly made, his clothes folded to regulation, and his dishes clean. All his movies, books, and games are stored by size and alphabetically and he always obsesses to keep his kitchen incredibly pristine to a point far past what some would call “clean-freak.”
Mark enjoys listening to music of all sorts. Anything from Bach to Metallica to VNV Nation to The Ramones to Christmas Music to obscure folk songs to Dragonforce to love songs to Disturbed and everything in-between piques his interest. He even creates his own music on guitar and piano in his spare time. He does not, however, write lyrics.
Mark enjoys walking. He’ll walk anywhere regardless of how long it takes and without any deterrence from weather conditions. In fact, Mark prefers to walk while it’s snowing and raining rather than while it’s warm and sunny or cool and windy. He feels that when he is walking in storms or blizzards, he gets a sense of connection to himself and finds it is a great time to think. He also enjoys watching sunrises, sunsets, and just staring up at the stars for hours on end.
Mark has an extreme dislike for the ocean. While he was younger, his uncle took him to a beach. The waves were pretty high and powerful that day, but Mark went out into the ocean anyway. After being relentlessly pounded by several waves, he got swept up in one of them and ended up on shore with salt water burning in his eyes and nearly puking. He never set foot in the ocean again. At the same time, however, Mark thoroughly enjoys swimming in either indoor or outdoor pools.
Mark loves watching the leaves change. He enjoys the vibrant contrast of all the oranges and reds and yellows as the leaves slowly fall from the trees. However, Halloween is his least favorite holiday. During one unfortunate Halloween, Mark was walking home with his full bag of candy after hours of trick-or-treating and some man with a red demon mask on slowly walked up behind him before snatching the bag right out of Mark’s hands and running away before Mark even knew what hit him. He never even wore another Halloween costume ever again.
The winter is Mark’s favorite season. He loves watching the snow slowly fall from the sky, sitting by the fireplace, decorating for Christmas, and especially likes the shorter days and grey skies. He also has many fond memories of creating snowmen and snow forts with his neighbor and various snowball fights with all the kids on the block. Christmas was never Mark’s FAVORITE holiday, but he always looked forward to it. He had few relatives apart from his uncle and only one set of grandparents on his father’s side, so he rarely received more than a few presents. Not to mention his family had trouble making the mortgage after his father lost his job.
Mark is easily what you could say is a “pyromaniac.” He’ll burn almost anything and everything just to see a fire. However, Mark has an extreme irrational fear of fireworks due to an incident that happened to him and his best friend when they were 14 which left his friend blind, deaf, and missing 3 fingers on his left hand. Because of this, Mark always remains safely locked away on the fourth of July.
Mark also has an extreme and irrational fear of snow globes. He is very self-conscious and feels he is not as attractive as some other people see him to be. This is partly because of his troubled childhood living with his father. Mark is in no way a shy person. He is always the first to greet someone he has never met before, and immediately sees “the best in all people” as he trusts almost everyone he meets. Ironically, the people he meets almost never seem to be willing to trust him. Mark also has a strange ability to wake up at exactly 6 am every morning and is unable to sleep past then.
Skills: Mark is an above-average repairman. He is as good at repairing things as you can get without special training. He is even able to repair some basic problems with complicated equipment like computers or cars due to his strange fascination with reading instruction manuals. If complicated problems arise, however, it would be best to call a professional, lest you get whatever it is you want repaired completely destroyed. While he may not be able to fix complicated electrical problems, he could easily get a broken radio, a jammed printer, or a simple clock working, or even install anything from an internet router to a car stereo as long as it does not require special training.
Mark is also quite good at creating explosives out of household materials. During his early years, he became fascinated with the mechanics of complicated explosives and sought to learn all there is about them. While he didn’t accomplish his goal, he did learn quite a bit about the mechanics of an average explosion. He is not able to create complicated firing mechanisms like detonating cord or proximity mines, but he knows enough to make a flash grenade out of aluminum foil, a coffee grinder, and a few other trace materials; or a simple boom out of household cleaning products.
Other than explosives and repairs, Mark spends his time writing music. He doesn’t write lyrics, but he writes guitar and piano parts. He thinks he is overall a pretty average guitarist/pianist but hasn’t really played in front of anyone enough to be told otherwise. His last notable skill would be that he has some knowledge of wildlife survival and first aid due to his military training.
Strengths: Mark is very strong and very fast. He knows his way around a gun enough to shoot a human from a relatively far distance, but prefers not to. He can create and use explosives out of simple materials if necessary. He trains in 2 forms of martial arts because he thinks that it is more honorable to fight a man in hand to hand combat.
Weaknesses: Mark is very rash. He acts on impulse and seeks to appease his every whim often without regard of what he is doing at the present time. He is mostly unable to lie, and cannot sneak around effectively. He is not always completely focused because he enjoys thinking about his life at all times. Whenever Mark hears the word Monster, he is stricken with severe grief and loses himself in the past. When Mark sees anything that reminds him of his torture; a bucket of ice water, a small dark room, or anything that resembles a pair of shackles, he goes insane with war flashbacks and immediately assumes everyone around him is an enemy soldier.
The Story
History: Mark was born like many other children. A routine conception had lead to a routine pregnancy which ended with a routine birth between two average people. The start of the birth was routine, at least. His mother was having normal contractions in labor. She refused an epidural for fear of damaging her son’s mind. He began to emerge from the womb like any other child when something strange happened. The doctors were unable to explain or even understand the event that was taking place as the baby that was in the process of birth was tearing up its mother’s uterus like it had razorblades attached to its body. Mark’s mother died mid-birth, just after Mark had popped his head out into the world.
All the doctors were stunned, and Mark’s father was devastated. He contemplated suicide until the doctor handed him his child. Once he was holding onto his baby boy, he was unable to let go. He and Mark’s mother had a fight about what to name their child were it a boy. They both agreed on Lauren Irene Lathan were it a girl, but the boy’s name was different. Mark’s father wanted to name his son John Henry Lathan the third, after Mark’s father and grandfather, but his mother wanted to call him Mark Patrik Lathan. A few hours after the birth, John decided to honor the wishes of his wife. From that day on, the baby was known as Mark Patrik Lathan.
2 years after Mark was born, Mark’s father lost his job after the owner of the company sold to a land developer and the company was liquidated. Fortunately, Mark’s father expected that very thing to happen. Before Mark was born, his father began storing fairly large portions of his paycheck in a private savings account. After a few years, it accumulated enough to pay for Mark and his father’s expenses for around a year at the least. Regardless, Mark’s father grew worried.
After around half a year of attempting to start his own business, Mark’s father finally gave up and took a sales job for wage plus commission. Despite the fact that he had returned to work, his pay was barely enough to pay the mortgage, let alone feed and clothe Mark and himself. He knew that his savings would dry up in a few months, and didn’t want to put that strain on his young child. After a month of starting his new job, Mark’s father put their house up for sale. It sold after around 2 months and gave Mark’s father enough to pay for a small 2 bedroom apartment for a full 4 years and still have some left over, and that wasn’t including his paycheck. He decided to begin saving for Mark’s future.
A few years passed. Mark was now 5 years old. One day, he looked outside his window to see a man with a baseball bat walking up to a house across the street. After watching the man for a few minutes, Mark saw the man take a swing at the glass door in back of the house. He watched as the glass broke into shards and began falling to the ground while glinting in the sunlight. He was fascinated by this, and wanted to see it up close. While his father was at work, Mark took several glasses from the cabinet, found a baseball bat, and walked out onto his porch.
He threw the first glass into the air, but missed completely. He was still amused as it shattered on the ground, but wasn’t satisfied. He took the second glass and smacked it as hard as he could with the wooden bat. He was enthralled by the way the glass shattered and flew through the air; it was thus far the most beautiful thing he had seen. Needless to say he took another glass and smacked it as well. Then another, and another, and another until he was all out of glasses.
Mark still wasn’t satisfied. He took out a plate from the cabinet and smashed it with the bat. This time, however, he was un-amused. The plate broke only into three shards, barely flew through the air, and didn’t glint in the sun like the glass did. At that point, Mark got an idea; a terrible idea, but an idea nonetheless. He began running around his house, smashing in all the windows with his bat. Each time he was more and more intrigued. Once he was out of windows, he started to smash vases, then mirrors, then car windows. He smashed all of them for hours until the sun went down. He then watched the sunset in quiet contemplation before lying in the grass and watching the stars.
Mark’s father came home soon after Mark had finished watching the stars and went inside. When he pulled into the parking lot he immediately saw the chaos and thought the complex had been robbed. Then he noticed that his apartment was the only one with all its windows smashed. He got out of his car and went inside to find Mark lying in the couch watching TV whilst cradling a baseball bat. He immediately realized it was Mark that caused all that chaos and became furious. He reached for the closest thing he could find, which happened to be a snow globe, and began to walk toward Mark, yelling in a loud voice.
Mark’s father chased Mark around the complex for around ten minutes before he threw a snow globe into the back of Mark’s head. Mark fell to the ground, bleeding, then was dragged back to his home where he was beaten with a snow globe and his father’s belt. Mark developed a strange, but somehow understandable fear of snow globes that day. He told himself he wouldn’t break a single piece of glass from then on. A month later, Mark found a new hobby. Again, it was a bit on the strange side.
Mark decided he would pick up instruction manuals and installation guides to anything he could find and begin reading them in bulk. He read everything from taking apart electronics to installing internet routers and even how to build a weed whacker from reading these manuals, but he wanted to apply his knowledge. One day, on an impulse, Mark decided to take apart the TV remote to see if he could put it back together. He took it apart quite easily and without breaking anything, but he couldn’t figure out how to put it back together. Mark’s father was indeed angry, but he had realized that it was not in any way good for Mark if every time Mark did something he began beating him with various household knickknacks. He decided it was better to give Mark a lecture, so he did.
Over the next two years, Mark continued reading the manuals and taking apart electronics. Soon enough, he was able to take apart a whole printer and put it back together. He learned how to install a sound card, a video card, and a hard drive into a computer. He was even able to take apart the small television he kept in his room and put it back together in working order when he was 10. However, he was far too scared to attempt to take apart the large TV which was kept in the living room because of his father.
One day, about a week after Mark had learned how to successfully take apart the TV, someone moved into the apartment next door. He went over to find out more about his new neighbors and saw 2 children. Immediately Mark turned around and began heading back to his own home when the children ran up to Mark and introduced themselves. Mark was stunned that a child his age was talking to him, let alone two children, so he decided not to let them know about his strange habits for a few weeks. Soon enough, Mark and the children grew to be friends.
One fourth of July, when Mark and his friends were about 14, they acquired a box full of fireworks from a teenager that was an older brother of someone Mark’s neighbors knew. They took it home and began firing them. For a few minutes, everything was going fine. However, Mark found himself to be fascinated by fire and explosions, so he demanded that he be allowed to set off a large majority of the fireworks. Of course, the other children refused to allow Mark to do this, accusing him of selfishness. Soon enough, a fight over the fireworks broke out.
It was at that point that Mark realized his abilities that he had since he was born. While he was in a tug of war match with his neighbor, a large flash of light emerged from his hand and his neighbor flew back into a wall. The firework that they were fighting over flew directly at Mark’s other neighbor, who happened to be lighting off one of his own. The firework exploded in the child’s face, blinding him in one eye and deafening him in one ear. At that point, without realizing he was still holding the firework, he brought his hands up to his face. 3 fingers were blown off the child and he was permanently blinded and deafened. Mark was completely shocked by this so he ran in his house, locked the door to his room and didn’t come out for 3 days.
Mark and his neighbors never spoke again after that, but Mark decided he would study up on explosives. He assumed that the explosives had something to do with the surge of power he felt when he created the flash of light. He was determined to do it again. Soon enough, Mark was able to create flash grenades with aluminum foil and a simple bomb out of household cleaning products, but he wasn’t able to replicate the flash he created that one day. 2 more years passed and Mark turned seventeen. He received a car and his license, and became determined to learn enough about cars to be able to fix his car himself. After a few months of study, he did.
One day, Mark got into a car accident. When his father found out, he grounded Mark and took away the car. Mark was furious. He thrashed around in his room for several minutes before he came to the boiling point and stormed out to confront his father. He began yelling and screaming at his father, who in turn began yelling and screaming back. Then Mark felt the power he had felt that one day when he was 14. He felt something surge through him, but there wasn’t a flash like before. Instead, he slammed his fist into the wall, which immediately began shaking furiously before it completely collapsed. Mark’s father became even more outraged, and lost control. He took off his belt and began heading toward Mark, who became extremely frightened.
When Mark’s father got close, Mark felt the surge of power again. This time, he grabbed his father’s arm, which immediately began shaking furiously. Mark’s father screamed in agony and Mark was struck with grief over what he had done. At that point, Mark’s father accused Mark of being a monster and blamed him for his wife’s death. He said he felt as if he was being torn up on the inside, which is how the doctors described the event that took place in Mark’s mother during the birth.
Mark was very hurt by this. He too blamed himself for his mother’s death. He ran out the door and never came back. Around a month later, Mark decided to join the army. He had just recently turned 18 and he wanted to get his mind off of things, so he thought it would help.
The army was hell on Mark. He was severely disciplined often; more so than any other soldier, and he was hated by everyone in his platoon. Soon enough, he was sent off to fight in his first war. 3 days after landing, one of the members of his platoon stepped on a landmine while Mark was walking nearby. Mark was thrown off balance and shrapnel ripped much of his leg up. After a few months in recovery, he was sent back out.
He was in the war for around a year and a half, and had just turned twenty when his platoon was ambushed in the dead of night and he was taken as a prisoner of war. He was tortured in many different ways for a year. One day, while his head was being dunked in a bucket of ice water, he felt something. He realized how he could activate the power he had used a few times before. At that point, he killed all of the people who were torturing him and ran for safety in the jungle outside the compound he was in.
He wandered for days without food. He was almost positive that the enemy was searching for him until he stumbled upon an American camp in the middle of the jungle. Once he told the active lieutenant about his experience, he was immediately issued an honorable discharge and sent back to his home country.
When Mark arrived back home, he realized something very troubling: He had no home to go to and he owed the government money. He decided to return to his childhood home to find that his father had left years before. Mark was now 20 and homeless. He got a job as a waiter in a new restaurant which was just enough to get him by. In secret, he continued his training to see if he could master his abilities. After four years, he did.
One day, he was walking along the streets when a man walked up to him with a gun. Mark was hesitant to use his powers at first, but when he took out his wallet, the man jumped and shot Mark in the arm. Mark angrily retaliated by creating the flash of light that he had trained to use and pushed the man back nearly 6 yards. The man fell flat on his back and was out of breath. Mark then channeled his energy to fluctuate the matter in his body and picked the man up and threw him into a wall.
The man screamed in agony for a full minute, then got up and attempted to run away. Mark decided to run after him until he heard a familiar word. Someone behind him had seen what he had done and called Mark a monster. Flashes of painful memories haunted his mind and Mark was filled with grief over his actions once again. He returned home in an attempt to forget the past. The next day, an agent from the BPRD came and knocked on his door. Mark said he had little interest in joining when he was first told, but slowly became intrigued to find that there were others like him, and he was desperate to meet them. He told the man that he would need a day or two to settle a few things but he would gladly be apart of it.
