****************** * MAIN CHARACTER * ****************** [DESCRIPTION] ========================= TOTAL COST: [40w] CHARACTER NAME: Ronaldinho SECRET IDENTITY: Joe Reis SPECIES: Homo sapiens superior GENDER: Male HAIR: Dark Brown EYES: Brown HEIGHT: 5'11" WEIGHT: 175 lbs [BIOGRAPHY] ========================= 16 was a difficult age for Joe. On February 2nd, one month to the day after his 16th birthday, he woke up without his usual pressing morning need to urinate. After showering, brushing his teeth and dressing, he left for school, skipping breakfast because he wasn't hungry. As the day went on -- including time practicing basketball at school -- it became clearer and clearer to him that he simply wasn't hungry or thirsty; and though he drank lots of water after playing basketball (from fear of becoming dehydrated) he never had to produce any waste afterward. A real shock came that afternoon on the bus, when his girlfriend (of 8 months) Alycia was leaning on his chest and asked 'why are you holding your breath?' At this, Joe suddenly realized that he hadn't been breathing all day -- never even feeling out of breath during basketball. He instantly started to consciously breathe in and out, and smiled and told his first lie to Alycia "just practicing a breathing technique that's supposed to be good for track and football." Joe continued to act like everything was normal -- consciously breathing whenever awake, eating and drinking when others were around, but never really needing to, and getting more and more creeped out. By mid-March the next strange thing happened -- trying to bench press just a little more than he could normally practically do, Joe felt a shot of pain through his limbs and he managed to lift the weight easily (with a quick surprised yelp of pain) for as long as he kept concentrating on keeping up his strength. Over the course of the day he did several experiments -- pushing himself at track and feeling that familiar pain but beating his best time, and even giving himself a mighty headache making himself actually understand his damned calculus homework. It was all very exciting, but all very scary. Joe finally went to see the family physician in April. Doctor Song examined Joe, heard Joe's tale, and at first did not believe Joe. But Joe demonstrated by letting his muscles bulge visibly (wincing against the pain) and lifting the examination table one-handed. At this, the doctor was stunned, and started to make some phone calls. Doctor Song told Joe that he was going to send Joe to a specialist -- and Joe made an appointment with Doctor Cecilia Reyes. At the end of April, before his appointment with the specialist, Joe's girlfriend Alycia sat Joe down to explain that she was three and a half months pregnant. She revealed that she was planning to move in with her aunt, out of state and have the baby; that 'in order to prevent [Joe] from feeling pressured' she was breaking up with him -- though she admitted that they might get back together after thebaby was born depending on how things went. She assured Joe that he would be welcome to see the baby. Doctor Reyes saw Joe in early May. Joe was a nervous wreck, but not really surprised by her diagnosis that Joe was a mutant. He was very afraid of that -- which is why he'd stayed silent with his parents (Dorotéia and Teobaldo) and Alycia about his strange symptoms, since they were all kind of anti-mutant. Hell, he had been too, but while this had crept up on him Joe had stopped actively joining the chorus of his friends that were anti-mutant. Doctor Reyes performed a particularly interesting test on Joe -- giving Joe some heavy painkiller, she asked if he could shrink (he could), grow fur all over (he could), and then bit by bit talked Joe through transforming himself into a cat. After that, Joe could do many small animals at will -- though it was always painful). Joe began to spend more and more time as a bird, training himself to fly, and using that time to think. By June, when school was out and Alycia almost six months pregnant, Joe told his parents and Alycia the big lie -- that he would be moving out of state and dropping out of school, and that he would be working to try to support Alycia's baby. After lots of screaming from his parents, Joe left -- and went straight to the Xavier Institute. At the Xavier institute Joe went through all the regular indoctrination into Dumbledor's Arm -- er, the orientation into Xavier's institute where Professor Xavier certainly does not us his mighty mind control powers to turn the kids into willing cultist/soldiers. In any case such thoughts only crossed Joe's mind once or twice, when other kids were shooting the shit at parties. Joe tries not to think about it too much, because he likes the old guy - and Joe doesn't like the idea that he only likes the old guy because the old guy wants him to like the old guy. Joe took a janitorial job at the institute. It wasn't great, but he could do it. And if the job got too boring for him, he would take a little headache but raise his willpower just enough that he didn't mind. Over time Joe began to be asked to fill in for various semi-skilled workers when someone was sick or extra help needed. It was painful to give himself the ability to type 40 words per minute, to get the language mastery to edit papers and articles, to become a semiskilled carpenter, and to become hacker enough to shut down the computer in the danger room when it once again began trying to kill students inside. Leaving aside the deep and disturbing question of why Professor X continues to keeps a room called "the danger room" which has apparently tried to kill students before, Joe found these assignments rewarding - and found his hourly wage quickly rising from$8 an hour to $14 an hour. Meanwhile Joe has gotten better and better at adapting his own form. He can't do specific people, but some of his animal forms look pretty close to the real thing. Joe traveled to visit his parents once, and Alycia's aunt three times that Summer. Mayra was born on October 15th, and Alycia and Mayra moved back in with Alycia's parents. Over Christmas break, Joe brought a cash gift to Alycia and Mayra; which moved Alycia to break down and cry "you meant it, you are working for us; OK, lets make this family work." Joe was flustered. He hadn't been trying to win Alycia back, but he did love her -- and maybe it was the only way he could still see Mayra. But how could Joe keep Alycia from wanting to see where he worked, if they were together again? This clinched it -- Joe couldn't breath a word about his mutant life to Alycia or his parents. And so began Joe's double life -- at School and work much of the time, but twice a month taking the bus to see Alycia and Mayra, and his parents, for the weekend. He told a tale about working as a janitor in a 'secure facility for holding mutant criminals' -- which he hoped would keep them from asking too many questions or wanting to see the place. As far as nom de guerre, Joe feels it's pretty silly to have a false identity when at the academy; "next thing you know I'll be wearing my boxers on the outside, and a cape." On the other hand Professor Xavier thinks that secret identities are great, and Professor Xavier is the smartest kindest person in the world, and he is always right. Besides, Joe really really doesn't want Alycia or his parents to find out about the Xavier Academy. So, after considering and rejecting several names like "Adaptable", "Janitor Joe" and "Everyman", Joe picked the name of his favorite football star -- Ronaldinho. [NOTES] ========================= Student at the Xavier Institute Equipment: Cel phone / mp3 player, debit card, decent clothes, photos of Alycia and Mayra, pocket money [ABILITIES] [11w] ========================= INTELLIGENCE: 3 (1w) STRENGTH: 4 (2w) AGILITY: 3 (1w) SPEED: 3 (1w) DURABILITY: 4 (6w) HEALTH: 4 ENERGY: 12 REGENERATION: 4 WEALTH: 0 (0w) [ACTIONS] [33w] ========================= Acrobatics 4 (2w) SPECIALTIES: Basketball dancing soccer track-and-field Combat - Close 3 (1w) SPECIALTIES: Boxing hand-to-hand wrestling General Knowledge 3 (2w) SPECIALTIES: Janitorial popular-culture sports Leadership 4 (2w) SPECIALTIES: Gesture sport-defense sport-offense teamwork Metamorphosis 6 (25w) SPECIALTIES: Bird cosmetic mammal size speed strength NOTE: 1 red stone per panel to maintain Social Skills 3 (1w) SPECIALTIES: Charm high-school streetwise [MODIFIERS] [2w] ========================= Self-Contained Life Form 0 (2w) -(Self-Contained Life Form) Breathing -(Self-Contained Life Form) Eating [CHALLENGES] [+6w] ========================= Being a mutant (+3) Power is painful to use (+1) Prying relatives, friends, associates (+1) Vulnerable loved-ones unaware of powers (+1) [EQUIPMENT] [0w] ========================= ==================================================