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Post by Janus on Apr 21, 2023 9:21:01 GMT -5
Jake Bishop Code Name: Bunyip Height: 5'8 Weight: 170lbs Eye Colour: brown Hair Colour: black Species: mutant
Abilities
Int: 4 Str: 2 Agi: 2 Spe: 2 Dur: 4
Actions
Astral Travel: 3 - Take Astral Body - Take Others
Close combat: 2 - Int bonus or weapon modifier - Hand to Hand - Dodging - Attacks vs mental def doing stun damage (+3)
Social Skills: 3 - Charm - Arrente Culture/language - Sign Language
Telepathy: 2 - Intelligence Bonus - Communication
Teleport: 4 - Only works on the astral plane (-1)
Fluff Skills
General Knowledge 2 - Int Bonus - Astronomy - Australian mythology
Aboriginal Arts and Crafts: 3
Modifiers
Healing factor
Challenges
Mutant (3) Chronic condition (mute) (3) Haunted past (2)
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Post by Janus on May 22, 2023 14:03:19 GMT -5
Jake Bishop Code Name: Bunyip Height: 5'8 Weight: 170lbs Eye Colour: brown Hair Colour: black Species: mutant
Abilities
Int: 4 Str: 2 Agi: 2 Spe: 2 Dur: 4
(10w)
Actions
Astral Travel: 2 (3w) - Take Astral Body - Take Others
Close combat: 2 (3w) - Int bonus or weapon modifier - Hand to Hand - Dodging - Attacks vs mental def doing stun damage (+3)
Social Skills: 3 (1w) - Charm - Arrente Culture/language - Sign Language
Telepathy: 2 (1w) - Communication
Teleport: 4 (3w) - Only works on the astral plane (-1)
Fluff Skills
General Knowledge 2 (1w) - Int Bonus - Astronomy - Australian mythology
Aboriginal Arts and Crafts: 3 (1w)
Modifiers
Healing factor (4w)
Challenges
Mutant (3) Chronic condition (mute) (3) Haunted past (2)
Background
Jake never knew his father, this wasn't unusual for children of mixed aboriginal descent even in today's more tolerant society. The racism that had plagued indigenous Australians and their mixed race children was a thing of the past, consigned to extremists and the history books. After all when there were men shooting energy beams from their eyes how much trouble can a black fella be? Jake had always been told that his father had died in a bush fire just after he was born so had never missed what he had never known.
What was a bit more odd was the fact that his mother, chose to stay in Alice Springs, or Alice as the locals fondly refer to it, to raise him. As a US airforce staff nurse, Pine Gap, a US military base a few miles shy of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territories was simply an assignment, she could easily have returned Stateside but instead she chose to stay. She was happy there and had found in her dead husbands tribe the family she had always wanted.
So Jake grew up with his feet in two worlds, that of his mother and the American community that had grown up around the base and that of his father. His fathers world, of course, was complicated. He had been the son of a local tribal legend, a shaman of great influence amongst all the indigenous tribes and the story of his fall out with his father over his choice to go to university to study English literature against his fathers wishes had been the stuff of legend.
Despite, or perhaps because of that his fathers tribe became his extended family teaching him the stories and beliefs of the Arrernte people but it was not until he turned 16 that he was allowed to join them on walkabout into the bush. This was to be his first meeting with his Grandfather. Things however did not go according to plan.
As they journeyed further into the outback along the song lines Jakes guides became uneasy. None of them could put their fears into words but they became sure they were being followed. They carried on using all their skill to shake their imagined pursuer but still they were convinced something was wrong so turned at last to face who or whatever this was.
Nothing was there, not a sign or a track could be found, and they had almost convinced themselves that it had been their imagination when a voice crept out of the night.
"'Twas brilig, and the slithy toves, did gire and gimble in the wabe..."
It was a mans voice, a human voice and yet at the same time came from no where and everywhere. It echoed in their minds and as they looked around they noticed that one of their group had vanished.
Fear washed over them like a wave and they turned outward, weapons pointing out from the fire into the night as a man at the centre whirled a bull-roarer. It was a practiced call for help but made little difference.
"All mimsy were the borrowgroves, and the moomraths outgrabe..."
The bull-roarer was cut off midswing as the man holding it vanished beside Jake.
The silence was deafening, sheer terror gripping the group until one managed to utter a single stuttering word.
"Bunyip!"
Men clustered back to back fear paralysing them in place, all of them too scared to move or to breath, all of them except Jake. For him the experience was dizzying, not from fear but from something else, his heart pounded in his ears his vision swam and then the world around him changed. It changed to become a scene of ghostly images, of echoing sounds and in the middle of it all stood a man shaped blackness gripping his recently vanished friend. It looked at him with black on black eyes, smiled a black on black smile and dropping his friend, was next to him in less time than it took to blink.
The voice in his head spoke again as the figure reached out to him gripping his shoulders with surprisingly gentle hands.
"Beware the Jabbawock my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
He could feel the hands on his shoulders reaching somehow into him and as they did he could feel the minds of the men around him, their thoughts, their feelings, their dreams. He looked down at his hand as saw it too had changed becoming almost translucent like he too was a dream.
There was a whirring sound and the black figure frowned a black on black frown as light seemed to flood in from somewhere behind them and suddenly he was gone. The light seemed to coalesce into a rainbow around him as an old wizened hand grabbed Jake's shoulder and suddenly he was lying beside a large camp fire with people stood around him. Sat next to him was an old man sitting cross legged with a bull-roarer in hand staring at Jake like he was looking deep inside of him.
Jake sat up and opened his mouth to speak but words failed him, no sound would come out no matter how hard he tried. A woman he vaguely recognised from tribal gatherings, skin like mahogany wearing a simple dress and sandals, came and knelt beside him, holding his arms as he started to panic.
"Jake." She said in a voice that sounded like Saturday afternoons. "Jake just calm down love, it's going to be alright."
Relief flooded into him through the grip of her hands and he could feel tears welling up as he tried to mouth that he couldn't speak.
"I know love." She said, her arms wrapping around him like a blanket. "We'll fix this, OK?"
He laid his head on her shoulder and gently sleep overtook him.
He woke in his bed at home, there were voices in the house and warm afternoon sun was streaming through the window behind the curtains. The night before seemed like a dream or a scene from some horror movie he'd watched. He sat up, throwing off the flimsy covers and only then did he notice the old man from the night before sat cross legged in the corner of his room apparently reading.
Jake opened his mouth to speak and even though no sound came out the man looked up as though he had spoken. He regarded Jake for a moment and then in Jakes head words seemed to appear.
'Speak, in your mind.'
It was not like last night, these words were gentle, caring, simple and somehow he could feel the meaning of them. Like an explorer pushing back that last branch he found at the edge of his consciousness a part that had never been there before. It was weird, alien but at the same time a part of him that felt completely normal.
He willed words into that empty space.
'Who... What are you?'
He felt the words leave his head, echoing outwards like a noiseless sound. There was a crash from the kitchen and he saw the old man smile.
'Grandfather.'
His mother came flying through the door to his room wrapping him up in a bear of a hug. Then she looked at him with concern on her face.
"Jakie, honey, was that you?"
Jake opened his mouth to speak again, and again nothing so with a deep breath and looked for the empty space in his mind, this time directing the words toward his mother.
'Um... Yea mum, I think I can talk with my head now.'
"Well it's about time you started doing something with it." She said with a disarming grin.
The tension broke, he smiled and they talked. Long into the evening they discussed what had happened, what Jake was and what they would do about it.
An invitation to attend 'The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters' had arrived before he had even woke up and his mother was all in favour of him going.
'Think of it like Hogwarts.' She had told him. 'Your grandfather can come fetch you any time you like but he says there's no where in the world better for you to learn to use your abilities and get schooling at the same time.'
He hadn't been thrilled about the idea but eventually had agreed to give school in America a fair go.
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Post by Janus on May 23, 2023 11:09:15 GMT -5
Experience
Recruit mission - 1W
1W Spent on Astral Travel 2 -> 3
First diary entry - 2R
Chapter 1: Welcome New Mutants 1W 1R
2W Spent on Telepathy - Intelligence Bonus
Second Diary Entry - ?
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Post by Janus on May 23, 2023 11:13:00 GMT -5
Dear mum
You know I'm really bad at writing letters, and this one is just to put my thoughts on paper rather than to send to you. I mean I texted with you last night so it's not like we don't keeping touch. Miss Grey said we should have a way of expressing our emotions and writing letters even if we never send them is apparently a good one. She said life at Xaviers can be rough so making good habits from the start can be a way to go.
I really miss you. Life is so weird since I changed. I miss my mates at home, Lenny and Sam, Andy and Mike. I mean I know they'd freak out at what I can do, but mates are mates. We were always scared about what mutants could do, and now I'm one of them. Maybe I'm better off here, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Xavier's seem OK. The professor suggested I sit in on the debating club, I mean, me, debating, right? He says there are a load of issues around being a mutant that I ought to know that the club talks about alot. It's a fair point though. I do feel like I've stepped into a totally different world. People keep on talking about 'Magneto' and 'Sentinels' and 'The Brotherhood', and such and all I can do is listen in. Maybe I'll get a better handle on it in a bit, once I've got past the whole being a sentient being of pure psionic energy thing. Those are the Prof's words, not mine.
I actually met a couple of new mates through the debating soc. Pete is this little fella from New Orleans who thinks socialism is the way forward. Yea I know, an American who likes socialism, its like finding a diamond. Anyway he's a sound bloke. Then there is Pippa, I mean her name is Phillipa and she's from Montreal in Canada, but we all call her Pippa. She's all about taking whatever position Pete doesn't but we all reckon it's her way of flirting with him.
Oh, I also made a mate outta a German guy I helped rescue from a gang in Germany. His name is Sechs and he has squid tentacles for hair. I mean how crazy is that?
The teachers seem cool. Doc McCoy is this great big blue furry bloke, who is the Institutes resident scientist. He's been helping me find good places to star gaze from though sometimes he seems a bit too knowledgeable about our galaxy. Like he mentions stuff he can't possibly know cause no one can see that far. It's a bit weird, but the X-men are supposed to have done some crazy stuff. Do you suppose they have gone into space? I'll have to ask him straight out some time.
I'm also getting on with some of the upper class men. One bloke called Kurt who is blue (it seems to be a theme) and can teleport is being really helpful. Kinda like a mentor or something.
The teachers are all pretty nice, though they seem to have got the idea that I'm a good student. Yea, I know you think that's a good thing, but I don't wanna come across as some teachers pet or whatever.
My powers are definitely getting stronger. I only used to be able to take one person into then Dream Time (the Prof calls it Astral Space, but Granddad was pretty clear). Now I can take two and its only been a couple of weeks! I'm gonna work on my teleporting distance next. Hopefully if I can increase that I can visit home whenever I want. It would be great to see you again.
Anyway that's all I've got for now.
Lots of love
Jake.
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Post by Janus on Sept 13, 2023 7:49:47 GMT -5
Dear Mum
Yea, another letter you're never gonna get, but I'll give ya the John Dory anyway.
First week's been ok. There's a lake by the school and first night I tried to set up a barbie to get to know everyone. It was going great until some girl with water powers decided to get rowdy and soak everyone. Turns out the PTSD around here is thicker than a brick sanger. If I'd had a surf board she'd have been a ripper but it all went bad and now she's missing along with her brother.
Something is really wrong here, it's supposed to be a school but it's like everyone is expecting a bomb to go off. I mean I know the States have like that active shooter thing going on but we're mutants, anyone with a gun would have to be brain dead to come here. At the same time, I mean I know I had it easy growing up in Oz but is this really how it is?
On a different topic I keep on thinking back to our talk before I left. Xavier has these amazing mental powers, and he could change the media bias around mutants in a heart beat. But he doesn't and I don't know why.
I mean hate speech is wrong, but it's not illegal over here the same way it is back home. Thing is its all over the news and no one is stopping it. The X-men are putting up with it, the Brotherhood are playing into it. Xavier could fix it in an instant, get into the head of Murdoch and the other drongoes pushing the anti mutant line and change their minds. Get them to push for a better world, politicians would have to fall in line. But he doesn't, all he does is set a good example which the media types can manipulate to turn public opinion against mutants even more.
Xavier leaves mutants in danger. Hell he sends his own students into danger because he refuses to act, and I don't know why. I guess I'm just feeling frustrated. People are so fixed in their ways, Xavier's way, Magneto's way, it's all a big crock. I'm all for standing up, they don't call us battlers for nothing ya know, but it's gotta be a fight you can win. Just throwing yourself into a thresher cause some bludger's not got the bottle to do it themselves is stupid.
I guess all this has got me rattled cause me an Pete nearly got into it when I was throwing shade at the Prof. He was using his powers which is a d*ck move but I spotted it from the Dreamtime and I got so mad I nearly cleaned his clock. Pippa had to talk me out of dumping him in a state park, and by talk me out I mean she nearing kicked my ass into next week. Who knew a girl with sonic powers could reach into the Dreamtime?
Nothing is how I imagined it would be and I'm trying to give it all a fair go, but... well I guess I need to wait. But I swear if someone talks to be about becoming an X-Man again.
I miss you.
Load of love
Jake
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