(no subject)

[pushesback]

P L A Y E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: mi
OOC Journal: zombmi
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?:
Email + IM: derpturk@gmail.com + Despicable Mi
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None, but I also apped Ichabod Crane this round.

C H A R A C T E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Nick Gant
Canon: Push
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: Post movie
Number: RNG it!

Setting:
Push is set in our modern day world, with the addition of superpowered individuals who live along beside us. It was the Nazis who started experimenting on them first, hoping to use these people as weapons. After the war, branches called Division sprang up all around the world to continue these experiments. They started trying to boost people's powers with a drug, a drug that kept killing their subjects. Until one girl, Patient Zero, survived and escaped with a syringe of the drug, making her very wanted by a lot of people.

The superhumans are divided into groups with largely self-explanatory names. Movers are telekinetics, Watchers are psychics who can see the future, Stitches are healers, Sniffs are trackers who can see the past by "sniffing" objects, Pushers can push things into peoples' heads to make them do whatever they want, etc.

History:
Not much is known about Nick Gant's early life or the fate of his mother. He was born in America and was forced to go on the run with his father, a powerful Mover who was being hunted by Division. When they finally caught up with them, Nick's dad told him that someday a girl would give him a flower, a vision that was shared with him by a Watcher, and that he must help her. Nick saw his father murdered by Division, and went on the run by himself from there.

Nick lived a little impulsively, after his father telling him to not make any decisions that a Watcher could track. He survived on cons and gambles, some of which he carried out with a girl he loved named Kira. Eventually he was forced to run from country to country, and the more densely populated, the better. It's while he was in Hong Kong that Division caught up with him, down on his luck and owing lots of money to lots of bad people. They were looking for a girl, not him. But a different girl found Nick before he could run again - Cassie Holmes, a thirteen year old Watcher intercepted him. She told him about a case and six million dollars, a number that was almost enough to make him listen, at least until she revealed that the girl that Division was looking for was somehow involved as well.

Nick backed out, or thought he did. But a superpowered Triad family, who were also looking for the mystery girl and had a Watcher of their own, claimed that they had already seen Nick with her in the future. He used his power to move Cassie to safety before he was almost killed by them. The only thing that stopped them was their own Watcher's warning that if they killed him there, they would lose the girl that they were looking for.

Cassie found him being healed by a Stitch who had been sent by the girl's mother, a powerful Watcher imprisoned by Division. When Nick woke up, Cassie offered him a lotus flower, not knowing that by doing so, she was proving that she was the girl Nick's father had told him about ten years earlier.

Cassie continued seeing and drawing the future, but it steadily got worse and always seemed to end with her and Nick dying. The case and its contents were clearly the key to everything, right down to bringing down Division and rescuing Cassie's mom. After realizing that there's no money in the case, Nick kept his promise to his father and agreed to help anyway.

With the help of a couple of other superpowered people (and a bead), they were finally able to track down the girl, aka Patient Zero, aka Nick's ex-girlfriend Kira. Kira, a Pusher, had escaped after being the only person who survived an injection that boosted powers. She'd then hidden the case that contained a syringe of the drug before having her memories wiped. Cassie warned him that the addition of Kira somehow made the future worse, but Nick refused to leave her behind. He hired a Shadow for her instead, effectively hiding her from Division.

They ultimately decided to split up to make it harder for the Pop family's Watcher to track them. But it wasn't enough, so Nick tracked down Carver, a Division Pusher who was hunting Kira the way that he hunted Nick's father ten years earlier. Nick didn't care about Division's plans, not until Carver gave him the news that Kira would die if she didn't receive further injections.

After finding the key to where the suitcase and drug were hidden, Nick came up with a plan. The Pop family Watcher would always be one step ahead of them because she could see their intentions, and thus the future from that. Nick's plan was to make the future unpredictable by giving everyone instructions that they wouldn't know until the moment right before they carried them out. He wrote out these instructions in letters, and after writing the last letter to himself, he had his memories of ever having written them wiped.

Nick's note to himself said simply "go home", where he found the suitcase and drug waiting. The Pop family took it from him, only to find that they'd been tricked by a fake case and a bottle of soy sauce inside. Meanwhile, Kira was returned to Division and received the medicine she needed, all according to plan. But Carver pushed a false reality into her head, and told her that who she was and her entire past with Nick was a lie. Nick contacted Carver to make an exchange, the drug for Kira. Kira confronted Nick when he arrived, believing that she was actually a Division agent who used him and that everything was a lie. They're met by the Pop family gang when they go to retrieve the drug, which resulted in a fight between the two sides. Nick never stopped trying to reach Kira, and ended up injecting himself with the drug and dying.

Or he would have died, if the contents of the syringe had been the actual drug instead of the Nine Dragon soy sauce that his cohorts had replaced it with. Nick woke with Cassie standing over him, and together they retrieved the real case and drug from its hiding place.

Meanwhile, Kira was on a plane back to America with Carver. She opened the instructions that Nick had written for her, which contained a picture of the two of them together at Coney Island, proof that what they had together was real, and the instructions "kill him".

Personality:
"I get things wrong sometimes."
"I know the feeling."
-Cassie & Nick

Nick starts out as a loner, a guy who stays on the move as much to avoid getting caught up in other people's problems as he is running away from his own. Division counts as a little bit of both, but they're largely "political bullshit" as far as Nick's concerned. When two Division Sniffs show up at his apartment looking for a girl who escaped their experiments, they even comment on how no one else has been in his place for a long time. From a tiny, crappy apartment to uncooperative dice, his life isn't enviable.

And then a thirteen year old girl shows up on his doorstep, a young Watcher (psychic) who starts talking about a case and six million dollars. For a guy perpetually down on his luck, that's a big enough number to get him to listen. Until it connects to the earlier incident, Division and the girl, and Nick's right back out again. At that point he's still pretty set on self-preservation above all else. When a superpowered family shows up and almost kills them, it looks like he was right about keeping out of everything. But then Cassie gives him a lotus, and he remembers one of the last things his dad told him:

"Someday a girl is going to give you a flower... And you have to help her, Nick. You help her and you help us all."

Nick made a promise to his dad, something he can't turn his back on even once he knows that there's no money in the case. That's when Nick starts to change and let people in. He knows that there's no money but plenty of trouble, and yet he's still in. And like a true gambler, he goes all in.

Being on the run before and after his father's murder left little chance for a formal education, but he's not a stupid guy. Nick can read and write just fine, picks up other languages, but he's still more street smart than book smart. He's survived by making a not-so-honest living, whether it's by being a smooth-talking con artist or gambling, something that he doesn't always have good days with if all the thugs he owes are any indication. He was his own best teacher when it comes to believing things that other people say (namely, that most of the time you shouldn't). Nick is also clever and resourceful, deliberately making decisions that took him off radar and made it harder for Division Sniffs to track him. He later comes up with a complicated plan that even fools someone who can see the future. And to do it, he sacrifices his own memories.

Cassie alludes to Nick having trust issues, understandable for a guy who saw his father murdered right in front of him, who's since lived in fear of the same or worse at the hands of Division. But he obviously trusted his dad, and remembered what he told him. He also shows that he's capable of earning trust when he got everyone on board with his plan. He's not loyal to countries or agendas, but he proves that he is capable of forming close bonds with people, and even having a helpful acquaintance or two. He'd confessed love to Kira in the past, talks about how they did everything together and obviously still feels strongly about her. He also displays a strong bond with Cassie, forged in the way that Division killed his father and holds her mother prisoner. Nick carries the same kind of guilt from that that she does. But there's a playfulness to them too, whether he's teasing her about her hair, telling her not to bite her nails, or comforting her when she's scared. Nick is well-suited to the big brother role.

"Now you said the future's always changing, right? It can change just by knowing it."
"What're you doing? What're you gonna go do?"
"I'm gonna try and make a better one."
-Nick to Cassie

Nick starts out gruff, sarcastic, and fearless in the face of trouble. The latter becomes genuine courage where the people that he cares about are concerned. He refuses to leave Kira behind no matter what, and he's determined that Cassie isn't going to die either, even when his own death has been foreseen. Carver hints that he's never taken a stand, lacks the integrity of his father. But for Kira and Caassie, he finds it. He might be rough around the edges, but he's not total scum.

That's when the really protective side of Nick comes out. When they first encounter the Pop family, Nick uses his power to push Cassie to safety. His resolve to keep her alive only got stronger the more and more her fear came to the surface. When Kira was first taken by Division, he'd looked for her too. Nick shows that he will take desperate actions when he's pushed against a wall, like the wiping of his own memories. He might not come to trust or love many, but it's clear that he will go as far as he has to for those he does, loyal to the literal death whether it's the result of going to confront what threatens them himself, or blindly trusting their instructions and injecting himself with Nine Dragon soy sauce life-threatening drugs. Nick's never been afraid of just rolling the dice and taking a few risks, but he comes to rely more on his own decisions, shaping his own future instead of just letting the chips fall.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
"Gonna try and get inside my head? Go ahead. See if you can push me before I pull the trigger."

Nick is a second-generation Mover, a telekinetic who can physically move people or objects with his mind. He can also use his power to create a forcefield right in front of him and enhance his punches. He didn't regularly use his powers for a long time, and while they have gotten stronger, he still does best with smaller objects. They're also affected by his emotions, with things like fear and anger making his control a lot shakier. In the realm of more mundane skills, he also has some experience with handguns, gambling, and speaks Cantonese.

As for weaknesses, he seems to be a sucker for kids in trouble. He can also be injured, fall ill, be killed, etc.

Inventory:
+ 1 long sleeved t-shirt
+ 1 empty case
+ 1 pair of jeans
+ 1 pair of tennis shoes
+ 1 handgun
+ 1 lotus
+ 1 umbrella

Appearance:


Young and scruffy, courtesy of Chris Evans.

Age: mid-twenties

AU Clarification:

S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
What worries him most is that Cassie never saw this coming. She was a crappy artist, but that pad of hers always had something to say about the future, and it never shied away from anything bad. So why didn't his day start with her showing him a drawing of a football, insisting that it was a spaceship?

Stay one step ahead of Division. That's been his life for as long as Nick can remember. But this doesn't feel like Division, not unless they've joined with the space program and are taking their weapons to the stars. It feels like it could be something even worse, and Nick huffs a soft, humorless laugh at that one

"Worse than Division. That's great."

Every gambler thinks that someday his luck is gonna change. The problem is that Nick's not so sure he believes in luck anymore. He's no Watcher, but it seems a pretty safe bet that there's more risks in his future.

He visits the showers as soon as his stomach can take the trip, paying no attention to the other people who come and go. The crowd here is nothing, not compared to what he's used to, people stacked one on top of the other. Anyway, it's worth it just to get this blue shit off of him, which is even more disgusting than the thought of soy sauce in his veins. He figures the tattoo out from there, just the newest addition to a handful of others on his body, picked up at Coney Island, Tokyo. Souvenirs that he wears on his skin and doesn't have to pack up in a hurry.

He promised Kira that he'd see her again soon, and not he's not so sure that he will. But the lotus that he finds in his locker makes him worry more about Cassie than anything. What if she tries to take on Division alone, tries to rescue her mother and ends up one of their damn lab rats? It was easier when he just had to worry about himself, but there's no going back to that now. Nick sighs, gives a wave of his hand that slams the door shut without him ever touching it. If his last plan was crazy, it was nothing compared to what he'd need to get out of this.

Comms Sample:

Whatever I'm here for? You've got the wrong guy.

[Nick sticks to audio, and if he sounds as casual as you please, it's because that's a line that he's used a few times before. It's one that he's used even when he was the right guy - especially when he was the right guy. He just tried to convince people otherwise when he didn't want any broken bones. He doesn't know that many Stitches.]

I have enough problems on my own planet. Got no idea what's going on on any of the others and even less interest. So whatever this is, leave me out of it.

[That's it. No name, no 'good luck', and no goodbyes. He's done. And while he doesn't really expect the bastards to just turn around and take him back, he's sure as hell not going to make anything easy for them.

Until he remembers a reason why he can't be done, not completely. The one thing that will get some cooperation out of him.]

...There's this girl, thirteen going on thirty, hair's probably green or blue by now. If you've seen her, let me know. I'll owe you one.