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If you can't keep up, get out of the way. |
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— Himself |
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Nicholas Vale goes by Nic. He grew up in a multi-racial family in Cleveland where he spent much of his time as a rebellious biker after the death of his father. After he discovered the powers he had after being bitten by a werewolf on a school camping trip, it got worse. He was always getting into trouble. He recently moved to California with his mother for her job, and now finds himself among new faces and attending culinary school.
Personality
Rebellious, brooding, and a loner. He can become warm with someone when a topic comes up he likes, but he has a hard time opening up to people.
Background
Nicholas Jaymes Vale was born on Halloween 2000. Pretty normal, right? Nicholas's father was a Nigerian born police officer in the Cleveland Police Department. His mother is a mix of Dutch, German and Irish and was a reporter for a regional news network. Nic, as he likes to be called, grew up pretty normal until the age of 10. His father took him camping, taught Nic about motorcycles, and made sure he kept his grades up. Though his mother was out of town often, he and his father were close. Then disaster struck and Nicholas's father was killed in the line of duty. This shattered his world and though his mother tried to fill the void, her job made it difficult.
Nic started skipping classes, withdrew from extracurricular activities and became more of a troublemaker. He started losing himself in the motorcycle his father left him and he even engaged in some petty theft for food and clothes. His mother would often leave him in the care of her older sister, but Nic's aunt was deaf, so he found it easy to sneak out when she was his guardian. it was during one of those overnight escapades that he got locked in a nearby apartment building closet when a fire broke out. He was passed out when the firemen rescue and his mother was so thankful he was okay she didn't punish him.
After the fire, Nic's attitude seemed to change. He was still the rebellious biker in school, but he attempted to do better. He didn't like studying but his eidetic memory allowed him to memorize anything he heard in class. He even swiped tests ahead of time a few times and memorized them. He uses his mechanical skills as a way to earn money in the summers. The summer of his sophomore year of high school, while on a camping trip in Pennsylvania, Nic wandered off and encountered a creature attacking a hiker. He attempted to help and got a nasty bite for his trouble. The hiker didn't survive and the creature wasn't caught. However, that bite changes Nic's life forever....he'd been bitten by an alpha werewolf.
The next two years were almost a backslide for Nic, as he discovered his newfound powers (and the once a month curse that came with them). With his mother still traveling, Nic being able to stay home by himself meant he had the freedom to change without worrying. He pushed himself to find his physical limits and began missing classes again. Finally, at the beginning of his senior year, his mother took a job near San Francisco, taking him across the country to live. A new school meant starting over, and Nic wasn't eager to make new friends for a year. He withdrew into himself, spent time riding his bike throughout the area and finally graduated, barely. He's now a freshman at a culinary school near a town called Beacon Hills that his mother got him into through some contacts from work. Who knows what the future will bring.
SKILLS
While Nicholas isn't dumb by any stretch, he's never taken formal education seriously and lacks a lot of the refined skills to read, study, and get tested. He has a good memory and has used that more as a crutch to get through school.
Athletics - Competent Level
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Nicholas Vale is a seasoned athlete, particularly skilled at running, lifting, and climbing. While not good at team sports or trained as a school athlete, his natural talent has left several of his teachers wondering why he doesn't apply himself to a sport.
Brawling - Competent Level
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Nicholas has spent a lot of time on his own and finding himself on the wrong side of an argument more than once. He can take care of himself in a bare-fisted fight and has been known to use whatever's at hand to get an advantage. He's never one to back down even if outnumbered or out-skilled, which can be dangerous for him or his friends.
Cooking - Competent Level
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Nicholas is studying culinary arts at the local culinary school. Growing up, he had to rely on his own skills at cooking. While he can whip up anything from some ingredients, he's learning actual techniques and professional ways of doing preparation and cooking now.
Nicholas has never had a mentor for being a werewolf and has had to learn everything on his own. He's encountered a few others in passing and picked up bits and pieces here and there, but has a long way to go.
Mechanic - Competent Level
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There's not a motorcycle that Nic can't tear down, repair, and out back together. He's had to maintain not only his own street bike, but spent a few summers working in a car and bike repair shop in Cleveland. He's not afraid to make modifications as well, usually with good results. This skill has also allowed him to jury-rig or repair other mechanical things, like appliances and machinery.
Motorcycles - Expert Level
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Nicholas has been riding motorcycles since he was 11. His father left him an old street bike when he died, and Nic took to that as a surrogate parent. With his mother gone a lot, he learned to ride, repair, and push the limits of his bike's capabilities to the limit. He can often pull off maneuvers that others would find impossible, including jumps, turns, and speeds.
Sign Language - Novice Level
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Nic knows enough sign language to get by with his aunt, who is deaf. He knows the basics, swear words of course, and some regional signs for the Midwest. He hasn't found anyone to practice with so after moving away from his aunt, he hasn't used it in a year.
Survival - Competent Level
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Nicholas's father would take him camping at a young age, and Nic has remembered these skills. Also, with his mother traveling a lot, he's often runoff and spent time by himself in the parks and forests of Ohio. He's good at knowing where he is, which direction to go, what's good to eat, what's poisonous, and how to find water.
ABILITIES
Power: Aura Scent - Enhanced Level
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Nicholas has always had a keen nose, even before his change, and now with the werewolf blood, his sense of smell has grown even more sensitive. In addition to the finely honed senses of a werewolf, he's able to get a sense of auras by smell. This doesn't give him the ability know what or who someone is, but he gets a scent that is reminiscent of what they are. For example both a fire mage and a fire elemental might smell to Nic as smoke from a campfire or the strong odor of brimstone, depending upon the origins of the power.
Werewolves are famously able to transform into more bestial shapes, gaining various special traits and abilities based on their current form. With training, they learn to perform partial-shifts, such as manifesting claws or fangs while otherwise remaining in human form. By default, werewolves of this type are able to manifest what is often called the "Wolfman" form, which essentially resembles their human shape but with a more bestial edge, including features such as glowing eyes, fangs, and claws. Other, more powerful or exotic forms are detailed in separate power entries, as are the special traits that their various forms provide.
Power: Dominance - Enhanced Level
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Werewolves of this type can intimidate those without exceptional willpower, especially normal humans and most animals, simply by making their eyes glow and growling or snarling towards them. They naturally gives off a predatory aura, though this is enhanced and punctuated by any show of dominance, typically when they are agitated or nervous.
Power: Healing - Enhanced Level
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The resiliency of this type of werewolf allows them to endure non-lethal wounds from personal weaponry such as swords, shotguns, or even rifles without significant loss of ability. Minor wounds heal almost instantly, and even more severe wounds will heal within a few days at most.
Power: Natural Weapons - Enhanced Level
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In their "wolfed out" forms, werewolves of this type have sharp fangs and claws. These are able to carve through stone and steel, and their bite's pressure is able to shatter bone and tear flesh easily.
Power: Pain Transfer - Enhanced Level
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Werewolves can alleviate the pain of someone else by transferring it onto themselves. This requires physical contact and significant focus, becoming more difficult depending on the severity of the pain.
Power: Physique - Enhanced Level
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Werewolves of this variety are much tougher, stronger, and more agile than an average human, able even to twist and bend solid metal, smash through most structures short of armored or strongly-reinforced materials, and break through solid walls of cement or brick with moderate effort. They can resist substantial amounts of damage, especially blunt force trauma, and emerge either unscathed or with only minor injuries. Especially when "wolfed out," and specifically when running on all fours, they can easily outrun most mundane opponents. They also possesses superior agility, able to catch arrows in midair with moderate effort and, with a little luck, even dodge projectiles like bullets. This enables them to leap much higher and farther than an average human, as well as giving them the ability to bounce off walls and tumble like a skilled gymnast.
Power: Senses - Enhanced Level
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The senses of this type of werewolf are enhanced far beyond the ability of any average human. They can hear things like a person's heartbeat and tell if they are nervous and possibly lying and clearly hear the murmur of a quiet conversation several rooms away. They can see over long distances and also possesses excellent night vision. Through scent, they can track a person, even if the trail is days old; they can also isolate specific individual scents in a larger group.
ADVANTAGES
Nicholas doesn't admit it often, but he can remember things he reads, hears, or sees with almost perfect recall. This is really how he's managed not to flunk out of school, since he can memorize passages and even tests ahead of time if he's managed to get ahold of them.
Everyone has heard the phrase "strength in numbers." For this type of werewolf, the expression is quite literally true. After being accepted by the pack's alpha (or alphas, in unusual cases), a werewolf gets stronger, faster, and tougher than they would be as a lone wolf. The strength of this enhancement depends both on how many total members the pack has, as well as how close together the members are at a given time. The size of the pack also affects the pack's alpha, whose powers increase when they're leading or protecting their pack members. In practical terms, this usually does not increase the characters' power ratings to a higher level than is on their sheet, though when the pack is strong and working together their abilities may increase from, say, Basic to Basic+ or Enhanced to Enhanced+. In staff-approved circumstances, those powers may be elevated from Basic to Enhanced or Enhanced to Supernatural as befits the current plot or scene.
Nicholas has spent years upgrading his motorcycle for both street and off-road use. It has the yellow and black chassis of a Triumph but has been modified with spoked wheels, knobby tires and higher exhausts for clearance.
WEAKNESSES
Nic has an irrational fear of flying in an airplane or helicopter. He will always choose another option if it is available, and if he must fly, it will be a harrowing experience without medication of some type.
Werewolves are closely tied to the phases of the moon. This affects them in various ways, such that they are at their strongest when the moon is full and their weakest during a lunar eclipse. The phase of the moon also strongly affects the werewolf's emotions, such that they can become almost overwhelming near the full moon. Werewolves often find a strong urge to shift during the full moon, as well as on the nights just before and after a full moon. Most werewolves eventually learn to control their shifts and to manage their emotions via various methods.
During a full lunar eclipse, werewolves of this type are generally powerless and essentially reduced to the status of ordinary, if healthy, humans. If the Bite cured them of any health conditions or injuries, these remain cured. Once the moon becomes visible again, their power is restored. During a partial eclipse they are somewhat weaker than normal, but they do retain their powers at a high-end Basic level.
Mountain ash, when activated, creates a barrier against most supernatural creatures. Werewolves cannot generally penetrate such a barrier, nor can they create one.
Nic hates clowns! He's not so much afraid of them as he has a violent reaction that straddles the line between fear and hatred. Don't ask him why!
Nicholas was locked in a closet during a house fire where he was squatting in his early-teens. He was rescued by the firefighters but since then he has an unnatural fear of fires larger than a candle or lantern. He's been known to freeze up or run away in the presence of larger fires.
Wolfsbane is a poisonous plant that is especially dangerous to werewolves. When introduced into a werewolf's system, it slows the natural healing process and may force uncontrollable shifting and steadily-increasing weakness that may lead to death. Various methods, both medical and ritualistic, exist to cure this poisoning, but they all require specialized knowledge, power, or ingredients.
