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Is it a Gift or a Curse? |
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— Himself |
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Jason, or Jace as he prefers to be called, is a freshman in college at Beacon Hills. He's from a supernatural family who has kept to themselves for the most part. While they are aware there are others with powers and abilities like their own, they typically keep a low profile. Since those in his family who are supernatural have the ability to become invisible, it's a pretty easy thing to accomplish.
Personality
Jace is mostly a typical college kid, finally free of the restrictions of family and able to be himself for the first time. As such he's a little lazy, a little vain, and way too focused on his own self-interest and having a good time. But, beneath all that is a good heart with strong values, though perhaps they're slightly different from most. What's the problem with a little thievery now and then?
Background
Personal History
Jace had a fairly normal life until he was in his early teens. A normal enough kid who lived in Beacon Hills, his parents having wanted their kids to live in a nice out of the way community. None of their direct family members were cursed, so they had an occasional cousin or uncle/aunt visit but for the most part Jace and his older brother had typical childhood, unaware of their family's unique nature.
All that changed one night when Jace was walking home from exploring the nature preserve. He saw a sullen glow in the sky and witnessed the burning of the Hale house. He heard screams, and panicked running into the woods to get away from the sounds, only to find scary men with weapons searching. One yelled when they saw him, and without knowing why he ran. And kept running into other bands of hunters. What he didn't know is after that first yell he'd gone invisible. His curse being activated.
That marked the end of Jace's normal life. His time outside of mortal school was now spent in study, learning how to use his powers and how not to use them. Learning how to move silently how to regulate his body temperature and a thousand other things. Aunts and uncles came out of the wood work to teach him often staying a few weeks or months then vanishing being replaced by another. Shortly before Graduating high school he finally met his long term mentor, or rather was told that his favorite Aunt in San Francisco, was also cursed and would be his long term mentor until he didn't need one any more. Which could be a mater of years or decades.
After graduation his family moved, Mom and Dad moving to Florida, and his brother ended up in Berlin as a model. That left Jace, who went on a journey with his Aunt across the world, meeting the mentors with amazing skills. To him it was an adventure, he had his first real kiss under the Eiffel tower, journeyed to exotic cities, and learned about multiple languages and cultures. But he was never in control his aunt and other mentors had his life scheduled. When they finally deemed him ready to start his life as a young adult. He decided to go back to the house he lived in as a youth, which was still vacant, and try to recapture the youth that he lost. After all it was unlikely many would remember him as he had a completely unremarkable high school career, and even before his curse , had been a loner just starting to break out of his shell. Well Beacon Hills College would be his chance. And if not he'd go to another college, he could probably pass at 19 for 3 or 4 college experiences if he wanted.
Family History
To understand Jace's origins, you have to understand his family. His family has been rather unusual for hundreds if not thousands of years. Some event had happened that the ultimate grandfather of the tribe either doesn't remember or won't tell anyone. Since then the "curse" had been on their family. Most were normal humans, but every so often something would happen to one, typically around the onset of puberty, that would scare them and cause their curse to activate. Some called it a blessing, some thought it was both. The cursed became stronger and faster, diseases or disabilities vanished, and they seemed to stop aging after getting to full maturity (late teens to early twenties), though in reality their aging process just slowed down due to their new healing abilities. They could become invisible and see things at the edge of their vision as if they were inches away, and other abilities they discovered over time or learned to improve.
Early flaunting of these abilities caused people to think they were witches or demons, so they learned to blend into humanity and to use their powers to stay unnoticed. In time they delved into the criminal world, because the "cursed" gifts made it easy to steal, gather information, or even become assassins. The cursed started to teach the mundane aspects of these trades to the uncursed members of the family. Thus the cycle started. The cursed used their abilities to provide for the uncursed, and the uncursed protected and helped the cursed stay hidden, often going into the black market and forging identities to help the cursed stay hidden. The family spread out across the world using their money to set up multiple properties. The cursed would often travel around the world every few years and change identities any time they looked far too young to be their age. The uncursed often traveled as well just because they could, and the family prospered, by staying in the shadows and always choosing caution over profit.
Over the centuries they occasionally learned of others with unique powers, such as werewolves or witches. They remembered the trouble in the past when they let their abilities be known outside the family, so they usually simply avoided such people and continued to live in the shadows of the human world. However, as time passed, events began to happen in the supernatural world which even they began to notice. The elders of the cursed knew at some point someone would have to learn more of that world and risk exposing their existence to said world.
SIGNATURE ABILITY
Not the Lizard You Are Looking For
Chameleons are naturally hard to detect and have a natural ability to seem human and blend into their surroundings. Jace has taken this to the next level. With focus, he can make himself seem utterly unremarkable. If he was sitting with a group of vampires, everyone would think he's one of them, or if he were standing against a wall, invisible, and one accidentally touched him--it's nothing, must have been a breeze or something. He can make himself fit in virtually anywhere and seem unremarkable to all but the most suspicious, or the most perceptive. For the effect to persist, he must behave according to the method he's using to blend in. So, if he's trying to blend in with a pack of runners, he needs to keep running along with them. If he's trying to blend in with a tree, he needs to stand still like the tree.
SKILLS
Jace is pretty subpar when it comes to academics. His grades belie that, as he has a very high GPA. He's pretty, rich, and can turn invisible -- why should he study?
Jace is skilled, if only slightly, at appraising the value of goods, and he has a general knowledge of how much most things are worth and how much they should go for on the black market. He's also skilled the spotting of forgeries. Typically, using his enhanced senses, he can distinguish subtle discrepancies between authentic and fake merchandise, providing he's dealt with authentic items in the past.
Athletics - Competent Level
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Being at the peak of human condition he's naturally good and most sports, though he lacks a passion for most of them.
Climbing/gymnastics - Expert Level
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While he doesn't have a passion for most sports, he loves free climbing and gymnastics. He usually prefers to climb up the side of a building rather than go inside and ride an elevator or use stairs. It's more fun and faster. One of the peculiarities of being a chameleon is the fact he's double-jointed in several places, including his wrists and ankles, and can easily find foodholds and handholds that a normal human couldn't use.
Jace lived a year in France, and he's pretty. So he tried to study fashion while he was there. He quickly learned that he was hopeless in such things, one of those "he likes what he likes" type things. He knows enough to know he will never fit in with those that actually know fashion, though he likely seems fairly stylish to the uninitiated.
Linguistics - Competent Level
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Jason has family all over the world and as such has learned to speak several languages. He's currently fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Swedish. He's also familiar with roughly a dozen other languages, though not to the point of fluency. Having absorbed a lot of languages due to his family and travels, he's chosen to major in linguistics, and his knowledge of languages is growing.
Jace's knowledge of his own family and species lore is Expert-level. However, outside of his particular species he's less knowledgeable. He knows the basics of many different species, but most of his family have gone to great lengths to avoid other supernaturals.
Self-Defense - Novice Level
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Jace is little use in a fight. He's had a few basic self-defense classes, but his basic technique in a fight is run away and hide. Thus far, it's been a very effective technique.
Jace comes from a family that lives within the human world but doesn't always or even often agree with their laws. As such, he's familiar with the basics of quite a few criminal practices. Forgery, fencing, how the black market works -- he has a basic understanding of such things and how to deal with such people.
Apart from his natural abilities to conceal himself, he has been trained over and over again how to move silently and evade notice. There are things that can weaken or can remove one's powers, and there are those who rely on senses other than sight. Not to mention guard dogs and heat sensors. So he knows a lot of tricks and can be nearly invisible, even without the use of his powers.
Agile, an expert climber, practiced in stealth and able to become invisible -- how could he not know how to steal things? He's a skilled thief, able to pick pockets, crack safes, and break into houses. If he's ever denied access to the family trust, he'd still be able to take care of himself quite nicely.
Trained to be an expert thief, Jace's mental discipline is exceptionally strong, and with this comes great willpower. He is so well-trained that virtually no mundane method can make him do something against his will, and he's trained to use his willpower to give him the strength to persevere through almost anything. This does extend to magical methods, too, if there's a way to resist them. Some have noted that this willpower often comes across as cockiness or brattiness.
ABILITIES
Power: Chameleon - Supreme Level
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Chameleons can, by their very nature, vanish when they want to. Typically, this just means they can't be seen, and they can easily detected by any number of other methods. Jace comes from a very long line of Chameleons that live a very long time; as such, they have learned many tricks over the years. He spent four years after high school doing nothing but learning how to use his various powers and abilities. Accordingly, he can vanish at will, blur his scent, body heat, even the sound of his heart and breath to nearly nothing. He's even managed to learn to hide himself from most magical senses and magical detection.
Jace can also make other people or things vanish in his general vicinity. The cost and effectiveness depends on how much he's trying to hide and what he's doing. If he's hiding one other person and they're moving together and trying to be stealthy, it's probably near full strength. If it's a small group of people, they'd probably have to hold still and be quiet for it to stay at high level.
Power: Dexterity/flexibility - Enhanced Level
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Chameleons have Enhanced level dexterity and can perform precise actions at a level far beyond normal humans. They are also double-jointed in multiple places, including wrists and ankles as well as several other joints, and can contort into positions that would be quite impossible for normal humans.
Power: Ecothermic - Basic Level
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Normal chameleons, like most reptiles, are ecothermic, meaning their bodies naturally maintain a temperature roughly equivalent with the ambient air. Chameleons like Jace have much more control of their body temperature and can regulate it at will, though doing so does have an energy cost, in the Weakness of the same name. This power can come in quite useful at times though as they can go into rooms and not trigger heat sensors, and can if needed pass for undead.
Power: Healing - Enhanced Level
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Chameleons have greatly enhanced healing abilities and heal from most minor wounds instantly. It's commonly said in his family that if you've lived long enough to wonder if you're going to die, then most likely you'll be fine. They are immune to all mundane diseases and poisons and resistant to any not specifically created to harm them. As a result of this rapid healing, if they live a healthy lifestyle, they have a nearly unlimited lifespan. The very first chameleon in Jace's family is still alive, and no one knows how old he is any more.
This ability also typically makes them immune to drugs or anything that would alter their physiology. However Chameleons, unlike many types of wolves and other shifters (who use pain as an anchor to their humanity), have no love or need for pain and often need to steady their nerves, so they have learned techniques and methods to allow pain medicines and other recreational substances to effect them. Doing this also leaves them open to other negative drugs and side effects until their healing returns to full power.
Power: Illusion - Enhanced Level
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Jace's special talent is a weak ability at illusions/glamours. He can, with almost no effort, change minor things about his appearance. Even in creating a facsimile of another person, such a likeness is not likely to hold up under close scrutiny and certainly won't last if he has to speak, as it doesn't change his voice at all. This ability to change his appearance extends to anything on his body, so he could change the color or pattern of his shirt, or even appear to be wearing a shirt when he's not. These illusions aren't merely visible but also tangible, functioning at up to the Basic level (though also magical in nature, if that's a consideration). However, it's not true conjuring. He could make a sword, but how well it would do in a sword fight would depend on how much effort he put into it. Likewise, the duration depends on the efforts and focus he put into it. They could vanish the second they leave his body, or slowly fade away over days or weeks.
Power: Mental Defense - Enhanced Level
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Not every member of his family has avoided the supernatural. One of these members learned the methods to protect one's mind against most psychics and mind-readers and to project pleasant normal human thoughts. Jace has learned how to use just enough mentalism to defend himself against detection and unwanted readings or influence.
Power: Physique - Basic Level
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Chameleons are often at the peak of human health and condition. While weak and frail compared to, say, vampires or werewolves, they are at the peak of normal human performance. So their strength is equal to that of a bodybuilder's, their speed equal to an Olympic track runner, and so on. Combined with their healing abilities, this makes them rather tough.
Power: Senses - Enhanced Level
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As a Chameleon, Jace has enhanced senses over a human. His sense of sight is better in multiple ways. He can focus as if he had binoculars, getting a greater magnification and resolution than any human, and he is able to see beyond what is normal for humans, in both distance an detail. He's also able to use each eye independently to check his surroundings, or together to get a 3d image. This, however, does look slightly odd, so he usually uses a minor illusion to make it appear he's looking in a single direction. His eyes can also see in the UV spectrum. His sense of taste is highly augmented, in that he can taste chemicals and other factors in his surroundings, similar to how a wolf uses the sense of smell. Lastly, his sense of touch is greatly augmented. Even if his ears are plugged, he can sense vibrations in the ground and in the air without his ears and experience only minimal inconvenience. He can also use this power in other ways, such as detecting tumblers falling in locks or otherwise identifying particular patterns in vibration.
ADVANTAGES
His family is large and spread out, and they have spent millennia keeping the knowledge of the "cursed" from spreading. In that time, they have become specialized in hiding (and more shady occupations) to support and help the "cursed" members. They all live on the family trust, and one big heist or bout of insider trading or industrial espionage can make ten times more cash than a normal job could make in a lifetime. As such, a few calls to his family, and he can get resources or contacts into many areas. For example, he already has several fake passports stored in various cities, should he need to vanish.
Jace's family, whether "cursed" or not, all benefit from the family trust. Though they are expected to contribute to the family in some way, "cursed" members typically have a larger stipend and are given longer to start contributing before the faucet is turned off. After all, when you're going to be around basically forever, you have a long time to pay back your debts. Jace has just started to use his trust, which is paying for his college and all expenses. Though he's living in an house that already belongs to the family, so the expenses are less than they could be. At the moment he has no real limitations, and as long as he doesn't do excessive expenditures, he'll be fine throughout his college career...or careers, if he chooses to to go multiple times.
Chameleons are naturally hard to detect and have a natural ability to seem human, all the way down to their magical aura. They are extremely hard to detect as anything other than human. Even if caught doing something supernatural most senses will still tell an observer that they are looking at a normal, powerless human.
Part of the tradition with the "cursed" is that the other "cursed" members take turns teaching new members the tricks and uses of the powers that have developed over the years, and how they intersect with more mundane skills. He currently has a primary mentor in San Francisco: his aunt, who is currently going by the name of Sarah and living as an art dealer. He calls her often, and they often visit each other, both for lessons for Jace and from genuine fondness. Should he want or require more specialized training, his aunt will arrange either for him to visit another member of the family or that member of the family come to him. Jace is, at the moment, considered too young and inexperienced to have direct knowledge of all the potential mentors or access to their contacts. His aunt is his access point to all family matters.
WEAKNESSES
Chameleons are ecothermic creatures, meaning that their bodies naturally maintain a temperature close to that of the ambient air temperature. As stated in the Power, Chameleons have the ability to regulate their body temperature. However, if not thinking about it, their bodies naturally run hotter than humans in warm temperatures and colder in cool temperatures. This can cause them to be noticed by such methods and can cause other issues, should their healing factor be impaired. The main difference this power has on average is his diet. To maintain normal activity in winter, he has to consume a lot more calories, and he needs less in the summer.
Jace is very much not a combat person, or really a conflict person. If a fight breaks out his likely reaction is to run away or become invisible. Some may call it cowardice, he and most of his family call it intelligence.
Chameleons are affected by mountain ash slightly differently than many supernatural creatures. As long as they aren't actively using any of their powers, it poses no boundary to them. However, if they're actively healing, for example, then it would prevent them from crossing. Or they would have to drop out of stealth mode to cross a line of mountain ash. Likewise, if ingested, it would not be toxic per se, but it would limit or completely block their powers, depending on the quantity ingested, until their systems were able to purge themselves.
The family tradition is to stay hidden. Bad experiences short after the "curse" first appeared have caused caution and anonymity to be almost their religion. "Don't get involved" and "don't tell the secret" are the cornerstones of their religion. Their family has managed to stay virtually unknown in both the natural and supernatural communities by adhering to these practices. Another tradition tied in with the first is the tradition to contribute to the family, often in money or connections, though sometimes knowledge is the best contribution. Knowledge of the supernatural community would be a big boon to the family, but is it worth the risk of exposure? There would be definite repercussions, should anyone be courageous or brash enough to take that risk.
