This is, um, confusing. You see, Spencer’s eyes are kind of strange in that their exact color is constantly changing. They look like pictures of nebuli or other interstellar gases which you see in a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope, except they move and swirl constantly. The color of the nebuli change colors with Spencer’s mood. Also, they glow in the dark.
Ethnicity:
Caucasian
Physical Appearance:
Spencer’s one of those people who intentionally make themselves look insignificant. He’s a small, scrawny guy, underweight and somewhat bony in appearance. His arms and legs are long and skinny and he has a long thin neck. His shoulders are thin and scrawny as well, making him very thin-looking. His skin is a pale white, as if he doesn’t spend much time outside. He walks with his feet close together and his head down, trying to seem like he’s just minding his own business. He has a calculated and precise walk, stepping from heel to toe swiftly. He always walks fast, as if trying not to be seen.
Spencer’s head is roughly rectangular, with a long, gaunt face. He has a long nose and medium-sized ears that lay flat against his head. His nose is long and bony, with a knob near the top which has formed from getting his nose broken a few times. His eyes were explained above, and the area under them are dark in a Greek kind of way. He has a small mouth with pale lips which are always frowning a little. Spencer always tends to look somewhat melancholy despite his technicolor eyes. He’s almost always frowning a little and rarely smiles. His teeth are slightly tarnished, but this has nothing to do with his lack of smiling. Spencer’s hair is cut in a kind of fade, with the hair on the top longer than the sides. He combs his hair over to the right. Spencer’s voice is high and somewhat hollow-sounding, like there’s no soul in his body. He tends to sound somewhat melancholy.
Attire:
Spencer knows how to dress to impress. He always dresses well, wearing button-down shirts and skinny slacks. His shirts tend to be grayscale or pastel colors, but never overly vibrant. His clothing is always well-pressed and cared for. He wears a pair of black docksiders on his feet and black dress shoes if he’s going to some sort of formal event. He has a collection of ties in various greyscales and a few ties with pictures of cosmic events on them for special occasions. When it’s cold, he wears a charcoal grey wool trenchcoat. In summer, he tends to roll the sleeves of his shirts up to his elbows, but never wears short-sleeved shirts. He keeps a suit coat in his wardrobe for formal events. He wears a silver bracelet on his right wrist.
Personality
Innate & Outward Personality:
Spencer is your typical high school loner. He is an introverted and incredibly shy individual, tending to keep to himself and read his books in peace rather than socialize. It requires an exemplary amount of effort to have a conversation with Spencer and he immediately clams up in the presence of a large group. He doesn’t talk very much and always sits in the back of classrooms, despite being fairly intelligent. If I had to describe Spencer in one word, it would be melancholy. He has clinical depression and, though he takes some medicine for it, still seems to act in that general way. He is downcast constantly, and very easily loses interest in even his favorite activities. When approached by people, he tends to act almost in fear, looking around for a way to escape. He has severely low self-esteem, which prevents him from excelling or making many friends. He has some trust issues as well because he’s afraid of being hurt. In school, Spencer was bullied for both being a metahuman and for being gay. A byproduct of hiding from bullies in the library was Spencer growing to be quite intelligent. He’s a very smart boy, certainly no valedictorian, but in high school he was in the top 20% of his class. He loves physics and wishes to be an astrophysicist one day due to his love of astronomy. In addition to this, Spencer is a rather passive person, making him easy to push around. He’s a pacifist, staunchly opposed to any kind of fighting or cruelty. This has also driven him to become a vegetarian, as he is a supporter of animal rights. He’s not the type to shove his opinions on the treatment of animals in others’ faces, though, considering that he doesn’t like talking to people in the first place.
Hobbies/Interests:
Spencer’s favorite thing in the world to do is stargaze. He owns a powerful telescope which, on clear nights, he will use to watch the sky. He loves all things space, and is constantly reading about astronomy. Reading, writing bad poetry, keeping to himself, and exploring the woods around the school. He used to take dance classes, but he’s far too shy to use it anymore. His favorite band is Death Cab for Cutie. His favorite author is William Faulkner. Spencer is a vegetarian. His favorite food is stuffed mushrooms.
Skills/Talents:
Over the years, Spencer has become good at breaking into things. He’s accomplished at lockpicking and his intelligence helps him find ways into or out of rooms that most wouldn’t normally think of. He is very booksmart as well, especially in physics and math.
Prized Possession:
His telescope
Quote(s):
“I love stars because they’re like me; they’ve been dead for a long time and now they’re just light diffusing.”
“Please...just leave me alone...
History/Bio:
Excuse me, but I would like to tell my own story if it’s okay with you. I’ll be brief.
I was born in Mendel, Louisiana to a conservative Christian family. My father was a minister and my mother stayed at home and cared for me and my older sister. Now for those who don’t know, Mendel is one of the hot zone cities scattered across the United States where a ton of metahumans have been known to congregate. Mendel is divided into two halves, West and East, and each is controlled by a gang of metahumans. I was born, luckily, on the Vanguard side, the side which was less concerned about oppressing the people and more about protecting metahumans from the abusive police force. My father, however, was a pure, a person who believed that metas were demonic abominations, and he didn’t mind shouting about it on Sundays. It made him unpopular, but he didn’t care.
When I was nine I found out that I was a meta. I was horrified at first, and I spent two straight days locked in my room with no food or water. But he found out anyways. He was absolutely furious with me. For the next year of my life, I lived in fear, moving from doctor to doctor to find if they could fix me. No one could. They all said there was no hope for him. I was destined to be a freak for the rest of my life. My father fell to hating me. Sure, he let me stay around and eat at his table, but I could feel his stares digging into me when I wasn’t looking and he seldom spoke in my presence. But his treatment of me then wouldn’t even compare to how he treated me when I turned fourteen.
At age fourteen I had my first girlfriend. She was a young pretty brunette by the name of Carrie. She was kind and sweet and had big breasts, but from our first date things just felt...odd. The fact that she liked me in...that way just felt so strange and unnatural. Then on our second date, we kissed and I knew that it wasn’t right. From that moment I knew that something was wrong. I was terrified. Already I was a meta. Now I was gay? I became so afraid of my father that I didn’t go home that night. I stayed at Carrie’s house (her parents were on vacation). I went home that day and stayed at my house for about four more months, during which time I avoided my father at all costs. Then one day he walked in on me video chatting with a boy who went to my school. I shoved through him and ran out of the front door. I wandered the streets and woke up the next day on a couch in a condominium. It was then that I met Whisper. She had found me in an alley and rescued me. She talked to me a while about my situation (her voice was hard to hear), and she offered me protection. She said that she could keep me safe.
Please understand at this point that I knew that going home to my father meant excommunication. If I had gone home then, I thought that my father would treat my homosexuality like he did my mutation. I heard nightmares about hormonal therapy and castration used to quell homosexuality and I knew that my father was not above those things. So I did the only thing I thought I could do; at age fifteen, I joined the Vanguard. I don’t want to talk about what I did then. It’s too dark a part of my life. I was never made to kill anyone, but I did get in some fights. I decided then that I would never fight again. I moved into an apartment across from Whisper’s and we became good friends. I confided in her when I couldn’t confide in anyone else and, though she wasn’t the best person, I still loved her. I had my first boyfriend while in the Vanguard, a boy named Damien. We lived together and we loved each other like any man and woman ever could. One evening, late at night, there was a knock at the door and I, assuming that it was Whisper, walked to the door and opened it with Damien close behind me. It was my father and a police officer. He had been searching for me for months, he said, and a friend told him that he had seen me associating with the Vanguard. When he saw that I was sleeping with a man, he punched me across the face. A fight ensued, as Damien didn’t appreciate my father’s behavior, and I was shoved by him across the living room floor.
I don’t really remember much after that. I woke up a few days later in the hospital with some burns, and from one of Whisper’s aids I was told that there was some kind of explosion. I’ve never been that angry ever since, and I hope I never become that way, especially under a full moon in the summer. Damien was badly burned as well, and we decided that it was best for our relationship to end. Luckily Whisper was able to cover it up and prevented NEST from intervening in the explosion. After that my father didn’t speak to me again, and I didn’t want to see him again. A few days later, I left the hospital and returned to my apartment, which was completely destroyed. Whisper helped me rebuild the apartment and for another two years I worked for the Vanguard.
Then a gang war broke out. The Skulls believed that Vanguard agents killed one of their members, and so they attacked us. The fighting became intense, but I didn’t join in. I stayed behind and offered my services in other ways, but I would not fight. I’m proud that I did that. I really am.
Not long after that, though, Whisper was taken into NEST custody and the Vanguard fell apart. One day, a NEST agent knocked on my door and spoke with me. He was a massive man named Henry Olin, a huge reptilian creature. He was quite a kind man who told me that I had a gift, but my gifts weren’t being used to their top potential. He offered me a space at Academy 218, a school for metahumans like me who were like me. He said they would help to teach me how not to hurt people with my powers like I did back when my father visited. I stayed in Mendel for a while, with him visiting me commonly. We became good friends, and finally I decided to attend the academy.
Family:
Father: Rev. Richard Holloway (estranged) Mother: Larra Holloway (estranged) Sister: Maria Holloway (estranged)
Relationships | | | "" |
Abilities
Power Class:
Elemental
Power:
Stardust Spencer has the ability to create particles of luminescent dust which he refers to as stardust. The exact description of the dust changes with his mood, but it always flows from his hands when activated and descends similar to how the sandman is depicted sprinkling sand into the air. The dust changes color with Spencer’s mood, being pink when he’s angry, violet when he’s happy, orange when he’s sad, and seafoam green when he’s nervous. Stardust glows in the dark and is quite hot to the touch, but it does not burn Spencer. Stardust has three forms; nebula form, nova form, and supernova form.
Nebula form Now here’s what Spencer can actually do with the stardust. Stardust has a cohesive effect when it collides with other particles of itself, allowing Spencer to create constructs out of stardust. These constructs can be of any shape and size so long as they obey the laws of physics and Spencer’s own limitations. Spencer can use the stardust to form shields and tools such as lockpicks, grappling hooks, or bottle openers. Essentially, Spencer uses his power as a metahuman swiss army knife. The stardust’s cohesive properties are like that of a muscle; the more Spencer creates a specific form, the stronger that form gets. So something like a comb which Spencer uses every day will be stronger than, say, a sword which he has only created once.
Nova-form If Spencer is in mortal danger, he can activate the nova-form of his power. In the nova-form, Spencer’s stardust gains a mind of its own and attacks his enemies, using their cohesive properties and high heat to burn opponents. They cannot burn through armor, but they can do a good bit of damage to bare skin if allowed to. The stardust targets vulnerable areas of the body like the nose and eyes. Once the nova-attack is finished, however, all of the stardust particles die and Spencer has to recreate them again, which leaves him temporarily defenseless.
Supernova-form Spencer’s most powerful form is the Supernova form. This form is exceedingly rare and can only happen at either midnight on a clear night of the full moon in summertime or during a solar eclipse. It also can only happen when Spencer is both in mortal peril and is too overcome by emotion or pain to defend himself using nova or nebula form. In supernova form, the stardust congregates around Spencer and creates a fusion reaction, sending off a massive wave of heat which causes a sizeable explosion, sending enemies literally smoking away. While the stardust tries to protect Spencer, he still receives some burns from using his supernova form and loses his powers for 72 hours. Supernova form requires so much energy that it brings Spencer right to the edge of ashing as well (last time he used it he lost twenty pounds of ash), so he passes out and falls into a coma for at least 48 hours.
Spencer’s power is greatly affected by the weather, lunar phases, and time of day. His power is strongest on clear nights under the full moon. Under such circumstances, he can create more stardust than he normally can and his constructs are hotter, brighter, and stronger. His power is weakest on cloudy days when the new moon is in phase. On these days, his constructs are about as strong as glass.
Also Spencer can see in the dark because magic eyes.
Limits:
Nebula-form Spencer cannot create things with moving parts, and due to the laws of physics cannot produce more than ¼ his body weight’s worth of stardust at any one moment. While on nights of the full moon he has been able to exceed this limit and get to 40% of his bodyweight, it is incredibly exhaustive and leaves him quite sore.
Nova-form In order to use Nova-form, Spencer must discharge 50% of his weight in stardust, which leaves him quite exhausted and causes him to lose his powers for up to an hour.
Supernova-form In order to use Supernova-form, Spencer must discharge 100% of his bodyweight in stardust, which causes him to reach the edge of ashing and causes him to lose his power for 72 hours.
Weaknesses/Drawbacks:
Well if you catch Spencer on a cloudy day when the moon is in its new phase, he’s done for. Because his power is so influenced by cosmic events, there are entire days when his power doesn’t work as well as it normally does (though making small things like he normally does isn’t influenced much). Spencer’s stardust can be destroyed by physical contact and, once destroyed, must be remade. Basically, while Spencer’s nebula-form constructs can take damage for him, they break immediately after that attack subsides, killing off some stardust particles. If Spencer were to, say, get in a gunfight, he would be able to block a bullet or two but after a few bullets he would run out of stardust and would be turned into swiss cheese. Stardust dies if it contacts water or high-voltage electricity. Spencer is a pacifist as well, meaning that he does not use his powers for violence unless he is going to be killed if he doesn’t (thus nova form). Normally this is a non-weakness as people change all the time, but as I mentioned above Spencer’s stardust is like a muscle; the less you take a form, the weaker that form will be. So Spencer could technically make a sword out of stardust, but the first time he swung that sword it would shatter like a glass vase or just vanish into dust in the wind. The nebula form also does not work well against elemental powers, and shields often only partially protect Spencer from damage from elemental attacks.
In theory, assuming that tomorrow is officially when my work-rest cycle returns to normal, you will see some more steady interaction out of me. I apologize as things have been one ongoing disaster in my occupation's little realm.
I am finding it quite difficult given my current life to keep up with this topic - I may need to temporarily resign. Further assessment will be involved shortly.
I am finding it quite difficult given my current life to keep up with this topic - I may need to temporarily resign. Further assessment will be involved shortly.
If you need to drop out that's fine. But I won't kill your character off if you're gonna come back.
I'm interested :)
Don't expect a character sheet within a couple hours, though. It's a lot of writing to do if one wants to go in depth with it.
Yeah, yeah, take your time. We're currently wrapping up the current arc, and I'll be starting another free mode afterwards.
