[center][b][u]BASIC INFORMATION[/u][/b][/center] [b]Name:[/b] Malcolm Okada [b]Nickname:[/b] “Mal” [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Age:[/b] 20 [b]Height:[/b] 5'11” [b]Weight:[/b] 159 lbs [b]Faction:[/b] Ally/Connection of the Vanguard ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b][u]APPEARANCE[/u][/b][/center] [b]Hair Colour:[/b] Black [b]Eye Colour:[/b] Dark Brown [b]Ethnicity:[/b] Japanese-American [b]Physical Appearance:[/b] On first glance, Malcolm is typical of a young Japanese man, if a bit taller than the average. He is of a fairly athletic build with powerful, lean muscles from kendo. Strangely, his most noticeable and interesting feature is his hands – freakishly large, with long, spidery fingers and callouses from holding a shinai. Small, silvery patches of psoraisis are visible on his bare elbows and forearms. Malcolm can be considered handsome and has told as much in the past, particularly with reference to his strong jawline and straight nose. With permanently furrowed brows and dark eyes allowing little light to pass through them, intimidating is another word that springs to mind. His shoulder-length hair is wavy, often slicked back from his forehead and held in place by reading glasses, but there are a few erratic streaks of grey that have snuck in amongst the black. He is softly spoken with a particularly low-toned voice. Malcolm's lips are often chapped with peeling skin, mostly because of an obvious habit for biting them in anxiousness. Despite his powerful build, he tends to slouch and slump over, as well as walk staring at the ground and avoiding eye-contact. [b]Attire:[/b] On most occasions, Malcolm is generally unkempt. His clothes are often wrinkled, his collar untucked, his shoelaces untied and his pockets hanging out and empty. It is painfully obvious, however, that what he wears is expensive and well-tailored, even if he doesn't take care of it, as it fits his form snugly. A typical outfit for Mal consists of a button-down shirt (of varying colours), black trousers and his favourite pair of scratched and tattered brown Brogue boots. If he ever needs to hide his face, which he does often, he wears a plastic mask with a fox's face etched into it. The back of it ironically reads 'Made in China'. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b][u]PERSONALITY[/u][/b][/center] [b]Outward & Innate Personality:[/b] Malcolm is horribly, disgustingly, chronically shy and – for the most part – terrified of social interaction with anyone outside his family (and girlfriend). Walking down the street, he would keep his eyes firmly locked to the pavement in front of him so as not to notice or have to smile at anyone he knew. A conversation or even a brief 'hello' gone awkwardly would haunt him for days and weeks as he considered what was and could have been if he'd only done it correctly. His self-esteem is low and anything bad that happens is [i]always his fault[/i] even when it's clearly not. In general, he is disinterested with normal, mundane life and was even before his powers began to manifest at the age of fourteen. Malcolm is apathetic towards his university work and truants more than he ought to. He only attends because his grandmother insists that it is the path to a good job and a future of running his family's business – not that he wants to. Malcolm's lack of confidence doesn't stop him from aspiring to be a hero, using his life and power for something more... though he [i]is[/i] too timid to take the first step of any action on his own. Malcolm is a not-so-secret romantic and ridiculously mushy at that. He's the flowers and poetry sort, rather protective over his girlfriend. This is a reflection of his overall loyalty – if he's friends with someone it is for forever; if he loves, it is eternally. Nobody ever said his poetry had to be good. [b]Hobbies & Interests:[/b] Malcolm's hobbies include kendo (as a sport) and watching MMA fighting, mostly to test and train his precognitive abilities. He also has begun to take an interest in old murder cases – specifically the cold ones – and runs a local, mildly famous blog that was featured in a newspaper for showing the steps he and his girlfriend are taking to solve said crimes. For a bit of fun on the side, he takes on 'regular P.I' cases that are requested of him, like to find out if a lady's husband is cheating on her. [b]Skills & Talents:[/b] Malcolm is excellent at kendo and as a teenager travelled across the states for various competitions, often placing in the top three if not winning altogether. This extends to an ability to use blunt weapons quite effectively in combat. He is extremely smart, having coasted through high school with straight-As without studying for a single one of them, mostly because of his brilliant memory. Perhaps it is related to his abilities but he has a talent for keen observation, often picking up details that others may miss. Despite not having had lessons for many years, he still remembers how to play the piano, to an extent. [b]Prized Possession:[/b] Laptop – runs his local P.I empire from there and also contains frightening details and clues to solving cold cases including copies of gory, hand-drawn images from Jenna James' psychometry. There are also files of sentimental value there, too, like pictures of both of them together and lewd poetry. He'd just about die if anyone found the latter. [b]Family:[/b] Hideki Okada || Father || Alive || Often away on business and rarely sees his son, though they are close. Hana Okada || Grandmother || Alive || A mean old bint who has control of the local restaurant branch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][b][u]RELATIONSHIPS:[/u][/b][/center] Jenna James Bartlett || Girlfriend ------------------------------------------- [center][b][u]ABILITIES[/u][/b][/center] [b]Power Class:[/b] Cerebral [b]Power:[/b] [u]Accelerated Probability[/u] – “[i]The user can sense all the variables of any situation, predict the outcomes and what choices one should make to reach the conclusion they want.[/i]” Malcolm's ability, dubbed 'precognition' by his girlfriend, is not a true representation of being able to see the future. His brain is working overtime to process every miniscule detail from the weather to a human's body language in an effort to find the easiest and most successful path to the intended conclusion. When he stands still and has time to prepare, this takes the form of a vision – a branching tree that he follows, imagining the different outcomes – whereas in combat he is only given a flash of intuition on what way to move to dodge an attack and has no knowledge of what the follow up will be until his power next activates. The time difference between both types is about 10 seconds, which could be life or death in combat if they ever got mixed up. [b]Weaknesses/Limitations/Drawbacks:[/b] – Malcolm's accelerated probability only works when there is a living variable, an 'opponent', to the situation and when he can see that person (either partial or direct line-of-sight). He could never predict a tree about to fall on top of him from natural causes. Since it relies on reading subtle body language like the shifting of feet and the tightening of lips, masks and armour make it far more difficult to predict attacks accurately unless he knows the person behind it all. – Malcolm's accelerated probability works infinitely better when he knows the variables intimately. It is more accurate and more likely to bring him to the intended conclusion. Therefore, he cannot order others around based on his ability as doing so brings in a whole host of other variables to overload his brain, as do unfamiliar settings. It forces him to be independent and go it alone. – Overloading is a rarer problem with his ability when his brain gets bogged down with possible event trees, usually when there are more than four human variables to calculate in combat or if he has to compensate for only partial sight. In this case his body refuses to respond and becomes trapped in the 'vision' until he is pushed out of it or it finishes, whichever comes first. If he is forced out of it, his ability is thrown off-kilter for a period of time. – Sometimes, there is just no possible path that can be taken, a 0% probability of catching a criminal or avoiding a blow. Likely because they're faster or more powerful than he is. In such a case, he is not able to find the 'next best option' and has to suck it up. In addition to this, he has problems predicting meta-human abilities that he has never seen before as it becomes only guesswork. Although he is fairly new to his power, it is clear that it will work much better on those without any powers whatsoever and is designed with that in mind. ---------------------------- [center][b][u]Other[/u][/b][/center] – The Okada family business is a ridiculously popular chain of sushi restaurants prevalent in seven locations across America. – Malcolm's university course is in Economics and for the first time in his life he is terrible at a subject. – Malcolm's weapon of choice is usually a long metal bar or pipe of a similar length to his shinai. He's useless with a live blade.