[hider=Damon Vicous][b]Name:[/b] Damon Vicous
[b]Nickname/Alias/Etc:[/b] “Lieo”
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Age:[/b] 20
[b]Height:[/b] 6’0”
[b]Weight:[/b] 109 lbs, but 178 when he’s… full.
[b]Home District:[/b] None; he’s from outta town.

[b][u]Appearance[/u][/b]

[b]Hair Color:[/b] Black
[b]Eye Color:[/b] Amber
[b]Ethnicity:[/b] Canadian; he’s really got German and French in him though, with some Czechoslovakian.
[b]Physical Appearance:[/b] He has a somewhat slouched posture during relaxed, casual occasions, but can stand up straight with shoulders broad at 6'0” when the situation calls for formality. The man’s build is average; he isn’t athletic and he doesn’t have chiseled abs – but living on the run has kept him somewhat active so what body fat he has isn’t in excessive amounts. Damon’s complexion is rather poor, what with the occasional blemish or inflammation caused by irritation of the skin and the occasional blotches of scar tissue. It contrasts with his dark brown (nearly black) short cropped hair with a subtle widow's peak. One thing that an observant person would notice about him is that his fair skin usually doesn't show. His hands are usually tucked in his pockets, his neck is wrapped in a white bandana with black design, so all you can really see of him-him is his face, which is free of holes, and his hands; and maybe the top of the back of his neck. 

His face, which, if he was working, would appear stern and his brows creased in concentration and forethought. Or in some cases he could be smiling, which shows off the dimples in his cheeks. Most often though, if you were to find him on the streets, he would look wary. Almost jumpy, even. Just by looking at him you can tell he isn’t a murderer or a crook though. More like a man with a terrible secret, a burden that weighs him down with every step he makes. He gives the impression that he is at peace with what he does, but this appearance of peace also comes with the appearance as though he's enjoying a guilty pleasure. He doesn't seem one hundred percent comfortable in his own skin or with his method of getting by no matter how hard he tries to convince someone. Even in his white smiles, there’s something lost and sad about it. Like the smile doesn’t reflect in his eyes. If one’s senses were acute enough, you could barely make out the odd aroma of honey near him.

[b]Attire:[/b] He has a worn down, brown leather jacket that appears to be riddled with holes, and beneath that is a simple white t-shirt, also appearing to have many holes in it. In fact, almost every piece of his clothing appears to have holes in it, even the stolen black designer jeans. The only exception there seems to be are these rough looking brown leather boots, steel toed. He also seems to have a white bandana with black print that’s tied loosely around his neck. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t appear to be there for any purpose other than just being there. It could be for style, comfort, or act as a shield against encroaching eyes.

[b][u]Personality[/u][/b]

[b]Personality:[/b] Generally analytical and serious in his workplace, he is oblivious to the world around him, nothing but pure concentration channeling into whatever he is doing. His intellect practically radiating off of him as his fingers blindingly zip around the keyboard of his computer. In this train of thought, he has an air of authority that he could never achieve on his own conscience. Almost as an alter-ego of his real self, while he's around company, he comes off as a kind and gentle man, somewhat meek and reserved, which contrasts with the way he dresses. If young people are in danger, kids even, he'll do what he can to help without ceasing. He becomes slightly more hesitant however if there's actually someone or something threatening them. He has a soft spot for the outcasts or those stricken by poverty after having lived the experience when he was younger - and even now. He can be talkative among those he likes and is liberal in his values and beliefs.

Damon is in fact introverted, rather having to sit back whilst in a group or in the company of peers, which are few in between. However, he hides this with the mask of a positive disposition. He lacks a kind of assertiveness while in casual interactions and has one or maybe two friends (if he’s lucky) that he can feel comfortable around. He feels haunted by his past and he isn't proud of what he does to earn money, but he doesn't regret his actions - what he regrets is the accidents that have occurred that led to him being hunted down in the first place. As a result, he is also afraid of getting close to people or getting into dangerous situations that he cannot control. It's out of fear of harming someone again and losing himself in the process.

He’s very much restrained and has an absolute loathing for his “power”. After all, it is what ruined his life from the beginning and still continues to do so. He feels invaded, violated, his power and control being stripped away from him to the benefit and hosting of others, of aliens and strangers - demons. As such, he is very against using it even if it is to his own advantage. In fact, there exists even a fear for the swarm inside of him and a fear of losing control, lest that swarm domineers him. He has also seen what his power can do, and he has no desire to inflict that kind of gruesome fate onto any mortal man, woman, or child.

His intelligence is an outstanding factor. What he lacks in physical aptitude, he makes up for being a tech wiz. He even made his own computer and rigged a mobile wifi hotspot, which allows him to cruise the internet as fast as a roadrunner. While on the run, he has gotten by only because of a side job that he had (along with stealing occasionally). He is capable of hacking into computers and software, creating and deleting Trojans and even spikes, as well as USBs and data chips to give to people. Technically, this is illegal. Despite what the upstanding citizen may think of him, he does have a great deal of morals and he does his best to abide by them. He has managed to go this many years without harming someone again, after all.

Among all the deals he made with people who you could easily assume to be part of the Kennedy shooting if you didn’t already know that it would’ve been too many years ago for that to be a feasible possibility, he is very familiar with sketchy people. He has the basic gist of how they operate and how they intend on extorting him or bargain with him. As such, Damon has develop a sort of social savvy - in the sense that he cannot be easily bargained with or persuaded. Not that you’d know it, of course. These sorts of people don’t like being said “no” to. So Damon works out a social nuance in which he can appease his “associates” without actually [i]letting them in on anything[/i]. He doesn’t directly say no, or refuse, or disagree. He feigns an interest and bargains on his own terms with the illusion of a compromise that is more heavily suited towards the other guy. Of course, these deals work in Damon’s favor and original plan in the end. He doesn’t dish out special favors for strict business customers.

[b]Hobbies/Interests:[/b] He hasn't had a lot of time in his youth to explore his hobbies, though he has come to enjoy working with computers. He has also come to appreciate a great invention called coffee and enjoys the age old tradition of laying on a couch and watching movies. He usually just enjoys all of the little things in life due to not being able to do so before.

[b]Skills/Talents:[/b] Programming, networking, hacking, updating, developing, repairing - he can do wonders with computers and has a natural inclination to understand them, though most of it was learned from practical tinkering. He has no college education that taught him how to do what he does. He, while not typically an outstanding speaker or even a social individual, his livelihood kind of depended on getting through on his transactions on his own terms. He’s not a superb fighter. Not while he’s sober.

[b]Prized Possession:[/b] That laptop that looks like a piece of junk? Yeah. He made that. It’s a fucking brick. And worth more than you are. Any idea how expensive the parts he had to steal were? It’s the Frankenstein of high-quality ingredients and runs like an angel.

[b]Quote(s):[/b] “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Yeah, I know it pretty well. It’s a tragic story.”

[b]History/Bio:[/b] Well, he was brought up in Canada until he was five, and then they moved to Chicago where he stayed until he was fifteen. That is when the bees started to follow him everywhere and burrow in his skin and turn him into a freak show. He was then a homeless, disowned child hiding back in the alleys where people (namely other kids) would throws rocks at him. When he moved into old or abandoned buildings, it was a matter of time until a cop found him and sprayed him with pepper spray. He has never had it easy, honestly. Damon's luck ran so dry he was even once forced to be on the run from law enforcement because of: a. his mutant status, and b. a run in he had a long time ago when he was 19, just a year ago. An accident occurred then that involved the maiming and death of a man that had jumped him in a back alley. Damon snapped, and the screaming that came afterward prompted an emergency call from a bystander. Which is the one memory that still haunts him to this day.

When he was younger though, he was already pretty damn good with technology. When he was orphaned, he happened across a sociologist trying to emulate the Indian Hole in the Wall study, and there were computers outside the building. He would, at night, sneak out when no other kids or other homeless people were around and study the computers carefully. Over time, he got better; and he liked it. It brought some hope to his bleak world, and after years went by, he learned how to bypass most of the systems and firewalls. He learned the shortcuts and how to upgrade its capabilities. By the time he started getting chased, he had accumulated enough knowledge to steal a fancy computer from a store and a wifi router and upgrade them himself when he found time to obtain the parts. He hacked sites and made trojans and spikes for people in exchange for payment for years. He’s still running even now, and ended up in Black Fall. He’s a bit lost at the moment, trying to find his way up to Canada again, but ended up going around the Great Lakes.

[b]Family:[/b] Damon’s been disowned.

[u][b]Relationships[/b][/u]

[Character name] | [Impression (Good/Bad/Neutral]] | [Relationship (Friend, Rival, Crush, etc)] | [Character's thoughts [EX: I think Bob is quite the amiable fellow, has a great head on his shoulders, wouldn't want anyone else on my side]] |

[b][u]Abilities[/u][/b]

[b]Power Class & Rating:[/b] Super System & Cerebral
[b]Power:[/b] Damon is a living hive. Africanized bees infest his body, unbeknownst to the people around him. Inside of him are what could be hundreds upon thousands of bees, and they’re even crawling about in his clothes, which are the cause of the holes his clothes that he has tried desperately to replace, but new holes keep being torn open to allow easy access. He has since given up. It’s also the reason why he wears so much clothing in the first place to cover his skin. Littered upon his body are holes. It’s like an underground system, from within his abdomen, his legs, his back, his arms, and even in the palms of his hands. The bees, since their initial occupancy, have ravaged much of the internal organs of Damon’s body to point of non-functionality. What remains is most of his circulatory and digestive systems (which damaged much of his nervous system), and his head remains free of infestation. His reproduction system (due to the bees inhabiting most of the abdomen) has been damaged to the point that any actual reproduction would be impossible.

How could such a man survive? A very nuanced power seems to be very particular in how it affected him. He doesn’t have many requirements for survival and most of what he does is done out of habit. As it turns out, as long as he has a mind and that his brain is intact, Damon will live. Even without a body, he can survive on as a mere conscience exacting what will that it can. Damon isn’t fully aware of this, just that he can go on without eating or drinking for a long time. And while someone trying to choke him to death is painful and agonizing, it doesn’t really shut him down. All of his nerves are still active and he can still feel, so he is just as receptive to pain.

Damon has, to the slightest extent, extrasensory or telepathic abilities that allow him control over the insects that dwells within his body. The bees follow every one of his demands like a mindless robots, like pawns on a chessboard. He also releases a specific pheromone that appeals to bees in the surrounding vicinity and lures them to him, and it also negates the pheromone that the queen bee has that keeps other female bees from reproducing. So, if allowed, he could be surrounded by a colossal mass of writhing bugs with pointy stingers. Minor communication is possibly, but it is mostly an exchange of information. He can send a drone ahead and learn about what is around the corner. Having a massive swarm at his disposal, he can possess an omnipresence in the city. He could theoretically see everything as long as he has a set of eyes there. Try as you might, if you make an enemy out of Damon, you will be hard pressed to escape him (unless you swat the bee - in that case, they can’t report to the hive… but dead bees do give off a particular pheromone that alerts the others of danger, attracting more).

Since he is full of bees, he can adopt certain properties of them. Insects have a natural strength in comparison to size, so he could be a little stronger. He could command them to hoist him into the air and allow him to fly - his body has been hollowed out and is very light. If he wanted to, and I doubt he does, he could shoot a stream of bees at the landing skids of a helicopter and send it crashing into the ground (reference). So, depending on the situation, he is capable of being a badass. Obviously, this ability is a mixed bag. 

He also has very minor regenerative abilities. Honey is a natural anti-oxidant and, naturally, them bees are gonna need a place to store it. While Damon isn’t full of it, some honey does line his insides… though mingled with it is blood and flesh, so don’t eat that.

[b]Weaknesses/Drawbacks:[/b] A big down side is that his body and mind is deteriorating. Body is obvious, with those holes in his body and all. They got into his body by literally eating him. They ate holes into his body and carved out a hive. It was incredibly excruciating - torture, even. If he survives long enough, his whole body will deteriorate and he will be dead for good (only when the last of his brain is eaten up, however). The bees, at a certain point, planted themselves along the central nervous system and at the very edge of the brain stem, and the pheromones affected him in such a way that the damage the bees do no longer harms him. Think really hard about what that might turn into. Although he practically has complete control, there are some “incidents”, so to speak, that can occur. 

A great deal of stress, anger or endangerment to his life can cause him to crack and make him go batshit crazy for a minute or so. This is his Mr Hyde: a persona created by the manifestation of the hive self-named “Lieo”. Lieo is a hive-mind and is utterly ruthless and with no inhibitions holding them back - an abominable bastard that will hunt you down with Terminator-style pursuit predation, assuming you manage to escape his clutches. Lieo is essentially the entire swarm and hive itself working through Damon’s body, but could also simply be Damon with the mind of a swarm, that he is “one of them”. It’s a curious state that warrants attention, but is a very real danger to anyone around him. Even Damon. The lack of inhibitions causes damage to the body if he were to exert too much, and Damon will feel it afterward. In addition, using the power itself - controlling the bees - puts him on the fine line of sanity and breaking into Lieo’s persona. To control the hive, he has to put himself on the same level of communication by inserting his will and thoughts via a mild form of telepathy. This, if put off balance, can tip him over the edge and can cause the swarm to dominate his mind.

Any means of telepathy or mind reading against im also upsets the bees in the body which generates stress on Damon as well. So psychic powers can make him crack as well. Although this protects him from mind reading and telepathy to some extent, it is an uncomfortable experience that everyone would wish to avoid. Further, these are just bees. Fire and pesticides are his bane, or at least to the hive residing in him. However, Damon does have a record of being conniving (enoughly so that he can get away with a lot of crimes to survive), so these aren’t sure-fire ways to get rid of him. You’d still have to chase him down. Given the number of alleys and rooms he’s familiar with, he can be capable of ambushing you or, with the swarm, swarming you in a moment’s notice without any warning. And of course, a bullet to the head. That’ll stop most things in their tracks. There’s also the matter of his personality restraining him from using this ability to his full advantage - and in doing so, also accelerates his degeneration.

Lastly, his ability to command the swarm is limited. The code to protect and protect, and live within the security of the hive is hard-wired into each and every member of the swarm’s brain like a robot. It is a failsafe system that ensures the hive’s safety and the safety of the swarm. To this extent, Damon cannot just send the swarm and keep them away from him forever. Such commands they were carry out only to a certain extent before they are ignored. Even if it was something these mindless drones were capable of carrying out, the matter of Damon’s pheromones still exists, and therefore they will always return to the safety of the hive. Damon’s life is essentially on count-down.

[b][u]Other:[/u][/b] [youtube]vOC35uVlQ7U[/youtube]

[b][u]Sample Post:[/u][/b]

Twenty years in the future...

[i]So why do I bother with such frivolities? Where does my concern with the rest of humanity lie? Does my love, my care for my brothers and sisters here intercept my loyalty to which my true mortal soul belongs? I am here in a rundown building in the middle of the outskirts of town… hiding. Protecting. Protecting my family… progressing my own personal demise…. They need to eat soon. They are getting hungry. They are scratching at the shell of my skull, my headache pulsating throughout my being. You’d think I’d be suffering…

BUT NAY! I AM THE HIVE. MY MIND, MY WILL PROTECTS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. I PROMISE YOU THAT NONE OF YOU WILL EVER BE HURT. I’LL FEED YOU, I’LL HOUSE YOU, I AM THE NOURISHMENT, I AM THE HIVE.

But, oh, here I am in this rundown building… the house is rotting… the smell of demolition is drawing near. The citizens fear us, my loves. My children. They fear[/i] you[i]. Oh, but how can they? With your adorable wings and itsy, bitsy mandibles. Your stings exemplifies your will to live; your buzz echoes the purity of life! But the “civilized society”… they are [/i]not[i] so civilized, are they? They are [/i]not[i] so pure… you wish your voice to be heard, don’t you? Mine too. Oh, but I am so shy, so timid... they mock me; they fear me for my presence is none. You give me my form, I am grateful for your generosity, my lovelies.

YOU ALL ARE THE FLOWER OF MY LIFE. YOU ARE THE NECTAR FROM WHICH I DRINK TO FUEL MY LIFE - MY VITAL ESSENCE - YOU ARE THE REASON FOR MY BEING. AS YOU DRINK FROM A FLOWER I DRINK FROM YOUR LOVE. WE ARE ONE, I AM THE HIVE.

...But I promise you all so very soon. My name is Damon, you know this. Black Fall does not though. They will hear my name, they will hear my voice, and they will hear yours too. If they don’t listen to reason, then why bother? Their flesh will be your meal, their bones will be your nests; all after their hearts bursts and the rot and puss takes over the burning of their tissue... human bodies are so fragile. The other metas will fear you - fear [/i]us[i]! Fear no fire nor poison, for we are strong. We are a hive, [/i]the[i] hive.

MY HEADACHE, MY HEADACHE! IT BURNS. WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME SO, MY DEARESTS? I PROMISE YOU SOON, BLACK FALL WILL BURN IN YOUR TOXINS, YOUR MANDIBLES TAKING THEM APART BITE BY BITE. BUT ALL OF YOU WILL BURN BY. BURN, BURN, YOU WILL ALL BURN AND DIE AND—

Oh, but I’m so, so sorry, my lovelies! It will never happen again, I promise! I apologize for my outburst. I do not mean it. I am not what I used to be... it feels as if my mind is eroded. But I promise, once all of you are fed, things will be better. For all of us… it will happen tonight, when we are rested and the people are weak. I do this because I think of you, as you are my meaning. My life. Oh, my brothers and sisters of the hive, I do so very much love you… each and every one of you.

The time will come soon enough.

My dearests.[/i][/hider]