Name: Ignacio "Iggy" Fuentes
Age: 20
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Mexican-American
Physical Description:Tall, slim, broad-shouldered. He has the body of a runner more than a fighter, but the scars to prove otherwise. With an olive complexion, painted over with a slight tan, Iggy has an exotic appearance, compounded by his wavy black mess of curls and dark eyes. He has a youthful face, good looking in its angles and smooth planes, but most consider him "average". A scar on his lower lip and several on each forearm, calloused hands.
Deformities from his Emergence, however, are what draw your eye. His skin is tough to the touch, thick and almost inflexible. His left arm, crawling up to his shoulder and across the left of his torso, is darkened and rough, the colour of earthy stone and burned rock. Cracks are clearly visible throughout the deformity, in clusters around joints. Though it still appears somewhat similar to dry, darkened skin (albeit pushed to an extreme), the "flesh" feels rough like earth. It appears to be slowly spreading.
Skillset:Iggy isn't necessarily a fighter, but he can take a beating. He fights like a loose brawler, absorbing hits in order to get in some of his own, skills learned from time in his youth. He's athletic due to a loose love of soccer and American football, endowing him with stamina and endurance, and is bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish.
His Emergent nature endows him with several growing abilities. Currently, his flesh is taking on a rough, stony texture, worsening and spreading slowly over the time. This stone flesh is more durable than average human tissue and is capable of absorbing blunt force attacks that would otherwise severely injure or incapacitate an NPC, such as attacks with a baseball bat. Portions of his body more significantly affected (i.e. the entire of his left arm and torso) are tougher still, capable of stopping knife attacks and low calibre ammunition.
Another element of his Emergence is Iggy's affinity for heat. Naturally, he runs warmer than everyone else, probably several degrees hotter than is normal. However, he can, at will, increase his body temperature to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. While an exact limit isn't known, so far he has given third-degree burns to pursuers, boiled and evaporated liquids, and can superheat metals. This "gift" also grants him immunity to fire and heat in all forms and protects him from severe cold. His latest "trick", which consists of snapping his fingers to emit sparks, implies that, in time, he will be able to emit flames as well.
History:Born to Rosa-Maria (nee Reyes) and Ramon Fuentes, Iggy grew up hard. The son of Mexican migrants and raised across the country, he was met with resistance at every turn, through prejudice and ignorance. However, he never let it force him down. Each fistfight made him stronger, each slur and sideways look made him stand taller. His mother, the softer of his parents, taught him to fight hatred with optimism, to push back against darkness with light. His father, a laborer and former delinquent in his youth, taught his son the benefits of hard work, of showing others that you are more than what they make of you. Eventually, when his family settled in Brooklyn for what seemed like a permanent fix, Iggy finally found his groove. He made friends, he worked hard, he studied harder. He made his parents proud. Becoming an honor student, Iggy dreamed of becoming a writer, or a journalist. Dreamed of getting back on the road, but this time by choice, not compulsion. He dreamed of seeing more of the world, its people, experiencing the good, the bad, all of it.
Then people began flying and shooting lightning out of their fingers.
For a while, nothing seemed to change. Iggy graduated, began choosing from the handful of colleges he was accepted to, and took the first steps to planning his future, all while ignoring the uproar of fear around him. His father, a traditionalist and religious man, while never openly voiced hatred towards Emergents, but his unease was clear. Rosa-Maria, on the other hand, spoke of a more sympathetic and understanding approach to the young men and women who found their lives torn apart by something that wasn't a choice. Iggy tried not to give it a second thought: he was lost in a world of his own, trying to block out the growing tensions in the world.
It was when his skin toughened and his body ran warm he knew he wouldn't have a choice.
As his Emergent nature began to take hold, and even he couldn't deny it any longer, Iggy's mind turned dark. He grew angry, violent. He developed a fiery temper, stoked by his own fears and the fears of those around him. These changes, combined with a deferral from college and self-imposed isolation from friends and family, culminated to a life-changing act of violence.
As tensions reached a boiling point nationwide, Pitchfork Parties became rampant. Within his apartment complex, Iggy watched as such a party invaded and attacked his neighbours, dragging them from their homes and destroying property. While his parents, unaware of his secret, told him to look away, stay inside, it was the sight of a mother crying for her son to be returned, dragged by the hair for developing what seemed to be wings.
Finally, Iggy snapped.
He didn't remember attacking the mob, throwing punches, screaming as he did so. He didn't remember the heat that ran through him, the rage. He didn't even remember the flames that licked from the knife wounds in his arm. Or the fire that devoured half the complex. The same fire that sent his mother to the hospital, alongside several others.
Discovering what his son was, and what he had done, in anger he pushed him away, ordering him to leave and never come back. Iggy obeyed, weak and tired and vulnerable, and packed his belongings. Before he disappeared, he went to visit his mother, covered in burns and in pain. She wept for her son, told him she would always love him, and gave him the crucifix necklace she'd always worn as protection. It only took three weeks after he left for the authorities to aprehend him and throw him in Nellis. He's been there for several months since.
Psychological Profile:Pre-Emergence, Iggy was quiet, calm, and respectful. He was taught to control his rage and developed a behaviour consistent with pacifism, refusing violence until threatened with immediate harm. His upbringing in a religious and hard-working household instilled him with "salt of the earth" views, and he prefers to take on the workloads of others before asking for help. However, after his Emergent traits began to take hold, Iggy developed issues with anger and violence. With a short fuse, he explodes when pushed, and is struggling with a growing thirst for violence. His Emergence has also led him to develop a voracious appetite, particularly for meats.
Iggy was also considered bright and optimistic, his mother ensuring that he work hard in life, and was an honor student throughout most of his schooling. He has a love of books and learning, and a strong distaste for ignorance that has since been heightened into disgust and hate after his Emergence. He is empathetic and open minded, forcing himself to understand the struggles of those around him before enacting judgement.
Possessions:- A copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
- A brown leather wallet, emptied of all forms of identification and government-issued cards, contains a family photo when he was 5.
- Crucifix necklace.
- Dark jeans, scuffed brown boots, a white long-sleeved shirt, a black hoodie, and a dark brown army jacket.
