Name: Connor Ellis
Age: 25
Genes: M
Powers: Illusion - Connor has the ability to make people see, feel, hear, ta\ste, and smell things that aren't really there. This can range from causing crippling pain in enemies, to more benign uses such as showing somebody what something looked like. He has to consciously maintain an illusion, and every single detail has to be carefully controlled, meaning that more detailed illusions require a great deal of concentration, and in some cases, study. Creating detailed illusions is a skill he is constantly working on - he's just about able to create simple animals that don't move around a lot/interact with the subject of the illusion, but he's a long way off things like creating believable people, or even more lively animals like dogs or rabbits, and attempts to do so frequently land in the uncanny valley. He can alter appearances/change voices/modify existing characteristics as this requires a lot less planning. His range differs depending on the complexity of the illussion, and how many people it's affecting. As a rule, he can't affect anyone outside of a 150m radius, and that's only for incredibly simple illusions affecting just 1 person. The maximum number of people he can affect is fifteen, with an incredibly simple illusion who he's standing really close to. The more people affected, the greater the range, the longer the period of time, and the greater the complexity of the illusion, the more effort required, and if he exerts his ability too much he experiences negative consequences. These negative consequences can include brain fog and severe confusion, headaches, and changes in his own perception (i.e. a 'rebound effect'). Often overuse of his power, even that which doesn't result in negative effects, will result in a 'psychic hangover' the next day.
Skills: Connor is really good at drawing, so good in fact, that he was studying for a degree in illustration before coming to work for Phoenix Security. Whilst he ditched the degree for his job, he still holds onto the skill and enjoys it as a hobby.
Seeing as he works for a security company and has a power that's not really that great for fighting back with (more for distraction), Connor figured about halfway through his tenure at Phoenix Security, he decided to take up hand to hand combat and weapons training. Whilst nowhere near a master, he's competent enough to take down an opponent of a similar size if needs be, and is an okay-shot.
His strengths really lie in his analytical skills - his ability and his art have taught him to take everything in, and his close studies of human behaviour for illusion-assissted-disguises mean he is pretty good at picking up body language.
Personality: While in the past Connor was sullen and irritable, he's changed a lot since his teenage years, gaining an appreciation for life and happiness that only really comes with a brush with the opposite. He's laid-back and friendly; compassionate, with a genuine empathy and desire to help other people, especially those going through things similar to his own past experiences. He tries to keep an upbeat attitude and a smile on his face, because he's well aware of how that can improve someone's day. Unfortunately, this optimism can sometimes veer into denial, especially when dealing with difficult cases, and he is loath to discuss his own personal problems, terrified that doing so will take him back to a place he doesn't want to be.
He has a strong work ethic, giving cases his all and becoming immensely passionate about them. Often he becomes attached to the people involved, and whether this is to the benefit or detriment of his work depends upon the case in question. He looks out for the people in his life, regardless of whether or not they look out for him, and tries not to take things personally. He can occasionally have a bit of a temper if he gets worked up about something, but this is usually followed up by profuse amounts of guilt and apologising.
Lately, for reasons unbeknown to those who work with him, the angry outbursts have become more frequent, and his smile seems more strained. He's fine though. Totally fine.
Bio: Connor was born into a family of superhumans - his maternal grandparents had both developed powers during the 1930's, and his grandfather had been part of a team of superhumans who fought in WW2, and his mother was a full blown superhero who used her telekinetic powers to help the residents of the small town where they lived. His father, an electricity manipulator, kept his powers more on the down low, and would frequently urge his wife to drop the whole 'superhero' thing, concerned with her safety. Aside from all the superhuman stuff though, they were a very normal family who did normal things like eat dinner together at the table, and go on day trips to the zoo at the weekends.
When Connor was nine though, everything changed.
One day after school, Connor's mother took him into town because she needed to make a deposit at the bank (superheroes have bills too!), unfortunately, whilst they were there, a low-level supervillain tried to hold the place up. Connor's mother, who normally kept her identity secret in order to stop vindicated villains tracking her down and hurting her family, leapt instantly into action to protect her son, taking the villain down within seconds. However, whilst the day was saved, her secret was out, as was the fact that she had a young child she was willing to do anything to protect.
For a while, things were somewhat normal, life went on, a little different in that Connor now had nightmares about bank robbers, and people would send bouquets and chocolates to his mother after jobs, but in most ways, things were the same. The same, that is, until one day after school, an 'uncle Gary' arrived to pick Connor up. He'd been warned, of course, not to go home with anyone he didn't recognise, but that doesn't mean much when you're being abducted by a super-villain with the ability to control your every action just by focusing on you.
Powerless to even attempt to escape, Connor was taken to a car, and then driven to a disused out of town warehouse housing a group of disgruntled villains, where he was sat down in front of a camera, and forced to cry and beg his mother to come and rescue him. Afterwards, he was left alone, completely unable to move, not even needing restraints due to the villain's ability. For hours, he waited like that, petrified, until his mother arrived to rescue him. The battle was vicious and short, his powerful and experienced mother evenly matched to the group of around five or six, mostly mediocre, villains. It came to an abrupt stalemate when the mind-control villain forced Connor to hold a rusty boxcutter to his own kneck, telling his mother to surrender, or he'd force Connor to kill himself.
Without hesitation, she handed herself over, but they refused to let Connor go until they were 'done with her' in case she tried anything (the mind control villain couldn't control what people did with their powers, so there was no other way to control her). Connor watched as the villains tortured his mother, completely powerless to do anything. She stayed strong for as long as she could, but eventually she was unable to keep herself from screaming.
It was upon hearing that first scream that Connor's abilities activated.
Within seconds, the villains were on the floor, grappling with horrific pain and nightmarish visions. The mind control villain released his hold on Connor, who threw the box cutter across the room and ran to his mother's side. She was badly hurt, but he managed to pull her out of the warehouse, battling the extreme exhaustion from his ordeal plus the first time use of his abilities, before pulling her mobile phone out of her pocket, and calling 911.
The emergency services arrived within minutes, the police rounding up the villains, and ambulance taking an exhausted Connor and his mother to the hospital. Connor slept for fourteen hours straight, before waking up to his father sitting at his bedside with dire news; his mother was still in intensive care, having suffered serious burns to a large proportion of her body, and brain damage from one of the villains psychic abilities. It was unlikely, his father revealed, she'd ever be able to walk or talk again, never mind resume her duty as a superhero.
Shortly after, Connor was discharged, and a few weeks later, his mother was moved to a seperate care facility, her needs too great for Connor's father to care for her at home. It was expensive, and quickly began to eat through the family's mediocre savings. Before long, Connor was turning twelve, and his father was planning to sell the house, in part to fund his wife's continued care, but also to move himself and his son away from the continual and incessant reminders of the trauma. Their old life was over, whether they liked it or not.
Connor meanwhile, was struggling - both with the memories of what happened, the effective loss of his mother, and his new ability. His nightmares got much worse, except instead of waking up he would project horrific images of his mother being tortured and his own captivity into the mind of his father when he came to check on him. He started having flashbacks, became angry and irritable, isolated himself from his peers at his new school, and his school performance took a nosedive. His ability meanwhile, was unpredictabl and uncontrollable, and Connor frequently aliented his classmates and other people in his life by accidentally making them see and hear things, leaving himself completely wiped out in the process.
By the age of fourteen, it was all too much for both Connor's father and Connor himself. He was withdrawn and sullen, refusing to attend school anymore due to his inability to control his ability and resulting status as a social pariah. He'd seen several therapists and psychiatrists, and received diagnoses ranging from 'teen angst' to 'depression and ptsd', but at the end of the day, none of them had actually managed to help. So, Connor's dad made a few calls (well, a lot of calls, and more than a few posts on obscure forums), and found a doctor several states away who ran a camp specifically designed for teens struggling to control and understand their abilities, along with any accompanying mental health issues.
So, Connor went to the camp, and surprisingly, it helped. Having a community of people struggling with similar problems to himself was an eye opener, and made him feel far less alone. Within the year he spent there, he managed to get a lock on his abilities - no longer just instinctively projecting horrific images and sensations of crippling pain when someone upset him, he learnt how to create complex and detailed illusions as opposed to just raw sensation. He wasn't 'fixed' by any means, but he was in control of his power, starting to see it as more of a gift than a curse, and psychologically well on the road to recovery.
By the age of eighteen, he was graduating high school like a 'normal' teen, not with perfect grades, but with good enough ones to get into a good college. In improving his ability to visualise and project images, he also inadvertantly improved his artistic abilities, and was hoping to pursue that at college. He'd gained a new lease on life, and whilst he'd effectively lost the greater part of his teen years to his illness, he was starting to form an identity beyond the things that had happened in his life - getting really into art and music, and making new friends who saw him as somebody up for a laugh as opposed to somebody mired in misery.
Whilst at college, his mother's health began to decline, and his father couldn't support him financially anymore. So, Connor started working part-time with Phoenix Security to support himself through college. He was mostly in a supporting role. still being comparatively inexperienced, but he quickly learnt the ropes, and developed a zeal for investigative work. His familiarity with superhumans from his upbringing meant that he was able to understand well how different abilities might affect a case, and his strong visualisation skills from his abilities and his art meant he was good at spotting visual cues and links that others might miss. Not to mention the fact that he enjoyed helping people, especially young kids and teens who might have suddenly developed an ability in the midst of trauma sometimes involved in cases.
As time went on however, his mother got sicker and sicker, suffering several brain haemorrhages, and developing chronic heart disease. As she became more and more ill, Connor took on more and more hours with the agency. Eventually, he realised that he didn't really even care about his degree anymore, and dropped out of college to work full time for the agency, sending most of his paycheck home to his father to look after his mother.
He settled nicely into his full time role, and increasingly began taking on more field work instead of the more desk-bound jobs he'd been doing before. He began focusing his energy on improving his power, along with learning combat skills and tryig to get more into shape for security jobs/more dangerous PI jobs. aHe still enjoys art, it's more of a hobby these days, and a useful exercise for improving visual illusions.
A few months ago, he got the call from his father. His mother had developed pneumonia and slipped into a coma, soon after she was declared brain dead. Connor told no one but the boss of the agency, and went home immediately. He and his father held her hands as she passed away, and then after the funeral, he went back to work. It was sad, but he'd been expecting it ever since he was nine years old, in the hospital being told his mother would have permanent brain damage.
He told himself he was okay, and he got back to it. He won't let himself go back to the dark place he was in during in his teen years. He can't.
Equipment: Connor doesn't really carry much in the way of equipment. He doesn't go in for the whole 'superhero' thing, although he won't be found far from his sketch pad and/or a notebook, which he uses to map out ideas for illusions, along with doing sketches of faces from victim testimonies and writing down, y'know, notes.
