Basic InformationName: James Bishop.
Nickname/Alias/Etc: n/a.
Gender: Male.
Age: 27.
Height: 5”11.
Weight: 186lbs.
Home District: Knightdale Rows.
Appearance:Hair Color: Black with the occasional grey.
Eye Color: Dark brown.
Ethnicity:James is half Jamaican, quarter Thai, and quarter American.
Physical Appearance:James is a broad man, heavyset though by no means fat. He keeps his hair short to disguise its natural curls and is somewhat particular of it being out of place. Though known for being clean-shaven, James has recently decided to grow a short, well-kept beard which has proven popular amongst his peers, especially the sporadic blonde or ginger hair amidst the sea of black.
Attire:He takes a great deal of pride in his appearance and though he is not slavishly beholden by the desire to wear name brand clothes, he does take great care to ensure his outfits have a timelessness and simplicity to them. In his professional life he opts for either crisp white button down shirts and suit trousers with smart shoes, sometimes opting for blue, burgundy, or grey jumpers if the weather calls for it. Whilst not at work James wears Oxford shirts with the sleeves rolled up with burgundies, dark greens, and very dark blues being common, and is often seen in a pair of chinos.
PersonalityInnate & Outward Personality:James is a conflicted young man. He is at once brave, noble, intelligent, and friendly, but within him there is a rage, a silent menace, that travels with him. He is charismatic and funny when he wants to be though is prone to bouts of rage characterised by a leaden silence. Throughout his life he has battled with this duality, feeling dragged in two different directions at all times, the young boy that dreamt of growing up and being an example, being everything his father was not, and the adult that fears he is turning into his father. It’s this conflict that holds James back in life. His natural charisma, his propensity for deep thought, and his ability to overcome adversity marked him out as a potential leader early in life, something not unnoticed by his peers, but the doubt, the darkness in him has made him wary of ever pursuing it. What if he became the man he was always meant to be and the darkness overtook him? What if he tried to lead and failed? It’s these thoughts that have kept James on the side line his entire life. Though with each passing year he worries that his potential is slipping away from him.
Hobbies/Interests:James is a political animal first and foremost, a fact he keeps hidden from all but his closest acquaintances, and keeps a close eye on current affairs. Outside of this he has an affinity for film, photography, and is an avid fan of basketball, American football, soccer, and occasionally plays some tennis and squash.
Skills/Talents:James underwent basic NEST training and as a result has a degree of skill in hand to hand combat. He didn't quite take to the physical side of the training however and as a result his skill is very limited. Enough to handle himself in a street fight if it came down to it but nowhere near capable enough to stand toe to toe with someone that actually knew what they were doing. The same could be said of his weapon training.
Prized Possession:James is a particularly unsentimental person. Due to the nature of his family background he lacks any family heirlooms and as a result everything he needs in the world he can carry in a single holdall at any time, though he recently purchased an expensive watch with a simple brown leather strap and a white face under the auspices of handing it down to any son he might have. He works from his laptop and is rarely seen without it.
Quote(s):“Every day I ask myself whether I'm a good person that does bad things or a bad person that does good things. And I'm no closer to knowing the answer than I was this time five years ago.”
History/Bio:James' paternal grandparents were economic migrants to the United States from Jamaica in the 1950’s and his maternal grandfather moved from Thailand to the United States shortly afterwards seeking work and opportunity and found both. His maternal grandmother grew up on a struggling farm in Nebraska. Her parents, unable to feed and house their many children, sent many of them, Bishop’s grandmother included, to Verthaven to find a better life than Nebraska had afforded them. It’s not uncommon for James to hear that his ethnic background is uncommon. He is a walking mixing pot even in a city renown for its diversity.
Bishop’s father abandoned his mother shortly after he was born and as a result his mother was forced to bring him up on her own in one of the roughest parts of Verthaven in Eagle-Rock Row. She tried her best to provide for him but James spent much of his childhood fending for himself and as a result grew up far faster than he ought to have. He was a good student, popular amongst his peers, though prone to getting into trouble at school and having altercations with other students. Unlike his friends who took to the court once school ended, Bishop would head home and bury his head in books. It was history that fascinated him most and history that provided him with a sanctuary from the poverty that surrounded him. When it became clear to James he had the chance to leave Eagle-Rock Row and win a scholarship to a private school that would take him to a better part of the city he put his head down and got to work. There was no resentment from his peers, no jealousy on their part that he might be leaving, the kids of Eagle-Rock that were born and die there that James had grow up with rallied around him and kept him safe, let everyone else known that unlike most of them James was going somewhere. Something he was thankful for even to this day.
It wasn’t long after James had left Eagle-Rock that his mother was in a fatal car accident and the James that people had known, the affable, friendly, gregarious James, was replaced by a more sombre one, more mature, more focused on his academia and of making a success of himself at all costs. He lived with his maternal grandmother in Union-Point Hills whilst studying and despite their continued efforts to engage with him, to get him to drop his guard, James remained stoic on all but the rarest occasions. He excelled in school, in the social sciences in particular, and it became clear that he might be able to walk into any university in America. That was when his powers developed. It was unexpected, though James knew plenty of people with powers his family had been almost completely devoid of contact with them. Both his mother and father hadn’t had them and only one great grandfather, his grandmother’s father, who had established the farm back in Nebraska was said to have had them. It wasn’t spoken about often, nor was it something that James asked about, but it was said his great grandfather could speak to the land itself and had transformed their barren little patch into a prosperous stretch of land. On his death the farm was never the same, no crop was ever as fruitful, and with him the powers had died. Or so it was said until James developed his powers.
When it became clear he had powers of his own James gave up all pretensions towards Harvard or Yale and set his mind to the prestigious Academy 12. With some help along the way he was accepted and thrived there, choosing to forego his interest in history and politics to use his powers in a practical way and studying architecture. James was amongst the most gifted students that Academy 12 had ever seen though he remained distant and detached from the more social side of studying there. He made a close group of friends that though scattered across Verthaven and beyond he still speaks to on a daily basis but outside of that he refused to involve himself in the politics of the academy and instead focused on enjoying the experience. Time and time again in training James would refuse to push himself, refuse to apply his powers properly, all for fear of what he could be capable of were he ever to try stop holding back. He could use his powers to make a living, to help make the world a better place, all without giving in to the lure of exploiting their offensive capabilities and he would keep it that way as long as he could.
After graduating from the academy he was approached by NEST and offered a position with them. James was reluctant to accept at first believing they simply wanted to harness his abilities to make him into a weapon should the time come for it. After a great deal of deliberation he accepted their offer and entered into basic training. James took to the mental side of NEST’s work far more naturally than he did the physical side, with such an inquisitive, probing mind he found himself more than adept enough throughout training to make the cut. The physical side was more different. James was not unfit by any means, nor was he lacking in physical strength, but his refusal to push his powers to the limit became more and more of an issue with the passage of time. Eventually James gave in to the goading and cut loose, almost resulting in a serious injury to another NEST recruit in the process and having glimpsed the true destructive force of his powers he walked out on NEST training there and there. He couldn’t risk hurting anyone else, couldn’t risk losing control, and what he might become if they taught him how to use his powers without holding back.
That was two years ago and since James has taken to working for one of the larger architecture firms in Verthaven. His work, aided a great deal by his powers, is some of the most well regarded in the city and James makes a reasonable living as a result. He has settled down, something his friends from Academy 12 would never believe, and when not working spends most of his nights at bars, restaurants, and public houses that Knightdale Row has to offer a person. Bishop tries to block out the moral obligation he feels to get involved after The Fiends attacked downtown and instead throws himself into his work and his friendships. Though the voice in the back of his head urging him to become something more grows stronger and stronger with time.
RelationshipsFamily:Trenton Bishop – Father (Estranged)
Cassie Worthy – Mother (Deceased)
Veronica Handler, nee Worthy – Maternal grandmother.
Robert “Robbie” Handler – Maternal grandfather by marriage. Essentially a second father to James.
Ellis Bishop – Half-brother (Estranged)
Dynamics:AbilitiesPower Class:Elemental (Energy)
Power:Bishop has the ability to manipulate magnetic fields. This manifests itself most often in a control over magnetism and ferrous metals. James uses his powers as an Architect to undergo massive construction tasks at great ease, often opting to use his powers instead of cranes, and as such has shown an ability a great deal of weight using his powers at little strain. He is able to levitate, manipulate, and deconstruct any metal substance, has previously levitated other people by their standing on a metal object and levitating it, and can also sense the presence of metal within things. (For example, were he to meet a stranger that had loose change and some keys in his pocket he would be able to sense it) Whilst training with NEST James learnt how to emit an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out everything running on electricity around him, though given he walked out at basic training he has never used it since. First and foremost James uses his powers to aid him in his line of work and is reluctant to use them for much else.
Limits:James is uncertain exactly how strong his powers could be. His refusal to push himself to his limits means he’s not quite sure. Whilst at the Academy some of the trainers theorised that he would be able to stop bullets, create force fields, and even simulate a type of flight. Theoretically James is aware that he ought to be able to turn himself invisible too by bending light along the electromagnetic spectrum, though he’s never attempted this and is uncertain whether he even could.
Bishop's control over metals only extends to ferrous metals. Non-ferrous metals, such as gold, aluminium, and brass are not reactive to his control.
Weaknesses/Drawbacks:Metals can only be magnetised as far as their thermal state admits. If a metal is cooled or heated beyond this point James is incapable of exerting anywhere near the same amount of control over them as he might otherwise be able to. If a metal is cooled or heated vastly beyond this point it is completely demagnetised and James cannot exert any control over it whatsoever. Given this, James has a particular aversion to conflict with those capable of temperature manipulation because they are capable of exploiting this weakness and his proficiency in such a conflict would be reliant entirely on his environment. (ie being surrounded by the right type of metals)
There's absolutely nothing from stopping someone from walking up to James and stabbing him with a plastic knife. Or beating him to death with a baseball bat. He doesn't have superhuman reflexes or agility and if he were caught unawares, unable to respond to an impending threat, he could be knocked out or have his throat cut. He is not invulnerable and though the extent of his power is uncertain and the potential he has may be largely untapped, there is a reason for this: his own fear of losing control. This more than anything is Bishop's Achilles heel.
Other:Sample Post: 
Captain Uni,
Half Pint,
Supermaxx
