[Esper] Ausama Abel

FULL NAME: Ausama Abel
OTHER ALIAS: Silver Lining; Subject 0311; Spare
CURRENT AGE: 17
GENDER: Male
OCCUPATION: Student; Field Agent
SCHOOL: A Certain High School
FACTION: NEW PATH



APPEARANCE: A young man with pale skin and noticeable bags under his eyes. Despite his unhealthy appearance, he is quite fit and has a runner's build with little excess muscle mass or body fat. His hair is dark black, and his eyes are bright amber. His hair is kept short in the back with his bangs allowed to grow out. He has a good solid jaw, and has been complimented on his cheek bones before. His body is covered in various scars. He generally, only wears his school uniform. His uniform is the usual one for males of A Certain High School, though he will often wear black arm warmers with metal accents on them. If he has to wear casual clothes, he generally will only wear white or black. If there is any color, it will be only a color spot. He never wears logos or images on his clothes.

When on the 'job' he dresses himself in a specific style in which he feels compliments his powers, as well as hides his identity. This outfit is comprised mainly out of various clothes ordered from shops in Europe and around Japan. These clothes can be considered emo, gothic, or punk, and/or visual kei, but they all share certain defining traits. They all have black as the main color and are all decorated with metallic accents like studs, spikes, and chains. Most of them feature many unnecessary straps, zippers to nowhere, exaggerated stitching, and belts seemingly for aesthetic purposes. These outfits are custom made so that these alternative style accents are created with high quality metal. Of the various articles of clothes that make up this wardrobe, there are a few key components. Among the most important is his mask. It is skin tight, and covers from just above his nose and under his eyes, to well below his neck. It is adorned with metallic accents like the rest of his clothes. He also wears a white wig. The hair length of the wig is longer than what his natural hair length is. He also wears contacts that change his iris to look white. The kind that goth girls like to wear. Aside from that, he often wears a long black coat, again it is covered with metal accents that make it stand out. It also features a hood. Additionally, he will wear gothic arm warmers, also adorned with metal accents. For shoes, he owns a pair of shoes with unnecessary belts built onto it over the laces.

Abel designed a simple logo made of lines and curves which he uses for himelf. He made several metal badges of his logo in metal shop, doing so discretely in between projects or after school, and adorns these outfits with them.

HEIGHT: 6'1"
WEIGHT:  210 lbs
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Pale skin; Noticeable bags under his eyes. Various scars all over his body, but not on his face or hands.



PERSONALITY:
Stoic
Many cruel realities weigh down heavily upon Abel's fragile psyche. It has squashed his enthusiasm, and made him appear to be a dreary, dreary boy. He shows classic signs of squashed enthusiasm. Mainly, he doesn't celebrate victories, mourn losses, and he doesn't seek approval or reward, even when he has done something deserving of such things.
Determined
Despite the fact that it seems like he doesn't care, the fact is he does. He puts his everything towards what he is doing, even if he is too afraid to show that he cares. He hates giving up, and will fight to the last breath if the cause is great enough. The key is proving to him the cause is great enough.
Optimistic
Despite the heavy realities that weigh down upon him, he still tries his best. That's a kind of hope.
Disturbed
Abel's mental state suffers due to his exposure to certain experimental chemicals. It can affect his personality in various unpredictable ways, though he does his best to keep this in check.
Inferior
Abel originally became involved with the underworld of Academy City because he was a level 0 esper. Despite managing to raise his level, he will always carry that inferiority complex with him, even if he achieves level 5. Anyone stronger than him can drag up powerful and painful emotions within him. Though, he will probably bottle them up.
Dry
When Abel does indulge in humor, his humor is generally dry and often sarcastic. Usually, its only to make himself laugh and he rarely accomplishes that.
Lawful Neutral
Abel will not break laws for personal benefit. He takes no joy in committing evil, though if he deems it necessary he will harm and kill his opponents. If he can avoid killing his foes, he will spare them, but will not go out of his way or put himself or his mission in danger to accomplish this. He would rather not fight, and would prefer to resolve conflicts as quickly and decisively as possible. When it comes to innocent bystanders, he would rather they not get involved, but will usually not go too far out of his way to help them.
Attentive
Abel likes to pay attention to details. He's quite smart and can put things together, as well. He is a bit of an artist, and enjoys sketching. As such, he is able to visually grasp details of things he observes.

LIKES:
Consistency.
Listening.
Drawing.
Metal.
Black.
White.
Suspenders.
Belts.

DISLIKES:
Chaos.
Talking.
Losing.
Bleeding.
Dying.
Killing.
Weakness.
Side effects.
Complaining.

STRENGTHS:
Abel is particularly good at:
Problem Solving.
Philosophy.
Drawing.
Performing orders.
Performing physical tasks under duress.
Dealing with physical pain.
Combat.
Tactics.

WEAKNESSES:
Abel must take varying forms of medication to keep himself 'balanced'.
Abel is particularly bad at the following:
Dealing with emotional pain.
Dealing with mental trauma.
Cooking.
Social interactions.
Chores.
Remaining sane.

HISTORY:  Unfortunately, Abel's story is one in a thousand. Attracted by the prospect of becoming something more, the young boy moved into Academy City and enrolled in their special Power Curriculum Program. To do this, Abel put himself and his family in debt, taking out large loans. He slowly declined into despair as it became increasingly evident that he in fact had no potential to move past level 0. At first he tried to devote himself to other fields of study, but it became clear to him early on that in Academy City society only values those with high levels.

Feeling heavy pressure to succeed from the society around him, he doubled, and then tripled his efforts, all in vain. That's when he was approached by a certain organization known only to him as NEW PATH. True to its name, the group provided him another way. Seeing it as his only option, he eagerly agreed to participate in experimental programs to increase esper ability. Apparently, he was one among many who had been approached, all in a similar situation. People who could not develop abilities on their own, and who had racked up high amounts of debt while transferring into the city. He inferred this from simple comments and conversations from those around him.

That number diminished over the testing period, until he was the only one. He had been taking a substance meant to overload esper ability, and stimulate growth of esper ability. Thanks to this drug, he was able to discover his own ability, a form of metal manipulation. Discovering this power filled him with great joy and relief. When the drug wore off, he immediately felt despair and pressure unlike that he had ever known. He would do anything to get his power back. The New Path had him.

He began testing various other drugs. These drugs were coupled with various other more radical and experimental methods of raising esper abilities. Included among these tests was illegal content, but he would agree to anything at this point. Most notably, he willingly participated in a long term project to stimulate ability growth through clinically controlled traumatic stress. Basically, surgical torture in the hopes of creating a 'need' that the human body could only fill by developing abnormal power. Over the years, Abel slowly managed to build up his ability to what it currently is, but not without a cost. The various testing and drugs have left him scarred in every definition of the word, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

At any given time he can begin suffering a wide range of varying symptoms. He can suffer soreness, aches, pains, shakes, exhaustion, lightheadedness, dizziness, headaches, migraine, vertigo, confusion, apathy, depression, paranoia, insomnia, and even hallucinations. He needs to take various medications to keep these symptoms in check. These symptoms and the medications he takes, makes him invalid as a test subject. Its to difficult to tell if his symptoms are caused by conflicts between his medication and the test product, or even if he is just suffering the long term effects of previous test products.

Considering his ability level, he managed to translate into other duties that serve NEW PATH interests and has become a low level grunt for them. When he originally joined, he knew virtually nothing than the NEW PATH, other than that they were a pharmaceutical company and that they were offering him help to increase his abilities and were willing to pay him for it. Over the years he has uncovered certain truths. He knows that most of the other kids that joined the program around the time he did either succumbed to fatal symptoms, were deemed useless and 'eliminated', or tried to leave the program and were 'silenced'. He credits his own survival to actively seeking out a new position within the group. Furthermore, he found out that group is most likely an offshoot organization that was at least originally started by a man named by Kihara Gensei, though Abel doesn't know exactly what his ties were or are to the group.

Currently, Abel works for NEW PATH, following orders and trying to make his way through life in Academy City.


RANK: Metal Rook - Metal denotes which branch he is in. Rook places him as a low to mid level grunt. Often acting as an independent Field Agent, he is primarily a henchman given information only on a need to know basis. Expected to accomplish his goals primarily by his own power and the equipment provided. He has never been in command of another member of the group.

LEVEL: 3
Silver Lining: [Tactile Metal Manipulation] Simply put, Abel can manipulate metal that he is touching. He can make it move as if it were liquid metal, or harden it beyond the normal strength of metal. He can compress metal to make it denser, or he can stretch it out to cover more area, but he cannot create metal or expand metal beyond its original mass. The more he stretches metal out, the weaker it becomes.

The amount of metal he can control and how well he can control metal fluctuates depending on certain factors.

The less he tries to control, the better he can control it for one.

The quality of the metal, affects this. The purer the metal, the easier to manipulate. The less pure, the more difficult, and he obviously cannot manipulate unrefined ore or earth. This rule in particular is a bit unusual, because its based of his perception of metal. The 'metal' that exists in his mind is what he can control and manipulate within his personal reality. If he can be tricked into thinking something is metal, his ability might take effect with varying degrees of success. In this way he can control plastics made to look like metal, and even obsidian because he considers obsidian to be 'sort of' metal (even though, its not). As a general rule of thumb: the shinier, the better.

The amount of time Abel stays in contact with the metal he is trying to control also affects how easy it is to manipulate it. Namely, the metal in his clothes are as easy as moving his own limbs, compared to something he just picks up on the fly, which would take effort and concentration. Though, that too would become easier in time.

The maximum amount he can manipulate is difficult to put a number on, because of the other factors that come into play. Which is part of the reasoning behind the name of his power, which invokes a theme of hope. In theory, given enough time to concentrate he could move and manipulate any amount of metal. Though, on a practical level he can only really effectively manipulate a small to moderate amount of metal in the heat of battle. However, in terms of subterfuge, he can remain camped in position for days until he has enough control over the right support beams to tear down any structure. Assuming he is prepared for the burden this would place on him.

Again, the upper limits of his control is hard to gauge because of the varying factors that come into play. In theory, he can deflect bullets away from him. This assumes that he is aware of the bullets before hand, not preoccupied with manipulating other forms of metal, and can overcome the extremely short time frame in which he has to activate his powers. Among other factors. Varying results can occur, depending on these factors. Sometimes, he will be able to avoid injury completely, other times he might take only a glancing strike, still other times he might just barely be able to avoid a fatal injury, and of course there is always the possibility that he would straight up fail. As with all difficult tasks, repeating it in quick succession makes it more difficult. Having to deflect a barrage of bullets increases the difficulty and chance of failure exponentially.

Further expanding on control, he can make a 2ft chain dance wildly with relative ease. A 2ft pole can be made to dance like a snake as well, with only slightly more difficulty. Making a 20ft steal beam change its shape at all would be rather difficult. Again, the varying factors affect the results. For example, he doesn't have to control the whole beam. Instead he can choose to reshape one square foot of the beam, and simply move the rest.  

Another major factor to consider is Abel's mental state. Since he frequently suffers from many long term effects of abnormal experimentation, he often fails to perform simply because he is not in the right condition to concentrate. He has been known to suffer soreness, aches, pains, shakes, exhaustion, lightheadedness, dizziness, headaches, migraine, vertigo, confusion, apathy, depression, paranoia, insomnia, and even hallucinations. He needs to take various medications to keep these symptoms in check. Aside from popping pills, wearing his mask seems to calm down his emotional and metal symptoms, along with any physical symptoms attached to them. This works most of the time. Mostly.

Another feature of his power that bears mentioning is his ability to 'sense' metal. When he takes control of metal, he moves it as if it were part of his body. When he is around metal, he can sense it, similarly to if it were a part of his body at rest. It can be as faint as barely being able to notice, like your ear, or as important as your hands, depending on the various factors that affect his ability. Generally, as long as he is reasonably focused, he can sense the metal around him, even if he is not in contact and able to control it yet.

OTHER ABILITIES:

Hand to Hand Combat
Abel is formally trained in a practical martial art designed for real world combat situations. His inferiority complex made him gravitate towards techniques designed towards taking down larger and stronger opponents. His favorite move being the hip throw. He also has been trained to target the weak points such as the joints, eyes, and other such vitals. He knows how to incapacitate without harming, as well. To supplement his fighting style and powers, he generally wears metal gauntlets. When he's off duty, he will instead wear incredibly dense metal bracelets that are he hides under his sleeves.
Armed Combat
Before Abel's ability manifested to its current level, he relied on firearms and received proper training from the NEW PATH. He is by no means an expert marksman, but at least knows the basic handling of most common firearms and keeps abreast of such knowledge. On particularly dangerous missions, he will still strap a .45 to this ankle. Furthermore, he is proficient with a combat knife, but generally relies on his ability to create blades as needed. He has zero training with swords.
Underworld Initiate
Abel has long since been initiated into the dark side of Academy City. As a low ranked grunt, he has virtually no influence, but he is at least aware of some of the major players. Especially, his profile rank 5 espers. Though, its unreasonable to expect him to know everything about them or their respective groups. Though he wasn't told this by New Path, he is in fact aware of Kihara Gensei, and quietly gathers all the information he can about him. Which is sparse. This knowledge comes with the understanding that defying his group means death, and that most of the other kids who were part of the same program are already dead. Furthermore, this exposure has made him a bit more adept at handling the politics of the underworld. More so than the uninitiated. Just enough to survive. Hopefully.
Level Downer
An interesting drug developed by New Path. Taking it can make his ability level appear lower than it actually is. He is ordered to take it for his tests, to falsify records despite his aversion to it. He hates taking it, as it does actually make his ability weaker for the new few days, though not quite as low as it makes his level rank appear. He is afraid that one day it will permanently lower his ability level. He is also afraid that (despite being told the contrary) he is being used to test the drug and that they don't know what other kind of effects it can have. Unfortunately, he is more afraid of being killed off for disobeying orders. Other than this drug, New Path has deemed him 'tainted' as a test subject, because of prior drugs still in his system and the various long term symptoms he already suffers. They don't really consider him an option for testing new ways of raising levels. They would much rather prefer fresh and unspoiled test subjects.




CHARACTER THEME: Battle For Everyone's Souls



PLAYER'S NAME: Everafter
RATING: R
FACE CLAIM: Personal Drawings [When they are complete]
OTHER CHARACTERS: None yet.
MISC. INFORMATION: I'm just throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks.

Work today. There's nothing wrong with Mondays. Its the job that sucks.

Abel showed up at the appointed place at the appointed time. Just like he was supposed to. It was as natural for him as opening your umbrella in the rain. They gave him a suit and ten minutes to change. It wasn't usual that they wanted to create a uniform look, though normally they wanted him to operate as if he weren't affiliated with them. Today was apparently different. Today they wanted to be professional. To send a message? But what? He wondered, but he didn't question.

He just did as they told him. He sat in back, next to him was another man in a suit. Two more in front. They looked like they were going to a funeral. He blinked. Was it is? Where they finally done with him? Had he out lived his usefulness? He looked down to the door's lock. Locked. He could unlock it. It'd take just a split second. Not even that long, and he'd be out. He could get away. Just tuck and role. He peered ahead, casually looking past the driver to the speedometer. What only 40? He could survive that.

No, he'd die. He'd surely die. Even with his powers, he'd mess it up. His eyelids felt heavy, but he wasn't sleepy. He squinted and closed his eyes. His head hurt. Seemed like it always did these days. They hit a speed bump. Wait till they slow down. That's what he'd do. Wait. Calmly, patiently. By now, he had learned to keep his anxieties to himself, but his poker face was farm from rock solid. He looked visually agitated. He twitched and shook his head just slightly.

They came to a red light. Now was the time to escape. Their eyes met. The man in the passenger side seat was staring right at him, and he was looking right back. What did he want? Did he read his mind? Did he know what he was planning? He was doomed.

"You okay buddy?" the light turned green.

"U-uh yeah... I'm fine. J-just need to take my medication," He responded to the thug's kind words. He slipped his hand into his jacket's inside pocket and pulled out an orange and white bottle. He struggled with the child safety cap. Didn't it know he wasn't a damn child? He had already taken his medication, but it wasn't doing its job, so he'd take more. More is better.

He choked it down. The make me feel better pills. He didn't feel better.

"We're here," the kindly thug announced. They all got out of the car. They made their way up the apartment building. It was the bad part of town, but since it was Academy City, it still all looked pretty shinny and new. The guy leading the group knocked on a door. A young girl opened it. He smiled, they exchanged pleasantries, and she invited them in. She invited them in. This all looked familiar, yet different somehow.

"Now, we know your having troubles making your payments- no that's okay. Eh heh, happens to the best of us..." the kindly man began to bring up the issue at hand. It didn't matter much to Abel. He was just told to stand there and look official. Try not to sweat too much, they told him.

He stood there on one side of the door. He tried to look official. He tried not to sweat too much. He tried not to think about how familiar those words he was saying were. He tried not to think about how friendly they sounded at the time, and how they sound right now. Another man like him was standing on the other side of the door. He looked official. He wasn't sweating. Where they guarding the door? Was someone going to try and come in? Or were we trying to keep her from running? The other two were talking to the girl, smiling. Sipping tea.

"Lets see here... Level 0? Hmm..." One brought up.

"I uh- well... It's only been a few years, since... I..." she looked around, at the floor to the right, up to the ceiling. As if the excuses she was searching for would be there.

"Don't worry about it. That actually makes you perfect for our program," he responded to her, as if he was waiting to say it. Probably seemed that way, because he was waiting to say it. She looked relieved. Just like they wanted her to feel. He remembered feeling like that.

"We may have another option for you. We like to call it... A NEW PATH," the words came out from the man's big white teeth in a friendly smile.

When did it happen? When did Abel become one of them? One of the people in the suits, doing this to poor kids with no other outs. Oh how he longed to be back there. On the other side. Not part of these suits. Back to when he was the innocent kid being taken in. He'd say no. Not for me. I'm better than this.

But back then he was level 0. Was he better than this? If he had the chance, would he have really done anything any different?

"Psst, dude..." the man on the other side of the door whispered to him, "You're sweating a lot."

Damn. He was trying not to do that.

Hello and welcome.

Another masked lunatic to join the party eh?

I can't really see any problems with his personality, history or ability that need addressing, but I would like to know more about the faction, New Path you're proposing before I approve him as they seem quite tightly linked to his backstory.

I'll also have to veto the 'Ability Body Crystal' as again, it's a pretty powerful item and would be unfair for one player to have.

Fair enough. I've removed the Ability Crystal from the things he commonly carries around. Come to think of it, it isn't something he should commonly carry around.

I will post a Faction application so they can be approved/vetoed alongside each other.

EDIT: Well, I've filled out the faction template, please find the link below.

Darkside Faction: NEW PATH

Well this is a nice surprise really and it caught me off guard. I'm usually known as the more stricter necessary evil one compared to the other mods and I'm quite aware that it's alot harder to satisfy me when it comes to coherent personality/history write ups.

With that being said I honestly have nothing to critique on which isn't exactly a first (counting other To Aru RP's I've been in but), but it definitely is a first for this board so congrats! haha

I really really liked his history and how it tied everything together smoothly. It was well thought out and put together beautifully since I can see the reasoning and logic behind his choices and where fate is steering him.

If satisfying my usual critique wasn't rare, I'd have to say this is probably the first time I've genuinely thought about allowing a original character to be a Lv5, a option I'd like to discuss with you and Guy if you're interested, if not definitely a powerful Lv4.

I have no qualms about approving this character as it is.

Only thing I'm abit curious about is if you had any thoughts on how to integrate him into the RP. He seems to be well for the lack of a better word, very anti-social. It's hard to imagine him in a slice of life type of rp threads but he definitely would ease into some plots darker than black. I'm happy about how he'll fit right in with the latter but he might trouble with the former interactions between other RPers and NPCs if we're to make assumptions from his personality and his background.

TLDR:

All those kinds words really mean a lot to me. Thank you.

The real challenge will come, now. I've got to actually take this character and breathe life to him. Since he's so well received right away, I've got to maintain and improve on my portrayal of him.

I have to make sure his 'symptoms' are interesting, but not offensive... At least, I really want to be able to do that.

As for Level 5, my instant reaction is: 'Yes. Give me. Do want. Thank you. Thank you. No takesy baskys.'

...but when I calm down and think about it, I have some hesitations.

First off, its really nice to hear that you like him so much that you're thinking that want to award him with level 5 status. That being said, I think we should ask ourselves, ;'is that really best for his character?' Even without thinking about it, i remember that I wrote this character as a 'someone who struggles'. He is basically designed to try and climb his way up. He's supposed to trip and fall along the way, the threat of failure should hang over him every miserable step, and a bad end should really be the expected outcome.

Upon deeper reflection, I also remember that he is supposed to have an inferiority complex focused on people higher level than him. Making him 5 would limit that to a very small number of people. It would be cool to make that as a rare opportunity to bring out a different side of him, but its hard to justify maintaining that inferiority complex when he has achieved the rank of Level 5.

He's also supposed to be a low ranked grunt, firmly in the grip of Academy City's dark side. If he were level 5, why not just blow everything up until they agree with him?

The rules on your site state that OC's shall not start as level 5, but they can work their way up there. Just the idea that this 'might' not be best for his character, is reason enough to follow those rules and start lower like everyone else.

I'd love to wait for Guy's opinion on the matter, just to see if he thinks Abel is good enough an application to gain Level 5 status, but he has already looked it over and he didn't mention it. So I don't think that's the case.

Honestly, I think level 4 would be fine enough. I realize, he has already struggled and suffered enough, and I almost want to reward him, too. I mean, just look at the side effects of all his efforts. However, I kinda want him to suffer more. I want to play that.

In fact level 3 might be okay, too.

I don't want you guys to even consider him as 'the next to be level 5' either. I actually planned to have some conflict. Doubt creeping, that all the terrible side effects of his 'short cuts' in the past, might be what's holding him back now. That's a terrible realization to play with. I want to play with it.

So level 3 or 4, would be best in my opinion. Please, not level 2. Leaning towards 3. Lets throw him a bone, for all he has gone through.

Now on to a more important matter. How does he fit into the rp? Well, I don't have any apprehensions here. He is supposed to be stoic, and a little bit crazy, but that is because of his cruel circumstances. The truth is, just like everyone else, he wants to be happy. He wants friends.

He might not be able to express that, and that will definitely make it hard for people around him to connect with him, but it is still not impossible. Again, the deck is stacked against him, and he will struggle, with the threat of failure ever present, but again he will still try. He is an optimistic character, after all.

Now, that all sounds poetic and stuff, but in actual RP, you're right it might suck. He might seem boring and unresponsive to characters and players that play with him. That is unfortunate, and I don't want to bore people, but I do like this character, and I do want to stay true to him. Still, I think he might work out. I, too, am optimistic. I plan to at least give it a shot, and will throw him into something with someone. There are always 'forced to interact' school activities, too. Not just big school projects or city wide festivals, but simple things like being forced to clean the class room together. Even if they never successfully exchange words, it might be interesting to see him struggle to work up the courage, only to ultimately fail. Well I think so.

Who knows? Someone might even actually like the sometimes awkward, sometimes distant, kid with an awkward twitch.

Anyway, I'm eager to start RPing with him. So I hope I have the go ahead to do so. I'll still wait, if you want to get his exact level set.

Though, if his Level Downer Drug is approved, then it might not matter. The threads I rp him in now can have him at level 1 until we are sure. Plus, I can just hold off on using powers or mentioning his level.

Speaking of Level Downer, I'd actually like to request official moderator approval for two levels.

His actual Level, and what Academy records list his Level to be. Since he is supposed to use the drug to cheat, and lower his AIM readings for his tests.

Lvl3 it is.

Btw I don't know if you checked but you have a pm from guyali which might need to be responded to soonish.