Name: Michael Thorne
Age: 32
Birthday: November 7th, 1983
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Class: General; his classes span all grades
Subject/Work: Powers Coach, Counsellor
Appearance Description: Michael stands at six feet in height. Hair of a nondescript brown is kept short, sitting in a mess of teased spikes, and a perpetual five o’clock shadow adorns his face. Regular exercise keeps him lean and strong, cutting a commanding, confident figure.
Personality Description: Michael’s work and the nature of his powers have had a large hand in shaping his demeanour. He is deeply empathic and compassionate, approachable and friendly to a fault. Acutely conscious of the struggles of Starlight’s students – indeed, of every gifted individual still grappling with the onset of their powers - he can always be counted on to lend an ear to their problems, promising helpful insight and the strictest confidentiality.
Powers:
- Power Mimicry: Michael is a psionic with a well-practiced level of mastery over his powers. By establishing a psychic connection to a gifted individual, he is capable of fundamentally altering his body to mimic any and every latent power the subject possesses, be it a physical mutation, a capacity to control natural forces, or the ability to interact with spirits. As an additional benefit, Michael’s psychic link to the subject grants him an intuitive understanding of the mechanics of their power, although his grasp of its full scope only extends as far as the level of proficiency the subject has realised. Also, he is able to sense the presence of gifted individuals in his immediate vicinity, precisely enough to pick them out in a crowd if he concentrates on the task of homing in on them.
These borrowed powers last for the duration of Michael’s psychic link to the subject; once it breaks, whatever changes his body has undergone will gradually revert over the next few minutes. A single link can last for an hour at most, before Michael's mind severs it automatically to prevent further strain, and he cannot link to multiple subjects at once; the prohibitive mental strain aside, his body cannot mutate thoroughly enough to emulate two distinct sets of powers at the same time. Once a link has broken, Michael's mind requires a period of recovery time, approximately a third of the length of the link, before he may try again. This recovery time may be compounded by any mental or physical fatigue sustained as a result of his use of his borrowed powers, depending on precisely what they are.
Subjects who are aware of the psychic link may attempt to resist it by force of will, rejecting Michael’s influence; the consequent battle of wills inevitably strains both Michael and the subject, mentally taxing them even to the point of exhaustion. Michael’s practice in weathering these confrontations usually means that he will win them, although subjects with some kind of mental conditioning, or psionic powers of their own, will be equally well-prepared. Having to overpower a subject's resistance naturally shortens his maximum link time as a result of this mental exertion.
Michael is incapable of mimicking powers bestowed upon the subject from an external source, such as a magical artifact or a pact made with an otherworldly entity. However, linking to such a subject will still enable him to understand these powers.
- Power Suppression: Once Michael has established a link to a subject, he may attempt to employ this extension of his power. By deliberately psychically imposing his will on the mind of the subject, he is able to suppress and nullify their powers until the link is broken. While this process isn’t dangerous to the subject, it is extremely invasive; the subject will experience a frightening loss of control over their body, similar to the sensation of sleep paralysis, as their consciousness is pushed aside by the encroachment of Michael’s own. If Michael pushes his mental takeover too hard, whether by accident or design, he may even render the subject outright unconscious.
Biography: Born in northwest England, Michael has been a fixture at Starlight Academy, and the Manta Carlos islands at large, since the discovery of his powers at the age of fourteen. By their nature, even after awakening from dormancy years before, his powers were only noticed by happenstance of his encountering a fellow gifted student at the secondary school he attended at the time. Terrified by what he had experienced, he spoke of the encounter to no one; not that he had needed to, for somebody came to him to explain what had happened.
He came home a week after the incident to find an aged woman speaking to his parents. She introduced herself as Cordelia Moor; she knew of what had happened to him, she claimed, and extended an invitation to a place where the young Michael could learn exactly what it was that made him special, in a place where countless other young people, special in their own ways, were doing just the same.
She conversed with Michael and his parents well into the evening, explaining their situation and the purpose of her institution, Starlight Academy, in the deepest detail. His parents came to the emotional decision that although what they were being told was utter madness, they could not deny the truth that Cordelia had demonstrated to them, nor could they in good conscience withhold their son from the vital education that only she could offer.
Cordelia offered them time to come to a decision, and it was in sorrowful agreement that they contacted her again a week later. She assisted them in making arrangements to fly their young son to the distant, secretive school, truly half the world away, with the sincere promise that her school could and would mould him into a man they could be proud of. Sure enough, she would make good on that promise, providing the young Michael with a first-rate education as well as teaching him about his gift and how to control it.
Michael’s life had been utterly changed – but entirely for the better. The nature of his powers and learning had granted him a unique perspective on his situation and that of his peers. After his graduation from Starlight, he pursued further education in psychology and counselling, and then returned to the Manta Carlos islands a qualified and capable young adult. So grateful was he for the work that the school was doing that he vowed to dedicate himself to returning the favour, and applied at the age of 24 as a counsellor and power control coach. He has held this post ever since.
Age: 32
Birthday: November 7th, 1983
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Class: General; his classes span all grades
Subject/Work: Powers Coach, Counsellor
Appearance Description: Michael stands at six feet in height. Hair of a nondescript brown is kept short, sitting in a mess of teased spikes, and a perpetual five o’clock shadow adorns his face. Regular exercise keeps him lean and strong, cutting a commanding, confident figure.
Personality Description: Michael’s work and the nature of his powers have had a large hand in shaping his demeanour. He is deeply empathic and compassionate, approachable and friendly to a fault. Acutely conscious of the struggles of Starlight’s students – indeed, of every gifted individual still grappling with the onset of their powers - he can always be counted on to lend an ear to their problems, promising helpful insight and the strictest confidentiality.
Powers:
- Power Mimicry: Michael is a psionic with a well-practiced level of mastery over his powers. By establishing a psychic connection to a gifted individual, he is capable of fundamentally altering his body to mimic any and every latent power the subject possesses, be it a physical mutation, a capacity to control natural forces, or the ability to interact with spirits. As an additional benefit, Michael’s psychic link to the subject grants him an intuitive understanding of the mechanics of their power, although his grasp of its full scope only extends as far as the level of proficiency the subject has realised. Also, he is able to sense the presence of gifted individuals in his immediate vicinity, precisely enough to pick them out in a crowd if he concentrates on the task of homing in on them.
These borrowed powers last for the duration of Michael’s psychic link to the subject; once it breaks, whatever changes his body has undergone will gradually revert over the next few minutes. A single link can last for an hour at most, before Michael's mind severs it automatically to prevent further strain, and he cannot link to multiple subjects at once; the prohibitive mental strain aside, his body cannot mutate thoroughly enough to emulate two distinct sets of powers at the same time. Once a link has broken, Michael's mind requires a period of recovery time, approximately a third of the length of the link, before he may try again. This recovery time may be compounded by any mental or physical fatigue sustained as a result of his use of his borrowed powers, depending on precisely what they are.
Subjects who are aware of the psychic link may attempt to resist it by force of will, rejecting Michael’s influence; the consequent battle of wills inevitably strains both Michael and the subject, mentally taxing them even to the point of exhaustion. Michael’s practice in weathering these confrontations usually means that he will win them, although subjects with some kind of mental conditioning, or psionic powers of their own, will be equally well-prepared. Having to overpower a subject's resistance naturally shortens his maximum link time as a result of this mental exertion.
Michael is incapable of mimicking powers bestowed upon the subject from an external source, such as a magical artifact or a pact made with an otherworldly entity. However, linking to such a subject will still enable him to understand these powers.
- Power Suppression: Once Michael has established a link to a subject, he may attempt to employ this extension of his power. By deliberately psychically imposing his will on the mind of the subject, he is able to suppress and nullify their powers until the link is broken. While this process isn’t dangerous to the subject, it is extremely invasive; the subject will experience a frightening loss of control over their body, similar to the sensation of sleep paralysis, as their consciousness is pushed aside by the encroachment of Michael’s own. If Michael pushes his mental takeover too hard, whether by accident or design, he may even render the subject outright unconscious.
Biography: Born in northwest England, Michael has been a fixture at Starlight Academy, and the Manta Carlos islands at large, since the discovery of his powers at the age of fourteen. By their nature, even after awakening from dormancy years before, his powers were only noticed by happenstance of his encountering a fellow gifted student at the secondary school he attended at the time. Terrified by what he had experienced, he spoke of the encounter to no one; not that he had needed to, for somebody came to him to explain what had happened.
He came home a week after the incident to find an aged woman speaking to his parents. She introduced herself as Cordelia Moor; she knew of what had happened to him, she claimed, and extended an invitation to a place where the young Michael could learn exactly what it was that made him special, in a place where countless other young people, special in their own ways, were doing just the same.
She conversed with Michael and his parents well into the evening, explaining their situation and the purpose of her institution, Starlight Academy, in the deepest detail. His parents came to the emotional decision that although what they were being told was utter madness, they could not deny the truth that Cordelia had demonstrated to them, nor could they in good conscience withhold their son from the vital education that only she could offer.
Cordelia offered them time to come to a decision, and it was in sorrowful agreement that they contacted her again a week later. She assisted them in making arrangements to fly their young son to the distant, secretive school, truly half the world away, with the sincere promise that her school could and would mould him into a man they could be proud of. Sure enough, she would make good on that promise, providing the young Michael with a first-rate education as well as teaching him about his gift and how to control it.
Michael’s life had been utterly changed – but entirely for the better. The nature of his powers and learning had granted him a unique perspective on his situation and that of his peers. After his graduation from Starlight, he pursued further education in psychology and counselling, and then returned to the Manta Carlos islands a qualified and capable young adult. So grateful was he for the work that the school was doing that he vowed to dedicate himself to returning the favour, and applied at the age of 24 as a counsellor and power control coach. He has held this post ever since.