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Author Topic: Hadrian Ganymede, spy  (Read 539 times)

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Nascent

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Hadrian Ganymede, spy
« on: August 11, 2013, 05:25:14 pm »
(OOC: Anyone who doesn't see this character as a "love letter" to the show Burn Notice hasn't watched enough of it. Seriously, it's on Netflix people -- WATCH EET!  8) )






__________________QUICK STATS
Name: Hadrian Ganymede
Codename: 'Sandman'
Age: Early 30's
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Ethnicity: Edani
Height: 5' 10"
Occupation: Covert operative (Spy)
Residence: N/A

__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description:
Hadrian has a youthful look about him that, combined with his androgynous features, makes it easy to underestimate or overlook him -- elements he often uses to his advantage. His striking combination of red hair and blue eyes would make his an unforgettable face, especially on Edanith... were it not for the fact that forgettable is exactly what he is. His body type is lean and not especially tall and his choice in clothes leans more towards black, gray, and dark colors when possible -- ideally the type of clothes that make concealing a weapon easy.

Personality:
Hadrian is exceptionally reserved and comes off as unemotional -- he's had very little "real" practice interacting with others due to his psionic ability and, due to that ability, doesn't see much point in investing himself in relationships. His spy training allows him to feign the social etiquette needed for a variety of cover identities and situations, of course, but when it comes to being real with people he's just not "there". Hadrian is all business; when he doesn't have a mission to focus on he's often to be found in the public libraries of one city or another, his nose buried in a book (he prefers them to digital media for leisure reading). When that's not available he tends to look for somewhere to go swimming -- the water eases his mind and gives him a sense of peace.
As a result of a past encounter he strongly distrusts Thanatos Inc -- he was nearly taken by them as a research subject -- and will resist working with any of their people if at all given the choice despite the business relations that Edanith has with the company. Nearly equal is his cold contempt for anyone from Aedolis, seeing them as "failed people from a failed world", one of his few personal goals in life being to help his nation resist and further aggression or overreach by Aedolis. His covert operative training has made him exceptionally calculating; if he thinks there is the least chance of trouble the first thing he'll do is mentally map out the number and locations of nearby exits, any advantages offered by the terrain, and the most likely direction from which an attacker would make their approach.

Skills:
[Operative Training]
Hadrian has been trained by some of the best that Edanith has to offer, all with the goal of making him the most exceptional stand-alone covert field operative possible. This includes disciplines such as manipulative psychology, interrogation techniques and resistance, unarmed fighting, firearms use and marksmanship, explosives handling and implementation, strategic thinking, how to discern when you're being followed and how to follow without attracting attention... the list goes on and on. Amongst the things Hadrian doesn't know how to do that a spy might need done are hacking computer systems, coordinating a team of operatives (he typically has to work alone), and picking out a decent disguise -- for these and other weak points he must rely on support from his handlers.

[Bold-Faced Liar]
Due in part to his dearth of socialization, Hadrian is an adept liar. He can spin the most absurd tall tales you've ever heard and not only do so convincingly, but on the spur of the moment and with a poker face that would make most professional players envious. He could say that the sky is made out of blue porcelain, the sun is a giant lightbulb carried by a helicopter, and the stars are tiny flecks of glow-in-the-dark paint and keep a completely serious face while doing it, then rattle off a dozen (fictional) pieces of supporting evidence to back up his claim. Needless to say, this talent aids his covert work quite well.

Psionics:
[Oblivioesis]
Hadrian's seemingly unique psionic talent, "oblivioesis", is believed to be a sub-set of telepathy and has two distinct components: a passive and an active application.
The passive form of the power is something Hadrian has had all his life and, until his recruitment into the covert services, was something he viewed as essentially a curse. Based on field tests and laboratory research, Hadrian's psychic presence if believed to be innately dissonant with that of other living beings. As a result, when a person or animal is asleep their mind will purge all memories of seeing or interacting with Hadrian (since sleep is essentially the brain's sorting and "defrag" time), leaving blanks where any recall of him would be otherwise. This has its limits, of course. To have this effect on anyone they must have encountered Hadrian in person; seeing a video recording or photograph of him would not trigger this reaction. A person with exceptionally strong telepathic abilities may be able to resist this, although even the mind of a psychic is more vulnerable while asleep.
The active form of the power exhibits itself very much like telepathy but with the limit of only being able to force a person to immediately forget something. To use this Hadrian needs (A) direct eye contact with the subject, (B) to be close enough that the subject can hear him, and (C) to tell the subject specifically what to forget. This is commonly done using phrases starting with "Forget all about...", "You never...", or "... was just a dream.", at which point the subject's mind will briefly go blank while it erases the knowledge and/or memory Hadrian has described, including him telling the subject to forget. When the subject subsequently forgets about Hadrian the next time they fall asleep there will be virtually no way for them to know that their mind had been meddled with.
Like the passive form, the active form of Oblivioesis has its drawbacks, not least of which being the above conditions for it to be used. While Oblivioesis can cause a person to  forget knowledge or memories it cannot make a person forget skills, such as how to use a gun or how to cast magic -- these exist on an entirely different level of the mind and are too deeply ingrained for Hadrian's power to influence. Unlike the passive version, an active command to forget can be more readily resisted by someone with telepathic abilities; even if successful, the memory loss may only be a temporary thing.
A psychic with the ability of Reflectivism would be completely immune to Hadrian's power no matter which form it takes. Also, if a person knows they're going to be made to forget then material evidence, such as surveillance records or a diary, may clue them in that their memory has been effected -- though this itself won't bring any memories back. Any kind of psionic inhibitor, be it magic, psionic, or technological, will also negate Hadrian's Oblivioesis.

Support:
[Harbinger]
Hadrian doesn't know the real name of the person who acts as his handler and provides his logistical support, only the sound of her voice and her codename: Harbinger. During his years of training he was surgically outfitted with a number of implants to improve his usefulness as an operative; one of these was a tiny state-of-the-art transmitter-receiver in his right ear that allows for communication with Harbinger. The device not only lets him receive information and instructions from her (without anyone else being able to hear the "voice in his head") but can pick up his voice at the lowest of whispers and lets her hear everything going on around him with crystal-clear clarity. The signal they use to communicate also works in the manner of a GPS, letting Harbinger know his exact location... so long as he's in range of the high-end equipment that relays the signal. Additional implants on his optic nerves allow her to literally see through his eyes and tiny bio-sensors secreted throughout his body relay critical health and wellness information back to her.
In some regards the relationship Hardian and Harbinger share is similar to that of mages and Mordecai on Edanith, as is their view of each other. This seems to be intentional on the part of their supervisors. Rather than regulate Hadrian's "magic", however, Harbinger provides useful information and assets to Hadrian during field ops -- she can search databases, coordinate his movements using computerized maps and satellite imagery, arrange for weapon drops, military and police support, even call a cab for him if that's what the situation requires. Harbinger is clearly a whiz with computers and a well-connected operations manager with plenty of resources at her disposal. With Harbinger at his back Hadrian can accomplish things that would be almost impossible otherwise.

Standard Equipment:
[Body Armor]
Whenever an outfit or disguise will accommodate it without being obvious, Hadrian wears military-issue body armor that covers his chest, upper arms, and legs. The armor is designed to be lightweight and flexible while still being able to save his life if hit by most common types of weapons-fire (typically shots from bullet or laser pistols or rifles). The armor isn't a sure thing by any stretch, though -- it offers no head protection and won't hold up to anything designed to be armor-piercing. As the old military adage points out: "the best armor is to keep out of range" or, failing that, to keep out of sight. Spies aren't supposed to charge the front line, after all.
 
[Concealed Carry]
For those occasions when a fire fight is the only option, Hadrian is not unprepared. In addition to a ceramic (non-metal) combat knife he typically keeps concealed somewhere on his person, it's normal for Hadrian to carry a custom high-performance handgun tailored to his specific needs. This weapon uses magnetic acceleration (effectively a hand-held railgun) to fire two different types of projectiles, dependent on which of its two triggers is pulled. The upper trigger, the one most obvious on the gun, can fire an array of standard pistol ammo: solid slug, hollow point, incendiary, armor piercing, etc. Due to the magnetic acceleration the gun has barely any kickback, high accuracy, and high velocity on impact, all of which make it an excellent for precise shooting at medium to close range -- though with only 15 rounds in a magazine it's far from being an assault weapon and lacks the high-distance accuracy afforded by a sniper rifle. The gun's secondary trigger, a concealed "button" near where the shooter's thumb would be in a firing grip, causes it to fire a bullet-sized pellet from an internal ten-shot magazine. These pellets are designed to disintegrate on impact into a dust cloud; the dust is a high-dose tranquilizer that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and usually causes anyone hit by it to fall asleep within a few seconds, a minute at most.

History:
Hadrian Ganymede isn't even his real name. His real name, like everything else about this young man's early life, has long ago been forgotten by anyone who might know. He has always been forgotten -- that was simply the way life went for him.

Born on Edanith, it could be said that Hadrian was born both blessed and cursed -- symbolized, strangely, in his mix of red hair and striking blue eyes, colors which to the Edani represent a contrast of good (blue) and bad (red) luck when found together. In a strange way, this combination is highly appropriate as a symbol for his life. Hadrian can barely recall a time when he wasn't alone, abandoned from a young age and brought up in an orphanage; this, in all likelihood, was all a result of his distinctive psionic powers, as everyone he came into contact with in life forgot all about him on a regular basis. Making friends was impossible, and he largely got by on the fact that the orphanage workers just assumed he was a new child under their care for years on end. It didn't take him long to begin taking advantage of how easily everyone forgot him; it became a game to him in fact, seeing what mischief he could do and marveling at the other orphans and caretakers trying to make sense of it the next day. Over time he developed into a lonely, humorless child with a perpetually blank expression... he could do whatever he wanted and the next day no one would remember, but it also meant his life was continually stuck in limbo. He tried sometimes to make people remember him, even going so far as to injure others so they would have physical proof of his existence... but nothing changed. Day by day he was forgotten, forgotten anew every time people went to sleep. Over the years amusement and loneliness turned to hate, then that hate itself burned out as hopelessness and apathy took hold. The child would forever be alone in the world.

That was, until the man in the suit found him.

The man never told Hadrian who he was, though in hindsight it wasn't hard to figure out he worked for Thanatos Inc. The man explained that he was something called a 'Reflective', a person with a psychic power that shielded their mind from other psychic influences. Due to this, he could remember the young boy from day to day -- the first person to ever do so. His visits to the orphanage became frequent; he'd often talk with Hadrian about the effect he had on others, about the results of the mischief he caused, about anything and everything but especially Hadrian's involuntary power. He acted as though he genuinely wanted to help. He spoke of scientists and doctors and a distant space station where gifted individuals like Hadrian were cared for as their abilities were studied. It sounded like the best thing the boy could hope for... but something told him to be wary. He asked the man lots of questions to try to assuage the uneasiness he felt about leaving the orphanage; the man would sometimes offer to take him to the space station that very day but Hadrian would always say he wasn't ready, wasn't sure. At first the man was patient but that soon wore thin; before long the man was insisting Hadrian come with him, that staying was dangerous to everyone around him. Fearing what might happen, the boy fled the orphanage and never looked back.

Hadrian lived on the city streets for years before the man was able to catch up with him again -- without a trail of witnesses to follow the boy's trail was frustratingly elusive. In that time he learned how to fend for himself, and when the Thanatos operative confronted him the boy was ready. He fought back, wounding the agent before being subdued... then, however, in a grand twist of fate, the boy's delaying of the would-be kidnapper allowed agents of the Edanith government to step in and intervene. As it turned out, the Thanatos agent's operations had been watched closely by a small but elite division of law enforcement who didn't take too kindly to anything that smelled of human trafficking. The man was arrested and taken in for questioning... but it was the story told by the boy that truly sparked the imaginations of the officers. Reports about the incident went straight to the Consul, who saw to it that the boy was placed in government custody. They had plans for young Hadrian.

Years passed. Hadrian was placed in a specially tailored training program designed to explore and develop his unique psionic gift. To avoid the vulnerability of the human element -- most vitally, to minimize the risk that Hadrian's power might impact his trainers and handlers -- much of the training was done in sealed-off labs where the boy was guided by voices over intercoms and watched by security cameras. Non-invasive experiments were performed almost daily and over time he gained the ability to use his power forcefully as well as passively, mastering the ability to make any test subject they put him in a room with instantly forget whatever knowledge or memory he chose just by making eye contact and telling them to do so. It wasn't hard for those in positions of power to see the potential this young man had to serve the interests of the government, and before long he was fast-tracked into all manner of special operations training.

The program to train Hadrian was forced to relocate and effectively go into hiding during the occupation by Aedolis; had Hadrian's training been anywhere near complete at the time he likely would've been deployed and potentially changed the face of the conflict. Instead, a choice was made at the highest echelons of power that such a valuable asset couldn't be risked so recklessly; Hadrian never saw any true action until the very late stages of the war when the occupation was already in the process of withdrawing. Since then he's been part of a handful of covert operations, a large number of which have been focused on securing the frontier territories against organized crime... a waiting game, most likely, until something more important comes along.

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