Basic Info
Name: James Miriam Brandt
Age: 16
Ability Category/Ability: Environmental/Reality Reprogramming*

Treats the universe as a simulation running on a vast computer, basically; at James’ current power level he is able to ensure he always gets a seat on the bus or (more usefully) that an opponent just happened to have forgot to load his gun, or it jams, or (if he doesn’t mind a headache afterwards) it just explodes in his hand. He can also increase his own accuracy with weapons or ability to dodge. Basically the more obvious the manipulation, the harder it is, so James is forced to be subtle for now.

His power also allows him to rapidly and with unfailing accuracy identify ‘odd’ things about an environment; he can see if the code is wrong, if the universe is being hacked. This allows him to detect most metas (metas are a hack in the universe by merely existing).

*Potential for the future*

As James becomes more skilled with his ability he will be able to more easily effect grander and more obvious modifications to reality.

Career: STUDENT
School: Black Thorn Academy

Appearance
Celebrity: Billy Crudup
Hair Color/Eye Color: Black/Hazel
Height/Body Type: 6'1"/Slender

Personality
Likes:
Irony

His ever present black fedora

Trench coats

Cute women (his own age or older)

Smoking

The Internet

LSD

Drinking

Ecstasy

Japanese Pop Music

Cooking

Cooking Shows

Unpredictable people

Philosophizing endlessly

Buddhism

Dislikes:
The sorry state of objective reality

People who believe themselves smart but are not

Assholes

Snobbery

Tough guys

Strengths:
Extremely intelligent (genius level)

Extremely durable and tough despite his build, due largely to an adventuresome last year or so of life

Excellent people person, good at raising morale

Versatile power

Weaknesses:
Bipolar (fairly frequent crashes and somewhat dangerous mania)

Womanizer

Haunted by his past

Frequent substance abuse (almost always on something)

Fugitive: Cannot simply go out in public

Fears:
That he is actually just an asshole

Repercussions from his past mistakes

Accidentally crashing the universe

Spiders

Rejection


History
Birthplace: Vancouver, Canada

Brief Overall History:
James Miriam Brandt was born at five minutes past midnight on May 18th 1994. His real mother raised him, but the man who he thought was his father was not; James was actually the product of a brief affair his mother had with a passing, somewhat insane meta while she was visiting her husband’s family in Germany. His mother admitted this to him when she divorced his stepfather when James was seven; she also knew he was a meta (because he talked about little else), and that James was thus a half-blood. Who this man is, however, is anyone’s guess.

He came into his powers during an acid trip (the acid having been given to him by an unknown stranger) the week before high school started when he managed to conceive in his psychedelic mental state that if the Buddhists were right, then the universe is obviously a computer program; the godhead is all things simultaneously, the entire universe and all entities at once. Physical reality was a giant computer program running on some inscrutable hardware, the godhead. He soon learned to use this concept in order to manipulate the universe around him.

A bright young man, James did well throughout grade school. This all came crashing to the ground, however, at the beginning of his grade eight (that’s freshman for Americans). His particular high school had an unusually high meta population, a result of careful manipulation of known meta families to place all their children in one place and all live within a few square miles. Who organized it thus is still an unknown for James.

This many powered individuals in one place was bound to attract some sort of trouble sooner or later, and it did in the form of a hefty infestation of extra-dimensional parasites. These entities would literally devour and replace the soul of a human or meta with their own inscrutable essences. This was in effect complete replacement of the consciousness of the victim, but allowed the possessing entity access to all of the victim’s memories and skills, thus allowing them to seamlessly blend into society and further their collective aims. The worst thing about this terrifying situation was, however, that metas so replaced kept their abilities.

James discovered this situation as his world view of the universe as a simulation allowed him to very rapidly spot that something was up. He informed his cadre of meta friends and they attempted, unsuccessfully, to determine a method of restoring the possessed students to normal; they did eventually learn how to drive the possessing entity from the students and staff but that left the victim a vegetable.

During the course of this, they were attacked continuously by the possessed student and staff and had to take a few lives. This came surprisingly easy to James; he had a great deal of conviction and did not dwell on the morality of the situation; he had determined that these people were already dead.

James and his companions, therefore, decided to destroy the school.

They determined that those possessed were immune to a number of substances that worked on humans and metas, though the mechanism behind this was never discovered. Thus, the group poisoned the cafeteria food the day before their strike; anyone not possessed would become sick and be unable to attend school the next day. By that time there were only a handful of non-possessed left.

That night, James and his friends planted bombs throughout the school. They armed themselves and made ready.

The next day, at ten fifteen in the morning, the bombs were detonated. This eliminated ninety-percent of the opposition in one shot; the more powerful possessed metas resisted the blast and many survived by luck.

Of James and his four friends, only James survived the coming battle. All of the others died fighting their opponent; the leader of the invaders who possessed the body of the biology teacher, a beta level meta. By this time, of course, the news was all over the ruined school and police and fire department were on scene. They witnessed as James managed to overpower his former biology teacher’s mental assault and shoot him in the face with a pistol in the midst of the fiery wreckage of the gym.

Using his powers, he was able to escape the authorities, but not before a news helicopter got a clear shot of his face. He took all the money had saved, stole some more from his parents, and ran. He ran very far; to Russia. There, he worked as a man of all tasks for the local mafia, including assassination. In exchange, they kept him safe from persecution.

One day, about a month before present (and over a year since he fled to Russia), he was sent to assassinate the wrong target; a meta of incredible skill; she easily defeated and immobilized him. Fortunately, this meta was also very kind; she offered him a better life, a life where he could use his abilities to benefit others. He was thus recommended for enrollment in Black Thorn Academy; his fugitive status would not be much of a problem there.