Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
Hobbies and Interests: Metalworking, Sustainability Activism, Creative Writing, Music
Gift: Conduit
Power Details: August is a living conduit of electrical energy. His body produces, draws, and discharges electricity both passively and at will. Without power suppressing medication, August doubles the amount of electrical energy stored in his body every half hour (or generates 1 joule if he has no charge), reaching a lethal limit at 16 hours. While he is on medication, he doubles the electrical energy stored in his body every hour instead, and generates a maximum of 16 MJ in a day. August can draw more energy at will, in both small and large quantities. Drawing power is far more effective on contact, though he is able to do so more slowly at a distance within his natural electromagnetic field. Doing so will create a visible trail of ionized air between himself and the source(s), and larger amounts of current will create a conspicuous electrical arc. Discharging energy can take different forms; this can manifest as anything from small sparks, plasma, or even lightning, depending on how much energy he has stored. August’s abilities are limited by air resistance and any potential sources of insulation, which he can only overcome by increasing the levels of current he is attempting to discharge. At all times, he emits an electromagnetic field, which is subject to the inverse square law and diminishes to an insignificant level at a distance of four meters. The greater the energy August has stored, the more intense the field becomes, and vice versa. His body is well-adapted to its “natural environment”, and is noticeably more tolerant to ozone and extreme sources of light and radiant heat, manifesting as visible adaptations to his eyes and skin. August can use Conduit to recharge electric storage using his own stored electricity, but this can damage sensitive devices like electronics. The simpler the storage medium, the easier it is for August to recharge it.
Limitations and Drawbacks: August can feel sources of electrical current in his surroundings; this presents itself as an uncomfortable paresthesia, from a slight tingle at the presence of a cell phone, or a distracting buzzing feeling near subway tracks, to unbearable pain and nausea if he were standing directly under power lines. This sensation decays exponentially with the amount of energy August has stored, and it can also be mitigated by medication, the latter allowing August to tolerate daily environments like his high school. Unless he stays at home for an extended period of time, he suffers weekly migraine headaches. For him to naturally eliminate the distressing sensations, he would have to store an amount of energy that would make daily life completely untenable in modern society: There are obvious visual and auditory phenomena depending on how much energy he has accumulated - the more energy August stores, the more he begins to affect the immediate area around him. As he approaches one megajoule, energy will emit and be drawn to his body, causing the air surrounding him to ionize and glow. Small electrical arcs will occasionally erupt out from his exposed skin back to itself. This can become potentially dangerous to those around him, and can start fires in extreme cases. The ozone emitted by this can also be harmful to others in enclosed spaces. Additionally, August’s natural electromagnetic field also causes several problems. At all times, he generates small but detectable levels of current that may damage handheld electronics and trip surge protectors in larger equipment on contact. As the charge increases past one megajoule, this effect will extend out through his natural electromagnetic field. At over one gigajoule, the field shorts out and destroys integrated circuits, produces RF interference, and can cause costly damage to electrical infrastructure. As his power increases exponentially, so does the risk. Any amount of energy absorbed above 5 gigajoules will cause a runaway reaction, ionizing the surrounding air to the point it will ignite, asphyxiating him and burning him to death. Any significant mental or physical anguish can result in unintentional discharges of electrical energy; sudden, mortal injury is likely to have an explosive end result at any significant charge (>1MJ). While August is unconscious, he neither draws nor discharges current. However, he still maintains a charge and remains sensitive to nearby sources of current, which disrupt his sleep patterns and cause him chronic insomnia and nightmares. Electrical circuits can be hardened against Conduit in the same way that they are hardened against other electromagnetic pulses, and he cannot absorb or discharge energy through shielding. As a result of his body’s adaptations, he regularly experiences distracting, uncorrectable visual artifacts. These adaptations do not protect him from anything beyond the scope of his own abilities, or from any fires or explosions they might cause.
Appearance: August is 5’9 and 135lbs. He has dark brown hair that he typically keeps in a short buzz cut. As using an electric shaver is an unpleasant experience for August, what little facial hair he has is usually closely shaved away with a safety razor. His irises are a homogenous blue and particularly reflective, and the sclera of his eyes are an iridescent, metallic grey. He often wears sunglasses as many people find his eyes off-putting. His skin is pale and has a faint metallic sheen and texture. It lacks any freckles or spots that would be expected given his background. He scars easily, and has several burn scars on his arms from childhood accidents involving his Gift. His face is somewhat gaunt and heart-shaped, and he has a gentle smile.
August almost exclusively wears handmade or secondhand clothes, with an idiosyncratic fashion sense most see as gender ambiguous and hippie-esque. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing grey cotton trousers, a loose handmade purple hemp Henley shirt, and a black cardigan underneath a green canvas military surplus jacket. He likes to wear a grey-blue handmade beanie that is a size or two too large for him, handmade jewelry, and colourful hemp bracelets. In terms of footwear, August typically wears thick-soled safety shoes as they provide greater insulation from the ground.
Because of the harmful effects of his Gift, August often wears custom-made gloves with rubber fingertips that allow him limited engagement with touchscreens and electrical appliances. Underneath them, he enjoys wearing various colours of nail polish and currently sports a glittery, dark purple. August often faintly smells of ozone as a result of his gift, and occasionally wears homemade lavender-scented fragrance to hide it.
Background:
- August Riley Hanlon was born in Bend, Oregon to Leaf and Elizabeth Hanlon, a couple that ran a successful landscaping company. Leaf’s Gift allows him to influence the growth of mushrooms, and Elizabeth is able to fractally rearrange matter in a small area.
- August’s gift manifested at the age of three, tripping the circuit breakers in his childhood home repeatedly and causing him immense pain. Though they attempted to manage it themselves at first with natural medicines and supplements, they began to see a specialist after August accidentally started several electrical fires.
- Once living in a typical subdivision became completely untenable, the Hanlons purchased a small, partially off-grid property just outside of Bend, Oregon. The family regularly goes out foraging and grows a significant portion of their own food. August’s bedroom is a separate building a short distance from the main house, without any wiring or electrical connections to speak of. His bed has to be shielded by a Faraday Cage for safety, and he has a specially constructed insulated sleeping bag for travel.
- August has a small to nonexistent social media presence, as he can only access the internet from a specially assembled computer that has been extensively insulated from his Gift. While he does own a cell-phone, it is an obsolete model with a keypad instead of a touch-screen, as he typically causes irreparable damage to touchscreens if he touches them with his bare skin.
- Likely on account of his Gift, August has been struck by lightning twice. These events resulted in him accidentally accruing near-lethal levels of charge; he also suffers from mild tinnitus, as a result of these incidents. Out of fear, he has not intentionally tested the limits of his abilities.
- Because he is rarely online, he often finds himself embarrassingly unaware of the latest online trends or memes. While he has a few friends, he is often avoided at school given his appearance and the potential danger he poses to electronics. As a result, almost no one ever elects to sit next to him in his classes and people avoid physical contact out of a misplaced fear of electrical shock.
- August enjoys creative hobbies, and discovered through a shop teacher that he could arc weld on his own by using only a length of tungsten rod and an extension cord plugged into a wall socket (though he must wear some eye protection and specially made gloves). He frequently enjoys metalworking and often makes small figurines and metal art pieces for his few friends, and gives them to his parents to sell at craft fairs.
- He loves working on projects with others, and plays the cello in a small band at school. He keeps a detailed set of notebooks for schoolwork and for personal journal entries. He enjoys creative writing, and works by hand.
- Despite being unable to use most modern electronics easily, August has had to develop a basic working knowledge of electrical engineering in the hopes of limiting the harm his Gift might cause. He modified an electric longboard that he rides to school; this helps, given the fact that he lives on a small farm just outside of town. At school, he carries a small lithium-ion battery pack that he offers to others in case he accidentally drains a phone battery.
- As a student, he does well when he chooses to apply himself, but struggles with day-to-day tasks as a result of his Gift. His best subjects are those with take-home assignments, or which involve active participation. Focusing silently in class is very difficult for him, and he has been known to easily lose track of time. August often has to reach out to others for notes, or to help studying for classes he has had difficulty in.
- August is on a steady dose of strong medication both to reduce the effects of his Gift on those around him, as well as to mitigate the discomfort that results from near-constant exposure to wi-fi signals, radio waves, and electrical infrastructure. The side effects of the medication are significant enough that, even if he wanted to learn to drive a car, he would not be legally allowed to do so. He won't use psychoactive drugs or drink alcohol out of fear of their effects and how they might interact with his medication.
- August is unsure of his sexual orientation, but hopes that he’s pansexual because he’d like to be open to a partner of any gender. He doesn’t have enough experience to feel confident saying for sure, one way or the other. August was raised without gender identification, and only identified himself with his birth gender at the age of eight.
- In the future, he hopes to start a small off-grid cooperative for people with challenging Gifts, who otherwise have difficulty integrating into modern society. In the interim, he hopes to spend time volunteering with mutual aid societies and providing assistance to the unhoused.
August generally resents his gift, as it causes him regular physical discomfort and social isolation. This feeling is often compounded by the fact that, when people discover the nature of his Gift, they often draw attention to the power of his abilities without much consideration of the difficulties he regularly faces in daily life. He is an excellent friend to those who do choose spend time with him, and can actually be quite charming and sociable if he is able to relax.
Though he is more than capable of physically defending himself from others, he is terrified of harming anyone or angering people as a result of his Gift. He has few friends and fears ostracizing himself more through confrontation and making enemies. As a result, he rarely stands up for himself and tends to shy away from conflict wherever possible.
Other Skills: Basic Electrical Engineering, Welding, Foraging
Designated Number: Student No. 017
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Conclusion: "Talk about power. My head's spinning at the thought of all of the applications; this kid could shake the whole world apart by its foundation if he applied himself just a little bit. His hesitancy to use his Gift is a bit of a problem, but I'm sure it's one the game will iron out." - Owl