OOC
GAME: Green Dawn
DESCRIPTION: Original mutants.
DATE: November 2006
PB: Ryan Gosling
JOURNAL: purechance @ greatestjournal
NOTES: Totally failed to do anything with him for the game; continued years later, as a private storyline with Cassie. The characters have aged in the meantime, and they're at college. It's great fun.
IC
Full Name: Charles "Charlie" Adrian Graham
Alias: Chance
Age & Birthdate: November 29, 1988
Generation: First.
Sexuality: Heterosexual.
Power: Probability manipulation.
Level: Gamma.
Abilities: Chance's powers happen mostly haphazardly, which is why they went unnoticed for so long. He isn't exactly lucky 100% of the time, but when concentrating wholly on the outcome of an event, he has an extremely high chance of influencing it towards his desired result. The intensity of his desire and strength of his focus is directly correllated to the success of this power. At its smallest effect, he can rack up high scores by being absorbed in games of pinball, or always win a cointoss or attempts on the slot machines. If he's ever enraged or panicked, the ability is especially capable of drastically changing events. And while feeling confident in himself and his abilities, Chance will also be marginally luckier than normal. But this backfires when depressed or experiencing a drop in self-esteem — if these days occur, Chance finds himself strangely jinxed, constantly tripping or fumbling, and the world unleashes all its bad fortune upon him.
Over the past few years, he's learnt how to moderate his moods. And when necessary, how to distract himself and make his attention unfocused and daydreamy, thus preventing the power from manifesting itself. But now going into classes at Green Dawn, Chance's ability will increase as he learns to actively control the power: Now, he can only affect very few factors at once. Ultimately, his maximum potential will be what he first exhibited: Controlling approximately the number of minute probabilities such as those in a fast-paced carwreck.
Family: Adrian Graham (father), Catherine Graham (mother), Frederick Graham (older brother)
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
History: Almost his entire life, Charlie had been nothing particularly special or out-of-the-ordinary, and he had fully expected it to stay that way. He was your typical preadolescent: jokey and immature and playful, who tried to win over friends with cheeky grins and silly displays of bravado. He played some football in junior high and high school, but wasn't particularly good at it — Charlie's skinny figure meant he'd never be a real jock, and wouldn't be able to cruise by on sports scholarships his older brother. Instead, he started nurturing an intense love of movies, theatre, and acting, along with some half-hearted attempts at the guitar. He's your average seventeen-nearly-eighteen-year-old; and he's not that great at academics, but Charlie lives life with such gusto that it pretty much makes up for it.
His powers started manifesting themselves when he was thirteen - yeah, that fortunate number - and first appeared when Charlie and his father were in a terrible car accident. By all accounts they should have been dead, but something about the impact speed, the angle of collision, and the direction the jagged metal went flying left the two Grahams completely unscathed. Completely unaware of his power, a panic-stricken and terrified Charlie had manipulated probability and given them "unbelievable luck", as the policemen later described it.
Ever since then, Charlie's unconscious luck seems to kick in sporadically, but especially when he is hoping and praying for it the most, actively concentrating on wishing himself success. It still took several months before Charlie ever suspected something was strange — after all, what's so bad about being lucky? Slot machines would drop coins at him, he would always beat his friends at pinball, he would make terribly lucky passes in football, and pretty girls would trip and drop their books right in front of him, where Charlie could then start up a conversation… In times of stress or nervousness, situations just seemed to work out to his advantage. As a result, he bore the nickname "Chance" throughout all of high school. This also manifested itself negatively, as bad days and depressed moods brought along horrible jinxes and atrocious luck.
Somewhere along the line, Charlie finally understood his power when he was fifteen. After a miserably humiliating scuffle with another boy in the hallways, Charlie watched him head off towards the stairs; enraged, he hoped for the other boy to be injured. And what do you know, a second later he got the smallest of nudges from a passerby, slipped on a tiny slick of water, and went tumbling down the stairs, breaking his neck.
Nothing about the death could be blamed on Chance. After all, it was an accident. But ever since then, he's become incredibly aware of his power, and is fully aware of its real-world repercussions. He has been trying his very hardest not to let it manifest itself too often, by avoiding gambling and trying not to get into violent arguments. As a result, Chance is usually cheerful and easy-going, but also secretly fretful. Exactly how many of his talents and skills can be attributed to himself, or blamed on a series of dumb luck? He can't help but wonder if he owes all of his successes in life to this bizarre ability.
Two years after the devastating death of Charlie's classmate, Professor Green located the boy and visited the Graham family. Chance leapt at the opportunity to leave his school, even though he was still just a junior, and even had a month left of the fall semester to do. He had grown uneasy in his old environment, especially with his sense of guilt regarding the accident. New surroundings were exactly what he wanted.
Occupation: School-age student
Picture: http://ryan-gosling.fan-sites.org/gallery/albums/Joe%20Pugliese/01.jpg
Played-by: Ryan Gosling
Sample RP: It was one of the very first 'tricks' he'd discovered since realizing he could control his powers, but somehow, Chance never tired of it. This was supposed to be study period, but the 17-year-old could be found nestled away in the back of the library, half of his gaze idly watching the clock tick its way down to the end of the day, while the rest of him focused wholly on the coin in his right palm.
Now, watch closely: Flip. Toss. Catch.
Heads, heads, heads, heads. Again and again, without fail. And every single time one of his palms covered the other, there was that thrill of discovery: Had he succeeded? Was the power real? Or had it decided to suddenly desert him, leaving him wondering if it had ever existed in the first place?
But no. Always heads. Or always tails, depending on what he wanted it to be. Studying probability in high school math classes always made Chance laugh. The teacher'd throttle him if he ever suggested that probability was definitely not predictable, let alone calculable in a mathematical formula. Not when you had him around.
Sample journal entry: It is an entirely weird experience knowing that I can tell you guys the truth without getting stares, glares, questioning looks, and maybe a request to call the men in white coats — that is, unless it's a request for the police, all thanks to me being a mutant. Yeah, I'm real lucky. That's why they call me Chance. I've got, I don't know, I think Green referred to it as "probability manipulation"?
Hi there.
… Not that I know how people would react to me telling them the truth. I haven't been outed and I don't plan on it either. All I do know is that I play a mean game of poker, or any other card game. Word of advice: Don't try to take me on if you don't feel like losing.
I don't think it counts as 'personal gain' as long as I'm not winning money off it!
